*"Wha…?" Ryuu refused to believe it.
"Wh…what?" Alise froze.
"…No." Kaguya looked on in terror.
"…It can't be." It was Lyra who figured it out before anybody else. "…The kid blew herself up?"
They all stared at the cloud of dust that remained after the blast.
In that moment of despair, a howling laughter echoed off the walls.
"Hyah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hahhah-hah-hah!!"
Valletta Grede trembled in wild ecstasy and mad joy.
"See that, Thanatos, you son of a bitch?! That kid you tricked just took one of those damned adventurers down with her! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-haha-ha!!"
As her cackling rang in the background, Shakti stood, rooted to the spot, her voice cracked and shattered. "…Ar…dee?"
But as the dust settled, all those present saw a figure kneeling on the ground, covering a girl.
The eyes of all the girls widened.
And
"Arin!!"
They screamed.*
____________________________________________________________________________
Fuck that hurt like a bitch. I grimaced as I looked down at the unconscious idiot girl beneath me. I'd always told her that her naive kindness would get her in trouble someday. Now look where it has gotten us both.
I could feel the searing pain across the entire left side of my back where the explosion had caught me. The acrid smell of burned flesh—my own—filled my nostrils.
Fortunately, I'd spotted the kid with the explosive device just in time. The moment I saw what was about to happen, I'd activated Astrum Cordis and launched myself forward, managing to shield Ardee from the worst of the blast.
But damn, the price I'd paid for that split-second decision was making itself known with every ragged breath I took.
I could hear that bitch laugh, like the bitch she is.
As the dust settled, I could see the girls in front of me calling out my name. I got up and hoisted Ardee, wrapping my right arm around her waist, like a sack of potatoes, and walked towards the girls.
"Ardee.." As I approached the girls, Shakti called her sister's name. I handed Ardee over to her.
"Give her a stern talking to when she gets up." Shakti turned her eyes away from the unconscious girl and nodded at me. Before she could say anything else. The seething pain brought me to my knees again. It seems my adrenaline rush wore off.
"Arin! You are burned!" Lyra screamed, making the other notice my burns.
"Ar-Arin.. You are-You are bleeding." I could see Ryuu on the verge of tears, panicking.
"Oye Lion! Heal him! Quickly!" Kaguya tried to shake off Ryuu from her shock.
"Lyra! Bring the potion!" Alise commanded.
I looked straight into Ryuu's eyes and held her hand gently in my palm. "Ryuu, take a deep breath, and then use your healing magic," I told her calmly, trying my hardest to ignore the pain. That was threatening to make me cry.
The human touch might have worked as she took a deep breath and started chanting.
"The song of a now distant forest. The nostalgic song of life. Please bring the mercy of healing to those that seek you."
"Noah Heal," the soothing light enveloped my whole body, calming down my burning nerves.
I could see Vallette's shocked expression that twisted to one of rage.
Looks like it was quite a shock for her.
"You..." she snarled, pointing her greatsword at me. "That should have killed you, High Human! You're starting to really piss me off!"
Her eyes gleamed with malicious fury as she watched Ryuu's healing magic work on my burns.
"You think you're so clever, don't you? Playing hero, saving little girls. But let me tell you something—"
"Lyra, tell the others about the s*icide bombing," I interrupted, as Lyra took out the communication device.
Valletta's laugh was sharp and bitter. "Go ahead! Warn them all you want! It won't matter where you run—"
As if on cue, several of the barely conscious soldiers began to move. They hauled themselves onto their backs, grasping for the switches hidden beneath their clothing.
All of us gasped and leaped away in opposite directions, just as one of them spoke. "O Lord, I beg you…Carry my soul to my loved ones!!" Then, that piteous cry was engulfed by another cataclysmic explosion.
The blast wave caught up to us and sent us crashing into the floor. But that wasn't the end of this flame-wreathed banquet. The Evils had converted every last one of their foot soldiers into deadly weapons. One by one, with trembling hands and tear-stained eyes, they carried out their final duties.
"Diiiiiiiiiie!" one of them screeched.
"Wait for me, Anju!" cried another.
"May chaos take the world!!"
"Glory to Lord Thanatos!!"
Those were the last words anyone could hear before an uninterrupted series of explosions drowned it all out.
Every one of us was crawling on the floor as one explosion came after another
"We attached those ignition pieces to Inferno Stones!" Valletta howled.
"Ain't that a riot?! Now anyone can blow themselves up whenever we want!!" Her face, marred with rage, again turned into an evil smile on her lips as she watched the destruction from atop her mountain of containers, safely out of the range of the blasts.
Lyra summoned up all the rage her small frame could muster.
"You're a rotten, vile monster!" she cursed, wiping the blood and soot from her face.
"Those are your friends, your comrades!" But Valletta returned only the same, mocking smile.
"You finally worked it out?" she said. "Take our bases, capture our soldiers. We don't care." She grinned and gestured around the building—nothing but a carefully crafted decoy, like the two others of its kind.
"These ain't our soldiers, sunshine. They're walkin' fireworks!"
"It's started a chain reaction!" cried Kaguya, her clothes tattered and torn, as she applied pressure to her bleeding arm. She looked around as deafening explosions came from the upper floors, reverberating through the building. Dust and rubble fell, and all around us, ominous cracks began to open in the walls and ceiling.
"That was just the signal," said Valletta, grinning. "You can't stop what's been set in motion now. Anyway, see ya…Actually, I guess I won't!"
She turned and left, disappearing through a door. Then an explosion went off behind her, sealing the exit with rubble.
"This whole building is going to crash on us!" Lyra yelled.
"Everyone! Pull out!!" Nobody objected to her order, as all of us sprinted towards the exit.
One final blast leveled the building. Columns buckled, supports fell, and the roof came down to trap anyone still within. Everyone ran for their lives as the ceiling caved in behind us, leaping for the exit just as the falling rocks threatened to swallow us.
What followed was a cacophony of stone and dust, drowning out all sound.
.
.
.
There was only chaos everywhere in the city, with explosions happening all over the place.
"Waaaaagh!"
"Not that way! Quick, come over—" A panicked human man ran, only to meet his end on an assassin's blade before Noin's frantic voice could lead him to safety. Behind her, she heard a female voice calling for aid.
"Help me! Oh gods, please help me!" Lyra's voice urged the woman to follow her. "This way, hurry! Get to the center of the city and you'll be al—"
Then an explosion engulfed the poor, grief-stricken woman.
"Dammit. Dammiiiit!!" Lyra cursed. And the rest of Astrea Familia fared no better. No matter how fiercely and bravely they fought to protect the townsfolk, their lives spilled through their fingers like grains of sand.
A little girl stood in the street, crying over the loss of her parents.
A merchant trapped under rubble screamed for help before going silent.
The order was falling apart, and chaos quickly filled the gaps.
The peace that every one of them had fought so hard to uphold was coming undone so quickly.
The city was bathed in red, but by now it was impossible to distinguish what was blood and what was fire.
I quickly scooped up the little girl in my arms as evilius member tried to kill her, intercepting his blade.
"I had thought you were mere parasite." Deflecting his blade, with a swing of my sword killed him where he stood.
"But you are clearly lower than that. You are pure trash."
I handed the little girl over to her mother. And joined the others.
I could see Ryuu standing in shock. Every turn of her head revealed more horrors. The hellish scene took over her mind. Ryuu was clearly new to this horror, as she was overcome by despair, and she wailed.
It was then that someone grabbed her by the collar, and an open palm struck her across the cheek.
"Don't just stand there, you incompetent fool!"
"K-Kaguya…?"
The human woman arched her well-trimmed eyebrows and roared in Ryuu's face.
"Draw your sword and fight! We cannot be indecisive now!" That seemed to have worked as Ryuu recovered her sanity and took up her sword, and slashed alongside Kaguya's blade.
.
.
.
It was when I was brought a wounded person to the healing centre that I noticed a young girl with silver hair wobbling on her feet, about to fall. I quickly caught her; her purple eyes seemed blurry. Mind down? I thought as another woman came up to me that I recognized her as Naaza, the pharmacist.
"Thank you for catching Armid." So, she is the Armid, huh? I looked at the young girl and could see the similarities.
Naaza grabbed the girl by her scruff.
"Gyugh!" she squealed.
"Take a rest before you pass out," Naaza said. "Here, have a potion." Then she poured the magical concoction over Amid's hair. The sweet-smelling liquid streamed down her face and into her eyes.
"Blugh!"
"Now, go sit in the corner and look pretty." Amid shook herself like a wet dog, drying her long silver hair, before glaring daggers at the girl beside her.
"Then I will be on my way." I was in a hurry as I could see the evilius running around.
.
.
.
I was running around the city guiding people to safety while eliminating the enemies that came across me. As I took a turn, I saw something that made my eyes go wide.
Ottarl, the warlord, a peak level 6, was lying on the ground like a helpless lamb. Facing him stood a man like a tank, taller than Ottarl himself, raising his sword.