"We need to leave... Now!"
Startled from her dreams, the urgency in Tsunami's voice didn't need further explanation to Pearl's ears. The next second, Tsunami got scooped by a door, finding himself falling midair.
'Not again'
Pearl-streaked beneath him, her body pristine, not like a beast that was lying on muddy ground. She had used the laws of space to prevent her gorgeous, red-coated hair from being tainted with dirt.
"Don't hold back"
Landing on her back, Tsunami stilled himself and bit his tongue as hard as he could.
He needed to remain lucid enough to prevent becoming dead weight — for the danger that lay above needed Pearl at her very best if they were to have any chance of escape.
Tsunami then willed the appearance of hand break — a revolver that was long and well-balanced. The brushed steel frame housed an unusual, deep cylinder that took nine rounds and was fully loaded.
On its barrel, Initials were engraved in Baskerville Italic fonts that read M.O- 003. The wording itself was painted in gold-plated leaf, a contrast to the steel frame.
A low, flattened hammer sat ready, with precise gears turning the cylinders. The revolver felt heavy in the hand, solid enough to take a shot but refined.
In this life or the previous one, if there was one weapon that he had exceptional mastery of, without a doubt, it was guns.
In his previous life, despite landing multiple jobs—one even in a respectable institution that educated children of influential families from around the world—his apartment was located in a rough neighborhood.
The apartment itself was well-furnished, featuring two bedrooms, one of which was shared between his little sister and mother, a single washroom, a decent living room, and a kitchen area that had all the necessities of adult life, all for $1,500 a month, excluding utilities.
With the tough economy, it was an absolute steal of a deal. The only caveat was the high crime rate in the area.
But, given his meager earnings of just about $60,000 before taxes, the high cost of living, a disabled mother, testament to an industrial accident, that has had an ongoing case over a decade without receiving payment for damages done, or conclusion, and a young little sister who needed to be cared for.
He had to save every penny he could, set aside some bucks for an emergency fund, and even open a 401(k) account for retirement.
The alternative, living in a much safer environment with similar accommodations, would strain his budget beyond limits.
Just giving them the life they had was an excellent achievement for a man who never finished high school.
He just had to tread carefully, providing a strict curfew for his younger sister, always ensuring he took her out of school on time, never going to buy groceries at the wrong time, seeking police escort if he was out, and, for some compelling reason, his little sister had to venture out.
Most of all, having guns for self-protection, lots of them.
In his room, he had a vault, filled with them— shotguns, assault rifles, revolvers, and even a rocket launcher.
He taught his younger sister how to defend herself and how to shoot, though it was only for training purposes due to strict firearm control laws in his state.
All his inventory was always securely stored in his room, except for one pistol, which was located in a hidden compartment in the kitchen, and had a camera nearby for monitoring purposes.
He had given clear instructions to Judith, his younger sibling, to use it only when their lives were in danger and he wasn't around.
Luckily for them, over the course of their 10-year stay, they only had to use it three times, with Nathan present on two occasions and Judith holding her ground and warding off the intruders with deadly precision and impeccable situational awareness on the other.
...
Getting the go-ahead from her rider, Pearl whizzed past the open grassland with otherworldly speed. Red lightning, crisscrossed in zigzag formation, debris thrown in the air in her wake.
At peak condition, her speed was two miles per second, leaving behind shockwaves that threatened to impair one's hearing ability if they left their ears unprotected—at least those who weren't favourites.
Based on her direction, she was heading back to the mansion to seek refuge under its protection and venture out once the storm had calmed down.
She had been branded the seal of the mansion for thousands of years, ever since she was a filly, and she knows how territorial the spirit mansion was.
The mansion usually migrated to different parts of the spirit realm every hundred years and had a one-mile radius rule—no beasts or beings that didn't have its seal were to be seen within the one-mile perimeter.
She witnessed many beasts and beings fall over the years, but what shook her most was the event that had occurred 500 years ago.
A divine Favourite beast of the Angel rank was struck down with a single blow.
Ever since that day and the events that transpired thereafter, she held the mansion's spirit with utmost reverence and fear.
One of the reasons she was willing to gamble on being with Tsunami is that no creature walks within the walls of the mansion without the spirit's permission.
In all her thousands of years of following the mansion, today was the first time she saw a human walk within its walls.
That's why, despite the bizarre promises he made to her and his weak state, Pearl believed Tsunami must be a special person to have gained the recognition of that spirit.
...
The distance from the spring to the mansion was only 50 miles, and based on her deductions, as long as she doesn't engage with the third step cyclone, she can make it on time.
Up above, five massive silhouettes were also descending at frightening speeds. Four of them appeared to be of smaller frames compared to the one leading the charge. They were in a V formation, similar to the ones used by geese during long-distance migration—except this formation was angled downward.
The larger cyclone was ahead, with two smaller ones on either side of it. It was evident that the smaller ones had a weaker grasp of the laws of wind and steel, based on the effort they used to stay within the formation.
Seeing the direction that the bolt of lightning was heading, the leading cyclone was furious and knew it had to act fast before its prey escaped.
It screeched with high intensity, before folding its wings, and going for a super dive, increasing its speed several-fold, powered by its magical prowess, even leaving its younger ones behind.
Pearl, unlike before, now knew Tsunami couldn't handle the warping of space. Whenever she moved, the doors she summoned were not only condensing the space ahead, but reality itself was being stretched and squeezed at the same time in all directions, including herself.
That being the case, she decided to isolate Tsunami from these forces by creating a space pocket around her, which resulted in a minor decrease in her overall speed due to the increased resistance. Still, it was better than having him fall off her back.