Maika quickly reached into her bag and pulled out some stones engraved with a language Aiden didn't recognize. She proceeded to throw them onto the fountain behind her.
The monster made an inhumanly long leap and charged towards Aiden and Maika, who instead of aiming her gun at him, aimed it at the fountain.
In unison, with the spell she muttered, she traced lines in the air with her index finger and heart, as if she was drawing a symbol in the air, then threw her bag aside.
The skill with which she did it left Aiden stunned. It made him think it was some kind of ritual to ward off evil spirits that could be seen in low-quality films, more specifically in that good actor in a terrible horror film.
Is it some kind of exorcism? The young man thought with his heart racing. Certainly, it looked like some kind of oriental exorcism ritual taken from a film, but it was not the kind Aiden believed. To be fair, he deserved some credit, as he was not entirely wrong.
By then the monster was only one meter away from them, but Maika was already ready with her gun pointing at the fountain behind her. The bullet hit the water's surface, causing it to splash in all directions, like a small explosion rather than a simple 9 mm bullet.
The water fell like rain on the pair of young people and the monster, who was less than a tenth of a second away from tearing Maika apart, something that never happened.
The monster fell to the ground, and sparks appeared on the body of the human-appearing creature, forming stigmas under its skin. It had effectively become immobile, no matter how much it tried, it couldn't move at all.
—What is this?
Those words were not spoken by the monster, tensing its muscles on the ground futilely to get up, nor were they spoken by Aiden, who was so amazed that he couldn't speak. They were spoken by Maika with a cold voice, and her expression was more terrifying than the monster itself; cold and full of condescension.
Aiden couldn't help but think that no matter how talented she is, that kind of performance definitely did not fit with her. He wanted to avoid seeing her in that kind of film where the protagonist in the end turns out to be worse than the monster.
—Were you not going to kill me? —Said Maika. It wasn't an act, she was angry, outraged even, for putting a normal person in danger, and she had a complete disgust towards the creature at her feet.
She only had to raise her arm a little and put a little force on her index finger to kill the monster, and that's precisely what she did. Without a warning, she put a bullet in the center of its forehead.
Aiden jumped reflexively, but then saw it, which gave him goosebumps more than anything he had seen so far. The human head was cracked like a broken egg and peeled by the electricity before, like skin peeling from burns, with bits of dead skin here and there.
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—So that's how it was able to escape. A malformation. Probably, it failed to go to the next phase. As a result, its power increased considerably compared to others, but it is not only unstable, intelligence decreases the same magnitude that power rises; so, you are not different from a muscle mass of instincts.
Beneath all human appearance, its skin was like a dirty silver with gray tones and accents; the real shape of its head was pointed, smaller than that of a human, the size of an adult's open palm; from the pointed crown came two ridges that alternated between red and blue, crossing the eyes. It gave the impression that it was painfully hauling in one moment and crying blood from anger in another.
—Thanks to that, it fell into such a simple trap as using water as a conductor. Your body is human, on the outside, at least. I made a link between the chant and water, turning it into something like temporary holy water —Maika continued talking frivolously, reviewing her strategy as if Aiden were not present—. Although you are hidden inside, the water entered your mouth and eyes, also covering and penetrating your pores, creating an even more efficient magical network than the seal itself. Do you understand what I'm saying? I doubt you're very intelligent, in fact, I'm surprised you can use a bit of human language.
—Hunger. HUNGER. HUnGER. NEw ReciiipienT. HUnGer —the creature tried to articulate, but ultimately, it was not possible with the constant shocks it received.
—I'm sorry, but this has been all for you.
Her expression remained tense, but something changed in her voice. A hint of remorse could be heard in her words. She sounded melancholic, but Maika was a hunter foremost. She re-affirmed the weapon in her hand and said her last words to her prey.
—I couldn't save you.
—GEFFSAFFG!! —The monster moaned terrifyingly, engraving itself in the minds of those present.
Aiden involuntarily jumped backwards again when he heard the sound of a gun being fired; it was the first time he had ever consciously heard the true sound of a bullet being discharged.
Amidst the many confused thoughts swirling around in his mind, one particularly odd one formed: «It's totally different from how it sounds in the movies, in some way it is».
He tried not to look to avoid vomiting, but strangely, not a single drop of blood came out.
—Now I'll clean up the rest, I advise you not to look.
Maika collected her suitcase to take out eight common and ordinary coins, which usually normal people carry to have the exact change to use public transport, which was useless in this city, being almost all electronic. She placed them around the body and started whispering, it sounded like she was praying in an unknown language to Aiden. Once he gave more thought to the matter, he understood what language it was, not what she was saying, but at least he understood that it was some kind of Germanic language, probably a dead one.
Without any warning, the body began to burn, the whole area that was inside the restricted zone by the coins to be more exact.
The flames danced situationally with the sudden wind that came and went at its pleasure.
A few seconds passed until eventually, they disappeared, leaving absolutely nothing behind. The body had disappeared, the coins too, and no sign that there had been fire there remained either; hardly, a small dark trace on the floor. It only took a couple of seconds, 16 seconds, it was so fast that Aiden couldn't fully process the information that was entering his eyes.
What he witnessed could not simply be called cremation. Comparing the surreal information, he had recently assimilated and the previous, it clashed with his common sense in ways that made him feel dizzy.