It was just like before. Things always ended up like this. No matter where she ran off to. It was almost like some kind of sick game. One that she couldn’t close out of.

As if coming face-to-face with a monster. Anna ran as fast as she could. Not even bothering to conserve her energy.

At the rate she was moving the buildings, people, and cars all looked like a blur. Even to the civilians she looked like a mere afterimage.

Outlines of her yellow Either were oozing out of her. However, Anna noticed that Cecilia wasn’t far off.

Among Abigail’s forces, Anna was the fastest. She was very proud of her speed. Even if Lonzo was the better fighter, her combat abilities weren’t that far off behind.

But because of Lonzo’s analysis of the situation. She was afraid. Abigail was someone she hated with a deep passion and there was no way she wanted to fight someone around the same level.

“You won’t get away. Although fast, you aren’t as fast as my boyfriend.” Cecilia said casually.

Her green aura was emitting rapidly off of her. Only a few feet away from Anna. At this rate, Anna would gas out.

Either was like one’s life force. It was a grand power but much like one’s breath, it was easy to reach a threshold.

Anna knew this. She was still injured as well and couldn’t run at her full potential. Instead, she took a detour through the city.

This detour led the both of them near a train facility akin to a metro station. Of course, there were still people around.

They were weary of the situation after seeing two individuals just appear out of nowhere. At least that was how it looked like.

“Finally tired of running? Just let me kill you.” Cecilia said.

“Go to hell, bitch. I’m just tired of it all.”

Everyone was just trying to get to where they were going. Waiting for the train while others were running down the ramp.

“Then let me put you out of your misery.”

“You’re supposed to be a demon hunter… but I’m still human.”

“No.” She shakes her head. “At least not anymore. That’s what your aura tells me.”

Either always reveals the truth. It was almost as intricate as one’s DNA. You could learn a lot about a person’s aura. Their mood… their feelings. Even their nature.

“I didn’t ask to be this. I didn’t want to do these things! That damn bitch made me!”

“…”

“I did nothing wrong!” Anna yells.

“I don’t care. My entire reason for living is to kill demons. Not argue about whether it’s moral to kill someone in your unique situation.”

“Of course, you don’t care.”

“I don’t have time to care.” She sighed. “I don’t kill demons because I have to. I kill them because I have to.”

Seriousness was detected in the Genome’s voice. She just wanted to get this thing over with. She found no enjoyment in prolonging the inevitable.

Her aura increased dramatically. Even though the civilians couldn’t see it they could feel the tension.

Thankfully a train finally pulled up which would head into the city. Eventually, most people were inside the train as it pulled off.

For the others going in the opposite direction, they continued to walk further away from the two.

Anna… could see her death incoming and because of this, she had a deep flashback.

From the very beginning, Anna’s life was destined for mediocrity. Her family was deeply ingrained in their careers.

In Anna’s eyes, they were slaves to the corporate world. Bending over backward to do things they never wanted to do.

This made them severely unhappy. They barely gave Anna any attention and because of this, she ran away from home.

Despite their child being missing. They didn’t care. There was no missing report. No one even batted an eye that she was missing from school.

She spent most of her time hanging around with gangs. This only got worse the older she got. She found herself addicted to these substances.

For a brief moment, they brought her relief… an escape from the twisted reality of her life.

Still, there was a deep seething rage inside of her that continued to blossom. She had a deep hatred for rich people.

The more this hatred grew, the more destructive her actions became. This eventually led to her burning down an entire house.

What started out as a devious prank, became a heinous crime. She set the entire mansion on fire. Which belonged to a prestigious family.

The entire mansion burned down to a crisp. Sadly, along with the family’s heir.

Their son died.

Because of this, they brought endless hell against Anna’s family. Bringing down their reputation and eventually causing Anna’s mom to kill herself.

Anna’s father on the other hand decided to endure the pain.

A full investigation was brought up and Anna would have faced life in jail. But, instead… someone took the wrap for her. He wasted his entire life for a girl he barely knew. From that moment on…

Anna lived her life with regret.

She always ran away from things. Never wanting to take responsibility for her actions. This only encouraged her to do more bad things. Eventually being in the underworld led her to run into Abigail.

“I’m attacking.” Cecilia stated bluntly.

She wasn’t bluffing… she started to channel her aura into a circular blade. A move much like Talia. Though she was better at it since she was the one who invented it.

Terios himself could barely handle a weaker version of the Wind Blade so it meant that Anna would stand very little chance. The aura continued to take on a circular shape, generating gusts of wind.

Seeing this Anna clenched her teeth. Beads of sweat started to drip from her forehead as she realized that this attack would wipe her away.

“I’m not running away anymore.” Anna muttered.

Binding Flow

Anna’s aura started to ooze out from her hands in the form of yellow electricity. Cecilia wasn’t able to notice in time. The area of effect was larger than the genome could have expected. That’s when she noticed that something hit her.

“What… the hell…” Cecilia was preparing her attack, but all of a sudden it felt like the world had come to a halt. Her senses failed.

She couldn’t even focus on channeling her attack anymore and found herself dropping her Either control entirely. She was stunned.

Seeing this as the perfect time to strike, Anna dashed off quickly and delivered a strong series of punches against the genome.

SMACK!! WHACK!! SMACK!! SMACK!!

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Anna couldn’t help but give off a devious smile. The rush of battle. Her secret ability worked perfectly against an unsuspecting foe. Things were finally going her way.

“Looks like no matter how strong you are, the element of surprise can cripple anyone!”

Cecilia seemed visually discomforted. Stumbling back as she clutched her head a bit. This was a very big nuisance on her part. But, it was nothing she couldn’t handle.

Once the effect of Anna’s ability wore off Cecilia pushed her back before stumbling a bit and panting softly.

“I’ll give you that. But, you’re still limited.” Cecilia said as she was regaining some of her feelings.

Anna merely looked at the Genome with a smile. Deep down she had already assessed that she couldn’t go toe to toe with Cecilia in the combat department. She could sense that underlying power and it terrified her.

However, she was still excited. Because she knew that there was still a chance that she could win. The way to her victory would be through conditioning which was already being utilized.

Anna knew that she wasn’t the smartest cookie of the bunch. But, she wasn’t dumb. She was resourceful. Her time in the slums taught her as much.

“You use electricity to shock and paralyze your foes. You’re a huntress. I assume that means you’re better suited for assassination. You’re no good in a drawn-out fight.” Cecilia mentioned.

“Heh… you have me all figured out. You genomes are freaks.”

“A simple analysis. I will have to adapt to this like I always do.”

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzt!!!

The electricity surrounding Anna intensified. Propelling her body to move with blinding speed. This was not like earlier when C was chasing her. This was faster! She couldn’t even keep up like before… she was struck.

SLICE!!

This time it was more brutal. Anna appeared behind her in the blink of an eye. To Cecilia she just looked as if she teleported. It was all done in a swift and simple motion. Not only this but now the genome was bleeding from her side while Anna’s claws were drenched in the enemy’s blood.

While this was happening the sounds of a train fast approaching could be heard. The loudness muffled the entire fight.

Instinctively she tried to counterattack by swinging her arm, but Anna vanished once again. This time she had appeared behind her and wrapped an arm around Cecillia’s throat. Being this close was very bad.

Eventually, the train came to a halt with the passengers looking outside, mildly concerned. Once the doors opened to the train they started to walk and ignore what was happening.

Electricity started to engulf the two of them. Cecillia’s eyes widened, her body tensing and her yell escaped from her mouth. Even with the added defense, she put up with her Either this was a direct attack.

Now that the enemy was paralyzed. Anna tossed her limp body into the train, breaking her body through the glass and causing it to shatter into fine pieces. She also knocked a few passengers right out of their seats!

“What the hell!!” A random passenger yelled out.

“… I still can’t move.” The genome didn’t like where this was going.

“I’m going to rip your goddamn head off. Just like you did to Lonzo!” Anna threatened. As she stepped onto the train as well.

Anna started throwing some of the passengers around before picking the redhead up and slamming her face into the windows of the train near the corner of the entrance. More glass was shattered as pieces of it cut into her face.

Cecilia cried out in pain. The glass carved wounds onto her face and caused blood to seep out through the cuts.

Anna then threw her towards the seats where a few passengers quickly moved to avoid the interaction.

“This is crazy…! We have places to fucking be!”

The sound of the intercom went off.

“Everyone please sit down and enjoy the ride. We are now departing to our next destination.”

As if oblivious to what was going on inside the carts the train started moving and everyone held onto the railings on their seats.

Anna approached her stunned prey and grabbed her by the throat. Her grip tightened as she wanted to restrict her breathing.

“I can’t believe Terios was so afraid of you people. You’re not even all that.” She said with a smirk.

She raised her arm back and was preparing to give her the same treatment that Lonzo suffered as retribution.

Cecilia didn’t seem phased by everything going on. Instead, she looked very accepting. As Anna prepared her attack the redhead spat in her face.

The mere shock of this confused her and pissed her off. She cursed but before she could respond Cecillia delivered a quick chop on the hand that held her throat.

With the hand restricting her throat gone she easily avoided the claw by ducking and then tackling Anna to the ground.

That is when the retaliation started. Her fists balled up and she went to town on Anna’s face.

Smack! Smack!! Smack!!! Smack!!!!

Each time she hit her foe her hits increased in sound and passion. Anger flowed through her from what she had to go through.

“Get off!!” Anna yelled as electricity emitted from her which caused Cecillia to instinctively hop off.

There was a lot of confusion going on in Anna’s mind. How was she able to recover so quickly? Normally when she stunned someone at that range they were immobile for at least ten minutes.

Anna picked herself up and wiped the blood from her face as she gave a death stare to her enemy.

“Your attack is very convenient. But something like that won’t work against me.”

“I don’t understand…

As they bickered. The train was taking. Blocking out the sounds of their argument. Eventually, it came to a screeching halt while passengers looked curiously out the window.

As the doors opened and people walked out they mostly decided to ignore the two that were fighting.

Naturally, Anna’s ability was strong enough to paralyze an elephant for a few minutes. Someone who weighed as much as Cecilia should be no problem. Yet, she was acting as if her ability’s effect didn’t leave an everlasting impression.

What was the reason behind this? Anna couldn’t quite pinpoint it. She had never faced someone like her before. Was this fight destined to end fatally for her?

“You must not know how wonderful Either is and how we can use it. Your attack was powerful, but I defended against most of it. My Either output is stronger than yours, so your attacks have less of an effect. Could you not tell?” She said with a smug face.

Remembering this Anna swore under her breath. It truly angered her. Was she this outclassed? This was very hard to believe. She knew she wasn’t the strongest demon to walk the earth, but she wasn’t someone to take lightly.

“Shut the fuck up!” Anna swore again as she darted forward, however, when she did her ankle gave out. The wound she received from Hana was still in effect and it caused her to pause for a moment. That was all the time that was needed.

Cecilia avoided the strike easily. That slight pause allowed her to track and pinpoint where Anna would be and where she would attack. She was reading her body posture rather well and all the training that she had done in the lab was paying off.

A few more strikes, centered around the same spot. A stern fist was all it took. Nothing fancy. To add insult to injury she wasn’t even using that much Either to enhance her strikes. In fact, her aura was as calm as a gentle breeze.

Yet, blood stained her fist. The sounds of bone crunching could be heard as Anna's nose was presumably broken and now out of place. The demon swore once more and was basically becoming a broken record.

Anna tried to regain her bearings, but it didn’t matter.

SLICE, SLICE, SLICE!!

Each attack missed. The civilians were just watching in awe. Each miss was punished by a firm strike. Directly around the center of her face. Soon, the pain became too much for her to handle and she swore.

Anna soon raised her hand, firing off a few bolts of lightning. But, it was avoided easily. However, she soon found out that was not the right move. The screams of a few passengers rattled her ear as she shifted her head back.

“Shit.” The genome swore.

She was aiming for the people in the back. She struck her target’s head on and now he was paralyzed. For a normal human without any Either defenses that could have been fatal.

Anna wasn’t going to let up and now she had a sinister idea in mind. So what if she couldn’t match her strength? She was going to outsmart her. She fired off a series of bolts at the ceiling, causing it to shatter before she leaped above and found herself on top of the train.

Cecilia was going to follow her until she felt something. It was nothing more than a feeling and yet that feeling was enough to cause a few tears to seep from her eyelids. She quickly wiped them off and then became tremendously worried about her sister.

The two of them always shared a special bond that no one could really explain. This feeling inside was a sense of sadness and dread. It caused panic inside of her; anxiety. Her mind was telling her to go save her sister Talia.

However… a greater fear was swelling up inside of her. Disappointing them.

She never wanted to disappoint Vin-Sync, because disappointing Vin-Sync was something no Genome wanted to do. After all, they were nothing but tools that had to play by certain rules to even exist.

There was a chain on how to prioritize things. That chain was as followed in order of most important to least important: humans, demons, and lastly genomes. Anything else out of the ordinary would come before the genomes, but never above demons or humans.

Her sister was a genome and therefore was expendable to the company. However, not to her. Even so, she knew that she couldn’t do that. Her breathing became shallow and her body started to shake.

This was a reality she never wanted to face. A reality she prayed never came to fruition. But, evil always had a way of making the impossible possible.

The train started to pick up speed quickly at that. Everyone inside was starting to panic as the lights flickered off and on. Soon the darkness was lit up by the screams of the people. Why was the train picking up speed?

The Intercom turned on and soon a familiar voice was heard:

“Hello, passengers please prepare for one hell of a ride. We are breaking past these stupid safety limits and we are going full throttle to Hell! Now you can make your choice bitch. Will you come after me, or save these losers!”

The answer was simple. Save these people. How she would go about doing this was another story. Quite frankly Anna was a huge annoyance for her at best.

Cecilia looked around as the train continued to pick up speed. There were too many people to escort personally, so the easiest thing to do would be to stop the train. She wasted no time running ahead.

Once she got to the last cart of the train she used her Wind Blade to slice the entire back end apart. With this area exposed the air was blowing violently against her. Ruffling her long hair and clothes.

The train was starting to move so fast that it was starting to wobble violently as if it was going to come off these tracks. With the speed it was moving that wouldn’t be any surprise. She clenched her teeth as she wasn’t even sure if she would succeed with this.

She stuck her head outside and sighed deeply. This could possibly even kill her if she didn’t manage her Either correctly. Instead, she couldn’t think about any delays. She was too anxious about what could be happening to her sister right now.

Maybe they underestimated how desperate these people were to survive. She closed her eyes briefly before placing her legs onto the tracks. For a normal person, their legs would have snapped entirely.

However, for a Genome, this would turn out differently. The pieces of the tracks started to break apart, yet her legs remained intact. Though it hurt like hell. To shoulder this burden she shrouded her legs in her Either.

Still, this wouldn’t be enough. Even with her using the force of her legs she wasn’t physically strong enough to slow the train down by much. At this rate, they would come to the end of this platform and would most likely crash into something.

Cecilia clenched her teeth. She would have to try and cancel out this force with as much momentum as she could possibly muster. It was crazy that she would have to use this ability on air. Not even a person, but to save these people.

She would have to move quickly as well. With how unstable the train was it wouldn’t be a stretch of it completely falling off the platform. Or worse…

Wind Blast

She held her hand out as she generated a blast of air. While this move was rather strong it wasn’t enough to put an entire halt to this train. Once Cecilia realized this her heart began to sink. She would need more.

The civilians at the next train stop were prepared for the train to be coming their way. A lot of them had their suitcases and were ready to go on with their day. So, when they saw the train pass by them they were all furious.

“What the fuck!?”

The civilians weren’t very happy that the train had passed them and further delayed their time. If only they knew the things that were happening on this ride.

Up ahead there was oncoming traffic. Normally the signals would kick in and the cars would be alerted when the train was coming. But, because Anna knocked everything out of sync it wasn’t going to abide by those rules.

The red light up ahead was signaling for it to come to a halt. But, the driver was unable to do anything thanks to Anna’s annoying ability.

She wasn’t going to let that demon girl get her way. Cecilia wasn’t going to let her kill all of these people and get her in trouble. She was going to stop this train and save her sister. No matter the cost.

She channeled more aura into her legs as her legs dug into the ground, kicking up dirt and more pieces of the tracks. She held both of her hands out as she channeled a lot more aura into her palms.

This time it was swirling violently as she attempted another Wind Blast!

This time the strength of the blast was triple what it was last time. The wind storm that it generated tore through the ground and caused the trees around the area to swirl violently. The tracks were entirely destroyed.

Even though there wasn’t anything in the path to destroy, she had to worry about perfect control. If she used too much force the momentum would cause an imbalance and destroy the entirety of the train and harm the passengers.

Over time the train started to slow down. Coming to a halt. Little by little. Of course, once it came to a stop in the middle of the tracks everyone cheered. The cars that were passing by were a bit hesitant but drove off quickly across the bridge.

Cecilia was tired from what she had managed to do. The praise and clapping from the civilians didn’t seem to phase her as she was more interested in getting to her sister. She took a deep sigh as she looked around.

“Please call the police. They can handle the rest. I did my job.” She said bluntly.

Without a moment’s notice, she darted off. Running as quickly as she could while shrouding herself in her aura.

From the moment she left, she continued to worry and pray that her sister would be ok. She couldn’t lose someone who meant that much to her. In this crazy and scary world, she was the only one who was constant.

Once she arrived at the parking lot where she left Talia her heart sank. She saw the police tape, the cop cars, and the ambulance. She approached after having a police officer try to block her view.

“Please, I have to see! It might be my sister!”

“Ma’am… I’m sorry, but your sister is gone.”

…