CHAPTER 101: IT’S OVER
—The students have withdrawn. They have some injuries, but they are alive.
Dodging General Kavuri’s tentacle, Aurora sighed in relief at those words.
If the students suffered too much damage or were about to be seriously injured, the crystal in their masks would send him to High Priestess Xaali.
It was a ‘lifeline’ that came from the Church of Time and Space itself, given to them by Cardinal Brousseau.
The church completely guaranteed the reliability of the object, since priests created them through a ritual, and some said that these crystals could change the destiny of people ... The destiny of death.
They also knew the God of Time and Space as “God of Destiny”, it was common for the church to have such objects in its possession.
“I AM STRONG!” Roaring madly, General Kavuri sent a mental wave towards her direction.
A translucent barrier covered Aurora, and no voice appeared in her mind.
Because the aura the monster General Kavuri had become was reaching S rank, the attacks it released were getting stronger and stronger and could affect her if she didn’t protect herself.
For that reason, Aurora used a mental magic scroll to protect herself.
Since they knew who she would face, it was normal to come prepared, bringing some artifacts or objects to protect herself from the mental attacks.
Now with the barrier, she only heard murmurs and screams in the distance, which were not at all worrisome.
“DIE!”
General Kavuri shouted and fired a powerful spear of psionic energy that shattered the earth as it headed for Aurora and she dodged with some ease thanks to the slow speed of the attack.
Although the spear had considerable force, the speed and lack of accuracy made it a straightforward attack to dodge.
The lack of rationality was the reason she allowed him to become a monster who was slowly losing his sanity.
General Kavuri, at this moment, was losing his human appearance, turning into a grotesque abomination that was going mad every second.
His clothes were destroyed and the protuberances that were growing on his body and throbbing like brains were increasing in size.
The man’s former arms became tentacles and as his legs remained the same, the image he gave was grotesque.
The protuberances did not cover the entire face, which allowed her to see the cracks that covered that man’s face, giving the impression that the skin was a shell hiding the monster that was emerging inside.
Demonic energy was that terrifying and that abomination let on what happened when no one was in control of that energy to assimilate it properly.
Aurora did not believe that ‘Chaos’ or ‘demonic energy’ was ‘bad’, it was the way people used it that was negative.
“HAHA... I am powerful... I am powerful...” mumbling incoherently, the abomination waved its tentacles again, generating a gigantic wall of psionic energy that was sent towards Aurora.
She employed the ability of her battle suit to teleport away and threw some lightning again, no need to engage in combat.
She didn’t need to risk a confrontation to the death, she just needed to ‘play’ defensively until it was all over.
General Kavuri’s mind had completely ‘broken’ and it was quite possible that he had gone ‘mad’.
Not like those ‘madmen’ who had great intelligence and were dangerous lunatics, but these were the lunatics who acted without reason, guided by their emotions.
It was like a monster mutated by ‘Chaos’, acting on instinct and being attracted by the slightest provocation.
Those lightning bolts were Aurora’s provocation.
“Soon... Soon...” muttered the abomination as its protrusions throbbed more strongly.
His aura became more powerful and stronger, while his attacks became more powerful and dominating.
However, it was still a beast that had an attack pattern, and once someone learned it, the rest would be easier.
Aurora had learned that pattern.
Her battle was not relaxed, she had to be on the lookout to ‘jump’ with the ability of her combat suit at any moment and she had to pay attention, in case the abomination went berserk changing its pattern back.
It was at the moment she was dodging a psionic spear that the situation changed.
The spear increased in speed and Aurora had to perform a strike with her combat aura to reduce the impact of the spear.
*Boom!
The force was greater than she imagined and although it reduced the impact, the remaining force pushed her backwards, knocking her to the ground, causing her to roll on the ground.
“...”
Even so, when she stood up and spat out the blood, she gave a smile as she watched General Kavuri’s aura break through the boundary of an S-rank.
Entering between that rank that seemed like an abyss and that only very few individuals have surpassed, General Kavuri’s aura continued to increase.
Between that rank, there were small and large differences in one’s strength, in which they had to train hard to overcome to reach the top.
However, General Kavuri advanced as if breaking through every ‘wall’ he encountered.
Slowly reaching the top, the bumps throbbed at a great speed as they grew.
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... I am... I AM AN S-RANK!” General Kavuri roared with deep emotion.
His aura peaked and the murmurs in Aurora’s mind became ghost voices that seemed to want to pull her into an abyss of pain and despair.
Breaking through all her mental defenses, the abomination looked at Aurora, and as it floated in her direction, her protuberance exploded.
“Hahahahaha...”
With a laugh of a lunatic, blood and strange, sticky substances started pouring out of the wounds, which were spreading all over that abomination’s body.
Protuberances exploding one after another as if they were over-inflated balloons.
The energies repelled each other, making that abomination’s body the place of battle.
“HAhaha...”
Slowly dying without knowing what was happening to his body, General Kavuri lowered his speed and then fell to the ground while still laughing like a lunatic.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Until there was no more movement.
Aurora could have stopped him earlier, but if she had continued the battle with a lunatic like him who was very difficult to predict, perhaps everything could have changed.
For such a reason, she let him die, allowing him to lose his mind so that he would not act unpredictably.
******
Running in the dark dodging hundreds of black tentacles, the Somali Terror cut through everything in its path.
Unfortunately, for him, not only was he surrounded by black tentacles but, from those tentacles, protrusions that looked like thorns came out and it was impossible for him not to get hurt.
Liam, who was watching from afar, didn’t know what to say.
Alice was still as strong as ever.
Her ability was too versatile, and she had quite a few ways to use it.
This was prison darkness focused on assassinating the Somali Terror.
Alice wasn’t trying to catch him or stop him, she was looking to assassinate him.
The hands-on her black arms had sharp claws on them and the protrusions coming out from everywhere like spikes, they had a very high edge.
The worst thing was not that, but...
“I surrender!” Somali Terror exclaimed as he was cut by a protrusion that suddenly appeared from one arm.
*Crack*
The response of the person who was creating such a scene was just to eat some chips with a crunching sound.
Alice was sitting on a seat designed with her own darkness and was watching the Somali Terror accumulate wounds while she ate her chips.
That indifference to life and the way she could watch someone being tortured calmly was something that would strike fear into anyone meeting Alice for the first time.
However, Liam didn’t stop her or say anything and neither did Akira, who was standing next to them.
The main reason was that the Somali Terror had done too many cruel acts to have sympathy for him.
Liam did not like killing or fighting, it was more field work was something he did not like too much, preferring office work.
His dislike did not mean he had sympathy for cruel and heartless warlords who fed on the people they put under their control like parasites.
Devouring the blood and lives of those innocents, believing that they had the right to do as they wished just because they were strong.
It was for such a reason that he watched silently, ignoring the actions of one of his bosses.
Alice was not slowly rounding up the Somali Terror out of revenge or anger. She was indifferent to such matters and it could be felt that she was doing so because she was bored.
Distracting himself with such thoughts, Liam watched as a black arm caught the Somali Terror’s foot, digging its claws deep into his flesh.
It took less than half a second before the Somali Terror could sever the black arm and that short period was enough for other black arms to catch it.
By the shoulders, the waist, his leg, his stomach, the arms caught every part of his body, covering him until finally, the famous Warlord was completely immobile.
The claws on the black hands pierced the flesh of the Somali Terror, causing him to bleed and scream in pain.
At this point, that man did not even try to resist and surrendered completely.
Perhaps if he attacked with everything, he could cut off hundreds of arms with his impressive speed, however, he was surrounded and he couldn’t escape.
Alice was strong and worse, from the moment she created this dome that acted as a ‘domain’ she completely countered the Somali Terror.
For an assassin whose strong point was speed, being enclosed and with a path completely covered by dozens of black arms became his worst weakness.
Adding that both Akira and Liam himself had their respective attacks ready, the best option was to surrender.
“I... I surrender... Go to prison...” muttered the Somali Terror in a shaky and hard-to-understand voice.
For all his crimes against humanity, war crimes, and support for demonic rituals, it was very possible that he would receive a life sentence and be sent to a high-security church prison.
“I accept that. However, you will not stand trial or be tried. We will turn you over to the military. They will get everything you know out of you and then you will be sent to the Church of Time and Space prison,” Alice reported, standing up as she turned her hands so that the claws went deep into the Somali Terror’s skin.
The Somali Terror let out a moan of pain as the claws went deep into his body, causing him to bleed.
They would not hold a public trial, as it was unnecessary.
It was quite possible that the Somali Terror knew matters of great importance and it was a priority to clean up the remnants so that in the future, there would be no problems.
Positions of secret military barracks, militias, bank accounts, kidnappings, and usual places of human trafficking, criminal businesses, and dozens of hairy matters were known to the Somali Terror.
It was normal to live the life of a ‘king’ that he had, he made deals with all kinds of organizations or cults to either capture people for sacrifices or sell them to demons.
They did not need to judge him slowly.
Zerzura was born of refugees being oppressed by incompetent warlords and they had no mercy for those kinds of individuals.
Calling him ‘heartless’ or ‘cruel’ didn’t matter.
The church tacitly accepted it and the Apicius Company encouraged it.
They would try to ‘drain’ him of both information and wealth, using the former for their benefit and the latter to help the citizens he repressed improve their lives.
As to how that information would be extracted?
They wouldn’t broach that topic and the methods, none of them cared.
“Ughh...”
The Somali Terror could only groan in pain as the claws pierced through its flesh.
Slowly, the arms turned into a black mass, covering the Somali Terror completely.
The next moment, the black mass retreated and the Somali Terror disappeared.
“No matter how much I see it, it’s terrifying and seems impossible to me,” Akira muttered in a strange tone.
Alice had just ‘devoured’ a person in her shadow.
Liam scratched his cheek without responding, though he had to admit he agreed.
Innate abilities were weird and curious, sometimes differing quite a bit from magic or psionics. However, the scene they had just seen certainly fell into the ‘weird’ category and probably the ‘scary’ category.
Though in that sense, some innate abilities could be weirder, being able to turn a human into some sort of lycanthrope or turn a normal man into a giant.
The dome receded like a liquid, which in the next instant turned into a shadow, which returned to Alice’s feet, disappearing completely.
From outside, Aurora came floating in.
“How did it go?” Aurora asked curiously as she looked around at the shattered surroundings.
“It was troublesome. It was too fast for us. Without Alice, we would have had a bad time,” Akira replied with a sigh.
“That’s true. I had to sacrifice about a hundred drones,” Liam muttered, shaking his head tragically.
The Somali Terror was all about speed, and it was faster than either Akira or Liam.
If it wasn’t for Alice who could hide and react quickly, things might have become even more difficult.
The three of them always used telepathy and sought to corner the Somali Terror, allowing the black arms to fall to the ground and looking to keep it from moving away from that area, so Alice could take over.
Had they repeated what they did with the Smilodon Fatalis, it was quite possible that the Somali Terror would have broken through the barrier and run away.
Perhaps to others, it seemed like an easy battle, but the dedication that each of them had to put in was considerable and the control of the skills helped.
It helped that the Somali Terror acted defensively.
“Is it safe?” Aurora asked, looking at Alice closely, precisely at her shadow.
“He’s exhausted and the wounds have weakened him. It’s hard for him to get out.” Alice replied with a shrug and looking at the surroundings, she asked. “Is it over?”
There were no more battle noises and everything seemed to be quiet, with a few extra presences, in the main area.
“Yes. General McLean sent support, and they just went in after High Priestess Xaali’s barrier disappeared. The students have just been through a difficult situation, but their physical wounds are being treated.” Aurora replied and with a slightly hard look, she added. “As for the hostages... We ran into some in sticky situations and some didn’t make it.”
There was a small silence, and Akira sighed.
“It’s all over, and the Lord of Mombasa has conquered Nairobi. Tomorrow will be thoroughly reported, and it is possible that the war will be over,” Aurora added, changing the mood and looking at Alice, she ordered. “Hand over the Somali Terror. And send the others home. The fighting was long and they are probably tired.”
“Will you stay and work?” Alice asked and seeing that her friend did not answer, she commented. “I’ll come keep you company.”
Aurora just smiled, and they moved on.
Sighing exhausted from controlling the drones for quite some time, overloading and powering them up, Liam gave a long, exhausted sigh letting out all his tension.
Three against one made the battle more bearable, but the tension and mental stress of monitoring his enemy were just as heavy.
Now the war would end, allowing the Lord of Mombasa to take control of Kenya and finally bring peace to these lands.
Taking care of the hostages and helping them would be a task for another group.
Walking toward where the soldiers were arresting those who survived, they saw dead bodies lying everywhere.
The smell of blood was spreading around and when they saw their comrades safe, they all sighed in relief.
Aeko and Shao Ya were in excellent condition.
Santiago and Oscar, in his bear form, took the full brunt of their enemies and both had wounds all over their bodies.
Oscar, who was still in his bear form, had the most wounds, but with his strong vitality, he was recovering quickly as he was lying on the ground with his paws and jaws covered in blood.
Henrik and his entire group were also doing well, with Alvar being the one who had wounds on his body and his armor slightly destroyed, though nothing considerable.
“Go with your group, Akira. We can take care of the other matters,” Alice pointed out, opening a fresh bag of chips.
Akira hesitated and then gave a small smile.
“Thank you...”
Leaving that murmur, that woman retreated with a smile approaching her group.
“I knew it, Oscar. you’re quite the beast!” Akira joked and when he reached his fellow bear he tapped his head, at the same time using an artifact to clean up his blood.
Oscar, in his transformed bear form, let out an annoyed growl at his captain’s comment, but allowed himself to be petted by Akira.
Liam gave a smile.
Akira had formed a great team and was very good at keeping them together and taking care of them.
Not just physically, but mentally as well.
Today they had to kill many people to bring peace and stabilize a region... It was necessary that their actions didn’t give rise to some problem that would hinder their growth.
As for the Aurora group.
They had been working in this type of environment for quite some time and, although it sounded bad, Liam himself had become accustomed to death.