Perched high on this chimney, Tess could survey the entire battlefield from above. Towards what was now the front of this fortress, she could see teams converging on the rampage that Charles was kicking up to draw some of the attention away. Already, hundreds of those that had truly stood no chance against either of them lay dead behind Charles.

Those bodies forced Tess to think again about Hunter’s attempt to stall her. Perhaps unlike many of her former apprentices here, these people were probably threatened or forced into serving and fighting. While she would do what she had to do to protect herself, she knew that many children were going to lose parents today.

Charles was not the only threat to this fortress though. Her own explosive entrance had drawn its own share of attention. Below, she spotted two men that seemed to be formulating a combined spell. Their speed left so much to be desired, though in truth it was faster than any other normal caster. Tess’s perception and thought speed was simply that high that they appeared slow. She switched the Witchblade into its elongated form and channeled her mana through to it. Almost casually, she merely stepped off the platform and let gravity take control. The wind caused her cloak to blow out and with a quick motion she stopped her hat from flying off.

The sudden change to her location had thrown off the caster’s aim, and the spell seemed like it would miss. However, using the Witchblade in her one hand, she stuck the blade into the path of the spell, a form of lightning bolt. She had loathed how quickly the demon lord had used a similar tactic to overwhelm her at the time, so she had worked up countermeasures against it. Her mana within her weapon shattered the intent of the spell, absorbing it into itself. With the Witchblade now sizzling with lightning, she spun it quickly to point blade down as she landed right between the two casters.

With her Fortitude so high, she felt no effects of the sudden change of momentum, keeping her standing tall. The Witchblade also impacted its blade into the ground, discharging much of the stored spell harmlessly. The fraction that was not discharged though was further empowered by Tess’s mana and exploded outwards in a perfect circle. Bolts of lightning leapt to everyone else within ten meters of her, including the original casters, nearly instantly vaporizing their flesh and charring the remaining bones. As wind forced out by the explosive thunderblast rushed back in, the charred remains crumbled to dust.

“Goodbye, Loren. Goodbye, Jeff,” she muttered, putting names to the casters.

Tess sensed the danger approaching from behind next, and so she ducked to avoid the slashing projection of a skilled swordsman.

“Impressive, Tess! I thought maybe I would have gotten you this time!” called out the blademaster.

Tess turned to see the speaker. He was decked out in armor that resembled that of a traditional Japanese samurai. It was all because of the Appearance skill, but did not take away the slight factor of intimidation.

“I’ve learned since you came through the Tutorial even more, Cory,” Tess replied, “You also should know that several of those who were truly Japanese thought your desires were warped by your flawed perspective on their culture.”

“I know exactly what it’s like! I watched every anime there was!”

“A narrow perspective.”

He was still easy to rile up. Tess had struggled with breaking that during his time, and it seemed that years later he was still as immature as back then. Tess sighed.

“Why are you here, Cory? You were going to create a harem of women who adored you. What happened?”

Cory’s anger flipped instantly to shame and tears started forming at the corners of his eyes.

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“They all rejected me! Why?!?!?! I did everything right and they didn’t swoon for me instantly!”

“Because they’re actual people, not mindless puppets?” Tess murmured to herself.

Cory had treated her initially the same upon his arrival. In fact he had tried to strip her to her undergarments immediately. That ended very quickly with her dignity still intact. So he had become one that she rushed out, which probably did not help.

“Mr. Viktor said that he would help though! Now I've already had a lot of girls join me.”

“What?”

“Yea! They joined me and all I had to do was give him some… well, you know.”

He looked sheepishly down before grinning widely. Had Tess not known that subtlety about intimacy was not a strong suit of Cory’s, she probably would have gotten it at that point. She was kind of disgusted.

“And what is he doing with your… stuff?”

“Well, he wasn’t really specific about that. But what else would you use it for? Maybe he’s got some sort of genetic modification powers? Oh! I bet he wants to create like a superhero! I’m going to be the father of a superhero!”

Tess dashed forward and knocked Cory unconscious with a single blow. He frankly was too stupid to be a part of any superhero, let alone whatever Viktor was trying to cook up. But what Cory said made her start to think about things.

Viktor, a man obsessed with power, was collecting her former apprentices. According to Cory, it seemed like there was some sort of sex based thing going on with them. While on Ireia, she had learned that some skills transferred from parent to child within the System. So it made sense that Viktor might be trying to get empowered versions of skills into one child he could control. And that made her notice something else; all of the apprentices she had seen thus far were male. Where were her female apprentices?

The realization of what was likely going on crystalized for her a reason to hate Viktor. Before, she was fighting him because it was requested of her, or demanded of her, and she was capable of doing so. Now she had to stop whatever the vile, twisted thoughts of this madman were. How different was this than the situation she was in so long ago, just before she was brought to the Tutorial? For Tess, there was no difference.

More soldiers were coming at Tess, but she ignored the ones she could and easily dispatched the rest as she looked around. A building that was glaringly white stood out, as though it was trying to avoid the grime of the others nearby. While admittedly she did not know much about medical hygiene, the idea of keeping things clean for medical procedures she did get.

Storming over to it, she kicked open the door, sending it flying down the corridor before impacting the distant wall. The scent of sterilization and blood wafted outward, flooding her senses. The long corridor, which she attributed to a sort of spacial compression as the building was not as big as the corridor suggested, had many doorways on either side. The racket from her removal of the door caused many heads to appear from these side doorways, none of whom she recognized.

“Hey! Who are you? Where is your clearance?” one particularly bold man said, stepping out into the corridor.

Tess looked this man up and down, noting the lab coat with pens in a pocket. Unless his ability was hidden, she found no sense of danger from him. Grabbing him by the collar and yanking him from his feet caught him unawares and startled the other watchers.

“What is going on in this building?” Tess growled.

“You… you don’t have the clearance for that,” stammered her captive.

“And your time grows shorter. I suggest you answer me before that time ends. Viktor isn’t coming to save you.”

The color drained from his face, yet he continued to blubber nonsense about clearance. She did admire the loyalty, despite the person to whom this doctor’s loyalty lay.

“You there!” Tess called out to the nearest person still partially hidden within a doorway, “Will you answer my questions?”

“Yes!”

“Good.”

She looked down at the doctor in her grasp.

“Time’s up.”

She threw him down the corridor, where he impacted the same spot that the door previously had. He made a splat as his bones shattered before tearing through his organs and bursting forth like a twisted flesh and bone grenade.

“Now tell me what is going on here,” Tess ordered, appearing in an instant behind the shocked employee who would answer.