Gliding across the ground, Mia left Trevor and immediately left towards the barrier. She thought she heard Trevor protesting when she left but he knew she could go back if anything happened, didn’t know why he even bothered.

She slid to a stop, landing at the foot of the barrier and glanced back “straight lines are easy…”

[You could be more graceful about it, gliding like a stiff plank of wood looks weird.]

“Not my fault every slight movement sends me into a different direction.” She huffed.

[It literally is your fault, get better.]

“…” ignoring her, she brought her attention back to the barrier as another tremor shook the city, sounds of fighting coming from the distance “hate this thing.” She sighed, knowing she couldn’t save in there and her abilities would be limited, she made two daggers and a spear out of ice, saved, then stepped inside.

Immediately she felt heavy “That’s new…” she had gotten significantly more powerful since the last time she stepped foot in one of these, but she didn’t expect to feel this dull and stiff. She jumped up and down a few times as a test, doing a few stretches as well “manageable…” she didn’t feel as weak as she was before her evolution.

She tried to float but nothing happened “Magic is…” she tried to manipulate her daggers in the air, only managing to do one, she then tried creating more “Ice is… fine” she managed to shoot and manipulate it just as fine as before, only noticing a slight delay and an increase in mana cost.

“Fire is off the table.” Trying to summon any fire only let out a few pitiful spurts, not even attempting water because of how little faith she had in that element.

“Ok, big one.” She tried to save, hoping with her improved strength she could now bypass the stupid limitation, her answer being an error screen “too much to ask for…” she sighed, trying to slow time next.

To her surprise, it worked “takes a lot more mana now though…” if slowing time for 5 seconds outside the barrier took one thousand mp, doing it inside took five thousand. “Thankfully I have a lot of mana, still have to be careful.” With that confirmed, she pumped herself up and ran off towards the pier.

* * * * *

“Don’t let them escape!”

“Hold the barrier!”

“Fucking Gaia freaks!”

“Get us out of here already! What are the priests doing?!”

“Woah…” It was an all out brawl on the pier, bodies piled in the streets all the way to the docks, all around the ship that belonged to the cult. The Adventurers had managed to push them all the way to their ship, the ship that made the ship Mia rode on to get here dwarfed it comparison. It was massive, made of metal, and had become a fortress that the Lexon side had yet to breach.

She also saw the source of the tremors, giant pillars of metal, earth, metal and various other elements had been erected behind the ship, blocking its escape as it rammed backwards into them, sending Mia to her feet as another tremor shook through the city.

“Get back!” “Heretics!” “You dare hold us here?!”

“Keep the others protected!” “don’t let them through!”

Getting back up to her feet, she saw a small group towards the back, adventurers on each side of the ship protecting a few casters that she assumed were keeping the pillars in place while the cult rained spells and arrows down towards them.

They were in a bit of a stalemate, with the cult attempting to leave and the Lexon side unable to break through their hold, the barrier not helping.

“Where are the SS-ranks?” she didn’t see any black robed pr- oh.

Her eyes spotted a small pile of them relatively close to the group preventing the ship from leaving “over there then…” she needed to help, and she knew just what she needed to do.

She ran straight to the tip of the ship, weaving through the skirmishes and arrived at the water’s edge, ignoring the debris and floating corpses she stared up at the massive metal ship “have to get to the deck…” she jumped, frowning “still no floating…” would have made it easier. She leaped off the pier, creating a small foothold of true ice that turned into a floating platform styled staircase

“This is emptying my mana-!” she cried, halfway up to the top she started to make the platforms smaller, only the size of her foot, picking up the pace as the ship started moving backwards again. She reached the edge, drawing her dagger she flipped over the edge

“?!”

She slowed time, ducking below a barely visible flying blade that flew above her, having to flatten her ears to avoid it nicking them.

“Oh? That’s a first.”

She patted her head, making sure everything was still there, her eyes darting to the source of the voice “…red robe?” a red robbed individual was siting at the center of the deck, right besides the familiar barrier generator machine built into the deck itself. She glanced around for anyone else, noticing it lacked the usual lackies that usually tended to it.

She also noticed the several squirming bodies of adventurers scattered around the deck, every one of them filled with several bleeding cuts, just enough to leave them barely alive, all shoved unceremoniously shoved to the sides of the deck. Besides them, it was just this man and her at the front, every other cult member was in the back hurling stuff at the group preventing them from leaving. She wasn’t the only one that had the idea of stopping the barrier, it seemed.

“What? That’s the first thing you say?” The person chuckled, raising his arms in a shrug. “Red doesn’t mean much, fox.”

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

“?!” she slowed down time again, dodging two more blades that cut by her, barely managing to dodge them by a hair’s breadth. The attack was similar too Roy’s blade attack, but lacked the wind up and the obvious shouting, but it remained similar, an invisible blade that cut the space around it as it flew, and by the looks of it also lacked the space sucky thing, just cutting.

“Again? You dodge that? The person chuckled, bursting out in laughter as they pulled off their hood, revealing a beautiful face with flowing blonde hair “no one is supposed to be able to dodge my skill, maybe coming here wasn’t that bad after all.” He grinned “hope you don’t break like the others, they bored me.”

Mia felt a sickening shiver run down her spine when he grinned, it wasn’t fear but… something just felt wrong, twisted even, seeing that look. ‘Made it easier to kill him…’ she tossed one of her daggers at him, sprinting off to the side.

The dagger got cut clean in two by an invisible force, his head creaking to the side “not much of a talker, are you?”

She stopped in place, slowing down time she leaped into a spin as a blade flew under her, while spinning she threw her last dagger at him as she made a small platform of true ice above her, kicking off of it back to the ground to avoid another blade, drawing her spear as she landed.

The dagger cut in half again, flying past him “The others start begging for their life by now, so stimulating…” he shivered, gripping his own hands in ecstasy as Mia’s thrown spear was shredded into a fine mist in front of him “The first time I have experienced this much…hm…” he creaked his head to the side, watching Mia run off towards the end of the ship.

She stopped, several blades gouging out the side of the ship, making a deep gash that cut her off from the backside of the ship and ripped every adventurer unlucky enough to be lying there to shreds “…tch.” She had planned to get in range of the cult members up top, to maybe free some of them up so she could get some help.

His eyes narrowed “boooring.” He then sighed, tapping the ground with his heel “yknow, you are the first to ever dodge my skill, which should be unavoidable according to the description.” He shrugged “Guess you can’t take descriptions here to heart, shame.”

Mia made another set of daggers while he talked ‘why is this cult filled with all these weirdos’ she then bent down, readying herself.

He raised a brow, chuckling before his face snapped forward, staring intensely at her with wide eyes.

Mia flinched, she didn’t sense any more blades coming, instead felt a sense of discom- oh no.

His expression twitched, then broke out in laughter “A hero! Oh this is a treat!” he clapped, cutting Mia’s thrown blade again without so much as reacting to it “They wouldn’t let me fight that Asian bastard, well, broken by the time I got to him, but I was curious-?!” he broke from his smug attitude and took an offensive stance as several ice spears, balls, and a beam of ice assaulted him, all getting shredded into finely ground mist “…hit a nerve?”

Mia panted, cursing herself for forgetting to set her damn disguised status each time, but more so she was pissed “You knew Hiiro.” Her eyes narrowed, stretching out her open arm.

“Knew? Hardly.” He chuckled “they had him drugged up and caged by the time I was a part of this team.” His face twisted into a smirk “though, I heard an interesting story… Y’see, the church treats heroes nice as long as they behave and follow the rules, they would not do something drastic like that unless a hero went rouge.” He spun around in the mist, striking a pose that emphasized his beauty, his arms flailed to the side “Me? I enjoy every benefit from that.”

Mia suddenly jolted “Wait, you are a hero?!” she didn’t believe it.

“Isn’t it obvious? No one here is as beautiful as I am.” He then grinned, straightening himself out “Yes, a human hero in the flesh, Jack’s the name.”

“…but aren’t you from another world?!” Mia spoke, “doesn’t the actions of the church conflict with your world? Or the books! Where they are evil? Shouldn’t you have known?!” she questioned, remembering how John and Hiiro explained their worlds.

“Oh, so it was you?” he giggled “and eh, when in Rome~” His face twisted, making that same sickening grin “Do as the Romans do~” chuckling, he continued” plus, sure, it was a popular genre and I can see how playing the hero could be someone’s wish.” He placed a finger on his chin, tapping it “saving the world, fighting the evil church, building a harem…” he paused, noticing Mia grimace “… wish fulfilment garbage in my opinion.”

‘That was John alright…’ she thought, making another spear behind her back with her free hand. She knew what he was getting at earlier as well, it was her fault Hiiro ended up in that situation, but had already decided to rectify that next time, she wouldn’t let that get to her.

“Me though?” he grinned “I believe wish fulfillment shouldn’t be limited to the goody two shoes.” He raised his hands high into the air, smiling from ear to ear “who says I can’t be the bad guy? Why can’t I join the church? See it all burn around me as I sit upon a throne of blood and tears of the innocent! Or…”

He snapped his vision down, his wide eyed blood shot eyes locking onto Mia “A killer, a famous killer who’s name will cause kids to hide under their sheets by the mere mention of their name, who has everyone too afraid to go out at night, the reason-Kya-!?“

Mia clenched her hand, the mist around Jack sharpening into tiny needles that flew towards him, several instantly getting cut down by his skill while others, too numerous to cut, made it through, puncturing the robe. Jack made a high pitched squeal in pain, the needles found their mark and Mia wasted no time, throwing her spear.

“Y-you bitch! Right in the middle of my jac- shit!” Jack threw up their arms, the spear getting shaved down, instantly the new mist turned into more needles, showering him “You cheap ass fox!” Jack swiped his arm in frustration, his eyes dead locked onto Mia “You think you can stop me with this weak ass damage!” he yelled, not noticing as a dagger was flying towards him from the left.

The dagger zoomed towards him, getting cut in half again, but this time jack paused, watching as the half dagger flew right by his face and sliced into the tip of his nose. His eyes widened, he hadn’t noticed when Mia threw it, or how it came from that angle.

“Creep” she thrust her finger towards the barrier device “if that wasn’t on, you’d be dead.” She then gave a soft smile as the ship rumbled “plenty of people in this world are stronger than you…” her smile slowly turned into a smirk “you won’t even be a footnote.”

Jack slowly reached up to his nose, dabbing his fingers on the tip he stared at his blood-stained tips in disbelief, he then took of his robe, inspecting his…er…her pin pricked body. Her gaze fell back on her bloody fingers, curling them into a fist “Alright you fucking bitch.” She swung her fist down, a loud screeching sound reverberating throughout the area.

Mia raised an eyebrow, not sure what she just did until the motes of light started flashing, the device started sparking as the top half slid off the bottom, falling to the deck with a clang, the barrier failing and fading out “…did she just-!” she slowed time, leaping out of the way of several blades that cleaved into the side of the ship, ripping it and the adventurers asunder. She landed, looking towards Jack in shock.

Jack spat to the ground, her gaze firmly locked onto Mia “You weren’t the only one being held back by that device!” She raised her hands up into the air, then slammed them downwards, the ship jolting.

‘What did she do?’ It didn’t take long for Mia to get her answer, the ship had been split cleanly in half and was separating down the middle “A-ae you insane?!” Mia yelled as Jack laughed maniacally.

“I will be a footnote? HA!” she faced Mia, her arms to her side and in her palms a swirling invisible force was running rampant as she slowly rose with the now sinking ship “Is this the power of a footnote!? Screw the church! Screw their rules! Screw the plan!” her view snapped to a certain section of the floor, swiping her hand she sent countless blades down below, shredding everything in that section like a blender “Just me… and you…after I am done with you, I will invade this stupid fucking island and conquer it myself! Everyone will know my name! how’s that for a footnote!”

Mia crossed her arms “one problem with that.”

Jack twitched “and WHAT would that be?” she growled, the storm of blades at her side turning into a typhoon.

[Saved to slot 3]

“You won’t even get past me.”