BXBX NOVEL Chapter 424: Capturing chaos
"You were good. Whatever you did, it was perfect. The acting, the promise, the dress up _ you matched everything." Rebecca said and flicked her sword, splashing blood on the ground. "But you couldn\'t match his hate."
"..."
"You see, I\'ve had a lot of conversations with him where either directly or indirectly, I tried to soothe the relationship between my brother and him, so I know, just how much he hates Alfred. How despite all his control, his expression changes subtly and the tone gets colder. It\'s actually quite minute, and he tries his best to hide it. But as someone who\'s just been looking at him crazily all these years, wouldn\'t I notice that."
"..."
"This formation of yours, this foggy magic, it might have helped you copy my memories, or get a peek in my mind to create this illusion_but that\'s the problem. It copied me. What I want to see, what I\'d like to see. _ … so overall, just die."
As Becca finished her words, she swung her sword again. Breaking the illusion and turning it into the fog that surrounded her earlier.
She opened her eyes and found she was still standing at the entrance of the building. Not a step further.
She looked around and found Erza and her shadows trapped in the same illusion. Their eyes closed and bodies frozen in place, like a statue.
"Cassie. Wake up._ Massie, can you hear me._ It\'s an illusion, snap out of it. _ Erza..why are you crying? Wake up."
She tried to wake everyone up, shaking their bodies, hoping a jolt of mana could shock them out, but got no response. Everyone seemed to be too immersed in their \'dream\' and unable to hear her call.
She walked past them and looked around, but found no trace of her best friend. "Amy?" She shouted, but still got no response.
She could feel the chaotic traces of mana and the lingering smell of blood in the air, not to mention, see the obviously large pits and littered corpses on the ground. It was clear there was a battle that happened here some time ago.
But aside from the aftermath, there was no sign of Amy.
"Where did she go?" Becca muttered as she tried to remember the infrastructure of the building before the fog came in, and started walking forward blindly.
..
Away from the calm and silence in fog outside, a fierce battle seemed to have taken place inside the building.
Amy, who had broken through from her illusion a long time ago, was surrounded by the goons and started the slaughter she promised them. But the more she killed, the more these followers seemed endless.
It looked like Apate had really pulled all her nearby puppets in one place, to stop her streak, and put an end to her.
"Get out and face me, you cowards." She shouted, staring at the figures jumping up and down across the walls.
"You look tired already, Amy," sneered one of the followers, stepping out of the darkness, his grin sharp and mocking. He wore the symbol of Apate proudly, a twisted emblem of a face covered by mask, meant to convey deceit and fear. "You\'ve been killing our friends, hunting us down like prey. But here… here, you\'re the one caught in our web. Today\'s the day you die."
Amy ignored the man\'s taunts and rushed to fight him, her thin sword already covered in blood and coated in red. "Even if I die, you won\'t live long, you idiot." She cursed as she slashed her sword, while her other hand made a throwing gesture.
The hooded follower raised his sword to block her swing, but next second an invisible dagger pierced his thighs, forcing him to flinch and cry out in pain.
The moment of distraction was enough for Amy who directly slash her sword, leaving a thin streak of red on the man\'s neck, where two seconds later, litres of blood started pouring out.
"Where\'s Gyandel?" she demanded clashing with the attacker sneaking on her back. Before disappearing from her place and appearing a few steps further, behind another follower\'s back.
She grabbed his neck, and placed the tip of her sword on his neck. "Tell me, and maybe I\'ll give you a swift death."
The man struggled, trying to break free, but the sudden piercing pain forced him to stay still.
The leader of these followers, the bearded man who stood in the back, whose eyes never left the sight of Amy, just chuckled, feeling amused. "Gyandel? As if I\'d tell you. Not that it matters—you won\'t live to see him anyway."
Amy heard his answer and directly pushed her sword into the man\'s neck 180°. To stop the blood from spilling on her face, she turned her hand sideways, and kicked the corpse away.
"Cough gruullgg" The man felt his body slip over the cold edge of the sword and fell down with a thud. Struggling to breathe, as he kept coughing up blood.
Amy didn\'t even look at the dying man. She just lunged forward, her blade flashing in a precise arc aimed at the leader\'s throat. But he was quick, sidestepping with ease and dodging her attack. Around her, the other followers emerged, closing in on her like wolves circling prey. The leader\'s smile twisted as he gestured for them to attack.
They rushed her in waves, forcing her to sidestep and weave between blows, her sword moving in a blur. She deflected a series of strikes from a tall woman wielding a wicked, jagged dagger, feeling the vibration shudder down her arm with each parry. Amy twisted, kicking out and landing a solid hit to the woman\'s side. The follower stumbled back, cursing, but two more took her place, swinging blunt weapons aimed to break bones.
Amy\'s breathing grew ragged as she danced through their attacks, sweat trickling down her brow. Her sword felt heavier with each strike, until the moment it slipped from her bloody palms in a clanking sound. The leader watched from the back, a smirk on his face as he called out in commentary, "That\'s not good. I thought the Blake\'s were famous for holding their swords. Yours fell. Tsk tsk tsk."
"Maybe we ought to hunt your brother to see the real swordsman. After all, he\'s on our list too."
The leader\'s words seemed to get under Amy\'s skin, as wisps of chaos swirled on her fingers. She tried to calm herself, to control this chaos, but a blind idiot begging for death jumped at her at this moment. His aura coated fist came straight for her head, intending to burst it like a balloon. Yet her instincts kicked in and sensing the danger, she raised her hand to block the hit.
Her open palm touched his closed fist. The chaos coming in direct contact with his skin. And like a cluster of flames touching the cloud of lpg gas or gasoline, _ it instantly ignited.
The man felt his body heating up at an alarming rate, before his mana, aura, and even life energy_ all of it got swallowed and disappeared in smoke. Just a second later, what was left in his place, was a shrivelled corpse, empty of everything. Before that too turned into dust and disappeared.
The man couldn\'t even properly scream in pain before death claimed his soul, but the horrified expression on his face was enough to show what kind of pain he must\'ve felt in that mere moment.
This sight caused the other few who also wanted to take advantage of her being unarmed, to halt their movements and stop in their tracks. Silently being glad they weren\'t the first.
Death is acceptable, but like this _ not so much.
While everyone else was surprised over this sudden attack, feeling confused or scared. The leader of them had no such expression. His face even brightened up in excitement as he stared at the disappearing corpse on the ground.
He looked at Amy, and her glinting red eyes and the wisps of smoke lingering around her hands and raised the corners of his mouth. "Losing control already? Gyandel said you\'d break eventually, but so soon _ I\'m a little disappointed."
"At least give me a challenge so my goddess can reward me more."
His taunts and mentions of Gyandel only fueled her anger more, causing her control over chaos to flicker further. But remembering what Rio always used to say to her, she forced herself to calm down.
\'Do not use chaos in public.\'
She didn\'t know why her brother was always so adamant on hiding her secondary element, or the fact that she was goddess Kali\'s avatar_but looking at this man who seemed to be provoking her from the beginning of this battle to bring forth chaos _ she chose to suppress it even further.
She can\'t let whatever Apate or her puppets planned succeed anyway.
The leader looked at her dodging those attacks, and fighting his followers without using chaos, and couldn\'t help but click his tongue in displeasure.
"Looks like the task of my goddess won\'t be so easy this time." The man muttered under his breath and shook his head. His eyes inadvertently stopping mildly over the corners where recording crystals were placed to capture this battle.
Apate didn\'t want to kill Amy. Not that these little followers could do it, with a primordial backing Amy. She just wanted to reveal Amy\'s secrets to the world.
As for the rest, The chaotic Kali had enough enemies and blind cults waiting outside who\'d happily merge heaven and hell to sacrifice this avatar.