... A fist hit her right in the face and caused her to topple to the ground.
Ichika wished she could stand up, but the hours of training had almost completely robbed her of her strength. Every bone and muscle ached from overwork. She just wanted to lie there and not move. But her "trainer" wouldn't let her do that.
«The next stage of your Longinus' evolution is the Balance Crusher...'' - Valerie's steadfast voice was accompanied by a firm grip on her shoulder, which instantly brought her to her feet. Her feeble attempts to fight back collided against a wall of cold determination.
«What is it? - She struggled to find the strength to ask. The anticipated "getting" didn't come, which gave her a much-needed rest.
Valerie liked to combine full contact training with lectures. We could grumble for hours about her prickliness, but Valerie did her job to the fullest.
Her opponent fixed her hair and continued her lecture:
«The Balance Crusher is a "forbidden move." Sublimation and multiplication of all your abilities in the moment. A "boost" of your Sacred Mechanism, which for a while gives you several times the efficiency. An extremely difficult stage to master," Valerie looked at her tired and dirty figure with a critical eye. - Most Sacred Mechanism wielders, not to mention Longinus, never reach it in their lives. Because simple 'training' isn't enough...'' - She met her serious gaze. - In addition to them, you need an emotional willingness to change. A desire so strong that it will allow you to go beyond your limits....
«And you...
Her just formed question was interrupted in the most unceremonious way. Valerie once again sent her to the ground.....
The unknown exorcist dodged her red gauntlet with the greatest of ease. He ducked under the blow in one graceful motion, and then Ichika felt the butt of his pistol against her jaw. So powerful that it sent her into a brief flight. There was no time to "rest", and she had to jump up and dodge the not-so-active shots. As if mocking her procrastination, several very sick "holy" projectiles hit her body. Natural survivability coupled with long training from Valerie made it possible to not give up her soul on the spot. The bullets didn't pierce holes in her body, but left behind a whole bud of not-so-pleasant sensations.
Ichika somehow managed to regain control of her writhing body and meet the unknown exorcist's evil gaze.
«Uh-oh... - He sang mockingly, and then laughed. - That's scary! A-HA-HA!
Her first serious opponent, who was in no way inferior to her. Several skirmishes with fallen and other fugitive exorcists had been almost trouble free. Longinus allowed for immediate head-to-head superiority over his opponents in physical parameters, and only the born instincts of a born fighter allowed for the difference in experience to shrink. It was circumstances such as these that raised Ichika's confidence to sky-high levels. Until today.
It was like a hundred percent human standing in front of her. Only judging by the strength, she was beginning to doubt it.
Red eyes and graying hair pushed suspicions of a not quite ordinary origin. However, that wasn't what stood out the most. The absolutely insane smirk and mocking remarks that this individual made at her every action. This madman didn't care about the surrounding battle, it was as if he had come here to mock.
He was head and shoulders above her in speed and punching power. And she had "strengthened" these very aspects! Previously, if the opponent had an advantage in this aspect, she would cut him down at a fast pace and then overtake him. Not here and not now! Short "spurts" in strength were instantly compensated for by his experience, and some beastly instinct to let this unorthodox exorcist "catch up" with her afterward himself. I mean, he had been holding back from the start! He just wanted to play with her!
In a brief moment of respite, Ichika could see Izaya and Irina off to the side, busy with the rest of the crowd. It seemed that they were the ones who had been expected here. There were far more fallen and exorcists in this place than the previous ones. It was most likely an ambush.
Zenovia had just finished dealing with the fallen man, and then she drew closer to the madman. The one with the same mocking grin shifted to the side, only to find himself behind the blue-haired woman's back the next moment. He lifted his foot and with a melding motion of his leg charged Zenovia with a blow to the head. The impact was so painful that Ichika began to worry about her new friend. But the one in the next instant, standing up and shaking her head, was beside her.
«The leader of the company began to walk from side to side, all the while sending provocative glances in their direction. They, having learned from bitter experience, stayed out of the way. - How low you have fallen, Vatican, if you send these mediocrities to capture us! They've even hooked up with the devils of bitches! That's hilarious, ah-ha-ha-ha-ha...!
«It's Fried Selzen," Zenovia whispered to her. Ichika tried to ignore the trickle of blood running down her temple. - In the past, he was one of the best exorcists... He was later banished for being too radical in his approach...
Watching this madman strutting around in front of them and telling them how he was going to dismember them, Ichika could picture it. "Radical" was an understatement, he was just fucked in the head!
She didn't know what to do...
Before that, other than Valerie, there was no opponent she couldn't "overpower" over time. That was her fatal mistake. Frid Selzen, for all his carelessness, was simply toying with them. Ichika suspected that if he had been serious from the first seconds, she would have been lying headless long ago. He was methodically harassing them, waiting for the moment when they would become desperate. Which, afterward, would likely finish them off in the most mocking way possible.
There was one option that could only have been born in the mind that all of Japan's senyon were pervading.
Awaken the Balance Crusher.
But she had no idea how to do it. Would she meet the criteria of minimal physical fitness? And most importantly, would she be able to elicit an "emotional" response? Shouldn't the proximity of death right here and now "awaken" her?!
"Dryg, what do I do?!"
The dragon in the shower didn't answer immediately, apparently weighing the whole current situation. The short delay brought Ichika's mood down even more. If Dryg didn't know what to do, she was really screwed!
"Put it all on the line..."
Dryg's spatial admonition didn't help one bit!
Meanwhile, Frid, apparently having had his full playtime, pulled one of the wrapped packages from his back.
«All right, you stupid girls," Frid opened his burden, revealing an impressive-looking sword that instinctively inspired the same fears as Irina's and Zenovia's swords. It didn't take much guessing here, it was one of the stolen Excaliburs that the madman had not used before. Ichika and Zenovia became even more tense for once. The sword in question began to emit a disturbing yellow glow that completely enveloped Fried. - Enough playing around... - Frid Selzen stood in a low stance and smiled with an even more cruel grin. - DIE!
In a second, Frid Selzen was out of her sight. With her peripheral vision she could hear the frightened screams of Irina and Izaiah running to their aid, but there was no way they'd make it in time.
She lost sight of Fried, but in a brief moment she could feel death approaching. It was an incredibly tiny amount of time in which she could feel everything.
Zenovia, who had no time to put her sword in front of her.
Wounds that were beginning to whimper even more, as if foreshadowing the end of her torment.
Siluel Frieda, who had gained such speed that he was instantly in front of her.
She could try to summon the Balance Breaker, but she realized she couldn't. This technique would require a mental boost that would allow her to break the "shackles". But she didn't feel that way herself.
She was afraid. Scared to the point of shaking in her knees.
It was like she was remembering all the joyful moments of her life in her last moment.
Triumphs in athletic competition.
First bypass blocking porn sites on your computer.
All her friends who had accompanied her on her not so long journey.
Parents who, in spite of the constant nagging, loved their only child.
And Emeric...
The very picture of her dying on the cross, staring up at the silhouette of the red-haired demon who had urged her to fight. To stand up for herself and take fate into her own hands.
"I'm sorry, President, I let you down..."
In the moment before she died, the already humbled Ichika was able to feel a hand on her shoulder. Ichika didn't know who this unknown well-wisher was, but apparently that was what saved her life. Or rather, it saved her from instant death, but not from the horrible wound....
The holy blade went straight through her stomach. Inhuman pain and burning completely consumed her consciousness. In the brief moment of her still awake mind, she even forgot about the unknown that had saved her from being immediately split in two. All that remained in Ichika's mind was the heartbreaking pain. So intense that for a brief moment she hoped for death.
«Ch-ch," Fried clicked his tongue when he sensed something very wrong. He quickly broke the distance and started looking around. He had no idea what had just happened, why this wench had dodged at the last moment! All his experience told him that some obscure shit had happened there, but now was not the time.
He would have liked to finish his business, but the teleportation circle of the Gremory house appeared next to the lying Ichika. In another moment, he would have been glad for some new meat, but he remembered the warning from above. About not messing with the red-haired heir.
Swallowing his bile, Frid ran away from the scene of the battle at a fast pace. The few allies he had left behind had been forgotten. One more, one less, his own skin and Excaliburs were more valuable.
«Mr. Gremory!
Emeric was met with only exclamations of surprise, but he didn't care. Ichika, lying moaning before him, was in a terrible state. A wound from a top-level holy sword would usually kill weaker demons immediately.
A ripped open stomach and a painful hiss that just burned away all the flesh around the wound. A deathly pale pawn who couldn't get his eyes together. That's what he saw.
Many questions came up, but they had no place here. Ichika had to be rescued right here, right now.
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