Chapter 22: Eradication | 1

A few hours after morning, In the wasteland

"Please! Just leave me alone... I have nothing left! I beg you!"
Amongst all the disgusting rubbish in a junkyard, a young woman could be seen crying and begging for mercy. Her screams sounded like that of a banshee, the only difference being is that she was not the horrifying one in this situation.
"You still have your body..." A muffled male voice said in a sinister tone. The man was wearing some torn up and bloody but decorated robes, and what looked to be a pilot helmet with peculiar markings on it. The only other notable feature were some warm colored rings on the fingers of his right hand.
Behind this man lay a recent corpse of a young man, he must have been close to the intimidated young woman...
"If you don't do as I say..." His voice was getting more and more distorted with every word, and then his right hand caught on fire, but the man didn't appear to be in any pain, almost as if he was the one controlling this fire. As bright as the flames were, one could still see the now glowing gems of the rings that the man was wearing.
"Just leave me alone for god's shake!" Her voice got even sharper, and as tears were falling from her pretty face, she grabbed the closest rock and threw it at the mage. Of course, to no avail.
"Hehehe..." His laughing sounded like that of a wicked witch, who was up to no good.

"..!" The woman's face lit up for a moment, almost as if she saw an angel descend from the heavens to save her, her tears even stopped falling.
"Help m-" But before she could even finish that sentence...
"Aghhgh!" Something cut through the chest area of the wizard, it was a shiny stainless steel dagger, now covered in blood and gore.
The wizard was quick to get on his knees, and very soon after that, life left him. He was now swimming in a pool of his own blood.
"Good work, right in the heart." The young woman could barely hear these words. They were quiet, and they came from an enigmatic person standing a good distance behind the wizard. This person was wearing an old and dirty gas mask, and was standing still, with crossed arms. Her brown robes danced in the wind along with the dust.
"U-Uh.. thanks." As the wizard fell down, the form of another man appeared in front of the woman in distress. He was of average height, with short black hair. He was around her age, and was wearing clothes way to formal for this place, and a mask on his face that was covering his mouth and nose area, made from the material of his shirt.
"No problem." He said with a shaky but also confident tone.
"You can figure the rest on your own. If you need a place to stay continue going this way for about half an hour." The mysterious figure with the gas mask said with a calm and monotone voice, as she pointed to a seemingly random direction with her left hand. When the young woman squinted her eyes, she could make out a few strands of blonde hair flowing in the direction of the wind, coming from inside the hood of her angel.

The young woman said nothing, she was staring at the whole scene in front of her with pure shock in her expression.
"Let's go. We need to hurry."
"Right!"
And so her two saviors started to leave.

"Was that a wizard?"
"Most likely."
"You made it sound like they were more dangerous than this... That was easy!" Gregory sounded accomplished. Rightfully so.
"He was distracted."
"Ohh... I guess that makes sen-"
"Gregory." Astrea's voice somehow got even more serious.
"Eh... yeah?"
"I need to tell you something."
"I'm... listening."
"Some people cannot be helped." She said with a grim tone.
"What do y-"
Before he could even finish, Astrea pulled out her revolver from its holster, aimed it backwards, without even looking backwards herself, and shot once. All in a matter of less than a second.

"Hey! Why!?" Before he even knew it, Gregory had taken a few steps back and distanced himself from Astrea, who just calmly put her revolver back in its place. 
"Look at her."
Hesitantly, he turned to his left, and looked at the carcass of the young woman they had just saved from a horrible fate. She was lying lifelessly on the ground, ironically, at the top of her boyfriend's corpse. A pistol was in her grasp, and her hand was pointing in the direction of Gregory and Astrea.
Gregory was stunned. In his head, one word was repeating itself over and over again: Why?
"H-How... did you know?" He had to start with one question, naturally.
"I saw it in her eyes."
"How...?"
"After we saved her. Did you notice her face?"
"I... no."
"Go grab that pistol. You'll need a sidearm too."
"But..." Gregory wanted to rebel, but why? Astrea's actions were perfectly... logical. The situation seemed bad, and that's because it was. They simply came out with the best outcome. The best out of the worst.
"Alright."
"And hurry. We need to finish this quick. They need us back at the shelter."
Gregory rushed over and picked up the pistol that was in the grasp of the young woman they had saved moments ago.
This is wrong.
This is wrong.
This is wrong.
This is wrong.
This...
Feels wrong...
This had to be done right? Otherwise...
A picture of that astral being appeared in his head, the one that greeted him after his first death and brought him to this hellish world.
Otherwise we'd be dead. I wouldn't be able to help anyone else.

***

The previous night, at the settlement

"We need to do something about this." A guard said.
The guard teem was gathered around a big, round, wooden table, in the main building, along with Joshua, Astrea, and Gregory. Most people there were already fast asleep, but they had to strategize.
"We will go look for their encampment. Tomorrow. And destroy it." Astrea got to the point of the issue.
"Who is we?" One of the guards was skeptical
"Me and my disciple."
"Your disciple has a name..."
"And how ya fixin' to do that?"
"We'll go there and burn their fungus. After that, we will leave, and they will die on their own, from starvation."
Quite a direct solution. No one openly opposed it though. Everyone around the table had a skeptical look on their faces. All except for Astrea.
Her expression was blank, but her green eyes looked concentrated.
"I wish you the best of luck with that." One of the guards said, and soon, they all went upstairs.