Arc 2 - Chapter 48: Jack, Elizabeth, Johnny vs Mia II

Lunging her body forward, the randomness of the lightning bolts was not in motion. Instead, she raised her right hand up, and hunkered it down. As the cloud’s thunder began to rumble, electricity began to raise an ounce of their hairs.

‘A single hit from that lightning will surely kill me.’

Leaping to the right, she narrowly avoided a bolt of lightning from above. Sizzling the metal to burn, the girl fired a storm of bullets from her rifle-like hands.

All the while Elizabeth zigzagged, similar to the lich girl when she was dealing with a war on two fronts. Denting the old metal from beneath her heels, she allowed the air to garnish and travel with her.

“Come here!”

Reaching the halfway point between the girl, and where she originally, Elizabeth pushed her hand up to the air. And upon throwing it down, the lich girl had no choice but to slide to the right.

‘I suppose I need a change of variants.’

Both of her hands began to mold.

Her right hand twisted to look like an iron sword, while her other hand grew into something more simple. Having a large dome-like shield, both objects didn’t weigh her down.

Taking a step forward, she raised the large shield to cover her head. Instead of metal, it was rubber, and if rubber is an insulator… then…

“Damn it!”

“This drag has gotten long enough.”

Since the lightning bolt couldn’t penetrate through, it left her to leap back with raised up hands. Extending her arms out in two different angles, she slid through the floor with scraping heels.

“No. One. Hurts. Johnny. No one!”

“Love is a horrible concept, no? Love is what drives others to death, to enact revenge, to grieve—”

“Shut up!”

Her palms facing the clouds, she commanded a group of bolts to strike down onto her. But this time, at an angle.

Creaking and crackling toward her, she jumped high, but not high enough for her body to be enveloped in the cloud. Glaring at her dodges, her movements, it was enough for her to crinkle her face with veins.

“I used to care for someone once, but it brought me to his form. Even a sisterly love can be cruel and undeserving.”

“I don’t care!”

Biting her lower lip, the front ends of her teeth unleashed blood. For just a small window, she crouched down, and commanded another pair of lightning to swell within the cloud. Because the girl was in the air for a small bit, she was vulnerable.

Her eyes fully immersed in red, she scowled with wrinkled cheeks.

“No matter what, I’ll double the pain that you caused for Johnny!”

Sending another bolt of lightning to crash downward, the girl leaped to the left with tightened eyes. Although she never succumbed to electricity, there were many close calls she had faced.

Just as she jumped to her right, she sent all of her strength to the tips of her toes. In slow motion, the lich girl raised the blade she carried with her right, and pointed the tip at her. Considering Elizabeth just stood with rage, she was blinded, giving her the perfect chance to—

“You remind me of her. That girl that pushed me to look like this.”

—A gunshot was heard.—

Widening her eyes, Elizabeth lowered her hands down to her sides.

Moving her right hand, she clutched the right side of her stomach, which began to moisten with warmth. Feeling the liquid stick to her palm, and her fingers, she coughed out red. Her face pale, her eyes quivering, the pain began to slowly rise for every second she stared.

“N-No…”

Smoke blowing out from the tip of the sword … therefore …

“Over so soon? Rest if for the naughtiest.”

Aiming the sword right at her head, her grip on the handle tightened, until …

—She heard another gunshot.—

Bits of brain … and tar splattered onto the floor. Spazzing, both of her knees buckled under the sudden loss of brain, leaving her to quickly regenerate before she would lose thought.

Regaining her mind, she healed as tar steamed her wounds. Turning her eyes to a line of smoke, it came from the metallic cabinet, with the barrel looking to be drawn from a sniper.

“You cretin.”

“Unfortunately for you, I’m not giving up. And besides…”

Jack’s hands trembled under the weight of his own gun. Considering he was already patched up, he narrowed his eyes, and pushed the butt of the sniper into his armpit.

“I might be lazy, but holy hell I won’t sit this battle out.”

Pushing down a frown, it looked like she might cuss him out. Replacing her right hand with a sniper, she took a step forward, and had her left hold onto the center.

Pointing the barrel straight at Jack, he and she found themselves to be in a standoff. With Elizabeth barely having the strength to stand, blood continued to drench from her stomach.

Squinting his eyes inward, he peered and broke open the thoughts that laid bare inside her mind.

‘I must reach the second floor. An escape seems plausible now.’

“Yeah there’s no need to princess.”

Just as Elizabeth clumped down to the ground, he pulled the trigger, and sent the walls and floor to ring.

But he didn’t shoot straight at her. No, he shot at a random chunk of metal that was angled. Striking near its edge, it struck near another pair of metal, but the gunshot enough sent the girl to jump. Trying to make her escape … the last pair of metal Jack’s bullet shot, managed to soar right above where the girl originally—

The right side of her chest was shot through.

“Gah!”

Tar leeching from her chest, she coughed and crashed onto the rustic floor yet again. Sharpening her eyes at Jack, she chipped her teeth from strain.

Too enclosed in frustration, she then pointed the tip of her sword at him.

‘Shoot, she’s pissed!’

The round pushed her back a couple of feet, and all of her calmness depleted. Firing two to three more rounds, Jack was lucky that he found a simple shelter, a metal cabinet that gave him cover.

Ignoring the cat-girl who sprawled on the floor, she had her all-glaring eyes on the man who predicted her. Hearing another round of bullets shackling the air, it sent Jack to squeal his eyes shut. Burdening his ears with tinnitus, this repeated motion of keeping him in place … only gave her a small satisfaction of joy.

‘Shit! Shit! Shit! How can I get her?!’

Pushing up a grin, her right lip reached the bottom of her ear. Clenching his teeth, he turtled himself from the repeated firing from her hardened rifle.

Jumping herself to the right, she readied her sword that disguised itself as a sniper. Her eyes crimsoned, burdened with small red rather than black, it looked like…

‘Haste upon the scythe that toils.’

She was to the right of him.

Ambushing him completely, he wide-eyed at the girl who had the tip of her blade pointing at him. Unable to duck, or leap to the right or left, no turtling of his could avoid her sniper. His breath hitched in his throat, all the air in his lungs froze within his airways.

As all the memories he collected soon flashed before him. Being a side character, being in the background, maybe … he thought…

‘Maybe, this is for the—’

—Silenced bullets flew through the air.—

Crackling the air like popcorn, it made its way toward the lich girl that replaced her smile with a frown. Splattering and riddling her body like cheese, she jerked her body up from the lead she ingested.

The storm coming to a halt, the girl turned her head toward the culprit, who had blonde hair and a suppressor machine gun.

“Don’t you dare take another shot.”

Both of his hands occupied with the gun, he felt his body shaking back and forth from the recoil.

Glaring at the girl who glared back, he lowered the barrel, and pointed it down to the metallic flooring. Her frown worsened, her cheeks sagged.

“You all want me dead.”

“Not just that, but you’re not like other liches. You and Pedro are the only ones who didn’t slaughter civilians.”

Johnny completely held the grip of his rifle with his right hand, all the while he spoke to the female lich with ease. His voice somewhat quivering, he looked like he barely held himself back.

Elizabeth propped her head up, and moved her right hand over to her stomach. Hearing Johnny’s voice, even when it wasn’t directed at her, it sent her to spike her cat ears up.

“One female lich killed a group of teenage boys. A similar lich like her, who had horse-human features, massacred everyone who worked in my father’s tower. Combined with the two liches who ramshacked downtown, both committed heinous acts to civilians. ”

Out of the six liches everyone faced, Ryan, Harold, Gemma, and the unmanned lich were the craziest. Completely hellbent on reigning terror, they only had one mission to follow. A mission to cause misery, panic, despair; but why?

Why these four in particular?

“But the lich named Pedro, has only one vicious act toward him. He only held civilians hostaged. And you were there with him, meaning both of you were the calmest of the group. So explain.”

Lining up their acts according to the others, Pedro and the girl were saints when it came to civilians. As if there was still a bit of humanity within them, it made Johnny all the more reason to talk to her.

Unlike Johnny, Jack had the barrel of his sniper pinned straight at the girl. Getting out of cover long ago, he was right beside the girl who huffed and puffed out tar from her chest.

“I have a curse.”

Jack and Johnny furrowed their brows.

Sending a booming silence to corrode their ears, they felt their stomachs plummet downward. Jack, whose finger was stationed on the trigger, felt his grip on the rifle tightened with his palms.

“And those four that wreaked havoc, all were given blessings. Pedro is similar to me, as he is also a curse user.”

“A curse?”

“A power similar to a blessing; but undeniably more powerful.”

Johnny took a step forward, and kept his furrowed brows up while he talked. His eyes beginning to turn downward, he felt the top of his cheeks starting to grow black. As if the lack of sleep is dawning on him, he felt a vein grow from his chin.

“How does your answer relate to my question?”

“When a person succumbs to the undead, there are two paths. A creature who harbors no power, no blessing or curse, will be shackled to scream and sprint upon any living human. But a creature who harbors power, will suffice in freedom and prosperity…”

Johnny raised his left hand up to his cheek, and began scratching his skin with his dull fingers.

If what she was was correct, then that meant normal zompires were nothing more than fodder. Souls who are shackled to a decaying corpse, they didn’t have no means to act, only to serve a higher power. But for those who have blessings or curses … Johnny pulled his hand away from his cheek.

“So what you’re saying … is that liches are zompires who have free will?”

“Precisely. If a zompire ingests a blessing or a curse, they will turn into a lich. Same will follow for a civilian who is turned to the undead, but with power already bestowed.”

“Then what about the other liches? Why are the ones with blessings the most volatile out of the bunch?”

“I’m afraid, that’s a question I’m not knowledgeable about…”

Jack glanced in back of him, and noticed Elizabeth’s body already hunched forward. Her hands low to her sides, blood gushed from her stomach wound.

Meanwhile, Johnny straightened his back, and cleared his throat for saliva to run down.

“I have one last question. Is my father, Doug Zirardge, connected to any of—”

“Johnny! Jump on!”

Both the lich girl and Johnny turned toward Jack, who had barely jumped onto a large wooden box. Having his feet avoiding the floor, Elizabeth had silently jumped onto a metallic cabinet, her face darkened with veins.

Reacting purely on instinct, he was fortunate that Jack was next to him. Following his lead, he leaped toward the large crate, but it meant he dropped his machine gun in return. As for the lich girl … she didn’t have any leverage whatsoever…

‘That imbecile…’

With Elizabeth’s palms facing the floor, a small black of mist fastened out. Completely entracing the floor in black, the small cloud rose a foot up, making Johnny and Jack safe.

Except for the girl.

—“Atmospheric Fulmination.”—

An epiphany of lightning scourged through the floor. Stunned, Jack and Johnny both held their breaths at the sight below them. Light reflecting from their irises, they felt a slight tinge of … fear for Elizabeth.

“I REJECT MY HUMANITY!!”

Prior to the catacumbo of lightning, or rather down to the millisecond, the girl thrusted her hand into her heart. Having it pump and spazz within her palm, the spazz of lightning completely engulfed her…

But she had pulled back her hand, and thrown the small organ like a baseball.

All three of them saw the arch, the trajectory of it being toward the second floor.

“She threw her own heart out!?” Yelled Johnny.

“Shit!” Exclaimed Elizabeth.