Chapter 37 - The end of the world (Part 3)

The school was a big mess. It was like war had broken out. People were screaming and crying. Outliners were laying on the ground, either motionless or wriggling around, meaning that the woman with the parasites was here as well. Blood was smeared all over the place. It was pure anguish. I kept looking around to see if I could find Sayuri, Ohta or the others while still gazing from now and then towards the direction we came from. I hoped that Yu and Takaki-san were alright. Sano-san suddenly came to a halt and Takumi was pointing outside of the window. Something was hiding behind a wall of trees. It was definitely smaller than the other one, but there was no doubt that he was a giant too. My nails dug into Sano-san’s cheeks.

“Let me fight! Please, I beg you!”

My eyes were fixated on him. He was slowly emerging from behind the trees and going into a certain direction. That’s when I painfully remembered. Rin was all alone in her greenhouse.

“I can’t. I told you that I have to escort you to safety.”

Our conversation was interrupted by a set of ghouls that jumped down from a hole in the ceiling.

“Oaleni. Lendeth me thy pow'r and alloweth me saveth those in needeth.”

Takumi fought while Sano-san was carrying me around.

“This is not right! Please, let me go! Let me fight! Am I not an Outliner? Am I not one of you?”

I kept begging and begging. My small fists kept hitting him in the chest.

“So, what if they are after me! Then let them come! I’ll be the bait! Use me! Just let me fight!”

I cried out loud. Sano-san let out a big sigh.

“Takumi, can you get her to where she wants to go?”

He started running up some stairs to get to the school’s rooftop.

“My Paroxys allows me to modify any part of a human body. You want to go to the mini giant, don’t you? It’s heading for that greenhouse and if I remember correctly, Himura Jun’s daughter usually stays there during the day. And you want to save her, don’t you?”

I nodded my head and let go of him.

“Takumi, give me a hand.”

He activated his Paroxys to give himself a big and muscular arm. Takumi was ready with his Paroxys too.

“I’ll make sure to catch up to both of you. Make sure to survive until then.”

I was small enough to fit in his large hand like a cannon ball.

“Here we go.”

Sano-san took a few steps forward like baseball pitchers would do and threw me with all his might. I soared through the air towards the direction of the mini giant. A look back confirmed my feeling. We were being followed by a member of the RIP. It was the guy who was controlling the ghouls. Takumi had been thrown as well and was right behind me. He had used his Paroxys to cover me with water to cushion my landing. I swung my hammer to extend the handle. The mini giant was only a few steps away from the greenhouse and I was still in the air. My body returned to its normal size.

“Xykoss. Devour those who stand in my way.”

My hammer got bigger and heavier. Xykoss was fully merged with it. The mini giant was right underneath me. I was coming down like a meteor and I was not allowed to mess this up.

“Stay away from Rin!”

The mini giant looked up and I swung my hammer down on him with all my strength. It met its head and put a dent into it. The impact was so heavy that the ground underneath him cracked. The trees were shaking, and the earth was trembling. He lost his balance and fell to the ground, and I did with him, but managed to safely land on his back. The water dispersed while leaving me wet and dripping. Takumi had gone to the greenhouse to protect Rin and get her out of there in case I was unable to stop the mini giant. The area around us was quiet. I got off his back and meant to walk over to where the greenhouse was but was cut off by a certain person. Someone I had seen before.

“Good day, Moriuchi Ayumi. I believe you have something that belongs to me and that you took away from me 10 years ago.”

I held out my hammer between us and Xykoss decided to back me up by holding his attack stance, ready to pounce on him.

“Who are you?”

The man’s lavender eyes were cold. He was wearing a pair of black trousers with matching black dress shoes and a rose shirt on top with his sleeves folded several times, revealing the many tattoos on both of his forearms. His body was slender, but his presence was thick and suffocating. You could see that he had long nails through his black leather gloves which had peculiar designs on them. Only a small birthmark underneath his right eye was disrupting the elegance of his face. He had black hair with silver highlights. His long front bangs on either side of his face were swaying in the wind, showing his many silver ear cuff earrings. He adjusted his expensive looking watch and then his fancy black fedora hat that had a single blush rose attached to its side.

“I should apologise. I never properly introduced myself, even when I returned your train ticket during one of the summer nights. My name is Eien and I am the right-hand man of our group’s leader. You would have probably heard of the RIP by now.”

I scoffed out loud and looked down.

“Your name’s Eien? You’re the asshole who killed my father 10 years ago. It’s you who is after Xykoss.”

He chuckled and covered his mouth with his hand.

“So, you remember me, little girl? But today, I am not here for you. You came to me voluntarily and I am very pleased about that. This way I can kill two birds with one stone.”

I firmed my grip on my hammer’s handle and positioned my feet. My eyes were fixated on him.

“You’re after Rin, aren’t you?”

“Oh, what a smart girl you are.”

Without letting him finish what he was going to say, I ran over to him and swung my hammer to make him jump out of the way. Xykoss appeared behind him and grabbed him by his arms to then push him down to the ground. I got on one of my knees and twisted the knob for my hammer to return to being a claw. His hair was getting pulled by my hand and my claw was dangerously close to his throat.

“Tell your underlings to stop the attack. Tell them to retreat immediately and leave the school grounds.”

I demanded and pulled on his hair harder.

“You’re going to make me bald if you continue on pulling my hair.”

“Do as I’m telling you or else.”

I threatened him.

“Or else what?”

He asked back with a big grin on his face.

“Will you kill me? Will you slit my throat open?”

I blinked several times to face reality. This man was enjoying the entire situation. My breathing got faster, and I hesitated for a second. The man took the opportunity and vanished from Xykoss’ and my grip to then reappear behind me. He did what I did to him and grabbed me by my hair to instantaneously pull me back. Xykoss tried to help me, but with one flick of his finger, he sent Xykoss flying. I swung my claw towards him, but he easily blocked it with his arm to then grab me by my wrist. With one quick move he snapped it. The consecutive sounds of bones cracking confirmed that it was broken. I involuntarily let out a scream from the intense pain and felt sick. He kept dragging me until we reached the mini giant who was still laying on the ground.

“Sorrow, wake up.”

His every word carried immense weight with it, to the point where the gravity around us changed. I felt like I was going to get crushed. The mini giant’s body twitched, and he slowly started to get up again. But something was different about him. Not only was a black light escaping his eyes, but tears as well. The mini giant wailed and screamed. The high-pitch sound made my ears ring.

“Anger, you better get your act together as well.”

The man had turned around and was looking in the direction where the other giant was. And the same happened to him as well. His eyes were covered in a black light and the giant started screaming and howling. The gravity disappeared and the man tossed me away from him. Xykoss had come back and helped me get up. I quickly switched my weapon to my other hand.

“I’ll give you a chance. If you can defeat old Sorrow here, we’ll leave. But I don’t think you are capable of doing it. I’ll admit that you have improved a lot, but it is still not enough. I mean, that other girl died right in front of you, and you weren’t able to save her. If only the principal, Himura and Kawaguchi were here. Then the outcome would’ve been drastically different. But I heard from a little bird that they are away. Today out of all days.”

He was playing with me. I tried to calm myself down, but too many thoughts were running through my head. I needed to know.

“Who is the filthy rat who is working for your side?”

I clenched my jaw and bit down on my teeth. We had our suspicions that someone was a traitor after what had happened in Saitama and it was confirmed after the Kyoto incident. I was going to make that person pay.

“What rat? I don’t know what you are talking about.”

He chuckled again while looking me in my eyes. I approached him again. My walking turned into running. Xykoss howled and leaped through the air above me but was caught by something big and hairy. It distracted me for a split second, and I got slapped and hurled by the mini giant. My whole body was throbbing, and I coughed up blood. Before I could land, he ran after me and grabbed me with his hand. His speed had increased. The force of his hand closing was slowly squashing my flesh and pulverizing my bones. I turned my head to see where Xykoss was. My mouth dropped open and I felt a stabbing pain in my heart. The creature that had blocked Xykoss and had him in his mouth, biting and tearing him apart was a big, mighty, white wolf.

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