Chapter 8 — “A Candidate”

Chapter 8 — “A Candidate”

“— Suppressing fire!”

As the dust settles down, hails of bullets coming down from the upper, lower, and even the floor they are in. Groups of firing squads fired their semi-automatic rifle to the grey-haired man in the middle. In a matter of moments, dust rises in the middle of the open office as the rains of bullets keeps on the pressure to Noah. The clicking sounds of bullet shells falling down, and bullets ricocheting recreates the feeling of war.

*BAM*

An impact suddenly shatters half of the upper floor squads. Strands of red hair blitzes in toward the direction where the firing squad.

“Left flank!”

But it is too late. The sound of bone crunching can be heard for a split second, before a second impact brings another group down.

“You sure are bringing loads of backup plans, Bitter-san!” Cham confident smirks are all over her face, giving a hint of discomfort in Bitter’s mind.

“You’re not going to beat out our numbers!” Bitter glances at more of SCF trucks coming on ground level, but his warning came out from a doubtful heart.

“We won’t, that’s true.” The smile hasn’t faded yet, “But number isn’t really our problem right now!”

The dust settles around Noah, as more of the firing squad focuses on the acrobatic Cham. Bitter watches in disbelief, as not a single scratch appears on Noah’s face. As a matter of fact, a dome of earth covers Noah from the hails of bullets.

Before he has the chance to retort, a blast of flames coming in from the blue sky, and homing to the soldiers. With all of their efforts being futile, the soldiers scorched to an orange flame. And before long, three more people stands beside Noah.

“You sure took a couple of fresh faces to the SCF HQ of all places, Shem.” Noah seems to talk to someone, but none replied to him. In another second, the three newcomers split around the now-torn building, effectively rampaging to the before-elite squads.

“Be advised — four Princi-level individuals has arrived to aid the —” Was one of the soldier last words, before a giant hole appeared on his head.

The powered reinforcement gained their advantages slowly. One fires white lasers out of her eyes. One’s hand changes to that of a bear, and begins to tear guts after guts. One has produce some kind of pollens surrounding him, and the soldiers who breathes near him choke on it.

“Kenzo.” Noah speaks to nothingness again, but this time, it answered.

“Yes, Noah-sama”

“That yellow-haired boy. I got this unsettling feeling about him. Take him out before he becomes a problem later.” He points out to the boy, still on his guard even though his feet’s about to fall.

“It will be done, Noah-sama”

. . .

By now, Lime has gain her conscious with a blurry vision still. The ringing on her ears hasn’t stop, yet distant chaotic voices enters her hearing once in a while. She tries to regain her balance, but keeps on stumbling down. She can feel a line of warm substances flowing down from her nose, to her mouth, and dripping from her chin. Drops of deep red liquid decorates her line-of-sight, that is the ground.

In a short moment, she feels like as if she transported back to a different place. To a different time. One that has the same atmosphere — chaos, despair, and wails of terror. The drops of blood that has no intention of stopping. Grey snows flying across her vision, across her hometown.

Snows? Town? Her grasp of what’s reality and memories worsen. She can feel the overheating head of hers burn even hotter. Her hands are covered in black and white snows, as both of it trying to hold her from the cold ground.

No, that’s the wrong reality. The ground is actually warmer. And there’s snow in the middle of Roppongi’s fanciest building. Flashes of colourful lights is strobing across the top of her eyes, along with the smell of gunpowder — filling up her nose.

“Lemon—!”

A distant yell of a familiar name pulls her back to reality — even though it is the weakest pull. With all of her might, she responds to the call that is not intended for her. Unfortunately, all her might isn’t enough to lift her up even another inch from the ground. She stumbles back down, with her face to the ground first.

“Goddamn terrorist—!”

The annoying rattling and raspy voice of her boss itches her ears. Once more, she pushes whatever she has left in her body, and let her will do the rest of it. This time, it works a little bit better. Though blurry, her eyes capture the entirety of the battlefield. Indeed, there was chaos, gore, and other things best left unsaid. Dark red blood decorated the modern-looking wall, trails of guts and entrails splattered across the floors. As she was looking through the horror — one particular scene left her mind on blank.

Lemon — lying on the floor, with an open wound at the back. And Bitter — impaled to the wall, as blood gushing out from his mouth.

Something snaps inside her.

. . .

“I don’t know what that kid does, but this should do the trick,” The man with a scar on his head pushes his machete down to Bitter’s lower abdomen.

“Cowardly bastard! You used invisibility to sneak around a kid?” With what’s left in his body, Bitter tries to keep the knife away from him.

“He’s not a kid.” The man now holds the weapon with both of his hands. “Besides — no human who supports the SCF deserves any kind of mercy, when they couldn’t even evoke a single one.”

“Ggrh!” Bitter’s strength has depleted. The weapon moves closer, and closer to his abdomen and —

Something is happening. Something doesn’t feel right. Something…snaps.

Bitter realises. Enzo, The person whom trying to stab him feels it. The Princis feels it. Cham feels it. Noah feels it. Lemon, even with the slightest of his consciousness left, feels it.

“What the —“ Before Enzo has even the slightest chance to look at the overwhelming presence on his right, he was thrown away. Or more specifically, blasted away to the wall. A force, so powerful, it doesn’t even leave a single evidence of his existence. All what’s left of him, is a pool of blood and guts staining the wall.

Lime’s gaze has moved, precisely to the fear-stricken individual with branches coming out from his arms and the man with an arm of a beast. A single flick of both of her fingers is all what she needed, as she mashes both men against each other, squashing them together into a meaty ball. The rain of blood dyed the remaining ones standing on the building red, before Lime throws the meatball away from her sight.

“D-Damn you!” The girl shoots her white laser from her eyes. Lime palm raised to the trajectory, stopping the high-velocity plasma midair. As Lime dances with her finger, the laser came back to the now-horrified source, who is decapitated within a single second. Her life’s gone, as the white laser escapes from her mouth after entering and exiting its own creator.

Lime’s sharp gaze lies to the remaining, hidden reinforcement — the bearded man, now with his behind laid on top of the ground. He stutters something, probably a plead of mercy, where it falls on deaf ears.

He’s now floating midair, as Lime hand’s risen above her chest. As if she’s holding a wet towel — she squeezes the man floating in the air. Blood spurts from his still intact body — from every hole ever existed in a human. Five long second spent, before the man falls, deflated like a balloon. Some of his insides are even coming out from his mouth.

It takes just another moment, before her eyes fixated to the man in the middle of all of it — still in horror of what just happened. She points two finger at him, and —

A blow to Lime’s lower abdomen. And just like that, her already fading consciousness finally gone, as she fell into the ground with blood gushes out from her mouth. The red-haired perpetrator watches Lime’s eyes turned blank. She’s clutching her fist — bleeding, as if she had just punched whatever harder than a mountain.

“Father!” Cham grabbed Lime over the shoulder, as she brings Noah back to his senses. Noah, still shaken, quickly touches his ears.

“Shem, get us out — now!”

With that, a fog encapsulates the whole room, as the both of them jumps from the building with Lime over their shoulder. In a distance, the perplexed Lemon — hunched over a wall tries to crawl his way to his sister. But alas — with the very last of his strength, and the ominous fog encapsulating his very self, he can’t do nothing but utter his sister name.

. . .

Cham and Noah rides the cloud — on top of an unknown being. While they’re catching their breath — gaining back their strength, they stared at each other.

“This girl, Lime. She can’t be it, right?” She asked, while still being out-of-breath.

“With how explosive her power becomes, there couldn’t be any explanation left.” A third rider — a woman with a black hair, joined the conversation, “She must be it.”

“Shem’s right.” Noah watches the unconscious girl, groaning gibberish in her ‘sleep’, “She couldn’t be anything else but it. The next Ordained One. Or at least, —“