Leave a comment

–––Freya’s viewpoint

“Don’t think you can stop us now!”

The men charged at me again, moving faster and with more power than before, almost like they had transformed into completely different beings.

“..!”

I could not afford to hold back my power now, or I would be defeated. That much became clear instantly to me, so I decided to use the power I gained in my training.

“Time to die, Freyaaa- wha-?!”

His swift attack had somehow missed, leaving him frazzled as he could not tell where I went. If I imbued my muscles with holy magic and mana, I could bolster my physical abilities, likely past my enemies’ strength. In an instant I was behind one of them, kicking him away, then punched and kicked the rest before they could react.

After kicking them down, the fight was over. They groaned and whimpered painfully on the ground, rolling over and glaring at me in frustration.

“There’s… nothing we can do against her…”
“She’s even stronger than we heard.”

They finally understood how strong I was, and that they could not defeat me with their numbers. Their only option would be to run away now, but they did not seem to be thinking of that. I could not even see defeat in their eyes, instead they seemed even more maddened. But what could they do? They seemed to notice my confusion, and sneered as if making fun of me.

“You’re sorely mistaken… if you think you’ve won.”
“What do you mean? I believe you can already tell you can’t win, or was that not clear enough?”
“Hah, do you really think that’s enough? If we can’t win, we just have to make sure you can’t either.”
“!”

One of the unarmed men held his arms out and started running at me. I wanted to dodge, but the other men surrounded me, trying to keep me still.

“What are you trying to-”

Before I could finish my question, one of the men caught the hem of my robe and his body exploded, literally blowing up. It was like an enormous amount of energy had pooled up inside him before bursting into flames and splitting his body to pieces. That had been so sudden that I got caught up in the explosion. I felt burns on my body, and I was still a bit dazed by how suddenly it happened which allowed the other men to get closer.

“You won’t get in the way of our plan, Freya!”
“We’ll take you down with us!”

The moment they realized they could not win, they chose to blow themselves up to take me down with them. The explosions tore the surroundings apart, destroying the small house they were guarding, and flames spread to nearby buildings.

“Lady Freya… Lady Freya!”

Thick smoke rose up into the sky. Kayl had been watching from a distance, but the shockwaves had knocked him onto the ground. He quickly went up onto his feet, ignoring his aching body and wading through the rubble trying to rescue me.

“Lady Freya! Are you safe?!”
“I’m… I’m okay. I’ll heal myself in a bit…”

My left elbow was bent backward, my foot was barely attached through a sliver of skin, and I could not feel my right eye or ear. They were probably badly hurt, or maybe even crushed, judging from Kayl’s reaction. My entire body was in pain too, probably from burns.

(A regular person would’ve died from this… I guess the fact that it was me fighting them was the only good thing in this mess.)

I offered a prayer to Lumiere and used magic to heal my wounds. My wounds quickly started to close, almost as if time was being reversed, and soon enough I was fully recovered. Kayl lent me his arm so I could stand up.

“I didn’t expect them to blow themselves up…”
“Yes, that was unexpected. It seems they’re even more dangerous than I thought.”

I felt powerless against them. If I managed to capture them they could have blown up whenever they wanted, involving anyone who was nearby. That was how strong their will was.

“I still can’t tell what their objective is. If they want to destroy cities, can’t they just blow themselves up in key locations..?”

At first, I wanted to agree with him, but after thinking about it for a bit I shook my head.

“No, I don’t think so. If they’re trying to overturn society, causing damage without suffering losses is more efficient, suicide attacks are merely an extreme measure. That way they can cause a lot more damage.”
“I see…”

At least I had an idea of how they operated now. The issue was finding a way to defend against them now. As I thought of that, I saw the small house they had been using as a base. The flames were dying out, so maybe I could find clues in the rubble. I slowly approached it and began to search.