74 Karma (Part 2)

…

Queaz quickly took action before the wind cutters in the shape of lotuses barraged him.

"…Ten, eleven, twelve, fifteen, no, there are twenty of them. She really didn't give any gap in her attack, but…"

Queaz flashed out of existence and suddenly appeared on the top of a small storage house roof. He gazed down at Aily instead of watching the wind cutters pattern of move. His red eyes gleam briefly, giving immense fear and eeriness to those in his vision. Within seconds, the wind cutters veer off course, disappearing afterwards. Queaz sighed shortly, knowing that he achieved victory with ease.

"Huh? W-What's happening, why am I… all shaky?" she mumbled in her confusion of her sudden twitching. Her entire body was trembling as if fearing something scary was nearby, her heart thumped insanely fast and she sweated unreasonably.

"Could it be… status effect?"

She grasped her scepter tightly, trying to stabilize the sudden effect given to her. But alas, there's no effect at all. She couldn't wear off the immense fear in her body. She fell onto her knees. Her legs could not prop the unstable tremor in her.

"It is better you stand down a bit." Queaz calmly said from the top of the roof. "…And tell me everything." Queaz implied that he wanted to end the battle and preferred to discuss with Aily.

"W…Who would even…. Tell you… urrgh…" Aily stutteringly replied. She refused to call off the battle.

"Hmf…" Queaz looked with pity to her. "I highly recommend you don't force yourself out of that state or else…"

"Shut up! I'm not going to lose to you." Aily remained stubborn. She gritted her teeth, unconsciously, her saliva are falling off her lips. She was experiencing a greater fear than before.

"I see." Queaz replied short. "The status applied on you will slowly rise to the point you can't stand against it anymore. Don't blame me if you died out of intense trauma or anything like that. So now… adios," Queaz turned around and waved his hand carelessly, leaving the downed Aily alone.

"W…What did he just say…? I could die because of this magical effect…?" Aily mumbled scarily. "He's just bluffing, there's no way I would die because of a status effect—HRRMPH?!"

Suddenly, she felt a much more intense pain. Her vision is reddening all of sudden, as if there's a virus entering her body. The feeling of fear from before now changes into a massive stab of pain to her. Her irises are lighting up in red, encircling around them.

"It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!" she cried out to herself. "S….Someone…" she screamed. "Someone… please… save me!"

…but there's no answer. Queaz has walked far away to be heard by her voice. Even though useless to do so, she decided to call him back.

"Please… I'm so…rry… I promise… I… won't… do this… again…" said Aily in her pathetic look.

"—You really promise?" All of sudden, Queaz's voice appeared right in front of her the moment she blinked.

"H…Huh…?" Aily raised her head hardly to look at Queaz. The cold stare of a sharp pair of red eyes and desperate cracking brown eyes met each other.

"You really promise to be a good girl?" Queaz asked coldly.

"Nng…" she reluctantly wanted to answer. She thought Queaz was toying with her. The masked man waits patiently for the collapsing girl to reply. Meanwhile, the throbbing pain increases significantly in her. From there, she realized that Queaz wasn't lying about the status effect that could make her end up dead.

Not wanting to die humiliatingly, she propped her body with her elbows and then answered, "Y…Yes…! I will… now, let me go of these… haah…"

Queaz sighed briefly. He felt a bit disappointed for her rather impure answer. But even so, he already obtained his victory. Besides, he didn't care at all about her. "…Alright, then,"

Queaz flicked his finger. The magic that has casted upon the girl has been unleashed. In return, Aily let herself fall onto the concrete floor of the bridge, relieving the stressful pain she received. She breathed in and out heavily like in a critical condition.

"Hm… why humans are so weak?" asked Queaz silently. "In the face of death, they still dare to challenge people, but not knowing that they're pathetically weak and will never win. If they proceed to stay like that then I'm afraid they'll be extinct." Thus Queaz thought.

Queaz then crouches down, "I'm all ears. Tell me everything."

"H..uh… ah, can't you see I'm… still relieving?" Aily harshly replied. "Well, it's your fault for not obeying what I said to. I recommended you to not go any further, but you wanted to do the other way around, so…"

"Ah… silence." Aily embarrassedly retorted.

Queaz enclosed his sight to her. He noticed something familiar within her, "Say…" he said softly. "You do look like someone…"

"Oh, yeah…?" she replied in spite of her heavy breathing. "Huh… haah… I do look like my sister. We're twinsies, after all."

Queaz scrunched his eyebrows, "That's not what I meant."

The wind blows normally again on the surface of the bridge. Well, the term 'normal' would not be thoroughly correct, for the fact that the wind could actually blow away light weighted things.

"Time has passed for a while. I hope you would be cooperative to tell." Queaz stated in a rather threatening voice. But all of sudden, Aily refused to tell anything. Queaz judged that the girl is still recovering, but the time has been flying by for a while. The magical effect should've worn off. He then warned Aily to not betray her own promise. He stated that he simply wanted to understand. However…

Aily broke her promise and impaled Queaz with the sharp tip of her cane. Queaz didn't expect it to happen, he thought Aily was just a young edgy woman who would be easily conquered if threatened death. But he was terribly wrong.

"You thought… I would follow your stupid command…?" she said while gazing in wrathful eyes. Her cane was still empowered by the Might magic, which caused her cane to be doubled in terms of power. She held the cane as it had penetrated Queaz's heart. She knew the man would die anytime soon.

However… Queaz was nowhere near the death's door. He coldly said, "Hmph… I don't expect you to be this stupid."

He raised his head and gazed upon Aily's raged face. He grasped on the cane while pulling something behind his cloth and aimed it to Aily's head from point-blank.

"Gun Skill – Focused Shot"

*BANG*

The tip of the gun emanated light that swirled into the gun hole and finally discharged a bullet. Aily was extremely shocked when realizing the thing in his hand was a gun. Aily tried to avoid the bullet but the bullet was hundred times faster, moreover, the bullet itself was given mana energy that increased its explosiveness.

*SRRRASH*

Aily's right ear was blown off and a portion of her right head was torn apart by the bullet's travel speed. She was knocked some distances away and nearly fell off. She almost instantly lost consciousness but she managed to retain despite the painful experience she was having.

Aily held her right temple with her hand tightly. She saw her blood pouring out like a fountain. "Haah… AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!!!!!!"

Aily screamed out in pain, disbelieving what had happened to her. She realized her right ear was not there on her head. She was too distressed until she didn't even realize her hearing ability was halved.

Queaz pulled out the cane that was sticking through his body. The cane was bloody, but none of his blood spurted as the cane got off. He ditched the cane off the bridge and aimed his gun in his right hand at Aily once more.

He silently watched at the pained girl. Without any sense of regret, he fired his gun multiple times at Aily. He shot her, penetrating her right shoulder, her stomach, her left thigh, and lastly, her chest. Her armor was of no use. Queaz's Focused Shot destroyed any defensive barrier that wrapped around her body, even though being enhanced by Ironclad magic.

Blood was spurting everywhere around her, but Aily refused to die. Queaz thought Aily was a monster rather than a human for being so persistent in trying to remain alive. But finally, Aily collapsed down on her back.

"What a persistent human…" thought Queaz while holding in his torn chest. As he let go of it, the wound disappeared and his skin returned back to normal in abnormally fast rate.

Queaz thought victory was achieved, but then again, he figured something was wrong. He realized that some people were approaching the area in a fast pace. He glared at the fallen girl shortly.

"…She was trying to buy some time…? Could it be?" Queaz thought.

He switched his gaze into the big door on the southern tower.

Suddenly, a pair of rope darts slung at him in a fast speed. Queaz successfully evaded them by jumping backwards and sideways, but unexpectedly, the ropes were shook around in a fast speed, swirling around Queaz and finally tied him still.

From the dark room, emerges a petite girl with tan hair. Aily, in her badly injured condition and fading vision, she realized there was someone who was just arrived.

It was Pio. However, Aily's terrible condition made her unable to identify who was even standing beside her.

"W…Who…?" Aily asked faintly. Alas, her pupils had gone dark. Her eyes automatically reeled into staring the night sky.

…

However, Aily's resolve was still tough, even though in her critical condition. She refused death. She kept herself together, although being extremely fragile.

Suddenly, her memories rolled into her mind. They were pictured in her mind, one by one. Having a fun daily life with her sister, being trolled by Marco, adventuring together with Scias…

"Why… why am I seeing these images…?" she hoarsely said. Her eyes became teary. She realized she won't live any longer. She was on the death's door.

"…I… don't want to… die…" she thought to herself. Her breath was barely heard because her lungs were shot. Not to mention that breathing was a massive pain for her already.

"…I was foolish…

…I thought I could beat him…

…I didn't follow Marco's orders… I disobeyed my sister's caution.

Not only that… *hic*… I chased her out of the party…"

Aily remembered Pio. She thought about it. She realized that the girl was not a bad person. It was her enviousness that led her to do something awful towards the girl.

Her tears combined with the blood pool beneath her body. The breeze wind blew over her, making the opened wound seemingly painful. She could not make any sound at all to signify her pain.

"I don't wanna die…" she cried out silently. "If only…" she silently muttered. "…I didn't make a fuss about Pio… and stayed together with her… I might survive against Queaz…

…aaaah…. I regret it… I regret this… I don't want to die like this… I regret throwing her away…"

Her glare into the clouded night sky faded slowly. Her left ear could barely hear the ruckus going on. It was a loud banger, but Aily didn't know what was happening.

"How… noisy…" she thought.

Aily tried to hold the thread of life together. Her gazing eyes into the sky were suddenly blocked by a silhouette of a head looking down at her. She didn't know who was it, but somehow… the shape looked familiar to her. She barely felt something was falling rapidly onto her blooded face. It was watery, like a falling rain or some sort. Tears perhaps?

Feeling something like that reminded her of someone, she grieved to see that person.

"aaah… I want to see sister. I want to hug her again…

…I don't wanna die… please…"

Aily then realized that what happened to her… was karma. A karmic payback for what she had done.