Surreal Encounter (2)

With a sword directed to the girl's heart, how could she remain composed? Having a sword aimed at her made Athena's heart come to her throat. She was incapable of movement as well. Her body shook violently, her eyes looking at the blade inches away from her heart. No matter how you saw it, the man was after her life.

She panicked immediately and began to think of the best course of action.

Running? No, she's not faster than a sword.

Dodging? Impossible.

Counter-attack? She'd be jumping into the mouth of death.

Pleading for mercy? This man didn't look like he could be reasoned with.

While she was going through internal struggle, she realized that it had been quite some time and the man hadn't made a move. He just stared at her pendant, his eyes unfathomable. Athena thought that he just wanted her pendant, not her life. But just then...

WHOOSH-

The jade sword suddenly became enveloped in burning hot fiery flames! The originally white blade now burned viciously with flames of red. The next second, the man pulled his had back before charging full speed towards Athena!

At this moment, she felt a burst of sadness. In the end, she couldn't repay her uncle and aunt. She couldn't earn any money. She was but a failure in life....

Athena squeezed her emerald eyes shut, waiting for death to take her away. However..

1 second...

2 seconds...

3 seconds...

When a few seconds passed and nothing happened, Athena slowly opened her eyes. What greeted her vision was something unbelievable. The pendant that she found tucked away at her aunt's home now was emitting an extremely bright light! It was so bright that she even had to narrow her eyes a little. This left her completely dumbfounded.

As for the sword, when she saw that the sword that was supposed to thrust her body, now was hovering still in the air just a small distance from Athena's heart! The man had a shocked expression and his eyes expressed absolute disbelief before he realized something and hurriedly tried to pull the sword away. Who knew before he could do so, the sword shattered into a million fragments and fell to the ground!

Athena's feelings at this time were indescribable. There was utter surprise. However, what was to follow was even worse.

The pendant that was already dazzling, now started to shine even more intensely, to the point that she really couldn't keep her eyes open anymore and shut them. When she felt the light diminish, she opened her eyes and looked around. At this moment, she was inside a completely blue barrier. She couldn't see outside or hear anything. The pendant returned to normal as well. Then, at the center of the room, something appeared...