Red Palace II

Yuri ran through the humongous palace in a hurry. He hated the fact that this place was so spacious now. Every second was precious at this moment.

He knew the guards stationed here were not elite soldiers but mostly just some regulars with some ceremonial knowledge added to their training.

The longer he took the higher was the chance that harm would come to his family.

What made his soul even more restless was the fact that he could already hear the guards that engaged the intruders slowly being thinned out. The sound of gunfire was diming down.

It became eerily quiet and only a few gunshots were fired from time to time. It was only a matter of time until he himself was fated to run into more enemies.

And just as if the devil himself listened to his thoughts there really came a handful of soldiers a few paces away from him.

This time they had time to ready their guns when they saw him. And since he had weapons on himself they deemed him a threat that needed to be dealt with. So they opened fire on him.

But what they didn't know was that Yuri's eyes were firmly centered on them and glowing once more. His body entered the phase like movements again that he showed before.

Yuri couldn't use his rifle so he took his knife and handgun and accelerated his speed towards the soldiers.

They shot at him but his movements were so heretically and in such an unrhythmical pattern that their aim was completely negated.

The bullets fired at him only hit his afterimages that were the residual mana in the air.

Even before the soldiers could widen their eyes in disbelief and realize their own shooting was getting more panicky by the second it was already too late.

Yuri was already running on the wall to their right side and stabbed a soldier in the neck after using the wall as a platform.

With his handgun aiming straight, he immediately shot another two guys into their heads while still being in motion with the first corpse that he produced.

The corpse that he surfed on landed hard on the ground.

Yuri's eyes were now a clear crimson and already had its next target in its focus. The last guy that he saw already held his rifle in his direction and aimed at him at point-blank range.

He couldn't dodge this shot so he closed in as far as possible and grabbed the barrel, yanked it to the side, and placed a kick to the soldier's abdomen.

With that, the soldier lost hold of his rifle. Yuri flipped it around into his own hands. A seamless act of CQC that ended with Yuri stabbing the soldier with the bayonet of his own weapon.

Making sure he is dead and didn't have any weird thoughts in pulling Yuri with him to death he pulled the trigger once more before letting go of the rifle.

Since he could already hear more footsteps further ahead he readied himself.

He yanked out the knife from the first corpse's neck he still stood on and readied his own rifle after holstering his handgun.

Just when the first enemy came around the corner he fired and landed a clean headshot. The other soldiers following that one got frightened and took cover.

Yuri still fired up two more suppressing shots after chambering the next bullet until something unexpected happened. His rifle jammed. The bolt slider didn't move anymore and without it being close he could not fire the rest of the bullets inside the rifle.

"What!? Not now, damn it.", cursed Yuri while trying to unjam the bolt action rifle.

Seeing the enemies having noticed his predicament they started with firing at him again. Having no other choice he just tossed the rifle away and dodged the fire with running into a room that was on his right.

Not waiting for his demise he took one of his grenades and collected mana into it. It took a little bit of time but the soldiers outside moved carefully.

In the end, Yuri unpinned the grenade and started counting. After 2 seconds he threw it in front of himself and then kicked it with a well-practiced volley kick towards the direction the soldiers were at.

At 4 seconds and audible alarm calls from his enemies the grenade exploded into a massive explosion with the help of the mana inside.

Yuri came out of the room and looked at the gory sight in front of him.

Legs, arms, and even a severed head lay around together with the charred carcasses of the small group.

Not letting himself be fazed by that Yuri just grabbed another functioning rifle and sprinted away.

Fighting a few more skirmishes and even helping out a few injured guards made his journey a rather long one. But he still arrived at the door he hoped to be at.

The only thing was, that what he saw, broke his heart. The door was open and after entering he could only see a corpse on the ground.

The white dress it wore was stained in red by the blood that had flown out its body.

Yuri just fell down to his knees and hunched over the dead body. Rage built up inside his heart and he let out an agonized scream to the heavens.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!"

The woman that lay in front of him was his mother. The woman that took care of him in this world. Just the thought about him never going to see the warm and loving smile of this woman anymore made him cry.

No matter what. You can't just ignore something like this. And even if he was filled with hate at the people that did this, the sadness overwhelmed that emotion.

Time went on and his eyes that were stained with tears became cold and ruthless.

He closed the eyes of the dead woman slowly and when he came back to his senses he could hear a small whimpering sound.

Yuri's eyes widened and he looked around himself in haste.

When he finally found what he searched for he could not stop new tears appear on his face. But they were ones of joy.

What he saw was his little sister cowered inside a closet underneath a mountain of clothing. It looks like his mother still managed to hide her.

Her face was as teary as his own. Not knowing what to say he just embraced her in his arms. When she noticed someone touching her she tried to getaway.

"Shh, little angle. I am here. I won't let anything further happen to you."

Hearing his words the little girl calmed down a little bit but still sobbed. She seemed to realize that it was her brother holding her.

"But mommy is...is...Uwaaa!"

Yuri gnashed his teeth and just embraced her even more strongly.

"I know, but you have to listen now."

After saying those words to her and loosening his embrace, he was showing her his back just like before.

"Hold firm onto me, okay? And never open your eyes. No matter what happens. Can you do that for me?"

She looked at him and just for a moment glanced at her mother's corpse. Out of fear she just climbed Yuri's back and held unto him like a little monkey. Afraid of ever having to let go. Her eyes were shut from the horror in front of her.

"Good girl...Whatever you do. Don't...open...your eyes." Yuri's own eyes became a savage glowing red now and a small shadow started collecting around his body.

With his little sister on his back he readied his gun. He will do everything to get her out of here. He will not lose any more family. He just can't...