CHAPTER 86: RAMPAGE: THE DREADFUL RITA I

Ten years ago.

In a room in the palace.

The room was decorated with stuffy animals, and it was clear it belonged to a girl and a little girl at that.

A little girl with golden hair lay on the bed.

Her little face was adorable, and if it wasn't for her puffed cheeks and the tear stains that marked her face, she would have looked like a little angel.

sitting beside her was a woman with similarly golden hair.

If one should pay attention, one would notice she is like an older and more mature version of the little girl that lay on the bed.

Her beauty could not be put into words.

What further accentuated her beauty was that air of confidence that surrounded her.

Together with her symmetrical look, she looked like an immortal drawn out from a painting.

Caressing the face of her daughter lovingly, the voice of a man drifted into her ears.

"She finally slept?"

Entering the room was a muscular man standing at almost two meters.

While his body was a bit busted, the long golden hair tied into a bun gave him a manly yet jovial feel.

Sylvia looked at her husband, and gently replied, "Yes! It took a while for her to fall asleep."

Stopping for a while, she continued, "How was the rest of the ceremony? Was there any other early awakened?"

"None noteworthy! Those that awakened were at least five years old."

The king stood beside Sylvia as he gently caressed her hair.

Sylvia smiled, as while she continued caressing her daughter's face, she enjoyed the caresses of her lover.

"Sylvia, what is going on with Rita?"

This day was supposed to be one of celebration, as at the age of two, the princess was able to awaken her mana core, yet a heavy cloud of gloominess was over the face of those high up in power due to her awakening.

Sylvia's brows creased a bit, as she seemed to be thinking of how to put her thoughts into words, nevertheless the king continued by her side.

"She has a peak God-tier talent, which is something never seen before. She is just a shy away from reaching your level, yet her powers are so weird..." His words trailed off at the end, and an expression of fear appeared on his face.

Sylvia glared at him, before removing his hand from her head.

Realizing his mistake, the King coughed to hide his embarrassment. 'How can you be afraid of your own daughter?' he berated himself in his mind.

"She is your daughter!" Sylvia chided.

Hearing the tone of his wife he couldn't help but grumble, "I know, but you know her powers are just weird."

"Hmm..." Thinking deeply, Sylvia looked at her daughter, "I am not sure, but I am at least fifty percent certain that Rita's laws have touched upon a concept."

"WHAT!?" The king screamed in shock, "Isn't that something that can only be used by the legendary gods?"

"Yes, it is. While her time laws have indeed touched upon a concept, the concept of life to be exact, it just barely did. But even with that, it made her powers quite..." She wanted to say weird like her husband, but later opted to say, "...mysterious."

"When she wakes up, I will be taking her to the dungeon to test the limits of her powers."

The king frowned and wanted to dissuade his wife, as the dungeon was the prison where the most notorious criminals of the kingdom were kept, but after thinking about it for a moment, he decided to trust her.

However, he still couldn't help but make clear, "You know she can't use her powers outside, right?"

"I know," Sylvia whispered a glint of sorrow flashing briefly in her eyes.

.....

Back to the present.

A massive explosion occurred sending shockwaves into the distance.

Rita was flung carelessly into the air, and before she knew it, Mia fell out of her embrace.

However, she didn't have time to care, as she rolled a bit on the ground colliding with the wall of a crumbled building before stopping.

*Cough*

She coughed a mouthful of blood.

Coughing a few more times, Rita held her head, as she tried to get out of her disoriented state.

Almost a minute later, she regained her bearing.

The first thing she noticed was that her veil was no longer on her face.

Touching her face, she could tell from the blood on her hand that she was seriously injured.

Wincing a bit, she looked around to see the mist clear off, but when she was Arthur crying and bleeding badly with Dean on top of him, she wanted to shout in horror only for her eyes to catch an object dripping with blood beside the duo, causing the words to die down in her throat.

Her eyes widened, and she could hear her heart gradually beat slowly yet loudly beside her ears.

'Mia?'

The blood streaming down her forehead entered into her eyes and she did nothing to stop them, causing her vision to turn red before two lines of blood fell down her face.

Dean watched in silence, and for some reason, he didn't dare to move, as that feeling of uneasiness grew stronger.

Arthur looked from underneath Dean, and the tears streaming down his face seemed to increase…

'I am sorry!'

'It's all my fault.'

Wale on the other hand was experiencing pain for the first time after using his powers.

Two things were currently happening in his body.

First, because Dean was in a state of anger, he could steal all the remaining mana in his body.

The problem was Dean's mana wasn't ordinary.

Immediately after absorbing Dean's mana, Wale could feel the dark energy that had appeared in his body actively trying to corrupt him from inside.

Secondly, for some reason this time, he suffered a backlash when his ability worked on Rita.

Falling to his knees, Wale coughed a mouthful of blood.

Rita seeing Mia's decapitated head first experienced an intense shock before an intense pain hit her.

It must be known that Rita was an only daughter.

So while she had only met Mia, for a few days, the cute little girl had already occupied a special place in her heart.

Tears slowly fell down her face, washing away the blood that had clouded her vision.

Surprisingly enough, the choking pain she felt gripping her chest soon disappeared and what replaced was immense anger.

'How could a person dare to kill such a little girl?'

'And by decapitation no less...'

Gently caressing the bracelet that was on her right wrist, Rita choked in between her sobs...

"Pandora, stop sealing my power!'

The bracelet that seemed to have been crafted out from multiple gems lit up slightly.

Immediately after, Rita could see several threads connected between her and everything around her.

While the threads connecting her to the inanimate objects appeared dulled, there were four threads shining in a pale golden light.

"Come!" Tugging at the shining threads, Rita commanded.

Golden energy flowed from the still-wounded Rock, Dean, Arthur, and finally Wale.

All those present seemed none the wiser about what was happening.

All but one person...

<< Warning: Your time is being stolen, causing your life force to be absorbed. Leave the area immediately. >>

<< Warning: Your time is being stolen, causing your life force to be absorbed. Leave the area immediately. >>

Seeing the message that appeared before him, Dean was stunned.

Even if he wanted to escape, he couldn't even move his body after experiencing an abrupt mana deficiency.

Rita felt the golden energy being absorbed into her mana core.

This was her innate talent.

it wasn't one that increased her power.

Neither was it one that increased her speed.

It didn't make her to be impervious to all attacks either.

Instead, it allowed her to steal the time of those around her.

After Sylvia tested her powers ten years ago, they found out that as long as she didn't absorb too much time at once, no one would know when her power is ever activated.

Yet their life force would be slowly chipped away until they drop dead.

That is what made Rita so scary.

Who would want to stay near a person who could slowly kill them without them ever knowing?

However, that wasn't all...

Sylvia found out that Rita could use the absorbed life force to heal not only herself but any other person she wanted.

And unlike mages with affinity with life laws that would be restricted due to their mana, Rita could take lives to save whoever she wants.

In simpler words, she was the greatest healer of all time.