Chapter 254 – Instantaneous
The place we arrived at was the conference room in Geola’s city hall. We ended up on the ground in the middle of the room. Wico was completely disoriented by the unexpected situation when the nausea hit her.
“Huh? Ugh…!”
She started to bend her body to retch, and I used that split second to move away from her while checking the situation. Behind the desk, Crali stared at us, completely dumbfounded by the teleportation of two people in the nude, her mouth wide open.
Angin’s reaction was very different. She had immediately left her usual sofa to stand, her rapier in hand, wind sel surrounding her body, her full power unleashed to respond to the unexpected intrusion. She was glaring at us, her body bent forward a little, ready to take any action.
‘Rank 10!’
With her full power released, I was able to realize her rank for certain. It was no wonder she was always relaxed and sure of herself. She was several ranks above anyone else in the region.
‘No, now’s not the time for that!’
I pointed toward Wico in a hurry.
“She poisoned me!”
What happened next was so fast I could barely see anything. Angin moved so swiftly I lost track of her, and the next instant, her rapier was piercing the head of the still nauseated Wico, who didn’t have the time to react at all.
But that wasn’t all. After killing her in one blow, she sent a flurry of thrusts, too fast for me to track, on all parts of the eagle’s body. I only made sense of it when it was done, and Wico’s body exploded into thousands of pieces, splashing all over me and the ground.
I was stunned, agape, and unbelieving of the situation. Finally, after several seconds, I managed to stutter, staring at Angin.
“W-What the hell? Why did you kill her?”
She frowned, her rapier smeared with blood, dripping on the floor.
“What kind of stupid question is that?”
“You could have just incapacitated her! There was no need to kill her!”
“Why would I do that?”
“You’re strong enough to make it happen easily!”
“Nonsense. I don’t know what kind of relationship you had with that eagle, but you’re not thinking straight right now. Do you really think I would let an enemy rank 6 lightning sorceress and poison user live next to my daughter? Only a fool would take such a risk. I didn’t kill her. You killed her by teleporting here with her.”
“Damn it! You’re four ranks above her!”
“Wrong. Look at this.”
She pointed to a round piece of… something, maybe metallic, amongst Wico’s internal organs and flesh. I had no idea what this was and couldn’t care less right now.
“What?”
“I have no idea how she managed to get her hands on something like this. This is an artifact, something that allows someone to get temporary strength above their rank. She could probably be as strong as a rank 7 for a short time if she used it.”
“Huh?”
An artifact? Did this world have something like this? No, that didn’t matter right now. Angin came closer to me and started to inspect my body, uncaring that I was nude and that pieces of flesh and blood were everywhere around us.
“On the back of your neck, huh? She got you good. Right when you came and were the weakest, I guess? Typical. You did well to realize it. Do you need an antidote?”
Things were advancing too quickly for me. I glanced at Wico’s body, or what was left of it. This was the woman I was having sex with just seconds before! And now, she was dead, just like that!
“Shit… Shit… Damn it! Damn you all!”
I teleported away, not wanting to stay there even a second longer. This time, I arrived at my emergency shelter as if in a reflex. This was the place spatial mages instantly teleported to when in danger or when their emotions were unstable. I had trained myself to go there in those cases.
The place looked a lot better now than when I first found it. It was too large for me, but I still fully accommodated a couple of rooms to serve as a living space.
My mind was still in turmoil. I banged the walls a few times, letting my rage out.
“Shit! Shit! Shit! Damn it! Damn it all!”
After some time, the only result I achieved was that my hand hurt. I stopped hitting the walls randomly, throwing myself on one of the beds.
Why? Why did this happen? Why would Wico, whom I had a great affinity with, try to poison me? Why would someone who didn’t show any sign of treason for all the time we were together do something like that?
If even she did that, then what? Could no one be trusted in this damned world? Even though I didn’t have an extremely deep relationship with her, we still spent a good amount of time together, had multiple sexual encounters, and mixed very well in general. The master-disciple thing, while partially a joke between us, still felt half real. Even then, she tried to harm me without hesitation.
Did she want something from me? Or was it a job she had received from someone else? But who? I didn’t think I had enmities that great yet in the outer world.
The poison she used wasn’t lethal. It was just something to make me sleep. What would have happened to me if I had fallen asleep was impossible to guess. Maybe trying to enslave me, since they didn’t know about my affinity? Or maybe kidnapping me because of the selnic items? Or my role in the vaccine’s creation? Worst-case scenario, I would never have woken up again.
‘Argh!’
My mind kept going back to Wico. Why would such a cheerful and lewd eagle do something like that? If she couldn’t be trusted, then what about other people? What about Selva, her real disciple? Or anyone else in the outer world?
Was everyone just a potential assassin, waiting for their chance to kill me?
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