Down below, we find the others, most of them in a terrible state and herded to one place by Hadwin who doesn't seem that hurt even after falling from such a height; his [Strengthening] is probably good enough to help him endure.
Sophie and Isabella are also fine, but the last member of Hard Difficulty, the Icy guy, is really hurt. Both of his legs are broken, an arm twisted and one of his eyes is blind.
Maya is in a similar state with bones poking out of both of her broken shins and sweat on her forehead as she clenches her teeth in pain while Lily heals her.
“Kim went to get the twins, they connected with him,” Hadwin says, and I now see that he is missing a few of his teeth and is bruised all over, with also a broken arm and probably multiple ribs.
Well, that's dumb if I have to say so myself, but it's Kim's decision.
To make matters even worse, Lily heals one of Maya's legs and then passes out, her breathing short and weak and the petite girl shaking and sweating. Malnourished, dehydrated, overtaxing herself.
Biscuit moves closer to her and a few tentacles appear over him as he protectively stands in front of her after licking her hand a few times. The dog whimpers and looks towards me.
(Gone?)
Immediately after he whimpers again and steps a bit further, taking his eyes off me.
I quickly control myself and force my mana and mind to calm down.
As I step closer, I reach out and let Biscuit lick my hand, and after that, I pet his tiny head. "Sorry for that, I didn't want to scare you, it's just that I'm not in a very good mood right now."
From atop the wall, I can still feel waves of kinetic energy as the bear's heart continues to thump and generate it and trying to take it all under its control.
I'll be back for you, you can be sure of that. How dare you try to copy my construct.
Goddamned bear.
Now then, back to this silly girl. When I lift her up she feels so light and weak.
(We will go over the wall on the opposite side, the bear seems to be busy right now and we can avoid the others!) Sounds in my head and after that, the silence ensues.
Well, I guess we don't have to bother waiting for Kim anymore.
Just a few minutes have passed since we entered one of the hideouts and I made sure it's working, and I'm already impatient to leave and go back outside.
I keep opening and clenching my fist while watching my mana fill up bit by bit. It's quick, probably much faster than for others, but for me, it feels as if too slow. I've already gotten used to not having trouble with lacking mana at all.
Another annoying thing is the Icy man, Cipher's old companion. Unlike others that left me alone, feeling or seeing my bad mood, the man crawled to me. Using only one arm to pull himself closer.
His legs are broken, one of his arms is also broken and he is missing one of his eyes. Yet there is still some will in him and I even notice that his wounds are covered in ice a bit. I don't know how much it helps but the man still does it.
For a long moment, he looks at me and I look at him. I do not know him, I never bothered knowing him. Out of the trio, he was probably the least memorable and I didn't even bother with the other two.
Yet here he is and he is crying.
“I'm scared,” he says, and his voice is audibly shaken. A man a bit older than me sobs quietly and I do believe him, I can hear the fear in his voice.
“That girl… that woman is doing something to me,” he says, “I don't know what and I can't even fight against it, but I know she does something,” he pulls himself even closer, groaning from pain, “I almost died and maybe will die because of her. I do not know her yet I did jump over the wall and even wanted to sacrifice myself to keep her sister and her alive.”
He then pauses.
“It's terrifying, I don't even know if I'm me anymore,” his hand touches me and his voice becomes full of pleading, “Please, I beg you, stop her.”
“Did you know about what Cipher and Goldie did to Lily?” I ask.
His silence is all the answer I need.
“So why should I even bother?” I hear that my voice bears some annoyance in it, “You are lucky to be alive.”
“This is not life if I'm not myself!” he screams and more heads turn to us, “Do you think she won't control all of you if given a chance? I thought Goldie was scary with her hypnosis, but this woman,” he points his shaking hand at Sophie, “she is much worse!”
“I see, should I help you then?” I stand up and a sword forms in my hand, “Just one word and I'll end it all.” His eyes become full of fear and it makes me almost smile, “Just one word and you are free.” As I say it, I keep poking his body with the tip of my sword and he doesn't say anything.
Unsurprisingly he is not like Lissandra that destroyed her world and herself the moment she got a suspicion someone is controlling her.
“Now then, to make it clear and not beat around the bush and say it out loud,” I say loudly enough for everyone in the hideout to hear it. Sophie, Isabella, Tess, Hadwin, Maya, and even barely conscious Lily are listening.
“I swear on the life of my mother and on the life of my sister, the most precious things in this world to me.” A short pause is filled with deafening silence, “Sophie, if you ever try to control me or people I care about again, I'll kill you. I'll do it without hesitation and I won't care if it happens in front of your sister."
The silence becomes even deeper, and now everyone is looking at Sophie, who is also looking at me. She seems to understand, but if not, she can ask Isabella. I'm sure the little girl can tell her how serious I am.
After saying that out loud I feel much better. There is still a lot of anger at Sophie and her meddling with my mind, but saying these things feels as if I can't now take a step back in case she does something like this. I won't be able to pressure myself into thinking logically, I'll just have to do what I said I would do.
“Okay, now that we are all on the same wavelength, there are a few things we have to do. First, Sophie, go and infuse Lily with your mana, keep her strengthened. Hadwin, you go out and use that trap to get us some sparrows. Tess, you will protect them just in case. If Lily tries to use even a speck of her mana to heal someone, you can zap her and make her unconscious until I come back with water or send Kim and the twins back with it.”
My eyes glance around the room and no one seems to be complaining, no one other than Lily.
“You!” I point a finger at Lily, “Stay put. Maya will heal on her own and if her bones don't fix themselves normally we can break them again and then you will heal her.”
Lily doesn't seem to like it. She exchanges looks with Tess. The young blonde woman smiles at Lily but her eyes remain somewhat cold, clearly indicating she will zap her if needed.
I ignore Maya's terrified look and I do not even mention the Icy guy.
Then I leave the hideout. As many times before, even this seems to be my fault. I shouldn't have killed Cipher and I should be more careful when attacking the deer. But at the same time, things could be much worse if I did not do these things.
But consequences are here and the best thing I can do now is to help Kim and maybe these two little brats, get some water and beat up some copycat bear.
And there is one more thing.
I quickly put some distance between me and the hideout, once again under the wall and when I send my mana towards the top, I still can feel waves of kinetic energy. Is the bear trying to learn how to control it? Goddamned monsters in hell difficulty.
But first things first. I open up my left hand and look at the palm that has continued to bother me ever since the start of the floor. The weird feeling of itching is now even worse and for the first time, I can feel intricate patterns of mana inside of it. Circuits I'm barely able to perceive, yet I know they are there, and on the skin of my palm, a pattern appears.
A pattern looking exactly like a Peacemaker, the strongest defensive item in the world of the second floor. An item that I got from Lissandra and that I held with my left hand, exactly as the pattern is etched into my skin.
Interesting isn't it, but this much is enough.
I coat my right arm in an oscillating mana and cut off my left hand.
Down below, we find the others, most of them in a terrible state and herded to one place by Hadwin who doesn't seem that hurt even after falling from such a height; his [Strengthening] is probably good enough to help him endure.
Sophie and Isabella are also fine, but the last member of Hard Difficulty, the Icy guy, is really hurt. Both of his legs are broken, an arm twisted and one of his eyes is blind.
Maya is in a similar state with bones poking out of both of her broken shins and sweat on her forehead as she clenches her teeth in pain while Lily heals her.
“Kim went to get the twins, they connected with him,” Hadwin says, and I now see that he is missing a few of his teeth and is bruised all over, with also a broken arm and probably multiple ribs.
Well, that's dumb if I have to say so myself, but it's Kim's decision.
To make matters even worse, Lily heals one of Maya's legs and then passes out, her breathing short and weak and the petite girl shaking and sweating. Malnourished, dehydrated, overtaxing herself.
Biscuit moves closer to her and a few tentacles appear over him as he protectively stands in front of her after licking her hand a few times. The dog whimpers and looks towards me.
(Gone?)
Immediately after he whimpers again and steps a bit further, taking his eyes off me.
I quickly control myself and force my mana and mind to calm down.
As I step closer, I reach out and let Biscuit lick my hand, and after that, I pet his tiny head. "Sorry for that, I didn't want to scare you, it's just that I'm not in a very good mood right now."
From atop the wall, I can still feel waves of kinetic energy as the bear's heart continues to thump and generate it and trying to take it all under its control.
I'll be back for you, you can be sure of that. How dare you try to copy my construct.
Goddamned bear.
Now then, back to this silly girl. When I lift her up she feels so light and weak.
(We will go over the wall on the opposite side, the bear seems to be busy right now and we can avoid the others!) Sounds in my head and after that, the silence ensues.
Well, I guess we don't have to bother waiting for Kim anymore.
Just a few minutes have passed since we entered one of the hideouts and I made sure it's working, and I'm already impatient to leave and go back outside.
I keep opening and clenching my fist while watching my mana fill up bit by bit. It's quick, probably much faster than for others, but for me, it feels as if too slow. I've already gotten used to not having trouble with lacking mana at all.
Another annoying thing is the Icy man, Cipher's old companion. Unlike others that left me alone, feeling or seeing my bad mood, the man crawled to me. Using only one arm to pull himself closer.
His legs are broken, one of his arms is also broken and he is missing one of his eyes. Yet there is still some will in him and I even notice that his wounds are covered in ice a bit. I don't know how much it helps but the man still does it.
For a long moment, he looks at me and I look at him. I do not know him, I never bothered knowing him. Out of the trio, he was probably the least memorable and I didn't even bother with the other two.
Yet here he is and he is crying.
“I'm scared,” he says, and his voice is audibly shaken. A man a bit older than me sobs quietly and I do believe him, I can hear the fear in his voice.
“That girl… that woman is doing something to me,” he says, “I don't know what and I can't even fight against it, but I know she does something,” he pulls himself even closer, groaning from pain, “I almost died and maybe will die because of her. I do not know her yet I did jump over the wall and even wanted to sacrifice myself to keep her sister and her alive.”
He then pauses.
“It's terrifying, I don't even know if I'm me anymore,” his hand touches me and his voice becomes full of pleading, “Please, I beg you, stop her.”
“Did you know about what Cipher and Goldie did to Lily?” I ask.
His silence is all the answer I need.
“So why should I even bother?” I hear that my voice bears some annoyance in it, “You are lucky to be alive.”
“This is not life if I'm not myself!” he screams and more heads turn to us, “Do you think she won't control all of you if given a chance? I thought Goldie was scary with her hypnosis, but this woman,” he points his shaking hand at Sophie, “she is much worse!”
“I see, should I help you then?” I stand up and a sword forms in my hand, “Just one word and I'll end it all.” His eyes become full of fear and it makes me almost smile, “Just one word and you are free.” As I say it, I keep poking his body with the tip of my sword and he doesn't say anything.
Unsurprisingly he is not like Lissandra that destroyed her world and herself the moment she got a suspicion someone is controlling her.
“Now then, to make it clear and not beat around the bush and say it out loud,” I say loudly enough for everyone in the hideout to hear it. Sophie, Isabella, Tess, Hadwin, Maya, and even barely conscious Lily are listening.
“I swear on the life of my mother and on the life of my sister, the most precious things in this world to me.” A short pause is filled with deafening silence, “Sophie, if you ever try to control me or people I care about again, I'll kill you. I'll do it without hesitation and I won't care if it happens in front of your sister."
The silence becomes even deeper, and now everyone is looking at Sophie, who is also looking at me. She seems to understand, but if not, she can ask Isabella. I'm sure the little girl can tell her how serious I am.
After saying that out loud I feel much better. There is still a lot of anger at Sophie and her meddling with my mind, but saying these things feels as if I can't now take a step back in case she does something like this. I won't be able to pressure myself into thinking logically, I'll just have to do what I said I would do.
“Okay, now that we are all on the same wavelength, there are a few things we have to do. First, Sophie, go and infuse Lily with your mana, keep her strengthened. Hadwin, you go out and use that trap to get us some sparrows. Tess, you will protect them just in case. If Lily tries to use even a speck of her mana to heal someone, you can zap her and make her unconscious until I come back with water or send Kim and the twins back with it.”
My eyes glance around the room and no one seems to be complaining, no one other than Lily.
“You!” I point a finger at Lily, “Stay put. Maya will heal on her own and if her bones don't fix themselves normally we can break them again and then you will heal her.”
Lily doesn't seem to like it. She exchanges looks with Tess. The young blonde woman smiles at Lily but her eyes remain somewhat cold, clearly indicating she will zap her if needed.
I ignore Maya's terrified look and I do not even mention the Icy guy.
Then I leave the hideout. As many times before, even this seems to be my fault. I shouldn't have killed Cipher and I should be more careful when attacking the deer. But at the same time, things could be much worse if I did not do these things.
But consequences are here and the best thing I can do now is to help Kim and maybe these two little brats, get some water and beat up some copycat bear.
And there is one more thing.
I quickly put some distance between me and the hideout, once again under the wall and when I send my mana towards the top, I still can feel waves of kinetic energy. Is the bear trying to learn how to control it? Goddamned monsters in hell difficulty.
But first things first. I open up my left hand and look at the palm that has continued to bother me ever since the start of the floor. The weird feeling of itching is now even worse and for the first time, I can feel intricate patterns of mana inside of it. Circuits I'm barely able to perceive, yet I know they are there, and on the skin of my palm, a pattern appears.
A pattern looking exactly like a Peacemaker, the strongest defensive item in the world of the second floor. An item that I got from Lissandra and that I held with my left hand, exactly as the pattern is etched into my skin.
Interesting isn't it, but this much is enough.
I coat my right arm in an oscillating mana and cut off my left hand.
