Chapter 37: H(a)unted
The male servant walked slowly, wielding two moon-shaped knives in his hands. Dread whiffed up in the air as he took his meager approach.
'Bart's Aegis could control other people?' I thought. It was not possible. Every Aegis that I met until that point had their specialties fairly dependant on its crystals. And I was sure there was no Aegis crystal of any form on that male servant.
Caesar fought off the other servant's attack and punched his gut. He fell unconscious.
"Miss Ava!" called Caesar. Bart's emerald blade sliced through the air and Caesar was occupied with him.
He wanted to say something to me.
The male servant within my sight suddenly lunged forward frantically and my short, crimson tendril went through his skull. He was unable to move away from my tendril, but surprisingly, he was still breathing.
I noticed something about him.
He reminded me of General Sebastian. Even Freda and her father's images took over my vision. I did not care much that time, but all three of them had green eyes, with glints of emerald in them.
It made sense.
The male servant's hands lazily try to reach my face, futile as his effort was.
A familiar hatred swept over me when the man was literally at my mercy. I could just rend his body into shreds and disgusting clumps of flesh. Obliterating him completely.
My urge to kill intensified.
'Do I kill him?'
'Do I want to kill him?'
'Do I have to kill him?'
Those questions attacked me as I grunted from its effect.
'Kill.'
'Kill?'
'Kill?!'
'Kill!'
'Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!'
"Don't tell me... What to do!" My protruding short blade sliced the servant's neck and I stabbed at it until it barely hung onto its muscles. I sliced him, cut him, stabbed him, hacked him, chopped him, I slit him.
I split him open.
"I hate you!" I beheaded him and he fell downwards, clearly dead.
At least, he should be dead.
Indeed, he was dead. His eyeballs, bones, and his guts poured onto the floor. He did not move again, and for that, I was relieved.
"Miss Ava!"
Caesar dodged an emerald blade coming at him and formed a yellow spear that broke itself from his palm. He took a quick stance and jabbed at Bart's shoulder, twisting the tip.
"Erk!" He winced and took a few careful steps backward, observing his prey.
'Why did I kill him?' I thought.
'It's because I hate everything.'
'Why did I hate everything?'
The thoughts made me succumbed to my knees and grunted from the mental pain. "What is this? Stop!" I never have an experience like that before. Using the Aegis that far was my mistake.
It felt like my brain was forced open by unseen hands, pulling at each side and lacerated repeatedly. The sensation of pain that I inferred beforehand to no longer exist inside me somehow returned in the worst way possible.
My mouth let out a silent scream from the pain. My small hands clasped over my head in a meaningless attempt to make the pain vanish. I squeezed harder, and harder. It was of no use.
A voice entered my head and answered me nervously. "Ava, you should stop fighting right now. I have disabled your usage of Aegis. It seems like you pushing yourself too far like this affected your brain. In a bad way."
The crimson tendril and blade dissolved in thin air and I found myself gasping for air, free from the momentous pain. My throat was tight. My eyes were wide open, refusing to close. As if I would be pulled back in that nightmare filled with malevolent thoughts. I was shocked by those few moments that flashed by quickly.
"I can't stop now," I forcefully whispered.
"Ava, you should run for your safety. I suggest you hide," said Aegis in my head.
All of a sudden, my neck exploded red blood all over and I jerked my head back.
Alicia was grinning at me as she moved closer. "It's not over yet, Ava. Let Mommy teach you."
I completely forgot about the other threat that still lingered in that hallway. Two Aegis-using robots jumped upwards and shattered the marble floor at their feet, a few meters away from me.
CAPTURING SEQUENCE.
One of them grabbed me and carried my body on its shoulder. I tried to struggle despite my Aegis persisted to not activate.
"Let me go!" I fisted the robot carrying me in the head. A few seconds later, it started to run to the bronze door leading to the front yard.
"It can't be helped I guess," said my Aegis. A sharp blade sprouted from my arm and pierced the robot's head. It froze, dropping me on the floor with a thud.
Dizziness struck me again and I grimaced.
'Kill it.'
"Ugh." I brushed the thought away. The robot stopped functioning so any further measures were unnecessary.
I hoped.
The other robot looked up for a second and dashed to the throne room.
"Why is it going in there?" I said.
My hair's braid got loose from the short struggle. I was certain the Aegis-using robots saw me as their targets.
No, I was an objective for them all along, which was strange. But it somehow made sense.
'But how?' I thought.
My reputation as the Grim Reaper in Canada could play a part, however, that was the only thing the public knew.
'Could someone be spying on me?' I thought again.
Aside from Agatha and Caesar's proclamation on that matter, no one else should be. Then again, the personal jet must have been tracked somehow by the Great Corporate United. Though the chance of me being on the jet was very slim, I should say. An outsider would not have known that.
My brain concluded on my hypothesis on a possible third party somewhat. Perhaps.
I shook my head from all the thinking. My obvious option was to ask them directly so I needed to push myself further for that.
Caesar's yellow spear grazed Bart's neck and he regained his defensive stance. Agatha shot once at Alicia and the bullet slammed into something invisible.
"Aargh!"
The female servants' scream caught me.
Tabetha, Helena, and Amaryllis darted out of the throne room as a wall of orange crystals slowly wrapped around the golden door, preventing anyone to enter or even exit the room.
Amaryllis stopped, realizing that she had been pulled into the action in the hallway. Tabetha and Helena managed to escape.
"Eeek!" She shrieked when Caesar's spear blew through the wall just next to her.
"Run!" screamed Agatha.
Amaryllis made a mistake.
Alicia took the opening blatantly displayed within sight and her invisible crystal cut Agatha in the face.
She stumbled from the pain. "AARGHH!"
"Agatha!" Caesar parried Bart's emerald short blade with his own and tried to run to Agatha's side, only to be cut in the throat.
"You, and me!" growled Bart.
I wanted to help. Though a swirl of dizziness locked me on the spot, making it hard to perceive my surrounding.
My consciousness barely keeping up with what was happening.
Agatha's condition seemed to have an effect on Amaryllis as she started to run to the narrow, left hallway.
I gasped.
Amaryllis's right leg blew off from her hips and she awkwardly stumbled on the ground. She screamed her lungs out, tears falling. Red blood gushed from her injury violently.
"M-My leg!" She held onto her amputated right leg in horror while screaming.
I felt my heart was dropped in a lake of ice. It was dreadfully cold.
In the heat of the situation, a daunting presence swept over my very being from the throne room.
BOOM!
The golden door was forced open until its solid hinge broke from the force. I saw Lily in her Aegis form and Relly's bloodied figure crashed behind me. I grimaced as that presence I felt earlier became more intense.
Relly stood up the best he could and started to open his mouth. "Everyone! Fall back! Retreat immediately!"
Alicia and Bart both looked at him in surprise. Bart was not happy for the order he received.
"Dammit, Relly! I'm not done yet!" shouted Bart.
A few more female servants flooded the front entrance and rush towards me and Caesar.
But their path was blocked by a looming wall of crystals. It was Gheele's doing.
Lily too shared Bart's emotions as she gazed at Caesar. "I want to take Caesar back... Let me take him back!" Her voice sounded gritty in her Aegis form.
"Next time, Lily. We're not here for that, remember?" assured Relly, wiping the dark blood off his face. I caught a glimpse of a gleaming metal under his uniform, supposedly a combat suit of a sort. Which was weird since he wore it underneath.
"Okay... Relly." Lily obediently nodded and proceeded to touch Gheele's crystal wall behind her, turning it into her own. The pink crystals diverged to form a narrow path for them. "I'll come back for you, Caesar!"
I found her change in demeanor when talking to Relly was awkward. She readily submitted from what seemed to be her motive of coming with them, that was to get Caesar back. But it was baffling how they supposedly knew about that in the first place.
Or perhaps it was by chance. Considering my presence there also brought the speculation of Caesar coming with me too. And the same conclusion could also be decided upon when it came to finding me.
The female servants started to pour forth from the path hastily, their emerald eyes fixed at us.
"Ugh." Being as dizzy as I was, I trotted to the far end of the hallway, away from the masses. I could not fight them even if I wanted to. At least, I should let the dizziness go away for a bit.
Caesar managed to strike at Bart and his chest spluttered blood. He grunted and Alicia's invisible Aegis kept Caesar at bay while his wound healed.
Two female servants caught me and started to claw my face desperately, their eyes were emerald in color. I pushed them aside and, yet again, I forced my Aegis to cooperate and the servants took some damage from the crimson crystals.
Having lost their lower bodies, both of them still tried to attack me.
"It's like in Yellowknife," I mumbled. My dizziness shot up into my brain from every direction and I crouched. It was not possible to move anymore.
"Ava, a five-minute rest should suffice for you to move again. I'm really against you forming any Aegis crystals after this. Your body is feeling it already," said my Aegis.
I took its advice absently.
My brown eyes saw Agatha on the floor covering her face as she was defenseless against the horde of female servants raging through the hallway.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
HavenlyJeep
HavenlyJeep |Volume 2|
Upcoming Chapters:
* Chapter 38: Conflict in Chad
* Chapter 39: __________________
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone