Chapter 96: Scream
Sometime after Lyrica defeated Gilberto, a group of men and women arrived where the fight took place.
"The others have yet to return in search of the girl."
One of them who's wearing the same black attire and cloak as the others spoke to the woman beside her.
"Should we go to Takkot and search for her there?" She added.
"No, we're going for Kabba."
The woman responded as quickly as she turned her gaze to her east.
"Gilberto may be insane, but he at least knew how to fight, unlike that idiot..."
"Huh?"
The woman exhaled before rallying her group next to her.
"If that Lyrica is just a simple fire magic-user, then there's no way for her to actually win against Gilberto, not unless there's more to this girl than we thought."
"That's right, I saw the broken pieces of Gilberto's armor, and it seemed like he suffered more than just being burned to death." One of them interjected. "Perhaps she managed to land a few punches at him that are powerful enough to cause some damage."
"She probably outsmarted him, too."
Right as the other guy mentioned the possibility of Lyrica outsmarting the high commander which led her to defeat Gilberto, the woman chimed in and added a reasonable comment;
"If she's smart enough to defeat the high commander in a fight, then it's no surprise if she thought going back to Takkot won't do her any good. She probably gathered intel while she was in the town in the past few days. That said, the one place she can go to other than Takkot is Kabba."
The town of Kabba is located in the northeast of Kruule, the nearest town to Takkot by just an hour and a half of walking.
"Shall we head to Kabba, then?"
The woman replied with a slight nod to the person in front of her.
"Remember, once you see her face, eliminate her immediately." She told the group.
"Yes!"
***
Moving forward to the present time, Lyrica found herself baffled at the mysterious sight of a ruined town.
"This place is... This must be the town of Kabba, the one those people and lola Esmeralda and the others mentioned before."
Lyrica heard about Kabba before, the town that was said to have been annihilated for whatever reason. She didn't get to learn exactly how and why it all happened, but houses and other buildings were somehow leveled to the point that she can see the other structures in the inner part of the town that remained standing despite receiving extensive damage as well. And on top of that, there seem to be no signs of life whatsoever coming from the town, although she has no way of making her assumption certain without getting closer to the town.
"How horrifying... it's almost as if a powerful storm came about and swept everything away in its wake." Right as she said that, Lyrica looked up, facing the sun with her left hand covering her eyes from the blinding light. "Judging from the sun in the sky, it must be around 2 PM right now."
At first, Lyrica thought about going back across Takkot and making her exit from Kruule through there. But going straight north from there would mean she's heading to the Forest of No Return.
"I don't know exactly where I have to go, but I can't stay in Kruule now that I've done and killed the high commander." Lyrica turned around, facing the direction where she came from. A drop of sweat came dripping down on her left cheek. "I can feel it, someone's coming after me. Something's telling me I need to hurry and leave Kruule. I guess I'll do just that."
Lyrica continued walking forward at a pace that's a bit faster than a normal walk. She figured about going through the east before heading straight up north. Lyrica doesn't have anywhere else to go, but as she remembered the soldiers Riko called the "Malayas," she thought up north is where their kingdom—Reilaea—resided.
'There's no telling if Reilaea is similar to Kruule, but if there's any place I can go where Kruule cannot chase me, it would be Reilaea. And if possible, they might be able to–"
"No!!"
Just when Lyrica was strolling on the outskirts of Kabba, a screaming voice of a child resonated from the town itself.
"A kid? There are people in there?"
The screams would continue, only this time, those screams did not come from a child alone. This urged Lyrica to see what was going on inside the ruined town. She cautiously approached the tallest structure she could find and carefully gets herself on top to get a clear view of the town.
"Where are they...?"
As her charcoal eyes panned around the vicinity, another scream of a child came from her far right. That's where she saw a group of black-armored knights surrounding a family of three sisters, a mother, and a father who's being ganged up by the soldiers.
"Please stop! My father can't take it anymore!" The little girl pleaded as she came to grab one of the knights who are violently kicking his father lying on the ground.
"Out of the way!" The knight shoved the girl away harshly. "We'll deal with you later!"
While this is all happening, her mother and elder sister try to resist the other knights who got a hold of them while the other girl tries to help them!
"You're ours now!" One of the knights declared with a malicious smirk.
"Please! you can do whatever you want with me, just don't hurt my daughters!"
"Let me go! Nghh!!"
"You b**tards! Let them go!!"
Just like her older sister, the girl had been pushed aside while the knights continue to contain her mother and her elder sister. As she continued to watch the scene unfold, Lyrica is also beginning to notice people slowly coming out of their hiding while peeking through what was happening.
"Hey, lift him up!"
Lyrica saw one of the knights order the rest, to which the others obediently followed and lifted the powerless father and had him facing his wife and elder daughter.
"Since we're being nice to you all, I will kill him so he doesn't have to see what we're gonna do with you and your daughters!" Said the knight with evil laughter towards the man's wife. "I think that's a good enough offer, considering he managed to hide you all from the kingdom for the last three years."
The knight quickly approached the woman who's in the hands of the others before forcefully grasping her face to look at him straight in his malicious eyes.
"You don't realize how enthusiastic I am knowing that you're not really dead." Using his tongue, he ravenously lashed on the woman's white face who could do nothing but to just endure it. "We're gonna have some fun all night long after this."
"Ugh...!"
"High commander, we want her, too!"
"Let us join you!"
As if the man was the spitting image of the high commander, his maniacal laughter reminded Lyrica of Gilberto. She pointed her left index finger towards the knight the others called the "high commander."
"Die."
A tiny sphere of flames formed from the tip of her finger, charging up and enlarging just enough to have the strength to eliminate her target in just one shot.
Striding... Striding...
"Huh?"
Just when she was about to fire her magic flames, a large spider crawling through her left arm caught her attention. It is unknown where it came from, although it probably jumped on her while she was on her way up the structure.
"Ah... Ahhh...! Aaaahhhhh!!"
Lyrica thought the screams she first heard were the loudest she's ever heard that afternoon. Well, she proved herself wrong.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone