章 27: MEMORY FRAGMENT
[System: A Memory Fragment has been Activated]
Tuff...Tuff... Tuff
'Where am I??'
I opened my eyes and thought to myself—not that I tried to say it, but my mouth never moved.
I recalled the message from the system as I was losing consciousness.
'Is this a memory of mine? No, probably of the real Rex.'
I couldn't move my body and just stared towards the sky.
It seemed I was lying on a hard surface, completely different than those comfortable mattresses from our mansion.
Tuff
I felt my hand grab something hard as my body was pulled up to a sitting position.
I didn't have control over this body, and by the looks of it, I could tell this was a young version of Rex Armour Sunshine.
In front of me was a peaceful garden, and it seemed I was lying on a stone altar.
'Stone altar??'
Suddenly a conversation and a bitter memory started to flood my mind.
'It can't be... Right!!'
"R...ex...."
Suddenly, a very weak voice came from behind and hearing it, my body jerked with a surprised expression.
However, from the inside, I was devastated as I knew what was about to happen.
I slowly turned my neck as my eyes followed a bloody trail of destruction and suffering.
The world around me was completely different than the world in front of me.
In front was a peaceful garden with trees and a beautiful landscape.
But behind was the endless result of destruction and terror.
"R...e.....x...."
A lady with smashed eyes, broken bones, and a sword sticking out of her chest stared at me.
Huff... Huff....Huff
My body, seeing her, started to panic. I have seen many deaths, and most of them were much worse and more gruesome than anything.
But still, seeing that, I was shaken to the core of my soul.
I don't know if it was because I am inside a small child's body or probably due to my weakness, but...
I am shaken to my core. All my mind's resistance, accumulated after suffering so many losses, started to fall apart in just this one very moment.
"M..ma..mama..."
My words were shaky, though they were not my real words as they belonged to a completely different person.
But still, for this exact moment, we are not much different when it comes to suffering.
I looked forward from the eyes of a broken child who was seeing his mother die protecting him.
The scene was not very pleasant for a memory fragment but held every bit of reality it could into it.
"R....ex...m...y...so...n"
Her words weren't clear as her eyes were hazy. Seeing a warrior in this unpleasant state would surely spread a bitter taste to everyone.
I could hear the sorrowful cries of Aliya but still decided to ignore them.
"I...a..m...sor...r.y...m..y...ch..il..d"
A small painful smile appeared on her face. No more words were needed.
The conversation was much smaller, but the pain and emotions behind it were much larger than anyone could think.
A warm feeling suddenly appeared near my cheeks as a bloody hand touched my face.
I can't remember my actual mother as it has been far too long, but today, for the first time and probably for the last time after so many years, I felt that love and pain.
"Mama...are you hurt? You are bleeding, Mama..."
The small Rex tried to touch his mother's wounds with his small hands.
I could feel tears flowing out of my eyes. I don't know whether it was mine or the actual Rex's.
"I...a..m...f..in.e..m..y...so..n"
Seeing her son worrying so much, Amelia, who surely would be suffering from so much pain, made a small smile to hide her pain and suffering behind her smiling mask.
"So this bitch can make that face too, huh!!"
Suddenly a man came from behind and stared at us with a mocking tone.
His face was hidden behind a dark shade of a mask used by assassins.
"Don't worry, bitch. This kid will surely follow you in the afterlife, hahaha!!"
The assassin laughed to himself as he held the sword stuck in Amelia's chest and started to twist it.
"Ah..hmmm...."
Amelia could be seen in great agony, but she didn't let it affect her facial expression as she looked back at me.
"I...wi.ll...alw..ays....lo..ve.."
She spoke her last words to me with a helpless smile.
A lady who was once known for her pride and brilliant talent was reduced to this helpless state.
A truly sad and depressing scene for even me.
Her hand on my cheek radiated a small amount of heat, different from a human's touch.
'That's....'
I urgently understood what she did to me, but as helpless as I was, I could only watch her die in front of me.
"Y...ou...be...sa..fe"
"Bitch, keep quiet!!"
Stuff
The man standing behind pulled out the sword from her chest without a hint of mercy.
"....."
There were no desperate cries of pain or agony.
Amelia slowly lost the light in her eyes. Her hands started to lose strength and their position on Rex's cheeks.
Small Rex, who felt his mother's hand falling, tried desperately to hold it in the same place.
"Mama!! What happened to you?? Look at me, look at me!!!"
The loss of a mother for a child was an unbearable sight for anyone.
Rex cried desperately, while Aliya, who couldn't even move her body, could do nothing other than curse her broken faith.
I just looked at the scene in front of me helpless and tired experiences.
Or so I thought because I can't even tell what face I would have been making if I were in his shoes.
"Well, that completed the task of assassinating this crazy bitch."
The assassin spoke as he stretched his tired body.
From the looks of it, even he had suffered a great deal in this battle.
"Well, now let's complete the whole task before that monster appears, but before that..."
THUD
He kicked Amelia's body away from the altar to make his way towards me.
"Look kid, I don't have any grudges against you. It's just that someone has to do the dirty work here."
"People with authority won't ever make their hands dye in red, and for that reason, they come to us."
He spoke while rubbing his blade with his outfit to clean the blood on it.
"Now it's time to say goodnight and goodbye."
The assassin spoke as he lifted the blade in the air, pointing it towards me.
Thud
"Huh!!"
But before the blade could land on me, a small fire spell was launched towards the assassin, which was dodged by him very easily.
"I...I won't let you hurt him."
Aliya lifted her body with great difficulty. By the looks of it, anyone could tell that she had close to no amount of energy in her body.
Not to mention that her circuits have just gone through a very heavy overdrive due to the excess amount of Rex's energy entering her body.
If she tried to use her circuits in this case, then she could risk her body getting destroyed from the inside, rendering her magicless forever.
"Ohh!! Well, it seems someone has a fight left inside of them."
The assassin spoke with an amused tone.
It was true that the assassin wasn't in a very good state for battle, but knowing that the woman in front was in a much worse situation than him gave him the confidence he needed.
"Just lay down, woman. I will take every bit of fun tormenting you as I can after I deal with this kid."
"I won't let you to—Cough...Cough...Cough"
Aliya wasn't in a state to fight. The ritual she had gone through hadn't been completed.
A half ritual can be as dangerous as taking a deadly amount of medicine without knowing its side effects.
This ritual is a ritual of give and take. While the giving has been done, the taking has still not been processed, due to which her circuits are stuck in an open state, which should be causing her excruciating pain.
It's like waking you up in the middle of an operation while your nerves and blood vessels are still opened up and pinned down to the same place.
Even staying awake in this situation and not dying due to shock is a miracle in itself.
"You want to do this when you're even coughing blood?"
"I won't...let..you....tou..ch....my..frie...nd."
Suddenly, I felt my eyes open up in shock, probably because little Rex didn't expect her to say these words.
"Ohh!! So you want to save your friend, well then let me send you before your friend."
Saying that the assassin took a fighting stance.
It wasn't perfect as his body wasn't infused with Aura, probably because he had severely taken damage from his previous fight.
Or because he didn't want to waste his energy on Aliya, who was clearly in a much worse state than him.
'That is his big mistake.'
I don't know how this version of Aliya will handle herself in battle, but I do know how a normal Aliya will handle herself.
She had been used to fighting in situations that were against her.
Thud
The assassin leaped at Aliya with great speed, though still within human capabilities.
He had trained his body to peak condition, so even without mana, he was fairly faster than a normal human.
"Esperico!!"
Aliya screamed as she fired a basic fireball towards him at a 165-degree angle.
Thud
"Haaa!!"
The assassin chuckled to himself as he saw the fireball moving toward the ground and blasting in front of him, not grazing him a bit.
"You're dead!!"
The assassin spoke as he came closer to her but—
Thud
"Huh!! What??"
The land beneath his feet where the fireball had struck hardened the area, turning the sand into a crystal-like form.
The land around both altars was made using a five-layer of sand.
The assassin didn't understand the purpose of that woman turning sand into glass, but the next second, everything became clear.
Aliya slowly touched the sand with her hand and muttered a small enchantment to herself, then with a serious look, she spoke.
"Try to survive this."
Slash
"!!!!"
Suddenly the place where the sand had turned into glass rose with tremendous speed into a spike to slash his body in half.
The assassin, with great difficulty, dodged the attack with a small distance to his death.
"Tsk..."
Aliya clicked her tongue while the assassin looked back at her with a shocked look.
"A dual elementer!!"
Snap
Without caring about his surprised look, Aliya snapped her fingers, and more of those fireballs were launched into his surroundings, making more of the place turn into glass.
And like before, she didn't take much time to convert that glass into a lethal weapon and launched it toward the assassin.
'As I thought, she is very creative in handling magic.'
Due to her weak self, she had to always depend on her creativity.
In this case, knowing that she couldn't use high-level spells, she decided to merge two weak-level spells to her advantage.
The earth spell allows her to form spikes made of rock to attack her enemy, but because it takes much mana,
She is using a basic fire spell to cut the work in half, saving her energy and dealing some lethal blows.
The sandglass can be a very hard structure to break and can deliver a lethal blow to the assassin.
And knowing that, he started to make distance from the sand by jumping back.
Due to the low amount of mana, she can only form one or two spikes at once, but still knowing that her enemy was also very tired like her,
It gave her a great advantage to form a protective barrier around the altar, protecting her and little Rex at the same time.
THUD
The assassin was thrown out of the sand area into the grassland.
The assassin narrowed his eyes and stared at her with a look of dissatisfaction.
Aliya just stared at him without losing eye contact.
Both parties were at a disadvantage as Aliya couldn't keep up her defense for too long, and the assassin didn't have much time.
The safest approach for the assassin would be to wait for her to lose her strength and fall.
But knowing that it could take a while and that people could come to save her could be dangerous for him.
On the other hand, if he decided to leave, then surely his superiors would hunt him down.
In this case, he had only one way left to get to us.
"Bitch, because of you, I have to use my mana."
Saying that, the assassin summoned his mana around his body, covering himself with mana.
Using mana was painful to him, as even from under his hidden face, anyone could tell he was in great pain.
Mana is primarily used to control the power of elements, but it can also be used as a substitute for aura.
Though the energy buff is much less compared to an aura buff.
A peak mana user buff would be equal to an average aura user buff.
But not seeing another way, he launched his body with a small buff towards Aliya.
The speed was still faster than his previous leap, and in just a few seconds, he approached Aliya's neck.
Aliya tried to stop his advance with glass spikes, but the assassin easily broke through all the resistance and approached her neck.
Grab
"Got you, bitch!!"
The assassin spoke with a creepy smile on his face, but then a narrowed look appeared on his face as he saw a small crazy smile on Aliya's face.
Aliya held his hand with a hateful smile and spoke.
"I will take your arm with me."
"!!!"
"Freeze"
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