«One hundred and twenty-five metres to target. - Cortana's voice, that's what Tony called the AI in the suit, warned how long she had to get to the person in need of help. It didn't take Hermione long to notice a young girl standing on the roof of a five-storey building with a baby in her arms. Her face was more than pale and the sound of Grimm's claws screeching made her squirm constantly as she tried to soothe the baby in her arms.
Grimm Ursa Grimm were crawling up the front of the building, something they resembled bears. Hermione had long ago admitted to herself that without her armour, she would most likely be an easy target and even her magic wouldn't help her. Magic was a very versatile thing, but they hadn't been taught in school how to fight creatures at least three times the size of a grown man, who could pierce concrete and shatter trees with their claws. Sure, that Troll in first year was nastier and bigger, but... he wasn't as scary as these creatures, which are like monsters driven at people wanting nothing more than to tear them apart... though they are.
It's hard for a girl to imagine a world where you constantly live in fear of death from creatures like Grimm or the same Vampires in Shinoa's world. It's one thing to read books about such a thing, it's another thing that such a world actually exists and you found yourself in it. What would she do without Tony's help? Most likely she'd hide behind the hunters... and that makes me feel bad. After all, the hunters and huntresses aren't much older than her, and one of them is the same age as her!
Even though she had such unhappy thoughts in her head, she had no trouble pointing the repulsors on her arms towards the Grimm and fired a couple of shots. Each one of those tore the creatures apart. It had been gross to her at first, now she was... used to it.
«Girl. - From the voice in the armour, the girl with the baby flinched and looked at Hermione with fear. This girl herself had a small horn on the left side of her forehead, so she was most likely a faunus. - It's not safe here, let me accompany you to the evacuation zone.
«Y-yes, thank you. - The girl nodded, realising that this one had come to her rescue and sighed in relief, holding her child tighter to her.
***
The pride of the Nakiri family, it was something that fuelled her entire environment in her from the moment she was born. She was raised with the idea that she was better than others, that she would be the best cook, even her grandfather complimented her repeatedly on her skills. When she discovered her "God Tongue", that is, her hypersensitivity to flavours, her life abruptly began to turn upside down....
She vividly remembers meeting her idol, the one who "opened" her eyes to the path of cookery, Zeiichiro Saiba, that's the man's name. She was very sensitive to food and had been cooked by the best chefs in the world, but it was his cooking, just as a sign of goodwill to a then hungry little girl, that opened her eyes.
Six months later her... her father began to 'train' her, though it was better to say very harshly train the little girl she used to be. He wasn't squeamish about using physical training methods for disobedience or improper approach. He made her taste-test different dishes and ruthlessly cull those that didn't reach the standard. When her grandfather found out about this, he kicked her father out of the family, but it was too late, the damage had already been done.
Erina couldn't make friends because of her arrogant nature, only if "servants", though she realises now that she was just trying to make friends that way. Her secretary, Hisako Arato, could be considered her friend... by a long shot.
When she got Chat, her whole attitude towards life began to change. She had seen wonders in Hermione's world and in Rias' world, she had also seen horrors... now she found herself in one of those. No matter how much she tried to fool herself, she knew one thing, she was afraid. Afraid of those black monsters from horror films, afraid of seeing people die, afraid... afraid that Chat would leave her because of her cowardice.
She's the only 'normal' one of the Chat and doesn't have any supernatural skills, and she was afraid that if she didn't accept the task with everyone else, she might lose that wonderful feeling of... camaraderie. When they don't slave to her, because they don't even know who she is! They don't care...and she is grateful for that.
«Thank you very much, thank you. - said a woman in her thirties with tears in her eyes, whom she escorted to the evacuation zone. In the beginning, Cortana operated the armour as Erina was too afraid of what was happening. She was only a fifteen year old girl from a rich and privileged family, how was she supposed to see such horrors?
«Please. - Erina said quietly from the sight of the genuinely grateful woman she saved.
Everything happening in general seemed like a fantasy dream, but she had already ascertained that it was all reality. Another world, for which the deaths of people from the clutches of monsters is a daily routine. Slowly but surely she realised that all this was not a light novel, it was a dark reality that did not forgive mistakes. If it wasn't for Tony-kun's words, she definitely wouldn't be here without that armour and Cortana.
***
A whirlwind of fire appeared above the Intercontinental Communication Tower, which is the main communication system invented on the Remnant. It consists of four towers, one in each kingdom. If one tower goes down, the entire system fails, making long distance communication unavailable.
«Cortana, how are the Grimm firing?
«According to the cameras they're not getting any smaller, and they're running from every corner of the academy like someone ordered them to. - said the AI.
«Hmmm, Salem is important Dev forces. - I spoke thoughtfully and flew towards the top of the tower where the fire vortex was just visible. I had already taken Jon to the evacuation point, so nothing should happen to him, so with a clear conscience I flew back to Pyrrha and found her kneeling exhausted in front of the wickedly beautiful lady in red.
«...a power that never belonged to you. But one thing is certain, I'll use it in ways you've never dreamed of.
«Do you... do you believe in fate? - Pyrrha asked, staring steadfastly into her eyes. She knew she was going to die, that she wouldn't last long against such an opponent, but she went to fight anyway. She followed her ideals to the end and tried to help. Her opponent, stood in front of her and materialised a bow in her hands, drew the bowstring and took aim at her chest. The released arrow sounded in her head like a bell striking, she watched as her death approached her and could do nothing....
«What the-" Cinder whispered as a stone wall appeared between the arrow and the girl, which took the impact and exploded.
«Heroes always come at the last moment, don't they? - I said, flying in through the window.
«Tony? - Pyrrha's eyes widened and she wanted to shout something, but she coughed and grimaced at the pain in her body. - No...go away, extremely strong.....
«Pyrrha, you're too good a person. - I said what I really thought. - Even in this situation you try to help others, but think of yourself. You may have always been a support for others, but let me be a support for you now... even though we don't know each other too well.
«What a hero... disgusting. - the eyes of the girl in the red dress flashed with fire....
«Do you think the maiden's power will help you? - my question made the girl's eyes open a little wider. - You know, you're the kind of person I can somewhat understand. Abandoned by everyone, a barely alive girl in this scary world, who is picked up by the 'scary' Queen Grimm and given hope. You were raised as a weapon, you do realise that, don't you?
«But I have powers no one could ever dream of. - The girl clasped her hands and a vortex of fire rushed into me, which heated the floor and melted the metal in front of me. But in the face of the vortex from the floor grew a stone "shell" where the attack flew in.
«Weak. - I said with an obvious sneer, nullifying the entire attack. Although I had to reinforce the ground with magic to do so. In the next second I moved towards Cinder and slipped under her fire attack and got right in front of her and delivered a simple punch to her stomach that sent her into the wall.
«You... I haven't seen you before. - She said, easily moving away from the blow, though becoming much more wary of me. - Where did such a strong hunter come from so suddenly?
«After I beat you, and after I beat your little party, I'll tell you... maybe. Pyrrha, go away. - I looked at the redhead.
«No... together we have a better chance. - said "invincible girl".
«You'll just get in the way. You're exhausted now, so you'd better think of yourself. - I said and jerked in front of the girl to catch the flaming arrow fired by the angry Cinder. Fire began to splash around her, literally bursting even out of her eyes, but a bright white light appeared from the academy and distracted her.
«What-" this stunned my opponent for a moment. - How annoying you all are to me.
«I agree. Pyrrha go to your friends. - I said one last thing and lunged at Cinder. My first punch was blocked by her fist and she flew through the tower wall like an arrow, leaving behind a cloud of dust and other materials that made up the wall. I hit harder now than last time, and she still looked okay, even if she was more than angry.
«Ahr. Burn to the ground! - A concentrated beam of fire was beside me in an instant, but a magic seal appeared in its path, through which I used alchemy and started turning magic fire into water... which wasn't easy. This water travelled towards Cinder at a tremendous pressure and soaked her from head to toe. I wouldn't do that in a really dangerous situation, because it's a lot of effort to pull that off.
«It looks better on you. - I complimented her... but judging by her look, she didn't like it.
The girl could fly because of the maiden's power, so she flew straight at me, I was also hovering in the sky with the help of repulsors on my legs. We started fighting in the sky and each of my blows consumed some of her aura and made her even angrier. At one point she created two fire blades and tried to put me on them.
But I wrapped myself in earth armour, used the nearest building for that, and grew an extra pair of stone hands and it was with them that I caught the swords, and with my own hand I struck her in the jaw and she torpedoed upwards, spinning on her axis.
«Ra-a-a-a!" the huge Grimm Wyvern screamed and tried to take a bite out of me.
«Stay out of my way. - I waved him off and hit him without restraining my physical strength, and because of this Grimm-overgrowth flipped several times in the air and crashed on a building in Vale. After that, stone spikes started sprouting from the building, which threw the Wyvern into the air, and I struck again, only at the bone head and using Senjutsu. My hands were enveloped in snow-white energy and the blow echoed throughout the city, and the wyvern's head burst like an overripe watermelon.
«You're next. - I pointed my finger at Cinder, who had seen me take down a huge Grimm that a dozen teams of Hunters might not even be able to handle. That's the power of a first man and someone who could fight dragons.
«Who are you?! - she exclaimed and... fear flickered in her voice.
«The one who came to stop you and your boss. - I confessed.
«..." she mumbled and created a huge fire bow and launched an arrow at me, which broke the sound barrier and headed towards me.
«Cortana. - I said out loud, though I didn't have to, and a bright light appeared on my chest, where the arc reactor was located, and then the concentrated energy of the reactor burst out in a white-hot beam. It couldn't completely absorb the arrow, but even so it knocked it off its trajectory, and the energy hit Cinder, throwing her a hundred metres away. The heat melted the windows of some of the buildings we were close to.
«I think if you'd practised with this power for a while, you'd be able to put up a better fight. - I landed next to her and grabbed her by the neck, then pressed her face into the stone wall that appeared next to her. The girl's moaning was clearly audible, but I didn't stop there and kicked her in the stomach, which threw her into the air. Already in the air she tried to fly away from me, but I created a magic seal and unstable elements that I created from the air began to fall from it, and when they came in contact with Cinder they started to react... I mean explode. It didn't hurt her in any way, but it knocked her concentration out of whack, causing her to lose control of her flight for a moment, and the next moment she was grabbed by a large stone hand and brought back to the ground with force.
«Because of the maiden's strength, your aura is very strong. - I impressively spoke out while standing next to her body. Such blows would have no problem flattening a normal person, even people with the God's Eye, judging from Albedo's memory. Not all of them, of course, but still.
«Aaaah!" she screamed and again flashed a fire aura that threw her a metre into the air and a roaring flame burst from her hands... from which I simply stepped aside, and the flame itself created a molten hole in the building. Thankfully, the civilians had long since fled the area.
«Impressive. - I admitted, but still created a stone cocoon around her, in which she had already passed out. This fight showed me what level I was at... if only she were more experienced with the power of a maiden. That seething magical power would have been enough to turn an entire neighbourhood, and possibly several, into a region of blazing hell. But due to her inexperience, she was wasting a lot of energy in vain. Even so, I can't say that the fight went easily for me, even though I pretended to be in control.
***
The whole story is already available at:
patreon.com/posts/124888009