Oskar felt his face distort into despair and time seemed to slow down as he thought to himself.
'This can't be happening.'
That phrase kept repeating itself inside Oskar's head.
This can't be happening.
It just can't be.
It's not possible.
It shouldn't be possible.
What had just happened.
This entire sequence of events.
It shouldn't have happened.
It couldn't have happened.
This has to be a dream.
But this feeling.
This sensation.
Everything around Oskar, from the sweat on his forehead to the ominous and malevolent aura surrounding the little girl told him the cold truth.
That this was reality.
That everything that just happened was reality.
The fact that this girl's psionic level was over nine thousand, a psionic level That which classed her as a C-Class psionic, if not even more.
The fact that this girl could conjure and perfectly manipulate green flames, a feat only accomplishable by prodigies, or people who spent their entire lifetime cultivating and training their psionic abilities.
The fact that this girl could mentally react to his entire squad spontaneously opening fire and effortlessly negate it, an achievement that highlighted just how terrifying this little girl really was.
All of that really just happened.
All of that was reality.
Oskar didn't want to believe it, but he knew that it was the truth.
The weapon he used to fire at the girl was an 'MB-2256 Gauss Rifle,' one of the newest and most advanced weapons developed by the Russo-Chinese Federation.
It fired extremely heat resistant armour-piercing projectiles at hypersonic speeds thanks to gauss technology.
Just one pull of the trigger and the bullet fired would have already reached the target before Oskar could even blink.
But that girl was not only able to perceive Oskar's and his comrade's attack with their extremely potent weapons but she was able to react accordingly, creating a 'flaming green shield' that disintegrated their rounds before they could touch her.
She also just proved that her green flames were the real deal and not some illusion that she cast.
The 'extremely heat resistant' description of the projectiles fired by the MB was no lie, these bullets could supposedly persist through heats as high as 2000˚ C and yet they were still instantly disintegrated the moment they touched the green flames.
Just what the hell was she?
What kind of monster did he discover?
She was not just a prodigy, even they needed at least ten years to be able to just conjure green flames, let alone manipulate them.
She was a prodigy among prodigies.
Why?
Why did this have to happen to him?
He was supposed to have only one last mission left before he could retire from 'the Family' thanks to old age.
From there he should have been able to return to his 'real family.'
In order to increase his odds of returning home, Oskar even went out of his way to ensure that his last mission was relatively safe and risk free.
One last, easy and safe job before he could return home.
That was what was supposed to have happened.
That was what should have happened.
But that isn't what happened at all.
Instead, he encountered a threat that excluding 'him' was the gravest threat that Oskar has ever faced.
Especially now that he had exhausted all of his ammo.
It would take him around two seconds to reload his rifle.
With the speed that she just displayed, she could probably attack and kill all three of them in that time frame.
Even if he or one of comrades were somehow able to reload and open fire being engulfed by the girl's green flames, there was no guaranteeing that the bullets fired from this second volley would be able to successfully evade her green flames and kill the girl.
It was truly a precarious situation.
But Oskar still knew that he had to do something.
He was so close to returning home.
He can't afford to die now.
Anything would do, anything that could save his life.
He didn't even care about accomplishing the original mission objective of kidnapping the little girl for the Family anymore.
There was no way he would risk his life capturing something as powerful as 'that.'
She was simply too dangerous.
Should he just sacrifice Jordan and Tracy to buy himself some time?
That solution was indeed a possibility.
It was a hard choice to make but if he were to leave the duo to deal with the girl, then he could possibly buy himself twenty, no maybe even ten seconds.
By then he should be out of harm's way.
It didn't matter how psionically gifted this girl was, there was still the limits of her human body.
As a mere child, there was no way she would be able to catch up to Oskar if he ran at his full speed, especially with a ten second head-start.
However, there was another inherent problem with this plan.
And that was how Oskar, Jordan and Tracy were all probably thinking the same thing.
Only one of them could run away and leave the other two behind.
And even then, there was no telling if the two stalling would be able to hold back the girl at all.
There was a good chance that the girl could annihilate all three of them in an instant.
Only a few seconds passed since they originally opened fire at the girl and Oskar has already made his choice.
However before he could actually do anything , the girl suddenly said a single cold word and her mouth twisted into a cruel smirk as she spoke.
"Goodbye."
At that moment, Oskar felt a sudden strong impact hit his chest, yet his feet remained planted where they originally were.
He didn't feel anything off.
He didn't feel any pain.
He just felt... breathless.
Oskar didn't know what gave him the feeling but he had the sudden urge to look downwards towards his chest where he originally felt the impact.
When he did turn his eyes downwards, his eyes widened in disbelief while his jaw dropped.
At the direct centre of his chest ,there was a huge fist-sized hole that had completely pierced through both the protective armour of his exo-suit and his body.
A mix of red and yellow embers flickered dimly within said hole, as if it was 'freshly burnt.'
Even though there was a massive gaping hole in his body, Oskar didn't feel any pain whatsoever.
All he felt was the shock at such a sight.
It didn't take long for Oskar to decipher what had just happened.
Oskar tried to speak but his mouth failed him.
A good part of his lungs were disintegrated.
He was literally at a loss for words.
Soon, his legs finally gave away as he fell limply backwards, the sound his body hitting the floor echoing in his ears.
Although he couldn't make it out properly, he also heard the sound of Tracy and Jordan collapsing.
In an instant, they were all killed, without even being given a chance to resist.
Laying on the metallic flooring of the ship, the coldness of the floor was the only thing that Oskar 'felt.'
Gazing upwards onto the ceiling, he felt his body becoming more and more numb while his eyesight became more blurry.
In his dying moments, he can't help but once again think 'why did this have to happen to him?'
This was supposed to be his last job.
...
Cynthia couldn't help sighing happily in satisfaction as she watched all three of the traitors collapsed simultaneously.
She hasn't lost her edge.
In the five years of inactivity since her first death, she had proven that she was still a force to be reckoned with.
While she had yet to reach the heights of her past life, this was an acceptable level for now, especially since she was 'only five years old.'
Other than that, it was rather nice to once again test her abilities in a real scenario, she never really liked practicing against "predetermined " training scenarios.
With a smile, she casually strolled over to Oskar's body which laid sprawled out across the floor.
His face was permanently frozen in an expression of shock, as if he still couldn't believe what had just happened.
At the sight, Cynthia couldn't help making a throw away remark.
"Well even though I know that you can't hear me, you can rest assured that I indeed went through the same pain as you did."
Although she didn't feel the slightest bit of sympathy for the traitors, she did empathise with them.
After all she had gone through the same 'pain' that they were currently going through.
That 'pain' of course being the entire ordeal of death.
That horrible feeling of death.
That endless void of nothingness.
Even just the mention of the so-called 'afterlife' brought shivers to Cynthia's spine.
"No... never... never again..."
As she spoke to herself, both of her hands curled into a pair of fists.
"I will never go through that horrible ordeal again. That... that is why I must become stronger. That is why I must transcend this body quicker"
Soon, she felt a 'liquid' sensation in her hands as blood dripped onto the floor from her knuckles.
"I will- no I can never rest.
Until my power is unrivalled within this cold and uncaring universe , I can never rest.
Until I can ensure that I can permanently elude the grasp of death, I can never rest.
Until then I can never rest."
With her resolve once again strengthened, Cynthia turned to leave, only to be distracted by a certain sound.
It was an almost indiscernible sound. She followed it to its source and found it in the ear of the dead man.
A voice.
"Hmmm?.. What's this?"
When she turned her attention towards the source of sound, she saw a small ear hook communicator.
Without hesitation, Cynthia picked up the communicator and placed it next to her ear, listening to the voice that came from the other side.
"Team Tint? Team Tint? Do you copy? I repeat. Team Tint? do you copy?"
Cynthia smiled as she listened to the ear hook communicator before she took it out of her ear and then burned it a crisp with her green flame.
It would seem that she would soon get another chance to test more of her abilities.