My blood ran cold, as I froze at the sight of that flying Aegis User. I tried to clench my fists but my body didn't let me.
In a way, that man with Aegis wings was radiating fear as he looked at us. Foreign darkness grabbed at my heart and I shuddered. It felt like Gheele Folami was right there instead, but that man floating up there had a more menacing aura than him.
His arched Aegis wings flapped a few times and a cold wind blew at us. The long, crystal feathers of it were glinting in different shades of peach. In fact, I could've sworn those wings had a faint glow emitting from it.
"A savior . . ." mumbled Segma. Her jaw dropped as she looked at that man.
His mouth curved downwards, somewhat displeased by what Segma had said.
"Run," Ulii said to us.
I turned to her. "I'll guard Tuya." With that, I formed a large crimson gauntlet from my right arm. It stretched out to act as a barrier for Tuya and her son. Odval and Khenbish each supported Tuya at her left and right sides.
I looked over my shoulder, and sure enough, that winged Aegis User was staring at us. However, he was focusing on me, and yet, he didn't take any action whatsoever.
He was merely observing what I would do.
"If he's an enemy, then why is he wasting time floating there?" remarked Qara.
That winged Aegis User took notice at what Qara had said and glared at him. Qara then darted his eyes away from that User.
After a few seconds, the winged User sighed. After that, his peach-colored crystal wings flapped slowly as he ascended to the sky.
"Argh!" I stumbled when the ground shook once more, but that time, it was stronger than the previous one Like it was threatening to bury us underneath the earth itself.
Ulii nodded at my direction and I knew what she meant.
Helena and Erhi had run along the staircase first, and the rest of us followed from behind. When we were about to reach the surface, the wall to my left exploded, where my crimson gauntlet shielded everyone from its chunks.
A few moments later, we arrived back at the lobby.
Segma was on her knees beside me, as she panted. "What in the world is happening?"
"That Aegis User," muttered Ulii. "He must be from The People's Light . . . How could they resorted to such measure to kill us?"
Tuya proceeded to sit at a red couch and so did her son.
I looked up, and certainly, every floor except the ground floor that we were at had been blown off. Replacing our view right then was the sky itself.
"The whole building . . . is gone?" I mumbled.
When I swept a quick gaze around me, piles of rubble had been scattered all over the place. "What the . . ."
"It was like someone had lifted the top floors, and cast it to the side," said Khenbish.
"That might be it . . ." Ulii said, her eyes were focused on the unfamiliar sight that greeted us.
I looked at the notice board at the wall to my right. That thing appeared clean and without dust, despite what had just happened to the whole building.
"Ava," called my Aegis.
"What is it?" I whispered.
"There's an Aegis User nearby."
"Hmm? Is it that same one with wings?"
"No . . . This one's different . . ."
Aegis was silent for a few seconds and I called for it. There was no response.
"So it's not a Pseudo-type like those guys," I said to myself. "Hmm?"
I looked at the notice board, where Ulii was just a few feet away from it.
I gasped.
My eyes caught sight of a faint ripple-like texture at the notice board that wasn't there before. Somehow, it gave me a bad feeling.
"Ulii!" I yelled.
She looked at me when suddenly, a pale white hand burst out from that ripple. It grabbed at Ulii's right arm, and a young girl with long, unkempt brown hair stepped into the lobby. The ripple then vanished like it didn't even exist. The girl had a buttoned plain, white coat covering her entire body from her shoulders to her feet.
She shot her wide, red eyes at Ulii as her hand crushed that Ulii's arm.
"Aargh!" Ulii swung her cane using her left hand at that girl, but a peculiar thing happened.
It went through her body with ease, before hitting the notice board beside her.
"Let go of Ulii!" Qara had pointed his assault rifle at that girl, and Khenbish did the same.
The brown-haired girl pressed at Ulii's arm with one quick motion.
CRACK!
"Aaaargh!" Ulii held onto her arm that was still in that girl's grasp when my dark blue scythe sliced that red-eyed girl into two pieces.
Ulii quickly moved away from her and went behind Qara and Khenbish.
"Ulii, does it--"
"It's alright. My Aegis can heal it," Ulii interjected Segma.
My legs took me to that dead girl's side when the ground shook yet again.
"What now?!" said Qara.
Odval and Khenbish swiftly went to Tuya's aid and all of us escaped into the safety outside. Mere moments later, the entire structure of the building collapsed, as it was swallowed by a huge gap below it. A deafening boom after that caused Erhi to cower behind me.
I cast a look at the huge hole that had swallowed the building in front of us. As I looked at it for a few moments, and certainly, it resembled an abyss.
"W-Why?" gasped Segma.
She approached the edge of the abyss and crouched. "Everyone is . . . Dead."
"Segma . . ." I mumbled.
My hands grabbed at the gold locket hung loosely at my neck, and I continued to stare at Segma.
As she looked at the newly-formed abyss, a pair of pale white hands sprouted out from a transparent ripple on the ground. The same brown-haired girl came out of it, and she grabbed at Segma's head with her two hands.
"No!" I directed a dark blue tendril from my left palm at that girl.
However, it passed through her body like water. My tendril stabbed at her but it didn't manage to do anything.
Then, metallic black crystals engulfed Segma's whole body and that brown-haired let go of her hands. Segma herself was unable to do anything in that state, seemingly frozen in time.
"How dare you!" My body was shaking from the anger welling up inside me. Intending to tear that girl apart, I fired crimson spikes from my palms, but it passed through her. She then coated her head with metallic black crystals, and my spikes crashed onto it hard. However, it was deflected off it.
She stood up and kicked at Segma's body.
Her frozen figure dropped to the ground and slowly, cracks appeared on her whole body. Seconds later, that crystals shattered into pieces, with Segma's flesh and blood still inside it.
"Aaaaaah!" Erhi screamed from that sight, and so did Odval.
When I looked at the brown-haired girl again, she had vanished into the ground. "W-What?"
Something grabbed my leg, and I cast a look at it, only to be greeted with that brown-haired girl's gleaming red eyes.
"My . . . sister. It is you after all," she said in a low tone.