"What the hell are you talking about?" Gruel raised an eyebrow. He never heard something like that before and he found it absurd. He's always thinking that women are nothing but whining insect whose role is just for production and pleasure. He is still looking at the silhouettes of the the women who just arrived.
"Is he uncivilized?" a girl with a short bob-cut hair said with a tone of sarcasm. The girl with braided long hair laughed.
"Didn't I tell you before we came here?! They're the Barbarics! They know nothing but fight! In short, they're all meat-brains!" the girl with a witch hat and a wavy hair said and let out a pitchy laugh.
Gruel was insulted by this. His eyes narrowed and his teeth are grinding together.
"What did you just say filthy woman?!" he yelled from below. He is still on top of Amiana.
"Did you clogged your ears or you just don't get it?" the girl replied.
"Maybe the former. He doesn't look like a person who cares about hygiene!" the bob haired girl said.
"And yet he's sitting at Lady Amiana! That piece of scum!" the braided woman said. They all glared at him. Even with just the silhouettes, he can sense their deadly glares.
"How dare you look down on me?!" Gruel growled. "Come down here! Let me tear you into pieces!" he yelled again.
"Did you just ordered us?! Who do you think you are?!" the three girls said in unison.
Gruel paused momentarily. This made Amiana decided to attack him. Gruel slowly standing up however, when he was halfway upon standing up when a little figure of a woman landed on his back. He stopped and looked behind him. A knife was pointed in between his eyes. A sharp look was darted to him and looked at him as if he was some trash. He was about to say something when the little girl preceded him.
"How long do you intend to stay on top of milady, you rascal?!" the little girl said in a low grating voice.
Gruel felt something he didn't before. The look on the girl's eyes seem to drain every inch of strength and confidence in him and replace it with intense agitation. He was stoned and wasn't able to move from that position. Sweat is starting to build up on his forehead. The little girl pressed the pointed knife between his eyes and the blood flows from the wound.
"Didn't you hear me? Answer me." Her tone was composed but her voice shows the opposite.
He wanted to say something but his mouth wouldn't cooperate. His throat felt dry and his jaw seems to be locked out. He could've just thrown her away from him. Judging from her built, she might have weighed less than fifty. However, for some unknown reason, he could not move. It's as if his very system of his body had stopped function. He felt as if he was crawled in by a snake in his body.
"Hey--."
"That's enough Zana." Amiana said and with all her strength pushed the Barbaric man away from her body.
Gruel was pushed away and thanks to that he came back to reality. He was asking himself what had just happened and what did that girl do to him. If she had done something, how did she do it in an instant? Only that little girl could answer that question but he knows that even if he ask her, she wouldn't tell me.
"I used an eye to eye hypnosis." The little girl blurted suddenly which made him surprised.
'She's actually telling me?' he said menntally.
"I don't mind telling you. You'll gonna die anyway." She added as if she's reading his mind.
Doubt filled his mind and he's trying to stop his mind from working.
"It's futile. The more you tell your mind to stop working, the more it works." She said again.
Gruel can't believe this is happening. All his life, women spent time with him in fear and submission and he's the one who is looking down on them. But at this moment, the tables have turned.
"That meat brain's mind is actually working?" the bob haired girl asked and the other two descended as well. The four of them stood with Amiana being in the middle and formed a V formation.
"W-W-What's going on?" Gruel managed to speak.
"Oh? You can actually speak?" Zana asked.
"Enough talk. Let's just do it." Amiana demanded.
"Yes ma'am!"
In the V formation, Amiana on the center and the two girls on her right and two girls on her left. The last person on the left, placed her right hand on top of the shoulder of the person beside her and the opposite side did the same. Two hands are on the both shoulders of Amiana.
"A-A-Are you gonna do another bluff again?!" Gruel said trying to act brave but his stuttering that he's tensed.
"Did you remember that arrow I shoot you last time?" Amiana said referring to the red arrow she shot him.
"Arrows? There's many of them! They were weak actually." He replied trying to look tough but his showed that he realized what the lady general had meant. Amiana noticed it.
"I missed that on purpose." She said seriously.
"Huh?! You know what, sometimes you really gotta admit that you have committed mistakes." He said trying to ridicule the general.
"Coming from a criminal, huh?" she fought back and Gruel hissed. "I sent that arrow away to Dame to ask for reinforcement." She added. Dame is a part of Amane where they live.
"You sounded like a kind of weakling general who needs help from her fellows! You must have understood that you have no chance against me!" Gruel said laughing. It seems that his fear and tension subsided.
"Yes, I hate to admit it but at my current state, I am unable to defeat you…. alone." She said and there it is again. But this time it's not just her. She and the girls glowed red like the arrow she had just sent earlier.
"I'm betting another missed shot. That's it! The generals of Amane are worthless and just for a show! You're nothing but a weak piece of flies!" Gruel said and he was laughing hysterically.
"Don't misunderstood me. My mission is not to defeat nor to fight you for pleasure, but to kill you." she said sternly. The red light around them grew bigger. The immense and dense aura made a strong current of wind that is enough to crack the walls.
Gruel realized his mistake. These women are not an easy prey. They're dangerous. He was shaking to the bones and the horror of his face had gotten worst. He decided to run but the next thing that happened is really quick.
Before he could even take a step, something pierced his chest. He was unable to see how it was done. But something is strange. The arrow just stayed in his chest and a few moments, it suddenly moved and spiralled. He wasn't feeling any pain but the arrow slowly entered his body and build up on his chest.
Suddenly, he's seeing some things. Some things he could say, very familiar to him. A dark red colored vision, a body lying helplessly, faces he could remember, and the cold and dark room. Too much extent, he's hearing some things too. A cry for help, someone begging him to kill her already, and an endless cry of helplessness. How could he not recognize it? It were the very same things that he's lived with for the rest of his life. Was it really what he wanted? As far as he can remember, he's enjoying the things he had done but none of it seems to satisfy him. He was looking for something. Something that could make him stop doing it.
In reality, he just stood there looking fazed. His face looked like he's feeling a nostalgia and a mixture of emptiness and sadness. The girls looked at him with disdain.
"Why did you not finished him?" Zana asked the lady general.
"I know I said earlier that I was going to kill him. But I never said I would take away his life." The girls were confused at what she had just said.
"I intended to kill that part of him and make him anew. He should live a life he really wanted." Amiana added.
"A life he really wanted? He's a criminal! And a man!" cried the bob haired woman.
"Zana, Alyr, Kreiss, Anoa. Did you really think that those who made bad things actually wanted to do bad? We were born not knowing anything. What makes us who we are in the future are product of what we are taught of and a product of our experiences. Those people who experienced bad things in life will probably sort to bad things. Those who had it good will probably will sort to good. But even good raised people do bad things sometimes. It is not unthinkable that bad people will do something good as well. Humans have free will after all."she explained. The four women stared at her in awe.
"One more thing, not because we hated someone personally, we have to sort on killing them. Killing doesn't bring any satisfaction even to the killer itself. No one has the right to take away something that they don't own. And you don't own their lives therefore, you do not have the right to take them away from you. Besides, this man had committed so many crimes that even death wouldn't suffice. He needs to continue living and suffer with life with great burden of his sins." She said.
"Lady Amiana forgive my inquiry but if someone were to take our lives and our own lives will be endangered, do we still ceased to kill?" Zana asked politely.
"In that case, you must do anything to protect and defend your life with killing as the last option. Should you need to kill, then bear that burden for the rest of your lives."
"Lady Amiana is really amazing! I can't believe that a worthless piece of trash like me is able to follow you around!" Alyr, the girl with a bob hair exclaimed fantasizingly.
"Don't get too close to her!" Kreiss, the braided woman grabbed Alyr away from Amiana. "Milady, I am unwor----." She wasn't able to finish her words when Anoa kicked her in the face.
"Will you stop it?!" Zana said trying to stop them but ended up in the same ramble.
Amiana sighed at this usual excitement. She looked at Gruel who was kneeling on the ground while he is facing upward. He still looked fazed but he got his mouth open and tears streamed down to his face.
The arrow of remorse, that was what Amiana shot him earlier. It is a fast attack that is not intended to kill or hurt the enemy physically. She shot it through her forefinger and by the time it came in contact with the target, it will enter the target's body and flashes of darkest memories will flash into your eyes. The target will watch itself as if he was an audience of his own life. After few moments, the target will start to feel that is opposite to what it was feeling back when he was doing the things he had seen. He will start to hate himself and question everything he had done. The arrow of remorse is not intended to kill or hurt the enemy physically but rather it destroys it mentally and emotionally.
Amiana looked at Gruel with pity. It would took until sunrise for the effect to die down.
"Alyr, Anoa, stay here and guard him. Zana and Kreiss will go with me. We're going to deal with other Barbarics." She said which made them stopped from their quarreling.
"Yes ma'am!" they exclaimed.
Amiana, Zana, and Kreiss jumped to the rooftop to survey the area. Suddenly, General Jotham appeared in front of them.
"General, how's the situation?" she asked.
"What? Didn't you know? The fight's over." General Jotham said.
"What?!" the lady General cried at what she just heard. General Jotham, Zana, and Kreiss shared confused look.