Chapter 15- Silent Heaven
"Fuuuh! Hah!!" Yelling loudly, Sali slashed down with the great sword, sending a strong sword attack aiming for the mysterious woman.
The latter didn't seem bothered by it as she side-stepped the attack and quickly dashed toward Sali with her right arm shaped like the claws of an animal.
"One touch and it's game over~" She said with a wide grin as she quickly reached out to Sali with her hand.
"Ugh!"
Barely dodging the hit in the nick of time, Sali channeled her mana at the quickest speed possible.
"AAAAHHHH!!" Then, she yelled out loud, sending extremely high sounds right toward the enemy.
The scream spread across the whole area, breaking the glass on cars and windows. The buildings around them started shaking slightly, seemingly shuddering from the sheer power of the sound waves. Fortunately, Sali saw that the woman stumbled back from the attack, creating an opportunity for her.
'Now!!' Using her sword, Sali quickly dashed forward and struck powerfully, aiming for the stomach.
'I got her!!' Feeling that her sword was about to hit the target, she rejoiced slightly. However, her excitement was quickly crushed into small pieces as the woman extended her arm and shockingly grabbed the blade as if it was nothing.
"Juuust kidding~" She said as she smiled closely. Then, with a mad grin, she squeezed the blade strongly.
*CRACK*
Small cracks appeared at the edge of the sword as they quickly spread across the whole blade at an alarming speed.
'No!' Pulling herself away, Sali had to get rid of the sword before the woman could grab her.
A second later, the sword was crushed into pieces as if it was made out of thin glass and not metal.
"Oopsie~ I broke it." Tapping her head clumsily, the woman threw the sword to the side as if it was a piece of garbage.
"Tsk…"
"Are you done with your little games, princess? I have a truck to locate." The woman said.
Even from one look, one could see how bad the situation to Sali. She had lost her sword, her only weapon and yet she couldn't even inflict an injury on her enemy. On the other hand, Edward was still hidden and the truck still didn't move.
Even though Sali would've optimally chosen to create some distance between them and Edward. But, she had no guarantee that the woman won't simply turn around and choose to follow after Edward.
"Hahahah…" Holding her face, Sali started chuckling quietly.
"Hm? What's so funny, princess?" The woman asked.
"Nothing in particular. I just find the fact that I will die here of all places quite amusing, that's all."
"Ohoh? I've never heard of someone laughing knowing their death is near."
"It is weird. Well, I guess I wished to accompany my little brother for a little longer."
"How wholesome~ Such a beautiful relationship between siblings. Uh~ Just imagining how I'm going to break it sends a shiver down my spine~"
'What?! No! Sali!!!' Hearing her words, Edward's heart rate increased beyond normal as he quickly tried to push the lid with even more strength.
"Please no! Don't do this!! Come on! Fucking open!!!!" However, no punches or kicks opened the cover.
"You didn't let me finish…" Grabbing a cigarette, Sali lit it up and puffed out the smoke.
"I won't go down without sending you along with me to the deepest parts of hell."
Then, Sali's arm started shining with a weird, faint light. The huge tattoo she had was now ominously pulsating with mana as if it was alive on its own.
The eye in the middle with the blood tear shockingly started blinking. At that moment, for the first time, the woman showed another different reaction.
"You awakened your domain…" She murmured.
"Oh yes, I did. My little brother isn't someone a filthy scum like you can touch. I won't allow you to find him."
The more she spoke, the stronger the mana circulating in the tattoo grew. It reached a point where her whole body seemingly had a barrier of mana surrounding it.
"Silent Heaven!!" Lifting her hand up, all the mana in the tattoo quickly traveled there and exited from the palm of her hand.
"No!" The woman sensed the danger and quickly dashed forward at top speed, appearing in front of Sali.
Her claw hand then tried to grab Sali's neck before the latter did anything that could be threatening. Alas, she was one second too late. Sali had completely vanished. Along with it, the whole world around the mysterious hooded figure turned into a snowy white color. She couldn't see anything outside of the white world. Another detail was the calm, quiet sound she could hear around her.
'So, this is her domain. She can use sound to create a world that is akin to an illusion.' Looking around, the woman tried to sense her presence. 'I can't sense anything here.'
"Behind you." Suddenly, a voice reached her from close behind which made her instinctively reach out to grab Sali behind her.
But, her hands touched nothing.
"This is a waste of time, princess. Using the domain at your youthful age will only kill you painfully. Just give up."
"But we only started. Here, try to find me." Sali's voice reached the woman from nowhere and everywhere at the same time making her location an even bigger mystery. At the same time, the white world changed.
Countless silhouettes appeared around the woman, all looking like Sali and all smiling widely.
"Herer I am, standing in front of you. Find me." Then, the clones dashed toward the woman.
"Waste of time."
*Swish*
The woman dashed forward, hitting multiple targets at the same time. However, each one she hit ends up dissipating as if it was merely mist.
The others then quickly ganged up on the woman with their weird smiles still as prominent as ever.
"Useless!"
*BOOOM*
In a second, the woman destroyed countless clones. Then, she quickly dodged the next round of clones and destroyed them with a swipe of her leg.
'They are weak.'
"Of course they are, I just wanted them as a decoy after all."
"...!!!"
*Swish*
Before the woman could react to the sudden attack, it was all over.