"Is that him?"
"Yes," Werner replied.
"He didn't even sense us. How could you say he's too sensitive?" Arlok fired between them. Two bullets hit Werner's right blade, causing it to shatter.
"How didn't I sense them, Aria?" he spoke through the so-called Group A communication channel, allowing conversation with their Eden Crystal without making loud sounds, only "thinking" them.
"They both seem like the creatures around."
The first thing that struck Carnage was danger. These two looked far more dangerous than the old man, especially as his body didn't allow him to fight, not even with a fraction of his full strength.
But thinking about their danger wasn't his priority when, holding a sword in his right hand and a pistol in his left, he separated them with precise shots, forcing them to step away from each other. Despite shooting Werner multiple times, he couldn't hit the girl even once. She dodged, and when she finally landed and evaded all the shots, he immediately remembered her—she was the one from the "endless ocean" who killed the Supreme Enturion in the "memories" and stole the "key."
"Who are you?" They both ignored his words.
"Werner, and is this the Lord?" She smiled, looking at Arlok, feeling none of his described strength from the "scripture." "A puppet, no more," it was a provocation, spoken as loudly as possible.
Carnage coughed but tried to contain it by covering his mouth. He felt saliva mixing with blood and silently began to watch the two who remained motionless.
The capsules cracked as soon as the sound of ringing drums reached Arlok's ears. These strikes were powerful, awakening the beings sleeping inside the capsules. They attacked Carnage instantly, blow after blow, yet he managed to avoid injury with just a step. His sword slashes severed the bodies of these creatures, but that wasn't the main concern.
The girl vanished, and following her disappearance, the man began to hear other sounds—the melody of a piano.
Crack, pain—that's what Arlok felt as the seemingly delicate hand of the girl touched his side. The Lord flew off, destroying numerous capsules. He flew until his body slammed into the wall.
"Luck," the suit protected the man; what looked like fabric around him was actually a multitude of nanomachines.
A helmet appeared on his head, displaying additional combat information, while Aria tried to assist, taking a certain area of surveillance. It was Carnage's combat form, an extreme he had yet to reach, but even so, he always kept this part of the suit with him.
"You think you can kill me so easily!" Arlok struggled but managed to stand.
"Yeah, Lord, clearly much weaker than your stories about him," she drew a horizontal line towards Carnage, and the piano music intensified.
"Who is this Lord?" He bent down, remembering how a similar attack effortlessly cut the Supreme Enturion in the "ocean." It was a wise decision; the wall behind him showed the trajectory outline of this attack.
"Your attempts are futile; you don't even measure up to 'Fa,' let alone fighting with me and Werner," she shook her head, and the piano music intensified again.
Crimson eyes targeted different points; he shot at the monsters and these two peculiar individuals. Seemingly chaotic, these shots had an order unseen by others.
One shot at the monster, two at the two humans, forcing them to step in the desired direction, and another shot aimed at untouched capsules, hitting only their glass bases without reaching the liquid inside.
"You think I'm weakened? You have no idea what I can do to you!" Arlok seemed to anticipate every move of these two, delivering precise attacks with his pistol.
"Your mind is filled with old thoughts? But don't worry, soon we'll destroy all of your crew, and there will be nothing left to think about," the girl smiled, dodging Arlok's attacks.
"So, the others are alive. That's good news," he pointed the gun beneath him, the barrel aimed straight at the green line.
A shot and an immediate explosion. Carnage defended himself with the sword, releasing an enormous amount of uncontrolled energy.
Near the quarry, the ground cracked, and orange-red light burst out, destroying all the soil from the laboratory to the surface. The air heated from the clash of the two forces, crumbling and melting not only the earth but also the trees and observation towers around the quarry.
When the air and gusts subsided, the ground began to fall back, significantly less than what had already been destroyed. But in this huge crater, a small landslide occurred.
"I told you, you should've been careful!" Werner emerged from the debris.
Among hundreds of red lines emerging from the ground, a girl with long red hair appeared.
"Well, that was fun; he aimed at everything so amusingly," she pointed at Arlok with her finger.
"Damn resilient creatures, can't you just die?" Carnage pulled a coin from his pocket, bearing a strange engraving. "If you won't talk to me, then take what you deserve!"
He threw the coin, thinking it would be impossible to catch them, but attempting to kill or injure them with the Ordnance of Lucy, especially from the "Minor Masterpieces" collection, was possible.
"The second weapon; I never thought the time would come when I'd need this."
The coin began to be covered with lines, but the girl didn't wait. With a wave of her hand, the coin split in half. Inside was a white light that, after Carnage's words, flooded the surroundings.
"Lucy's Technique: Explosion!"
The white light engulfed everything within a two-kilometer radius, surpassing and encompassing the crater they stood in. Not even the sound of a piano or drum echoed; it was incredibly swift. Following that, everything seemed to gravitate towards the coin...
**
"Arlok, catch!" the girl handed the coin to the man.
"What's this toy, Lucy?" the man took the coin.
"I remember how you love history, and here..." she hesitated in front of him. "Take it; it's a gift for you!"
"For what occasion?" he raised an eyebrow.
"Just felt like giving you something," the girl smiled.
"Understood," he put it in his pocket. "And yes, be careful with it, okay?"
"Why is that?"
"It's one of the fifteen 'Minor Masterpieces,' the name of this coin is 'Birth of a Star.' It's even dangerous for you," the girl smiled...
**
"That'll explode!" Arlok shouted.
An explosion shook the planet. The Eden field was destroyed in moments, followed by the magnetic field above the explosion site.
Arlok's clothes and hair were burning, even the sword, also a 'Minor Masterpiece,' containing a huge amount of energy, trembled and convulsed as if it would crack. The pistol disappeared within the first few seconds, unable to withstand the strain. But now, there was one masterpiece less. The coin vaporized, as did a vast expanse of land.
A new crater appeared, one and a half kilometers deep and about eight kilometers wide. But from the dust cloud that emerged after the explosion, a sharp tendril shaped like a blade sliced Carnage's flesh on the face.
"Thought you could just kill us?!" the girl's fist hit his ribs again, but this time, she continued to strike. First in the leg, then in the shoulder, dislocating it, and finally, in the face.
The mask cracked; Carnage barely withstood such a series of attacks. Only thanks to his sturdy body did he endure such a torrent of assaults, but he didn't come out unscathed. One rib cracked, and the shoulder was dislocated.
"Incredible, even after that, you survived?" he looked at the girl's body; her hair was singed, but she was relatively intact. Werner, on the other hand, seemed to have received no damage at all.
"So, it was a mistake not to take the Titan with me," he could barely stand when unexpectedly, the girl struck her partner so hard that Werner's flesh tore.
"We're done here; let's move on to another!" She shifted her gaze from Carnage to Werner. "Scriptures must be accurate, don't you think, Werner?" She delivered another blow. "After all, the Lord needs protection—he's also a 'Frontier Child'!"