Time seemed to grind to a halt around me as the eerie and suffocating pressure from olivia's aura swirled around like a calm wind before a ferocious storm. Yet she wasn't moving just...watching.
"You want to say those words again, old man?" Gwen sneered a look of unadulterated disgust painted on her face. Her presence was even more intimidating than the sword still strapped to her back.
"Why do you care for what I say, lass? She's just a slave and will be treated as such. Now, if you aren't going to join me for the evening, I have business to discuss with the demo -" His words cut out as her false aura seemed to cripple the man.
"I care because of a simple reason. You are a stain that must be removed now before your fettered and filthy seed can be placed elsewhere." She said as the electricity amplified her voice to an alarming degree, truly showing her anger at his nonchalant remarks.
The merchant currently using all of his strength was struggling to even maintain his balance. Even so, he reached for the firearm on his hip with a murderous and determined look in his eyes. Like a bug that refused to be crushed, he moved as quickly as he could while still being under her pressure he succeeded in firing a shot off from the old gun.
The bullet grazed gwen's shoulder as it passed by, not even causing the veteran ascended to flinch. Instead, she just tilted her head and said with an amused smile, "Oh, you must not realize who you just shot at, sir.." a cold smirk replacing the smile that was once there she added, "My name is gwenavere the current commander in charge of this city's forces..and you have just assaulted me with the intent to kill."
The old man's face switched from triumphant to horrified before yelling out, "You're lying! There is no way the commander would be waltzing through the streets with a demon-kin!"
"Very well, hold out your key," Gwen replied a vindictive smile on her face as she released some of the pressure she was exerting so he could move. Doing as she said, he scanned her palm, and then his face went pale as a ghost at what he saw.
Name: Gwenavere Harlow
Social status: Supreme echelon
Rank: Current supreme commander of all nexus forces
Threat level: Classified
Status: Alive
With a satisfied smile, she looked down at the man who was now on his knees in disbelief she grabbed him by the collar and pulled him up with ease. As soon as they were face to face, she said without a hint of emotion. "For the attempted murder of a military officer, I Gwenavere Harlow sentence you to death."
With a swift and elegant move from her blade, she pierced the man's torso with ease. As she removed the sword, his body crumpled to the ground. His eyes began searching for anyone to help him while attempting to speak, but all you could hear was wet gurgles being produced by the blood seeping into his throat. Then just like that the life left his eyes and his body became motionless, it was a quick and effective execution one that's been practiced time after time by gwen through various battles and duels with others and creatures.
"He deserved this and much more." Olivia hissed while moving to walk away from the sight of the man's corpse, a hollow expression on her delicate face. The only sign that she hadn't lost control of her emotions yet was her emerald eye, as it seemed to glow with a newfound purpose. What that purpose was, however, I didn't know yet.
"Sorry, little brother, for the abrupt interruption, I couldn't restrain myself. It's humans like that I can't stand to have in my city, especially when they decide to attack those above them with sheer ignorance." Gwen said as she approached me.
"No, don't apologize, to be honest. If you hadn't done it, I was going to. Well, regardless now that the show is over, let's get out of here before we draw a crowd. we are only a few blocks away from the apartment anyway." I replied a sense of disappointment and satisfaction tinged in my voice. 'I agree with olivia that was over far too quickly.'
"Before that, let me notify the officer of this sector, wouldn't want to leave a body in view of the public longer than necessary, right?" She said as she quickly took out her communicator and sent a brief but detailed message of what had happened.
"Yeah, that's a good point," I replied, not caring about the procedure. After a short five minutes, a crew of officers and morticians showed up and removed the slave merchant, placing him in what looked like an ordinary black trash bag without a hint of respect or care. As soon as they had finished and gwen spoke to them, we were on our way again, reaching the apartment in only a few short minutes.
After stepping inside the apartment, I looked around in a hurry, hoping sophie hadn't beaten me home. Letting out a sigh of relief knowing she wasn't here yet, I turned and faced my guests with a smug grin, "Welcome to my humble abode, go ahead and use the restroom, there should be spare clothes in the closet that'll fit both of you." I said.
"Are you expecting more company other than us, sir?" Olivia asked with curiosity after seeing me look around the apartment with a worried expression.
Tensing up, I said, "Uh yeah, kind of a close friend should be arriving shortly, so it may be best you get clean before she gets here." Hoping that would satisfy their curiosity, I went to enter the kitchen before I felt a familiar stare on me.
"Oh, this friend is a she? My, my, you certainly keep a lot of women around you, dear brother..." gwen said while looking at me with a juvenile smile.
I'd say it looked cute, but honestly, it was terrifying. She gave me the look of a genuinely suspicious older sibling before adding, "Be sure not to string all of them along, or they may just kill you in your sleep!" With that she turned and guided olivia to the restroom a faint giggle coming from her and even more surprising it seemed olivia found that last sentence funny as well as she started to giggle right along with her.
'String them along? Yeah, right. I'd rather die another hundred times than be with any of you monsters.' I thought as I began pulling out the fresh ingredients I could find in the fridge. However, it seemed I didn't have much to work with, or rather, sophie didn't.
"You'd think she would keep the kitchen better stocked than this," I said aloud to no one in particular. After scouring the fridge and then the cupboards, I placed everything on the counter and began looking at what was in them.
"Let's see here. we've got some genuine fettuccine noodles along with a real Alfredo sauce, and I think this is real chicken. Eh, whatever, even if it's not, I'm sure gwen will be happy with it all the same!" I said, satisfied with my decision on what to make.
After laying everything out I began to chop the chicken down into smaller pieces so they could be cooked quickly and evenly while putting the noodles on a low boil, when suddenly the kitchen felt far warmer than it should be.
'Is this burner busted or something? I set it to low, and it shouldn't be producing this much heat.' Thinking that something was broken, I began to inspect the state of the stove when I heard a calm voice speak from right behind me, which made my heart freeze.
"Gwen, huh? Ra-ra, do you mind telling me who's in my shower and who exactly it is that you are cooking for? Since it's not me." Sophie spoke in a calm tone even though the air around began to spark from the heat her aura was putting off, the smile on her face though pleasant to look at was just a mask because her eyes looked at me as if I had just insulted her whole family while kicking their graves.
"Well, uh, you see, sophie." I stammered out, trying my best to explain this in a way that wouldn't get me hurt or worse spark a fight between the three girls. "It's no one super important! She's just my commander in the military. I'm sure you've heard her name once or twice, right? Gwenavere, the current Supreme Commander of the Nexus military...?" Quickly adding my reasons for her being there, I didn't even stop to breathe.
"Well, anyway, she was pissed I went missing there for a couple of days, and instead of demoting me or transferring me, she only asked. I cooked her dinner! Which I admit is a bit odd.. but not too out of character for her.." I said in a rush while taking a few steps back as I started to see the packaging for the noodles smoke on the counter as the radiant heat began to slowly melt it.
'Please calm down, I've had a long enough fucking day as it is!' I thought quietly while trying to observe her facial expressions, hoping to see a sign of understanding or at the very least just disappointment!
She sighed heavily before speaking. "Ok is that the only person here? Because I can feel another's aura you know and it's not one that could be emitted from a human...It'd be best to just be honest about it now ra-ra."
It's not like I was trying to hide olivia from sophie and honestly I knew or at least should've expected she could sense her, but after everything that happened today I didn't even think up how to explain the girl's situation to the dormant volcano that was sophie. Finally, I just decided to speak the truth.
"Alright, I'll start from the beginning, while I was walking to the military command building I ran into a slave merchant." Her eyebrows seemed to perk up at that last part patiently waiting to hear the rest. So I continued in a flat matter-of-fact tone.
"After annoying me with his shouting I went to take a closer look at his "merchandise" only to notice he was selling a half-breed teenager who seemed to be on death's door, upon realizing her species I um...negotiated a lower price and bought her." I finished, waiting for her cold response but instead, all she did was ask more questions.
"That doesn't explain how I can feel her aura ra-ra. If she is indeed a half-breed slave and was at death's door how can I sense her?" Saying that last part more as common knowledge rather than a real question.
"You're correct," I replied nonchalantly before adding. "But it is me we are talking about, as soon as we reached military command I "procured" two vials for her which seemed to do the trick and bring her back to her previous strength. Honestly, you should've seen her before taking them she looked like the wind could've taken her out I couldn't even sense a hint of an aura at first." Letting out a light chuckle I continued.
"Unfortunately that's where the problems began."
Sophie gave me a look that suggested I continue with my story but I only shrugged saying, "we should wait for the other guests they can help explain things as well, I still have a dinner to cook so get comfortable it's going to be a long night..."