The entire crowd of humans froze, their eyes widening in shock. One moment Alvin was pressing Stella and the others, and in the next Grey swung by and split his head in two.
No, it was far worse than that.
Alvin’s head melted down, splitting down his shoulders in a molten ooze that left the ground catching on fire before he even hit it. Severe burns slapped against the faces of his companions, and one of them had her hair catch on fire.
She screamed, rolling along the ground in a vain attempt to stamp it out. But it felt like the flames roaring on her were jumping from place to place, a chain reaction of blasts scorching her hair, and then her face until she was nothing but a rolling head of ash.
Shudders ran down all of their spines, their bodies freezing beside themselves. Even the eyes of Mauve and the others flashed with horror. They couldn’t believe what they were seeing.
They hadn’t experienced the other loops with Grey, how could they know why he had acted like this? All they knew was that he had just murdered a team with top five odds of becoming their next leaders in the blink of an eye with an almost careless flare.
And for what? Because he, himself, was late?
Grey didn’t care to explain. He wanted absolutely nothing to do with these people anyway.
While everyone was distracted, he had already walked right up to the cube, placing a palm over it. A sizzling, scorching echo filled the air, popping and whining against the cube’s body. However, even as it slightly deformed in his palm, Grey didn’t seem to have the intent to push it past the final straw and burn it into scrap metal.
"Come out here right now, Amunet." Grey said coldly. "I will give you three seconds. If you don’t show up, I’ll wipe out your entire team. Three."
The shadowy figures perked up when they heard these words. Hao and Zuri looked toward one another, but there was a flicker of hesitation in their eyes. Grey was just... too strong. They couldn’t feel his limits at all.
"Three." Grey began to speak casually as though he was almost intent on getting down to one. "Two."
There was a flash and a shadowy figure appeared before Grey.
"Well, that was fast, now wasn’t it? So you can do something other than slinking around in the shadows and backstabbing people."
The shadow didn’t say anything, but there was already a rapier in her hands.
Grey squeezed down on the cube and it fell into a pile of molten sludge.
BANG.
Grey’s Solveign Frame activated.
His hair had returned in wispy lines of fluorescent white. It looked like he was standing in the middle of curving red-gold magnetic field lines. The grass around him all died instantly, the whipping solar winds lashing out against Amunet and nearly burning her shadows to ash as well.
She covered her face with a forearm, her body taking a step back as she struggled against the force.
"Bring out your full strength or this is going to be an instant kill." Grey said. "This is the one chance I’m giving you."
Grey took a step and he suddenly flashed into being before her.
BANG.
A fist drove into Amunet’s gut and it was like all her light was snuffed out in an instant.
The heft of the blow felt like a streaking meteor. Grey looked little different from a god, wisps of red gold emitting from the corners of his eyes as though he was storing a nuclear reactor in his very heart itself.
SHUUUU.
Amunet shot out like a speeding rocket, her body curving in the air. Her shadows snapped out of existence, a scorching mark still being left on her belly as she soared out.
She crashed into a tree, her body curving the other way in response.
In a silent huff, she slid to the ground, her eyes shifting around in a daze. For a moment, she didn’t even know where she was, her body not reacting as fast as it should.
By the time she snapped out of it, Grey had appeared in front of her, lifting her up by her hair.
"Not fast enough, I guess." He said coldly.
Amunet coughed up a mouthful of blood that incinerated before it even touched Grey. Even with the protection of her energy, her skin was rapidly drying out. She wouldn’t even last all that long under Grey’s presence at this rate.
Yet, she just chuckled and lowered her head.
Grey frowned. He needed her to use that ability again, the one that she couldn’t control.
"Hey." Grey slapped her across the face.
J Dog barely managed to stop the others from charging forward, but even his own fists were clenched to an extreme.
Amunet still didn’t fight back. Her head snapped to one side in a bit of a daze after the slap, but in the end, she just shook her head as resignation set in.
This was all her fault anyway. Maybe she deserved it.
"Wake up, woman." Grey said coldly, holding her up by her neck. "Hurry and make those grave arms appear again. I’m running out of time here."
Amunet frowned, not understanding what Grey was talking about. Wait, how would he even know about that ability?
"If you don’t hurry the fuck up I’m going to strip you naked and shove a sword up your ass, do you think I’m playing with you? HURRY UP!" Grey said.
Amunet seemed to finally get the memo. She didn’t know why Grey was doing this, but she looked up at him with a look of disgust and then defiance.
Then she shrieked.
If that was what he wanted, then let him have it.
The ground exploded, and Amunet almost instantly felt like she had done far too much. She had let Grey’s words infuriate her, and now it was too late.
Grey’s face seemed to reflect the horror of it all as well. However, Amunet felt that he could only blame himself. She had been ready to accept her death, he pushed her to this point.