Priya stared at the bracelet on her wrist. It had been a while since Zarek had contacted her, but from time to time she had listened in on him just because. Maybe he knew she was doing that, which was why he wasn't worried. But that didn't mean that she wasn't.
Unfortunately, she didn't have Atom Link, so her ability to use the bracelet as an extension of her senses was limited. The only reason she could at all was because she didn't have limitations in the sorts of Godsfall she could control. So long as she interacted with a kind of Godsfall, it would come naturally to her.
It was just that this kind required far too much control. She bet that she would need to have at least A Class Intelligence before she could use this bracelet as easily as Zarek did.
Even so, it was enough... it was enough to see that Zarek had only been there for a day and yet had still almost died already.
She didn't know much about this world, but what she knew was that her man wasn't the sort to get himself into trouble easily. Even the situation with the lizardman just seemed... odd, although Zarek never explained it fully.
In her heart of hearts, she knew that it would take a great deal to force Zarek into a corner he almost couldn't get out of—and that danger had happened to him on day one of his six-month promise.
Standing on top of a sky-rise, she clenched her fists hard. If Zarek was doing so much and she couldn't at least do her part, then...
She looked down.
They were here.
She had been waiting for Belladoll for much longer than she thought she would have to, but the fire in her belly hadn't calmed in the slightest.
The idea of fighting someone who was so far beyond her in experience sounded very foolish. However, the fact Zarek hadn't tried to stop her spoke volumes.
SHUUUU!
Priya felt the rush of wind from a distance. She knew without looking that it was Marx. The moment they appeared, he had fired from a distance. But he wasn't anywhere near Priya. In fact, he wasn't anywhere near them either.
He was a full 10 kilometers away.
This was all planned by them to take the most advantage of the synergy of Marx's two talents.
No matter the projectile, its fastest speed was at its exit velocity. From then on, it continuously decelerated.
But what if one had an ability where the exact opposite would happen instead?
…
Belladoll watched ahead cautiously. From the beginning, she had been wary. Even until this point, she had no idea how Crux died, and the fear that she thought she had managed to suppress for Zarek came back in full force.
The paranoia of the Godsfall Tear leaked into the outside world, and she felt like she was constantly looking over her shoulder, wondering if one of the few she had brought with her would suddenly turn into Zarek and stab her in the back.
One would think that because of that caution, she would have been the first to notice the bullet—but she wasn't. The paranoia had caused her to slow their return on purpose, but that also meant more time tiring herself out completely.
She didn't rest a single wink, and if not for her Godsfall being so strong, her body would have been on its last legs.
However... while her body was just as spry as someone who had just come off a good night's rest, her Charisma was another matter entirely. She lagged in her response just the smallest bit, only acting on instinct from a lifetime of reflexes that weren't truly her own.
Her umbrella unfurled before her, a pulse of radiant light taking shape.
BOOM!
Belladoll heard the explosion long before she felt anything. She thought that that was a good sign—she was certain...
Until she was flung off her feet, flying back so far that she crashed through the glass fixtures of a sky-rise, right through the lobby, and out the back.
Her body shook and quaked beneath the impact, and she looked down at her arm, only now realizing she hadn't felt anything.
It was practically gone.
It had been twisted back, her shoulder ripped out of its socket. It had blown back so far that it barely hung from her collarbone with a few strings of flesh.
Horror.
That was all she could feel.
This was the first time in this life that she had experienced such an injury, and the wave of pain hit her all at once, causing her mind to shut down completely.
In her daze, she didn't even realize that her group was being surrounded in a well-coordinated assault.
The moment Marx fired, they had their signal, converging on the region with sheer numbers. Unfortunately, in the apocalypse, there was no easy method of long-distance communication. Had they prepared for this in advance, they could have created a method. But Crux and Belladoll had entered this with confidence, not expecting that they would return in defeat—or least of all that Zarek and the others would return so much earlier than them.
In the midst of the sudden chaos, Dalton gave his subordinates a look. Not a single one of them hesitated, immediately following Dalton out.
Dalton's sword sang, and he swiped down with a roaring might.
All of a sudden, space seemed torn in two and he leapt forward.
The timing was too perfect. The spatial tear barely lasted more than a breath of time. Those Dalton signaled understood. The others, though?
They were left high and dry while their leader was still staring at her arm as though she couldn't believe what had just happened.
…
Marx gasped for breath on a rooftop, flashing in and out of consciousness. However, there was a wide grin in the depths of his heart, though he wasn't able to control his expression to display it.
He had done it.