Chapter 545: Kara And Aki [Bonus - ]

Chapter 545: Kara And Aki [Bonus Chapter]

The air exploded into a roaring high-pressure attack of pressurized azure water.

WHOOSH!

A massive circular ring of dense water blades detonated outward from the tip of her rapier in a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree hemisphere but the water wasn’t flowing naturally...

’I didn’t get to use this at the Lord War but sure.’

It was pressurized to a lot of water per square inch, cutting through physical matter with the terrifying precision of an industrial laser.

SHSHSHSHSHSH... CRASH!

The colossal wave of sand exploded as though it was atomized.

The individual grains of sand were stripped of their charge, saturated instantly by the overwhelming volume of water, and reduced to a harmless sloshing slurry of thin mud that splashed heavily across the asphalt, washing over the police cruisers, the tires, and the boots of the stunned tactical officers like a gentle river.

The construct was gone and completely dissolved.

Drip! Drip! Drip!

The heavy lavender-scented rain of residual water fell softly through the cleared midday air, washing away the dust and leaving the intersection sparkling in the bright sunlight.

Behind her, the Captain sat half-collapsed against the hood of her cruiser with her face paper-white and her uniform soaked to the bone in warm water and mud, staring at the red-hooded back before her with wide disbelief.

Evelyn didn’t even turn around as she flicked her rapier downward, shedding the last droplets of water from the crystal edge with a clean sharp shlick.

"Don’t wet your pants, Captain," Evelyn said with her voice deadpan, carrying easily through the quiet street. "It’s just water."

The Captain swallowed hard, her voice trembling as she struggled to stand up straight.

"Y-You... you wiped out that Rogue in a single strike..." the Captain stuttered, her eyes darting to the massive puddles of mud drowning the street. "The... the mana power... how—"

Evelyn didn’t answer.

Her left hand rose, pointing toward the far corner of the intersection that was thirty yards away.

There, having survived the dissolution of the main body, the small dense dome of wet sand was scrambling frantically toward the iron bars of the storm drain, trying to slip beneath the city streets and vanish into the darkness.

"Did you really think I forgot about you?" Evelyn muttered.

GLUG!

A high-velocity sphere of pressurized water formed instantly around her extended left palm, no larger than a billiard ball, spinning with enough centrifugal force to whistle like a falling shell.

She flicked her wrist.

THWIP!

The water-bullet tore through the air, crossing the thirty yards in the blink of an eye.

POP!

It struck the retreating dome of wet sand dead center.

The compacted sand ruptured instantly and the moment the containment broke, the horrifying truth detonated before the eyes of the entire police squad.

SPLASHHHHH!

A massive violent explosion of thick dark-crimson blood erupted from the ruptured sphere, painting the surrounding concrete, the curb, and the iron sewer grating in a sickening shower.

The metallic stench of so much blood hit the air like a hammer, filling the clean afternoon breeze with the unmistakable reek of slaughter.

The officers gasped in collective gagging horror.

"Is that...?" the Captain choked out, clapping a gloved hand over her mouth as her stomach violently churned. "Sweet merciful gods... that’s all the blood from the victims..."

Evelyn took a long exhausted breath through her nose, feeling the strain of the mana-discharge settle into her joints.

With a soft fluid motion, she reversed her grip on the crystal rapier.

SHING!

The translucent blue blade dissolved into shimmering motes of cerulean light, returning straight into her Lord Inventory.

She reached down, pulled the hem of her oversized red hoodie straight, and ran a tired hand through her messy black bun, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

Evelyn turned around and slowly walked toward the police cruisers with her scuffed sneakers splashing softly through the puddles of mud.

The officers immediately lowered their rifles, stepping back to give her a wide reverent berth.

They looked at her petite frame, her pale face, and the dark circles under her eyes with a mixture of awe and terror.

’How high has she gone in Core Advancement...?’

The Captain stepped forward, snapping her boots together and bowing her head deeply at a sharp ninety-degree angle of military respect.

"We owe you our lives, Lord Evelyn," the Captain said, her voice shaking with genuine humility. "The Valoria City Police Department is forever in your debt. If there is anything our precinct can do to facilitate your official report—"

"Save the bow," Evelyn cut her off, stopping five feet from the cruiser and looking at the Captain with mild irritation. "First of all, I’m a Classic Lord."

The surrounding officers blinked in surprise as several of them exchanged hurried bewildered glances.

A Classic Lord... then why did she tell them to stop bowing?! Didn’t that mean they should bow even more for being in the presence of a Lord of her level?!

Evelyn reached into the deep front pocket of her red hoodie and her hand emerged holding her black mobile phone.

She tapped the screen with her thumb, turning the glowing display outward toward the Captain and the stunned tactical squad.

On the high-resolution screen, paused in crystal-clear definition, was the frozen frame from thirty minutes ago with the ivory-suited silhouette of Harper, her pale hand clamped like an iron vice over the face of Prince Malikar, whose body was visibly desiccating into dust beneath her grip.

Evelyn’s lips curved into a dangerous smirk.

"And second of all..." Evelyn said, tapping the glass with her fingernail.

Tap! Tap!

"I have... video evidence."

...

The heavy star-iron blast doors groaned behind them as the locks sealed with a muffled concussive thud that cut off the suffocating atmosphere of the Grand Assembly Chamber.

Kara did not break her stride.

Her right hand remained firmly clasped around Aki’s wrist, tugging the First Princess along the high, vaulted corridors of the Citadel’s inner perimeter.

The obsidian flags beneath their boots were polished to a mirrored finish, reflecting the nervous twitching silhouettes of the imperial guards stationed every ten paces.

The guards stood rigid, halberds clutched in white-knuckled grips and their breastplates humming with latent mana.

Yet as the pair approached, not a single soldier dared to step forward and not a single officer barked for credentials.

Their eyes flicked between the First Princess’s flushed tear-streaked face and the one-armed woman in the charcoal double-breasted suit whose empty sleeve swayed with lazy insolent ease against her ribs.

Everyone had felt the tremor minutes ago and everyone knew the woman walking down their corridor had looked the King of the World in the eye, called him a cowardly father, and dared him to unleash the First King’s Destruction.

...What a disrespectful woman.

Kara stopped in front of a heavy oak door reinforced with brass filigree as she turned her head toward a guard sergeant pressed flat against the wall.

"Hey," Kara said. "Is this an empty lounge?"

The sergeant swallowed so hard his adam’s apple bobbed over his iron gorget. "Y-Yes, My Lady. It is the private staging antechamber for foreign emissaries."

"Cool... We’re borrowing it."

Kara pushed the handle down with her single hand, hauling Aki inside before the guard could even stammer out a protest.

The moment their heels crossed the threshold, Kara paused as her single right hand did not leave the brass doorknob.

Her violet eyes narrowed slightly behind her wire-rimmed glasses as her senses flared outward in an invisible circular sweep, mapping every cubic inch of the lavish room... the velvet divans, the cold hearth, the ornate baseboards and the crystal sconces lining the ceiling.

Beside her, Aki pulled her wrist free with her chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath.

"W-Wait," Aki whispered frantically, reaching out to tug the sleeve of Kara’s suit and her eyes darting toward the ornate molding. "You can’t talk here... You shouldn’t even speak freely... Every single staging room in the Citadel is rigged with listening arrays and the scribes... they monitor the arrays through the floorboards to record every delegation’s private—"

Kara didn’t let her finish.

She reached out with her right index finger, pressing the pad of her flesh lightly against the plaster wall beside the doorframe.

BZZZZZZZZT!

A sharp violent web of blinding pale-blue lightning erupted from her fingertip.

It raced through the interior masonry like a swarm of starving serpents as the lightning traveled through the star-iron conduit pipes, snaked behind the baseboards, surged into the copper wiring of the ceiling chandeliers, and jumped straight through seventeen hidden runic listening stones embedded within the plaster.

POP! POP! CRACKLE! SSSSSSH!

A sequence of muffled electrical ruptures snapped behind the drywall as tiny wisps of gray acrid smoke curled out from the corners of the ceiling, accompanied by the distinctive smell of fried copper and shattered quartz.

Kara pulled her hand back, lifted her index finger to her lips, and gently blew a thin trail of smoke away from her nail.

"Thor showed me that trick," Kara muttered, clicking her tongue with satisfaction. "That lady might be a drunken couch potato ninety percent of the time, but when it comes to short-circuiting devices, she knows her stuff."

She reached behind her, grabbed the edge of the heavy oak door, and kicked it shut with the heel of her shoe.

SLAM!

The mechanical deadbolt clicked into place and the room fell into silence, insulated from the rest of the world by three feet of stone and a completely fried surveillance circuit.

Kara let out a long sigh that rattled her collarbones as she rolled her shoulders back, reaching up with her single hand to pinch the bridge of her nose, letting her head drop forward for two seconds as if shedding twenty pounds of performative arrogance.

"Man," she groaned, rotating her neck until the vertebrae popped with clean muffled clicks. "Sitting in those fancy chairs is exhausting. My lower back feels like someone hit it with a cinderblock... How do these nobles do it all day without falling asleep?"

She turned around, letting her hand drop.

"Anyway—"

Kara stopped dead.

Standing in the center of the Persian rug, Aki was trembling from her slippers to the collar of her navy velvet gown.

Her head was bowed with her shoulders shaking with violent suppressed tremors.

Her face was flushed a dark feverish crimson with her lips pressed together so tightly they were white, and her eyelashes were completely soaked with moisture.

She looked like she was desperately trying to hold in a hurricane with her hands clenched into white-knuckled balls within the heavy folds of her skirt.

DRIP!

A single fat tear spilled over her lashes and splashed onto the polished floorboards.

Kara blinked behind her glasses as she stepped forward, leaning down slightly and her violet eyes widened with genuine panic.

"Whoa, hey," Kara said, her voice dropping into a gentle tone. "What’s wrong? What happened? Did someone hit you on the way out? Is it your hand?"

She looked down at her own right palm, flexing the calloused fingers in confusion.

’Did I grip her wrist too hard?’ Kara thought, a spike of internal guilt striking her chest. ’Damn it, I keep forgetting she doesn’t have mana reinforcement to pad her joints. Did I sprain her wrist when I dragged her out of the chair?’

"Aki? Talk to me. Did I hurt you?"

At the sound of her name, the dam broke.

Aki choked and a ragged strangled sob tore out of her throat with her chest heaving as she squeezed her eyes shut.

"N-No..." Aki gasped, the words stumbling over each other as they were thick with mucus and suffocating grief. "N-No, you... you didn’t... I..."

She tried to force her mouth to form the syllables.

She tried to say thank you... She tried to say you saved my life... Aki tried to say nobody has ever stood between me and my father before...

But every time she drew a breath, the crushing weight worthlessness caught in her windpipe, turning her words into broken pathetic wheezes.

"Th-Tha... th-thank... y-you..." she stuttered, her voice cracking like dry wood. "I... I’m... I’m s-sorry... I’m s-so..."

Kara took another step, raising her single hand awkwardly.

"Hey, easy. Breathe. You’re hyperventilating. Look at me, you’re fine. Nobody’s touching you. Just take a deep—"

Aki moved.

With a desperate uncoordinated lunge, the First Princess threw her entire weight forward, launching herself straight at Kara’s chest.

"Whoa—shit!"

Kara, completely unprepared for an unawakened civilian tackling her like a wild hound, lost her footing on the slick Persian rug.

Her heels slid and her center of gravity tipped backward then with an ungraceful crash, both of them went sprawling across the floorboards.

THUD!

Kara hit the ground on her back with her single right arm instinctively coming up to protect her head, only for Aki to land squarely on top of her.𝒻𝑟ℯℯ