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CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX day of vengeance
warning: this chapter contains reference to (canonical) sexual assault.
⋆*✧･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ:
WHEN GRACE ENTERED the basement, brandishing a blowtorch and wearing a nun outfit, alarm bells immediately went off in Kadence's head. Grace had been worshipping the kugelblitz like a cult member for the past few days. Her behaviour had been alarmingly erratic; Kadence had wondered multiple times if her hardware had been degrading. Before, she might have believed it was harmless, but after Grace had nearly broken her wrist in the infirmary, she started having second thoughts. Even so, they had been ignored in favour of dealing with the larger problem at hand. Which, of course, immediately came back to bite her in the ass.
Fortunately, Kadence's gut feeling was so profound that she managed to be out of the way when the first blast of fire tore through the room. Diego and Luther, on the other hand, had to leap out of the way, and only narrowly missed being set ablaze.
"Shit!" Diego yelled, landing flat on his stomach beside Kadence. Suppressing a whimper—the kugelblitz paused for no one, and was still throbbing like an open wound—she bent down beside him, checking him for injury. There were none. She wasn't sure if she should be relieved about that or not.
"The day of vengeance was in my heart, and my year of redemption hath come," Grace said again. Her voice was distorted; as robotic as the rest of her. Another plume of fire nearly took Fei and Allison out.
"What the fuck!" Kadence yelled, gasping. Perspiration trickled down her face, which was as baked as a hot potato. A few strands of her hair that had gotten too close to the blaze were burnt and crispy.
Sloane, Lila, Viktor and Nadine were still trying to keep the kugelblitz contained, but with the continued bursts of flame, one of them was sure to crack. Kadence glanced over the shelf she'd wedged herself behind, her chest heaving. Should she go out there? Perhaps if she tried to deal with Grace's molecules again...
"Hey, Mom, Mom, Mom!" Diego yelled, holding out an arm. "It's Diego. Don't make us hurt you."
"She doesn't know who you are, idiot!" Kadence screamed. Great fucking job, Diego.
Indeed, when Grace stared back at him, there was no recognition on her face. "The day of vengeance was in my heart..." Fire billowed toward them. Kadence cried out and pulled herself behind a wall. Diego followed her, but he was a second too late. His sleeve had caught fire. "...and my year of redemption hath come!"
Diego managed to put out the flames, though Kadence assumed there'd be a nasty burn there later. Grace let loose another attack, this time directed toward Luther. Again, he barely managed to dodge.
