The Primordials: Lustless Prides (Book Three)

Chapter XXIV: Counterstrike (Pt.4)

      As I watched Verin look directly at me, my blood ran cold. Then she palmed Trik's head before vanishing and appearing before me in the next moment. Without a word, she grabbed me, coated me in her spirit energy, and took to the skies.

      Before I could realize what had happened, we were standing in a dim room with three huge holographic monitors hovering in the air. The room felt like a repository of some sort, except it was empty of everything besides us and the screens. I could tell by the dust and old smell that hung in the air that the place hadn't been occupied in ages.

      "Here we are," Verin's voice echoed as she looked at me.

      "What is this," I asked, glancing around for any exits we could try to escape through.

      "You won't be leaving," Verin asserted, deadly serious before answering. "What I have in store is something I want you to see. Now shut up and watch. Or would you prefer I torture you first?"

      Knowing there was nothing I could do, I complied as Trik and I observed silently while Verin turned on the monitors. Each screen was split into twelve different camera relays of three different locations. On the left was the Sadios estate in Montreal – dozens of purple protrusions were extended from buildings, several of which were sliced into pieces. It looked like it had rained blades all over the estate. In the middle was my family's base in the forest – many buildings were uplifted, and the ground was uneven. There was even a wall of stone covering part of the Cerebral tower. And on the right was the Russo's base in the desert – there was light icing in several spots over the territory and a few fires raging on.

      "Wha–"

      "Enjoy," Verin whispered as she stood behind me.

      As I watched with trepidation, Wren was seen leveling the entire Russo base by opening a massive sinkhole, giant enough for everything to start slowly crumbling and falling into it. To my horror, I could see arms waving from several buildings as humans were stuck inside them.

      The visions... I thought. To confirm it, I looked at the screen on the left. A few of the camera relays were from inside the Sadio Power, where I witnessed Junichiro moving with terrifying speed and precision. He cut down anything and everything that moved without remorse. There were a few floating weapons made of his spirit energy floating around him, killing and shooting through walls as if operating on their own. Before finally ending his slaughter–by extending his blade's reach by several hundred feet as he did against Tymon–in one sluggish but powerful swing, he rotated three hundred and sixty degrees, cutting through every building in and some outside of the Sadios' territory of the city. This caused many of the buildings to either topple or erupt in explosions.

      On one of the cameras, I could see Damien unconscious, bleeding, and badly wounded as he was pinned to a wall with two blades stabbed through his shoulders.

      Looking back at the Russos' I searched for Naomi. I found her unconscious as well, her body gradually sliding towards the edge of a piece of building she was on that was about to plummet into the abyss below it. Her ice tails were cracking and falling apart as she descended further.

      Looking at the screen in the middle, I immediately tried to locate Arne. Surely, Arne would be faring better with their indestructible body. To my dismay, I located Arne and saw they were in a much worse state than the others. Arne was conscious, though barely, as they sat against a wall with half their face burned. A pair of activated suppression cuffs on their wrists led me to believe Arne had been unable to use Hardshatter or their spirit energy to defend themselves.

      No...

      Each of them had been utterly defeated. I knew the High Gods were powerful, but it shouldn't have been easy for them to beat Damien and the others. Suddenly, it dawned on me that Damien and the others wouldn't have been able to use their hybrid forms with the humans around. She'd been so focused on her feelings about the situation that she hadn't considered that when she asked them to go. Meanwhile, Junichiro and the others didn't have to worry about showing any restraint.

      That is what Arne meant about being handicapped, Viraa input abruptly.

      You could have told me...but you kept something important to yourself as usual. I accused her, reproached.

      We have been through this already: you can sense my inten—

      I don't care about your intentions! I screamed internally, clenching my fists. You knew that they wouldn't be able to put up a real fight and said nothing!

      They went there because of your request. Not mine.

      "Are you serious!? I'm only 20 fucking years old!" I yelled aloud. I couldn't remember the last time I felt that angry about something. "You're like a billion and know what's going to happen! So, of course, you'll see and catch things I won't! You said you were here to guide me. Look at this! How are you helping if you sat by and let me nearly get them killed!? Your own creations!"