192 Cilia

Just as he was about to laugh, he feels a powerful impact right into his guts, and before he could even vomit a mouthful of blood rushing to his head, he found himself crashing against the wall hard. Within a broken wall, Rodrick laughs maniacally, not caring about the blood dripping out of his lips. Once again, before he could stand on his two feet, he received a powerful hammer kick right into his skull, prompting him to be swallowed deeper into the shattered floor.

It was only two moves, yet the result is so destructive that if even one of them somehow managed to hit normal people, no matter how tough their body is, they stood no chance against them.

\"I really don't understand. Why cause conflict when you stood no chance against me? Why the futile effort? Is it worth it?\"

However, the current Rodrick is different. Though it took a few minutes, he finally stood up among the rubbles caused by her unrestrained attacks. If one looked closer, they can see a glimmer of red surrounding his body, and in turn, the muscles all over his body become thicker and tougher. This was a sign that Sheila had seen before coming here, and as expected, there is a small crimson gem embedded on his forehead.

\"That hurts, alright. I'm honestly surprised, it seems your strength has grown much stronger than before or is it that you held yourself back because I was just a normal person? Thanks to your naivety, today, I'm here to achieve my revenge. I won't be satisfied until I make you suffer tremendously after what you had done to me.\"

\"What I did to you? That should be my question. If you hadn't taken any action against me, I won't have to do anything. Nevertheless, you did, and I retaliated in kind. What, do you thought that I would just stand there and follow your script like an idiot when your ill intent is as clear as day?\"

Sheila calmly replied. No matter how much she wishes to torture Rodrick to endless suffering, she needs to stay rational, or she might end up killing him in her wrath. If she did that, she would not be able to get the information out of him. There has to be someone behind all this, once she gets the information she needs, she can do all she wanted to Rodrick and even if he ended up dying, it doesn't matter. With that thought in mind, Sheila disappeared from her previous location before reappearing next to the motionless Ria.

\"Huh? What are you going to do with that corpse? I told you, she's dead.\"

Rather than letting more time wasted, Sheila promptly put Ria's body into her inventory just as she did to Luke's friends. Since it hasn't gone beyond thirty minutes upon her death, there is still hope, so she can rest assured. However, it doesn't change the fact that she's dead, which can be avoided if not for the carelessness. Perhaps, because she was already informed about the predictable future that would only happen years later that she let her guard down, yet again.

Even more, the four-defensive formation that she had set up back then, it should have alerted her about these people appearing in the district since they emitted a special aura differ from normal people. However, there was no such alert. This can only mean two things—One, they somehow managed to bypass the barrier surrounding the district by using a special power, or unique item in their possession. Two, they are so powerful, or skilled that they can easily hide their aura from being detected by the formation. Either way, it's bad news for her.

\"—What, the corpse disappeared?\"

After she has done that, Sheila stood up before immediately appeared next to Yuna, which the latter quickly took notice of while completely ignoring Rodrick.

\"Senior...\"

Yuna muttered in low voice with a grave expression on her pale-looking face. When Ria was having a frightening battle with Rodrick, she was surprised at their speed and strength, especially the former; with such a slim and thin-looking body, one would assume her strength to be on the weaker side, yet the punch Yuna had witnessed actually packs a punch, at the very least more than the average adult. Even Rodrick had shown her a fearsome strength that one would not have expected from his lean figure.

At first, Yuna initially thought Ria can take care of the problem on her own, however, she soon retracted her words when she realized the latter had been back into a corner. She really wants to help but, with her insignificant strength in comparison to their overwhelming might, it would just make things much harder for Ria if she intervenes in the fights. During their battle, Rodrick has been repeating himself to Ria for her to surrender, over and over. However, knowing what it would result in their defeat, Ria didn't give in to the pressure despite being so exhausted that just by standing is already taking a toll on her body.

Yuna really wishes to tell Ria to leave her here and escape on her own, however, worrying that her shouts might distract the latter during the fight, she decided to keep her mouth shut while feeling as if her heart was pierced by a spear each time she watched Ria getting hurt from shielding her. The feeling of helplessness overwhelming her.

On each occasion Rodrick tried to attack Yuna, Ria would interfere by standing in front of the latter, protecting the latter from harm. And due to her action of taking the hit directly, wounds slowly accumulated over her body. Although she had no problem for the first few hits since she can heal herself, that quickly changed once her mana diminished to a dangerous level.

Unlike Sheila where she can bring the potion out of her inventory with just a click on her phone, Ria could only wait for her mana to naturally regenerate since she didn't have any in her pocket. And if she wanted to take the potion out of the inventory, she needs to enter the Trial Tower, which is something she can't do at that moment. If she did, Yuna would not be safe. After all, though only a few seconds would transpire in reality, that few seconds was enough for Rodrick to end Yuna with a single move.

And just like that, without being able to do anything, Yuna witnessed Ria taking hit after hit as her body slowly getting weaker each minute passed. While her tears were trickling down her cheeks, things took a worse turn when Rodrick started increasing his strength. He was brutal. He didn't stop beating Ria even though the latter was already on the brink of death. As to be expected, with a single punch that sent her crashing into the wall, that was the final breath Ria took before closing her eyes for eternity.

Yuna had thought Rodrick would feel a bit of remorse after killing someone like any normal people do, however, the man showed no sign of that. It was then that she realized that this guy was no longer sane as, within his mind, all he cares about is nothing but revenge. When there's nothing to hinder him from harming her anymore, Yuna couldn't help but tremble as the man slowly stepped toward her. Perhaps she might have been terrified by his frightening aura and brutal action, no matter how hard she tried, her legs couldn't move from the same spot as if glued to the floor.

Yuna had already given up the moment Rodrick stood right in front of her with an ugly grin on his face. Perhaps, she was so focused on trying to make her trembling legs move that she didn't notice him until he was already close to her. After all, she was just a normal person with no outstanding strength or skills like what the two had shown her in their fight. Without saying anything, Rodrick swings his hand intending to slap her, or at least he tried to but was stopped by a barrier that mysteriously appeared out of nowhere.

Rodrick was alarmed as he quickly put a distance between them while narrowing his eyes in caution at the surrounding. However, a few minutes passed with nothing happening, Rodrick finally let his guard down and immediately start assaulting the barrier with countless punches. Yuna had thought she could finally take a breather when she noticed that the barrier is slowly yet surely, starting to crack after twenty or so punches. It was then that Sheila finally appeared on the stage with a frightening aura leaking out of her body.

\"S-Senior! Yuna Senior! S-She really tried her best in protecting me! She did! And I—\"

\"I know. I have known her since childhood, so I know what she would do in this kind of situation even without you telling me about it. Although she called me reckless most of the time, she's also pretty reckless at times. Furthermore, she thinks of herself as a cold person, however, she's a lot warmer in my opinion. Don't worry, I won't let her die just like that. At the very least, I'm going to torture this guy until the anger within me is satiated. Which was why, you can take a rest now. Leave it to me.\"

With that said, Sheila patted Yuna in the back. Before the latter could answer her by insisting on staying here, her entire figure disappeared as if evaporated by her touch. Since the situation will get dangerous here, Sheila decided to send her to the safe zone in the Trial Tower. At this point, it's already too late to keep her out of the situation. Once she got the business here taken care of, she would visit there and tell her about the other side of the world that most people thought it to be fictitious. With that thought in mind, Sheila turned around and this time, clearly locking her eyes with Rodrick's and said.

\"Sorry to keep you waiting. From now on, I will thoroughly beat up, physically, until that ugly face of yours become even uglier. Be prepared as I won't be holding back my strength this time.\"

\"Hahaha! You think you can defeat me in my current state?\"

\"Second.\"

She coolly said with two of her fingers raised.

\"What?\"

\"You're the second person to say that to me. And if you wanted to know, the first one had already gone to hell. I apologies that you aren't the first one.\"

\"So you have met him. However, you underestimate me too much. That guy and I are on an entirely different level. He was nothing but a failed experiment, unlike me, a successful one! I'll show you now, the overwhelming strength that I have acquired on my path to vengeance!\"