Chapter 571 571: Dead

VR 571

"He's getting near! I can hear him!"

"Then help us get out!"

"What do you think I'm doing!?"

"Rylo… Rylo is—"

"Snap out of it!"

Screams. The screams of the women reverberated through the entire cave; what echoed back to them was their desperation, making them even more frantic as their hands endlessly tried to burrow through the thick rocks of the cave.

The three of them tried to melt and obliterate the hard rocks with their energy—but they ran out of gas before they even got a glimpse of the light outside. Aita wanted to push through more as she used all of her effort to stretch her energy, but Milla stopped her.

They don't even know if they're near the outside yet. The entrance of the cave clearly didn't collapse naturally, and the three already had somewhat of an idea of who was responsible for it.

"Riley Ross…" Pia tried to calm her breaths as she looked back to the bright walls of the cave, "...Is he… is it possible he's an intelligent monster?"

"What are you talking about!? He's a themarian!"

"I mean… the ratking didn't even try to harm him—no. It felt like it didn't even notice him. And have you ever seen a themarian look like that? His mouth also looked like it could swallow us three whole!"

"It doesn't matter what he is," Milla joined in on the conversation as she threw a large boulder toward the inside of the cave—creating a skirt of wind as thunder roared through the air, 

"We need to—"

"Milla!"

And all of a sudden, the boulder that Milla threw returned back to her—pinning her on the rocky wall as all the rubble and debris started to quake. Milla, however, just grunted as she pushed the boulder away.

"I have to apologize to the three of you."

And then, a whisper started to crawl through their ears; partnered by a calm and somewhat sinister set of steps that slowly made it's way closer to them. The three all quickly regrouped, putting up their stance as they watched as Riley walked toward them, dragging the white sack he had been carrying from the start.

"It has been a while since I have truly instilled terror and I may perhaps be getting rusty with it. There is also the fact that themarians are very hard to scare."

"Why are you doing this!?" Milla's eyes started to glow red as she stepped forward, "If you want to kill or eat us, then just eat me! Spare my friends!"

"I don't eat people, Ms. Milla," Riley raised an eyebrow as a certain hint of disgust escaped his mouth, "I'm not a cannibal. But I suppose in this case, if I do eat you—would it be considered cannibalism? You are a completely different species, after all."

"I told you, he's not a themarian! What themarian has a mouth as wide as that!?"

"Let's take this fucker! I don't think he can take on all of us at once!"

"No," Milla glanced at the two, "I will hold him back, the two of you find a way out of here."

"But—"

"I am the strongest and the oldest one out of us, just do it," Milla tried her best to stop her nervous breaths from showing as she stepped forward and looked Riley straight in the eyes,

"You… I will make you pay for what you did to Rylo."

"Hm…" Riley only nodded as he dropped the sack. And soon, a smile started to crawl on his face, "...James, the one inside this white sack, made me realize something. I may not be able to kill a large amount of you at the same time, but I can prune all of you one by one."

"..."

"Perhaps it will take years, thousands of years, and I will face adversity," Riley then started walking closer to the three, "But I believe I can do it. And after all of you are gone…the rest of the universe will follow."

"What the fuck are blabbering on about!?"

"I initially thought you are meant to be protectors of the Universe due to Aerith," Riley sighed as he shook his head, "But upon arriving here, I realized that none of you care about the world outside of yours—no. None of you even care about your neighbors. Themarians are… solitary creatures, I suppose."

"..."

"Imagine if just each one of you tries to protect every single world out there," Riley opened his palm, letting several pebbles fly on top of it as he looked at the three women, "I suppose the Guardians have that responsibility, but most of the Guardians are… fragile. Themarians on the other hand—you are really only a threat against each other."

"Stop talking and just try to kill us if you want to kill us already!"

"But I suppose not everyone could be like Aerith," Riley then once again sighed as the rocks hovering on his palm all dropped to the ground, "She lived in a world made of bubbles for 300 years, and only once did she pop something—when she fought with me."

"...Aerith? Princess Aerith?"

"Well, enough with my ideas," Riley then stopped walking as he looked the three women in the eyes one by one, "For your information, your voices and screams will be recorded."

"Wh—Ack!"

Pia was the first to scream amongst the three as a spear of rock flew straight through her shoulder, pinning her on the walls of the cave. And before she could even say anything, her words once again became screams as several more spears pierced through her flesh.

"Pia!" Milla rushed to help Pia but found her vision suddenly shifting to the floor as she did so. She turned to look at her feet, only to the back of her leg completely ripped off, revealing her bones.

Milla gritted her teeth instead of screaming… but alas, as soon as Riley stepped on her regenerating wound, a high-pitched and guttural gasp could not help but just scream out of her lungs.

"Get away from them!"

"..." Riley quickly blocked his head with his arm, blocking Aita's fist that released several thunderous echoes through the entire cave; Riley felt his bone slightly cracking as he was thrown several meters back—this injury was irrelevant, however, as it healed even before he could land back on his feet.

"Grah!" As for Aita, she raised her hand and gripped her wrist—after all, three of her fingers were missing.

"Hm…" Riley looked at the three dismembered fingers on his hand, before throwing it straight through Pia's face… two of them piercing her eyes and one through her cheek,

"...Another thing I learned; you can use another themarian's body parts as a weapon against another themarian. Like how diamonds cut diamonds; interesting, right?"

"Stop… please stop this," Pia, who was now more akin to a porcupine, very slowly pulled herself from the wall as she gritted and screamed through the pain, "Why… why are you even doing this to us!? We did nothing to you."

"Because I can?" Riley tilted his head to the side, "Because I can. But even if I couldn't, I will still try—that is what I am, after all. I am—"

"Dead!"

"..."

And all of a sudden, an eerie and triumphant silence rippled through the air. The three women, all staring at Riley's forehead… which now had a sharp spear of bone sticking out of it—and behind him…

…a shiny bald head that almost reflected their lives.

"...Oh."