"... What a peculiar visitor."
A woman's voice echoed from one of the passages. A few moments later, she came out from the shadow of the passage.
It was a woman with rich, long, flowing black hair almost reaching her toes. Her dark-colored irises seemed sharp and cold, but mysteriously, it wasn't giving her a cold-blooded impression. She was wearing something like a turtleneck sweater paired with tight long pants. An overcoat of an unbelievably dark color was hanging over her shoulders.
However, what caught my attention wasn't the attire or her humongous knockers. It was the thing she was wielding over her shoulders.
"A sniper rifle??"
Although the shape and size don't match anything from my memory, the parts like the scope, the buttstock, the tripod, and the suppressor at the tip match what I know.
"Oh, you know what this is, brat?"
The woman, who was a few dozen meters away, seemed to have heard my mumbling. Walking closer as she spoke.
"You seem to not be from my time period though. I doubt there are guns any more in the outer world. Are you perhaps a reincarnated individual from ancient times?"
Although her demeanor was friendly, Fang never let down her guard. More like she was waiting for an opening in the mysterious lady's defenses to attack. However, despite having her weapon over her shoulder and her two hands inside her pockets, it was Fang who was sweating bullets as if all the openings in her stance were constantly targeted.
When she mentioned reincarnation, I was startled. I thought she figured out that I had memories of a different world. Hearing the words "ancient times" right after that made me have more questions than before though.
'You mean there were guns in the past of this world?! Like a super civilization or something that declined for some reason?'
However, before I could ask that, Fang raised a question to the intruder.
"Who are you? What do you want!"
It seems that Fang's nerves were quite worn. She was already trembling all over while maintaining her crouched stance. Hearing this question, the woman glanced at Fang before smiling. She seemed both happy and sad at the same time.
"Name... Name huh? It's been a long time since I used it, but I was once called Fatima."
When I heard her name, something clicked inside my mind.
"Fatima... A sniper rifle... You mean the Legendary Bounty Hunter Fatima Olgor?!"
Within legends, similar to the Void Beast, Fatima was a pretty famous individual. Although there were no descriptions of her weapons, it was said that she was a bounty hunter that can hunt her target even when they were thousands of kilometers away.
With her skill and her army of tamed beasts counting past the hundreds, she was one of the most powerful God Tamers ever recorded in ancient times. However...
"You should have existed tens of thousands of years ago, how are you still alive?!"
This was the first question I raised. God Tamers may have the word "God" on their title, but they don't live forever. With the amount of energy they have, at most, they could live for a millennium. Living for tens of thousands of years shouldn't be physically possible.
"Before that, your companion seems to be in a bad state. Her psyche is in shatters."
Even though she was still a few meters away in front of me, walking leisurely, her voice echoed from somewhere beside me. When I turned my head to my left, she was already there examining Ember's state. The figure walking in front of me vanished when I looked back.
Even Fang, who never blinked even once, didn't catch her movements. An intense feeling of fear, anger, and worry washed over the link between me and Fang.
"Don't worry, I mean you guys no harm."
After she said so, she waved her hand over Ember. Nothing happened, no light, no energy fluctuation, nothing. However, a few seconds after, Ember shifted and opened her eyes.
"That's a similar healing technique to what God Zeshion used?!"
"Oh, is this technique familiar to you?"
Fatima said, amused after hearing my outburst.
"This is a rare technique called Fate intervention. It's of the void element, which shouldn't exist anymore. That Zeshion or something should've been a lucky individual to have found one with a void element."
Ember blinked her eyes continuously, as if her mind is awake but her consciousness wasn't fully sober yet.
"But speaking of void element..."
Fatima placed her right hand on her chin while contemplating something as she stared closely at Ember.
"This little one... How rare... She had an innate space element... And void?"
Fatima continued to inspect something on Ember. Fang then used the instant she was focused when a slight opening appeared and launched an attack.
"You're a feisty one, but I like it."
Fatima said as she used one finger to hold Fang down on the ground. It happened so fast that I didn't even see what happened. As soon as Fang pounced, the next instant, she was lying face down on the ground while Fatima was using her pinky on her back to hold her down.
When she let go of her finger, Fang weakly picked herself up before jumping back behind me. Her energy was mostly spent for some reason.
"This must be Fate at work."
Fatima stood up and stared down at me.
"I had been stuck in this space where time doesn't exist for an extremely long period. Although it was to seal that Void Beast here, even I felt I drew the short end of the stick."
She sighed before extending her hand toward me.
"Are you willing to work with me and destroy the Void Beast reigning above ground?"
For our group, the Void Beast is something we fear. However, as long as it was somewhere above ground, we can't peacefully search for the exit.
Although I hesitated for a moment, I took her hand and nodded.
"Alright. I'll trust in you, for now, God Fatima."
Despite having the power to kill the three of us in an instant, she instead wanted to join hands to fight. Although I don't know why, I had nothing else to lose.
"Just Fatima is fine. Then, let's go."
The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel