Chapter 298 Volume V - Chapter 16: Festival in Flames
I continued to watch the lake, locked in the image in front of me, as if I had forgotten the presence of Julian, Lucia, and Sue. It was in such a strange... harmony with the sounds of the festival that the lake itself and its contents were almost mesmerizing.
But... it was also because of this that I was able to notice something early on that I normally would not have been able to.
I suddenly caught a glimpse of something changing in the reflection of the lake. Something that appeared in the midst of all this beauty, independent of the lake itself and the festival... A tiny little light in the sky.
Lights were everywhere, in fact. There were even fireworks from time to time because of the celebration. Everything was already shining... But what I saw this time was different.
The tiny glow in the sky was something impossible to see unless one turned their head upward. Why would such a choice be made when the purpose of everything at the festival is to attract attention and entertain people?
Moreover... what really caught my attention, what made me feel uneasy, was the color of this glow and the fact that it was in one place.
It was purple, this glow. And it was a purple that felt very familiar.
I paused for a moment, I felt as if time had stopped, and then... my eyes widened.
A few more of the purple glow in the sky suddenly appeared. There were eight in total, appearing almost everywhere in the mini-town. They didn't appear only above us as if they were deliberately ignoring the spot where we were.
Only a split second after they had multiplied, all of them suddenly descended toward the ground with tremendous speed, while we were standing at a small point in the sky.
All the noise that filled the town suddenly stopped, and all the lights disappeared. The reason for this cessation... was that a much louder sound and a brilliant flash of light drowned out almost everything else.
Everything turned white in an instant. My mind was jolted by a high-pitched burst of sound that made my ears ring.
'Adrian! Guard yourself!'
Lithoa's voice filled my mind. He was telling me to do something when I didn't even understand what was happening... but I trusted him, what was I supposed to do if I didn't?
I threw my arms in the air, trying to protect myself. When neither my sight nor my hearing had returned, I suddenly felt a tremendous force bearing down on me, a force that would have been enough to break my bones if I hadn't concentrated my mana on my arms.
I felt my feet knocked off the ground, the whole world turned upside down and I was thrown backward violently. The only thing that stopped me was scraping the ground and hitting a building.
When my hearing finally started to slowly return, the first thing I could hear was... the crackling of something and a few screams. And... the sound of flames.
As my vision was slowly returning, I quickly tried to stand up, imagining taking my spear out of my bracelet. But just then the ring on my finger trembled, and even though I didn't want to, I couldn't grasp my spear, whose materialization was incomplete. Instead, I quickly activated Guardian Radiance, whereupon I used the Platform to launch myself into the air.
A wave of wind hit my body, but I managed to leap into the air before the attack that caused it could reach me. As I created a few more Platforms and rose even higher, the first thing I saw was... red and orange mixed with other colors.
There were spots in the mini-town engulfed in flames, the smoke rising up into the sky. Some people were running here and there, others were just lying on the ground. Chaos reigned in the mini-town, but not the sweet chaos of the festival... it was the real chaos.
My eyes darted down quickly, looking at the spot where I had just leaped into the air. The person who attacked me was not going to stop where he was, after all... he must have been preparing to attack me. He could have been attacking already.
But... what I saw was someone just standing where he was.
He was wearing black pants and a gray shirt. The jacket on him was a thin, long one. He also had black gloves on his hands.
He looked like a middle-aged man with short black hair. He did not have any wrinkles on his face. But... the important thing was definitely his eyes.
This person had purple eyes. Shimmering, that familiar purple color that I was kind of getting used to seeing.
And it was obvious that he was the one who had attacked me. Because he had just pulled his fist out of the wall of the building I was in front of... But he didn't try to attack me again. Instead... he was looking at me. Calmly, coldly, uncomfortably even.
Can't he reach me?
This question crossed my mind, while the man continued to stand where he was without doing anything... sighing simply.
I only took my eyes off him for a second, I wanted to verify the situation of my location, of my friends, and I did.
The purple glows in the sky must have exploded like some kind of bomb in the places just below them. That must have been the cause of the fires in the mini-town. But... as far as I remember, even though there were no purple flashes near us, this place had also exploded. It was also in flames, although not as much as the other parts. People were also running here and there, trying to get to safety.
But... there was a difference here compared to the other sides.
There was no security here. I had seen a few people from the festival security at other places where there were explosions, but... there was no one here. It was as if... they were ignoring this place.
I didn't pay much attention to it though. My eyes quickly searched for my friends and I looked toward the lake we were standing in front of.
Julian was on the ground. His chest was rising and falling, he looked alive, but his clothes were in a terrible state. He was covered in dust, and there were rips all over his clothes. He had a few burns as if he had jumped into the middle of a fire.
Next to him stood Sue, looking like she was trying to wake him up. She too was covered in dust, but... she didn't seem to have any injuries. Maybe Julian had protected her.
And Lucia... she was looking at me. Her mask was nowhere to be seen as if it had disappeared, her face and her beauty were exposed. Her hair was slightly disheveled in a ponytail and her red eyes shone with the mana that was in them. Her sword, as red as her eyes, was in her hand.
For some reason, her charm seemed to work even better in this situation... It was even trying to attract me to her. It was a strange feeling.
But just then Lucia took her eyes off me. The moment she did so, someone appeared in front of her. It was the man who had just looked at me and sighed.
Lucia raised her sword, shielded herself, but the man's simply clenched fist landed so hard on her sword that the ground beneath her feet crackled slightly. I could only widen my eyes as her figure was suddenly thrown into the lake, overwhelmed by the force she was trying to block.
He was fast. The man in front of me... he really was extremely fast. He was also strong. Even though he wasn't using any weapon, the force of his fist alone was frightening.
I couldn't even pay attention to Lucia as she disappeared from sight. I stretched my legs and lunged at the man, clenching my fist.
I tried to pounce on him without giving him a chance to attack Sue and Julian, and at that moment he turned his head to me, completely ignoring them both. He twisted his clenched left hand back at me.
I couldn't even defend myself. His fist had turned on me so suddenly and hard that I never had a chance to react. But... strangely, it was not aimed at my face or any vital part of me.
The back of his fist landed with tremendous force just below my left shoulder. Immediately, I felt the bones in my arm crunch, but also an extremely intense pain spread throughout my body. Once again, I was thrown backward, and again, the whole world turned upside down.
I could only stop by crashing into a building, but even though the building itself helped me to stop, I was hit by another blow. I had just hit my back, my spine, against the hard wall of the building... and it shook my whole body harder than ever.
If it wasn't for the Guardian Radiance and the mana I was spinning all over my body, my arm would definitely have been broken, my body would have been in a much worse condition... But, somehow, I managed to withstand the enormous strength of the man in front of me.
I tried to stand up with difficulty. At the same time, I was trying to pay attention to my surroundings because I was expecting another attack... but it never came. Even when I somehow managed to stand up, even when I successfully materialized my spear, I did not face any attack.
So, with blood seeping through my hair and into my face, I fixed my pain-blurred eyes on the spot where the man had just stood.
There he was, just standing there... just as he had been at the beginning. Only this time, he didn't move and neither did I. This time... the man spoke calmly, coldly, and uncomfortably, just like the first time.
"Aren't you going to attack?"
I paused for a moment, feeling as if time and the world had stopped... the man's voice echoed in my ear again and... a thought appeared in my mind.
A thought I didn't want to believe.
"Then... I will."
I gripped my spear tightly as the man tensed slightly, clenching his fists and preparing to attack again. The next second, when the man suddenly vanished from where he was and stood in front of me, I didn't find his fist in front of my eyes. Instead, he aimed for my stomach, a spot where even my organs wouldn't be too damaged. This time he didn't even apply such extreme force.
As my whole body spasmed, involuntarily losing the strength in my legs and collapsing to the ground, the elbow blow to my back confirmed what I didn't want to believe.
I understood the purpose of the man in front of me.
It wasn't the festival, it wasn't Julian or Lucia, it wasn't to kill or harm people.
His target was... me, he wanted me. Not even to kill me, he was just trying to take me alive...
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