"Okay, listen to me carefully," I said with a serious tone, looking at Blanca who floated next to me. "You will hear my voice and see the basic layout of the city that I have explored through the helmet so there's no need to worry about monsters as long as we can't avoid them, but from here, you need my instructions without asking any question and you don't have the choice. Is that clear?"
"I know, you don't have to repeat it again and again," Blanca said, looking a little bit annoyed but after I looked at her with an emotionless face, she pretended to adjust her helmet.
I was still thinking that bringing was too dangerous because with her around, the number of things that I couldn't predict increased and it was not a good thing.
Still, I couldn't leave her with Liu and Zax, just in case she decided to say something that Liu didn't need to know and they would begin to fight because of that.
Besides, I wasn't finished extracting information from her, and from the look of it, she could probably be the key for me to understanding a lot of things related to what was happening in different universes.
Then again, I wondered if all of this was just a coincidence as I looked at the woman in front of me. 'The last boss talked about a mysterious entity and I also concluded that some of the things that happened and are happening to me were not pure coincidence, and there must be someone behind these unbelievable circumstances. The question was, how much was he involved in all of this and how long will he stay involved? Was the destruction of the planet party of his plan, and if so, for what purpose?' I needed answers because if that was really the case, then I had a formidable enemy to take care of but my strength was still lacking.
"Let's go," I said and Blanca followed me as I was thinking about these things. I knew that I might be thinking too much about it and going too far with my imagination but it seemed like the Holy Church wasn't the only thing that I should be wary of, even if there was certainly a connection between all of them.
"Are we going that way?" Blanca asked and I knew what she was trying to ask even if she used different words.
"Unlike most people believe, these monsters actually don't like hiding in dark places or caves where they wait patiently for someone to come instead, they seem to like challenging stronger opponents and exploring new areas, so they rarely stay in a place that looks boring," I explained, trying to share what I found out during my exploration. "In other words, we will come across fewer monsters if we follow this path."
"I see," Blanca replied with an emotionless voice, but it seemed like she didn't even think of that.
We followed a path through a rocky region next to the city wall and as expected, there were only rocks. The monsters didn't seem to like this place and they preferred roaming around the city or the forest where they found various things to distract themselves with. 'These monsters seem intelligent but from what I could see, it's only at the level of a little kid. Still, it's dangerous to underestimate them, similar to little kids who give adults hard time.' I thought.
"Before we reach the city, tell me about what can you do with your power and about your limits," I said.
"What? You…" As expected, Blanca was surprised by my words and looked like she didn't want to reveal anything.
"Don't misunderstand me. You already know about my power and I showed you my hidden cards," I said, pointing at the helmet and the cape, "so I want to know what you can do and what you can't do before I decide how we should handle things from here. I think it's a reasonable request because we are working to survive, or is there a particular reason why you can't say it?"
"Okay, I will tell you," Blanca said, understanding what I was implying in my last sentence. "My blood can disintegrate almost everything that comes in contact with it. I can also control it to produce other useful skills like I am doing now."
"I see. And how large is the area in which you can control it?" I asked.
"I am not sure, maybe thirty meters."
"And how long can you use your power without stopping?"
"It depends. I could probably use it all day if I take a break at regular intervals." Bianca answered, looking like she wasn't feeling sure if it was a good idea to tell me all of that and if I was in her place, I would never reveal my real trump card so I was sure that she had some other trump cards.
However, looking at her, I was wondering if she even thought about such a thing, because she looked like she was extremely confident in her ability.
'Well, it's not every day that you met someone who can use antimatter,' I thought, thinking about the chance that someone who had a power similar to mine existed. 'But such a person must be a pain to deal with so I hope I won't have to deal with someone like that.'
"Okay, your power will be useful for what we are about to do, and with a bit of luck, we will manage to find a spaceship today," I said and gestured for Blanca to quicken the pace.
Her power would be helpful when we deal with the tentacle monster if it could do what she said it could do. 'Disintegrate things huh… Sounds familiar to the effect of the antimatter. Is this really a coincidence? The more I learn about Blanca, the more I feel like I am given a lot of hints and I can't say I like it because it would mean that there are beings who can also use power derived from the primordial authority of Destruction and honestly, powers related to this authority are bad news. After all, it could kill me instantly if I wasn't strong enough to overwhelm the user as I did with Blanca.'
Groar!
After hearing the noise, I signaled Blanca with my hand and we stopped.
"We are near the wall so there are few monsters here," I explained, then pointed at a hole somewhere on the wall. "I made that hole yesterday and it leads to an underground passage, that was why we needed to make a detour."
"But what about the monsters?" Blanca asked.
"I need you to remember a few things. One, as long as we can avoid fighting monsters, we don't fight them. Two, what we need is patience and the ability to stay calm no matter what happens. Three, we need to make use of what we have efficiently. Like this…" I said and then threw three empty cans somewhere in the area which made a loud sound that attracted the monsters.
"Now!" I said, and then we rushed towards the hole.
Swoosh!
"Wait, hide here!" I ordered, grabbing Blanca by her hips.
Roar!
As I expected the monsters noticed us and followed from behind, rushing at the hole that I made on the wall but as soon as one of them crossed it, its body was cut into pieces, and seeing this, the other monsters hesitated a bit but when they did, my sword pierced their head.
"Now!" I said and we rushed toward a building and immediately went down to the basement and then to the underground pathway that lead to the tentacles monster.
"What did you do?" Blanca asked.
"I used some useful trick to kill them," I replied, thinking about how I used a new version of my weapon.
After exploring the city the day before, I realized that my sword was hard to control, so I decided to add more variation to it. For example, a wire-like weapon that could deal with a lot of monsters all at once because, in the end, I just needed that the monsters came in contact with the antimatter to kill them.
Of course, it wasn't as strong as the sword but it was more flexible and I could make it so thin that the monsters didn't even notice it as I controlled it with my thoughts. 'This glove looks cool and I feel I am some kind of assassin. Well, at least it's effective.'
"Let's proceed," I said.
"…" Blanca didn't say anything and just followed me but I knew that she was wary of me after learning that I had some other trump cards.
Her reaction became a little bit more predictable but I could be wrong so I never tried to base my strategies on these predictions unless it was unavoidable.
"There is a particular monster ahead and we need to take care of it if we want to proceed," I said.
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