Echoes of the air shoving crystalline shards accompanied a silent, lonely room. The footsteps, now converted into an imperial march, finally reached the door. A group of men, wearing a black uniform and armed to the teeth with sophisticated weapons and guns, kicked the door, revealing the insides of the room. But nothing was there, nothing anymore, other than a broken window and curtains flying erratically, pushed by the inside flowing cold air.

  “I told you to jump”

  “I couldn’t…”

  Lena and Kana ran through the back garden of the Hotel. Although Kana had managed to put herself ready to jump, she had been unable to perform it in the last centimetre. Instead, Lena had grabbed her and graciously brought her to ground.

  “Get down!” Lena shouted. She grabbed Kana and made her follow the command by force, making the duo hide behind a bush. “Look there.” Pointing at a group of soldiers, she frantically gestured for Kana to stay silent. Her eyes wandered the perimeter, surveying the surroundings like a lion before hunt, counting each single black silhouette she could discern in the darkness.

  “So, we’re truly being attacked?” Shivers down her spine, Kana leaned to get a peek of the raid, an answer so obvious it didn’t need a follow-up.

  “At my signal, run behind me. We must find Alice and figure out what the hell is happening” Lena warmly grabbed her hand and then tightened the grip, stepping closer to the edge of the bush.

  “But what about Elizabeth and the others?” Kana weakly pulled her closer.

  “Celine will protect her, don’t worry.” Lena pulled back, motioning to stand up. “We’ve got the upper hand; we must find Alice before they find us”.

  “Alright…”

  Kana couldn’t completely agree with her. She had spent that day with Celine and looked into her fragile inner side. She had figured out Celine was indeed a little child, in appearance and mentally, and so had the same worries and thoughts one would. Sure, that little girl was different in some way, but deep-down Kana knew she was just a little innocent girl. Yet, she was so wrong, because that little girl wasn’t innocent at all. Simultaneously, Celine was somewhere in the hotel in front of a crowd of armed soldiers firing burst of energetic destructive bullets at her. But she wouldn’t mind, because those were nothing against her.

  One step. A pair of black sharp knives appeared one in each hand, reversed grip. That was not the figure of a child, but of an assassin. A machine genetically programmed to slaughter. Her face, blank void staring at the objective, ignoring the bitter scent of blood that rounder her nose, remembering all those she had put an end to, monster or human. Her eyes, colder than the night, unbothered by the festival of lights that evaporated in front of the self-invoked corruption shield protecting her.

  Two steps. The time seemed to stop flowing. The noisy corridor lost its colour. The assassin tightened the grip. She leaned and shifted her stance. Light reflecting on her weapon, she could sense the fate of the crowd in front of her. Yet she didn’t care, because she wasn’t meant to. Because she only followed her oath. And like that, she took a third step.

  But there was no fourth. The next second, she was standing meters behind the group of men. They couldn’t answer, because all they could care know, is the gush of blood that came out of their chests like a sprinkler. Celine looked at her knife, stained in red, drops falling from the edge. Then they came, the agonizing screams of help, and the shattering sounds of the bodies dropping on the floor. She finally smelt it again: the bittersweet scent of blood, entering her nose, flooding her head. Yet, she didn’t care, not even a bit.

  “Doctor, I’m done here” Celine said, coldly looking at the piled-up corpses.

  “Good work, Celine. Let’s get out of here”. Doctor Hopkins walked past the pile of the remnants of the battle, the puddles of blood staining her boots. She then exchanged gazes with a Celine that displayed a so pure and innocent face it made her veins boil, one face that made her question whether humankind had lost its senses, including herself. Once Celine retook the lead, a thought roamed Elizabeth’s brain.

  “How ironic—the only body humanity could fit a mimic of an angel’s power in… was a little girl”

  They walked through the cold walls of the hotel; despite the persecution they were being targeted by. They just walked and walked, unconcerned about the repetitive hordes of enemies Celine defeated. The horror the girl left behind didn’t stop them to reach the entrance.

  Stolen story; please report.

  Then, they left the hotel, only to be surprised by a known face. It was the first person they saw in the city. The one that had brought them to this trap. It was the so-called Poe.

  “Look who is here” An ironic Elizabeth went ahead, not surprised at all.

  “I was the first person to welcome you to this city, and I have come to bid you farewell” The man still in a black suit, reminiscent of the first interaction they had had just some hours ago, bowed, but this time with and inner evilness it made Elizabeth want to vomit. An evilness intensified by the army he had behind. It was not men like the raiders, but a group of Corruption monsters. Two-legs insectoids, claws ready for the hunt, formed the majority but a bigger one resembling a huge-sized ant, led the army. This leader was as big as twice an elephant, be it around 5 to 6 meters, standing on four legs.

  “Your puppies have escaped while you took your time to come here.” The man left out a diabolical laugh, one that would make skin crawl. “Did you do it on purpose knowing I would go for you?”

  “They don’t need my help” A carefree Elizabeth replied stoically.” I’m more interested in you, Poe. Who you really are? Why are you helping an angel?”

  The man called Poe frowned, stopping his maniac outburst. “It seems I have underestimated you, Doctor Hopkins” He admitted, looking down on her” Yet I don’t understand—If you knew this place is doomed by god’s will, why’d you come?”

  “I don’t believe in God”.

  “Neither do I. But it doesn’t matter. This city will be the cradle of the Third Angel… and your bones, its foundation.” Poe signalled the monster army behind him to attack with his arm. With a quick snap, the monsters started to rampage towards Elizabeth and Celine, blindly following the man’s orders. “Now, I have some lost puppies to look for, so it’s a farewell, Elizabeth Hopkins.” The man disappeared between the grotesque horde.

  “Celine”. A single word was enough for the girl to understand.

  “Yes”.

  The man had already left when the first rows of monsters got close enough. Far from being concerned, Celine approached the wave. It was at least a dozen of humanoid-insectoid hybrid monsters, plus the big one, who awaited from afar as a king sending its pawns to battle.

  They encircled an unblinking Celine, unbothered by the act. Then, one of them approached the girl and in a sudden burst of primitiveness quick directed its claws to the girl’s head. But it was useless, because those pawns had been sent not to battle but to death. Celine slightly tilted her head, evading the attack with surgeon precision and instantly counterattacked with instantaneous fast slashes on the beast. Two cuts pierced through its arms and a later third dismembered its head. Another three of the surrounding beasts growled in anger and pounced on the girl, only to meet the same exact destiny in the blink of an eye.

  The girl abandoned the defensive stance and side jumped towards the circle. Her knives glowed in a dark carbon black, matching her dusk aura, cutting through the hard shell of the monsters like if they were butter. One by one, the monsters fell. They tried to hit her but just couldn’t follow the speed of the assassin. Quickly, she had gotten rid of the pawns.

  The ant reacted—it was its moment to participate in the battle. It started to coordinate its legs, rumbling the ground at each step.

  “Airis, can you confirm the rank of that big monster?” Elizabeth asked out of curiosity.

  “[Checking Corruption output…]” The AI briefly paused “Base-class Corruption beasts, key name: patrols, have been confirmed annihilated. One enemy remaining: General-class, key name: Weaver “Airis confirmed the deceased enemies had already dead and provided the strength of the one left.

  “So, it is a General. A third ranker. And the guys were just fifth rankers. You truly have underestimated us, Poe” Elizabeth murmured to the wind, as if expecting the already fled Poe would hear her.

  “Understood. Celine will complete the mission”. The girl overheard the conversation. Knowing full well the capability of her opponent, she couldn’t be as careless as before. She strengthened her stance and firmly dug her feet into the ground. Then, she took a glance at the beast. She scanned it bottom to top, studying every possible weak point, starting from the legs, thin sticks glued into the body in an unreinforced joint. Then, a big but heavy abdomen, full of vital organs. And finally, its head. Protected yet fragile, covered but lethal.

  Celine suddenly took off the ground, accelerating in mere instants, cutting the wind in its path. She locked her eyes on the monster—now her prey. She got close enough when a vertiginous kick from the Weaver made her to jump sideways, sticking to the walls of a building. Celine ran parallel to the building, so fast she avoided falling. With speed as her advantage, she managed to jump again to place just behind the beast’s abdomen. She then sticked her knife into it, soaking it in the monster green haemolymph.

  The monster growled, the Corruption imbued weapon paralyzing its senses. It tried to uselessly shake her legs, failing to stop an already running Celine, piercing with her knife all through said abdomen. When she ended with it, a trail of liquid was left following her path. She continued the attack, prolongating the stab through the back with a high jump, reaching some meters away from the ant. The continuous screams of agony would end soon, when Celine managed to fall and position herself some centimetres from the defenceless head, tearing it out by the scruff of the neck with an immaculate slash. She then landed with her back to the monster, only needing the atrocious knock of the Weaver’s head and body on the ground to know she had succeeded. The vibrations coursed through her body, but her void eyes wouldn’t react.

  “Mission completed, Doctor”

  “Good job, Celine. You can rest now.” Elizabeth warmly smiled at her. It was all the girl needed to feel relief. To feel she had fulfilled her duty. Her reason to live.

  “Now, let’s go meet Alice. Airis, search for Paul’s Corruption signal” Elizabeth said, tweaking something in her tablet.

  “Yes, Doctor. Location confirmed. Paul detected. Alice’s Stigma detected.”