Chapter 774 Breaking The Mind
In a couple of minutes, the night has turned colder.
Bloodshed and screams were filling the entire place and become the source of the cold that doesn\'t only sting the skin, but also the heart. Only the deep heavy breaths were beating inside Giana\'s ears, other than the scream and terror of the human army.
While being forced to stare in the direction of the slaughter, her vision becomes foggy.
Giana\'s eyes were opened wide seeing the explosions in the far distance, she also can feel Evelyn\'s warm hand gripping her face tightly and wrapping around her cheeks. Each beat of her heart makes the fog in her vision grew.
Like being detached from reality, she can feel her soul being sucked out of her own body.
Under the extreme sight and situation, the sensation of her soul being pulled out makes her senses numb, and the rhythm of her heartbeat seems to be trembling the entire space, almost as if her entire world was collapsing.
Solely focusing on her objective, she fails to realize the danger of her presence.
At the start, she should\'ve considered meeting with the Silverstar Pack while the army was close. But instead of taking that into consideration, she decides to join the army instead of going out alone.
It was a reckless part of her, and now the others paid dearly for her mistake.
While her eyeballs were trained forward, a flash of the young military woman that seems to have an uplifting and innocent spirit crosses her mind. Giana wanted to do something, she stretches her hand forward but quickly denied it with a smack from Evelyn.
"Just let it all happen, Giana. Eventually, it will pass" Evelyn whispers with a devilish tone.
Representation of the sorrow and guilt inside of her started to show, tears overflowed her eyes and slowly turns into droplets that skims through her face of disbelief. Nothing can be done, she\'s in a completely helpless situation.
A huge dilemma presented itself, running a razor blade across the surface of Giana\'s soul.
Giana knows that two choices have presented themselves at this current moment, either she try and save the human army risking injuring Adhara and Evelyn, or stay at her spot and let the army be slaughtered in the hope of making up with Rex.
In a small timeframe, she was exposed to numerous hard choices.
Saving 25,000 human lives with the risk of failing her objective, or sacrificing them to keep the hope of reaching her objective alive. Without a strong mind, anyone intrinsically good will go insane very quickly.
But remembering her promise, Giana\'s eyes slowly trained down to the ground helplessly.
"Yes, that\'s it. Let it all happen, they are just expandable and unimportant people. In your eyes, they shouldn\'t matter, just like Rex\'s parents that don\'t hold any value whatsoever. Am I correct...?" Evelyn said again, she can see the helpless and defeated look on Giana\'s face.
Just a moment ago, when they were heading in Giana\'s direction, the two has a talk.
As a ninth-rank realm Awakened who is one of the pillars of humanity, Adhara and Evelyn must accept that they couldn\'t potentially leave an unhealable scar on her. Killing her is probably, but that is too merciful for someone like Giana.
It was then they came to a conclusion, a definite conclusion to repay Giana.
Maybe they couldn\'t mortally wound her in a permanent manner, but like any other living beings, hurting them physically is not the only thing they can do. And thus, the two came to a conclusion to break Giana\'s mind.
Knowing her desire to protect humanity, they decided to use that to their advantage.
Even though at first they would use her guilt to slowly breaks her down, the fact that there was an army of humans with her makes the job way easier. With the look she\'s wearing right now, Evelyn knows that she\'s reaching her limit.
At the far distance, the army tries to fight back, trying their hardest to survive.
But like the army they slaughtered earlier, there are no strong Awakened or Black Hands amongst them, no eighth-rank realm or above that can potentially protect the army from the menace of Adhara\'s claws.
Due to that, it only takes fifteen minutes before the entire place becomes quiet.
Looking at the sight at her front that is blazing with the violet flame, Evelyn let go of Giana and stood up. Walking forward, she then raises her hand before an ember of dark red fire started to materialize on her palm.
Using her insane control over her dark red fire, Evelyn conjures an Elemental Weapon.
It takes a form of a fiery spear, three two times the size of an adult human, and the tip seemed to be blurry to look at as if there was some kind of distortion happening there. Grunting lightly, she then threw the dark red fire.
Swoosh!
Flaming sound travels at a rapid speed, covering the space within moments.
Evelyn\'s scorching hot dark red fire was powerful enough to level the rocks and anything that stands in the flaming spear\'s way, carving a clear path that blocked their vision before eventually being deflected upwards to the sky.
"Oh, look... she\'s done already," Evelyn said cheekily.
Upon hearing her words, Giana who is looking at the ground raises her blank eyes.
At the end of the carved path that was created by the flaming spear was a sight that is ingrained in her mind deeply, Adhara\'s shadowed figure can be seen at the center of the dancing and swirling violet fire.
In her hand was a figure, a human who is lifted from the ground through his neck.
Shifting her eyes slightly to the side, Giana instantly confronts a scene of desolation and upheaval that made her heart sink. Where once the army she had been following had marched was nothing but carnage and ruin now. Piles of military equipment, vehicles, and both Awakened and Black Hand soldiers were now covered in towering violent flames that reached high.
When earlier she can hear the sound of the slaughter, now she can see the aftermath.
Opening her mouth and exposing her sharp fangs to growl, Adhara then crushes the figure\'s neck exploding blood into the surroundings before she quickly turns around, gazing straight at Giana.
As she has power at the gate of the ninth-rank realm, she\'s unstoppable for the army.
Turning into a blur, Adhara then reappears back in front of Giana with her white eyes still glowing brightly. Now, her claws and white furs are stained in deep crimson blood that chattered onto the hard ground as it drip.
Giana\'s pupils then trembled uncontrollably at the sight, showing signs of life.
Looking down at a towering level with her white glowing eyes, beside Evelyn who is also doing the same, Adhara then mused acerbically, "Does me killing those people hurt you, Giana? If so, then I\'m sorry, I hope you can forgive me"
"W-What...?" Giana utters softly while looking up at Adhara.
From the side, Evelyn quickly followed, "What do you mean what? That\'s your logic, right?" She smiled mockingly, showing clear disdain on her face. "If you did something wrong, then you can just apologize to turn everything back to normal. Disregarding any kind of damage that you have done, isn\'t that right?"
"If so, then we apologize for killing them all. We didn\'t mean it" She added savagely.
Deg!
Upon hearing what Evelyn and Adhara said, her heart suddenly skipped a beat and her eyes widened in shock. Her entire world had been flipped upside down in the span of just a few minutes, leaving her mind in complete disarray.
With this, Evelyn crouches in front of her and grabbed her by the hair.
"I don\'t know what you try and get by coming here in search of us, but I reckon it must have something to do with the Executor. Now after this, do you see how ridiculous your wish is?" Evelyn said in a cold tone.
Now that it has come to this, Giana knows that what she was trying to do is more ridiculous.
Killing Rex\'s parents was something that is way out of the league, causing Rex pain in the heart has surpassed the threshold of their forgiveness, and thus her coming here is a complete insult to them.
Despite her good intention, coming here was a huge mistake.
But then, no one but her or Brigitta can locate the Silverstar Pack. Denzel might be able to take her place, but she doesn\'t want to risk it, she isn\'t sure if his thoughts align with theirs, or if he\'s even accepting the Executor\'s presence.
At a basic level, Giana knows that her request is very selfish.
Even though that is the case, when she was confronted with the true pain that she has dealt, she now has a better understanding that the word \'selfish\' is an understatement. It\'s an insult of the highest degree for her to come here and search for the Silverstar Pack.
In a way, she\'s also representing humanity, the race that doesn\'t seem to value Rex\'s power.
Just like that Giana\'s mind started collapsing, her gaze started to become hazy, and her entire body becomes numb to the point of losing touch with her surroundings. The result of her past actions might become the reason humanity falls from grace.
For her, that\'s the most hurtful situation that her mind can\'t simply accept.
If the day when the Executor becomes a tyrant over humanity, turning everyone into slaves and labeling them as nothing more than \'Lesser Humans\', then she would definitely not be able to forgive and live with herself.
Death is the only way that can release her from that pain, the only suitable option for her.
Adhara and Evelyn look at the state Giana is in right now with a smirk on their faces, content with the result they get. But then, the two of them raises their gaze and slowly turns around when they heard rapid panting from behind.
Upon looking back, they were faced with a military woman pointing a gun at them.
"Y-You killed everyone!" the woman exclaimed angrily.
Pointing the handgun at Adhara that seems motionless in her spot, the young military woman\'s chest heaved up and down rapidly, caused by a mix of anger and the grievous gash on the side of her body.
Visible to the eyes, the military woman\'s hands are trembling as she pointed the handgun.
But then her eyes caught sight of Giana kneeling on the ground with her head hung low, she then gasped in shock. "L-Lady Giana! What did you do to her?! I refused to believe she lost to the two of you, what did you do?!" The military woman screamed at the top of her lungs.
Even though her voice was echoing, Giana didn\'t move on her spot, still as a statue.
Gritting her teeth in anger, the military woman then pulled the trigger of the handgun. At the barrel of the handgun, a bullet that is concentrated with a stream of energy shoots toward Adhara at a blazing-fast speed.
It was a bullet capable of killing even fifth-rank realm Supernaturals.
The woman kept her concentrated eyes on Adhara and saw the bullet hit the upper part of her chest, yet it does nothing and bounced off of her skin as if it was a dummy bullet. A sight of horror can be seen in the military woman\'s eyes.
Firing a couple more bullets, each one of them like the first one, did nothing to Adhara.
Under the thick skin that Adhara possessed, the bullets did nothing to her. Even as the last bullet discharged, there was no wound or bruise left on Adhara\'s skin. Soon enough, the handgun makes a couple of clicking noises as the military woman tries to keep shooting the empty clip.
Just then, Adhara tilts her head slightly which is terrifying to see.
At this horrifying sight, the military woman tries to call out for Giana but it was too late. While her gaze was fixated on Adhara, Evelyn disappeared and plunged her hand straight into the military woman\'s chest.
Blood gushed out of her mouth as her eyes locked with Evelyn\'s emotionless gaze.
In an instant, the strength of her entire body vanished and her eyes went round. Soon after that, she fell to the ground with a light thud. The military woman then slowly looks up, reaching out her trembling hand at Giana and calling her name softly from between her lips.
Even then, it was futile, her vision is slowly being shrouded by everlasting darkness.
Not long after that, she eventually passed away, dead.
With that out of the way, Adhara and Evelyn take one last look at Giana before they intend to leave her like that. But before the two of them can leave, a voice came from behind, "I know how to defeat the Executor..."