The Crisis World XX

Chap. 79: Reunion of Old Friends

I keep talking to Caramel. Talking about how he found me and the others. Our conversation turned out to last quite a long time and was quite time consuming, although I did say so earlier. But this was just an excuse to make him want to break this seal.

Now it's time to inevitably have me have to make him unseal this.

"So what exactly did the Assassins do? Are you just doing experiments on humans like that?"

"I don't really know either …."

"Well?!"

"… I'm sorry that my answer didn't satisfy you, but Bos—Astaroth never told me about the original plan."

"You must be kidding me" I said in disbelief.

Caramel recalls her former memories when she was first recruited by Astaroth. He once asked something while Astaroth was busy in his laboratory. That was about 7 years ago.

He remembers how he first met Astaroth.

It was raining that night very hard. But it could not eliminate the voices of two people arguing in a small, dirty rented house that looked almost collapsed.

"Based on useless husband! Go home and ask for food!"

"I'm out of the house to work! So it's only natural that I'm starving when I get home. You should as a wife prepare food for me when I'm tired of working!"

"Eat his usual prayers! If there's no money where to eat!"

When both husbands and wives were making noise themselves. From inside the room was a little girl who was lying down curled up while covering her ears with a pillow.

But it doesn't help too much because the bedroom door and walls are thin, making sounds from the outside easily go inside. Finally he decided to get up and get out of the house while carrying an umbrella that had several holes there.

"I can't sleep" he murmured.

He continued walking on the sidewalk while looking for a place he could occupy to sleep for a while. The perforated umbrella seemed to be unable to withstand the heavy rain tonight until it made the little girl's shoulders—Caramel soaked.

Byurrs…

Not stopping there, from the road there is a car that speeds up and passes through the puddle until splashed towards Caramel which makes his body wet. He was silent for a while after being exposed to splashing water.

"Cold," he said limp.

Then he continued his journey looking for a place he could stop for a while. But he did not find it, nor did the rain show any signs of abating soon. So he walked towards the narrow alley between the two buildings.

He was sitting next to a big trash can. Trying to warm himself as much as possible even though he knows that his efforts are in vain. He made his umbrella as a protector so that rain droplets that have fallen to the ground are not splashed again towards him.

"I just want to sleep."

As he was getting sleepy and his eyes were getting heavy, he suddenly saw the legs of someone who stopped right in front of him. He looked up and tried to see whose foot it was.

"Are you alone, little girl?" ask the man.

"Who?"

"Who I am is not important. Are you alone here?"

"Dad and my mom were at home, but .. they were fighting" I said slowly.

"What's your name?"

Caramel told the man his name. But because of the rush of rain, only Caramel and the man knew his real name.

"It's a pity …."

The man then extended his hand to her as if taking Caramel away somewhere. He doesn't know what kind of place I'm going to go next, but he's sure of one thing. That place would be better than it was in his old house.

"… Come with me, I'll take you to a better place than before."

Without hesitation, Caramel accepted his hand. Then left his house with Astaroth until now. Caramel called him Boss because he was more than happy to be called that even though he knew his real name.

During his time with Astaroth, he always saw her sleeping late at night and noisy voices were always heard from outside Caramel's room which made him curious. He then walked to a room like a laboratory and found Astaroth there.

Caramel then asked something while Astaroth was busy in his laboratory. That was about 7 years ago.

"Boss, what are you doing?" ask Caramel.

"I'm doing something for world peace. And for my purposes, I need all the ingredients here."

"All this?"

Caramel looked around the hall—or could be called this laboratory. He saw some humans who were in a large water tube as in a sleeping condition, then there are several other parts of the limb that are separately placed in the jar. Such as eyeballs, hands, baby fetuses, and others.

"Am I going to have the same fate as them?" ask a plain Caramel.

"Hn? Of course not, you're the one I've considered my own son. You'll get the front seat to see me when you reach world peace. So stay with me, huh, Caramel?"

"But my name is not …."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Do you want to be called by your real name?"

Caramel looked at Astaroth's outstretched hand. He thought about it again and then shook his head and immediately received Astaroth's helping hand.

"It's okay, that 'Caramel' name .. sounds funnier to me."

"Then, now your real name is Caramel, huh?"

"Mrs!"

Caramel who realized that he had been daydreaming for too long about his past then shook his head and returned to the present again.

"Bos never talked about his goals, but I believe he will do it for world peace. At least that's what he said to me" Caramel said.

World peace?! Peace of your eyes! This child had actually been brainwashed by that Astaroth, how such a person could be said to want to achieve world peace. For now I will save my curse to him later, I have to find a way for him to let me go. I started asking him again.

"Are you okay with that?" my many.

"You mean?"

"As long as you're with her you never know her true purpose. And he could use you too."

"Ehehem .. You may be right. Maybe he taught me this power just for its sake. But to me, it doesn't matter …."

Caramel radiated the glare of sad eyes while talking about this. Although he talked about it with a smile, but he still could not hide the sad tone he let out.

"… As long as I have a place to go home, that's enough for me. Someone who can make me feel at home, no matter who it is. Hehe …. It's sad, isn't it? I'm ..., just a little girl who lacks affection, you know."

He smiled at me as if what he said just now was a funny thing. But I'm sure that Caramel is harboring feelings that he himself cannot explain right now because the smile he is emitting right now is a fake smile. Then I said something to him.

"Hey, Caramel. Listen to me carefully.”

"Hn?"

I understand what I'm going to say next is arguably a crazy move. But I'm gonna risk it here.

**

PoV Ririsaka Herlin's

I strengthened my horses and focused my gaze on the enemy before me. The cloaked man, a new member of the Assassin Group formed by Astaroth, Delta.

I've never faced it before, so I don't know how strong its power is. But for sure he's much stronger than I am now.

"Be careful Herlin, Iraya has faced him before" Tetsu said.

"Austria …?"

"Yes, his strength is Elemental but he can also reproduce himself using a type of clone he made with his aura" explained Cecilia.

"So you're saying he has two abilities at once?"

"Yes." Yeah."

He's more troublesome than I thought. His Elemental ability alone was already troublesome, plus he could duplicate himself. God fucking.

I threw away my feelings of trepidation that had appeared just a moment ago and tried to calm down and think about the result later. No, all I have to do is win from him, there is no losing word for me at the moment.

I deliberately did not attack him first because following Tetsu's instructions during the training first, I would attack him while he was off guard while attacking me. It's not easy because it takes time and proper calculation, but if I can maximize my knowledge and experience. I can do it.

But while I was focused, Cecilia told me something that surprised me.

"I didn't tell Iraya this, but she killed Iraya's mother."

My eyes widen when I hear it. The words from Cecilia made me feel a sense of emotion within me. The person in front of me who killed Iraya's mother? Now there is one more reason for me to win, which is to avenge Iraya.

"He's starting to move!"

Blaarr's…

Tetsu shouted as Delta made a move after a long time of silence. He opened his palm and created some fairly large fireballs that rotated over his palm.

After that he threw the fireballs right at me. The fireball only flew straight and did not make any confusing movements. And I also do a simple and easy movement, which is not moving at all.

And my decision was quite right. Although the fireballs were hot as they passed me, none of them were pointing right at me. Maybe he was testing me.

He tilted his head a confused sign as well as was surprised when I managed to dodge his attack without moving at all. But I didn't respond to him and stayed focused on him.

"He's coming again!"

Klink…

Hundreds of ice needles formed above Delta's head as he pointed his hand up, then pointed it right at me. The hundreds of ice needles shot out and rained down on me like rainwater.

"Okay, this is too fast!"

Sryying…

I slashed the ground beneath me to the size of my body then stepped on it so that he could stand up and become an impromptu shield to block his ice needle attack. And it surprisingly works.

I managed to withstand his attack without being injured in the slightest. When he dropped the piece of land down, he suddenly came back to attack me with his ice ability again.

But this time it was much larger and more fitting to be called a thorn than a needle. I tried to use the piece of land just now, but it didn't last long because it could easily pierce through my shield and make me jump to the side and the ground shield was blown to pieces.

I looked at him again, he still had not moved from his seat at all. And he still raised his hand and some big ice spines were still floating right above his head.

I stood up and put my horses up again. The attack just now was too impossible for me to withstand with my sword, so I better avoid it.

"If this continues we will not be able to attack him back," said Tetsu.

"I have to how?" my many.

"We approach slowly."

"All right."

Since Delta was a long-range fighter, there was no other choice but to approach him and attack him closely. I then moved my feet one step closer without changing my horses. Step by step I did to approach her slowly.

Swuush…

He seemed to realize my plan to approach him, so he immediately attacked with his durinya again. But this time it was only one thorn per attack so I could hold it easily while continuing to walk over to it.

Triyingg…

The big thorns he had were gone and now I was getting closer to him. But suddenly my steps stopped because I heard and felt the sound of a sizable ground vibration.

When I realized it wasn't in front of me, I quickly looked back and realized that there was a barrage of sharp thorns made from mounds of earth that appeared quickly and led a lot to me from behind.

Drrr…

"Tch!"

"Quick slash that!"

Tetsu's instructions made me replace my horses and slash them horizontally so that the sharp part of the thorns was gone and I jumped on it.

I stood in the middle of the sea of ice thorns and earth that surrounded me at this moment. Technically, the area around my fight had already been destroyed and left only empty land along with thorns. The radius is about 20 meters.

Drrrt…

"Behind you! Then left!"

Sharp ground attack then hit me from the ground. I quickly slashed it into small pieces, but the attack did not stop there and the attack pattern also circled around me so I had to attack it while always being alert for the next attack.

Tetsu is currently busy predicting his next attack through his sharp senses and it helps me a lot in times like this.

But even so, right now I am just an ordinary person with no aura protector. My speed is still unable to match the attack speed of Delta.

Sryiiig…

"Nus …!"

I can't avoid injuries at all at this time. Almost all parts of my body were injured and made my movements slow down.

I then slashed one of the lands that hit me and jumped there and away from the sharp lands that hit my place before. Since there was no flat footing for me, I ended up choosing to stand on a sloping position while holding onto one of those lands to keep my balance awake.

I hid from Delta's vision for a moment to rest for a while. The sharp lands were almost 4 meters high so that I could hide between them well.

"You okay, Herlin?" ask Tetsu.

"Just scratched."

"Try me to shut up for a minute."

I obeyed Cecilia's words and waited for what she would do. And then a green light began to shine and envelop my body. It felt warm so it made me comfortable and over time my scratches slowly disappeared.

"Since you are not used to my aura, I can only heal little by little so that your body does not receive too much of my aura" Cecilia explained.

"It's okay, it's enough."

"So now what's the plan? We can't just approach it easily" Cecilia said.

"Well, in my present condition, there's very little I can do."

"Herlin, are you talking to Cecilia?" ask Tetsu.

"Hn? Yeah, what's up Tetsu? Do you want to talk to him?"

"Did he have a plan?"

"Sadly, he didn't think of anything either."

We all thought together what means we would use to fight Delta at the moment. A few moments had passed and the atmosphere elsewhere was very noisy as the other fight was still going on.

Then suddenly I thought of something that seemed like I could do to at least approach her first.

"I know something."

"That's it."

"I have an idea!"

The three of us shouted at the same time. It was as if we were getting ideas together in our heads. Then I spoke first to start this conversation.

"Have you guys thought of anything?"

"Yes!" Answer them simultaneously.

"Then let's discuss it."

We also discussed the ideas we had. Tetsu's idea seems almost similar to mine while Cecilia's idea is more in the direction of supporting my movement. While my idea is arguably a combination of ideas belonging to Cecilia and Tetsu.

"Alright, everything is neatly arranged. You all ready?"

"Let's get him!"

"Mrs."

Meanwhile, Delta is still silent and looking for my whereabouts who are hiding at this time. He stood right above one of the spines of the ground that was not sharp so that he could stand comfortably. He seemed to want to look for me but it was too risky if he could be suddenly attacked by me.

Therefore, I will approach him.

I then emerged from under one of those and stood quite a distance away. As usual, he kept his distance from me. But this time is different, because now I have a plan.

I put up my horses again. This time I was ready to dart with the help of the aura of Cecilia on my feet to strengthen my steps. And I also rushed straight towards him.

Swuuushh…

Delta directly directed its sharp ground again towards me from two different directions. I smashed one of the lands and made the other one my stand on and pushed myself even faster towards the Delta.

Braakkh…

Delta is not silent. He again directed his sharp ground from all directions around me and tried to stop my movement. I changed my horses back in the air and shook my sword so I could break through at least the front.

Braaakh…

Although I managed to escape from it, but I no longer had a foothold to push myself any further. As I was falling into the sharp ground beneath me, I still had time to throw my sword at him hoping I would make it.

But he easily avoided it by simply tilting his head. While I have fallen down. Then in my last moments when I was in a state of falling, I shouted something.

"Forward, Tetsu!"

Delta who noticed my screams quickly looked back. But it was too late, because Tetsu had already appeared behind him while getting ready to slash him.

Craaass…

Tetsu's slash hit the Delta's back, causing the robe to tear and blood to pour from it.

Delta staggered until he almost fell on the thorns of his own soil, but he turned his palm back and tried to spew fire at Tetsu.

Baaaarrr…

But the one he was fighting right now was Tetsu, his sword skills were far more powerful than the one I am now. He slashed the burst of flames with a vertical slash into two pieces and continued to accelerate closer to Delta.

But Delta was still able to avoid it even though the wound on his back was quite deep. He was still able to nimbly move around dodging all of Tetsu's attacks.

Klink…

"Akhh …!!"

As Tetsu was darting toward him in midair, Delta issued an impromptu attack from his left palm in the form of an ice needle that directly pierced right into Tetsu's chest and abdomen. Without a pause, Delta immediately kicked Tetsu away leaving his sword spinning wildly in the air as it slipped out of his grasp.

From below, I who saw his sword move wildly in the air then jumped up high and took it to directly slash it again. But before that I had a chance to kick Delta's chin to make him look up and then slash his chest diagonally.

Buukh…

After that I pushed him to an open ground where there were no sharp soils and pointed at Delta's neck with a sword as he lay.

I looked at Tetsu who had been attacked by Delta and tried to ascertain his condition.

"Tetsu, are you okay?!"

Tetsu who was lying down instantly woke up as I called out and pulled out the ice spikes that were on his body. After that he gave a signal in the form of a thumbs up indicating that he was okay.

I breathed a sigh of gratitude because Tetsu had no serious injuries. Then I refocused on Delta lying in front of me.

He tried to move a little, but I immediately brought the tip of my sword close so that there was no distance between his neck and my sword, his neck was even slightly bleeding.

"Don't move, or your neck will be hollow."

He also stopped moving and just resigned to his current state.

"What is your real purpose? Are you trying to destroy this city?"

But Delta did not move and did not answer at all. He seemed unwilling to answer the question asked by me.

"Because of your actions, this city is always in trouble. Maybe this is my personal reason, but I will avenge Iraya's mother. You remember, right? That innocent man you killed?"

Delta as usual just shut up. But when he heard the word 'mother Iraya', he looked a little jolted with it.

"It turns out you remember. And because of your actions as well, my new friends at school ... even Chifu-san also …."

I can't forget that. He burned my class while also killing the people inside and they also killed Chifu-san in front of my own eyes.

Unknowingly, I got carried away by myself remembering the things that happened at that time so I lost focus. I returned to reality now and prepared to slash his head. Because he doesn't seem to want to answer my question either.

"Be in hell, goddamn it."

When I wanted to slash his head, he suddenly spoke to me.

"There's one thing wrong with your story, Herlin-chan …."

"You-You …?"

"… Chifu-san you're talking about. Actually, he's not dead."

"What?"

Srkk…

"Eh—?"

Suddenly the ground on my right and left moved and locked both my legs and hands. He then pointed his right hand at me and prepared to burn my face.

"May you calm down there, Herlin-chan."

"Herlin!"

Baaaarrr…

I closed my eyes as the heat began to rise on my face. My legs and hands were locked by Delta and I also had no time to dodge them, so I felt that the attack was definitely on me.

Suddenly I felt flying. And as if lifted by something. My formerly rigid body movement now feels freer and I can use freely. Am I dead? But the attack didn't hurt at all.

Then I opened my eyes too. The first thing I saw after opening my eyes was the face of a person whose eyes were on alert looking at something. With her green hair and her orange iris eyes made her gaze look sharper. Then I realized something, that I was being carried like a princess by that person.

"I-Iraya …?"

"Yoo, can you stand?"

He looked at me with a relieved look and a slight calming smile. I nodded slowly too, indicating that I could stand up and he lowered me carefully.

After that little reunion, Iraya and I immediately focused again on the enemy who was in front of us—Delta. But for now, I want to make sure something first against him.

"He, huh? Be careful Herlin, he can pull out a clone and also has three different elemental abilities."

Iraya warned me about Delta. But unfortunately I already knew about it, so I ignored his warning.

"Can you still fight, Herlin? If not, rest first let me be the—"

"Wait, Iraya. There's something I want to talk to him about."

I calmed Iraya down and then walked closer to Delta. When I felt close enough, I spoke to him.

"You ... Delta, or whatever your name is. How do you know that Chifu-san isn't dead?"

I'm pretty sure he was killed in front of my eyes by Nimis. A slash towards his neck as well as blood pouring down was proof that Chifu-san could not have survived, but this person said that Chifu-san was still alive.

"Do you have any proof?" my many.

He didn't answer my question. What he did was point his hand at the mask and open it slowly. And the one inside the mask made my eyes and Iraya widen.

The skin of the face is pale like a sick person, the red hair that is braided is also almost lost its color, he said, as well as a scar like the shape of a lightning strike under his right eye formed all the way to his neck and possibly his body. The man then said something.

"I have the proof, Herlin-chan. Or I can call it, Ririsaka Herlin and Satou Iraya from Black Rain, ", Chifu-san said.

Seriate