Chapter 37: The Women Known As Lady Lily

Elmyra looked all around the room before focusing her attention back onto Lady Lily. There had been a few times when Lady Lily becomes the subject of a particular conversation between Zel, Valerie and Rydel who all had some sort of interaction with Lady Lily at some point on their journey. Despite their differing experiences, their verdict on this woman is always the same.

She is extremely dangerous, and extremely strong.

Nobody in the group can confidently say that they can beat Lady Lily in a one on one fight, seeing she is one of the physically strongest individuals in the galaxy, accounting for her physiological enhancements and the nanotechnology enhancements, plus her artifact that can be used both at a distance and in close quarter combat. There are only two people that had gone through the procedures of enhancements, and neither is confident that they could compete with Lady Lily.

The mysterious powers of Lady Lily, still unknown to the bearers at this point, is capable of working around whatever sort of defense you might had. So the best strategy of winning is to simply not get caught, fortunately, if there is anyone truly excelling at not getting caught in the group, it will be Elmyra and Zel. Though ironically, Zel is captured in a bubble of Lock Down, and Elmyra is trapped in this room.

'You expect me to just fight you?' Elmyra said, as she closely looked at Lady Lily who appeared nonchalant and not threatened in the slightest by Elmyra, 'Why don't you show me what you can do?'

'If you say so...' Lady Lily said, 'I have no idea why master allowed for two of you to go through the entire Absolute Academy while hiding the truths from us, but neither of them are here. So let me show you how outclassed you are!' Then, Lady Lily took a hard step back, the force from her legs ripping the carpet wide open and cracking the concrete floor as she jetted forward and charged towards Elmyra, cocking a fist back and preparing for a ferocious punch.

From the moment Lady Lily moved, Elmyra has activated her artifact and slipped into the Space of Uncertainty, as Lady Lily's trajectory is shown in a series of still frames, and a hole in the middle of her stomach is visible on her body. Elmyra took a step to the side, narrowly evading the line of travel for Lady Lily, and yet the wound on her body remained. However, the kind of wound went from a puncture to deep cuts on her arms and across her chest.

Somehow, that won't be enough? Elmyra looked closely at the movements of Lady Lily and is fairly certain that the punch is the only thing she is doing, and yet these strange marks will still remain on her body if she stayed too close. However, once she took another step back, those wounds disappeared.

Elmyra exited the Space of Uncertainty with more uncertainty than when she got in, but that's simply because of Lady Lily's strange attacks. She charged right across in front of her, and as Elmyra flickered out of the lines of attack, Lady Lily lets out a curious hum before planting her foot hard into the ground and charging towards Elmyra once again.

Elmyra entered into the Space once more, and moved generously out of the way.

This cycle of attack and evasion continued for two more times before Elmyra finally decided to counter attack. However, she realized that it is not only to Lady Lily's side, there is a strange bubble of something all around her that will damage whatever that comes too close. Is that how the power of her artifact is expressed? Elmyra was about to send Lady Lily into the side wall, but she realized that she will lose a finger in the process and decided against it.

This strange power does not match whatever Zel and Rydel was describing, so Elmyra instead tried to look for where the artifact is. The locations of the artifacts as she learned, could be anywhere in the body, or on the body, or outside of the body. And then, she sees it.

The glowing pen by Lady Lily's side, as the tip of the brushpen glowed orange while touching the dress. Elmyra realized that the artifact is constantly activated!

'So is running all you can do?' Lady Lily taunted as Elmyra evaded yet another attack, 'if its a battle of endurance, I will be the winner!'

'Perhaps.' Elmyra picked up a dropped wine glass from the floor and entered into the Space of Uncertainty before a tackle from Lady Lily took her head off, she may have some idea of what is going on, but she needed to test it to find out. Unlike Valerie who's full of battle experience, or Rydel who's filled with creativity in combat, Elmyra's strength is test and analyse, and that is precisely what she is going to do! Moving off to the side, she tossed the wine class towards the side of Lady Lily's body as she moved out of the way.

To Vindy's eyes, Elmyra is simply appearing and disappearing all across the room with glowing eyes as Lady Lily ran back and forth like a dog chasing after a phantom, then, a wine glass suddenly appeared in mid air before it crashed into the side of Lady Lily's beautiful dress, except it didn't. The wine glass is clearly ripped into thousands of pieces before it ever made contact with the dress.

Nobody else in the room might have realized what was going on, but Elmyra saw it. The future of the wine glass that she tossed, and the way it was shredded into those uncountable amount of pieces. In another split second, three more wine glasses were tossed her way before they were shredded. As the rain of shard showered all over Lady Lily, though not harming her, she got irritated and accelerated once again. This time, she got in close enough to grasp Elmyra before she slipped from her hand again.

Her artifact only works in a short range around her body, so Elmyra may be safe to rescue Zel! As the fatigue from using the Space of Uncertainty and moving herself around the room so much began to build up, she took shorter breaks between each entrance and exit as she flickered her way towards the still suspended Zel. With two clean strikes to the soldiers surrounding the area, they were sent flying towards the wall, however, the three that were locking onto Zel is still standing tall and holding their positions with the artifact.

'You think you can run away?' Lady Lily ripped the pen from the side of her body and slammed it onto the ground. The carpet came into life as the fabrics and fibers became fully under her control and allowed her to rearrange them into whatever formation she wishes.

Before Elmyra could enter into the Space of Uncertainty once again to free Zel, the strands that were rolled up into inch thick ropes wrapped around Elmyra arms and yanked them backward. Instead of moving Zel out of Lock Down, Elmyra had to instead free herself from the grasp of Lady Lily's attack. However, now, there is a slight headache, warning her that she is now on the verge of overusing her artifacts. Despite that, Elmyra could not let herself come out of the only space that is safe in the galaxy for her.

She miscalculated badly, and now she wasted even more energy just to stay alive. But now, Elmyra saw the Pen in Lady Lily's hands.

So whatever the pen touches, Lady Lily can control?

Elmyra looked towards Lady Lily once more, and thought that something appeared strange in her...fashion. Somehow, her red dress has become more...revealing, showing her white flesh underneath. And more peculiarly, those patches of exposure are on the sides of her body.

'I get it!' Elmyra shouted from underneath her breath, before, the distinct flow of the artifact the brushpen showed that it was activated and was in contact with Lady Lily's dress. From the way the artifact is now used to control the fabrics of the carpet right underneath her feet, Lady Lily was using the exact same technique to control the fabrics of her dress! By weaving and waving those extremely thin fabrics at extremely high speeds all around her body, there exists a protective bubble of thousands of tiny whips that will damage anything that will come into contact.

However, just because those strands can deal a lot of damage doesn't mean they can take a lot, and through the tossing of a wine glass, strands were being quickly worn out, explaining the more increased nudity in Lady Lily's outfit.

So as long as the artifact is not in contact with her dress, she is exposed! And Elmyra can come in close for an attack.

Elmyra doesn't have a lot of subjective seconds in the Space of Uncertainty, and she will be cutting it close with how much more energy she still has to control the artifact, but she will do the best she can! Leaping across the stationery room, she gave Lady Lily a press on the forehead, and as expected there are no potential wounds on her body.

Lady Lily saw Elmyra tangled up in the strands of carpet before she disappeared into thin air once again. Then, she flickered right in front of her with a hand in her face before Lady Lily could react, and she was thrown back into the wall behind her, slamming her lower body into the DJ's deck. Vindy hopped out of the way screaming as Lady Lily came flying in. The sound of her body crashing and shattering the glass decor on the walls is so loud that it caught everyone in the room by surprise.

Elmyra didn't waste a single second as she spun in her heels and sprinted towards the three soldiers holding onto Zel, with a simple tap on all of their wrists, the pseudo-artifacts went flying away from their hands before an auto-drop-protection mechanism kicked in and bubbles of air pocket puffed up to break the fall and not break those artifacts as they were dropped.

Zel is reanimated as he fell into Elmyra's arms.

'Are you OK?' He asked worryingly before Elmyra can say anything. He was the one that was captured for so long, and yet he is still more worried about her? Elmyra gave him a smile before a sharp object pierced thorugh the back of her neck and protruded through the front of her neck and blood and tissues splattered into Zel's face. Elmyra opened her mouth and moved her chin up and down a few times, but no air went through, and no sound came out.

'NO!!!!!!!' Zel yelled out desparately, 'WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!'

From behind the DJ counter, Lady Lily propped herself up against the music box with scratches and cuts all over her face. The Pen of Rearrangement turned the innocent music box into killing weapon as the molecules were manipulated to form a spear that traveled across the room and nailed Elmyra right in the neck.

'Don't worry, I can fix her right up.' Lady Lily said, her voice slightly trembling, 'that's if you don't waste any more time.'

'run...' With all of her energy, Elmyra mouthed the words as she held onto Zel's real arms with all of her remaining strength, 'get help, tell them...' Then, her eyes glowed one last time, and she shoved Zel away from her, sending him in a trajectory away from the room towards the first floor of the casino, where they both planned to win big and have a great night. Perhaps that night will have to wait, Z.

Just run.

Zel found himself slamming into a table of games as he flew through a holographic dealer. Tears of rage and sadness flooded down the sides of his cheeks, but he knew there is no time to waste. He needed to get out of here. As the complaining guests shoved him off the table, Zel ran towards the nearest bathroom and into a cubical before opening up the personal interface with shaking hands and making a call to Ol. She wanted him to tell the others, and he will do exactly that. Then, he will enter back into the Pocket and chase them down!

He will kill Lady Lily ten times over! He will make her pay! Zel swore, but there is no connection to the outside world, somehow, the communications network is jammed and cut off!

This has been a trap by Absolute Being all along, but when did the trap sprung?

A low and gentlemanly voice spoke from outside the cubical, and Zel looked up while covering up his mouth so the crying cannot be heard by others. However, despite his best attempts, he is failing miserably.

'They have cut off the communications.' The voice said, 'If you wish to contact your friends, use my interface.'

Then, a device is slid from underneath the door. And Zel stared at it.

'Why...who are you?'

'Consider me a neutral party.'

'Why didn't you help...'

'I was in no position to intervene, but this is my help.' The voice said over running water, then the sounds of a footstep went towards the door, 'call your friends, tell them what's happening, and get out of here.'

Zel looked down at the normal looking perosnal interface, and picked it up. With shaking hands, he entered in the communications line for Ol.

Is this another trap? Maybe, but right now, there is no other option. The only reason that they will lose is if any of them are caught out and split up like this, but when the whole team is here, they are the equivalent of the military force of a country! They can take down any foe, and get their friends back!

'Ol! Emergency, They got Elmyra badly, and I am trapped. I will follow them the best I can, but I need your help!'

'Where are you!' From the other side of the communications line, it sounded like something just got dropped as Ol shot onto his feet, 'Marble Casino, entertainment district!'

'Can you stay near Elmyra without being spotted?' Ol asked, as another person from the other side seemed to scrambled to open up another communications line, 'I will gather everyone right now!'

'Yes...yes, but I can't save her...' Zel said with a shaking voice, 'Lady Lily got her bad...and only she can fix her up. If I do anything...'

'I understand.' Ol said,his voice sounding urgent yet affirmative and calming, 'follow them the best you can and update us with your positions. We will be in contact as soon as possible. Pop in and out of real world to get our transmissions. Are you safe now?'

As the toilet door is kicked open, Zel warped himself into the Pocket before his cubical was kicked wide open by a soldier.

The communications is instantly cut off as Zel left the real world. This is the only safe place for him in the galaxy now, and he jumped through the floors up towards the room where they were trapped. Lady Lily, the DJ and another short human is talking about something as soldiers now put Elmyra into the Lock Down to preserve her key functions.

Knowing that Zel can warp in and out of places to potentially steal Elmyra back from them, Lady Lily has decided to postpone her healing for as far back as she need to.

'THAT BITCH!' Zel cursed and stomped onto the ground. Elmyra is right there, and yet he can never get to her, not like this. If he does anything rash, her life will be forfeit. The wounds are still open, but nothing else is happening.

'We have done our duties as you asked, Lady Lily.' Hong said, his arms crossed right in front of his body, 'I wish you all a nice rest of the night. If you would like another visit to the marble...'

'Nice job, Vindy.' Lady Lily ignored Hong's speech and walked towards the Rockie who's trauma and fear of Lady Lily returned after seeing how far she is willing to go in a fight. Her carefully pieced together will of resisting against her is broken once more, and this time Lady Lily didn't even intend for it to happen, 'I know I can count on you. If we require you for anything in the future, and we will get in touch.'

Vindy simply nodded instintively. She wanted to get away from as far from Lady Lily as possible, and yet is there truly anywhere else to go on this planet?

'Now, let's talk about you, Hong Fu.' Lady Lily turned to look at the human male that's about a head and a half shorter than her, 'Do you have Probable with you?.'

'What do you mean, Lady Lily.' Hong said, looking up at Lady Lily without a single hint of fear or intimation, 'Of course I have my artifact with me.'

'Perfect.' Lady Lily gave him a smile, and knocked him out.

'What?! What are you doing!' Vindy shouted at Lady Lily as a single soldier picked up Hong Fu on his back and carried him away, 'you said there is only one job for us!'

'Yes, one job.' Lady Lily said without looking back, 'that job ended for you, but for our mutual friend here, he is only half way there.'

As Lady Lily disappeared into the exits, Vindy dropped onto the floor finally. The room is completely destroyed and in a complete mess. Her music box is destroyed, her performance ended up in bloodshed, and her only hope for the future is taken from right in front of her eyes.

No, not her only hope.

Hong Fu had planned for this. And she knew it, it's just that she can't believe it is her that will carry out the contingency plan.

'In the event of a betrayal from Lady Lily regarding the terms of agreement, proceed with plan B.' Hong said, and further details were provided in a detailed set of notes he has given her, 'If she wants a war, then we will give her a war.'