Chapter 23 - Red

"One hundred and twenty-five meters to the target." Cortana's voice, as Tony called the AI in the suit, warned her how close she had left before the person in need of help. It didn't take Hermione long to notice a young woman standing on the roof of a five-story building with a baby in her arms. Her face was more than pale and from the sounds of the Grimm's claws creaking, she was constantly shrinking, trying to calm the child in her arms.

Grimm Ursa crawled up the facade of the building, in some way they resembled bears. Hermione has long admitted to herself that without armor, she would most likely be an easy target and even her magic would not help her.

Magic is a very universal thing, but at school, they were not taught how to fight creatures at least three times the size of an adult, who with their claws easily pierce concrete and smash trees into splinters.

Of course, that Troll in the first year was viler and bigger, but... he wasn't as scary as these creatures, which are like monsters led by people who only want to tear them apart... although it is.

It is difficult for a girl to imagine a world where you constantly live in fear of death from such creatures as a Grimm or the same Vampires in the world of Shinoa. It's one thing to read books about this, another thing is that such a world really exists, and you found yourself in it.

What would she have done without Tony's help? Most likely, she would have hidden behind the hunters' backs... and that makes it unpleasant for her soul. After all, hunters and huntress are not much older than her, and one is generally the same age as her!

Even though such unhappy thoughts flashed through her head, she had no problems pointing the repulsors on her hands in the direction of the Grimm and firing a couple of shots. Each of these tore the creatures apart. In the beginning, she was disgusted, but now she... got used to it.

"Miss" from the voice in the armor, the woman with the child shuddered and looked at Hermione with fear. This girl herself had a small horn on the left side of her forehead, so most likely she was a faun. "It's not safe here, let me escort you to the evacuation zone."

"Y-yes, thank you." the woman nodded, realizing that this one had come to her aid, and sighed with relief, hugging her child closer to her.

***

The pride of the Nakiri family is something that has fueled her entire environment since her birth. She was brought up with the idea that she was better than others, and that she would become a better cook, even her grandfather repeatedly showered her with compliments for her skills. When she discovered the "God's Tongue", that is, hypersensitivity to tastes, her life abruptly began to turn upside down…

She remembers perfectly how she met her idol, the one who "opened" her eyes to the path of cooking, Joichiro Saiba, that's the name of this man. She was very sensitive to food and the best chefs in the world cooked for her, but it was his cooking, just as a sign of goodwill to a hungry little girl then, that opened her eyes.

Six months later, her... her father started "teaching" her, although it was better to say very hard to teach the little girl she used to be. He did not disdain to use of physical methods of training for disobedience or the wrong approach.

He forced her to taste different dishes and ruthlessly reject those that did not reach the standard. When her grandfather found out about it, he kicked her father out of the family, but it was too late, the damage had already been done.

Erina could not find friends because of her arrogant nature, only if "servants", although now she understands that she was just trying to make friends in this way. Her secretary, Hisako Arato, can be considered her friend... by a stretch.

When she got a Chat, her whole attitude to life began to change. She had seen miracles in the world of Hermione and the world of Rias, she had also seen horrors... now she found herself in one of those. No matter how she tried to deceive herself, she knew one thing - she was afraid. Afraid of these black monsters from horror movies, afraid to see people die, afraid... afraid that the Chat will leave her because of cowardice.

She is the only "normal" one from the Chat and does not have any supernatural skills, and she was afraid that if she did not accept the task with everyone else, she might lose this wonderful feeling of... camaraderie. When they don't cringe at her, because they don't even know who she is! They don't care... and she's grateful for that.

"Thank you very much, thank you!" a woman in her thirties said to her with tears in her eyes, whom she escorted to the evacuation zone. In the beginning, Cortana controlled the armor, as Erina was too afraid of what was happening. She's just a fifteen-year-old girl from a rich and privileged family, how could she have seen such horrors?

"Glad to help". Erina said softly from the sight of the sincerely grateful woman she had saved.

Everything that is happening in general seems like a fantasy dream, but she has already made sure that all this is reality. Another world, in which the death of people from the clutches of monsters is a daily routine. Slowly, but surely, she realized that all this is not a light novel, it is a dark reality that does not forgive mistakes. If it wasn't for Tony-kun's words, she definitely wouldn't have appeared here without this armor and Cortana.

***

A fire vortex appeared above the Intercontinental Communication Tower, which is the main communication system invented on the Remnant. It consists of four towers, one in each kingdom. If one tower is disconnected, then the entire system will come out of standing, making communication not available at a great distance.

"Cortana, how is the firing of the Grimm going?"

"Judging by the cameras, there are no fewer of them, and they are running from all corners to the academy as if someone ordered them." - said AI.

"Hmm, the powers of the Maidens are important to Salem," I said thoughtfully and flew up towards the top of the tower, where the fire vortex was just visible. (Picture)

I had already taken Jaune to the evacuation point, so nothing should happen to him, so with a clear conscience, I flew back to Pyrrha and found her at the moment when she was exhausted on her knees in front of a villainously beautiful lady in red.

"...a power that never belonged to you. But I know one thing for sure, I use it in a way that you never even dreamed of."

"Do you... believe in destiny?" Pyrrha asked, looking steadfastly into her eyes. She understood that she would die, that she would not stand up against such an opponent for a long time, but she went to fight anyway.

She followed her ideals to the end and tried to help. Her opponent stood in front of her and materialized a bow in her hands, pulled the string, and aimed at her chest. The released arrow sounded in her head like a bell striking, she watched her death approaching her and could do nothing…

" What the..." whispered Cinder, when a stone wall appeared between the arrow and the girl, which took the blow and exploded.

"Heroes always come at the last moment, right?" I said, flying in through the window.

"Tony?" Pyrrha's eyes widened, and she wanted to shout something, but she coughed and grimaced from the pain in her body. "No... go away, she extremely strong…"

"Pyrrha, you're too good a person." I said what I really thought. "Even in such a situation, you try to help others, but think better about yourself. You may have always been a support for others, but let me be a support for you now... even if we don't know each other too well."

" What a hero... disgusting." The eyes of the girl in the red dress flashed with fire…

"Do you think that the power of the Maiden will help you?" from my question, the girl's eyes opened a little wider. "You know, you're the type of person that I can understand in some ways. Abandoned by everyone, a barely alive girl in this terrible world is picked up by the "scary" Queen Grimm, who gives you hope. You were raised as a weapon, don't you understand that?"

"But I have a power that no one could have dreamed of." the girl clasped her hands and a fiery whirlwind rushed into me, which heated the floor and melted the metal in front of it. But towards the whirlwind, a stone "shell" grew out of the floor, where the attack flew in.

"Weakly." I said with obvious mockery, nullifying the entire attack. Although I had to strengthen the earth with magic for this. In the next second, I moved towards Cinder and slipped under her next fiery attack, I was right in front of her and delivered a simple punch to the stomach, which sent her into the wall.

"You... I haven't seen you before." she said, easily moving away from the blow, although she became much warier of me. "Where did such a strong hunter come from so suddenly?"

"After I beat you, and then your little group, I'll tell you... maybe. Pyrrha go away." I looked at the redhead.

"No... together we have more chances." said "invincible girl".

"You'll only get in the way. You're exhausted right now, so you better think about yourself. " I said and jerked myself in front of the girl to catch the fiery arrow fired by the angry Cinder.

The fire began to splash around her, literally bursting out even from her eyes, but a bright white light appeared from the academy, which distracted her.

"What..." this stunned my opponent for a moment. "How you all annoy me."

"I agree. Pyrrha, go to your friends." I said one last thing and rushed to Cinder. She took my first fist blow on the block and like an arrow flew through the wall of the tower outside, leaving behind a cloud of dust and other materials that made up the wall. I hit her harder now than last time, and she still looked fine, even if she was more than angry.

"Ahr. Burn to the ground!" a concentrated ray of fire appeared next to me in an instant, but a magic seal appeared in its path, through which I used alchemy and began to turn magic fire into water... which was not easy. This water, under huge pressure, headed towards Sinder and soaked her from head to toe. In a really dangerous situation, I would not do this, because too much effort needs to be put to pull off such an action.

"And it suits you better this way. " I paid her a compliment... but judging by her look, she didn't like it.

The girl could fly because of the Maiden power, so she flew straight at me, I also soared in the sky with the help of repulsors on my legs. We started fighting in the sky and each of my blows consumed part of her aura and made her even angrier. At one point, she created two fire blades and tried to impale me on them.

But I wrapped myself in earthen armor, used the nearest buildings for this, and grew an additional pair of stone arms, and it was with them that I caught the swords, and with my hand I struck her right in the jaw, and she flew up like a torpedo, spinning around her axis.

"Ra-a-a!" A huge Wyvern Grimm that had already arrived shouted and tried to bite off a piece of me. (Picture)

"Don't get in the way." I waved him off and hit him without restraining physical force, and because of this, the overgrown Grimm turned over several times in the air and crashed into a building in Vail.

After that, stone spikes began to sprout from this building, which threw the Wyvern into the air, and I struck again, only this time on the bone head and using Senjutsu. Snow-white energy enveloped my hands and the blow echoed throughout the city, and the Wyvern's head burst like an overripe watermelon.

"You're next." I pointed my finger at Cinder, who perfectly saw how I dealt with a huge Grimm, which a dozen teams of Hunters can not cope with. This is the power of the Primordial Human and the one who could fight dragons.

"Who are you?!" she exclaimed and... there was a flicker of fear in her voice.

"The one who came to stop you and your boss." I confessed.

"..." she said nothing and created a huge fire bow and shot an arrow at me, which broke through the sound barrier and headed towards me.

"Cortana." I said out loud, although it was not necessary, and a bright light appeared on my chest, where the arc reactor was located, and then the concentrated energy of the reactor burst out in a snow-white beam.

The beam couldn't completely absorb this arrow, but even so, it knocked it off its trajectory, and the energy hit the Cinder, throwing her a hundred meters away. At the same time, the heat melted the windows of some buildings, to which we flew close enough.

"I think if you had practiced with this power for a while, you would have been able to give a more worthy fight." I said, landing next to her and grabbed her by the neck, and then slamming her face into a stone wall that appeared nearby.

The girl's moan was au'dible, but I didn't stop there and kicked her in the stomach, which threw her into the air. Already in the air, she tried to fly away from me, but I created a magic seal and unstable elements that I created from the air began to fall from it, and when they came into contact with Cinder, they began to react... that is, explode.

This did not harm her in any way, but knocked her concentration down, which caused her to lose control of the flight for a moment, and the next moment a large stone hand grabbed her and forcefully returned her to the ground.

"Because of the Maiden power, your aura is very strong." I said, impressed, standing next to her body. Such blows would have no problem flattening an ordinary person, and even people with the Eye of God, judging by Albedo's memory. Of course, not all of them, but still.

" A-a-a"! she screamed and flared up with a fiery aura again, which threw her into the air for a meter and a roaring flame fell from her hands ... from which I just walked away, and the flame itself created a molten hole in the building. Fortunately, civilians from this area have long fled.

"Impressive". I confessed, but I still created a stone cocoon around her, in which she had already passed out.

This fight showed me at what level I am now... if she were more experienced with the power of Maiden. This seething magical power would be enough to turn an entire block, and possibly several, into a region of burning hell.

But because of her inexperience, she was wasting a lot of energy. But even so, I can't say that the fight was easy for me, even though I pretended that everything was under control.