Chapter 65

Arya didn't have much time to catch her breath when her first opponent made the first move.

That pink haired girl smashed her fist into the ground and the ground shook and rumbled as the stone cracked and split into thousands of pieces. Arya thought that that pink haired girl was trying to gain an upper hand by causing the ground to be uneven and badly unnavigable. That's a smart idea in terms of trying to hinder your opponent's movements. If you didn't have good balance or control, you would not be able to get a solid footing which could impact your fighting ability.

That's a pretty smart idea, Arya thought. That girl is an experienced fighter-but that's bad for me.

Then that girl was gone. Arya looked up and saw her flying towards her.

The pink haired girl allowed gravity to take hold of her and she flew back down. Twisting and turning herself in the air, she positioned herself so that she was flying face first back towards the ground. She threw her shoulder back and her fist made contact with the ground. It was like an earthquake suddenly happened. The ground shook and the trees trembled and their leaves rained down to the ground.

Arya leaped out of the way just in time as the girl's fist connected with the ground and the earth exploded just a few feet from Arya. Dirt went flying everywhere and the girl left a deep crater from where her fist landed. Arya gulped, she knew if she had gotten hit by that girl's punch for a second time, she would be dead.

The girl's punch ended up kicking up a lot of dirt into the air and it was creating a sort of smokescreen that was leaving people's view hazy and blurred. While the girl couldn't see Arya, Arya couldn't see anything as well. So she didn't see that powerful blast of water aimed at her.

A stream of water shot out through the dust and caught Arya square in the chest and she flew through the air.

Her back slammed against the ground as she fell back down to earth and she felt all the wind in her lungs knocked out of her.

Damn it, Arya thought. I'm too tired from all the fighting I did earlier and I'm outnumbered.

That same pink haired girl and blonde hair boy along with three more figures coming out of the dust.

Eyes still glassy and unfocused, they shuffled and stumbled as they moved towards her like puppets on a string. Like they weren't in control of their own movements.

Arya struggled to get up and fight but she had no energy left inside of her.

….

There were around 70 kids in total that were held hostage.

Lucifer examined all of them and saw that other than being a little bit malnourished and dirty, they looked fine.

They sat huddled together in large groups under the trees as Lucifer and Lilith worked together to figure out what to do next.

Lilith showed Lucifer her butterfly markings and Lucifer was overjoyed and happy for his sister.

"Awesome, Lily!! A super pretty but deadly ability suited for my sister. Flesh eating butterflies?"

Lilith created two butterflies, one black and the other gold, and the two butterflies fluttered and flew off towards the nearest life source: A small patch of white wild flowers.

The two butterflies proceeded to cause the flowers to wilt and decay, snow white petals turning brown and dry in seconds, as the two demon siblings watched.

"Not flesh eating but it is similar to your own ability, Lucy."

Lucifer could turn any living being into piles of dust. Lilith's butterflies could….cause decaying and decomposing in living organisms in a way.

Their father had the power to manipulate blood. One of his more gruesome ways of using that power is to cause all the blood vessels and veins in someone's body to explode and break apart. It was a nasty way of dying.

Destructive abilities ran in the family.

A loud crash and boom off in the distance as the ground shook. It sounded like thunder even though the sky was bright and sunny.

Both siblings turned to the direction of the commotion.

"What in the world?..."

…

Elijah threw up a huge wall of fire that towered over the people at least 20 feet to protect Arya from her attackers.

The wall of fire caused Arya's attackers to freak out.

They backed away from Arya and away from that deadly wall of fire.

Arya didn't have a lot of time to get over the fact that Elijah was alive and well when he threw a piece of cloth-maybe a handkerchief or a strip of cloth torn from a piece of clothing-at her.

"Cover up your nose and mouth. Catty's gonna do it."

Arya obeyed.

Elijah did the same, covering up his nose and mouth with a piece of cloth.

A few seconds later, a thick cloud of purple smoke filled the air.

One by one, the attackers hit the ground.

Catalina could control and create poison…did she…?

As if he could read her mind, Elijah shook his head.

"Catty's poison gas is only paralyzing them. They're alive but won't be able to move."

Arya sighed. That was a small relief.

Then a bolt of lightning rained down from the sky and almost missed Arya by mere centimeters.

The ground next to Arya was black and burnt. Arya felt that the hairs on her arms and her eyebrows were nearly burnt off by the lightning's power.

Arya knew there were really only two people she knew of that could use lightning like that.

Assyrian and Ezekiel.

Which meant one of them had to be here.

Chapter 66

The dust started to clear and Arya saw that it was Ezekiel.

He had that same glassy look in his eyes just like the others.

Oh, he wasn't alone either.

Granite and Assyrian along with Freya were also with him.

Oh fuck.

Arya felt the ground shaking under her and her instincts took over.

She rolled over onto her left side and just in time as well as thick and monstrous looking vines as thick as a tree trunk came bursting out of the ground.

Freya's work, Arya thought.

She risked a glance at them and saw that they were still standing despite the paralyzing gas.

Figures.

They were a lot tougher and stronger than an average ability user.

But that didn't mean that they weren't affected by it.

They were shaking and straining to resist the gas.

"My princess!!"

Elijah rushed over to her. His face was filled with worry and concern.

Arya realized she dropped her cloth in her haste to avoid the roots.

She was now exposed to the paralyzing gas.

Catalina has to be somewhere around here but Arya couldn't see her.

Arya played with her hands, flexing her fingers, clenching her hand into a fist.

She could move just fine.

She could still move her arms and legs.

It was as if she was immune to the effects of the paralyzing gas.

Elijah breathed a sigh of relief that was muffled by the cloth pressed up against his face.

"Thank goodness, princess, that you're alright. I was worried about you. It's been so long since we were separated!! I thought you died at that camp!!"

He was referring to when the monsters attacked the refugee camp they came across.

"What happened to all these people?"

"They were all brainwashed or something. Luckily, me and Elijah here were able to break free but everyone else isn't so lucky."

Mind control, huh.

"Catty!!!"

Catalina also rushed over to Arya and knelt down before her.

Arya threw herself at the siblings.

"I missed you guys a lot but I think we have bigger problems to worry about."

Assyrian summoned a bolt of lightning into his hands and threw it at them.

But it never hit them as a shining golden shield of some sort protected them from the attack.

The lightning bolt bounced off the barrier and reduced a nearby building to ashes instead.

"Leave them alone, prince."

A handsome blonde man approached and he looked very similar to Catalina.

Wait…

"Jasper?"

Arya thought she recognized him from somewhere and her memory of him was hazy but she still remembered his name.

The man nodded.

"That's me. I'm pleased to see that you still remember me, your highness."

Granite suddenly charged at Jasper but when his fist connected with the invisible barrier surrounding him, he flew backwards in the opposite direction away from him.

"One quirk about my ability is that it doesn't take much effort to use and I can create an invisible barrier to protect me from outside attacks."

Catalina took the moment to dispel the smoke and the paralyzing gas disappeared and cleared out.

But the affected people still remained stuck and unmoving.

Catalina took the time to explain to Arya that the paralyzing effects will last for about 3 hours.

Granite, Assyrian, Freya and Elijah all quickly dropped to the ground as the toll of prolonged exposure to the gas finally kicked in.

Looks like they won't be moving anytime soon.

"That'll give us some time to figure out what's going on and to catch up."

Right….

Ah, Arya thought.

The townspeople!!!

Were they okay?

Arya did see a couple of them managing to run away in time but how many were still alive?

"Catty!! Eli!!! There were survivors here but I don't know if they're okay or not!!"

Catalina and Elijah needed no more explanation as they quickly dispersed to find survivors.

Jasper grinned and leaned towards Arya until his face was in hers.

"Pardon me, princess, but may I tag along with you? I heard a lot about you from rumors on the streets and I would like to get to know you better."

Arya couldn't care less about that.

Right now, she needed to focus on helping any survivors she could find.

Oh, and she needed to chase that sword stealer and teach him a good lesson.