Chapter 170: I will have you return the sacred core!

It was hard to tell whether the girl followed my words out of fear or due to some other reasons. But it wasn't hard to activate the recurring stone in my hand as soon as she slipped outside of its effective range. 

Once again, after a few moments of charging, a slight tremor exploded outwards from the stone. At first, nothing seemed to have happened. That is if one didn't count how everyone in the area affected by the coming disaster suddenly froze in place.

It seemed that both humans and those mutants were capable of sensing the death looming over their heads. But there wasn't anything that any of those future victims could do. 

Then, the disaster came. The air cracking under the force of the magical energy riling up. Exploding outwards from the stone, the mana resurgence travelled forward in a cone. As if the air of the place was filled with tiny amounts of gunpowder, a spiritual spark, and then nothing. 

Contrary to what happened back in Ayda's world, the disaster didn't fire off all at once. Here, it took way longer to charge after actually being discharged, as if the density of the magic in the air was far greater, slowing the entire reaction down.

Then, with a force way greater than back when I first used it, the reality started to break. 

Instead of just introducing chaos into every orderly thing within its area of effects, completely changing the physical structure of all the matter within its sphere of influence, it now broke the reality itself.

For a moment, I could see the images that the human brain simply couldn't process. For a moment, time, matter, space and all the other elemental foundations of the universe mixed up, no longer hidden in their natural form. 

With the time mixing with the matter, with space taking place of void and void replacing the space, the sight before my eyes turned insane. As if it wanted to turn anyone daring to look at it insane as well. 

But as beautiful as it was, it quickly came to an end. Most likely due to the overwhelmingly greater pressure of the mana outside of its area of effect, as soon as the initial outburst of chaos was over, everything within the affected area of reality crumbled into dust, before the natural force of the world patched the scar on its face. 

In front of me, a cone of dust remained. With all the matter inside the place turned into dark dust, a huge valley of emptiness appeared amidst the monster's ranks. 

"Wha…" Hovering in the air just outside of the area affected by the disaster, the female birdie trembled in fear. Her face no longer as arrogant as it was before, with all the self-pride replaced by nothing else but the raw, primal form of fear.

A fear that stripped one out of all the falsehood, all the pretence, all the masks. A fear that forced its recipients to face the ultimate truth of the world they lived in. 

"Great, now I'm done." Turning my head around, I cast a quick glance at the general area where the prince should be. After a few moments of scanning through the colours, I finally met the eyes of the man, only to receive a reluctant nod of his head.

"Wait, what do you mean?!" The winged girl proved that she was quite capable by overcoming her fear at such short notice. "You are just going to leave? After what you did?!"

Slightly leaning my head to the side, I sent the girl a calm smile, before changing the vector of my repulsion once again. 

"Wait! I will kill you!" Finally recalling how I appeared to be her enemy given how I just devastated a huge chunk of the army she was fighting along with, the girl attempted to lash at me… Only for the sword to drop out of her terrified hand.

"I'm supposed to wait for you to kill me? Wait for you because you need to kill me? Can't you be a bit more precise?" Throwing those few words to the girl in the back, I didn't bother changing the vector of my witchcraft again. As such, by the time the winged girl managed to recover from my words, she had to flap her wings a few times before she managed to catch up to me.

"Where do you think you are going! Or rather…" Taking a moment, the girl clearly hesitated. Then, she finally revealed what was bugging her. "Why did you spare me?" 

With my attention brought to the topic, I genuinely had no answer for that. Momentary mercy? Being drunk on the power to decide who gets to live and who gets to live? The fact that outside of the wings, she appeared to be quite cute? Or maybe just something that I decided on in the spin of a moment?

Unable to answer the question, I decided to just ignore it. But no matter how close we got to the ranks of the humans, the girl followed me, insisting on getting my answer. From how her body was trembling, it was clear that she was in a state of constant fear, yet even despite that, she continued to press forward.

"Aren't you worried they will kill you?" Pointing my hand at the soldiers below, I asked. Even if I spared the girl, she shouldn't be naive enough to think I would go out of my way to protect her. 

Then, I understood. 

It wasn't as if I wanted to kill her or anything. Given how it didn't matter who would be the one dying from my hand, it was just easier on my mind to spare someone I already exchanged a few words with!

That was all there was to it. 

And as little as others would care for such a topic, given how broken emotionally I was after the incident with that female general of the wizards, I preferred to ensure my mental state was stable at all times.

"They? Don't make me laugh. There is at most five warriors in the entire low-human race that can threaten me." Shaking her shoulders while answering, the girl momentarily compromised her ability to fly when her wings followed the move of her back muscles. With a few desperate flaps of her huge, white wings, the girl regained her stability mid-air, before looking at me and blushing. "The better question is, why didn't you kill me?" 

Bringing my attention back to the topic I already dropped, the girl somehow managed to annoy me. 

"Because I didn't felt like it. Are you happy now?" Shaking my head to get rid of the useless thoughts, I sped my glide up. The faster I would go back to the prince, the sooner I would start looking for the place where this sacred core I received earlier should go. 

"Happy? What kind of a soldier you are to just spare your damned enemies! How can you be so cruel to let me live after devastating so many friends of mine!" Shouting out loud, the girl finally managed to make me stop. 

Forced by her outburst into a stop, I reversed the vector of my repulsion before coming to a full stop. With the prince already within my sight even without straining my eyes, I didn't want to risk bringing one of his powerful enemies towards him. 

"Your way of thinking is wrong." Pushing my body towards the girl, I sent a light yet sharp slap to her face. Given how there was absolutely no hostility behind this attack, it was given that the girl failed to react to it in time. 

Seeing that she brought her hand to her cheek more in a surprise rather than in pain, I explained. "Rather than despairing over the loss, you should rejoice that you are left alive. There is no meaning to life. We are the ones that make our lives matter something." Spinning around in my axis as if simple shaking my head was enough to get the philosophical spirit out of my head. 

"Right now, it's your job to give meaning to the colleagues and brothers in arms that you have lost. As for me," Suddenly stopping, I actually met a mental wall. What should I say next? What was the thought that suddenly spiralled out of control?

And what was this feeling of something strange happening to my mind, as if a foreign entity was taking over it?

"Consider me a natural disaster. I have no personal interest in killing you or your people. Not anymore." Pulling out the sacred core from my pocket, I flashed it towards the girl as if in an attempt to explain my rationale. "With this, I only need to have a talk with someone in charge here before…" 

I didn't even get to finish my sentence. When the girl laid her eyes on the slightly shiny surface of the yellowish stone that my system accepted as a sacred core, her face suddenly tensed.

The fear that slowly faded away as we continued our conversation returned with full force.

Yet despite that, the girl still forced herself to pull her sword out with a face signifying she resigned herself to death. 

"I will have you return the sacred core right now!"