"Azathoth, you're hereby under arrest for failing to comply with military personnel, along with suspicion of being a foreigner!" Alex uttered, his tone not hiding the excluded cold rage.
Alex's resolve had steeled after seeing Rue's condescending smirk.
He'll be the one to teach this bastard respect!
Rue rolled his eyes. "Oh, spare me the preposterous act, jeez. Are you going to come or should I come to you two?"
Snap!
Came the illusionary sound of a metaphorical thread snapping.
"Ooh, you want to be a smart ass you fucking orange-haired bitch, well two can play that game you fucker!!" Ayami yelled, her gaze cold while her mouth tugged a cynical smile.
Raising her hands toward the sky, Ayami silently sent a command for the Will circulating through the pink cubes.
Sensing the command from their master, the Will allocated within the cubes activated.
Elicited from the command, the cubes began to orbit around Ayami and Alex at blinding speeds—leaving only pinkish blurs that trailed in their wake.
Marveling at the weaponry from a distance, Rue's gaze lingered not at the two Fourth Destination practitioners in front of him—since they were essentially akin to children who believed themselves mature but lacked any real-world experience—but at the particularly weird weaponry that both seemed to be brandishing.
The shield situated with the catalysts behind the girl had this weird aura that uniquely contrasted any conventional weapon Rue had ever seen.
'Why does a fourth Destination World Controller use a catalyst that only those in the Sixth Destination and above require?'
'It's so inefficient, yet…'
'Never mind, I'm wasting time,' Rue thought, brushing off the unnecessary grandeur.
scrutinizing the duo, Rue sighed.
"Well, let's see how you fare," he exclaimed, brandishing his axe into a stance suited for both offense and defense.
"At least make this memorable…"
Bang!
Catching the final line of stark comment from the orange-haired fellow, Ayami's eyes twitched uncontrollably and she gnashed her teeth until her gums bled.
In a frenzied movement, she long-ridingly brought her arm down, commanding her catalysts forth into action.
Screw the protocols, KILL this FUCKER!
In sync with Ayami, Alex charged forward, weaving between the pink catalysts.
With his eyes ablaze and his gritty expression blocked from view, Alex's front body was encased with a large black onyx surface that stretched across for several meters and barreled toward Rue with reckless abandon.
Watching the formation between the blue- and black-haired pair, the inquisitor couldn't help but let out a chuckle internally.
'These emotional brats, they're really falling for my taunts.' he muttered 'how hot headed, I guess I should teach them some basic skills starting with my favorite..'
'The one who could make you mad is your indirect master'
Their plan was beyond obvious.
The blue-haired one would launch her pink catalysts around Rue, which would in turn force him completely on the defensive. While using this snake-like procedure to gradually smother Rue's endurance and strain his focus, Alex—now exploiting the weakness of fatigue and focus—would attack Rue.
Sneaky, and simply clever.
However, Rue wasn't so simple.
Following the directions of each subsequent cube, Rue tracked their individual movements and, with nimble footwork, evaded each of the beams.
~Sizzle~
Grazing Rue's calf was a unison of black-curing light that beamed from a cube that discreetly burrowed underground.
With the aid of his advanced spatial awareness, Rue was fortunate enough to escape the lethal proximity of the ray.
But the ray had still hit him, it was impressive but he wouldn't allow it to happen twice.
'Oh, that's new.' he mused
Charting the direction of the beam in his mind, Rue followed the pattern of its movements and jumped toward the cube.
With his axe weighing heavily on his shoulder, he swung it diagonally toward the area of air he predicted the cube would pass.
Swoosh!
Alex rushed forward after determining an opening in Rue's current position.
The orange-haired man was already mid-swing, and determined by the silver axe's size—due to its sheer weight—he would have obviously sacrificed his speed in the aim of heightening the delivery of his destruction.
This arrogance was going to be the reason for the man's death.
As the ebony-haired fellow charged towards Rue as a truck would before deer.
From any third party's perfective, it would seem that Rue only had one of two options.
The first and foremost was to merely accept this as fate and allow the shield to turn him into methodological roadkill.
And the second was to abandon his weapon, along with his dignity—but with this method Rue would still have to deal with built-up airborne inertia.
'A rat caught in a mouse trap' Rue thought with glee.
On second thought, screw both of those options.
Rue literally only had to command the monoclinic structure within his brain and channel his still-developing [World View] throughout his body in order to stop his current inertia.
Doubling down several meters from Rue, Alex activated his shield's cloud software, charging the latent technology within his shield.
Popping out from the hidden cavities scattered within the shield's structure bloomed several rocket thrusters.
BOOOM!
BANG!!!
SHISHISHISHSI!!
Alex passed through where Rue had been only several seconds ago; the earth scorched and a vast crater caved into the forest floor.
'....'
The black haired-man's eyes were blood shot and his expression girthed with uncontrolled confusion.
With his heels dug into the earth, stood with a firm stance and his upper body covered by the flat surface of silver, was Rue who smugly stared down Alex.
He had blocked the shield with his axe's flat side.
Taking advantage of his foe's stupor, Rue launched his axe's blade toward a crash that had formed on the onyx shield's surface.
Watching from a distance, Ayami—not wavered by Rue's herculean feat—desperately began to launch her cubes toward Rue.
She was too late.
The axe's sharp blade broke though the shield, slicing it into two.
Jamming his fingers in between two the parts of the shield, Rue tore them apart, tossing the severed pieces toward the incoming cubes.
Stood like a deer in front of floodlights, Alex stood petrified as Rue loomed over him.
Before he could react, Rue had already taken hold of his deltoids.
"AHHHH!"
Alex began to writhe in pain under the inquisitor's grip, his scream was bloodcurling.
Click—
Now aimed toward Rue's skull were the barrels of two handheld railguns.
"Let him go!" Ayami hiccupped, her body trembling, its reason unknown.
Rue further increased his grip on the man's shoulder.
"If you don't drop your weapon then this man dies. Should you still decide to shoot me, this man will still die from the chaotic Will I administered into his body." he said coldly.
"His death would be slow and agonizing, so be warned" Rue uttered as his fingers crushed past bones and tore through his tender muscle tissue.
The man's blood coated Rue's fingers crimson.
"DON'T LISTEN TO HIM, AYAMI!—" Alex managed to yell between screams.
The pain was unbearable.
It felt as if a million needles were pricking his skin as a colony of ants simultaneously ate his insides.
His mind felt like liquid.
His senses were all being overwhelmed.
The melody of his pain was eerie, his screams stabbed into Ayami's heart and assaulted her emotions.
When she stared at Rue's back view, she only saw red.
Tears welled up in her eyes, and Ayami, making up her mind, pulled the trigger.