With Alex still iron-gripped in the contours of his palm, Rue stood.
From behind came the subtle feeling of dread that arises mockingly when a weapon is aimed at a person.
The threat of the blue-haired woman's handheld railguns was a stark reality.
"Let him go!"
She voiced, her tone hoarse and meek.
It was such an unsightly sight; however, the weapon borne in her hands made up for her lack of vocal ferocity.
Seconds passed, and the threat from the woman hovered in the air.
Nevertheless, Rue—never one to care about such grievances—increased his grip on the man's shoulders.
Several quick utterances were exchanged between both parties, and a desperate plea escaped through Alex's mouth regardless of the current pain.
Having enough of it, Ayami pulled the trigger.
Bang!
Even with Rue's warning, Ayami had still found it within her to pull the trigger and terminate this threat.
'Impressive metal fortitude.' he noted, struck impressed by the woman's drive.
Or she was merely driven to the brink of emotional instability, blindsiding herself to future consequences.
Whatever it was, it didn't matter, nor did Rue care.
The metal round expelled from the barrel of the railgun, whizzing toward the back of Rue's head.
Tink!
The round stunted, its speed cut short to none—its body flattened from its speed and the impact after making contact with the noir surface of a piece of Alex's once full shield.
The woman's eyes widened.
"What–"
Thwooop!
Thud…
Smashing against the back of her head and yielding her to a limp tumble toward the ground was yet another slick onyx piece from that very same shield.
Behind the woman was the thin, lengthy girth of a tentacle-like structure.
Stubborn as a tree in fall, the tentacle remained straight, awaiting further command.
Clamped shut within its maw was a piece of black metal.
Feeling an encrypted pulse of Will from Rue, the tendril—along with tens of others that had cunningly camouflaged themselves within the natural structures littered around the forest landscape—began to recede back into the earth.
"I shouldn't have let my guard down, but I didn't expect her to actually shoot even though I had her comrade," Rue sighed before glancing toward the blue-haired woman.
'Crazy bitch'
"Did you kill her!!" Alex yelled, his tone coming off more grizzly than anticipated due to his parched mouth.
Returning his focus toward the black-haired man, the inquisitor released his grip on the man's deltoids.
"What nonsense are you talking about?" Rue dismissed, tossing the man aside like a bag of potatoes. "No, that would be stupid," he scoffed.
Airborne for several seconds, the man landed onto the ground with a painful thud, with the already throbbing sensation within his shoulders further pronouncing the pain..
The chaotic Will coursing through his veins disappeared.
Feeling the foreign energy escape from his body, Alex felt his mind clear.
His body, which was forced into a groggiest state by Rue, returned to its former valor.
Regaining his composure, Alex began to digress his labored breathing into its norm.
Who is this monster… he thought helplessly.
They were powerless during this whole ordeal.
Ayami—a genius World Controller whose notoriety had struck gold after the discovery of her Initial, which increased her already terrifying aptitude toward the profession, along with her ability to manipulate and weave Will across vast bodies of land.
As well as himself, a shieldman who, while not as talented as Ayami, still possessed enough merit and power to garner respect from his peers and superiors for his exceptional talents and abilities
Even as mere Fourth Realmed practitioners, Syndicate officials had already recognized their future worth and announced a collaborative sponsorship until the Seventh Destination, along with being enrolled in a place where only the highest talents were allowed to reside, learn, and prosper.
The Institute.
A place where the title genius was nothing more than a footnote retired to the past—a place where fellow alumni either had equal or greater talents.
This was a prestige normally reserved only for moderately established prodigies in the Fifth Realm, but they were able to enter while still being in the Fourth Destination.
It had been a little over a decade since they enrolled in that institute; it was a metaphorical labyrinth that stowed every single bit of cumulative knowledge from the past few million years.
Alex had felt his power soar—peaking past old limits, learning new doctrines, establishing new methods, techniques—and the most coveted part of this was the privilege of being led down the proper path with the helpful insights provided by the senseis.
He had believed he had grown strong in his realm.
Yet, that paradigm was challenged and shattered—and the culprit was a weird, random man that they had stumbled upon by chance.
The most humiliating thing was, they were the ones to initiate the attack.
And they still lost.
Maybe it was fate saying that he would never become strong, or that he needed to learn humility.
Whatever it was, he felt crushed by the weight of loss.
Propping himself up on his elbow, Alex stared at the orange-haired man in a disbelieving trance.
What was he doing now?
They had simply taken a seat on the grass.
Seated in a lotus position, the man's arms splayed longingly along the sides of his knees.
The man took a deep breath and closed his eyes.
His expression, regardless of the chaos of the past several minutes, remained neutral like ice.
The silhouette of his face betrayed nothing of his current state of mind.
But his aura remained as volatile as a raging river and as calm as a lake.
"You can ask, you know? I'm not going to bite," Rue uttered, his voice tranquil and sage-like.
It was an odd contrast to who Rue was, but he was the elder in this situation, so he had to act the part.
Biting his lip, Alex, after several seconds of contemplation, mustered the courage to speak.
"...Why didn't you kill us?"
Giving it a thought, Rue chuckled.
"And why would I do something so radical?"
Alex furrowed his brows in confusion.
"You had every right to do so," he continued. "My colleague and I acted out of hostility—surely you felt the bloodlust within our attacks?"
"…."
Then Alex came to an epiphany.
"Did you leave us alive not out of mercy, but out of fear that you would be detained or worse, executed for the manslaughter of a military personnel?"
Rue sighed deeply, and clicked his tongue.
"You clever fuck," he muttered.
"Yeah, you hit the nail on the head. If you two didn't have an affiliation with a larger organization, then I would have killed you."
"Count yourself lucky."
"Oh…" Alex said absentmindedly.
He gulped.
"Then what are you going to do to us now?"
"Now that's the big question—I don't know." Rue shrugged. "I suppose I'll extract some general information. Nothing too sensitive. I just want to know the current state of the world."
"Since I'm a wanderer…OH, I had forgotten."
"Names," Rue demanded.
Staring in disbelief at the man, Alex stammered, "My name is Alex Quill, and the name of the chick you knocked out is Ayami Regnier."
Putting the names to memory, Rue spoke.
"See? We're now properly acquainted, and I have a WHOLE load of questions, and I expect acceptable answers. Understood, Alex?"
Alex nodded.
Several tens of minutes passed, and with each passing question and response came a gradual increase in confusion.
…
"What the hell do you mean the world is called Terminus? It's Altheria!!" Alex exploded, his temper reaching a zenith.
But his anger wasn't directed toward the poor young man in front of him—but the world itself.
Closing his eyes out of fear, Alex began to inch back.
This was the seventh time that his man had exploded out of rage.
The reason? An apparent lack of understanding of common world trivia.
What the hell was an Altheria? Was it a sauce?
Extinguishing his rising anger and irritation, Rue asked another question.
"I have a final question."
"Have you ever heard of the Church of the Sun Goddess, or the [Great One]?"
Alex stared at the Rue with stupefaction.
"Like the Anime?" he guessed.
His heart dropped.
Rue felt his face stiffen and his mind flounder.
Sigh…
"Fucking kill me, damn it…"