Kirlia was barely holding on by using objects within the room to act as a shield for her. However, her strength was barely enough to keep the Poison Golem at bay since its attacks were elemental and had matter like traits.
As for the Light Golem, each beam of searing light it fired almost killed her because it was pure energy, and she couldn't manipulate it with her mind. She could only dodge or block, and this was what was killing her.
"Please have mercy, we didn't mean to wrong you!" Kirlia screamed as she had a part of her torso lasered by a fast beam of light.
She was the only one who could speak because she hadn't been knocked out in under a second. However, this was just a consolation as it prolonged her pain, for right after she spoke, a beam of light tore through her right arm, leaving a gaping void.
She only had a few microseconds of shock to be free of the coming agony before it unceremoniously hit like a truck. She fell to the ground and grabbed her stump, screaming crazily as her eyes became bloodshot and her voice cracked.
Finally, there was Helen the Hydromancer, who was facing off against the Fire and Wood Golems. She had her hands full dealing with both powerhouses.
Water beats fire, but only if its quantity was higher. In this case, the golem had more raw power and higher quality fire, as well as unlimited access to it, while Helen was only as strong as the amount of energy she could muster to generate water.
Not to mention she was currently dealing with two, the Wood Golem protecting the Fire Golem and harassing her endlessly. She could not last much longer as she put up her own water shield to deflect and deescalate the severity of the attacks on her.
This gave way to the Wood Folem who suddenly fired out a huge log of wood that was sharp at the end. Helen was already under pressure from the Fire Golem and this one sent everything over the edge.
Before she could muster up an useful defense, the log broke through and smashed into her torso, sending her flying into a nearby wall, pinning her down like a tack on a board.
She only had time to spit out blood and grab the log impaling her before a huge fireball smashed into her body and caused her to become disfigured.
Riola simply watched all of this with a speechless expression, her crazed smile freezing as she realized that Shuangtian was not someone to be trifled with at all.
However, the more she saw, the more satisfied she became. After all, only someone with this level of strength could take charge of this fucking city and right the wrongs.
Shuangtian saw the state of the other Eternals and did not care. She walked up to Riola and sized her up. Then, she gave the woman a heavy slap that made her reel backwards.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtA bit of blood came out of her mouth as well as some of her teeth, and she glanced at Shuangtian with bewilderment. Shuangtian maintained a neutral expression and spoke coldly.
"No matter how much you pretend you're doing this to 'help' me, I see through your facade. I won't stop to being a puppet for your revenge."
Riola paused and then her face flashed with a whitish-green light as her injuries healed. She smiled but did not say anything, only walking over to the other Eternals and gathering them into one spot.
Seeing her half-dead allies who were struggling to stay alive and using whatever means they could to prolong their lives, she grinned widely and squatted before them.
"Awww, look at you guys. You tried to do to her what you did to me, but unlike me, she's actually strong and has a lot of offensive power."
Hearing Riola's mocking words, the hate-filled faces the group of Eternals were giving her warped and one could detect a hint of guilt and shame. As such, they stopped looking over and focused on trying to stay alive, with the exception of Helen who was still full of hate.
"Stupid… Bitch… you will… die for… this…" She squeezed out through gritted teeth that continually released foam bubbles of blood.
Riola nodded. "Maybe, but I am far more valuable than you. Any of you really, so I will be punished at most, but I won't mind. It's a small price to pay for seeing you all lie on the floor like dead dogs."
The weak Eternals were silent before Kirlia asked with a complicated expression. "Do you hate us that much?"
Despite herself, Riola found that she was not angered by this question and was rather amused. Maybe the slap from Shuangtian had woken her up and made her more sober.
"What do you think? I, a newly ascended Eternal, full of naivety and youthful passion, joined the Mercenaries Pavilion in order to make a name for myself, trained my Eternal Talent and acquire wealth without being beholden to anyone because I knew what kind of trouble my power could cause."
"I took the same test she did and my details were there for you all to see that I had significantly high Talent. My mistake was actually confiding in you my Eternal Talent and how it works. After all, you lot convinced me we would be future allies, so how could I hold back?"
Riola sneered mockingly. "Before the end of the day, I was ambushed by almost 30 Eternals and forced to sign an Eternal Agreement to be everyone's healing slave."
"After all, my ability to heal which works on even Eternals is far too rare and covetous. If it wasn't for fear that I would kill myself, I might have even been locked up in a cage and not given so much freedom."
"At first, I thought only one you leaked it. I gave each of you too much credit to believe that each and every one of you could have sold my information to various powers and persons the moment I turned my back! It was easy enough to find out since the Eternal Agreement I signed prevented me from going against those fellows, not to mention I lacked any offensive power. They were more than willing to sell you out for my favor, as my healing can go a step further."
Riola smiled. "Funny, isn't it? You sold me to them and they sold you right back to me. I wonder who the fool in this situation really is?"
Riola sighed with lament as she rose to her feet. "However, the Eternal Agreement is still binding, I have to prevent you lot from dying."
Soon, her smile became crazed and malevolent. "But that's just it, I only have to prevent you from dying, there's no need for me to heal you fully. I'm going to make sure you spend the next few years at least, in and out of a fatal state like this, healing you just enough to prevent death but not to cure your injuries. I'm going to savor your pain and agony!"
The faces of the wounded Eternals finally changed as they paled greatly. They glanced at the crazed and excited Riola with fear and regret, and they immediately threw away their pride and began to beg.
However, Riola's reaction stunned them, as she moaned with an expression of ecstasy.
"Yes! Yes! Beg! Beg me! Beg me more!"
Hearing this exclamation and seeing the expression on her face, the wounded Eternals went silent. Their hearts fell as the understood that begging was useless and would even stimulate the other party.
They were fated to go through this experience and nothing could change that… unless!
Their eyes turned to Shuangtian who had been watching on with folded arms and a partly amused smile. After all, so many years trapped on that bed meant that she had not seen much human drama, so this was a perfect chance to be a spectator in a conflict.
Seeing that they were looking at her, she raised an eyebrow. Kirlia took the lead to speak.
"Miss Shuangtian, we are very sorry for not being fully honest. However with the power you've shown, any consequences from our selfish actions would have been meaningless and would have served to create a powerful deterrent effect towards your enemies."
"In order to express our apology, we will hand over everything we own and become your indentured servants for as long as you feel necessary." Kirlia concluded.
She was smart enough not to ask anything of Shuangtian, but once she agreed, how could she let Riola harm her servants who could be used immediately?
Alas, Kirlia's biggest mistake was thinking that Shuangtian was here to stay. She was just here to accumulate Exp to reach Level 10, enjoy the enlightenment from the Eternal Points and then head back to her family.
As such, there was no need for any indentured servants, Eternal or otherwise. Could they be as powerful and as deadly as her Golems? And she hadn't even unveiled her insane strength, defense and Regen yet.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmRiola smiled playfully, not at all worried about Shuangtian. And her thoughts were correct, Shuangtian did not take them up on that offer.
"Not interested. Alright, I've wasted enough time here, Riola, you can spend the next few years here torturing them if you want, but I want to be able to do my missions in peace."
Riola nodded. "After you leave here, let someone take you to the main conference room. There is a terminal there that allows you to control this entire branch of the Mercenaries Pavilion and even get in contact with headquarters."
"Normally, the one chosen to control the branch is the strongest person, which was assumed to be me. So anyway, the password is: HLADKRH, which is obviously the first letter of each of our names."
Riola smiled. "You can do whatever you want, I'll clean up after you leave."
Shuangtian nodded with satisfaction and left the room. She paused and dropped two lightning golems here and then spoke casually to Riola.
"I'm leaving these two here with you to both monitor and assist you. Should these fellows have anything else up their sleeves that might give you trouble, just activate them with an order and they will deal with them."
Hearing this, Helen's hate filled face became pale and filled with fear. She struggled and roared, her body suddenly glowing in a blue light as she used the secret technique she had meant to save for later when Riola was all alone.
Hearing that Shuangtian would leave these Golems here made her desperate and aggrieved, because her plan immediately went down the drain. As such, she made a last ditch effort to fight back and secure a chance to live between the cracks.
Before even Riola, the wounded Eternals or the Lightning Golems could act, Shuangtian's lips curled into a grin very similar to Draco when he was playing someone to death, something Shuangtian herself did not notice.
She disappeared from where she stood and came to where Helen was hovering with endless blue light flowing from her body and eyes. Shuangtian's smiled and threw a casual kick, which broke the sound barrier as it collided with Helen's face.
The womans head exploded in a mist of water and began to reform, but Shuangtian didn't allow her. Like a hellstorm, she threw punches and kicks one after the other, the shockwave from her moving her limbs so strong that everyone else in the room had to cling onto some thing not be sent flying.
As for Helen, she was turned into a puddle of filthy water that could barely reform, until Shuangtian's summoned a Fire Golem to evaporate it slowly.
One could hear high pitched screaming coming from the water as it slowly turned into gas, which was soon cut off when it was completely transformed.
Shuangtian shook her head, desummoned the Fire Golem and left the room without even looking at any of the others, but none of them could take their fear-filled eyes off Shuangtian.
Riola especially smacked her lips while sweating. Such a violent and domineering woman… just how would Li City end up by the time she was done with it?