n

n

n

"This…

" the major felt unease towards this, but Karoline interfered as she showed a tinge of her brilliance.

n

"We can discuss anything after we clear this situation first.

"

nClear this situation? I hardly prevented myself from laughing. C'mon girl, who did you think I was? A green kid who was blessed to have few monsters on his side? Humph!

nIf the situation was cleared, then I'd lose the leverage I got now. That was a nice move, but I wasn't that foolish.

n

"We have to talk now,

" I stressed over this point,

"don't worry, my little boys are handling everything as we speak.

"

nShe hesitated and seemed to not want to talk right now. Of course someone who lived and was raised in such a deep , strong political family would be very efficient in mind games and word tactics.

nBut who could use words to stop force? I held the upper hand here, not thanks to words but to my pure strength.

n

"Can't we just wait?

" as she looked to the major on the side for help, the latter tried to exert little pressure on me.

n

"It won't do,

" I shook my head, before hammering over the point deeply into their minds,

"I'm not here just to help. I have other business to do. If you don't cooperate, then I'll just leave and attend to my own stuff.

"

nIf she feigned ignorance about her current situation, then after stating it out loud clearly, she had no way to escape from my clutches now.

nI didn't just say I was busy, but I mentioned it twice that I didn't attend to anything that didn't belong to me. She was smart enough to get my hints, and from the look on her pretty face I could tell she got what I wanted to convey.

nAs she had no other way around this, she only sighed before motioning with her head to the mayor to clear the area for the two of us.

nThe major didn't literally leave, but he led his men to form a big circle with a radius of a hundred metres around.

n

"It's not good to use one's lowest point for your own gain,

" the first thing she said was this direct and slightly bold. I didn't feel offended at all and instead beamed with a grin.

n

"We aren't in times of civilization anymore,

" I said,

"watch around, take a good deep look over what's going on here.

"

nI waved my hands around, clearing a path for her to see the brutal fighting ongoing at the front.

"I know you are a smart girl, smart enough to know this isn't a world war or a nuclear war, but a merciless invasion from aliens and monsters.

"

nShe followed my hands and looked at the fight for a long time. Her face changed a few times before she resigned to her fate.

n

"What do you want from me?

" she sighed as she helplessly said.

n

"I want you to follow me from now on,

" as she was bold enough to start the talk in such direct way, I matched her boldness with my words,

"I'm gathering up all the elites and forming a grand army, grand and strong enough to make sure we sustain the current situation and overcome any obstacles ahead.

"

n

"This…

" she seemed to not expect that request from me. For a moment there I was puzzled as well, thinking about what she might have thought I'd request from her here.

n

"I'm cursed,

" what I didn't expect was for her to speak about her own ability directly like that. Her tone wasn't sincere only, but it held an immense load of loneliness and sadness.

"Anyone standing by my side is destined to be killed.

"

n

"The city destroying star weapon?

" I raised my hand to point to the sky and that simple move and my short words shocked her greatly.

nShe looked at me with wide rounded eyes, trembling lips as if she wanted to say something but didn't find the words to express it.

n

"I faced such a weapon, not only once but thrice,

" I said in a firm tone, a tone that wouldn't leave any room for doubt or speculation from her end.

"I don't fear the angels either. They are already my greatest foe, ones that I faced and fought, triumphed not only once but every single time.

"

n

"You…'' At this point, she seemed to lose a great deal of her loneliness. Damn girl! Did you think you were the only one fighting against the cruel fate and dirty angels here? Did you think you were the only one going through such torment?

nPoor girl! Such a poor girl!

n

"You aren't the only one fighting against these despicable angels,

" as I saw through her, I had to give her little support by stating facts.

"Not only me, there are lots of people putting their lives on the line, fighting against those angels from the start.

"

n

"I… I…

" she seemed to never think about such a thing before,

"they… They told me…

" her words stuttered while her body kept shaking violently.

nShe shook out of rage, but not against the angels only but it seemed against herself as well. Smart people always tend to harshly treat themselves when they realise they made a mistake, especially such a naive mistake of not thinking rationally and taking all options in their account before.

nLike now. If she just worked her smart brain a little more, though outside the box, she would definitely have reached such a conclusion a long time earlier.

n

"They told you that you are a special case? One in a kind? The only one resisting them or posing a danger to them?

" I calmly said while giving her time to get over all this.

nAnd she seemed to lose her ability to form words and only resigned to nodding as a response.

n

"Let me teach you a crucial lesson and harsh fact about those angels…

" I paused for a moment before adding in a deep and serious tone,

"they are liars! Treacherous race whose sole purpose is to wipe all of humans off the world and gain total control over the new world to come.

"

n

"New world? Will this world change?

" She was fast in turning over her loss and jumped over her weak moments in such a brilliant way. I could helplessly inwardly smile bitterly at her amazing brain and intelligence.

n

"It's something easy to guess, right?

" I shrugged before adding,

"I'm now on a mission to stop them from doing such a thing. They are trying to merge many worlds, alien worlds with strong and terrifying races, with our world.

"

n

"So you are gathering people for that?

" she asked before she turned towards the major direction and something floated on her face for a moment.

nIt seemed like she was struggling against something, something I didn't know about.

n

"What's wrong?

" I asked without knowing why I was concerned about her at this moment.

n

"Well… I'm in a harder situation at the moment than you think,

" she sighed while lowering her head for a brief moment.

"My parents… My family… they are all gone!

"

n

"Killed by monsters?

" I asked,

"or the angels?

"

nShe shook her head as she answered:

n

"Neither! In fact no one knows what happened. They were just in air force one at the start of the apocalypse, with all the chiefs of our nation. The plan simply crashed and went missing after that.

"

n

"My condolence,

" I said with little sympathy. In these harsh times, many families were killed and it just became such a bitter routine. Yet the people here still didn't get used to such loss.

n

"Thanks,

" despite the fact that she must have felt my insinceriness here, she still thanked me in an honest tone,

"but that left the entire country only for me to rule. This…

"

nI could tell what she was thinking about right now. This wasn't a dilemma, it was simply a poisonous deadly effect left from the civilization of humans before the apocalypse.

n

"Let me ask you a question,

" I didn't reprimand her or even harshly give her a long lecture. I used another way to teach her what I wanted to say here.

"Do you think in such an apocalyptic time, where we are haunted by monsters, our fates are controlled by systems and angels, even gods appeared… Do you think in this time countries can still persist? Can it exist?

"

nMy sudden question came again out of the box. Her eyes went all round again, while she remained silent and didn't have the courage to give me a proper answer.

nYet after a few breaths, she shook her head, admitting the impossibility of such a scenario.

n

"Then will you waste your time, your life, your future potential and boundless possibilities for walking such a doomed to fail path?

"

n

"Is there another option then?

" instead of acknowledging what I said, she instead said in such a bitter and hoarse voice.

nThis girl… She already thought about this! Yet she didn't find another solution or hope, so she resigned to such a dark path.

n

"There is,

" I firmly nodded,

"there is a path that can lead not only to establish countries, but strong and vast nations that can be called true kingdoms.

"

n

"Kingdoms? In our time?

" she still lingered to the past. The past was past. In her time, kingdoms ceased to exist. But in the apocalypse time, kingdoms had the only chance to exist.

n

"Indeed,

" I nodded,

"I can't promise you much. After all, the enemies are so treacherous and hard to resist. The path I'm walking isn't a nice one, but filled with thorns. But I can promise you that; if I ever succeeded to reach such an end alive, I will create something that won't only help us, but will become the shield and sword for the remaining humans in this world.

"

nThis was the first time for me to confess my great plan to anyone. I didn't know why, but she had such an aura that made me want to get her at any cost by my side.

nIn fact she held great importance. All the military people would listen to a move of her fingers or a word from her mouth. But at this moment I felt like my desire for her was slightly different.

nWhat was it? I truly didn't know! Hopefully it wouldn't be something bad!

n

"So you are saying…

" she paused to sort out her thoughts before adding,

"you are going to establish a strong kingdom and help in protecting people?

"

nOf course I was going to establish a kingdom to become a king! But in another view, then yeah, I was going to help others as well.

nSo I simply nodded and that was enough as an answer for her.

n

"If you promised that for me, then I can't reject your offer. But…

" she stopped again and I knew why.

n

"What's your ability?

" I asked,

"the one that gave you the attention of the angels?

"

n

"It's not that big if you asked me or anyway special,

" she sighed before adding in a tone void of any excitement,

"I can freeze time for a few seconds, up to a minute. I can also instantly teleport away during the effect of my skill. That's why I didn't get killed from one hellish attack of that scary weapon before!

"

nDamn girl! All this and it wasn't satisfying?!! C'mon! Don't tell me you want something more!!!

nAs I didn't know what to say to her as a response, I couldn't help but ask:

n

"How can such a skill be bad?

"

n

"It consumes my stat points, can you believe that?

" she said in frustration,

"not only stat points. But if I wanted to add these effects on others, I would have to pay an astronomical price of millions of coins per use! Can you believe that? It's useless, damn useless!

"

nYou are the useless one, girl! Damn! How come such heaven defying skill wasn't mine in the first place!

nA skill to freeze time? And also to instantly teleport me away? What the heck was that skill?!!!

nAnd on top of that… she wasn't even satisfied with it? I felt I needed to find a hole and bury myself with dirt when I thought about that!

n

"Ahem,

" I tried to control my thoughts,

"let's not talk about that. When you join me, not to mention coins, even stat points will run endlessly in your inventory.

"

nShe was like Alex, had the same kind of heaven defying ability.. The two skills worked in the same way, using stat points when activated.

n