LUCEM
LXXVIII Chapter

I turned around, stunned.

Venus pinned the girl against the wall, her hands wrapped around her throat. "Who sent you here?" she said.

She struggled to break away, her legs kicked hard against the wall, her cries choking and despairing.

My head's spinning. Digesting at what is going on.

I blinked and Venus had brought the girl down to the floor, kneeling. His boots were planted in the middle of his back, the two arms of the girl were bent backwards, locked in the grip of Venus' hand. He turned his face. He grimaced with the pain.

"Say, who sent you here?" ask Venus again.

"I don't know what you're talking about" he said, gasping for air.

My heart is beating like crazy.

I don't know what just happened, but I know better than to ask. I ran to the room, grabbed a small bag and went back outside by pointing Glock towards the girl. And then, just as I began to understand the fact that this was an ambush, that someone had passed through our protective room. Something I forgot before, that we were in the dimensional space and in the protective room, it was not supposed to have a guest. It was impossible to be a guest or a friend.

I switched. I saw the spaghetti on the floor start moving.

Three large scorpions and several small snakes started coming out from under the noodles, and the sight was so disturbing that I felt nauseous and almost vomited at the same time. I've never seen a scorpion in real life.

New news for me, they're terrible.

Before I thought I wasn't afraid of spiders, but it's like if a spider's body cracks, like if it's a spider... it is very large and rather translucent and wears armor and has a large venomous stinger at one end and is ready to kill you. The creatures turned sharply, and all three headed straight for Venus while the small snakes moved wildly in various directions. I'm wary of everything.

I let out a panicked breath. “Uh, bro—not to, umm, scare you or anything like that, but there's, like, three scorpions heading straight towards y—”

Suddenly, the scorpion froze in place.

Moonflower stood with a sharp gaze in the doorway.

The rats moved past Moonflower's feet and lined up around me. Jiso, pull out his dagger and Jimmy and the whole team. They were understanding the situation immediately without interrupting.

Venus dropped the girl's arm and she scrambled away so quickly that her back slammed against the wall. Venus staring at scorpion. The girl also stared away.

The two were at war, I realized, and it was easy for me to know who would win seeing the alertness of Venus. The first action of the man who almost always looks friendly. So when the scorpion started moving again, this time towards the girl, I tried not to clench my hands into the air.

The girl was panting now, still staring at the scorpion as she retreated further into the corner. They're climbing up his shoes now.

"Who sent you?" demand Venus.

The girl turned her head for a moment to Venus without answering and went back to being wary of the scorpion crawling her legs.

Moonflower moved forward approaching the girl. Kneel scorpions. Oh, my God, scorpions kneel. I stared in disbelief.

“Bababawanna sent you here, right? Call them!” Moonflower voice sharp.

I was sure to see Moonflower's eyes lit up red.

“You were sent here by a fool,” Moonflower said. “And you are a fool yourself if you believe I will have mercy even if you are in the form of a weak girl."

Scorpions and snakes, those creatures are moving over his body right now. Climbing chest. He gasps. Locking eyes with him.

"I see," he said, tilting his head towards Moonflower. "Your protection has been penetrated, we have broken through it."

Eyes widened.

"You're rash," Moonflower sighed, locking onto her gaze. “I'm not kind. I don't forgive. I don't care about your life.”

As he spoke, the scorpion crept further up his body. They were sitting near his collarbone now, just waiting, a venomous stinger hovering below his face. And then, slowly, the sting of the scorpion began to curve towards the soft skin in his throat.

"Stop them!" he grimaced begging.

"This is your last chance" Moonflower said. "Tell me how many of you are here?."

He was panting now until his chest was up and down, his nostrils widened. His eyes looked around the room in panic. The scorpion's sting pressed closer to his throat. He curled up on the wall, moans breaking out from his lips.

"Tragic" said Moonflower.

The girl suddenly moved quickly. Fast and lightning. His form turned into a misty black figure accompanied by a shrill voice storming towards Moonflower but like bouncing into an invisible wall and the black figure immediately turned towards Venus who stood alert. I don't even think, I just react.

I shoot.

Sound echoing, inflate—it seems very loud—but the shot is perfect. A clean hole through the figure's body. He was silent for a moment and then slumped, slowly, to the floor.

The blackish-red blood and scorpions and small snakes pooled around our feet. The body of a man with a difficult appearance to reveal died lying on the floor of Magenta's house, just inches from where Venus stood, his limbs bent at an awkward angle.

The scene is real.

I fell on my knee. I looked up. Venus and I locked eyes.

"We're ready for battle" I said. "The end of the discussion."

Venus glanced at the corpse on the floor, then me and then back again. "Well," he said gasping. "Help me clean up this mess."

I'm nodding. That's when Moonflower moved towards me. Taking Glock out of my trembling grasp. "Witch with a firearm, huh!?"

He observed the weapon for a moment, then handed it back into my hands.

The rats squeaked, moving towards the corpse. Moonflower stopped them from approaching the corpse and asked Venus to move away from where she was standing. We made a step back to one side. Make room for Moonflower. And with a single sweep as well as a string of sentences that I did not understand, the corpse on the floor turned to ashes in a split second, then a gust of strong wind out of nowhere swept away the ashes with lightning towards the outside air, the sound of earthy shrill screams from a distance sounded. I ran towards the door to see. There's nothing else there. The air was calm as it should be. The sky still looks as bright as before. I turned.

This is the first time I've seen Moonflower with her abilities. Quiet and scary.