Strongest Nova: Path of Vengeance

Chapter 82: Realization

As soon as George snapped, the golden barrier that was around them immediately disappeared. However, since they were in a box-shaped barrier, the barrier disappearing meant that their foothold disappeared as well.

And below them was a burning hell as the fire had propagated everywhere, the floor itself collapsing long ago.

George had seen that a while ago and was waiting for the perfect moment to drop Stanley into the fire. He doubted the young man could continue fighting after being burned in the flames.

He snapped once again, with his right hand, as a small barrier appeared below him, one that kept him hovering in the air, while Stanley was dropping to the fire.

Or so George thought. To his surprise, Stanley was high in the air, his sword gleaming in the dark light.

Just when George was about to snap his finger the first time, Stanley had felt a warning come for him. This time, the warning wasn’t about some random cut. Instead, it was one that told him to jump.

Stanley didn’t understand what the reasoning was, but he didn’t need to know since if this feeling was telling him to do something, then it was definitely something important.

He jumped at the last moment right as George snapped. He jumped so high that he was in the air, his head reaching higher than where the ceiling was supposed to be before.

He rose above the burning wood and ashes that were piled up above the barrier that all fell down. And after that, he started falling too.

As he did, he notice George look up. He hadn’t expected him to do what he did.

Seeing the man’s face, all anger he felt toward him, and all the rage he felt fighting him, it all boiled up at once, filling him to the end with nothing but a wish to hurt him.

And so he did.

He swung the sword as hard as he could.

George quickly tried to reach for his sword, but it was too late. Stanley’s sword arrived, hitting the side of his arm as it cleaved through the rest of his body.

Stanley’s sword came out of the other side, blood flung out the same way. In an instant, George was cut in half as his upper body fell onto the barrier, which took a moment longer to disappear.

Stanley fell into the raging fire before George’s corpse did and landed on burning wood. His naked feet burned immediately, and he felt pain all around him.

But for some reason, he felt a weird feeling that kept him alert. Understanding that staying here for even a second was bad, he started running immediately.

He didn’t see where the was going, or even what he was running at. He burst through a crumbling wall, arriving outside to the shouting men and women.

The raging fire was no longer around him, only the crowd that was trying to subdue the fire that had spread even further.

"Stanley!" Bradley shouted, from a distance seeing his brother.

Someone jumped onto Stanley with a rag to cover him. Stanley hadn’t realized, but his clothes were burning as he walked out.

Bradley quickly ran up to him and looked for any wounds on his brother’s body. There were many that he could see. Some were cuts, and some were burns.

Thankfully, none of them were a matter of serious concern.

Bradley looked into the fire with weird emotions in his heart. "Stanley, what happened to George?" he asked.

Stanley didn’t look at anyone and simply said, "Dead."

The ones that were tending to him looked shocked. Even Bradley was surprised. He had never expected his brother to have killed a Defender with experience such as George.

In fact, even Stanley was feeling surprised himself, but for an entirely different reason.

Now that his rage and anger were being subdued, the realization of the situation hit him.

He had killed a man. A living breathing human.

His heart went hollow at the thought that he had killed a man, and he didn’t even feel bad about it. Instead, he almost thought... he felt... happy?

"Let’s get you treated," Bradley said. "Can you walk?"

Stanley nodded and stood up. Then, the two brothers started limping away together, going to get treated after the big fight.

* * * * * *

3 objects flew towards the wood where the black-haired girl thought the boss was. She was creating those objects out of nothing and was sending them flying in any direction she wanted.

"Where the hell are you?" she shouted.

After the fight began in the warehouse, Sheila had run away after a few clashes as she realized that beating the woman in front of her was practically impossible.

Especially in a place that was that bright.

So, instead, she had run away, bringing the girl all the way to the forest beyond the 2nd Sector of the town.

She shot her gun a few times, but the girl’s defenses were too strong for her to defeat through it. Also, the red glow that her gun made every time she used it didn’t help her hide either.

She continued the fight for a while, trying to attack the girl from various different directions. Realizing that she wasn’t getting through her defenses at all, and the hour-long concealment she was using coming to an end soon, she had to get away.

So, she reached into her belt and threw out something right in front of the girl. The girl put up her defenses, but nothing attacked her.

What the object did instead was burn with an intense amount of light that blinded everything that was around it.

The black-haired girl was blinded for a minute or so before she could see again. She attacked everywhere randomly, but the boss was nowhere to be seen.

"Come Out!" she shouted as she attacked.

Realizing that no one was there anymore, she stopped. Then, she finally turned her attention to the object that had burned with an intense light.

She picked it up, ignoring how hot it was, and looked at it.

"A flash grenade?" the girl thought. "And it’s modern. Could it be... Shit!"

Her expression turned sour as she realized that someone from outside the town had infiltrated, and they somehow had absolutely no idea about it.