Chapter 238: Empathy
Once Sei saw the projectile that was flying in the room from outside, she held out her hand and made a pinching gesture with her fingers.
In an instant, the massive boulder was crushed into a mass of sand that fell onto the ground harmlessly.
She looked down at Clarissa whom she had grabbed protectively out of instinct.
Naturally, her pale skin was practically beet red and her verdant green eyes were wide with shock.
"Don't be scared, dear, it's just a little rock. There's no need to panic, I promise."
Serana: "Mom she's not panicking, you stuck her face in your boobs she's having a sexual awakening!"
"Oh… sorry, Clarissa."
*Muffled* "I-It's fine!"
Sei released the young girl with an embarrassed blush on her face, her world irrevocably changed forever.
-
Out on the street, a rather rowdy battalion of abominations were loading large stones and chunks of sidewalk into a makeshift catapult or just hurling them through a window by hand.
"The meat is inside!"
"Bring the whole thing down!"
"Justice for the blood tribes!"
Three more stone projectiles went flying through the glass windows in an attempt to bring the building down through any means necessary.
A moment later, a young pink haired girl poked her head through one of the broken windows and smiled.
"Hello, D-Bags!"
"Meat!"
"Kill her!"
"Breed her!"
"My name is Serana Marie and I am with the nightfall extermination unit! I am here to ask that you cooperate with us and surrender peacefully, then we will take you into our custody and hopefully find a cure for whatever you have done to your-"
"This meat talks too much!"
"Well fuck you then, shithead!"
The pink luster in Serana's eyes practically multiplied itself in intensity.
Suddenly the sky overhead darkened and a hellish rainstorm opened up within the sky.
But instead of droplets of water, thousands upon thousands of little metal fishhooks descended upon the fragmented earth.
Like guided projectiles, the fishhooks embedded themselves into the skin of numerous abominations and started to pull in any number of directions.
The abominations immediately started screaming at the top of their lungs as they fell to the ground while writhing in agony.
Serana turned back to a waiting Aubrey and folded her arms out of premeditated frustration.
"Don't say it."
"You have the combined people skills of a group of suicide bombers."
"I told you not to say it!"
"Twas' irresistable."
"So is the urge to stick my foot up your ass!"
Aubrey playfully turned around before walking past Serana with a small smile on her face.
Inadvertently, Serana felt the urge to wipe away a small nosebleed.
You could say whatever you want about the Saint siblings not being related to Nyx by blood, but they had miraculously inherited her ability to charm individuals regardless of gender.
Aubrey looked down at the ruined street filled with the writhing bodies of abominations who were trying to kill them just a few moments ago.
There were no fishhooks in their skin, and there was certainly none raining from the sky either.
"You're getting a lot better at this illusion thing. That's atleast thirty at once and you didn't even fall on your butt this time."
"Well, I'm not getting any thick and veiny injections at night like my mom but I am getting stronger all the time."
Sei: "S-Serana!"
"What? Is it more length than girth?"
"Can you please?!"
"Ryo's is kind of like- Mmf!"
Eventually, Sei just forcibly covered her own daughter's mouth with her hand to avoid having any more dirty questions fly past her lips.
'I wonder if she asks all of this because I didn't talk to her about sex properly when she was young…'
Aubrey looked out the window and tried to shake off the feeling of disgust that she had accumulated from having her brother's genitalia discussed so openly.
"I wish that my friends and family weren't such sexual addicts.." she muttered.
Serana freed her mouth from her mother's iron grip.
"You and your girlfriends banged your mom. Aren't you kinda the absolute last person who should be talking about devianism?"
"S-Shut up!"
Ignoring her, Aubrey gathered a huge bundle of golden power within her hands and prepared to fire it into the street below.
"Aubrey… gently." Sei reminded in her usual soft voice.
The grey haired girl paused just shy of formulating a magical spell and dialed back her energy output considerably.
With a ball of light no larger than a baseball, Aubrey created numerous shining rings of light.
A gentle push of her fingers sent the rings dropping down to the abominations on the street.
Sliding onto their fingers, the golden rings fastened themselves into immovable positions and started to burn with a brilliant white light.
Bit by bit, the bodies of the abominations were subjected to such a rapid immolation that they were nearly here at one second and gone the next.
Sei looked back at Clarissa and casually took her hand before leading her towards the broken window.
"Squad leader?"
"Come here for a second. There's something I'd like to show you."
Bringing the young girl to the window, Sei showed her the numerous golden cinders of ash that were flying up into the air, creating a beautiful lightshow.
Clarissa had to admit that the scene was beautiful, but she didn't understand why Sei had asked to show it to her.
"I know that after everything that we've seen over the past week that it is easy to develop hatred for these beings… but they used to be human too, you know?
I like to think that they weren't like this before. That they were only victims of their desperation for survival and ended up getting sick as a result.
In that spirit… I at least do not wish to brutalize them. Instead… we just need to bring them a peaceful rest. It may be a bit sentimental of me but those are my feelings.
Let the death gods act as their judge and punish if they see it fitting."
Clarissa didn't know if she could fully understand what Sei was trying to convey to her, but she did understand that she was trying her best to be incredibly thoughtful.
"I understand… you're very kind, Squad Leader."
Sei looked like she was going to say something not long after when something strange suddenly caught her eye.
A giant tornado of flame larger than a skyscraper lit up the night sky and drew no small amount of attention.
Sei smiled wryly as she reached through her mind to contact the culprit.
'Bianca sweetie… what are doing?'
Immediately, the young girl's nervous voice played back.
'A-Ah hey, Sei! I'm just… you know… chilling?'
'With a 100 meter tornado of flame near your position?'
'O-Oh that..? I just… sneezed.'
'Bianca…'
'T-Talk to you later, bye!'
'You can't hang up on a mental connection, sweetheart…'
*Bad static noises ensure*
Sei eventually sighed as she pushed her dark hair out of her face.
'Alright then, I'll see you in two days… Try not to burn down the entire city in the meantime, yea?'
'I got it, don't worry! Te amo!'
'Aishitemasu.'
Sei felt Bianca's voice finally leave her mind a moment later, and she prepared to move out with her unit.
However, two seconds later another tornado sprung up that was even larger than the first.
'I-I just sneezed again!'
*sigh.*