The ripples of the dimensional gate dissipated above the noisy and chaotic night market, and the figures of Aqua and Yoshino suddenly appeared. The sight before Aqua's golden eyes instantly ignited with fury!
Below, the bustling night market was now a scene of utter devastation.
A group of flashy, arrogant'steakhead' gang members, wielding metal baseball bats and steel pipes, were wantonly smashing things.
Clearly, their'steakheads' were not real steakheads.
Stalls were overturned, ingredients and goods scattered across the ground, mixed with broken dishes and glass.
Several young stall owners tried to intervene but were roughly pushed away, while older stall owners were shielded behind them, their faces filled with fear and helplessness.
And the scarred uncle who had treated Aqua to barbecue earlier was now lying motionless on the ground, his fate unknown!
A gang leader, wearing sunglasses and smoking a cigarette, was stepping on an overturned stall, spewing insults at the trembling stall owners:
"Damn it! I told you this street is my territory! You dare set up a stall here without paying enough protection money? This is what you get! If you don't give me a satisfactory explanation today, I'll smash all your stalls!"
Before he could finish, and before he even saw where the attack came from—
"Pfft!"
A sickening thud!
A Spear of the Void, its edges shimmering with a deadly purple light, appeared out of thin air as if teleporting, piercing the gang leader's chest with pinpoint accuracy!
The immense impact sent his body flying backward, pinning him tightly against a wall behind him!
His sunglasses shattered, his eyes still holding an unbelievable shock and a fear instantly frozen, as blood gushed down the wall.
Silence, a brief silence.
Then, the terrified screams of the gang members!
"Bo-Boss!"
"Who is it?!!!"
Aqua's figure, like a reaper come to claim souls, descended slowly from high above the stall owners, stepping down on solidified spatial stairs.
Her silver hair danced wildly in the night wind, her golden eyes burned with a cold, pure killing intent, and the low pressure emanating from her body seemed to freeze the very air.
"You… you…" A gang member stammered in fear.
"Run!"
Someone shouted, and the remaining gang members, like startled birds, dropped their weapons and scattered in all directions!
"Miss Aqua! Please… please wait!"
Yoshino, holding Yoshino, looked at the bloody scene before her, her azure eyes filled with unbearable sorrow. She mustered her courage and tried to dissuade her with a tearful voice.
"They… they already know they were wrong… Can't you… let them go…?"
Aqua didn't turn her head, her voice as cold as an arctic wind: "Let them go?"
She pointed her hand at the devastated night market below, the injured stall owners, and the uncle lying on the ground, his fate unknown, her tone filled with an unquestionable resolve:
"They were bad people before, they are bad people today, and they will be bad people for life! If I let them go today, who will let these people they hurt go? Who can guarantee they won't bully the kind stall owners on another street tomorrow?!"
Her logic was simple, direct, even a little obsessive, yet it carried a cruel justice, unchallengeable, stemming from absolute power.
Completely ignoring Yoshino's tearful pleas, Aqua slowly raised both hands.
"Trying to run? Did you ask this King first?~☆"
Her cold voice ended with a hint of playfulness, but it sent shivers down the spines of all the fleeing gang members!
The next moment, a horrifying sense of spatial distortion enveloped the entire area.
Those gang members who had already run tens, even dozens of meters, discovered with terror that not only could they not advance, but their bodies were being forcibly pulled and dragged back by an irresistible, invisible force!
"No! Don't!"
"Mercy! We'll never dare again!"
"Goddess! Fairy! Spare us! We'll give you money! Lots of money!"
"Master! Save me!"
A dozen people, like puppets controlled by invisible strings, were forcibly dragged back to the open space in the center of the night market, dangling in mid-air like strung-up grasshoppers, terrified, snot and tears streaming down their faces, uttering desperate pleas and wails.
Their previous arrogance was completely gone, replaced only by the most primitive fear of death.
Aqua looked at these despicable, pleading faces, without a trace of pity in her eyes. She detested such bullies who preyed on the weak.
"Noisy."
She softly uttered two words, then clenched her hands tightly!
"Puchi—!!!!"
A chilling, explosive sound of flesh and bones being violently squeezed and crushed by immense force erupted!
The dozen gang members dangling in the air didn't even manage to let out a final scream, as everyone watched in horror.
They were instantly crushed into blurry masses of minced meat, mixed with bone fragments and internal organs, as the suddenly contracting and twisting space squeezed them like rotten tomatoes!
Immediately after—
"Boom!!!"
The minced meat exploded as if detonated! Foul-smelling blood and minced meatsplattered around like a downpour, staining the nearby ground, stalls, and even walls with a dazzling crimson!
However, strangely, the heads of those dozen gang members remained perfectly intact. They were pulled by an invisible force, hanging neatly above the archway at the entrance of the night market!
Each head retained the extreme fear and pain of their dying moments, their hollow eyes seemingly staring at everyone who wished to enter, forming a bloody and terrifying warning scene capable of giving anyone nightmares!
After doing all this, Aqua's killing intent receded like a tide.
The cold and cruel expression on her face instantly vanished, replaced by a sense of ease as if she had completed a minor task. She even showed that innocent and ingratiating smile again, like a child who had done something good and was waiting for praise.
She turned around, clapped her hands, and smiled as she waved at the surviving stall owners behind her, who were already scared out of their wits, as if trying to tell them:
"Look, I've dealt with the bad guys! It's all clear now!~☆"
However, what she saw was not gratitude, not relief, but—
Boundless fear!
Extreme horror!
The stall owners, both young and old, now looked as if they had seen the most terrifying demon in the world, their faces ashen, their bodies trembling uncontrollably.
They looked at Aqua, who stood in the center of the blood and minced meat, yet wore a pure smile, their eyes like they were looking at a man-eating monster!
"Mo-Monster!!!" Someone let out a collapsing scream.
"Ugh—!" Someone couldn't help but bend over and vomit.
Several older stall owners, unable to bear the bloody and terrifying stimulation, rolled their eyes and fainted directly to the ground.
The smile on Aqua's face, like fragile ice, stiffened, cracked, and finally disappeared completely.
She stood in the viscous blood, her bare feet feeling the warm, nauseating liquid.
She looked at the stall owners in the distance who stared at her with fearful and alienated eyes, as if an endless abyss separated her from them.
The self-satisfied feeling she had just felt from "punishing evil and promoting good" was instantly replaced by a cold, incomprehensible bewilderment.
She had dealt with the bad guys, protected them, hadn't she? Why… were they looking at her like that?
The lively night market lights still shone, but they could no longer illuminate the light in her eyes.
After the clamor, only deathly fear remained, and a lonely white figure standing in the center of the blood, completely out of place with the rest of the world.
She and they seemed to exist in two worlds that would never intersect.
-------------------------
If you enjoy this story, you can read 70+ advanced chapters on Patreon!
Webnovel will keep getting 1 new chapter every day but Patreon readers can stay far ahead.
Maybe it's not a big deal now… maybe it will be later.
[email protected]/Rexlent
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"