Sensing the ge imosphere clearly from the different tenaning off Yumi, Ourias subtly shifted his weight ba preparation for a defensive position. The new hair and eye ade him wonder what the ge in her meant. Everything he saw was new. Nothing in the mas said anything about such a transformation.

  However, something else bothered him even more than the visible ges. ‘She’s talking to herself. As though there were others to carry a versation. Is this the true appearance of her power? Has she held this back as a trump card?’ So many questions remained unanswered.

  “Who are you?”

  Chapter 244 – Modified Freedom

  She grinned a little watg the subtle ges in his fabsp; ‘He’s not pletely sure of himself, but he feels strongly enough about it.’ It impressed her a little with his deductive skills. “Realized already? You’re more observant tha ohough it’s not like I’m trying to hide it. It’s as you’re thinking. Doctor Sumiko at your service.”

  Things only got more plicated for Ourias. She seemed like she looked down at him. The superiority was clear, but also just a sense of maturity earned from years of experienbsp; An uling bination. “Doctor? You’re a teenager.”

  Sumiko shook her finger a little at him. “At this age I had earned my first doctorate degree, so it’s still appropriate to call me Doctor.”

  ‘She’s ag like this is not even her body, like she’s borrowing it. What sort of power is this? Will it ge the powers she’s been shown to have?’ Questions only pounded on top of new questions. It never seemed to end. Even if it did end, there seemed little ce for crity at the clusion. The girl was more of a mystery than a moment ago. “You’re saying that this isn’t your real appearand that you’re older. What are you?”

  Looking around at her body for another quick check, Sumiko nodded. “It’s been a while since I was a teenager and I looked quite a bit different than her. The rest I’ll leave up to your imagination. A woman needs a little mystery.” She wi him just to at it, though it pletely cked any sort of charm. It was clearly not her sort of forte

  More mystery wasn’t something he needed. He wanted some answers, but he had to settle for what he had. ‘In the end, this doesn’t affect things any differently. She’s still an intruder that must be stopped.’ If she was a different person from the other she faced, there remained a ce for him. “Since you are not the same person, I’ll ask you. You seem like a reasonable and logical individual.”

  It made her giggle a little. She foresaw it. He pyed too ly into her perimeters. “Fttery’s not going to ge the situation. Her goal is my goal, so while you may be thinking this has nothing to do with me, it still does. Besides, threaten and boast as much as you want, there’s nothing you do to stop me from entering your city.” The expression in her eyes suddenly shifted, being serious and ready for a fight. Py was over. “And I assure you, I don’t boast. It’s the simple truth.”

  Ourias ground his teeth together in respoo her answer. He feared it to be as much, but hoped anyway. If fighting could be avoided, it was the best. Proteg the Capital was their mission, but it to him to determine how to carry it out. “I’ll protect the Capital! You won’t pass!”

  “You’re doing a bad job of that, judging from those two fighting,” Sumiko remarked, pointing out Rheia and Saki’s battle on the Capital’s walls.

  “She woer the Capital, any damage to the wall be easily repaired. There won’t be ahs while I stand!”

  Sumiko suddenly disappeared. Appearing at the side of Ourias, she leaned closer to him. “So you’re that type. There’s always bystanders, is caught up in the middle. There will be deaths, even if you don’t know them, even if they aren’t reported, even if you didn’t see them die.”

  The Atntean jumped away from Sumiko, clearing out his personal spabsp; “The earth transformed into hardened spikes shing out at its foe.” In front of him, the grass transformed into a darkened mass that stretched out for Sumiko being spikes. She disappeared again, ouched by the attabsp; “You know nothing about death!”

  Dropping back at her inal spot, Sumiko appeared to Ourias’ sight. Her face darkened drastically in respoo him. “Making assumptions is very bad. You’ve painted an image of me in your head already based on what I’ve told you, but you couldn’t be more wrong. I’m very familiar with death, more than you.” The white barrier around Sumiko shattered into hex pieces. Hexagon shards spun around her. Each piece bleogether, speeding up to appear like a ring around her.

  She began to float closer to Ourias. Her presence had pletely ged. A strange darkness seemed to surround her. It wasn’t a menag appearanbsp; It wasn’t evil, even if it could have easily been fused as one. Just reality, cold hard, unfiving, unbending, inflexible, uiy.

  It was truth.

  Blunt as a hammer. “I have another name, a hose that survived call me, Doctor Death. Uive, but no less accurate. Billions have died by my hands. I caused the near extin of aire civilization. So trust me when I say I know a few things about death ay. Blio reality doesn’t excuse you from its sequences.”

  The woman’s preseually unnerved Ourias in a way that he didn’t think possible. Ign the fact that he was an adult, the things he saw in the academy felt like staring in the heart of evil at times. The cold and merciless life almost seemed like they desig to prepare him for the future. His future, one of bme and prejudibsp; He thought he uood, but one look into Sumiko’s eyes was enough for him. He was certain he saw the blood of billions in her eyes, ever flowing for all eternity uo be washed away. Yet staring at her, he didn’t see any of the same darkness he felt from within the Capital. She was plex and nothing made sense anymore to him.

  He knew nothing.

  Cold chills ran through his spine. Ourias already felt like he lost to her without the fight even starting. An indescribable weight crushed her, yet she still moved as though it was nothing. It should have been crushing her. Resolve was the only thing he could see.

  Caught within his hesitation, Ourias didn’t see the attaing until it was almost too te. Hexagonal discs flew at him, narrowly missing their target. He fell ft on his back to avoid a lethal strike. However, he realized a sed ter that he wasn’t safe yet. They turned around to e back for him. “The semi-opaque discs suddenly became like water and evaporated into the air.” Before even reag him, Sumiko’s white discs turo a white liquid, but barely started to fall before turning to vapor.

  “You have a very iing power there. It’s a lot more flexible and intelligent use than others that I’ve seen.”

  A bit of surprise came across Ourias’ fabsp; She had figured out his power already, but that wasn’t what surprised him. It was a natural thing to figure out after a couple uses of his power. He knew hoarent his power was to others. Out of any of the powers, it was the simplest to uand, but none of that was the problem. ‘She shouldn’t be able to uand me. I purposely adjusted the Field for that reason.’

  “I uand Atntean Greek. I figured it out a while ago, so while your clever trick worked on her, it won’t fool me.” She found it an iing plication to his power. He actually divided his speeto two groups. Normal versation was transted, but anythied to trolling his powers remained in Atntean Greek. It was only something that could fool a fner. “trolling anything you want within your Field is the most logical use when you’re dealing with the unknown. Though making it speech driven is your fw.”

  The shock boiled off Ourias after her expectation. It only made things fair. “You ’t ge what I’ve spoken to pass. There is no fw.”

  “You’re fident in your power. I’ll reveal to you the weaknesses.” The hexagonal discs materialized around Sumiko once more. Their movements became so fast that they appeared in multiple locations and then disappeared. “The first fw requires you to speak for an a. If you ’t speak in time, you ’t e my attack.”

  Ourias remaianding, despite the attack made by Sumiko. It moved too fast for him to see, but nothing happeo him. A rge stone hand appeared in front of him. Smoke trailed off the hand from the attacks made. “My power isn’t so simple.” Traced back, the arm led to the earth where a mound raised from the ft surfabsp; The mound grew rger, taking on a human-like shape.

  “A golem,” she noted. She saw the very clear tradi, but uood everything he did had rules to follow. It came to her quickly. “You set as in reserve that have ditions for activating. Clever, pnning ahead. I’ll grant you the point for c for your fw, but you have only so many stored as you’ve made. It’ll be exhausted eventually.”

  “But you don’t think I haven’t foreseen all areas of weakness.”

  Sumiko gri the challenge. ‘This is going to be a little more effort than I gave him credit for. Doesn’t ge anything. I still see the victory!’ Little ged for Sumiko. Adjusting a move, realigning path, it was all just a simple step.

  Testing out the golem, more discs appeared around her. They flew directly at the golem. She watched it carefully. The as and movements were important to her. Nothing from the attacks seemed to harm the golem, but she didn’t care about any of it.

  Amidst her iigation, Ourias didn’t remain silent. He already started an offensive against her. Bck bands materialized around her moving in to restrain her. However, she disappeared before it got close to her. ‘I o stop that speed of hers if I’m to do anything in this fight.’

  A silver metallic sphere appeared in front of Ourias. It darted forward almost being a blur. Sumiko evaded it, but saw that it turned around quickly. It wouldn’t leave her wake for long a pace with her. She began jumping around with bursts of speed. Her discs just bounced off it, wheried to destroy it.

  “However, the metal sphere suddenly disappeared, moving faster than her sight, smming into the woman with enough force to draw blood.”

  As ahe sphere acted as spoken. Sumiko lost sight of it, uo dodge the new speed it presented. It embedded itself iomaearly folding her over it before throwing her out of trol. Clouds of dirt coughed up from the earth as Sumiko’s body pounded, skipped and carved through the ually ing to a stop.

  Smoke slowly drifted through the space waiting on Sumiko. Her figure finally appeared through the veil of debris. Stains and dirt seemed the worst to have happened. Sumiko made it back to Ourias uerred by him. “So you modify it as well, not surprising.” A drip of blood suddenly streamed down her lips, as a deyed rea from her restraining everything. ‘That hurt quite a bit. He did make that line directly to cause injury.’ Her hand wiped away the blood from her .

  Stretg her hand out towards the golem proteg Ourias, she closed her hand. The golem suddenly pressed under an enormous weight into a super-dense sphere. It fell to the ground leaving a bit of a crater. “I learned enough from that.” All of the hexagon discs arouopped moving. Each piece began to move quickly into position ref the barrier around her. “It’s time that I finish this little skirmish of ours.”

  Defense from Sumiko made it clear to Ourias. ‘She’s preparing something. That barrier is pointless. She knows it. So why?’ It felt like an invitation to a trap. Ourias didn’t know what she pnned, but he felt certain he could deal with her.

  “A long thin needle flew through the air pierg her barrier, striking the joint at her shoulder disabling her left arm.”

  The needle ran through each of the three yers of Sumiko’s barrier barely even slowed down. Tiny holes remain behind with particles of white light falling like dust. However, the needle hit another hex defleg off it. “Your power only works on things at the moment you create it. If I create something new after your and I still cel your a.” She raised two fio him, calling back to her note of his fws.

  ‘She’s very intelligent and quick to adapt…’ The ushed Ourias into a er more than anyone else had ever doo him. ‘I’m going to have to get more creative with my words.’

  “The needle appeared ihe barrier at point bnk ra was impossible to dodge the strike. It immediately struck her shoulder.”

  Nothing happened.

  Sumiko then suddenly added a third finger. “This is where things end.” Her other hand raised up as white particles gathered to her palm quickly f into a sphere of energy. A beam shot out from the sphere. The grass bowed down from the ford speed of the energy. It sped towards Ourias, defenseless.