“Tsk! I missed a chance to score some affection points.”

Rory appeared from behind Amelia and said.

“Affection points?”

Amelia suddenly became angry when she realized what he meant.

“You were going to wait until the last second to save me?!”

She shouted at him.

“Suspense Bridge Effect? Never heard of it.”

Rory said.

“I never mentioned anything about it.”

Amelia replied.

“Anyway…”

Rory forcibly changed the topic.

“Looks like they aren’t going to wait to attack. They seem to want to blow this city to smithereens.”

He said while looking at the army stationed outside the walls.

“Why not let them? If they do it, they can kill all the rebels for us. We just need to survive and it’s all good.

“Don’t even say that as a joke.”

Serket said.

“Then how about we blow them up instead?”

Richard asked.

“Not a bad idea.”

Rory agreed.

“You know Rory, as painful as it is to admit, you’re probably the smartest person I know. But you can be so stupid sometimes.”

Serket said.

“They clearly want us to do just that, that’s why they’re attacking from a long distance rather than charging in. They probably have an anima suction machine or something similar.”

She said.

“What’s that?”

Amelia asked.

“It’s basically a machine that absorbs anima attacks and use them to charge up and fire back an even more powerful or concentrated attack. Like a mirror reflecting light.”

Serket explained.

“There’s something like that?”

Amelia was astonished.

“Yeah, but it’s really expensive and there’s only a few in existence. So it isn’t strange you’ve never heard of it. It’s mostly monopolize by the Sacred Army as well.”

Serket answered.

“Huh? When was something like that built?”

Rory asked with a confused face.

“What? You didn’t know?”

Serket asked.

“My first time hearing about it.”

“You didn’t pay attention to the world affairs in the last century? It was used first in the battle of Barco 30 years ago.”

“Barco?”

Rory looked even more confused. This shocked Serket.

“Rory, what have you been doing this last century?”

“Drinking, sleeping, party, sexing, just living my best life.”

Rory replied.

“You really are an idiot.”

Serket face-palmed and said.

“Anyway, warfare has evolved in the last century, so it would be foolish for you to act carelessly.”

She said.

“I’m surprised that these people can have a casual talk while the city is being bombarded by lasers.”

Said Christi.

*Boom!*

Just as he said, although Serket deflected the first shot that didn’t mean that the church didn’t fire anymore. They were constantly bombarding the city, it was just that the lasers couldn’t faze this group of monsters.

Well, Amelia was just caught up in the conversation and didn’t notice.

“Ah, man! These things are getting annoying!”

Rory jumped in the air and started deflecting lasers back towards the church forces with kicks.

*Boom!*

Lasers clashed with lasers and caused massive explosions in the air. The ones he didn’t deflected destroyed various sections of the city. It was like the city was being slowly leveled by them.

“Ahhhh!”

Wait! We’re still here!”

“Your comrades are still here!”

The rebel forces weren’t spared from the lasers might. Many of them perished instantly, while some were lucky(?) and had their limbs vaporized. Leaving them wiggling in pain, wishing for death.

It was like the city was on the receiving end of god’s divine punishments.

Seeing this Amelia remembered Rory saying to her that the church viewed everyone involved in this war as disposable tools. They never considered them comrades from the beginning.

“If this continues, the whole city will be destroyed. After that, they’ll target the mountains where everyone’s hiding.”

Said Amelia.

“Well, that is a problem.”

Serket said.

“The goal is for them to draw us out, so why not give them what they want?”

She said.

“Are you going, old hag?”

Rory landed and asked.

“What? You wanna come?”

She asked him.

“Sure, why not?”

Rory answered.

“Serket.”

The masked Xavier called out to his wife.

“You’re not coming.”

She bluntly stated.

“What we’re about to do, requires immense natural physical prowess. Rory and I are leagues apart from all of you when it comes to that. You all rely on anima too much and can’t follow us with your physical abilities alone.”

She explained.

“You have a point. Alright, just be careful.”

She nodded and then slapped Rory’s back.

“Come on, boy. It’s been a while since we’ve gotten some exercise with each other. Don’t slack off.”

“Yeah, yeah. You better not break your hip.”

Rory said while twining his arm.

“Okay, you know the drift. We destroy the machine and retreat as quickly as we can.”

Serket entered a sprint position.

“I know.”

Rory replied and did the same.

“Ready….Go!”

*Boom!*

The two shot forward with explosive steps, even causing the spots they stood at to cracked open. You could barely track them with your eyes as they sprint towards the city walls.

“Damn, they’re fast. Is that really just their physical strength?”

Christi asked.

“Damn, I knew mother was a monster but Rory isn’t losing.”

Said James.

*Boom!* *Boom!*

While they ran, lasers kept being fired at the city. Rory jumped and kicked away a beam, while Serket simply dodged it and continued to run.

The other beams that wasn’t in their range, fired towards the others. Allan formed a lightning lance in his hand and threw it to deflect a beam, however the beam quickly devoured the lightning.

Xavier then stood before it and blocked it with all of his strength. Even so he was being pushed back. It took him a while to forcibly deflect it.

“Damn, these are more powerful than those two make it look.”

Xavier said.

“Richard, look out!”

Amelia shouted when she saw a beam heading towards the distracted Richard.

“Hm?”

Richard turned around only to see the beam only a few meters away from him.

*Bam!*

To everyone’s shock, Richard casually slapped the beam away like it was a fly. Everyone was shocked when they saw that.

“Hey, Allan. I’ve been meaning to ask. Who’s that?”

Xavier asked.

“Huh? You don’t know either?!”

Xavier shook his head.

“I thought you knew.”

The mysterious Richard just appeared out of nowhere one day, but somehow blended in so perfectly that no one questioned his identity or origins. Especially since he was a friend of the queen.

Meanwhile, Rory and Serket had already made it to the city walls. They leaped over the 100ft wall with ease and landed outside the city. The moment they did, they drew the attention of every soldier in church forces.

“Wait a minute. Won’t this make you a criminal?”

Rory asked.

“Ah, you’re right. Well, I got ways to avoid that from happening so don’t worry.”

Serket responded.

“I see. Then, there’s no need to hold back.”

The two of them took the same martial art pose side by side.

“Formation?”

“Hmm….How about Black Rhino?”

Serket answered.

“Sounds good to me.”

Rory replied.

The two smiled and lowered their center of gravity before charging forward with earthshaking steps.

“Here they come!”

“Protect the equipment!”

The soldiers all readied themselves to respond to their charge. Serket and Rory smirked when they saw that. The two made contact with the soldiers at the same time.

*Bam!*

They both jumped and kicked a soldier in the chest at the same time.

“Guh?!”

Those soldiers were sent flying back with a foot shaped impression in their chests. The force they flew back with was so strong that all those behind them were blown away when they made contact with them.

From above, one could see two paths being forcibly opened up in the army.

“Let’s get ready to party!”

Rory’s roar caused the entire area to tremble and could be heard clearly from inside the city.

He grabbed a soldier near him and used his head to smash the head of another soldier. He then swung his leg like a weapon and caused a soldier’s body to break like a twig, before spinning around and smashed a gun to pieces.

He then started to move forward, grabbing everyone he could and rip them apart.

Serket was doing something similar. She avoided a gunshot to the head and ripped a soldier’s head off with an uppercut. She then started sending people flying with punches.

*Bam!*

She clashed with a club with a headbutt and broke it, before breaking the user’s neck with a single grip of her hand.

“N-Numbers! Use numbers to overwhelm them!”

A commander started shouting orders.

“Shut up will ya?”

*Bam!*

“Why don’t you come fight us, huh?!”

He was punched so hard by Rory that his head spun around like an owl’s and died instantly.

“Weak! Weak! Weak!”

Rory started sending people flying with kicks and punches while shouting. He was shot a couple times, but that didn’t faze him in the least as those that fired at him soon perished under his attacks.

“You’re too weak, Sacred Church!”

He charged forwards like a bull, running over anyone in his way.

“S-Stop him!”

*Bam!*

At that moment, Serket started to do the same. Everyone that came in contact with her was immediately beaten to a plump without mercy.

The two were like two mad bulls, no rhinos, charging through a field of sheep.

“Sinners! Taste our blades!”

Two strong looking soldiers stood in their way holding two giant swords. They immediately sprung towards them swing their swords at their heads.

*Bam!*

They connected, which caused the men to smile triumphantly.

“?!”

Over the smile left their faces when they looked at those they attacked.

“They caught the blades with their teeth?!”

That’s right. Both Serket and Rory stopped the blades with their teeth. The men looked in their eyes only to see a savage look.

It was at that moment that they knew they fucked up.

*Crunch!*

Rory and Serket shattered the swords with a bite and pounced towards their attackers with their hands stretched out. They caught them by their face and looked them in their eyes and laughed.

“You’re out of your league, boy.”

They said together before lifting the men and slamming their heads together so hard their head burst and Rory and Serket’s hands touched.

The two who stood side by side turned and looked towards a giant machine with a metal panel facing the city.

“That’s the machine?”

Rory asked while wiping the blood from his face.

“Yeah. If we destroy that, then our forces can march on them without worry of their anima being reflected back at them.”

Serket said while wiping the blood from her hand. The two seemed like demons to those around them so everyone was too scared to carelessly attack them.

“It’s pretty far away, and is surrounded by a lots of guards. Do we have kill our way through?”

“I have a better idea.”

She looked at Rory.

“When was the last time we’ve played catch?”

Rory smiled because he knew what she meant. He leaped into the air and Serket followed behind him.

“What are they doing?”

The soldiers asked. They saw Serket stretch out her palm and Rory landing on it.

“It can’t be…!”

They all started to figure out what they were going to do. Serket drew her arm back while still lifting Rory.

“Go!”

She then threw him with so much power that there was a sonic boom. Rory cut through the air like a jet and crossed over the sea of enemies in a second.

*Bam!*

He crashed into the machine, no, he used the momentum from being thrown to turn his body into a weapon and destroyed it.

Once the machine was destroyed, he stood up with some blood flowing down his cheeks, and threw a thumbs up.

“Mission accomplished.”