Invaders

Chapter 37: Reborn

"Eliza~ Delilah~ come out come out wherever you are"

I was gasping for air while hiding with my little sister. After running for almost an entire hour my whole body was drenched in sweat. Luckily, no monster approached us until this point. It was rare to have no monster around this part of the forest. However, those villagers are on hot pursuit so we still need to run. After a while, we found a space big enough for only two of us to fit inside.

The hole is well hidden under a trunk of a tree, covered with bushes. I set up a barrier to keep away for getting detected by mana sense.

The school has taught me many useful techniques especially survival skills. The first rule of being a mana user is to be able to protect oneself before protecting others.

What's the point of learning powerful attacking skills when you will die in a single hit anyway?

The barrier level wasn't strong but it's good enough to hide our presence from low-rank monsters.Even so, if the villager mana-user level is only at low-rank then our village will be doomed. There should be some guard who could hold off against a superior monster in our village. It won't take a lot of bribes to make them go along with killing both of us.

Besides, it's the villager whole decision. They can just brush away the rumors before it even blew away by the wind. In other words, we are going to get slaughtered if we don't do anything and I need to save my sister before that would happen.

Time is ticking, my breath is getting heavier. Sweat keeps dripping down. My whole body felt uncomfortable. My hands and leg can't stop trembling. Every veins and muscle in my body is searing and writhing with pain.

"Ahh, I want to die"

But I can't. Delilah is... still here. Yes, she is.

...

I looked at my sister who is resting on my shoulder. Tired, she fell asleep the moment we found a place to rest. I brushed her hair softly and reminisced about the time we played together.She would stick with me like glue and annoyed me all the time. At night she would climb up to my bed and ask me to pet her to sleep. She would run to me whenever she cried with her ugly sobbing face.

Papa and mama would pay more attention to her, but I understand.

Delilah was special. She should have all the attention she could have.Even if it means papa and mama would take care of her more than me. Even if, she's the reason why this is happening. Even if it means they would die. Why... must this happen to me? I didn't even do anything...

It's all her fault... her fault entirely...

She broke our family, She ruined our life. I lost my friends because of her!

"If only you didn't exist!!!"

Unknowingly, tears start dropping from my eyes. It just flew down like a broken pipe. Which end up falling on her cheek, waking her from her sleep.

"Eliza...? Why are you crying? Was I too heavy? I'm sorry for falling asleep. Sis?"

Because of this cute little sister of mine... this lovely sister who I love so much... she can't die. Only I could kill her. Others can just screw themselves!

"It's nothing. I just had a bad nightmare"

She looked at me with her flickering eyes full of worries. She opened her arm and hug me tightly.

"It's okay sis, Delilah is here. Delilah will be with you as to how sis always company me when I cried"

This little sister of mine. I love you. I'll kill you later.

"Somebody is here"

I gritted my teeth and took all my pain with me carrying Delilah away from the place. My heart felt like it would explode anytime soon but I rather die running than getting caught by these disgusting people. I don't know what my parents did but I'm sure papa and mama are not wrong.

"You dare used my family like this..."

Sadness, anger, grief... every feeling was raging wildly in my heart. More than the fatigue and immense pain that piercing through my bones like a thousand needles, the aching pain in my heart was immeasurable. I want power. Power to kill everyone!

"There they are! Catch them!"

I don't remember how long has it been, or how many steps I took trying to run away. I can't feel anything anymore. As if my sense of pain is already gone. As if all my nerves are dead. I don't care anymore. Somehow I feel like I want to laugh. Maybe I should right?

"Haha...hahaha...hehehe... hahahahahahahaha!"

"Sister? What's so funny?"

"Who are you?"

"Sister?"

"Oh, Delilah, why are we running?"

What am I doing here? Who is this girl again...right... she's my sister Delilah and... my name is...

"Eliza, Delilah, here you are! You both finally gave up on running? Give us your sister and we'll let you live Eliza."

'Who are these people? Hmm, it seems Delilah is terrified. Although I couldn't feel it, she's clasping my hand quite tightly. She's trembling all over her body too. I guess we were running away from these people. I wonder who they are?'

I feel like they would kill us at any given moment, but I didn't feel terrified even for a bit. I held my sister close to me and stood in front of her. She hid at the back, trembling.

"What do you want with my sister?"

The man who accused my parents seems to be leading the group. He voluntarily steps forward.

"Trying to play ignorant with us? Everyone knows what your family did. Especially that cursed girl!"

I didn't know why I felt like slapping his cheek hard for thousands of time. Just his aura was irritating. Not just him... every single one of them. All of them had a vile smile on their face. I snorted and opened my mouth

"Disgusting"

"D-Dis...gusting? It seems that even your mouth is cursed!"

"What is this curse you are talking about? You are just disgusting. Not just you. Each and everyone one of you is-"

In instant, the man scabbard that was tied on his waist hit me directly in the face sending me a few meters away. The others who were with him pinned me down to the ground, separating me and my little sister. I didn't feel any pain but looking at my little sister all alone frighten me wholeheartedly.

"Delilah!"

The man held Delilah by her throat and carried her up with one hand. Delilah with her small frame could only struggle helplessly like a dying fish having coming out to the surface. Flapping about aimlessly.

I gritted my teeth so hard that blood started to drip from my mouth.

"You trash!. Let her go!"

"Or what? You want her so much? Take her!"

He threw Delilah down smashing her to the ground.

That moment, time seems to stop. Freezing everything in motion. Leaving me and my little sister behind as I watch her slowly losing her breath, dying. The man already broke her neck when he grabbed her just now. With enhanced muscles, he mercilessly threw Delilah to the ground.

"Don't worry sister...I will be with you until the end...for now take care"

In that instant, rapid flashes of memories started to appear remembering my time with my family. Each one of those memories was encapsulated inside some kind of a bubble. Those bubbles then started to burst one by one vanishing into thin air. As one bubble started to pop, it felt like I have forgotten something important but I don't know what it was. In the end, my mind was completely white after being wiped out of any memories. Except for one...Delilah my sister.

I walk slowly towards that bubble, wanting to hold it firmly in my grasp, not wanting to let go. I don't remember anything, but an inconceivable pain was furiously burning my heart away. I feel like if I let this go as well, it will be the end of me. I'll be forever gone. Ceased from existing in this universe.

As I get closer and closer with each heavy steps, I was finally within the reach of grasping that bubble, taking it away with me. Yet, the moment I touched it... my hand phase through. As my whole body goes through the bubble, it vanished in the same manner as others...

Tears keep dropping, until blood coming out from the orifices of my face. But I wasn't in any sadness or pain. I didn't feel anything at all. I don't even know why I was here... who I was in the past...the only thing I knew was these people around me are annoyingly disgusting. Like trash in the middle of the pathway, obscuring the view of people who are passing by.

Suddenly, a burst of mana exploded out from the girl called Delilah. Along with it, everyone within the vicinity could hear endless screaming of pain coming out from nowhere. Although it seems that it only happened within that area, eventually it was known that the whole kingdom of Volta was infested with the haunting voice of souls appearing out of nowhere. The main temple had to dispatch all their priest everywhere throughout the continent.

For whatever reason, that burst of mana seems to rush it ways toward me like an arrow made of lights. It landed directly where I stood, blasting away people nearby several meters away. Physically I don't feel any pain anymore, but that blast of mana was trying to force its way into my soul. The searing pain which was tearing my soul away felt unbearable. However, it felt good.

It felt like I'm having a refreshing cold shower during a hot summer. Cleaning all the specks of dirt on my body.My body emanated a bright white light which then slowly corrupted with pitch black colour. As I was absorbing the mana a transmogrification occurred on me. The skins on my bones and my hairs started to fall apart. My veins burst, causing blood to float in mid-air forming tiny air-sac of bubbles. The blood then evaporated completely without traces. Finally, all my organs stop functioning and degenerating rapidly. The only thing left was my bones.

As of now, I'm just a skeletal figure able to move around.

When I finished absorbing the mana. the screaming sound... I could hear it even more clearly. In fact, I could even distinguish their sentences word by word. It wasn't human, and not monsters as well. In fact, it's something that was human and monsters as well. I soon come to recognize it as soul when I was rummaging through the books in the great library of the Kingdom of Volta.

And these souls... they seem to be listening to my words as well. I focused my mana and let it flow into the soul then call upon it. The soul would then reoccupied their previous vessel even if there were only bones left.

The moment the pitch blacked mana started to recede, I flicked my fingers and the ground started to tremble.

One or two villagers were dragged into the ground without notice. Some felt like something is touching their feet. Having crowded the whole area no one actually noticed anything. When someone started to scream was when everyone on high alert. It caused them to look around if there were monsters nearby. They were also looking left and right to do a headcount of people missing.

Everyone was there. No one was gone. There was nothing attacking the people, was what they might think of. And they were wrong.

As I was absorbing everything, I flicked my finger again and some of the villagers acted aggressively. At first, they only stared silently at them. Then, a fight suddenly broke within the group of people, causing chaos. Among them, skeletal figures and dead body raised up from the ground and attacked the village. Then, more and more dead body come to life. Those who got killed were raised and forced to submit to me as undead.

On that day, Watt Village became a place of living nightmare and Kingdom of Volta fell into the dark age.