Blade of the Goddess
Chapter 67 - Freedom at a cost

Chapter 67: Chapter 67 - Freedom at a cost

"Heh, it’s been a while since I’ve seen you all, my beautiful test subjects. Oh fuck, just thinking about experimenting on you guys is making me so wet." Kristy said happily as she walked into the cell room.

"Fuck you, you small tit bitch!" Michelle provoked

"Rude." Snapping her fingers, Kristy activated the hex on their bodies, causing pain to course through their bodies.

Thanks to the rune of protection, the pain was minimal and bearable, but to play the part, they all writhed on the ground as if they couldn’t handle the pain.

"Hmmm, who should I choose today? I’ve already taken two boys, so how about another girl? Yes, I like that." She closed her eyes and circled her hand around until it landed on one of the three remaining girls, or at least close to one.

When she opened her eyes, her finger was pointing at Lidia.

Kristy smiled manically "You know, your little boyfriend has been a real pain in our ass. I can’t wait to see the look on his face when he learns I turned his little girlfriend into a demon." She opened the cell, walked in, and stood right above Lidia. But before she could even reach down to grab her, a bright blue flame engulfed her face, catching her off guard.

"NOW!" Lidia yelled.

Jackson, Aaron, Michelle, and Lidia all jumped Kristy while Alice looked for an escape route.

"You annoying kids!" A wave of demonic energy pushed all of them back, sending some crashing into walls and other things lying around.

Lidia was the first to get back up, multiple spells already raring to go. [Firestorm] raged around her, and [Ember Flame] was already in action. Around Lidia were dozens of fireballs and fire arrows, which she shot at Kristy as they engaged in an intense battle.

"You think those weak flames will hurt me?! [Death Cloud]" A red misty substance excreted from her hands, melting anything that it touched, even mana. It ate right through Lidia’s spells, which forced her to put more distance between them.

"Heh, where are you going?! [Soul Force]" With her left hand, Kristy pulled Lidia toward her, and with her right hand, black flames materialized.

"Ugh!" Feeling a tug on her soul made Lidia’s body go limp as she was pulled toward Kristy at high speeds, but gathering all the willpower she had, she clenched her fists and collected both [Firestorm] and [Ember Flame] into her hands and when their two fists collided, a massive explosion of black and blue flames erupted.

Around this time, Michelle, Jackson, and Aaron all got back up, shielding themselves from the onslaught of flames.

Once the fire died down, they reentered the fight.

"Shit! How does that bitch have that much power?! How the fuck did they even negate the effects of the hex?!" Kristy asked as she shook her burnt hand.

Michelle took this chance to cast her spells "Take this bitch! [Wrathful Force]" A massive shockwave made of pure mana rattled the inside of Kristy’s body.

Aaron and Jackson teamed up, delivering combos of punches and kicks without giving Kristy any chance to regain her footing. Michelle then aided them from behind, blasting Kristy with a plethora of spells, hoping to kill herself.

"I found a way out!" Alice came back shouting.

"Great, let’s get out of here!" Lidia said as she put two fingers together, activating the runes on Michelle, Jackson, and Aaron’s bodies.

"Huh? This feeling-"

"I feel strong! Powerful!"

"Hahaha! I knew I had the power to defeat you!"

Lidia grabbed Alice and ran away with her.

"What are you doing? We need to wait for them!" Alice yelled

"No, no! They are our ticket to escape this hellhole. They’ll be a good distraction."

"What are you saying? You want to leave them there to die?"

"That’s exactly what I’m saying. I absolutely have no interest in helping or saving them. The five of us won’t be able to do anything to her anyway. She’s rattled up a bit, but once she clears her mind, she’ll beat us all. I have no intention of being here when that happens."

Alice was confused. They all had talked about working together, and now Lidia was abandoning them? It didn’t make sense. "B-But, why did you help them? Put the runes on their body?"

"Ha, I never intended to help. I used the strength, abundance, amplification, and power runes for a reason. Strength to boost their physical strength, abundance to increase their mana absorption rate, amplification to increase their mana flow, and power to supercharge their bodies to 200% capacity. I also added the soul rune, controlling a part of their soul to keep fighting that woman until they get incapacitated or die."

"That’s cruel!"

"Cry about it. I don’t care about people unless they are worth something to me."

"Do you even care about me?"

"I care about Zion, and Zion cares about you, so I’m helping you. Besides, like I said before, you’ll become my sister soon anyway."

Just then, the sound of a metal door being torn from its hinges echoed through the hall with the sound of a death cry that was suddenly cut off by the sound of something stomping on its throat.

"YOU MOTHERFUCKERS!" Kristy rocketed toward Aice and Lidia after killing the others. "DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’VE DONE! I SWEAR WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON-"

Before she could finish or even catch up with them, a massive beam tore right through the ceiling and ground, the devastating energy vaporizing anything it touched and creating a massive hole that left the entire underground lab destroyed.

"Alice, get up! I don’t know what happened, but look!" Lidia pointed up to the massive hole in the ceiling, "Our escape just got easier!" She picked Alice up and rocketed off into the sky.

The lab was vast, carved deep into the earth like a spiral of forbidden knowledge. Each level housed arcane horrors—alchemical forges, summoning chambers, and bestiaries holding twisted creatures behind rune-sealed doors.

But now, all that grandeur lay in ruin. The massive beam that had ripped through the structure, collapsed stone floors, and shattered ancient wards. Fires flickered from broken vials, and glowing elixirs oozed down the walls like blood.

Lidia didn’t have time to see everything, nor did she care to. Her freedom was close, and she wasn’t going to let anything stop her from reaching it.

"We’re almost there!" Lidia yelled excitedly.

"I’ll get to see my mom-" Alice’s speech was cut short by a black rope that grabbed onto her leg, digging into her flesh.

"Ahhhh!!!"

"What happened?!" Lidia asked as she was pulled back and downward.

"Something grabbed my leg! It’s digging into my skin!"

"Get back here you filthy bitches! You’re my experiments, and I won’t let you get away!" Down below, Kristy held Alice’s leg with a black rope, her breath haggard.

At a closer glance, Lidia saw that her body was completely fucked up. The entire left side was warped, melted, and fried from the massive laser that destroyed the lab. However, that still didn’t stop her from being as powerful as she was.

"Let me go!" Alice commanded

"Are you crazy?! I’m not dropping you!" Lidia put more firepower into her magic, but she was barely getting anywhere.

"If you don’t, then we’ll both get sent back into a cage. If one of us escapes, then we can at least tell others about what happened here- Arghhh!!" The pain of the demonic energy digging into her skin burned

"But Zion-"

"Do it!"

"I-I can’t."

"Chuck! Go get those two bitches!" Kristy yelled once she saw Chuck come back to see what had happened to the lab.

He looked up, seeing Lidia and Alice in the air, and blasted off in their direction.

"Drop me! If you don’t, this will be for nothing!"

Lidia closed her eyes, knowing that she could be sending Alice to her death. But thinking quickly, she engraved the rune of location onto her body before doing as she said.

"I’ll find you!" Lidia shouted and then flew back up to escape the lab.

’I know you will.’ Alice closed her eyes, not wanting to know what happened next. The last thing she felt was an embrace as if she had been caught, and a strike to the neck to knock her out.