The Stargazing Witch & The Dungeon Planet
Side Chapter Metous 9: I’m Sorry

Side Chapter Metous 9: I’m Sorry

Colours fell to the ground under the weight of Tella’s swing, her helmet cracked, and her brain was dizzy for a moment.

However, Tella wasn't in the best position either. Her fist was covered in her own blood. Vines and flowers were wrapped around her body, with a large amount around her arm, strengthening it. 

“Mum..?” 

“Why are you acting surprised!? We were looking at the river, remember?” Tella was nearby and had used a plant to catapult herself in to save Lila and Tyell.

Tyell groaned, “Oh… yeah, that makes sense.”

“Who's here now?”

Tella chucked some seeds into the ground. “An angry mother!” She burned her life and allowed the seeds to grow. Spurting from the ground were hard, thorny vines whose first action in life was to whip Colours with their barbed edges.

Colours jumped up and dodged the whips. Lila fired a lightning arrow construct from her [Pocket Lightning]. On the opposite side, Elly fired exclusively at Lila. 

Black vines block the bullets for the immobile Lila.

Colours paused for a moment. “Wait… I know you.” 

Tella stared back. “Thanks? Can’t say I share the feeling.”

Colours glared back. It had been a while ago, but she had seen this woman on Earth near Nina. She didn’t do any major follow-up after it was discovered she was just a parent looking for medical support

How? Did Lila manage to get past my lie detection? No, if that were the case, they would be more prepared. This can’t be a coincidence… but if it is–

“Mum, you need to help Lila get out of here,” said Tyell.

Tella replied, “I know, but running is not going to work.”

Ominous black bullets crashed into two of Tella’s vines, causing them to rapidly decay.

–then it needs to be destroyed at the roots

Tella threw down more seeds than destroyed ones. “Backup will arrive the moment everyone at North Metous School is safe.” She said with a smile, “We just need to hold out a tiny bit.”

Colours' armour glowed different shades of grey and black. 

Vines grew everywhere to attack Colours and to block and shield Lila and the Stellas. 

Colours just sent waves of her energy out, and many of the vines continued to decay, a few of the harder ones stayed standing for a while longer. Whenever one died, Tella threw more out to replace them.

The warm wind strengthened, and Lila began to feel her energy return.

The vines were making it slightly difficult for Colours to move, but in her mind, she wasn’t having any difficulty. The fight was simply annoying.

With another burst of energy, all the protection, including a new lightning wall around Lila, was destroyed. Colours for the millionth time went to stab Lila, but Tyell activated [My Highway] [Run Light] to interrupt the attack.

Tella was unable to move from her stop and was bleeding due to the aftereffects of her skills, but there was still one person who was close enough to react.

Tyell initiated a full sprint with his two main skills again, but instead of grabbing Lila, Tyell cancelled his skills mid-motion and slammed his legs into Colours.

Shit! Colours was extremely irritated, the velocity knocked her back, and she felt a pain in her stomach.

Tyell rolled onto the ground, his legs injured, but as he tried to get up, the recently placed defensive curse on Colours’s armour activated.

“Argh!” 

Black stitches appeared on Tyell’s legs, tying him to the ground. The stitches pierced into his lower body, and he couldn’t move himself.

“Tyell!” Massive veins were growing all over the place, larger and stronger than before, slammed down to intercept Colours.

Colours stepped back to dodge, but only now did Colours notice she was moving slower than expected. When did that happen?

The feeling of air through the tiny cracks in her helmet gave her an answer. When she punched me? She planned to poison me from the beginning…

Walls of black mana that did nothing but block people’s room for escape appeared. Separating Tella and Lila from Tyell.

Lila was able to move again now that the supporting fire had stopped, but she wasn’t able to reach Tyell thanks to a wall of black energy stopping her. Tella turned to her and started pouring her energy into Lila so she could move and protect herself and Tyell.

Colours clenched her fist. She was playing around with a bunch of low-level idiots, and her carelessness led to her being poisoned.

“I can’t leave any traces of this…” Colours chose to go all out and make sure nothing was linked back. Her mana flared up, and the black energy surrounding her intensified.

Tyell’s leg was bleeding, and he could only watch as Colours decided to deal with the person who made this mission difficult in the first place.

Colours raised her hand, and a dark sphere was formed. It took much longer to create than her other skills and clearly used a lot more mana, but her anger was felt in the orb.

The sphere fired at Tyell and increased in size to the point where it could cover him.

Death

Tyell could feel it even without his skills telling him.

He tried to move, struggling with his restraints, but it didn’t work.

However, before it could hit him, Tyell watched as the second Dominous Hood figure jumped in front of the blast, their camouflage disappearing under the attack. The black energy faded away and was absorbed into the armour, which caused it to begin falling apart.

They fell to the ground, and Tyell’s body tore apart as he tried to move to see his friend. The first thing he saw was Elly’s face as her armour started disintegrating. 

Elly’s eyes were glowing a clean white, and within them, Tyell could see the scene playing out where he was consumed by the blast and died.

“Elly? Elly!” First confused, but that changed to concern and fear.

“I’m sorry, Tyell,” she said. The first words he heard were an apology. “I’m a big idiot, I am only now realising all the trouble I caused you and your family…” 

She didn’t need the skill she unlocked a moment before to know what was going to happen when Colours fired that attack. 

There was more she wanted to say, more she wanted to apologise for, to tell Tyell how important of a friend he was and how working together again sounded great, but her voice had already stopped working. Her weak body, affected by the overuse of her [Future Prediction] and now [Glimpse] didn’t even have the mana to slow down its destruction.

Colours didn’t even know what happened; her senses were failing her, but the visual of her partner diving into her attack shocked her, and before Colours could adjust herself,. A large explosion of fire crashed into her back.

Mella yelled, “You won’t hurt my family!”

Colours turned around, confident the walls would stop the other two.

“No, you don’t!” 

A bark-like vine emerged from the ground where she was standing. A seed that wasn’t grown until now blossomed after the required time had passed. The vine tripped Colours and sent her flying, but the vine decayed in the process.

Lila, who was full of energy again, jumped and [Accelerated] to max speed to intercept Colours.

Lila used her most powerful combo to ensure Colours wouldn’t get up. [Empty Pockets] [Lightning Strike] [Concentrate Lightning]!

The blast of concentrated lightning devoured Colours. Leaving a cindered body that flopped to the ground. The attack was much weaker compared to the last use of the combo since [Pocket Lightning] was much emptier this time.

“We need to get Nina over here now!” The time to celebrate wasn’t here yet, and Tyell screamed, still trapped, unable to support his friend, who was fading away.