Chapter 1085: Chapter 1085: Danger from the Future
"What... have you done to her?"
Miss Pepondosovich rarely experiences rage or anger - after all, she had already experienced the greatest pain when she lost her children. She truly thought she would not feel like that again, and she wished to truly never feel like that again.
But when Riley's children were born, she felt a certain sense of maternal duty to protect them. And now, knowing that something might have happened to her, she couldn't control her
not even thinking of the evil and bad things that Renna had done before his
anger disappearance.
And very soon, everything that could crumble around them started to crumble. The shelves, somewhat tearing apart on their own; the books, for some reason, were starting to grow old - some of them even caught on fire when the nails that were torn from the shelves hit each other and created a spark.
"Ack!"
"Nannah...!?"
"I'm... I'm okay."
Hannah quickly turned toward Nannah, only to see her on the floor, "I... I just tripped." "You... tripped?"
"Miss Pepondosovich," and while everything that could go wrong seemed to be going wrong, Riley let out a sigh as he calmly approached Miss Pepondosovich, who was already seething from anger; her face, almost contorted and her rabbit ears flat behind her head, "Please, calm down."
"How can I be calm...?" Miss Pepondosovich's fangs started to show themselves, "This woman did something to our baby girl."
"We can not be certain with that yet," Riley shook his head as he glanced at Aerith'Ross, who just had a smirk on her face.
"But she just said she hunted her down!"
"Did you, Aerith'Ross?" Riley tilted his head to the side, "Were you actually able to hunt Rennalyn, and hunt her down?"
"Riley Ross, your calmness overwhelms even that of Mother's," Aerith' Ross extended her breath as she looked Riley in the eyes, "I might have just killed your youngest daughter, and yet you remain stoic."
"Esme has fought and sparred with Rennalyn and Lucifer before."
"And your cute little daughter managed to win once?"
not
"No. She managed to win every single time," Riley said without any hesitation, "Not because, of course, Rennalyn was stronger. She could not even put a scratch on her unlike Lucifer at all. But she is crafty, very much so...
...to the point that she might have even left that ankle bracelet deliberately, Miss Pepondosovich."
"...Hm," Miss Pepondosovich's ears very slowly started to relax as she heard Riley's words, "That is true... that girl would have left before even the very first sign that something is amiss."
"Well, I do love your confidence for your children, Riley Ross," a small but very gentle smile replaced Aerith'Ross's smirk, "But you are, however, forgetting the fact that in a way, I could be considered your child too."
"!!!"
And as Aerith'Ross said that, she pulled out an arm from under the table; waving it at Riley and Miss Pepondosovich.
"I was aiming for the neck. You're right, she is very crafty and managed to escape," Aerith'Ross giggled; her lips, almost reaching from ear to ear, "But if you think she'll recover from this, she won't
appearing again...
because you see, in order to prevent someone else like you from
...you created a weapon that would seal. Every. Parts. Of. You."
"Hm...?" Riley tilted his head as he focused on the sliced part of the arm, only to see some sort of void surrounding it.
"You, Father, with the help of your oldest daughter..." Aerith' Ross once again giggled as she placed Renna's arm on the table, "...Sealed yourself in tiny bits of pieces across the new universe. Believe it or not, each of your pieces contain unimaginable power, and those who manage to wield any of them are granted that power... or so they say. That's not really important."
"And are you saying that you have that tool...?" Hannah's eyebrows lowered as she very subtly moved closer to Riley.
"Well, no..." Aerith' Ross no," Aerith' Ross rolled her lips and scoffed as she started walking beside the table, "Only those who are authorized to use the tool can use it, so...
...I brought her with me."
"You-!!!"
Both Hannah and Nannah's eyes widened as soon as Aerith' Ross pulled another thing from below the table; their breaths, slightly stuttering and struggling to move through their lungs as they wanted to puke there and then. How could they not...
...when Aerith' Ross was now carrying Karina's decapitated head by its hair?
"Tadaa!" Aerith'Ross once again smiled from ear to ear as she presented Karina's head on the table like it was some sort of magic trick, "By the way, the tool is the thing in her mouth." "Khk..." Hannah's lips started to tremble as she saw some sort of black ball the size of a pool ball in Karina's mouth.
"Oh, you don't have to be so angry. This isn't your Karina," Aerith'Ross rolled her eyes as she saw the air around Hannah and Nannah starting to distort and sizzle, "This is our Karina, from the future — cool, right? She's actually still alive, so don't say anything that would hurt her. You like her eyelashes? I put that on."
"You... you're fucking insane," Hannah gritted her teeth as she looked Aerith' Ross in the eyes. "What can I say...?" Aerith' Ross once again giggled, "It runs in the family. Right, Riley Ross?" Aerith'Ross glared at Riley. Riley, however, just very slowly leaned his head down to look at the bottom of the table if she was hiding anything else there.
"I know, all of this can seem confusing, because it is. Ugh, why am I even bothering talking to any of you when you're all dead anyway," Aerith' Ross rolled her eyes again before pointing at Hannah, "Well, not you - you're one of the people who helped seal Riley too. You're actually still alive. I don't know where you are, but you are alive...
...you have Riley Ross's head, I think. Honestly, I'm not judging, but that's a little
incestuous."
"I was adopted, Aerith'Ross."
"...You were?" Aerith' Ross raised an eyebrow, "Still, a little incestuous."
"I think we've wasted enough time here," Miss Pepondosovich started shaking her head as she approached Riley and grabbed his pants, "We should find your little girl, she's probably hurt and so confused right now - we will just deal with all of this future stuff later, what
matters is now."
"Hm. I suppose you are right, Miss Pepondosovich."
"Shouldn't..." Hannah lowered her voice into a whisper as she also pulled Nannah closer to Riley and Miss Pepondosovich, "...Shouldn't we try to get Karina's... head and that tool? If that's really her head and not just some sort of sick twisted... play this crazy woman is doing? Because she's crazy, like big time."
"We could try, Sister," Riley, on the other hand, did not bother to whisper at all as he even looked Aerith 'Ross in the eyes, "But I do have a feeling that we will not be able to get it."
"Wh-"
And before Hannah could finish her words, the entire library suddenly crumbled into pieces as Riley seemed to have sucked all of them into his hands; but not really, as they all just turned into fine sand which just soon withered away completely - the sudden barrenness revealed a world that was nothing but a void. They could tell they were in the expanse of space, but there was absolutely no light at all; no stars, no life, nor even a remnant of it if it truly did exist in this universe in the first place.
What Riley did not pull, however, was the thing he was trying to take away - future Karina's head and the tool inside his mouth. Aerith'Ross seemed to have managed to grab it first and
pin it between her armpits.
"Very, very sneaky, Riley Ross," Aerith'Ross clicked her tongue several times while wagging
her finger.
"Fight us instead of hunting children," Hannah's body completely turned into a white glow as she glared at Aerith'Ross.
"I would actually like that," Aerith'Ross shrugged, "But I do not know what will happen if
Riley Ross gets sealed earlier than he should. Truth be told, Jennifer knows all the details, but she's gone I don't even know if what I'm doing here affects the future or if all of you are truly just insignificant. But of course...
...it won't hurt to kill my siblings first so they won't be able to hunt me down in the future.
Anyway, I'm off to find Rennalyn and finish what I started - or maybe I'm just going to kill weird little Lucy first.... maybe Enel, but as far as I know, he's just a normal man. Anyway,
Ciao,"
"You-"
And before anyone could really do anything, Aerith' Ross just disappeared instantly; no portal, no sign of even fading away — she just disappeared.
"Oh my fucking god..." The heat around Hannah quickly dissipated away as she clasped her hair, "...What the fuck is happening now? We're dealing with so much shit. The gods, and then Renna's universe being fake, the two universes colliding and in threat of destroying each other, Renna going crazy and killing a bunch of gods and people not from her universe, and now we're trying to race against someone from the future to find Renna? I mean...
...what the fuck is happening!?"
"What is always happening, Sister," Riley just shrugged before handing an arm to Miss Pepondosovich, "Please do hold onto that, it is Rennalyn's arm - I think girls of her age are sensitive if they do not look alright."
"...You managed to nick that?" Hannah groaned and sighed, "Anyway, what do we even do now? Should we return or continue to search for Renna?"
"What we always do, Sister," Riley nodded as he gestured to Nannah to open up a portal,
"Go with the flow."
"Go with the flow..." Hannah looked at Riley with an exhausted look in her eyes,
"...What the fuck does that even mean?"