"Don't move. If you do, I'll blow your head off," I said, gripping the back of the older man's neck tightly.
"O-okay... I'm not moving. Easy, let's just calm down. Please, there's no need for this," the man replied, surprisingly more composed than I expected.
He didn't move, just as I told him. The rest of the people also noticed the change in the environment. Now their full focus was on me.
"Good. This is what's going to happen. All of you are going to raise your hands, and if I see something I don't like, this man dies. Am I clear?" I said.
"Yeah. We understand. So, let's take it easy, all right?" the old man answered softly raising his hands.
[Stored Essentia: 24.400]
[Stored Essentia: 24.500]
[Stored Essentia: 24.600]
I quickly checked my Essentia. The number had increased a lot since the last time I checked it and it didn't seem to stop growing.
'Hmm, not so bad. I guess burning emotions is more worth it than burning pain after all. I should have started with this from the beginning. Maybe I could even burn some memories if I need it. It wouldn't be bad to have a little more.'
Trusting my new reserve I decided to cast [Legememens] to have a better understanding of the person in front of me.
Whispering the incantation, and taking advantage of the fact that my hand was already making contact with the skin of the man, I cast the spell.
My hand, which was already being covered by the purple fire of the Sigil, heated a little and started to glow more intensely as some threads from my forearm traveled from my veins through my palm.
Immediately after, the thoughts of the man arrived.
All right, this is starting to get out of control. Calm down, Roid. It's only a girl. The girl is nervous. She may be scared. Yeah, she is only scared, yeah, that's it. She will calm down if she sees that we are good people. We're okay. We're okay.
I looked to my side, straight into the eyes of the short, jacked guy, who hadn't moved from where he was, a few meters from me. Now that I saw him well, the dude looked like shit. Dark circles under his eyes, hollow cheeks, cuts on his face and arms, and a lot of dirt all over his body.
"Ha... I knew it was a bad idea," the short guy said as he raised both open hands. He didn't seem to be upset, or scared, rather he seemed resigned—or defeated.
"Uhhhh?! W-what do you think you're doing?! Y-you burning harpy! Release him, now!" the woman exclaimed, her voice a little broken maybe by the surprise.
"Shut the fuck up and raise your hands. I won't repeat myself," I ordered.
Oh boy. These two really are going to get along badly.
With my free left hand I noticed the change in Livia's state. She was rigid as a board, digging her nails into me as she clung to me.
I didn't look at her directly. I wasn't going to risk taking my eyes off those animals I had in front, but it was good that she stayed close. If things escalated it was easier this way.
[The Goddess Who Doesn't Believe in Friendships has mixed feelings about your actions]
[The Goddess Who Enjoys Battles is annoyed by the cowardly way in which you act]
[The God Who Would Do Anything for Money insists to the other goddesses to read the group chat]
[An unknown number of deities has started watching you]
[An unknown number of deities has noticed the deities from GRIT]
"Bitch, there are five of us and two of you. Do you really think we are going to do what you say?" the blue haired woman gritted her teeth as she clenched her fists at her sides grabbing handfuls of her pants. She hadn't raised her hands, but she was afraid. I knew it by the way her hands trembled.
"Oh really? I don't see five people that can fight here," I gestured with my head toward the man with long brown hair that was trembling against the wall looking down, and then to the blonde dude that still kept convulsing.
"I bet this old man is the only one who could give me real problems. Or maybe you guys really have a chance. But I'm sure you're not surviving the monsters outside without him," I said.
In reality, I was only guessing. I wasn't sure that the rest didn't have an offensive Gift. However, if all of them really had offensive Gifts I was sure that they wouldn't have arrived here in the first place.
Getting food and water. Taking care of hygiene. Fighting against monsters. Dodging them. Locating and coordinating. The pollution and toxic gases.
There was no way that they could do all that if all of them were combatants. We barely managed to make it this far because Milaine was an all-rounder monster herself, and Livia was the perfect complement.
Even if they really had more fighters, I was sure that this man was vital for whatever the strategy they had been using until now.
It was a gut feeling. But the man's thoughts only confirmed my guess.
What? How does she know that? Is she guessing? Wait, maybe she saw us in the sandstorm? Maybe she saw how Simon and I were the defense while Hector attacked. No, how dumb. That doesn't make sense there is no way that happened... Shit…. I should have reacted faster, sorry man.
'Hector? Ah, it must be the bald guy that the pangosharks ate'.
I remembered the image of the monsters chewing the torso of the man while he was still alive a few minutes ago.
Following that, I noticed the sound of something striking the reinforced iron walls behind me.
[Your Adversity has successfully drawn attention from all creatures across the entire world]
I reread the notification that had been blinking at the edge of my vision. It was strange. It didn't wake anything in me. It was only information.
'I wonder if this also applies to people…'
I tightened my grip on the older man's neck a little more before looking to the rest of them.
"Well? Do you have time to waste? I bet the things that ate your friend don't care that you delay. Hell, who knows, maybe we have minutes before we can't even step on the floor without burning ourselves," I added.
Apparently my words reached the woman, since her eyes were not only fixed on me but also trying to follow the sounds of tongues hitting metal all around us.
"What now, genius?" she growled raising her hands. "You are also running out of time, bitch," she added.
"First, I want names, what you did for a living, Gifts and Flaws," I ordered. "Livia, I trust your eyes," I delivered that last line vaguely, not wanting to reveal Livia's Gift yet.
"O-okay..." Livia answered.
I knew she'd understand what I meant by that. I was sure that Livia could see the status window of all these people. But the important thing was to know if anyone lied.
That way I could get an idea of who really was someone I could trust, and who was more probable to sell us out if things got complicated.
Besides if we were going to join them I definitely needed to know what each one of them could do. I didn't plan to let a stranger knock me out for a second time.
Although I was almost one hundred percent sure that the blue haired woman was definitely the person in charge. And by consequence the person I should be most wary of.
Even so, being much more conscious—now that the sigil kept me focused—I couldn't shake off that strange feeling that I had already lived through a very similar situation before.
"Roid. My name is Roid, I was—am a firefighter—I can control earth... but I can't move much when I do it. The more I carry, the worse it is for me," the man I was holding shared briefly.
All right, in moments like these, it's better to be honest. I hope the rest understand it. Fuck, come on girl please, accept it. God, we don't need more blood. We need something good.
The thoughts of 'Roid' entered my head, at least he seemed to be sincere. Although a good person didn't assure that the rest of his partners were.
"It's true," Livia whispered in my ear. I looked at her from the corner of my eye. She used Agatha's book to cover her mouth as she stood on her tiptoes.
After nodding, and a couple of seconds of silence, the other man, the gym rat, spoke.
"Simon, I am a blacksmith, I make gates, iron grilles, windows, chairs. That kind of thing. Now I can improve non organic things in a temporary way, but I can't imagine anything," he explained.
"It's true," Livia returned to confirm. "In fact, he can't lie, and he doesn't know how to differentiate between good and bad. I think... he is not right in the head in general," she added.
I squinted my eyes a little and focused on the dude.
'Can't lie and can't imagine? But he can omit information. If it wasn't for Livia I wouldn't know that. I guess this one can be dangerous.'
For a moment I thought of reading Livia's mind, to be able to see the status windows by myself. However, I wasn't sure if I could keep reading Roid's mind if I did it.
I didn't feel particularly attracted to the idea of experimenting with spells in an unsafe environment.
In theory he was a good guy, but who knows. People become animals when they feel cornered. Besides I trusted that Livia would tell me if there was something important I needed to know.
"Simon, cool. Now move away from the wall, without lowering your arms, and don't stop looking at me," I said.
"Sure," he answered with a lack of enthusiasm.
That works.
"You, the one with long hair. Stop shaking and look around at where you are," I hurried the guy that was holding his arms.
He shuddered at hearing my voice and looked at me for a second before looking at the dark blue haired woman in front of him. As if he was asking permission before speaking.
The woman looked at him with something similar to disgust before clicking her tongue and giving him a nod.
"M—Manhattan." the guy answered turning to see me again. Upon doing it I could see that his arms were different from the rest. I hadn't noticed it before because it was only his forearms and hands.
They seemed to be carbonized, or blackened. Maybe necrotic, I wasn't sure.
"I am a musician... now I can carry things... but the more I carry the more they speak to me," he said.
The man slowly moved his arms and joined his hands without touching them. For a moment I thought of exploding Roid's head, upon seeing how the black of his arms moved to condense in a black circle over his palms.
But I stopped when I saw that from the black circle fell a bag of potato chips, a couple of backpacks, a laptop, supermarket bags, clothes, and more everyday items that felt out of place.
"It's true. But it's a little more than that" Livia whispered. "I think he suffers from schizophrenia but he wasn't born with it. He also is an addict but not to a drug... but.. to her".
What are these girls whispering so much?
I didn't understand what Livia referred to with that, but either way, an addict was someone I didn't want to deal with at all.
"Enough, Manhattan. Put everything away already," the blue-haired woman hissed, lowering her hands and hitting the guy on the shoulder.
"Hey! I didn't tell you you could do that," I said as I saw how Manhattan started to store the stuff again.
"Screw you, bitch. We keep the things we had when they transported us here. If you want to see all the trash we have first you're going to tell us exactly the same," she replied.
"I can fight. That's what you need to know," I looked sideways to the guy that still kept convulsing on the floor. "I thought you didn't carry dead weight, what about him?" I asked
"It's the effect of his flaw. Give him ten seconds more and he will answer you," she said, not raising her hands but resting them on her hips.
"Livia?" I asked.
"He... em... he has epilepsy but it's from birth. His Gift is that he can create mental maps of the places he has seen and then show holograms. And his flaw is that he suffers attacks when he makes them and can't get out of that state until finishing them." Livia added.
I didn't understand why, but this time Livia didn't whisper to my ear but said it in a normal tone.
'What the fuck, Livia? Does she want them to find out about her Gift?'
EH? She guessed, all that? That... no. Can that little girl read minds? That's her gift?
'Shit, he's not all wrong.'
[The Goddess Who Enjoys Battle has stopped watching you]
[The God Who Would Do Anything for Money has passed the control of the transmission to The Goddess Who Doesn't Believe in Friendships]
[The God Who Would Do Anything for Money has stopped watching you]
[The Goddess Who Doesn't Believe in Friendships is confused why her partners are leaving]
[The Goddess Who Doesn't Believe in Friendships is receiving a lot of private messages from different deities present]
"Hey! How do you know that, pink-hair?!" the woman exclaimed in surprise, taking a couple of brave steps, pointing to Livia.
I readjusted my grip on Roid's nape and extended my left arm, letting go of Livia and pointing to the woman.
"Don't move," I said.
"Uh?! W-what else do you want?! Y-you already have what you want!" the woman exclaimed annoyed.
"Not yet. You're next," I added.
"Tch, Lysandra. I can make water, happy?" she said.
"W-what? What did you just say?" I asked surprised.
Oh, no. Not again.
"Ha! Yes, like you heard. What happens? Are you dehydrated? You and your little friend? I bet you haven't drank a drop of water in days. So if you understood, let go of Roid or I swear you're not going to drink a single drop, bitch," she said with a cocky tone as she stepped again.
"Livia?" I asked, waiting for Livia's answer.
However, this time it didn't arrive. In its place I saw how the golden dome had formed around us covering completely the metal bunker.
In that moment, a few meters from me, next to Lysandra a boy appeared. Or rather he materialized. It was as if he had been transparent before a layer of golden light covered him completely and shattered instantly. Taking away his transparency.
I didn't see him at all.
The kid was small, of Mediterranean features. He wore school uniform, with the shirt broken in the arms, dress pants and old shoes.
The boy stopped dead in his tracks upon noticing how I was seeing him, and started turning red, and sweating.
"Little Vic? What are you doing here boy?!" Roid spoke faster than his thoughts.
"I-I, I-I t-this..." The boy seemed to become even smaller upon noticing how he had been discovered and now everyone looked at him.
"Retarded kid! What part of warn the rest didn't you understand?!" Lysandra yelled while she grabbed the kid by his shoulders, shaking him.
Oh no. Oh no. He didn't warn the rest of the caravan. They have no idea about the sand monsters!
"Girl. Listen," Roid spoke in a firmer, deeper voice. "I understand you don't trust. I understand that you may be scared and trying to act tough. But we're not bad people. And right now we have to leave."
"L-leo... I think it's fine already. You can let him go... at least this sir is a good person." Livia said this time whispering to me.
"Not until I finish—"
"Listen! I'm going to move. If you're going to blow my head off, or not is your thing, but I don't plan to let seven adults and two children die being devoured by the things outside. Understood?" Roid spoke much louder and clear, his voice resonating through the improvised bunker.
Silence.
[The Goddess Who Lost her Home is looking at you]
'Am I overreacting? No. I am being cautious, I'm blind without my Instinct. Hmm… if Livia says so I am sure she already managed to see everyone's window. Let's see how good these people really are.'
"Fine," I said while letting go of the firefighter and giving him a small push on the back.
"No, no, no, no. NO! First you tell us exactly what we told you, then we leave!" Lysandra interrupted trying to impose herself, stepping again closer.
"Later! We need to save the rest!" Roid interrupted her.
"NO! This is your fault in the first place! Because you idiots saved this whore! We don't move a millimeter until I know exactly everything that human torch and her pet can do!" Lysandra stood in front of him, hitting his chest with her small hand.
"If you don't give me this, I swear by everything that exists that nobody is going to take a drop of water anymore," She gestured toward the rest of the group. "Forget even that you are going to reach tomorrow without me!"
Roid growled, to my surprise, he seemed more upset with Lysandra than with me. He turned around and looked at us tiredly.
"Please, the same we told you. Can you tell us that?" he asked.
The man that was convulsing on the floor started to choke in his own vomit. Simon finally lowered his arms and kneeled to turn him slowly to a side but didn't stop looking at me.
The other man Manhattan seemed to be lost in his own head. He didn't stop scratching and shifting his gaze between Lysandra and me. He didn't give off good vibes.
And the boy hid behind Roid as he looked at us; his face was red and it seemed like he was about to cry.
It also seemed that Livia had her gaze locked on the kid. I didn't know if she noticed it herself, but it almost looked as she was annoyed with him.
Hell, why does she keep glowing without saying anything? Is she really not going to tell us anything? Did I make a mistake?
I thought about it for a few moments before finally deciding to give these people a try.
I understood that Roid was worried by the flame that the sigil gave. I guess from his perspective now I looked like a threat.
'I guess I should start by reducing the intensity of the flame.'
I decided to stop burning the anger and the shame but kept burning the despair, the fear, and the grief.
The effect was immediate, the flame shrunk and part of me came back as my emotions returned.
I was upset, again. And I felt tired, but I guess I looked less scary too.
I sighed.
"I'm sorry. Thanks for helping us before. I am Leo."
"N-nice to meet you… I'm Olivia," Livia said.
"What? Just that? You put on all that show to give us that? We told you our Gifts—and Flaws! Now you tell us yours!" Lysandra exclaimed.
I looked at Livia a second, however, instead of me speaking she got ahead of me.
"I.. I graduated from school a few months ago and was preparing for college. I also have an advanced multimodal Gift. I can know if people lie, and... I can create a small specific effect inside a reduced space in a radius around me. Something like showing the invisible," she gestured toward the boy.
As Livia explained her Gift, Lysandra made a complicated face. As if she had swallowed garbage. Clearly she didn't like Livia's Gift.
"And the flaw?" Lysandra asked.
"I overthink a lot," she added.
'Okay, half truth I guess. No idea what an advanced multimodal Gift is, but it serves me, let's go with that.'
"And what about you, bitch?" she asked looking at me.
"I also have a multimodal Gift focused on combat. And back on Earth I used to be a witch," I said lying.
"Eh? Lysandra, isn't that the same as yours?" The blonde boy from the floor that had stopped vomiting asked while he sat back up, leaning on Simon's shoulder.
"Johnny, you're an idiot," Lysandra said.