THE LAST KEEPER

Chapter 206: 206. THINGS ESCALATE

White flares went off, lighting up the morning even further. The cadets were ushered behind the arena barricade quickly as the situation worsened. The situation had grown even more dire with how fast Sagiri was attacking the girl. It was as if he were toying with her. He had wanted to kill her for a long time, but she defended herself with the one swan blade she had. Her attacks were futile to the current killing intent from sagiri. Sagiri knew that he did not have long before the entirety of the warriors descended on him. It was amazing that the girl had not died already from the assault she had endured. She was strong, there was no doubt about that, but she was still no match for Sagiri with the archive burning through his veins.

After a few assaults and tossing her around like a rag doll, Sagiri finally pinned her down.

”Where are they?” sagiri asked. The girl just looked at him with a pained expression, but she did not say anything. ”Well, I knew you were never going to talk,” Sagiri smirked before he smacked his right hand to her head. It could take him at least a few seconds to go through her memories. There was resistance when he started to pry into her memories, but he pushed harder than he should, and they gave way. He did not have the patience to wait.

Finally, as if being swept into her memories, there was darkness before a scream tore through the girl’s throat. A scream of agony. She had not screamed that much even when sagiri had tossed her around like a ragdoll, yet now, at him accessing her memories, she was wailing. Just like when sagiri had not been able to access the archive’s memory, he felt that the situation was the same with her. Even he might not have been able to access her memories had he grown more powerful.

Sagiri soon found out why the girls were screaming. There was a hell he had never imagined in her memory, and it seemed that she was remembering the hell, too. If he thought what he had seen in the memory of the tamelku twins was horrible, what he was witnessing now was utterly despicable. What in the hell was wrong with the Northerners? Sagiri was only able to go through a few of her memories, but her screams grew even more agonizing, and he pulled his hand back. She was writhing in pain beneath him, and tears were rolling down her face. Even more distinct was the feeling of fear and confusion. The fear was not directed at him but at the chilling memories she must have been remembering, too. But the confusion was blatant.

Confusion?

It was as if the girl under him did not know who she was or why she was trying to kill him. After going through part of her memories, he could understand why. He had not gotten to the part where she was born and who sent her, but he had seen the place where she was trapped in liquid. Getting objected, dissected like a specimen, her samples altered, then injected back into her. It was as if they were trying to change her from a human to something else.

Then came the test where she was beaten up against others like her. The fearful ones whose humanity was still too much were put down. They were killed right in front of the others. Those remaining standing were injected with more fluids and forced to fight each other like beasts. They were being reduced to beasts. The alteration must have been the explanation for unusual strength, even with her small frame. They were then put back into the cylinder tubes, where the process repeated over and over. He had to stop there because he had not expected to see such gore, and her screams were just too agonizing to ignore.

She is just a puppet in her master’s hands. That was the only reason sagiri stopped. In the few seconds he had been searching her memory, more warriors and warrior structures had come flooding from all sides, and at the moment, archers were taking positions in the arena.

Whispers were flooding the arena.

”Those eyes. The child of the evil woman who took Taliga.”

”Cadet! I am going to advise you to step away from her now!!” a voice tore through the place. The girl was still wailing. Well, it was only normal to wail after remembering such. Even sagiri had wailed when he saw the archived memories of that night. Before sagiri could turn around, an arrow was launched at him, landing deep into his side. The northerners did not really know when to stop. It seemed they had been preparing for a long time to kill him for a long time, even going to the extent of trying to alter kids into emotionless beasts so that they would be able to be used as weapons.

Sagiti grabbed the arrow, pulled it out, and threw it to the side, where it fell with a dull clutter. He was not healing as quickly as he should or at all, and he could only guess it had something to do with the black rot residue still in his system. Even so, he could not forgive such. Not this time. He turned his face to look at the position of the area the arrow had come from, and the man was already pulling back another arrow on the string of his bow, taut, ready to release.

”Kill him,” sagiri said, realising Nokai with such force. The sound of blade meeting flesh tore through the arena before the man went tumbling from the high place to the ground, his eyes lifeless. Nokai was now back in sagiri’s hand, and it was pulsing with killing intent after a taste of blood.

”Anyone who releases an arrow is going to die,” sagiri announced, another warning. There was a pause of silence before five more daring warriors joined the roof and released their arrows. Sagiri smirked as he watched the arrows come at him in slow motion. The archive did not miss any angle of the attack. The arrows brought a memory to the archive of when arrows rained on its holder, and the killing intent surrounding sagiri became colder.

Nokai met the arrows mid-air but did not stop because sagiri gave another command.

”Kill them all!”