historical

Nathasia's hands were handcuffed, and she slowly pressed her hands together to change the shape of the handcuffs as they slowly became wide enough for her to wriggle out of it.

But she didn't stop there and instead continued to change its shape as she gritted her teeth.

The steel handcuffs looked nothing like before but became a steel spike with a tip sharp enough to easily skewer through human flesh.

Nathasia didn't care much about her own life, but all she wanted now was to punish the person who killed her parents.

She felt that stabbing Bella with her custom-made spike would teach her a lesson but had to wait for the opportune time to take her by surprise.

Her thoughts and mindset had undergone a drastic change after what happened, especially after feeling that everything happened because of her.

She decided not to be weak anymore, and even if she didn't possess the right strength, she should do everything on her own.

The truck soon was approaching a fortress-like building with large steel gates, and Bella was about to ask Ripley something when suddenly she sensed a metal spike attempting to cut through her body.

She quickly moved her body back and caught the hand that was trying to stab her.

"You!" Bella was furious, seeing that Nathasia was about to puncture her kidney with a sharp metal spike which she had no idea where she got it from.

But upon a second look, she noticed how it looked quite similar to the handcuffs and realized that Nathasia somehow used her powers to turn it into a steel spike.

"Ahhh!" She twisted Nathasia's hand and punched her in the face, making blood ooze out from her lips.

The steel spike fell off from Nathasia's hand while her cheek was swollen.

"Hehe.." Despite the pain she was feeling, Nathasia sardonically giggled, feeling disappointed that she was too slow.

"I thought you said she was an Ascended without fully awakened abilities. What is the meaning of this then?" Bella asked Ripley with a frown. She really thought that Nathasia was powerless in her presence.

Ripley pressed his temples as he said, "Just use the limiters on her. Don't make a big deal out of it."

Bella snorted as she took out another handcuff which looked quite different compared to the normal ones. This handcuff was grey in color and had a red light in the middle.

She made Nathasia put on these handcuffs and was sure that she wouldn't be able to use her powers anymore while she had these put on.

The truck soon stopped before the large building, and Nathasia was dragged by her hair by Bella on purpose as revenge for trying to attack her before.

Ripley only shook his head but didn't say anything since he didn't want to go against an Ascended for some random reason.

"Hmph, you dare to attack me? Let me show you what I can do. I will make you regret raising a hand against me," Bella said with an evil smile, but Nathasia remained unfazed, thinking there was nothing worse that could happen to her now.

All she wanted was to close her eyes and disappear in the darkness.

Ripley finally asked, seeing that Bella was dragging Nathasia to some other place, "Bella, where are you taking her? We have to prep her for mission readiness."

Bella smirked, "No need for all those artificial means. You just watch how I make her obedient like a dog within just a few days. She wouldn't dare defy any of my orders after I trained her."

Ripley sighed in pity, knowing how sadistic Bella was. But now, he didn't have time to bother with all that since he had to prepare for a possible attack from the Crimson Devil.

However, unbeknownst to him, dark clouds were already heading towards his place.

Nathasia was dragged to a dark and desolate room with many chains sticking out from the walls.

Nathasia felt like this looked like a torture chamber for prisoners, but strangely she wasn't feeling any fear. In fact, she was feeling nothing.

Bella fastened her to these chains and slapped her hard on the face as she said, "Now you will eat pig's food here for just once in a day while you shall be seeing my face quite a couple of times, hehe."

The large metal door closed as Bella left the room, which seemed to be quite secure as if it was made for holding Ascended prisoners.

Nathasia barely heard what Bella said since her mind was sinking in the darkness, wondering when this nightmare was going to end.

"Papa...Ma.." She began to sob again, realizing how much she missed their warmth, and began to reminisce happy memories.

Then she thought about Damien and wondered how much pain he must be in now and felt even more guilty thinking about it.

The day passed, and Nathasia didn't even get a morsel of food to eat, and the next morning Bella fed her something even animals would turn their heads away in disgust.

But Bella forced her to eat and also vented her frustrations by using Nathasia as a punching bag before leaving.

Meanwhile, the entire building was in lockdown as all the Ascended men and women were training hard for any possible attack or if they were called to fight the Crimson Devil.

But things were looking bleak when Ripley got information that many 'safe houses' were destroyed and no one had a chance as everyone was massacred by the Crimson Devil.

Ripley couldn't help but have his hands tremble just as he heard the news. In fact, not only him but everyone else had despair written on their faces, desperately hoping that the Crimson Devil doesn't find the location of their building.

All they knew was that the Crimson Devil was out on a hunt, with the objective to destroy and kill every military operations base, and obviously, they would be on the kill list as well.

"Sergeant Miles, are the heavy-duty weapons all checked and ready? We need to place them on the roof and don't hold back on the resources. Put every powerful weapon we got on the roof and tell team Hound to stay put. They are the best chance we got against the Crimson Devil. I don't know how much damage our traditional weapons could do to him. We have to fight fire with fire here," Ripley commanded the young man standing before him.

Miles saluted as he said, "Yes, sir! We—"

"Colonel, please come here quickly! I think we are in trouble!"

A soldier standing on the roof with binoculars shouted with an anxious expression.

Ripley frowned as he quickly walked over and took the large binoculars from the soldier's hand to take a look outside.

The sky was cloudy and dark even though it was only noon, but Ripley wasn't bothered about all that when he saw a silhouette of a man a few kilometers away walking towards their building.

When he zoomed his binoculars even more, his eyes almost popped out upon seeing a sword in the man's hand and, most of all, a face no one could ever forget.