End Of Nightmares (Book 3)

Chapter Extra: Out With The Old, In With The New

Come the morning sun the next day, starts the ticking of the countdown. 72 hours; no more, no less. That is the only window they got left or else. And everyone is doing the best they can to prepare for the upcoming battle.

"Olivia? You free?" Alice knocks on Olivia's door.

"Hm? Not doing anything. What's up?" Olivia stores her neatly folded clothes into the drawer.

"Lily calls for you."

"What for?"

"She didn't say anything. Just asking for you to come, that's all." Alice shrugs as she leads Olivia on. Nonetheless, Olivia follows without any question.

"Your girlfriend sure doesn't say much, huh?" Olivia tries to start a small talk. Alice breaks into chuckles as she heard that.

"What can I say? With all the things that happened lately, it would be weird if she becomes a chatterbox." Alice shakes her head. From afar they can see a redhead sitting at a table underneath the walnut tree, sipping through her tumbler.

"Hey, Lil. You called?" Olivia greets her, Lily replies with a huge smile.

"Baby Wolf! Just the person I want to see! Sit down. Sit. I got something for you." Lily invites her, pulling something out of thin air which drops on the table with a loud thud.

"What is that?" Olivia tilts her head

"Tamahagane." Olivia carefully observes the lump of black rock under Lily's hand before answering.

"Oh! Tamahagane~~ Right~~" Alice and Lily break a small sigh and giggle at Olivia's charade that Alice decides to call her bluff.

"You don't know what the fuck this is, do you?"

"I know Tamahagane means round and precious steel. But you can't expect me to know what the fuck is that lump of shit is at first look." Olivia spews her venomous sarcasm back to the duo.

"Touche'. This is Tamahagane; a special steel ore used to make katana. I saw your body cam when you fought Claudius' clone the other day. And damn~~~ You're a monster! The best swordsman I've ever came across was Jennie, and in my opinion you really surpassed her!" Lily commends Olivia on her deeds, making Olivia blushes as she tries to appears modest to the compliment.

"Ah~~ You're flattering me. My skills barely scratches Teacher Yuenü's surface."

"Oh? Jennie's the one that taught you? But your style is definitely different than hers." Alice remarks.

"Teacher Yuenü only taught me the basics. The rest I learned on my own; mostly through animes." The answer made Lily and Alice whistle in awe. One would think being able to translate what one learns in anime into real life is unbelievably far-fetched. But here is one; sitting right in front of them.

"Unconventional, but you surely owned that style. Anyway, Tamahagane. You broke your katana from the previous encounter, so we're gonna make you a new one." Olivia is taken aback by the offer, wondering where the generosity comes from.

"But I got a spare." Olivia pulls a small keychain from her pocket, which she pushes and suddenly a katana pops into her hand.

"Temporal storage, huh? Irene's idea? Can I see it?" Alice asks for the sword.

"Yep. Here." Obedient, Olivia hands over her sword to Alice. Alice pulls out the sword from its scabbard, checking out the quality of the made.

"Hmm~~ Not too shabby." Alice hums. Suddenly she swings the sword with all her might at Lily's neck, but in a fraction of second Lily guards her neck with Myoho Muramasa. With a loud clank the swords collide, and a glint goes past Olivia's peripheral vision. As she follows the path of the glint, she sees the upper half of the blade is on the ground. What's left in Alice's hand is the lower half of her broken sword.