The Twenty Virtues Book 1- The Twenty Generals

49-Go Lalá! The Last Plea of the Virtues.

So quiet.

It was how the hall where the virtues were gathered was. Each one on a table, and on the only empty table, there was a small child sitting. So it seems fair to say that all the virtues were almost there.

This small child, so solitary and calm, hid her sadness and disappointment behind a neutral expression. It was painful to see all her siblings there in their original state while she remained corrupted and divided. To calm her own heart, she emitted a white light, similar to an aura, from her hands, and formed it into a sphere on the empty table.

That was all she had left to do. Nothing. She could distract herself for eternity, her sister would continue causing trouble, and she would remain refusing to get involved. She had seen when they were corrupted, she had tried to escape and saw everything working against her to prevent her from escaping.

I would like to say that the cave was silent, but that damn dripping kept falling there. All the girl wanted was peace, but that incessant noise, hammering in her head, as if pressuring her to do something... she wouldn't look at the puddle under the drip; she was fed up with longing. Fed up with remembering a distant past she could never reclaim.

The girl just stayed there, standing, thoughtful and appreciating the virtues. She did not expect anyone else to come; everything was over anyway. This was the end of the story.

Except that it wasn't.

For from the hole Angela had made at the beginning of the story, a shadow descended with force. Aiming right at the child's head.

The impact of the attack was so strong that the piece of the floor where the shadow fell had cracked, throwing debris in all directions. However, none of the debris hit the virtues; it was as if, halfway through, they simply changed trajectory, avoiding them.

Criara maintained her psychotic expression as her hand pierced the ground, revealing she had not hit anyone. The assassin looked to the side, a bit surprised but not at all shocked, while the child now stood next to her, staring with indifference.

"Who are you? One of the humans?" The beast moved her arm, still in the ground, and used it to throw all the rocks from the floor against the girl as soon as she pulled it out.

But just like with the virtues, none of the stones hit Lalá; they just diverted from her along the way.

"No..." the girl deduced, semi-closing her eyes as if analyzing the one in front of her. "The body is human, but the power is very great. It resembles Michelle's."

"Who?" Criara disappeared the moment she asked, determined to rip the girl's head off with the next swipe. But did the child dodge? No, the girl didn't move a single muscle. Criara herself simply missed.

"I already told you that you won't be able to hurt me, no matter how much you try. I don't know why or how you came to me, but you're wasting your time. You're not strong enough to defeat me."

"Haha, that's up to me to decide!" Criara invoked her destructive energy through her cloak, regenerating the parts that had been erased by Fernanda earlier and launched it at the girl like a cannon.

But the blow simply reversed course when it was about to touch Lalá, and flew back toward Criara, who did not suffer any damage from the attack.

"You're good kid, but will you keep using those tricks of yours? At some point, you will tire out." Criara transformed into lava and charged like a jet against the girl. The jet came with full force but simply passed by the girl, creating an exact opening to avoid hitting her.

"You'll tire out before I do, adult."

The assassin continued to attack again and again. Lava, energy, even physical blows, but none hit. The girl did not move, nor did she express anything, and still nothing hit her.