Chapter 23: Dark Awakening
Franco was ready to die. The operatives who had broken through had now shot both his arms and legs, and he lay on the tiles weakly, coughing blood endlessly. The sky was coated with bits of blood and smoke from the carnage on the campus, as well as the wounds on his head leaking his body's vital liquid.
As he breathed weakly, watching the operatives curse as they counted their dead and treated their wounds, he tilted his head to glance at the young girl whose eyes had become lifeless, still displaying the extreme unwillingness to die until the very end.
"Tch, what a bunch of goddamn monkeys," one of the relatively uninjured operatives cursed as he rose to his feet and picked up a gun.
He walked over to Raul's corpse and shot it thoroughly, making sure he was more than dead. After that, he spat at Raul and walked over to Rina's body, aiming his gun at her head to blow her pretty face to smithereens to vent his anger.
As he raised the gun and pointed it at Rina's face, his finger slowly depressed the trigger, time seeming to slow down in an almost cinematic manner as the muzzle released its payload. The bullet moved through the air slowly, causing a small speed line to form around it as it hurtled towards Rina's forehead.
However, the bullet never reached its destination. A black light suddenly emerged from her body, sweeping over the entire area and rushing towards the sky. This black wave created a severe physical pressure like the winds from a hurricane, causing everyone on the roof to cover their faces as they were blown back and forced to grab hold of something.
Rina's body trembled slightly, the blood that had leaked from her slowly being dragged back into her body as her gaping wound healed itself, but her lifeless eyes did not return. Rather, in a manner akin to a marionette being pulled up clumsily, she rose to her feet and seemed to be in a confused state.
It was not too different from when Kaizer initially took control of bodies using telekinesis, but the difference was that Rina's body rapidly regained warmth as her heart started beating and her brain began to send signals to her body once more. Her slack and unwilling expression faded into one of cold calmness as her eyes became pitch black, both pupil and cornea.
Franco stared at the young lady he had been protecting all this while with shock, not comprehending what he was seeing. He was startled when he saw Rina casually glance at him and Raul, her eyes showing no emotion even as her mouth moved to speak.