## Chapter 193 – Crumbs (11)
“…Suddenly you’ve gone quiet? Planning to run away again? Heh heh…♡”
Teresa, having regained the composure she lost in her rage, smiles as she straightens her clothes.
Her flowing blonde hair, yellow eyes, and the overflowing sensuality about her.
Just moments ago, she looked like an ordinary human woman in her thirties,
but after using that strange syringe-like device she took out of her pocket, her appearance and aura changed.
Is that Teresa’s true form…? But how?
Surely the Creators’ real bodies turned into fruit and disappeared long ago?
…Whatever the case, things have become troublesome. Her power is incomparable to before.
If what she regained along with her appearance is her prime strength, I need to be even more careful.
“It’s quite amusing, isn’t it? I haven’t fully regained my power, but thanks to it, I realized.
How fragile and easily broken a human body is.
To be defeated by a newbie who hasn’t even had their power for long and end up licking the floor…”
“……”
Instead of attacking right away, she puts her hand on her chest, sighs, and laments.
She’s clearly plotting something, and I can’t approach until I figure out what it is.
First, I need to create distance again, evade her attacks, and understand her power…
‘Below!’
“Ugh?!”
Instantly appearing and snatching both my wrists, shackles root into the floor.
I didn’t even feel her approaching. I didn’t hear the sound of the chains that should have been there.
More than anything, she caught me faster than the warning from my danger sense.
The shackles start pulling me down with great force, but even pulling back against them doesn’t budge them.
This feeling of no strength in my body, it seems to be the special current the lab created.
“…Oh my, now you can’t run away~♡”
A mocking voice reaches me just as I realize I can’t muster any strength.
The owner of that voice is humming gleefully, gathering power in both hands.
A tremendous amount of tangled wires and scrap metal floating in the air gather around her,
and in her hands, a chainsaw with sharp blades and a vicious-looking drill are created.
Teresa slowly approaches me, showing them off as if to flaunt them.
“This is all your fault. If you had listened to me from the start, there wouldn’t have been any need for bloodshed.”
The distance between Teresa and me is getting closer and closer. Damn it, think.
I need to break free before she gets too close, but I can’t muster any strength in my body.
The only reason I’m not losing consciousness like before is thanks to the faint golden power enveloping my body.
With the golden power not even working properly, it’s impossible to break the shackles buried in the ground with my own strength alone.
All I can use right now are my legs, which can still move, and the meager remaining golden power.
…….
“Oh my, what are you thinking about? Even if you beg for forgiveness, I have no intention of accepting it anymore.
I feel bad and sorry for doing this to you when we’ll be seeing each other for a long time…
But I’m going to torment you until you say you’ll become my mate… Heehee♡”
Eventually, Teresa stops in front of me and turns on the drill in her hand.
The chilling mechanical sound of it spinning gets closer and closer to my body.
Just before the drill pierces the fabric of my pants and tries to dig into my flesh above my thigh.
The concrete under my feet crumbles finely, and the ground sinks slightly.
“…Ugh?! What…!!”
Teresa loses her balance for a moment and drops the drill, about to fall to the ground.
Thanks to the floor collapsing, the shackles that were stuck there are easily released, and at the same time, I throw a punch.
Binding her floating body in mid-air with blue vines to prevent Teresa from escaping.
The fist heading towards Teresa’s solar plexus is blocked by something dull.
“…Haa, you surprised me! Aren’t you underestimating me too much? I’m starting to feel bad again…”
A loud boom echoes through the lobby as the iron wall blocking Teresa and my fist collide.
Teresa is hiding behind another large iron barrier, giggling as if teasing me.
“…You’re quite clever, aren’t you? But I know now too.
You don’t have the power to break through this. That last one was your full-power attack, right?
It was impressive for someone who was originally human. It was almost like looking at Iria.”
Iron walls instantly surround her, creating a bunker.
She must have decided that I can’t break through this with my strength and decided to stay inside.
“…I admire your abilities, but unless you can break through this wall, you’ve already lost.”
‘Behind!’
‘Jump!’
A warning cuts through her muffled voice from beyond the bunker.
A sharp gunshot from behind instantly grazes my head.
When I raise my head, I see dozens of pistols, bombs, and Gatling guns.
“…The Creator’s body won’t die from that much, so don’t worry.
But it will hurt like hell. Hehehe♡”
The moment I recognize those countless things, they all fire at once.
Before the rain of red flames pours down on me, I deploy a magnetic field made of green power.
Bullets and bomb fragments collide with the magnetic field, making a fierce roar.
“Hmm, so that’s Laplus’s power? But how long will that last?
Once that’s gone, you’ll be completely riddled with holes. How about it? Change your mind now…”
“You’ve been chattering on and on since earlier. Do you really think it’s safe in there?”
“…What?”
“The humans you look down on are smarter than you think, and they have good creativity too.”
I start concentrating the little remaining current in my body into my right hand.
Filling my mind with the image of heating my hand like heating iron.
And I compensate for the lack of power with golden power to increase the output.
The hand gradually turns red like heated iron, and golden lightning envelops the hand.
I raise my hand, gathering all my strength, and bring it down on Teresa’s barrier as if striking it.
At first, it only makes a loud noise, and the iron wall doesn’t even get a scratch, let alone break,
but the iron gradually starts to heat up due to the tremendous heat gathered in my hand.
“…Huh? W-wait a minute…! What is this…!”
The iron wall, completely red with the same color as my hand, starts to melt little by little.
Like pouring hot water on snow, the gap in the iron wall melts away in an instant,
and Teresa’s face, dyed blue, starts to appear through it.
“…Ha, haha! So what if you do?! If you’re this close, I’ll take you down in an instant…!”
I approach Teresa, who is sitting in a narrow space, passing through the completely melted wall.
She seems momentarily flustered, perhaps not expecting me to really break through the wall,
but she soon smiles arrogantly and gathers strength in her hand.
“…Huh…? Why isn’t anything…”
She tries to create a weapon, but something goes wrong, and her face turns blue again.
Teresa’s power is certainly great. The power to create anything she imagines in her head.
But there is clearly a fatal flaw as well. That is, she can’t create something from nothing.
All the parts she had prepared are floating outside the magnetic field I created.
She used the few remaining parts to create the iron wall, and I melted that iron wall away.
Without parts to use as a medium, that great power is useless.
In other words, Teresa is no different from a human woman with no power.
“…..”
“W-wait a minute…! I, I went a little too far, didn’t I…? Haha… R-right!
There was something you wanted to know, wasn’t there?! Huh? Ask me anything. I’ll answer anything… so…”
“Why should I believe anything you say? It doesn’t really matter if you don’t tell me.
You’ll soon spill everything yourself anyway. Until then, get some sleep.”
“H-heeck?! N-no…. Kyaaaaaaack?!”
I put the remaining current in my body into my hand and bring it to her neck to shock her.
Teresa, trembling and screaming in pain, slumps down.
After confirming that she has completely lost consciousness, I pick her up and carry her on my back.
A Creator with power close to perfection. What an unexpected windfall.
“…Okay, that’s all settled here… Now all that’s left is…”
Now all that’s left here is Jung Ah-un. He must have been the one who made that strange device for Teresa.
Stretching my aching back, I cautiously step out of the bunker and see the traces of the battle.
The floor is broken here and there, some of the lights are shattered, and various firearms are scattered around.
I pass through the lobby, still filled with the smell of gunpowder and the metallic smell of iron, and enter the interior of the laboratory.
……….
……….
……….
“…Ri, Ri, Je-nim.”
“So you were NO. 2 after all. I had a feeling.”
“…What, Yuri, what are you doing here? Weren’t you supposed to go down with Nabi first?”
“Ah, Manager-nim! It’s nothing, I just met a familiar face after a long time…”
As I walk down the long corridor with Teresa on my back, I see broken robots here and there,
and in the deepest part, Yuri is squatting and looking at someone.
When I call out to Yuri, who looks serious, she smiles brightly as if nothing happened.
…I must be mistaken. What’s moving her now is an artificial personality based on her memories.
It’s impossible for her to really be sad or shed tears. But…
“….”
I secretly turn my gaze to what Yuri was looking at. The body of a broken robot,
and a human face unnaturally existing on top of it. A body that is half human, half robot.
I don’t know who it is, but it seemed like someone Yuri knew.
Judging from the unnatural appearance, she seems to have been human originally…
It seems Teresa did something strange to her while she was alive.
Leaving Yuri, I slowly reach out to the woman and send a current through her.
“Ri, Je-“
Then, the robot in the form of a woman lets out a short, constant voice that can’t be called a death cry and collapses.
“…Okay, let’s go.”
“Okay!”
After looking at the robot for a moment, I get up, caress Yuri’s slightly scratched cheek,
and board the open elevator to end the long, long ill-fated relationship.
