"The wait is finally over, we can finally get what we came here for. See, it wasn't so difficult after all, was it?" The masked man said as he couldn't hide his excitement anymore after seeing the sheil getting weaker by the second. It seemed like all he was focused on was the shield; he had forgotten everything else, even Maria, whom he was fighting with just seconds ago.
Maria, on the other hand, seeing that the masked man wasn't focused on her anymore, started helping the other sisters who were struggling. This opportunity that Maria got, she used it very well, as she was able to kill many underlings of the Masked Man.
'If only I can hold on for 30 minutes, we will win this. I just need to be alive till then.' Maria thought as she knew if she were dead, there would be no one who would be able to face the masked man. She was trying to recover as much as she could within the time that she had managed to acquire.
...
As everyone was busy with their own battles to fight, Rudra, on the other hand, was lost in his thoughts as he tried to figure out the newfound power he had somehow managed to get. Rudra, who had a lot of knowledge about spiritual power, tried to test that knowledge on himself, trying to figure out what was happening.
As he had learned, Rudra tried to feel the Spiritual power that was within his body. In return, all he got was disappointment as the amount of Spiritual power he had in his body was just too minuscule.
"I must have gained this much Spiritual power just a few minutes ago, when I awakened, maybe," Rudra said to himself as he was a little disappointed in the amount of Spiritual power he had. However, he knew that just before awakening, Rudra didn't have any spiritual power to speak of in his body.
'Let's try and see if I can absorb any Spiritual power from the surroundings.' Rudra thought as he suddenly tried to feel the Spiritual energy in nature, and he tried to manipulate the energy. After trying for a few seconds, Rudra was finally successful i gathering energy. However, the energy he gathered was just too little to even mention.
'It seems collecting the energy from the surroundings will take me a while, but this is definitely a big win. If I can join an academy, I will be able to learn their exclusive energy gathering technique, which will help me a lot,' thought Rudra as he remembered that places like academies, some great families, and organizations had techniques that would help one in increasing their energy. The powers usually do not share the technique with the outside world unless someone joins them. So, Rudra was thinking of joining an academy. In an academy, you didn't have to join any sort of factions to get access to those books, so it was his best option for growth.
"NO NO NO.... we will die at this rate. What do we do? What should we do?" cried Sister Zoe. Rudra, who was seriously concentrating till now, was suddenly woken because of her cries.
'Shit, at this rate, the shield will surely open and we will all die. Is there nothing we can do?' Rudra thought as he looked at the flickering shield. Rudra just stared at the shield with fear in his eyes.
SWISH
Rudra was scared shitless as a gust of wind suddenly hit his neck from behind; he almost jumped up because of fear. He wanted to run away from the tower as soon as it happened, but he knew going out there would be suicidal at this moment, with the shield breaking any minute. Out of fear, Rudra turned around slowly to see what was going on behind him.
To Rudra's surprise, there was nothing there; he let out a sigh of relief, thinking that it was just his imagination. Thinking that he must have gone crazy, he quickly forgot about the event as he focused on the main issue of survival.
'What are they going to do when the shield eventually breaks? Does Sister Maria have some kind of plan....wh..what the...' Rudra continued to survey the situation outside the bell tower, just then he suddenly felt the gust of wind once more. This time, Rudra turned around instantly to see, but still, he could not find any source. This time, though, Rudra started to survey the area.
"What is this thing?" Rudra whispered as he found a very unusual-looking glass clapper inside the bell. Usually, a metal ball is used instead of something like glass, so Rudra was instantly intrigued. However, the main reason for his curiosity wasn't that fact that it was made of glass; what intrigued him most was the fact that this ball was glowing very strongly.
"What type of energy is this?" Rudra questioned himself as he saw the energy that was enveloping the ball was of pitch black color. Rudra tried touching the ball, but he had to retract his hand instantly as he felt as if he was going to die if he touched the thing for more than a second. This time, Rudra trusted his gut feeling as he didn't want the earlier incident to occur again.
'Is this some other type of energy that I am still not aware of?' Rudra contemplated as he could feel a totally different aura emanating from the ball compared to regular spiritual energy.
"THE SHEILD BROKE. EVERYONE CHANGE TO A DEFENSIVE FORMATION, BRACE FOR IMPACT," shouted sister Zoe. It was as if a cold wind just blew past Rudra as he was stuck in one place, as he heard the warning. He ignored everything he was doing and went straight to the corner he was hiding in earlier. From that corner, he had a better view of the fight that was going on outside.
"Finally, the wait is over. This is a thank you gift for all of you for making me wait for this long. Blood Spikes!" shouted the masked man. Following the shout, there were many spikes made of blood that were hovering behind the masked man, ready to be launched at any second.
"NO, NO, DON'T," Maria shouted as she watched in horror as the masked man launched all of the spikes towards the orphanage. Maria, who was shocked seeing the turn of events, suddenly her hair became the color of a raging fire.
"So, you finally decided to use your true power, huh?" asked the masked man. Maria, on the other hand, vanished from the spot where she was standing; in an instant, she was in front of the orphanage. It seemed like her speed had doubled in an instant after she awakened her power.
'This is not good. At this rate, I might not be able to stop all of the spikes.' Maria thought as she bounced around the orphanage trying to stop all of the blood spikes, but despite her best efforts, she was still a little slow. She thought she might not be able to stop all of the spikes at the rate it was attacking her.
"Oh, you still think you can stop me? Let's see how long you can keep this up for," said the masked man as blood spikes appeared behind him. This time, there were double as the last time.
"Just a little more....AHHHH" This time, Maria had time to deploy the shield; however, the spikes were just too many. Maria could not stop them all; her face turned pale in horror as she saw one of the spikes headed towards the bell tower. When she tried to reach the spike, she was instantly impaled by 5 spikes at once, which stopped her from moving. Rudra, who was watching the scene unfold, didn't even have the time to react.
DING
The spike penetrated the brick wall of the tower and impaled Rudra to the bell inside of it. The spike had directly managed to impale Rudra's heart.