Lord of The Red Planet

"Come on out! How long are you going to follow me?"

Betta paused for a moment on the empty sidewalk, then shouted loudly.

"What's this? I thought I'd find something interesting, but it's just trash. No… even lower than that," Betta sneered as she saw a group of men dressed in all black and wearing masks emerge from the shadows, each holding an iron pipe.

"What's this bitch saying? Doesn't she realize the situation she's in?" a man in a black mask asked his friend.

"Who knows. She probably thinks she can beat us with that scythe." The man then pulled out a pistol and aimed it at Betta. His other companions also drew their weapons.

"You're… the one named Betta, right? The subordinate of that guy named Arthur?"

Hearing the question, the playful expression on Betta's face instantly vanished, replaced by a deadly cold one. "Where did you learn that name?!" she demanded harshly.

"You're not in a position to be asking questions!" the man who appeared to be their leader retorted.

"In that case…."

WHOOSH!

Betta teleported directly in front of the man. Her hand gripped his head and slammed it hard into the asphalt.

CRACK!

The man's head was instantly crushed. The asphalt beneath it cracked, unable to withstand such immense force.

"…I'll ask by force," she said with an ice-cold stare. For lowly creatures like these, there's no need to use mind-control magic. Brute force will do just fine.

"How… how did this bitch suddenly appear in front of us?!" one of them asked, his voice trembling with panic.

"Don't think about it! Just shoot this bitch!" another one yelled.

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

A volley of gunshots shattered the night's silence. The muzzles of the pistols spat fire, sending hot bullets streaking straight toward Betta.

However, something strange happened.

TING! TING! TING!

The bullets stopped abruptly in mid-air, a few centimeters from Betta's body, as if they had hit an invisible glass wall. The bullets, having lost all momentum, fell to the asphalt with a faint clatter, leaving transparent ripples in the air around Betta.

"W-what?!"

"Impossible!"

Panic began to creep across the men's faces. One of them, apparently more desperate, threw down his pistol and pulled out an AK-47 assault rifle from under his jacket.

RATATATATATATA!

Bullet casings flew to the side as the rifle brutally spat hot lead. But the result was the same. TING! TING! TING! TING! TING! All the bullets were stopped, falling helplessly to the ground.

Betta looked at the pistols in their hands, then tilted her head slightly. "Guns, huh?" she murmured. "It seems the firearms in this world are more advanced than in the World of Monia. But… if this is all you have, you'll never be able to break through my defense."

She smiled faintly. "However… if you were using Lady Velusia's rifle, the story might be different."

This defense of mine can block non-magical physical attacks below Level 60. And this barrage of bullets… is equivalent to a Level 2 or 5 attack at best.

Betta almost laughed. I doubt these weapons could even pierce the skin of a low-level monster in Avanheim.

"What's with this monster?! Why isn't she dead?!" one of the attackers shouted, his voice trembling.

"Damn it! Die! Die!" The man with the AK-47 continued to fire blindly until…

CLICK. CLICK. CLICK.

He was out of ammo.

Betta spread her arms casually. "Are we… done playing? If so, now it's my turn."

In an instant, she shot forward.

Her movement was so fast, it was as if she were just a blur. She slipped into the crowd, and the show began.

CRACK! Betta struck a man's neck with the side of her hand. The man collapsed without a sound, his neck broken.

THWACK! Betta's elbow slammed into another man's jaw, sending him flying backward with his teeth knocked out.

She spun, her leg sweeping low, breaking both ankles of a man who tried to attack her with an iron pipe. The man screamed in pain as he hit the ground. Betta moved among them like a dancer of death, each of her movements precise and lethal. She dodged punches, parried attacks, and countered with crippling strikes.

She snatched a pistol from a man's hand, then without hesitation…

BANG! BANG! BANG!

…She shot the legs of everyone who was still trying to stand. Screams of agony now echoed down the deserted street.

Suddenly, Betta sensed a presence behind her. Someone was trying to attack her stealthily. Without turning, she immediately spun around and fired.

BANG!

The bullet hit the attacker squarely in the head. The man collapsed, his eyes wide with shock. Betta looked at his corpse with a disgusted expression. "I hate being attacked from behind." She spat on the man's face, whose body was still convulsing.

"Alright," she said, her voice calm again. "So… explain. Where did you learn that name?"

Betta walked toward the man closest to her, then stomped hard on his chest.

The man coughed up blood, but his gaze was still defiant. "Spit! Even in death… I will not betray the organization," he hissed cynically.

"In that case… die."

CRACK!

With a flat expression, Betta instantly crushed the man's ribcage. She then walked toward the next person.

"You. Tell me."

The man, who was around his 40s, trembled violently. He saw a girl who looked to be the same age as his daughter, yet was capable of such incredible cruelty.

"Please… spare me! I'll explain everything!" he begged.

"Spit it out." Betta's foot was now on the prostrating man's head. Her expression remained flat and cold.

"I-I'll tell you," the man said with a trembling voice. "Rintarou… he's our superior. He told us yesterday that the boss had gone crazy for following a foreigner's orders to surrender and sell the Red Lotus Organization's assets. He ordered us to kill the foreigner's subordinate. We learned that the foreigner's name was Arthur Leonhart from him, and he also said that Arthur's subordinate, named Betta, who wears a maid's outfit, was at the home of Ayato, the person who would be taking the boss's place."

"So… we rushed here and got our weapons…."

"To kill me?" Betta asked.

"Y-yes," the man answered.

Betta thought for a moment. Rintarou… who's that? How could he know my movements? I'll have to ask Sister Octavia later.

After getting the information she needed, Betta looked coldly at the man beneath her foot, then swept her gaze across the alley. On the wet asphalt lay men groaning in agony. Some clutched their shot legs, others their broken arms or necks. Blood pooled everywhere, creating small, dark red puddles under the streetlight.

"Alright. You're of no more use. So, just die here."

CRACK!

After saying that, Betta stomped on the head of the man who had just given her the information, crushing it like a watermelon.

Seeing this, expressions of despair and pure terror spread across the faces of the remaining members of the Red Lotus organization. "Please! Help me! Someone… help me!" they screamed, their voices breaking with fear.

Betta narrowed her eyes. She could feel vibrations from a distance, several cars speeding toward her location. Must be the police. The locals must have heard the gunshots.

I need to kill them all quickly. Otherwise, Lord Arthur's existence will be discovered.

Fortunately, from the beginning, she had already coated all the cameras in the area with a Sixth-Sequence Magic: Transparent Illusion spell, which made the cameras record only an empty street.

Betta looked coldly at the people in front of her. "Killing you one by one is a hassle and will leave a lot of evidence. So… I'll just use that skill."

She extended her hand forward. "Entity Absorption."

The wind in the alley seemed to stop blowing. The men began to feel their bodies tremble violently. Starting with the dead bodies and the pools of blood on the asphalt, everything began to be pulled toward Betta's outstretched hand. Flesh, bone, and blood merged, forming a pulsating, blackish-red sphere.

Seeing the horrifying sight, an expression of overwhelming fear appeared on their faces.

"No! No!" they screamed in panic. They tried to drag themselves away, even though their legs had been shot to pieces.

But their struggle was futile. Their bodies began to be pulled toward the sphere of flesh. When they were just a meter away, their bodies began to be crushed, twisted, and torn apart as if being put into a giant blender, then sucked in and merged with the ever-growing ball of blood and flesh.

"Alright. It's done." Betta looked at the giant ball of blood and flesh now floating above her, then smiled with satisfaction. "Lord Arthur will surely like this gift. He can get a Blood Angel monster from this material."

She could hear the sound of police sirens getting closer.

"It seems… it's time."

Seeing the police cars about to arrive, Betta immediately teleported and vanished from the spot.

WHOOSH!

Not long after she left, several police cars arrived. The officers quickly got out, cautiously aiming their weapons around the now silent and clean alley, as if nothing had ever happened.