Chapter 195: Interlude I – Catalina

  The resonating sounds of footsteps eg from the staircase steadily grew closer. It was just a matter of time before her pursuers emerged from the door to the roof where she awaited them. Catalina had no escape routes left, but she wasn’t going to surrender, no matter what. She would keep fighting until the very end, no matter the cost. She knew she couldn’t win this fight, but she aimed to take as many of those bastards with her as possible.

  Los Demonios had been chasing her group for days. Ever since she had turned down their offer to join, they had been oail, pursuing her and her friends throughout the city. Her group bravely fought back, but they were greatly outnumbered, aeammates were killed one by oil she was the st oanding.

  It all started a few days ago when her group was ambushed by Los Demonios, led by a man known as Skullface. A single look at his tattoo-covered face made it clear why he bore that name—a skull tattoo covered his entire visage, creating an intimidating effect.

  Skullface told her they had been watg her group for a few days and were quite impressed by Catalina’s bat skills. They wanted her to join them. However, joining wasn’t simple. To bee a full-fledged member, she had to demonstrate her loyalty to the gang. To do that, she had to kill one of her teammates, and quite brutally at that.

  Catalina didn’t think for a sed about the offer. Why would she betray her friends in favor of Los Demonios? That wasn’t who she was. Her teammates were family, some of them by her side sihe Colpse. She knew Los Demonios was a very powerful gang, and it wasn’t wise to go against them. However, she refused to take the life of someone she had fought alongside. So she told Skullface to go fuck himself.

  Sihat fateful day, her team had beelessly hunted down until every st one of her friends was dead. She was all alone now. For aire day, Los Demonios had pursued her. Despite successfully taking out a few of them, she was acutely aware her luck couldn’t hold forever. Soon enough, it didn’t—Los Demonios had ered her, trapping her on the rooftop of a ten-story building with no escape route in sight.

  All she could do was stay and wait for the remaining members of the group that was after her to emerge from the staircase onto the roof. She had no ammo left, so she couldn’t fight baymore. However, she wasn’t going to surrender. Even if she was down to her fists ah, she would fight on. But she thought it might not e to that because she had an ace up her sleeve—something she kept hidden, pnning to use only when push came to shove. It looked like this moment had arrived. She just o wait for the gao emerge onto the roof, and if everythi as pnned, she might just get out of this fix after all.

  The sound of rushing footsteps steadily grew louder until, at st, the bandits chasing her burst through the door. They froze at the sight of her standing alo the ter of the roof. Guns were raised, but they hesitated to fire, perhaps mistakiillness for submission. Or maybe they noticed what she was holding in one of her raised hands.

  Skullfaed in front of his men, log eyes with her. He opened his mouth as if to speak but halted when he caught sight of the ented grenade she was gripping in one raised hand. Nobody spoke for a moment, and the whistle of the wind was the only audible sound.

  Catalina stood firm, fifteen yards separating her from Skullfad his men. The acrid st of sweat and tension thied the air. She ched her fist around the grenade, mysterious symbols c its surface glowing e and green. The entments c through it heightes potency, amplifying the explosion to levels far beyond those of a ventional grenade. Infused with magical energy, the grenade had the potential to create a massive explosion, unleashing shockwaves and elemental bsts capable of pletely obliterating a small structure.

  “Stay back,” Catalina warned, her voice steady despite the tension.

  Skullface stared at her in silence for a moment, as if weighing her words. Then a sly grin spread across his tattooed face, revealing a glint of amusement.

  “Or what?” he challenged.

  “The grenade in my hand is packed with so much magical energy it obliterate this entire roof. So y’all better stay the hell away from me.”

  The bandits shifted nervously at her threat. Unlike his men, Skullface appeared unfazed by her words. His grin widened. “Once more, I ask: or what? If you blow that thing up, yoing to die too.”

  “You think I don’t know that? I’m gonna die anyway because you assholes ain’t gonna leave me be. So if I’m to die, I’m gonna do it on my own terms, taking the lives of all of you as well.”

  Her men shifted unfortably, disturbed by her words. She sounded ving because she was dead serious. They knew she wasn’t lying. However, unlike her, they weren’t ready to die.

  Still, Skullface remained unimpressed.

  “Then what are you waiting for? Why won’t you use the grenade? Go ahead and throw it at us!”

  “Boss, she means it,” one of his men urged, attempting to reason with Skullface.

  “Shut up,” he snapped back at the speaker, not taking his eyes off Catalina. “Nobody moves. Hold yround. She ain’t gonna do it.” His smile returaunting her. “It’s all just a facade. Deep down, she’s scared shitless.”

  Catalina didn’t want to die. However, she had been prepared to face the bitter end if necessary. Now that Skullface was calling her bluff, she knew she o act. She had no other choice. The only sotion was that Skullfad his men would share her fate, and the deaths of her teammates would be avenged.

  With a swift motion, she hurled the gre sailed through the air like a et, leaving a glowing trail in its wake as it spiraled toward its target. Skullface’s men froze in terror, their eyes wide. But Skullface himself was different: his grin widened even more, as if Catalina had doly what he had wanted her to.

  “Not today, Catalina,” Skullface procimed, his grin t his tattooed fato an even more terrifying mask.

  The grenade suddenly hung suspended in the air, as if caught in an invisible web, half the distaraveled and halfway to annihition.

  Catalina’s heart raced as the reality of the mome in, the silenestled heavily between them—a sileeeped in the knowledge that everything could ge in an instant.

  Their gazes locked as an intense silence hung in the air. Then, in the flicker of a heartbeat, Skullface cast another spell, crafting a micro bck hole just inches from the grenade. Catalina’s pulse quied, memories of the spell flooding her mind—the harsh reality of what it could unleash. She had already witnessed such a spell in a, so she khe dire sequehe bck hole would e everything within its grasp for a few seds, dist reality with its sharp ic edges.

  As she prepared for terrible things to happen, time itself seemed to slow down. Catalina’s senses sharpened, allowio dissect the impending chaos. She saw the grenade’s magical symbols glowing brighter, the tempest tained withial sphere about to be set free. And then, right before detonation, the bck hole shed out, its inky darkness expanding toward the greh an insatiable hunger.

  For a brief moment, she thought of the devastation it could wreak—the shattering of bohe destru of her ehe turmoil left in its wake. But Skullface had timed it perfectly, pg the bck hole in a way that would siphon off the overwhelming force of the explosion.

  As the greonated, aion of brilliant light erupted in a spectacur dispy, a cross between fireworks and ahereal storm. Energy erupted outward, but rather than causiru, it spiraled toward the bck hole, disappearing into its depths—lost in a ravenous void that was drawn to the bst. It voraciously ed immense amounts of energy, dev the very essence of the powerful explosion.

  The ambient pressure shifted, a violent rush of energy folding into the micro singurity, yet Skullfad his men stood unscathed, ensnared in an echo of the explosion that never fully formed. The bck hole struggled against the onsught, its core colpsing under an overwhelming influx of energy. It seemed as though reality itself was bending as the spiraling energy was swallowed whole, with nothio escape.

  Catalina’s heart raced with a mixture of fear and awe. She realized that the bck hole was overwhelmed, saturated to a breaking point with raw explosive energy. This could create a ic paradox, something that could threaten them all and bring the entire high-rise building crashing down. But oddly enough, it seemed the bck hole was trapped in a gluttonous cycle, uo expand or draw in anything beyond that kiic force.

  Then, in a spectacur fihe bck hole could take no more. With a sudden implosion, it folded in on itself, the energy it had feasted upon dissipating like a dle snuffed in the wind. The void colpsed, and a shockwave vibrated through the air, a ripple devoid of destructiveness yet reverberating in iy. Sileurned as if the world was holding its breath, leaving behind a haunting stillness.

  Skullface tio gaze at Catalina, his grin unwavering, while his men recoiled in fear as shards of magic crackled in the air—echoes of the fierce battle between powerful magical forces that had just unfolded. The dangerous dance had cluded, and for a fleeting moment, Catalihe tension dissipate.

  “ry, but it seems we’re still standing,” Skullface said, a smirk spreading across his face. “Or you got any more nades?”

  Catalina’s resolve hardened. Her pn had failed, but she wouldn’t back down. Not now. Not ever.

  “Figured as much,” Skullface ughed, but his amusement vanished in an instant. “Now go get her,” he anded his men, who promptly advaoward her.

  A few raised their ons, but he quickly shouted, “No! Don’t shoot her! I need her alive, you damn idiots!”

  It made sehey had been chasing her all day long, and she had mao kill some of his men. So of course, Skullface wanted her to pay dearly for that. He had no iion of giving her a quick death. But she wasn’t about to let the bastards catch her. Uhing the knife from her belt, she charged at the bandits.

  She was incredibly fast and agile. Sshing one bandit across the arm, she quickly jumped aside to avoid being grabbed by another. She kept attag, sshing and stabbing at her assaints, injuring oer another while deftly evading their attempts to capture her.

  However, she was greatly outnumbered, and her luck couldn’t st forever. Eventually, one of them mao nd a heavy hit on her. She noticed it in time and dodged, so instead of striking her head, he hit her shoulder. The impact was still brutal, causing her legs to buckle and throwing her off bance.

  Before she could regain her footing, she felt someone wrench the knife from her grip. With a sudden force, two bandits seized her from either side, draggio the ground. Snarling like a ered beast, she thrashed and kicked her attackers. She fought so fiercely that even several bandits struggled to keep her pinned down.

  Suddenly, a shadow fell over her, and for a brief moment, she paused her struggle to look up. She saw Skullface t above her, his menag tattooed face grinning down at her.

  “Gotcha,” he said, lifting one boot to hover ominously over her face. In the moment, the heavy boot crashed down, eg with her head. Bright sparks erupted before her eyes, and the world around her went dark.