Nova Force Book 1

On her way, she suddenly spotted a familiar figure: Miss Irene, standing close to someone she'd seen earlier—an elderly man in a black hat. Carissa ducked behind a store corner, watching as they exchanged a few hushed words. The man's face was hidden beneath the shadow of his hat, and though their conversation was brief, it felt charged with something unsaid. If she hadn't been looking for it, she would have missed the subtle nods and quick glances.
Her heart raced as she tracked Miss Irene's path. Soon, she saw her meet with Zero, another person she had crossed paths with here. Puzzled, Carissa's mind whirled with questions. Why were they all here, on the same day? Her father's voice echoed in her mind, reminding her that nothing in life was coincidental; everything, he had always said, happened for a reason.
She gripped the paper tightly, feeling the weight of the mystery pressing down on her. As the sun began to dip, casting long shadows across the town, she resolved to find out the truth—even if it led her into the unknown.
 
But Carissa thought to herself that she had enough for today. She decided to finish her research tomorrow, then she hurried on home. While on her way home, she could feel the hair on her back stand up and the atmosphere felt different. It was like she was being watched.
 
When she arrived home, she was so scared. She shut the windows and doors and went to her room. There she took out her pen and notebook and wrote down everything that had transpired today. Especially the part about the mysterious man. She didn't know what to do, she didn't trust anyone now. Not even Miss Irene or Zero. Paranoid and scared, she began to weep.
 
After that episode, she decided to write everything and give it to someone she thought she could trust. After scanning through her brain, she decided to give the information to Miss Anita. She had always been good to her every time she went to the guild, and she always gave her sound advice about life and family. After all, Miss Anita was her sister.
 
After writing it all down, including her dreams and the address of the little child. She went straight for the guild. There she met with Anita and handed her the book.
Glancing back and forth, she began to speak.
 
"M-miss Anita. Please take this, don't read it now. Please hide it. It contains information that will help. Please, you're the only one I trust. I'm sorry."
 
"Hey, you can call me big sister, you know that, right? Also, What's wrong Carissa? You aren't making much sense. What information???" Asked Anita.
 
"Please, I have to go." Said Carissa.
 
She quickly walked out. Even within the city where not just anyone can enter, Carissa didn't feel safe at all. She also didn't want to put her sister in any danger, she wanted to take this all on by herself.
 
Miss Anita ran outside after Carissa, her sister, but when she got outside Carissa was already long gone.
While running away crying, Carissa bumped into someone that made everything even more suspicious. It was the same man from earlier on today that Miss Irene was speaking to.
 
"You again, why do I keep running into you?" He asked casually with a smile.
"Stop following me!" Shouted Carissa as she ran away.
Immediately, four shadowy figures emerged, chasing her. She ran as fast as she could without looking back. Sweat trickled down her forehead and her chest tightened.
 
After a few minutes of running, she hid behind a store, hoping that her pursuers were gone. She had thought to herself that she had gotten rid of them.
 
"Alright, I believe the coast is clear," Carissa whispered to herself, her eyes darting nervously around her surroundings. "I can't go home, not now. I don't know where I can go... I'll try to leave town, start anew." These thoughts raced through her mind as tears streamed down her cheeks.
 
With one last desperate urge to escape her troubles, she rose to her feet and began to run. However, fate had other plans, and she collided with someone yet again.
 
Lightning flashed, briefly illuminating the night sky, revealing the face of the person she had bumped into, revealing a masked person. Panic welled up inside her as the stranger quickly covered her mouth, and in the blink of an eye, they vanished and reappeared a few blocks away.
 
Carissa struggled to break free, but the person possessed an undeniable strength. "Please, be quiet. You're being followed," the mysterious figure whispered urgently. Carissa recognized the voice; she hadn't spoken to this person before, but she had seen her around. I was non other than Nova Uno.
 
"I came to invite you to our little gathering tomorrow night. Zero asked me to tell you about it. He's been swamped, so he didn't have a chance to talk to you himself," Nova Uno explained.
 
Carissa gazed at her with tears still in her eyes. She had initially feared that Nova Uno was one of the pursuers hot on her trail.
 
"I'm not here to harm you; please stop looking at me like that. Oh no, they're here," Uno muttered.
 
"Hello there, Missy," a burly man dressed in all black with a masked upper face spoke up. "Why don't you hand over the girl and act as though you haven't seen anything?"
 
"Shut up!" another man snapped, his voice filled with menace. "We'll just have to take her as well. No witnesses," he declared.
 
"So, you pedophiles want to take this innocent girl and harm this heroic woman as well? That's a resounding 'no-no,'" Nova Uno retorted, her tone firm and unwavering.
 
"You mean more like a freak? She's the one who always hangs around with those other two oddballs," chimed in another guy, a mocking grin tugging at his lips.
 
The three of them chuckled at the feeble attempt at humor, but the fourth guy had no intentions of letting it slide. He drew his sword with determination, the steel gleaming in the dim light, ready to strike.
 
"Just heed the first fellow's advice and surrender her. It's the only way to avoid a swift demise," he threatened, his voice laced with menace.
 
Nova Uno, however, wore a wicked smirk, her eyes glinting with malice. "You know, back on the island, there weren't any humans to hunt or kill, so we hunted monsters..." Her words hung in the air like an ominous cloud.
 
"Attack!" barked the one who appeared to be their leader.
 
In a blink, Nova Uno and Carissa vanished from their sight, only to reappear a block behind them. This time, Uno had a firm grip on the guy who had cracked the ill-fated joke. She held his face in an unyielding vice as he struggled desperately to break free from her grasp.
 
The other two assailants found themselves utterly astonished by Laylah's lightning-quick maneuvers. It was the muffled groans escaping their comrade that alerted them to her vanishing act. "What the hell... where'd she go?" One of the attackers demanded, his voice tinged with bewilderment at her uncanny disappearance.
 
"Over there! But how on earth did she move so swiftly?" exclaimed the other, struggling to comprehend her extraordinary agility.
 
Maintaining her sinister smirk, Nova Uno taunted, "As I see it, there are only four feeble monsters here, attempting to snatch what doesn't belong to them. Close your eyes, Carissa."
 
With this Nova Uno crushed the guy's face like crushing an egg in your hand. Carissa screamed as blood sprayed from the man's crushed head. Blood splattered onto Laylah's mask, and her eyes burned even redder with rage.
 
"Shit, shit, shit! You're going to die!" screamed another attacker as he charged toward Uno.
 
With remarkable composure, she skillfully evaded the incoming rock bullets unleashed by one of her assailants. In a matter of mere seconds, she materialized behind him.
 
"So, you have a fondness for girls, huh? Take this!" Uno's voice remained as calm as ever, but a potent undercurrent of power and violence accompanied her words. She forcefully drove him into the ground, generating a resounding impact that sent small debris scattering into the air. His eyes jumped out of his socket at the impact, and blood sprayed out of his nose and mouth.
 
The other two assailants exchanged furious glances and, fueled by anger and unwavering confidence, launched a simultaneous attack."Fire blast!" one of them cried out, while the other shouted, "Sonic boom!" Their elemental attacks were unleashed, converging on Uno. She stood her ground, an unwavering figure in the chaos, as the cataclysmic forces collided, resulting in a deafening explosion that tore apart a section of a nearby building.
 
Carissa watched in a mixture of fear and amazement, her eyes locked on the confrontation. Witnessing her savior take a direct hit from those devastating attacks left her with little hope. However, as the dust gradually cleared, two crimson eyes blazed from within the aftermath, resembling a predatory beast that had found its prey.
 
The two men, once brimming with confidence, now fell to their knees, writhing in agony. The overwhelming pressure of Nova Uno's blood-lust seemed to suffocate them, as if the air itself had grown heavier. They crawled along the floor, their pleas echoing like the desperate cries of beggars.
 

It was then that Uno realized the unintended consequence of her unchecked power—Carissa, too, was being affected. Swiftly, she ceased her assault, realizing the dire impact it had on her ally. Without hesitation, Uno gathered Carissa and made a quick exit, leaving the two attackers alive. Their survival served as a message, a chilling testimony of the encounter they had just endured, ready to be relayed to their superiors.