I Possess the SSS Skill: Future Sight-Chapter 54: Six Specters

— Valesira’s POV —

Winter had bared its fangs early this year in Elysium.

The Golden Sector, which usually shimmered under warm neon lights and polished marble, had turned tonight into a crystalline graveyard.

The snow wasn’t falling gently; it lashed against the glass facades like a storm of icy blades.

The wind howled between the luxurious skyscrapers like spirits trapped in hell, and the temperature had dropped below freezing, turning the gilded fountains into statues of solid ice.

I was walking alone on Aurora Street’s side alley, a shortcut between two towering buildings belonging to the Eitral Ministry of Commerce.

I wore a long winter coat, pure white like the snow itself, lined with the fur of rare B-rank polar beasts, wrapped around my neck to shield it from the frost.

My black leather high-heeled boots produced a sharp rhythmic sound—tick... tick... tick—piercing the silence of the frozen street.

My silver hair whipped violently with every gust of cold wind, and my crimson eyes stared into the white void ahead with deadly boredom.

I was returning from an "unofficial" meeting with one of the covert informants.

A trivial meeting that yielded nothing except confirming what I had feared: Saint Hilarius Hospital is the epicenter of something far too vast for the petrified minds of the FBI’s leaders to comprehend.

I exhaled, and the air from my mouth turned into a dense white cloud that quickly vanished into the darkness.

"How I hate winter..." I muttered to myself, slipping my hands into my coat pockets for warmth.

"It makes the blood clot faster and complicates the cleaning process."

Suddenly... I stopped.

It wasn’t a voluntary halt, but a response to a primal instinct rooted deep within my cells.

The wind... stopped howling.

The snow... stopped falling.

No, it didn’t stop—it seemed to freeze midair.

The air around me grew heavy, viscous, saturated with the stench of burnt ozone and sulfur.

This wasn’t the calm before a storm—it was suffocated silence.

"An isolation field?" I murmured, lifting my gaze upward.

Directly above me, stretching along the walls of the two towering buildings enclosing the street, a hexagonal crimson grid flickered.

It wasn’t just an ordinary energy net; it was highly advanced Eitral technology—the kind possessed only by elite military forces or... organizations beyond them.

I pulled my right hand out of my pocket and moved my fingers to open a small "spatial rift," merely a palm-sized gateway to transfer myself into my pocket dimension.

Shzzz... Kraaak!

The moment my energy interacted with space, it rebounded violently!

The rift didn’t open—it shattered like a glass mirror struck by a hammer.

A backlash of energy slammed into my wrist, forcing me to step back as I bit my lower lip from a sudden, sharp pain, as if a hidden electric current had pierced my bones.

"A spatial anchor?" My crimson eyes narrowed with lethal focus.

"They’ve sealed space."

I didn’t have time to think further.

From beyond the dense curtain of snow and darkness—at the end of the street and atop the buildings... they appeared.

They weren’t ordinary mercenaries in cheap suits.

There were six of them. Six massive specters clad in extremely heavy combat armor, painted in a non-reflective black that absorbed light itself.

Their faces were invisible, hidden behind smooth helmets with no eyes—only a horizontal red light strip scanning the area like merciless killing machines.

Their weapons weren’t normal rifles.

They were massive assault weapons connected to tubes pumping glowing red Eitra directly from packs mounted on their backs.

They were S-rank killers. Designed, modified, and equipped for one purpose only: my annihilation.

Before I could even raise my hand to summon gravity—

[Hahahahaha...]

A rough, hoarse, disgusting voice—like rusted blades scraping against each other—echoed inside my skull.

It wasn’t audible in the outside world; it resounded directly in the center of my mind.

[ Do you see them? They’re here to carve up your beautiful flesh, you arrogant one. ]

"Shut up," I whispered through my teeth, the veins in my neck bulging with anger.

[Look at yourself,] the voice continued, dripping with mockery and pure sadism.

[Recoiling from a simple backlash shock? Where is that tyranny you flaunt before those insects in intelligence? Oh... will you make excuses that you’re ’restricted’? Nonsense! Weakness is weakness, even if your hands are bound by a sun. You are weak today. Weak enough to disgust me.]

"I said shut up!" I roared this time, audible, as the snow around my feet began to melt from the heat of my rage.

"Target confirmed. Immediate extermination."

A mechanical, soulless voice rang out from one of the assassins.

Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!

They didn’t hesitate for even a second. They fired at the same moment.

The red Eitra bullets didn’t travel at the speed of sound—they tore through space like solid laser beams.

I raised my right hand at lightning speed, injecting pure Eitra to form a compressed "gravity shield" in front of me.

Kraaaaaaash!

The bullets slammed into my shield.

The impact was immense—absurdly immense! The frozen asphalt beneath my feet shattered, and my heel sank into the ground from the pressure.

The gravity shield, which could have deflected a tank shell without trembling, began to crack!

The red Eitra they used was specifically engineered for magical penetration and fragmentation!

"Damn it!"

An explosion of bullets rang out, and one pierced through my fractured shield.

I tried to tilt my body, but the bullet was faster.

Tssssht!

The glowing red projectile tore through the shoulder of my luxurious white coat, ripping the flesh beneath it.

The pain... was burning, searing, and horrific. This wasn’t an ordinary wound—the red Eitra carried corrosive properties that devoured cells upon contact.

I staggered three steps back, my eyes widening in genuine shock.

I looked at my shoulder. Hot, crimson blood began to flow, staining the pristine white fur of my coat.

I... I’m bleeding?

Valesira... bleeding in a street fight?!

[Oh, is that blood?] The entity in my head laughed with insane delight.

[Did you feel it? The taste of human fragility! You’ve forgotten what pain feels like, haven’t you?]

"I’ll burn them... and I’ll burn you with them!" I growled, blind rage erasing every trace of my usual composure.

I no longer cared about elegance, nor about defense.

I lunged forward.

My speed wasn’t spatial—it was pure physical velocity enhanced by terrifying energy.

I dodged the rain of bullets, moving in a zigzag pattern, leaving behind silver afterimages in the air.

I reached the first assassin in a fraction of a second.

He was massive like a tank and raised his rifle to strike me.

I didn’t use magic.

I gathered gravity into my bare fist and punched him directly in the center of his smooth helmet.

Kraaaaaaak! Boom!

The force of the punch didn’t just shatter the helmet—it crushed the assassin’s head inward like an empty tin can.

The gravitational force compressed his skull, brain, and neck bones into a space no larger than two inches. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Blood, black oil, and brain matter exploded from beneath the edges of the shattered helmet, splattering across my face and clothes like a grotesque volcanic eruption.

The nearly headless corpse collapsed onto the snow.

But the remaining five didn’t even flinch.

They didn’t retreat.

"Tactical shift. Close-quarters engagement."

Three of them dropped their rifles and drew wide, serrated blades, their edges glowing with a white heat capable of slicing through steel.

They charged at me simultaneously from three different directions.

"Fire...!" I shouted, opening both my hands.

Tick—whoooooosh!

Dark blue flames erupted from my palms—not as a small blaze, but as a raging inferno that devoured oxygen and light.