Sinner System-Chapter 432: Aria vs Cleo (Part 2)

Point-of-View: Ariella Velle

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I quickly crossed my arms in front of myself, narrowly blocking the blast with my gauntlets, the force pushing me back a few meters through the air.

She wouldn’t have known that I can detect heat while using Blaze Ignition, so I was able to track her by her body heat. Still, while she was surprised that I wasn’t caught off-guard, she kept her cool and launched a pretty solid attack on me.

As the smoke cloud began to clear, I concentrated Mana between my index finger and thumb, pressing the fingertips together before releasing the concentrated Mana, a bright, fiery flash bursting out and forcing her eyes shut as she let out a startled yell.

"<Wyvern Lightning>!" She exclaimed, intense lightning erupting around her, wrapping around her body as several streaks of lightning danced across the air surrounding her.

"Sorry, but that won’t work," I remarked, as I shot towards her, chanting as I closed in and drove my right arm forward, "[Super Accel Flame Lance]!"

My arm shot forward with immense speed, the piercing mass of intense flames around it closing in on the middle of her chest...before my eyes widened as it pierced through.

A sharp gasp of pain rang out as my Flame Lance drilled through her chest, tearing across her heart before bursting out her back.

She coughed out blood with an agonized wheeze as I stared in horror, her eyelids fluttering shut as she went limp, her body slumping with my arm through her body.

Wh-What-...why didn’t the barrier work?! I-I don’t-...!

Suddenly, my arm got abruptly forced out of her chest, my gauntlet coated with blood. I began to try and catch her as her body began to plummet, before she suddenly burst into flames, a shockwave of heat erupting around her.

She hit the ground with a thud, before slowly standing up in an almost-robotic motion. Her eyes then opened wide, before she chanted in a chilling, monotone voice...

"<Phoenix Resurrection>."

Another powerful shockwave of heat burst out, before the flames around her began to dissipate, the blank look on her face morphing into an expression of confusion.

"What the...? What happened? Did I zone out?" She frowned in bewilderment, before her face turned red and she wrapped her arms around her chest as she noticed the hole in the middle of her armor, exposing her cleavage.

"U-Uh, sorry...I think I kinda killed you. The barrier didn’t activate, I thought it malfunctioned or something, but I guess it was accounting for the Skill you just used," I remarked, as I flew down and landed before her.

I’ve never really put much thought into it, but...how exactly do these barriers work, anyway?

"Wait...yeah, it’s starting to come back to me. I remember the pain, it hurt like crazy, and then everything went black. The next thing I knew, I was down here...h-hang on, let me just...," She muttered, turning around before opening her Item Box and taking out a hoodie, putting it on and zipping it up.

Kai came jogging over as he took down the barrier, a concerned look on his face.

"You alright? That looked pretty nasty," He remarked with a frown.

"Yeah, I’m okay. Thankfully, Phoenix Resurrection kicks in automatically. Though, I guess that hit wouldn’t have landed in the first place if I didn’t have that Skill. I feel so drained..."

"You do look pretty worn out, I’m guessing that Skill consumes your stamina, your MP is pretty close to full. Well, I suppose that’s a pretty small price to pay for literally defying death," He replied with a wry smile.

"I’m really sorry, Cleo, if I’d known that would happen, I-...," I began.

"Hey, it’s not your fault, there was no way of knowing that the barrier wouldn’t trigger," Kai pointed out, as he patted my head softly.

"Yeah, what he said. I’m certainly not going to hold it against you, it was an accident, so no hard feelings," Added Cleo with a smile.

"Even so, I can’t help but feel bad. But thanks, I appreciate you being so understanding," I replied gratefully.

"Hm...we should probably call it here. I’ll head over to the Union and ask them to adjust the barrier device so that it won’t account for your Phoenix Resurrection, Cleo," Remarked Kai thoughtfully.

"Yeah, it’s too risky to continue. Even though the Skill’s on cooldown, the barrier might still not trigger for you, better safe than sorry," I nodded in agreement.

"I guess you guys have got a point. It is pretty disappointing to cut it short like this, but...I don’t want to die, and that aside, I have absolutely no energy left. All I can think about is going to sleep," She sighed wistfully, swaying slightly.

"Maybe you should help her get home, Aria. I feel like she might collapse on the way back otherwise. In the meantime, I’ll head over to the Union and see if they can adjust the barrier device."

"Sure, sounds good. By the way, do you know how the safety barrier actually works? Until right now, it’s always been super accurate, perfectly accounting for regeneration abilities and durability when teleporting someone out. But, like...how does it know?" I asked him.

"No clue. Let me check with Ai...," He trailed off, before going quiet as he presumably began consulting with Ai, "Mhm...yeah...uh, I think I get it...mhm, that makes sense...cool, thanks."

"Well? What’d she say?" I inquired curiously.

"Yeah, I’m pretty interested in that too," Nodded Cleo wearily.

"Apparently, it can assess people’s vitality based on their Mana signatures. It was based on an old prototype for detecting Power Levels, but that prototype was super complex and the data it gathered was difficult to process. Basically, in addition to Power Level, it can assess a person’s Skills or Spells too, along with their physical abilities.

And applied to this barrier device, it uses that data to surmise when a person is about to sustain a blow that would kill them, and it activates accordingly. Which also means that it can’t really be adjusted or fine-tuned. However, if we use a simpler, older safety barrier device, it should be fine.

The old models simply teleport people out if they’re about to sustain what it assesses as fatal damage, it doesn’t account for regeneration and stuff. According to Ai, those devices work perfectly fine, they were only replaced because the current models we use are more thorough and foolproof. Actually, the older models are safer.

For example, Aria, if you or I were about to sustain an attack that would destroy a limb or carve out a large chunk of our sides, the older model would teleport us out, while the current model wouldn’t. To get to the point...Cleo should be able to spar without a worry if we use an older model for her," Kai explained with a smile.

"Sweet, that’s good to hear!" Cleo grinned in response, before stifling a yawn.

Yeah, she’s completely wiped out.

"Come on, let’s get you home," I replied with a wry smile, taking hold of her arm to support her.

"I’ll go to the Union and see if they have any older models lying around. I’ll head straight home after that, what about you?" Kai asked me.

"Mhm, think I’ll go home now and wait for you, I don’t really have anything else to do today. See you there, Kai."