<h4>Chapter 555: Where Were We? Oh, Yes... Killing You</h4>


    "It doesn’t matter anymore. I’ll just finish what was started... years ago."


    The words had barely left the figure’s mouth when Nnenna felt it, an invisible, crushing grip tightening around her throat.


    She gasped, wing at her neck, but there was nothing there. The air refused to enter her lungs. The pressure grew heavier, like it wanted to snap her windpipe in two. Her knees buckled. Her vision blurred.


    Lo... Love System... she croaked in her mind, the words broken and desperate. He... help me...


    "What are your instructions?" The Love System’s voice was sharp now, urgent, but Nnenna couldn’t form the words to answer.


    Her eyes locked on the ck robed figure. Fury cut through the fog of panic.


    "Get... away from me!" she screamed.


    It was like something inside her snapped.


    A massive wave of raw force exploded outward from her body, violent, unstoppable. The st mmed into everything around her. The figure was hurled back.


    Athena staggered and hit the ground. Somto and Arthur, who had just arrived, were thrown off their feet, skidding across the dirt.


    Nnenna copsed to her knees, coughing hard as the crushing grip on her throat vanished. She gulped down deep, ragged breaths, lungs burning as oxygen rushed back in.


    Then the Love System’s voice chimed in her mind again, almost scolding:


    "Two thousand Good Points... deducted."


    Nnenna heard it, but her mind was too scrambled to process. The world around her still spun, and her hands were trembling, whether from rage, fear, or both, she couldn’t tell.


    When her breathing finally steadied, Nnenna forced herself to look around.


    Athena was gone, vanished into whatever hole snakes like her slither into. The ck robed figure was nowhere in sight either. Relief started to creep in... until a voice called out.


    "Anybody up there?!"


    She froze. That was Arthur.


    The sound came from the cliff’s edge. Heart pounding, Nnenna ran over, and her stomach dropped.


    Somto and Arthur were dangling from a narrow ledge far below.


    "How did you guys get there?!" she blurted, even though she wasn’t expecting an answer. One look told her everything, her earlier st must have flung them right off the cliff.


    "Don’t move!" she called out, already racking her brain for a solution.


    Arthur shot her a re, clearly not in the mood for her casual tone.


    "You think we nned this?" he said dryly.


    Somto, hanging just below him, muttered, "Nnenna, unless you want me to test my flying skills, I suggest you hurry."


    She made up her mind fast. Moving carefully, she climbed down just far enough to keep one hand hooked over the top edge of the cliff. Then she extended her free hand toward Arthur.


    "Grab my hand."


    He didn’t hesitate, his fingers mped around hers like steel. Somto reached up and caught Arthur’s other hand, forming a shaky human chain.


    "Okay," Nnenna grunted, bracing her feet. "When I pull, you pull too. We’re all going up together."


    "Try not to drop us," Somto muttered.


    "Try not to be heavy," she shot back, and then she began to haul them upward, muscles straining.


    "You didn’t really think that little baby force you used was enough to get rid of me... did you?"


    The chilling, distorted voice slithered into Nnenna’s ears from somewhere above.


    Her head snapped up.


    The ck robed figure stood right at the cliff’s edge, one hand gripping the rock for bnce, the other dangling casually as if it had all the time in the world.


    A cold ripple of fear ran down Nnenna’s spine. She hadn’t felt fear like this in a long time.


    "Now," the voice continued, almost yful, "where were we? Oh, yes... killing you."


    Before she could react, the figure crouched, its shadow spilling over her. Then it reached down, straight for her only hand holding the cliff’s edge.


    Nnenna’s eyes widened.


    "Are you insane?!" she shouted. "You’ll kill them too!"


    The figure didn’t even pause. "Coteral damage," it said tly, fingers curling toward her wrist.


    Arthur’s grip tightened like a vice on her other hand. "Nnenna, let go of my hand!" he barked, his voice hard butced with urgency.


    "Not happening!" she shot back, though her heart was pounding so hard it felt like it might burst.


    From below, Somto’s voice rose, sharp andmanding. "Nnenna, whatever you’re going to do, do it now! If you can’t, then you have to let go!"


    "Stop distracting me!" Nnenna snapped, teeth clenched as she fought to think of a n.


    "Quit being stubborn and let go now!" Somto growled, his tone brooking no argument.


    The figure’s fingertips were just inches from her skin, its presence pressing against her like an icy, suffocating weight.


    It’s grip on Nnenna’s hand loosened slowly, deliberately, like a predator toying with its prey. Nnenna’s heart mmed in her chest as she slid downward, the jagged cliff scraping against her legs.


    The edge she clutched with her other hand strained under the weight of not just herself, but Arthur and Somto as well. Pain stabbed through her arms, through her shoulders, through every fiber of her body, yet she refused to let go.


    A chillingugh echoed across the cliffside. "I don’t need to be close to finish the job," the figure called, voice warped and distorted. Somto and Arthur’s eyes darted in confusion, searching for what she meant.


    But Nnenna understood immediately, the dark energy she had felt choking her before was ready to strike again, drawn through the distance like a tether she could harness.


    Her mind raced. What do I do? What do I do?


    Then rity struck. She drew a deep, steadying breath, ignoring the searing pain in her arms. "Love system, I’m going to need you to repeat what you did before... only on a much higher scale. This time, it has to push her off, for good."


    A pause, then a soft voice in her mind: That will cost 5000 good points.


    "Go," she replied immediately.


    Ding!