One week later. . .

It is currently 7:30 p.m. The starry night is upon us. I and Michelle are currently staying in an abandoned house on the outskirts of a town somewhere in French. 

For the past few days, I have been practicing and improving my Faith power on a certain ability. 

"Mi-chan! Come here for a second."

"Hm? What's up?"

Michelle walks to me as per my demand and sits beside me on a busted bed in the bedroom.

"Let's open your eye bandages!"

"Huh? Why? I don't think it's healed yet."

"Just do it! It's gonna be fine." said Lily as she smiles.

Michelle opens her bandages with my help. I finally get to take a good look at Michelle's horrible eye wound. It feels painful just to look at the wound. I place my right palm hovering towards the wound.

"Rewind."

My palm brightened up in blue light as well as Michelle's eye wound. The wound undoes itself and Michelle's eye condition returned to a state before it was injured. The light faded away.

"How do you feel?"

"I. . .I don't feel anything. My eyes. . .I can see again!"

Michelle kept rubbing her left eye with her hands in disbelief.

"You see, I've been practicing my Rewind ability before I decided to heal you. I don't wanna mess it up. Sorry for enduring the wound this long."

Michelle jumps on top and hugs me.

"THANK YOU!!!!"

"OUCH!!"

Michelle's weight made me fell to the floor.

"Ahahahaha! You're welcome."

Suddenly, both of us hear clanking sounds. It's as if something was thrown and bounces off multiple times. I and Michelle quickly get up and look around and I saw a hand grenade on the corner of the room.

"MI-CHAN, GET BEHIND ME!"

Michelle quickly does as she was told. I open my palm and summons my big clock shield in front of me. The hand grenade explodes and it didn't even scratch the clock shield.

"Careful Mi-chan! It's probably the pursuer from the facility!"

"They sure love us, huh?"

The bedroom we were in was inside an abandoned house that the walls and the ceilings are either opened or just gone. Three figures jump in and enter the bedroom.

"Finally found the two escaping rats."

"Let's waste no time and capture them!"

The three of them are female teenagers that have been trained in a separate program for military purposes. All of them prepared their stances and their Faith power. I smiled confidently.

"Time stop!"

I stop the flow of time and everything has come to a halt yet again.

"Well that was easy." praises Michelle towards me.

"Let's get out of here Mi-chan! We'll lose them in no time, haha!"

Both of us jump out of the bedroom to the outside. When we landed, we saw that there are a lot more people waiting to ambush us.

"They sure are giving it their all."

"Well, it's not enough against the princess of time!"

"Princess of time?"

"You, silly!"

I was happy about the nickname Michelle gave to me. We proceed to run and escape our pursuer.

          One hour later. . .

"It's been an hour."

"How do you know? Your time stop is still active."

"Well, I am the princess of time. My sense of time is also more sensitive than normal humans."

"That doesn't make any sense to me, but I believe you! Hahahaha!"

"I think we're okay for now. I'll let the time move again."

Before I turn off my time stop, someone else other than the two of us appears in front of us.

"Excuse me, young ladies."

"Huh?" 

Both of us responded in wonder and look ahead.

A man is approaching us casually.

"I heard that you two are being chased, is that correct?"

"Y-Yes we are." Michelle responds.

Michelle takes a glance at me. She saw that my face was full of fear. Michelle has never seen that expression on my face before.

"What's wrong Lily-chan?" Michelle asks as she put her hand on my shoulder.

"Mi-chan, do you realize what is happening now?"

"Hm? I don't actually."

"Someone other than you, are able to talk and move freely within my time stop."

Michelle was shocked by the realization that I delivered.

"I have always purposely made it so you did not get affected by my time stop. Yet someone that we don't know about just freely approaches us."

"Don't make such scary faces young ladies. I am here to help."

"W-Who are you?"

The man suddenly teleports behind us.

The man whispers, "Let's get you back home!"

Suddenly, all of us disappear from the spot. I arrived alone in a dark room.

"WHAT?"

I look around in the darkness. My eyes are slowly adapting to it until I finally was able to see. 

I'm inside a room where there is a glass window in the center dividing the room into two smaller rooms. I look closely towards the glass window. Behind it, I saw Michelle was bound to a chair. There was someone standing next to her, a man wearing a lab coat. All of these happened in an instant.

"MI-CHAN!"

"LILY-CHAN!"

"We meet again, Experiment#496. Have you been well? How much stronger have you become?"

"RELEASE MI-CHAN THIS INSTANCE!"

"That's not how a seven-year-old girl supposed to speak. Perhaps I should teach you some manner."

The man pulls out a surgery knife from his coat pocket. He immediately stabs Michelle's left eye.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKKKKKHHHH!!"

At that moment, I immediately make an expression no seven-year-old girl should ever make. I was furious. 

I put my right hand to the side, clench my fist, and summon a giant clock hand sword. I immediately launch my giant clock hand sword towards the man behind the glass door with all of my strength. The giant clock hand sword flew at an unbelievable speed but the man didn't react at all because the sword never reaches him. My giant clock hand sword breaks apart before it even touches the window.

"Huh?"

The man from before appeared behind me.

"This is the kid? You sure she can get stronger?"

"Yes. We have arranged many programs to make her stronger, even more so than she already is. I can be somewhat certain she will even be within the same ranks as you. Give it a few years."

"That is a very high bar to set. You know what happens if she fails?"

"Do not worry. To us, failure is mere data and references for the next ones."

The man with the lab coat and the man that took us here are having a conversation that I completely have no idea about.

"YOU!"

I turn around and show my anger towards the man. 

Upon further look, the man's hair was pale blue. It's slightly curly at the end of each of his hair strands. His hair almost reaches his shoulder. He has a serious and determined expression on his face. 183cm. 77kg. Slightly visible muscle all over his body. He wears a pale brown jacket over a black V-Neck T-Shirt, a pair of pale blue jeans, and a pair of dark brown loafer. He has slightly visible facial hair under his chin.

"Young lady, from now on, you will do as you told!"

"WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?"

I clench my fist. My fist shines bright in blue. I punch the air towards the man. From my punch, a giant clock hand sword came out and launches towards the man. It travels at a higher speed than light. It was supposed to kill the man instantly.

*!*

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKKKHHHH!!!"

I lost half of my face, half of my torso, my left hand is entirely gone, and even my left leg. I have been completely cut in two. The giant sword was supposed to kill the man. All I can think about was that my giant sword was thrown back at me somehow. I was on the verge of death in an instant.

"Don't die!" said the man.

Suddenly, my whole body began to reconstruct itself back to normal. All of the pain was gone. I no longer have any wounds. I am completely fine.

"(This. . .is like my Rewind ability.)"

I was fueled with fear. Someone who is this strong has made me this powerless in a matter of seconds.

"Kneel!"

My body moved on its own and I was forced to kneel to him.

"HNNNGGGHHH!!"

I tried to move my body but to no avail.

"Stand!"

My body suddenly stands up on its own. The man pulled up my hair and glared at me viciously.

"Listen to what the man behind the glass told you. You will do as you were told!"

The man throws me across the room.

"AKH!"

My body hit the glass window and fell on the floor.

"Now then, Experiment#496."

The man in the lab coat pulls out a syringe that has green liquid inside it and injects it to Michelle.

"AAKKHH!!"

"MI-CHAN!"

"This is a potent poison. The effect of this poison will make Michelle drift between life and death. She will be half awake and half asleep. She is paralyzed and can't lift even the tiniest bit of her fingers. So, here's the deal."

The man pulls out another syringe but this time, it has pink liquid inside.

"The poison will kill Michelle in the next 24 hours and this antidote right here is going to prolong her life for another 24 hours, but, I won't give her this."

"What do you want?"

"Experiment#496, we will give you missions every day, assassination missions to be exact. If you successfully finish your mission, I will inject Michelle with the antidote. But if you fail, even ONCE, we will let Michelle die and her death will be on you."

I was struck by a harsh realization that befalls me.

I have no choice but to accept the condition.

I have to protect Michelle at all costs.

I will defeat that man.

I will have my revenge towards everyone in the facility.

I swear I will free her from all of these.

Chapter 4 ~ My dearest friend

~END~

Next chapter ~ Living Hell