Alexandra's POV—
With a painful groan, I stood up. I spat the blood accumulated in my mouth on the unconscious Tom's face. It was kind of disgraceful but it's the least I deserve after he almost broke every bone of my body.
I got out of the room with wobbly steps. Now, I have to finish this. Henrich's room is in the upstairs. The problem is his fire ability. For starters, I am completely clueless what to do. I do have some plans in my mind but taking my condition into account, I am pretty sure most of them are going to be useless.
So, that leaves me with two options. Either I have to prolong this fight until his reserves get depleted or, end this fight with one shot. If there is a limit on the usage of my metal ability then, Henrich has as well. I have to exploit it. Ending with one shot is also not very feasible. Fuck! That leaves me with another option. I have to end the fight at a perfect point in time. An opening is all I need.
When I reached upstairs, I saw there were only a few lanterns illuminating this area. Unlike here, the downstairs has countless lanterns. Does Henrich hate lights?
I looked around and noticed that there was only one room ahead of me. Lia is probably in there. Without any further ado, I opened the door. A loud creaking noise was heard when I opened the door. The inhabitants of the room turned towards me, hearing the noise.
In there, Lia was sitting on bed with her hands tied and Henrich was just about to unbutton his shirt.
Lia stuttered, "W-why y-you are here? A-Alex! Y-you shouldn't h-have come h-here." Her eyes were full of terror and face pale as if she had seen a ghost. Unlike her shocked and terrified expression, Henrich was looking at me with nonchalant expression.
I turned towards Lia. I said, "I am here to save you."
Henrich laughed at my words. His expression changed from nonchalant to incredulous. "Save her? No, wait. How are you even here?"
"Do we have to go through this?" I asked him.
He nodded with a serious expression. He said, "Yes! It is important for me to know," he observed me carefully, "I am surprised that you have defeated my father. Did you kill him?"
I sneered, "I am not killer."
Henrich bit his lips in contemplation. He said, "My father was in army and to be defeated by you… is certainly beyond my expectation. But he did put up a fight, I can see just by looking at your battered form."
"Expectations are meant to be broken, and I don't think you should harbour any expectation in this age of apocalypse. In the end, it would be meaningless."
"It's a great point," Henrich clapped as if he was praising me, "I will note in my notebook. It's a great line, I daresay. But answer me one thing. Aren't you the one who is harbouring expectations? You expect to save her when you," he pointed at me, "yourself aren't sure if you could save yourself."
'Expectations?' Oh~ I am pretty sure that I am going to turn these expectations into reality.
"It doesn't take much time for expectations to turn into reality. And the reality that I am going to forge is gonna devour you completely, leaving not a single piece of your pathetic self. You consider yourself as the 'protagonist' of this world, don't you?"
Henrich nodded, "I don't consider myself as one. I am the protagonist. This whole world is for me! All the women are born for my pleasure. You are among them as well!" his gaze turned lustful, "I will not complain if the two of you pleasure me together. It will be thrilling to have sex with two women at once."
I gagged in disgust. How can someone's words be so disgusting? This guy is living under a rock. Women are born for your pleasure? Like hell they do! My previous life experience has certainly proved it wrong. Women are very dangerous creatures. They are the reincarnates of devil. If possible, they would even try to kill you. This is what happened with me! A tremor ran down my spine when I remember my past life incidents. How can someone's delusion be this strong?
"Bro, you are living in a delusion. I am sorry to burst your bubble but you are wrong. A man or woman, whoever it may be… doesn't belong to anyone. They are humans. They have their feelings and all. You can't impose yourself on them."
"But this is the end of the world. Morality dies a new death every time because of we, humans. Are you that naïve?" Henrich smirked wickedly.
I shook my head in denial. "It's the novels that you have consumed is talking. To a certain extent your words have some sense. But it's the not world that is at fault here," I took a deep breath, "it's the humans like you."