The SSS-rank Guide Doesn't Need Saving

”This is far more problematic than I thought.”

Neither did Aisha expect it to be this difficult.

Four of the Sentinels circled the tank Zenick was trapped in. Their ranks were unknown to her since she didn’t carry a rank tester with her all the time. But the pressure coming off their bodies told her that they were above D-ranks.

There were other people around the other tanks as well. Three more stood near the ship. The middle one was a woman who looked the most important, with two tall guards flanking her sides. The guards were strangely disproportionate, with white veils. The three of them were too tall for Aisha to consider them human.

An Outerworlder.

The term rang clear as she thought about the market during her first trip to the Association. The floating island was the perfect place for Outerworlders to invade Gaia, disguising themselves as merchants and tourists. Some might even use the law the Association had set up themselves to settle on the island, allowing them to abuse the rules to abduct humans and use them for their own wicked ways.

”Damn it,” Nykos growled beside her. ”Zeke should be here. I’d like for him to see this and hear what he has to say.”

Aisha gazed at him before turning away to look ahead of them.

The Association’s supreme leader wouldn’t have a way to see or comment on what was going on before them. He was in another contamination zone, trying to save people. But Aisha wondered what his reaction would be once he found out that his own homebase was being used by an outside force as a branch to produce Miasma Vessels.

The tanks were being rolled forward. The ship was roaring just before the Teleportation Array. It would take no less than ten minutes for them to load everything up and head straight into the array, transferring to another planet or branch of the Order.

Far ahead of them, voices entered their ears.

”Those two tanks will be transferred to Archaious. Elder Shank and Eldress Fiona reserved them for their branch’s use, so move them to the very back since we will drop them off first.”

The tall woman with red skin pointed her finger at the tanks. She instructed them on where they would be taken to and for whom they would be reserved. It was a system that suggested this wasn’t the first time this had happened. Perhaps, there could be hundreds, or thousands, of people who had already been shipped off to another star system and reserved for use already.

Just thinking about it caused Aisha’s spine to shiver. She thought she had seen enough evil in her former world and experienced enough to say she had grown numb to them. Yet it was naive of her to think like this. How the hell did she think that this world was peaceful?

The truth was... this place was far more sinister than she thought.

”Wait for me and my subordinates to come. Don’t fight them off by yourself.” Nykos’ voice came from her side. He sounded hoarse.

”If I wait any longer, my brother would have gone through that array,” she told him. Her knees were still trembling. She had to grit her teeth so they wouldn’t chatter in her mouth. The effects of reaching the limit of how much she could use her ability were still showing.

”Aisha.”

There was an edge in his voice that told her that he didn’t like her answer.

But Aisha refused to listen.

She took a step forward and halted.

The red-skinned Outerworlder’s eyes met her own. Shit. So much for trying to do this overtly. But Aisha did not regret considering the other to have advanced senses as well, like Sentinels. It must have been a trait of her kind.

”Well, I did expect there would be a disturbance someday,” the Outerworld woman began. ”But I didn’t anticipate it would be today. And for it to be a young human girl.”

The way she said the last part sounded as though she was listing a new menu item from a restaurant. Aisha didn’t like being called a girl. She was already past twenty years old in her first life. And in her second life, which was now, she was already an adult as well.

Nykos’ shadows shifted protectively around Aisha, cloaking around her like an aura visible to the naked eye.

”Who sent you, little Sentinel?”

Aisha frowned, glancing down at the shadow surrounding her. She instantly understood Nykos’ goal in wrapping himself around her.

The Outerworlder had mistaken her for a Sentinel because of the shadows. It appeared like an aura and had the same feeling of a Sentinel because it did come from Nykos’ power, and he was an SS-ranked Sentinel.

”Not going to answer?” The Outerworlder woman frowned in irritation.

Aisha finally looked her way just in time for the two huge men beside the Outerworlder woman to surge toward her. The way they leapt through the air in one full boost was similar to how a frog would jump through the air. And in that one jump, they had crossed several meters and reached Aisha in no time.

Nykos’ shadows soared forward as well, taking the brunt of the Outerworlders’ punches. However, compared to his original state, his shadow form couldn’t hold its shape. They held for only two seconds before they spread to the side.

Fortunately, they still blocked their attacks and gave Aisha enough time to slice through their arms, nearly severing them with her dagger. But the Outerworlders were surprisingly agile and alert. The moment their arms were hanging by their skin, they immediately withdrew.

They pressed their sliced arms back into the gaping wounds, and it almost looked like they had never been cut. Their blood was blue, dripping along the sliced marks, which were the only proof that they had been cut by her.

Something was wrong.

Aisha did not follow up with a consecutive attack like she would have done before. She observed carefully during that short amount of time and finally realized what unsettled her.

The Outerworlders’ sliced arms were healing.