XVII - Inventor of the Night

"Miss Dezastaria. I really do love the reaction on your face." Alvah says while holding his electric metal sword.

He could clearly see the shocked reaction on her face turning into a serious one. Nerissa is now in front of her enemy. She sees some flickering electrics on his sword. Her dress slowly changes into her usual red attire with her TAPOPS badge, as if the dress burns itself.

Alvah laughs softly and says, "Oh, that's adorable. Knowing that you are actually one of those TAPOPS."

"Straight to the point, Alvah. What did you use Musikabot for?" Nerissa begins to interrogate him.

"What would you gain for asking that? Think you can arrest me easily?" He mocks.

She clicks her tongue, "I didnt say I will arrest you. Now answer the question."

He slowly walks around the room and asks, "Remember when I told you about what I did for a living?"

She ponders it and says, "That youre an inventor?"

"Precisely, Miss Dezastaria. Well, to be exact, all of my inventions turned into a bunch of scraps." He scoffs.

Nerissa raises her eyebrow in confusion and questions, "Meaning?"

"I have invented things since I was young, along with my so-called best friend. We invented so many things. People used to love our things back then. However, the damn corrupted government crushed that bond. They liked his looks, or should I say, his shells," He recalled, "That disgusting thought of theirs made whatever inventions he created in demand. He became their lovely pet, their whore. The government and he destroyed me. They would ban everything I created." He curses and grits his teeth.

She was all ears hearing his stories, which made her slightly bored. Nerissa then yawns and comments, "My, how awful is that." She glances at the caged power sphere and questions, "Now, back to my question, what did you use it for? Let me guess, you manipulate it for money."

When Nerissa said those last words, Alvah halted all his movements and sensed the cautiousness inside him. He was facing the wall. Then, he slowly twists his body to another side, facing her.

He smirks and breathes, "How amusing. Youre so narrow-minded, Miss Dezastaria. However, you are correct. Then, theres no more for me to declare."

Nerissa inhales, then speaks, "Alrighty. Mister... Alvah. Yes, Mister Alvah." She clears her throat, "I understood your whole sad life story and why you manipulated Musikabot. However, you must surrender the power sphere to me to keep it in safe hand."

"And if I dont? What would you even do?" Alvah mocks her.

"Then I have any other choice," She pulls out a small knife from her pocket and then carves her palm with it. The dripping blood turns into her blood sword. She stood on her guard and spoke, "But to persuade you by force."

Alvah grips his metal sword on his horse, "Make me."

Nerissa attempts to charge Alvah with her blood sword. However, when she is about to strike him with her sword, he quickly defends himself with his metal sword. They both could feel the aggressiveness as they attempted to snap their weapons. The tension between them.

On the other hand, Alvah gathered his power in his right hand and turned it into a fist.

"Electrical Punch!"

When his fist is about to hit Nerissa, she quickly stops it with her magic. Her hands are now occupied. But, his fist is still strong and hits Nerissa's waist. That punch attack made Nerissa fly to her right, and she broke through the wall. She lands on the monitor table on the operator room's first floor, which is now broken. Nerissa could feel the numb pain on her back and the stun hit on her waist.

Her face flinches when she sees Alvah leaps in mid-air. He raises his sword and begins to strike her.

He shouts, "Prepare to face your death, Miss Dezastaria! Electrical Strike!"

In a quick reaction, Nerissa's blood bends him and then tosses him to the metal wall. The wall becomes dented, and he tumbles to the floor. Blood runs down his head. Nerissa quickly got to her feet. She summons her blood sword from her palm and then storms towards Alvah, who is about to get up.

"Blood Slash!"

Alvah quickly shields himself with his metal sword. His sword edges met hers. He carefully gets up and tries to push her with his all might, making her slightly reel back. Her heels got pushed back because of him, and she wanted to push him back by driving her sword against his. Slowly, her blade slices through the computers. Both of them scowl.

"Surrender Musikabot to me, Alvah!" She shouts, "You will only worsen if you keep tormenting it!"

He grits his teeth and scowls, "Never!! Even until my death, I won't ever SURRENDER it to you!!"

She chuckles, "Don't be so sure about that!"

He thrust his sword to the left, along with her sword. Then, Alvah quickly grabs her neck and chokes her. He slams her to the nearest table and drags her hitting the items on it. He tosses her to the ground like she's some kind of an object. She attempts to get up on her elbow. As she looked up, she saw Alvah on top of her. He shoves his sword, aimed at her face. However, Nerissa quickly rolls her body to her left to avoid his attack.

"Where do you think you're going?! Electrical Strike!!"

In reflex, she quickly pushes his sword back using her magic. Nerissa disables her blood sword. Her hands are focused on moving his sword. He slackened for a bit, which was the best opportunity for her. She rose to her feet and gathered her power in her right hand. Once it is ready to attack, she punches Alvah in mid-air. His sword shatters into two pieces.

She summons her blood sword from her palm and prepares to attack him while he's still in the air.

"Blood Sword Slash!"

She slashes his body in the air. That attack flew him to the wall. He collapses to the floor, and his eyes are closed. Nerissa disabled her blood sword and looked at him. Alvah is not moving for a while.

She inhales and speaks, "This is a perfect chance."

***

Nerissa is now in front of Musikabot, still in wires and in the cage. She raises both of her hands, and her eyes gleam in red. Using her magic, she destroys all the things that are suffocating it. Musikabot is now free and now on her hands. She could hear the whole opera stop, and the audience complained in annoyance.

"So, the one who sang all those arias was a fake soprano?" She questions, "That's amusing."

Then, Nerissa glanced at Musikabot and said, "So, my job is finished here, huh? Alrighty, time to go."

She tilts her body and suddenly sees the injured Alvah in front of her.

"Electrical Stun."

He punches right on her belly. She could feel the stun on her body, and he watched her collapse on the floor. She let go of Musikabot, and it rolls to nowhere.

Alvah begins to choke her when she's weak, "Don't you ever! EVER! Stole my money!" He curses, referring to Musikabot, "That power sphere is my only chance! And now, you wanted to take it away from me! Now, regret this decision of you stealing it and beg me for mercy!"

His left hand is gathering powers to finish her. He raises his fist to punch her. Nerissa, with her magic, is also about to attack him. Their fists met, and it kind of exploded and created an impact. The floor is collapsing due to their power explosion. And they both fell onto the stage.

The audience screams in terror and disbelief, not believing what happened this evening. They all scramble to the hall door to escape. It is a mess and chaos.

Nerissa tries to get up on her elbow. She accidentally looks down to the stage, where she witnesses the fake soprano under her. Crushed by the debris. Hurting and screaming for help. Nerissa quickly gets into her senses and gets off.

"Oh god! Please, I'm so sorry! "Nerissa apologizes.

The soprano cries in enormous pain, "Help me!! It hurts!"

She carefully picked up the massive debris with magic in her left hand. Then, Nerissa drags the damaged soprano by blood bending her far from the rubble. She was still crying in pain and screamed.

"T-Thank... you." The soprano thanked her.

Nerissa summons a huge sparking red hole, "I'll get you to somewhere safe."

The red hole moves towards the soprano, and it teleports her to anywhere safe outside the palace. Then, it disappears. Nerissa fell to her knees, feeling numb pain all over her body. The hall is now empty.

"Oh, right! Alvah!"

She quickly rose to her feet and checked on Alvah. She felt some kind of weird feeling when she stepped on the floor. Nerissa looks down at her boots, and it turns out she stepped on a red liquid. Her eyes follow the trail of blood until she finds out that the blood she stepped on is Alvahs. His lower body was crushed by the massive debris, which became his absolute death due to blood loss.

Nerissa kneels down to take a look at his lifeless eyes. Carefully, she closes his eyelids as her form of respect. Not for long, Nerissa suddenly hears a metal sound. She gets up and finds out what the sound is. Nerissa founds Musikabot. Maybe it fell from up there.

She gently picked it up and caressed its head, "Sorry, I missed you. That long fall must've hurt, right?" As if she's talking to it.

Suddenly, a group of guards storm into the hall, heavily armed. They caught her right on the spot. Their guns are aiming at her.

"HANDS IN THE AIR!"

Nerissa looked at each one of them and grunted in annoyance.

"Ugh, great. Do I have to fight again? And here, my body is all worn out." She thought to herself.

"HANDS IN THE AIR, MAAM!"

She gets off the stage, ignoring all the guards.

"Look. I am now exhausted. If you want to arrest the real culprit, go up there." She points to her dead target, "Arrest him for forcefully overtaking the show from the real director just for money! Oh right, he's dead already."

"Cooperate with us, or we will shoot you on the spot!!"

She scoffs, "Shoot me? That's cute."

Her eyes gleam in red as her right-hand forms a red light. Their heads feel like its being manipulated, and their body slackens. As Nerissa flicks her finger, the guards start shooting and killing each other. She quietly walks through the mind-controlled guards like it's nothing. She grabbed the nearby glass of champagne and took gulps of it.

***

"Prepare my car, Grandia."

"Understood, my lady."

Her attire changed from her usual red attire to her formal dress. She did this so that nobody could notice her for murder. As she stepped out of the palace, she inhaled the fresh night air. Nerissa steps down the vast staircase and witnesses her luxury car automatically arrive.

Nerissa hops on the driver's seat and gently puts Musikabot on the passenger seat.

"Time to go back. Our work here is done."

She steps on the gas pedal, and the car drives. Once she gets out of the gate, she continues to go straight.

"Grandia, contact Ochobot."

"Right away, my lady." Grandia says and takes her time, "Ochobot is now on the line."

"Nerissa! Did you finish the mission?" Ochobot asks.

"Yup. I'm done here. Do your thing, Ochobot." She demands the yellow power sphere.

"Roger that!"

Not for long, a teleportation hole flashes a few miles away in front of her. She braces herself for the impact. Nerissa enters the teleportation made by Ochobot, and now she arrives at the TAPOPS hangar.

The luxury car stops itself. She picks up Musikabot next to her. She opens her driver's door and roses on her heels. There she saw the Admiral, Commander, Boboiboy, and his gang.

"Vice-Captain Nerissa!" Koko Ci greets.

"Commander."

"I see you have achieved Musikabot. Excellent job!" Admiral Tarung congratulates her.

She smiles, "Thank you, Commander, Admiral."

She witnesses Boboiboy and his gang. Their mouths are opened wide seeing her in a dress.

"What's with the face?" She questions.

"Your dress... It looks so beautiful!!" Yaya and Ying's eyes sparkle as they compliment her.

She looks at her dress and speaks, "Oh, this. Thank you."

Nerissa saw Boboiboy, Fang, and Gopal still opening their mouth in awe-struck. She cackles for a bit at their reaction.

"Now, now. Enough with the long face." As she lifts their chins to close their mouths, she says, "You'll get to eat specks of dust at this point."

"W-Wow, Nerissa. You really looked awesome." Boboiboy compliments.

"Ye-Yeah. You looked beautiful." Fang also compliments her.

"Why, thank you, you two."

She felt a warm cloth on her back. Turns out her lover covers her naked back with her scarf. She glances behind her to see his face.

"Oh, Kaizo." She says and whispers quietly, "What a thoughtful boyfriend you are."

"You did very great back there," Kaizo says.

She smiles, "Thank you."

As he escorted her back to her room, he wanted to tell her something.

"You know, Nerissa. I should say this regarding your dress."

"Oh, really? What is it?" She questions.

Before answering her question, he glances to his right and left to ensure nobody is nearby. Nobody. He moves his head closer to her ear and whispers seductively.

"You looked really sexy."

"S-Stop it!"