"Send me the coordinates," Olivia demanded, her heart racing.
After identifying the host Silas had possessed, The Vanguard utilized their extensive network of connections within Arcturus City to trace Noah Orvel's omni device. However, until now, they had received no signals, leading them to speculate that Silas was either out of range or had destroyed the gadget to avoid being tracked.
The voice on the other side of the holo-call sighed. "Fine, sending coordinates now, but do not engage. Just delay the target until reinforcements arrive."
"Oli? What's going on?" Luna asked as the team gathered around Olivia.
"It's Silas; we got a location," Olivia explained as a satellite image materialized out of her omni device. "Get ready, I'm about to open a gateway. Follow my orders once we're on the other side."
Conrad and Alwin nodded somberly, while Luna watched Olivia with a concerned expression as she zoomed and rotated the holographic satellite image, creating a life-like panorama. It was as though Olivia was standing right there, her eyes studying the landscape.
"Alright, I think I got it," Olivia said, stepping away from the bustling eatery, as the team followed her to a secluded alley, to avoid drawing unnecessary attention.
Closing her icy blue eyes, Olivia imagined herself standing at the location of the coordinates, taking in the view—the untamed, knee-high grass, the hills in one direction, and in the opposite direction, The Arc, barely noticeable on the horizon. Finally, Olivia focused specifically on an old, withered tree, and when she opened her eyes again, they were glowing crimson.
With a practiced hand gesture, Olivia traced the outline of a circle, and space itself bent to her will, forming a radiant red gate in the middle of the alley.
"Let's go." Olivia stepped into the gate, with her team following closely behind.
There was only an endless crimson void inside, marked with shimmering vein-like tendrils that constantly pulsated and crackled, casting an eerie glow that danced across the void. Olivia never liked passing through here; she always heard incessant, barely audible whispers and could never shake off the oppressive sensation of being observed.
A few meters ahead of them was a second gate, sticking out from the red nothingness, with the blue sky and a patch of vibrant green grass visible through it. Olivia and her team dashed towards it, weapons drawn, and found themselves on the other side, the withered old tree behind them and Silas, along with a group of walking skeletons, in front of them.
Olivia wiped the blood trickling from her nose with her sleeve. Opening gateways across significant distances always took a lot out of her.
‘Silas... Finally.’
There he was, wearing the skin of Noah Orvel. Olivia studied her former mentor, as the gateway behind her dematerialized.
‘He’s not recovered from his battle with specimen 731.’
Silas looked awful. His raggedy clothes were torn to shreds, his hair and beard unkempt and caked with dry blood. He wasn't encased in a formidable armor of bones; instead, just a pair of clawed gauntlets adorned his hands. Most striking, he seemed genuinely... rattled at the sight of Olivia.
"Oli, wait!" Luna called out, feeling the surge of emotion from her friend, but Olivia had already vanished, leaving behind shimmering red vapor.
Her orders were only to stall Silas, but she had to seize this opportunity. Appearing out of thin air behind him, Olivia intended to finish this with one move, aiming to take his head before he could react.
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With lightning speed, Olivia dashed towards Silas, her short sword slashing through the air.
A metallic clang reverberated, sending a shockwave through Olivia's body. Instead of cutting through Silas' neck, her sword clashed with another blade—one of her former mentor's skeletons had stepped in, blocking her attack. The seemingly human corpse, clad in what appeared to be shredded knight's plate armor, tilted its skull, its empty eye sockets glowing a pale green as it studied Olivia.
Another skeleton, this one massive and clad in dark armor, charged at Olivia. However, before it could reach her, she vanished again, leaving behind only shimmering red vapor. The giant's war hammer smashed through the mist, launching dirt and dust everywhere as it pummeled the ground.
Immediately after Olivia reappeared next to her teammates, Luna grabbed her arm.
"Oli, you need to listen to me. Something is—" However, Silas interrupted her.
"Why?! Why don't you people leave me alone?!" His voice was full of rage.
Furious at Silas' audacity, after all he had done, Olivia wrangled herself free from Luna's grasp.
"You dare ask why, Silas?!"
"I'm not Silas! He's dead!"
"You..." Olivia recoiled as if she had been struck. "You lie!"
Conrad stepped forward, brandishing his two daggers. "Enough with your games, traitor!" Utilizing his Touched ability, he dashed forward, the air snapping behind him like a whip cracking through the air.
***
'Too fast.'
Even with his senses enhanced by the essence of countless slain monsters, Noah could barely keep track of the man charging at him.
The assailant slowed down for merely a split second, slashing twice at one of the four-armed devils with lethal precision, fracturing its ribs and etching glowing green cracks across the skeleton's frame before it crashed to the ground. At that moment, Noah got a clear view of the man.
He was tall and muscular, with brutish features—angry brown eyes, a broad jawline, and short black hair—all while clad and armored in black, just like Voidstrider and most of her group.
After regaining his momentum, the brutish man charged directly at Noah, tearing through the air like a bullet. Dozer tried to slam into the speedster with his tower shield, but the brute's swiftness was overwhelming. He zigzagged around the armored giant, evading him and plunging the two daggers into Dozer's back.
Or, at least, that was the intent. Instead, the daggers glanced off the thick Dark Steel armor, emitting the sound of screeching metal.
The speedster seemed surprised for a brief moment before resuming his charge towards Noah. Steve stood in his path, adopting a fighting stance that Noah hadn’t seen the undead guardian use before, holding the greatsword high above his skull, poised for an overhead strike.
‘It’s too obvious...’
The brute must have thought the same, believing Steve was telegraphing his attack. With a smirk planted on his face, the speedster charged right at him. However, Steve must have been an incredibly experienced warrior, prior to his death. The undead guardian judged the exact right moment to strike, based on the brute's speed, and as his greatsword slashed, it struck the chest armor.
Dashing sideways, away from Steve, the brute examined the vertical cut on his armor, tracing his finger along it. Were it not made of Dark Steel alloy, he would have been injured, or worse.
The entire sequence, from the speedster leaving his teammates behind, to evading Steve, lasted three seconds. Now, however, the brute had a direct line to Noah.
Focusing intently on his visual sense, Noah did his best to keep track of the brutish assailant as he charged right at him, daggers poised to strike.
‘He’s going for my face!’
Noah was no slouch at this point and managed to raise his bone gauntlet-clad arms just in time. However, when the daggers connected, Noah did not hear the sound of steel clashing with bones empowered by essence.
‘What...?’
The gauntlets' claws came undone, falling to the ground, cleaved by one of the daggers. Then, warm liquid began to trickle down Noah's face—blood, from where the other dagger had cut his forehead.
Noah was overwhelmed by a bloodlust unlike any he'd ever experienced. Any semblance of a grand strategy to get back home, any thoughts of carefully explaining what happened to The Vanguard, vanished. He simply snapped, pushed to the limit.
"GAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Noah howled like a wild animal, the sound primal and guttural, exuding pure killing intent that seemed to echo to his minions as well, the sickly green glow in their eye sockets intensifying.
The rage, fury, and frustrations of a month of pure hell, the horrors and tortures endured, the sensation of repeatedly being hunted like some sort of monster by those he once idolized—all these emotions exploded within Noah's mind.
It was a cold fury, calculated and vengeful. Out of all of the thoughts spiraling through Noah's mind, one triumphed over all others: 'I'm gonna kill 'em all!'