Chapter 92: Chapter 92- Unpredictable Intentions
He didn\'t know a lot of things about this monster, but he knew enough to understand that… He can\'t back down now.
\'It tried to kill me… That\'s a declaration of war if I have ever seen one.\' He thought to himself as he finally shifted his gaze to Hyun-Jae.
"We can\'t postpone the mission any longer, Hyun-Jae. We need to infiltrate the research center as soon as possible." He said.
"I know, but, do we even know who we\'re going against? What kind of monster is that? Why can it look and act like a human?" Hyun-Jae, who had no idea about the gates, the history, and everything around it, was naturally very confused.
\'Ugh, explaining things to her is going to be impossible without revealing Acrypha\'s existence. I can\'t let that happen.\' Talon mused.
All his information came from Acrypha so explaining things to Hyun-Jae would make rouse her suspicion.
"I don\'t know. But, it was the only plausible explanation and it seems to be the truth. Monsters that can think and act like us do exist and will probably continue to exist and even grow smarter as we get stronger."
"... To think that this is real…" Hyun-Jae looked down for a second as she sucked in a deep breath to calm herself down. It truly felt like a headache to even try to comprehend what was going on.
"Don\'t worry, Hyun-Jae. We will get our answers from that monster once we capture it." Talon tapped her on the shoulder as he approached the edge of the rooftop. "We\'re going to end this, once and for all."
He said as he jumped down from the rooftop. Even with his casual attitude and the small smile on his face, Talon was now far more annoyed than ever before. He felt that what the monster did was an insult to his intelligence.
With his pride, he wasn\'t going to let that slide.
\'I will definitely pay you back for what you did.\' He balled his fists tightly, his eyes flaring up wildly.
***
Talon and Hyun-Jae went back to the gymnasium. It was still very late at night, but everyone was completely awake and on the edge. Since they didn\'t know what was happening yet, it was too hard for them to go back to sleep.
But, Talon and Hyun-Jae calmed them down. Luckily, it didn\'t take them long to do so since the students trusted them more than anything.
After that, when everyone finally went back to sleep, Talon brought Hyun-Jae to the place where the two corpses were.
When she saw them, Hyun-Jae frowned in disgust as she averted her eyes for a moment. "This is… vile…" She said in a perturbed tone.
"Yeah, it\'s really horrible. Their death wasn\'t painless by any means." Talon sighed.
Even though these two were definitely bad people, Talon never really hated them enough to feel happy seeing their dead corpses. However, that also didn\'t mean that he really cared much whether they died or not. What happened had happened and he can\'t change that outcome even if he wanted to.
"We can\'t let that thing do as it wishes anymore."
"Knowing you, we\'re probably going to infiltrate the research center in the next few days," Hyun-Jae said as she turned around.
"Precisely in two days. We can\'t wait any longer than this. I don\'t want to let the monster have a chance to play another dumb trick." Talon said.
Even though optimally, he wanted to have a few more days to prepare, with what happened tonight, he didn\'t have the time to do what he wanted. They had to hurry before the monster pulled out another attempt to end them all.
"..."
Noticing that Hyun-Jae wasn\'t speaking, Talon looked up at her. "Do you think it\'s a bad idea?" He asked, thinking she didn\'t like his plan.
"No, I was intending to say the same thing anyway. I was just contemplating how to go about doing it with the least amount of casualties."
"Oh?" Talon raised an eyebrow. "Already? I didn\'t even start thinking of that yet." He smiled.
"Well, the faster the better, no?"
"Haha, very well, you should do most of the planning since I suck at doing that. Meanwhile, I will come up with ideas to make it a lot easier and maybe add a small surprise element." Talon replied mysteriously.
"Surprise element, huh? Let me guess, you will come up with another one of your \'totally safe\' ideas?" Hyun-Jae asked with a knowing smile.
"So far, every idea I came up with worked out perfectly well… For the most part. And that\'s a real statistic by the way." Talon shrugged.
The girl rolled her eyes at his sarcastic remark. She knew that Talon\'s ideas were very clever, but they somehow always included a very dangerous situation where he puts his life on the line. Yet, every single time, he would emerge victorious no matter what. It made her wonder how much determination he had.
"In any case, although you can plan for this mission. Can you put something in mind when you\'re drawing the plan?" Talon thought for a second as he looked at Hyun-Jae. "It\'s really important." His eyes flashed with a mysterious glint.
"What?"
***
The two continued talking for a while longer before Hyun-Jae finally excused herself. It was still late at night and she had to rest per Talon\'s words. They already discussed what they wanted from this mission, the general direction, and some other details before leaving everything else for tomorrow.
"Ugh, my neck hurts." Talon threw himself on the chair as he groaned lowly.
"You handled the situation well, kid," Acrypha said as she looked through the window.
"Is that a compliment I\'m hearing from you? How rare."
"Yeah, many would\'ve been crushed under the pressure of a situation like that. You have what it takes to lead people." She added.
"... Is that so?"
"Yeah, perhaps in the future, you can build your own kingdom. All the strongest entities to ever live were kings or founders. You could probably give them a run for their money."
"No, I don\'t want any of that." Talon shook his head. "Building a kingdom or becoming a full-on leader… It\'s not my thing. I just want to be free and do whatever I want. Being surrounded by the people I care for and living life as I want, that\'s all I ask for."
"Oh?" She shifted her gaze to look at him.
"I will leave the world domination stuff to those who want it. As long as they don\'t annoy me, they can do whatever they want." He shrugged.
"Hmm…" For a second, an incomprehensible glint appeared in Acrypha\'s eyes before it vanished completely as if it was never there.
"Yeah. Anyway, what I wanted to talk about is the girl. Was that her true appearance or was it altered?" He asked. Before vanishing in the forest, Talon saw her eyes flash with a weird blue light for a second. He didn\'t know the origin of that light and it made him question whether that was her appearance or was simply a facade she created.
"I want to say that it\'s altered since she possibly came from a very technologically advanced dimension. But, then again, there are many dimensions with humans in them. Your race is very common, really." Acrypha said.
"So she could be a human?"
"Yeah. Though, naturally, there could be some small anatomical differences between you and her."
\'Now this makes it even weirder… But, I already knew that there were humans in other dimensions, so it isn\'t a surprise.\'
Talon\'s main skill \'Dimension Harvester\' takes its abilities from his copies from other dimensions. That meant there were humans that looked and acted like Talon in other worlds. Or that was what he understood at least.
It was a weird thing to think about.
\'I wonder if I will ever meet a copy of mine. It would be the weirdest thing I would experience if it happened.\'
"But, that still leaves the question. Why did she come here? and what purpose does she get from killing other humans?" Talon asked.
"Who knows? She could possibly be a one-of-a-kind genius if she was the one that created this new \'Manual Gate\'. There is always a thin line between genius and insanity so her intentions are as unpredictable as they could be."
"Hm, a one-of-a-kind genius with advanced technology and the ability to control monsters. I don\'t want to even think about how I\'m going to fight her." Talon murmured as he ran his hand through his hair.
"This fight could be an easy breeze or the deadliest battle you will fight so far. It could go either way." Acrypha commented as she stared back at the window again.
"Thanks for the assurance, Acrypha."
"I\'m just giving you the reality of things."
"I know… Well, we will see what happens."
***
Meanwhile, a little bit far away from the gymnasium. Inside the quiet and dark Research Center…
(A//N: Thanks to everyone who supports the book with power stones and golden tickets, you guys are the best:) )