Somewhere in the Deadzone, about 4 kilometers from the New Wall that the people from the Pit build, the ground trembled as almost 300 people were marching all at the same time, almost no difference in their movements. Unlike with Van’s visions, none of them were wearing white. Instead, they shared the color of the night as all of them were completely covered in black clothing.
The army continued to walk, led by the orange-haired man that Van saw in Mike’s memories, Ronald. And with the raise of his hand, the 300 enhanced humans stopped in their tracks.
“This is it,” Ronald said as he faced his holy soldiers, “This is the time to prove your devotion to the circle!”
Ronald stretched his hands in a very animated way as the playful tone in his voice echoed throughout the enhanced humans, “The lot of you are the product of God, and the ones that have cooped themselves up in that huge wall are full of sinners, people that do not deserve the grace of our God!”
“Yeah!” The enhanced humans raised their hands and stomped their feet as they cheered, their roars almost reaching the skies.
“Leave none of them alive, if you do, their next victims might be your friends… your family!” Ronald screamed before he turned his back from the enhanced humans, “Show our resol–“
Before Ronald could finish his words, thunder roared from the skies, as if echoing their previous roars.
“Did you hear that?”
“Maybe the heavens are blessing us!?”
“The heavens are blessing our crusade!”
“God is cheering for us! We are on the right path!”
The enhanced humans started whispering, to the point that their footsteps were already being drowned by their words.
“…” Ronald, on the other hand, completely shut his mouth as he scanned the skies. And then, once again, another loud roar came from the skies.
“There it is aga–“
But this time, the thunder was accompanied by the tremble of the ground as an object seemed to have landed right in the middle of the 300 enhanced humans. A loud snap then echoed from it, causing the enhanced humans to all back away, surrounding the thing that just landed in a circle.
“Who…?”
“Move! Move!”
Ronald quickly pushed the others aside and made his way to the middle where the object just landed. And as soon as he got there, his eyes almost popped out from their sockets as he opened them as wide as he could.
Right in the center of their army, was an old woman, kneeling on the ground as her cloak snapped in the air.
“Y… Why… why are you here!?”
***
Back in the base, Latanya and the others were currently on top of the Wall, trying to look towards the direction where Latanya just jumped to. As soon as Charlotte went away, Latanya cast one of her skills to completely detoxify the others off the alcohol.
“Can anyone see what’s happening?”
“No,” Nisha immediately shook her head, “Ma’am Charlotte said the army was about 4 kilometers away, even I can’t see that far in this dark.”
“Should… should we really not be doing anything?” Gil said, he was about to cast a [Fireball] to see through the darkness but was quickly stopped by Cynthia.
“No, we should still bolster up our defenses,” Latanya answered without any hesitation, “But if that old woman really is as strong as you say she is, let’s focus the defenses on the other areas.”
“O…on it,” Gil said before jumping off the Wall, followed by Cynthia.
“So… the people from the Circle are really creating super humans?” Harvey could not help but mutter as he tried to focus his eyes, “I wonder what they’re planning?”
“Nothing good,” Beatrice quickly replied, “If the Explorer Association is already rotten to the core, the Circle is probably even more so.”
“You’re probably right,” Harvey let out a sigh, “Even father refused to deal with them directly… that’s saying something. I remember father also having books that the Circle deemed illegal to own, you remember those, right… brother?”
Harvey then glanced towards Gerald, who seemed to be talking about something with Xinyan. However, as soon as Harvey called for him, he quickly rushed towards him with a slight smile on his face.
“Books?” Gerald replied, “You mean those old stories?”
“Yeah,” Harvey slightly let out a chuckle, “Fath… that old man used to beat you whenever you sneak into his study because you liked reading them.”
“Books that the Circle deems illegal? There’s something like that?” Nisha let out a tiny scoff, her eyes not leaving the horizon, “I bet they go for a lot of money… as expected of the richest family in the country. What kind of books are they anyway?”
“Just some old stories,” Harvey shrugged, “Mythologies and stuff, but for some reason, it features creatures from the Portal… and yes, they cost a lot.”
“This truly is a weird place,” Latanya let out a long and deep sigh, “Imagine banning a piece of paper.”
“Creatures from the Portal?” As soon as Beatrice heard that, she could not help but adjust her glasses, “Maybe we can read it after this is all over? What do you think of brushing up your reading skills, Van?”
“…”
“…Van?”
“He’s gone, isn’t he?”
“Yup.”
“…Typical.”
***
“W… why are you here!?”
“Oh, you know who I am?”
Ronald could not help but slightly back away as Charlotte slowly stood up, every fibre of her muscles seemingly whispering in his ears as she did so.
“O… of course I know who you are,” Ronald stuttered as he carefully looked at Charlotte’s face, “P… perfect… a being of perfection!”
“Finally, someone who appreciates what he sees,” Charlotte slightly chuckled as she slowly stepped forward before scanning the 300 enhanced humans, “So… this is what the Circle has been up to lately? No matter that midget Elton and her little group are so worked up lately, just how were you able to achieve this?”
Charlotte then approached the nearest enhanced human, looking at him from head to toe, “The flow of blood is different… thicker,” Charlotte then slightly tilted her head, causing the enhanced human to gulp nervously. It was as if the old woman was looking directly into his soul.
“A… as expected of you, Madam Charlotte!” Ronald clapped his hands with a slight smile on his face, the tremble in his voice, however, failed to mask the nervousness that was starting to cloud his entire body, “But… but may I ask why you are here?”
“I assume you wanted to test the strength of your new toys with the Prisoners?” A smile slowly crawled on Charlotte’s face as she looked straight into Ronald’s eyes, “How about testing them with me instead?”
“P… please don’t jest, Madam Charlotte.” Sweat started to form on Ronald’s face as he heard Charlotte’s words, “We… we’re merely helping in subjugating the escaped Prisoners.”
Ronald placed his hands on his back as he could no longer control them from trembling. He volunteered to be the one to lead this attack so that he could gain a good image to the Pontiff. It was supposed to be a simple operation– try to overwhelm the people from the Pit with the enhanced humans’ strength.
Winning was not really the priority, collecting data is. Even if they lose, the Circle would still be able to produce more enhanced humans. But now, with Charlotte involved, Ronald was sure that he won’t even be able to collect any information on what they need to improve with the enhanced humans… rather… he might not even be able to collect himself if Charlotte were to go in a rampage.
But Charlotte won’t just attack them, right? According to their information, Charlotte was not part of the Rebellion, she was a neutral party. Was there something they didn’t take into account? Why was she here!?”
“Is that so?” Charlotte let out a slight chuckle, “You don’t have to worry about the Prisoners, they are not going anywhere…
…play with me a bit.”
“B… but–“
“I’ve been able to control my strength lately, I will make sure none of your toys die.”
“That–“
Before Ronald could even finish what he was going to say, a thunderous noise exploded right in front of his right ear, followed by a loud whistle that seemed to travel from one ear to the next, completely disorienting him.
“Gah!” Ronald quickly fell to the ground as the whistle on his left ear became louder and louder, until suddenly, it just stopped. Ronald then felt something warm on his palm as he touched his right ear. “W… what?” He wiped his ear, and wiped it again, only to find out that he could no longer hear from it.
“W… what just happ–“
“!!!”
Ronald turned around, only for him to fall on his butt as he saw the scenery in front of him. Charlotte was still where she was previously standing, the only thing different was that she had her left arm stretched forward.
But most importantly, in front of her… No, there wasn’t anything in front of her at all.
“Where… where are they?” Ronald could not help but stutter as he looked around him. The other enhanced humans that were not on their side were still there, but those who were directly in front of Charlotte were all gone as if grass that was cut in the shape of a cone.
“E… Eek!” And those that were lucky enough to slightly be outside of that cone quickly backed away as soon as they noticed the ground beside them was plowed into a crevice.
“Hm…” Charlotte then let out a tiny breath as she lowered her arm, “Fuck…
…Maybe I can’t control it after all.”
