~boom!
The shockwave from the explosion caused the whole place to shake like a tiny earthquake. Its sound echoed through the empty factory. Rust and dust rose into the air, and a foul odor filled my nostrils.
I pulled my knees closer to , buried my head deeper in them, squeezed the necklace Aiden had given and the jewel left by my brother as tightly as I could.
After the sky turned green and my vision and consciousness shut down, I found myself... inside this empty factory.
It was filled with the sll of rust that had turned to dust. Every explosion nearby, every scream... the slightest sound echoed.
And I... was hiding. Just hiding.
I narrowed my eyes, couldn’t help gritting my teeth.
I had grown stronger.
I had beco an Apostle of a Lord.
What had it done, then?
I never expected to suddenly beco extrely powerful.
I know that getting stronger is not an easy thing to do.
And I know that the progress I’ve made is actually quite rare. They say... I’m talented.
But... having to hide as usual... it’s almost disappointing.
Aiden’s probably fighting. As the hero of the Holar War, this is... not much of a threat to him, probably.
Adrian... had a ridiculous amount of power from the start. He proved that enough in Attracta’s dungeon. He doesn’t need any help either.
The others have the skills, the courage, more than enough to sohow survive.
, anwhile...
I can do nothing but hide.
I don’t want t-
~crack!
I threw everything I had been thinking aside. Suddenly, I was frozen in place, wondering if I had misheard, focusing on the sound I thought I heard in the silence and echoes.
Then... I realized that the inside of the factory was faintly illuminated, and with it a voice joined the echoes that were circulating inside.
The creaking sound of the factory door, rusted and corroded, making its every movent utterly ear-splitting...
I stopped holding my necklace and the jewel, covered my mouth with my hands, and didn’t move at all.
I couldn’t see the door to the factory, I had crawled under a workbench upstairs, after all. I was not easy to find.
But...
Yet...
"Where are you, pretty girl?"
My eyes widened and I had to hold myself back from shaking.
The voice that ca out was... wheezing. Almost as if it belonged to a... creature. But it was also very human. The sound of footsteps that I could hear echoing through the factory, the tallic sound of being carried along the floor...
But the most important thing is...
This guy... was he looking for ?
"I know you’re here, hehehe..."
He... is looking for ...
He’s looking specifically for .
"Co on, let’s not play hide and seek... co out..."
I didn’t go into the factory myself, I teleported here. It must have been impossible for him to have seen ...
How does he know I’m here?
"It’ll be painless, hehehe..."
I paused, my eyes widening even more as I realized that the right question was... none of this.
The real question was...
Why was he looking for ?
Why , of all people?
"Co on, co on, co on..."
Because I’ve been in the spotlight lately?
Or... does he know that I’m an apostle?
Attracta’s last words ca back to . She had emphasized that I must hide my identity, that the other Lords would see as an enemy...
"Huuh!"
All other sounds inside the factory suddenly stopped. The sound of sothing shattering filled my ears, and one of the pieces of tal flying here and there hit just below where I was hiding as the ground shook.
"If you don’t co out... I’ll find you!"
Then he smashed another place.
Another place...
But then... the sounds of smashing suddenly stopped.
And with it, the sound of the tal thing crawling on the ground.
The man also didn’t speak at all...
The factory... suddenly fell into a deep silence.
It was this silence that made realize how sweaty I was, how out of breath I was, even though I was trying not to make a sound.
I quickly regulated my breathing, trying to block out the sound of my sweat falling from a height.
And the silence... continued.
For seconds.
Then... minutes.
The thought of the man leaving filled my mind several tis. But... I refused to move, I didn’t care.
I would hide here for days if I had to.
But then...
"Found you!"
The voice ca from very close, almost at my feet. My eyes widened, I quickly prepared to dash to the side but... I was too slow.
The sound of smashing filled my ears once again. Countless fragnts rained down on the workbench where I was hiding, even crushing in many places.
I froze in place, trying extra hard not to breathe, my whole body was shaking like crazy, but I clenched my teeth so hard to hold myself together that I might have broken a few of them if I tried too hard.
"Oh, I couldn’t find you... I was so sure!"
Maybe he couldn’t find , yes...
But he was right next to .
There was a maximum of two ters between us, he was on the sa floor as .
"Where are you... where are you... co on! I’m bored!"
He started moving again. His shadow fell on through the tiny holes in the workbench where I was hiding, as did the shadow of what he was dragging on the floor behind him... a huge mace.
But he didn’t stop in front of .
He just passed by. First his own shadow receded from , then the shadow of the mace he dragged behind him.
"Aren’t you... here?"
His steps paused for a mont.
"Hmm... Hmmmm..."
The sound of an electronic device echoed through the factory for a mont.
"But... But it says you’re still here! AAAAAHHHH!"
He must have thrown the device to the ground so fast that I heard the sound of it shattering, but I couldn’t even focus on that.
Because... the guy had sothing that showed my location!
How... How was he doing it?
Was there... a tracking device on ?
I paused, only thinking about the idea of a tracker for a mont and discarding the idea at the sa ti.
If he had a tracker... it could tell my exact location.
He wouldn’t have searched so much.
It should have been sothing different...
A device that tracks sothing but can’t pinpoint its location, for example.
"It’s... it’s... so annoying!"
Suddenly, his steps quickened. He began to walk much faster than he normally did, and after a short ti, he even began to carelessly smash things around him, one after another.
The factory shook every ti he swung his mace.
Each step he took gave different emotions, sotis getting farther away, sotis closer.
But... in the end, he never found .
"GET OUT! GET OUT! I’M BORED! I’M SO BORED!"
But he didn’t give up.
He wandered through the whole factory, continuing to destroy, smash, and crush everything in his path...
"IT WON’T BE PAINLESS ANYMORE! IT WILL BE SO PAINFUL!"
Getting angrier and angrier with every passing second.
*******
I was among the lucky ones.
Everyone was teleported to a random spot.
And that included too.
But when I opened my eyes, I found myself not in a dangerous place, but right in the middle of the city center.
It was dangerous at first, though. Most of the attack was on the center, after all.
But after I managed to survive for a short ti, the first place the support, the soldiers and the police ca was to the center.
"I’m Celine Potenbea, daughter of the Potenbea family! Excuse !"
And it was not difficult to attract attention, thanks to my identity.
The mont I shouted out who I was, one of the soldiers ran up to .
"I’m sorry, the city is in chaos right now... We are doing our best but we are lacking. Is there sothing you want, Miss?"
"Is there any way to reach my father, Ronald Potenbea...?"
The soldier quickly shook his head from side to side.
"The attackers belong to a terrorist organization called Saligia. All communication networks within the city are blocked by them. But thanks to Aiden Tenebra, what happened reached the authorities very quickly and the situation is being quickly brought under control."
Thanks to... Aiden?
What could he have possibly done?
"Is Aiden Tenebra... safe?"
"He’s traveling around the city, helping and looking for so people."
Ah, he is looking for us...
"Sorry to interrupt... But one last thing... Any information on Adrian Caleo, Julian Virhen, Olivia Sue Gemma, or Alice Liate?"
Again, the soldier shook his head from side to side.
He could get most of the information now through the goggles on his face. His answers were up-to-the-minute.
"No."
"I see... thank you for your ti."
The soldier nodded, gave a quick salute as I was noble... and then left .
I... simply looked around.
The center was filling up with people quite quickly. It was quite open, so it was actually quite dangerous... but the soldiers had quickly put up a protective barrier and everyone was unaffected by any attack.
The only problem was... no one I knew was here.
I knew I didn’t have to worry too much about Aiden and Adrian.
But Julian? What about Sue...?
We’re not close maybe, yeah... but Alice?
Not having any of my friends with ...
It’s not reassuring in the slightest.
Especially in a city full of explosions, fires, and terrorists everywhere.
"What… the fuck is that?!"
The sound I heard behind made pause, and I quickly turned towards it at the sa ti as everyone else around .
My eyes widened at what I saw as all my thoughts faded from my mind one by one.
A trendous sense of danger arose in , the Sixth Sense was running through my head like a lunatic.
I first felt all the mana in the atmosphere being pulled toward what I was seeing... and then I realized that all the sounds around had disappeared.
What I was seeing... was a do of pure light of gigantic proportions.
It had just been slowly getting dark because the sun was setting. But now... a new sun had risen over the whole city even though it was short-lived.
Then... the shock of a huge explosion violently shook the barrier surrounding the center.
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