While Xylos was finalizing a combat program, he suddenly felt the mana around him become denser. Soon after, the Chief and Marc appear at the arch.
"Well done Xylos!" The Chief cheered, "You managed to charge the book, a few more hours and the rest of the book should activate."
Xylos looked at them blankly and said, "What?"
Xylos was so immersed in his experiments and exercise that he forgot what he was supposed to do for the book. Now that he managed to resolve his limited life span, and upgrade his core and combat abilities. He could take things at a slower pace. He even planned to negotiate some form of partnership with the people of the facility to slowly share his findings and establish himself as a researcher of sorts.
Alas, something happened to the book while he was inside and now he had no idea where the book was or what is happening outside. All his work for the last 6 months was stored on PS000, so if he decides to leave the book behind, he would be set back a lot.
The Chief looked at Xylos and said, "What do you mean 'what'?"
Then, The Chief looked at the stage which was glowing brightly, and said, "I see. You activated the beacon. From the amount of mana flowing into the book, there is definitely a great battle is happening outside. I suggest you remain in here until the battle winds down. Let's see..." The Chief said as he walked on to the stage.
"Welcome back, Kaftan." PS000 said.
"Kaftan, huh, yes, I think my name was Kaftan." The Chief said as a beam of light shot into his forehead, and his eye becomes more clear.
Xylos stepped back and prepare himself for what was to come. There was a street called Kaftan's Crook, so there could be a chance that the Chief was one of the 7 mages that founded Vos. However, there were no mana fluctuations around The Chief so he wasn't sure.
Xylos could see small lines of runes scrolled very quickly on the surface of Kaftan's eyes.
"No!" Xylos shouted as he quickly entered a command on the terminal beside him to encrypt all recent data. But it was too late and the beam disappeared before he managed to execute the command.
"Impressive!" Kaftan mused and smiled, "You managed to accomplish so much in the last 6 months. I was right to trust you. But," his voice becoming sly, "Now you have more work to do transmigrator"
He extended the last words as if he was emphasizing a point. Xylos raised his eyebrows in thought and consideration. He could attack the Chief but considering all the other people in the book, doing so would only be detrimental. He could escape from the book, but he would lose PS000 and all his research would be stalled for a long time. Thinking for a bit he said, "What do I need to do and what do you know about transmigrators?"
"Well, let sit down and get comfortable first, now that I've regained some of my memories, I would love to see how much the world has changed since Vos disappeared." He smiled as he waved his hand and a large 3D video appeared on the stage.
"Wonderful, we get to see several legendary people fight." He said as a box of what looked like popcorn appeared in his embrace.
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"Arkh!" Rayce exerted as he deflected an energy bolt from one of his assailants with his shield. The energy bolt then flew toward another attacker, but it went right through him and faded into the distance. A fireball then flew beside his head and incinerated what looked like a giant poisonous wasp. He then intuitively rolled out of the way as a dark spear pieced into the ground where he was creating a puddle of melted rock. He rolled again as a beam of the yellow light lasered through where he was a moment ago blasting away the person that cast the dark spear.
The battlefield was a mess. The infiltration and retrieval of the book were pretty straightforward, there weren't any legendary people guarding the area except the facility supervisor. Getting a squad of legendaries to steal a book seemed like overkill. Now, there were about 5 squads of legendaries from other corporations fighting over the book. Rayce long lost track of the book during the chase, but he could tell that one of his squad members still has it on him. He had something that looked the book on his back to attract his pursuers.
Before he can get up he felt someone strike him from behind tearing his dud away, before creating a strong shockwave that sent him flying through the air. A barrage of spells and attacks then fell at his previous location but all of them vanished into thin air.
"Damn, it is a dud. It isn't here, let's go." A person casually said to his female partner
"Alright," she said as the barrier around them flickered and the barrage of spells and attack reflected back toward the assailants causing all of them to scatter from the area.
Rayce watched the whole event from far away. The attack didn't damage him but knocked him really far from the battlefield, so far that it would probably take a least 30 minutes to catch up at full speed with his squad. He had no desire to return to the battlefield. especially when the Seryu Twins were taking part. He stalled the pursuers for some time so his role for the moment was done.
"I don't get paid enough to do this." Rayce sighed and said to his communicator, "Carly, do you still have the book?"
Through static and sounds of battle in the background, a youthful voice said "Barely, they haven't been able to pinpoint my location but they are looking nearby. The other members of the squad are keeping them busy. Oh shit! One of them located...Bzzt"
"Carly are you okay?" Rayce shouted back but didn't hear any response, he quickly took out a scanner and sighed in relief; Carly was still alive. At this point, he can only hope for the best. If Carly managed to bring the book to the checkpoint, they could activate the formation and teleport him to safety.
"All the best Carly." Rayce prayed as he strolled toward the nearest village, "They said I can have a vacation after this, so let's see what is nearby."
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"Crap!" Carly said as he looked around him and for as far as his eyes can see there was endless darkness. He went through what he learned at the academy to try and identify his current situation. After some time, he concluded that he was in a temporal cage, an illusion or a pocket dimension created by the enemy. He walked forward a bit to no avail, he thought he would be stuck in the place for a long but then a ray of light shined on him and a large colosseum faded into existence around him. The seats were filled to the brim with people and cheering could be heard all around.
"Welcome to the first Vos colosseum event, on the left is Carly, a rising rookie and on the right is the only fig...ehm...the reigning champion of the Vos, Xylos. Please enjoy the show." An enthusiastic announcer said as a person equipped with a signboard vest, a sharp-pointed bar, and a shield that looked like a manhole lid walked into the arena.
"What the fuck is this?" Carly swore inwardly, and on the other side
"How did I get myself into this." Xylos despaired.
"Fighters ready!"