Chapter 169: Chapter 88: The Return To Basics (Part 1)
Being teleported over a long distance does take a toll on the body, especially if the person performing the teleportation is almost at his limit of how far he could teleport someone.
Hence, the first thing Abgere feels upon arriving at Kesley is nausea and a really painful headache.
Abgere: "Damn!"
He curses the pain as he falls to the ground holding his head, yet to realize that he is on a searing battlefield prepared for war.
And as he has not realized that, how could he have possibly realized that this battlefield is where he would get the answer to his biggest question - who is he?
A man who can use some Psychic abilities but is not a Psychic, some Ghostly abilities but is not a Ghost, some Vampiric abilities but is not a Vampire, and so on. He also has a mission given by himself to himself of exterminating all the Hellfires and the Phoenix.
Adding all of that information up, what is the result?
What exactly does he end up being?
The legends had many great and widely popular figures. There was a God, a Devil, an overseer, a legendary sorceress, and so on. And if one of the legends are to be believed, all of these legendary figures would have been reincarnated for this war.
There would be someone just like that God, and someone just like that Devil, someone just like that overseer, and someone just like that Sorceress.
But, he can't picture himself being any of them.
So, does he even have a place in this war?
Or, is he just some plankton trying to disrupt the plans the God, Ozyllus, spent aeons working on? And why is he doing so without having much reason to disrupt them?
Abgere: "Why now!?"
He yells at himself.
He yells at himself for thinking about such nonsensical things right now.
He is in the middle of a war, the battles are starting to heat up, and the ground on which they are to be held has already been heated up, so how can he possibly waste time thinking such pointless things?
Who is he? Who in the world cares who is he?
Abgere: "Ugh!"
So, trying to recover from his headache and his nausea slowly lessening as well, he stands himself up again, finally seeing the rubble he is on.
The rubbles with pieces of advertisements or graffiti on them and the broken roadsigns that somehow survived being blown away by getting stuck in the rubble, all of these things tell him that he is in Kesley.
However, the city doesn't even look like a fraction of what it used to be.
Somewhere far away in the distance, the skyscrapers and the well-known economical hub still seems to flicker but here where he is right now, only burning rocks remain.
Abgere: "Eh!"
And just then, his instinct screams at him that he should prepare himself, that something he needs to prepare himself for is about to happen. And as his stomach churns with that excitement and anxiety towards the unknown future, his nausea comes resurfacing, making him fall to his knees and spill his guts out.
Having someone vomiting on a chunk of dark, seared rocks is certainly not a pretty sight. In fact, it's a horrible sight.
The only reason he himself does not become more nauseous just by looking at it is that no one is that disgusted with their own filth.
And yet,
Abgere: "W-what the hell am I doing!?"
Anyone can be disgusted by their own weakness.
Abgere: "Why am I wasting time like this!? I need to … need to …"
Just then, crouching down and cursing himself, the anomaly of a supernatural sees from the corner of his eyes - many pairs of shining golden boots in the distance.
It is like in the middle of the darkening night and the unholy ground, a dozen miniature suns have risen.
And as his vision slowly starts to clear, the distraction helping calm his nausea too, he notices the ones wearing those boots are also wearing a modernized version of the knightly armours and helms, all golden.
Everything that isn't golden on their body is covered in darkness, the shine from their gold the only thing that is visible.
Abgere: "If ... If I am right about this,"
He had heard about them. He had not much business with them but being attached to the world of supernaturals and knowing about all the races unlike the ordinary members of the lower echelons of Vermilion, there was no way he would not have known who these armour-clad, monstrously powerful, ghostly figures are.
Abgere: "T-the Spectres!"
The Spectres, the strongest army in the world, the ones who many bet could take down Vermilion if they tried to - are standing there.
No, actually, they are marching on.
They are marching on in a direction as if they have a clear destination in mind.
And he realizes, the direction they are going in, that is the direction his final target should be at. That is the direction Vermilion's base tower should be at.
And realizing this, for a couple of moments, he remains dumbstruck, and after that,
Abgere: "Ha! Ha! … Ha!"
He asks the Spectres from afar a question they would not be able to hear,
Abgere: "Are you people going to kill him, or help him?"
He asks them so, and stands himself up, no trace of nausea or anxiety anymore but replaced with something darker, something more personal and something more destructive.
Abgere: "Are you people going to be my allies, or my enemies?"
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Ross: "You people are such morons, right? Right? RIGHT?"
The annoying-psycho-freak says deridingly as he stands in front of the underground path, blocking our way.
Ross: "Though I guess it's not just you people. Chang Lu and Ms Laurie Brown are both morons too, right? Right? RIG-"
Ethan: "Has someone ever told you how annoying you are?"
Cutting him off, Ethan says with a bored expression.
Ethan: "You know annoyance cause stress and stress piling over and over leads to extreme stress, which sometimes leads to people doing crimes, or something stupid like that, maybe suicide even."
Ross: "...?"
Ethan: "Doesn't that indirectly make you a murderer? After all, you were the one who started the cycle by annoying people."
Well, you are one to talk! All you are doing right now is trying to annoy him back.
Ross: "Well, looks like the rumours weren't wrong. You are a pain in the ass human being, Ethan Kales."
Yeah, thanks for noticing!
Ethan: "I would rather not associate myself with your ass but I like the 'pain' part."
Ross: "Eh, whatever!"
With his lips twisted up in disgust, he shifts his gaze from Ethan to me,
Ross: "I am more interested in that guy anyway."
Ethan: "Oh! You are breaking my heart!"
With a click of his tongue, Ross says,
Ross: "I am told that this guy is a big deal, that the Phoenix spent a lot of time and effort trying to bring him into our organization and now the entire supernatural world is in an uproar because he formed a third faction, one that opposes all of the involved parties."
Well, I am flattered.
Ross: "I wanted to see what all the fuss is about. I can't say I am impressed though. It seems to me like you can't do shit on your own."
Kais: "..."
Ross: "Still, want to make sure of it myself or I won't be satisfied."
Kais: "Is that why you are so adamantly blocking our path?"
Right as we entered the shrine, we headed to the treasury, only to be stopped by all of us sensing (and Ethan seeing) the presence of this guy near the gate leading to the underground where the treasury is supposed to be.
However,
Ross: "Oh, I have no problem with letting you guys go do whatever you want to do, I just want to do what I want to do."
Shrivelling with excitement like he was the first time we saw him, Ross Green smiles menacingly and points his finger straight at me.
Ross: "I want to see what you are made of."
What I am made of, huh?
Gabriel: "You sure about that, Ross? Aren't you disobeying orders?"
Ross: "The only order given to us is to kill Abgere. And if the pipsqueak or Ms I-only-care-about-the-job do it in place of me, it doesn't make any difference. We all still get the reward."
Gabriel: "The reward, huh?"
As he repeats the words 'the reward', it seems like he is unconvinced of something. But,
Ethan: "Well, that's quite convenient for us, I guess."
With a deadpan face, he turns to me and says as if ordering an underling,
Ethan: "Take care of this guy!"
Well, I was prepared to but your attitude makes me want to not do it.
Kais: "You sure, if I am not around-"
Ethan: "I know."
With an uncomfortable smirk, Ethan turns back to the treasury.
Ethan: "I know, but it doesn't look like forcing our way through a Psychic as powerful as this will be very efficient."
Well, if you are talking about efficient, then you mocking people is certainly not efficient either. But, I get it.
If he knows, and if he still thinks there's no other choice, then that's that.
Kais: "Alright then, go ahead."
I say and turn to Ross, who steps away from the treasury with a smirk, allowing the other three to go on ahead.
Before leaving though,
Gabriel: "He's pretty hard to beat. Be careful and don't let him tire you out!"
Kais: "If you want to give me advice, say something other than the very two sentences I already know about him."
Gabriel: "Hah! I am afraid I don't know much about his fighting technique either. All I know is second-hand information too."
Gabriel then turns to the treasury but Ethan whispers to me,
Ethan: "Well, do you play role-playing games?"
Kais: "I have tried a few, I guess."
Ethan: "Then, in their terms, his attack stat is almost the same as you but his defence is ridiculously high."
Kais: "..."
Ethan: "In everything aside from his defence, he doesn't seem to be any stronger than you, but with that kind of defence, he is almost invincible."
And with that, he turns and leaves and the other two follow suit.
And with that, I am left to face the man who was cunning, or rather, cautious enough to realize that we would try to come to the shrine and hence had previously visited it so he could directly teleport here if the situation called for it.
A man, who with his cautiousness, was able to even outspeed the fastest Hellfire who Sona is fighting outside.
Kais: "Damn this deja vu."
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