Kapitel 75: He who Treads the Narrow Road

Garland could only look at the fading light in frustration. He thought he was winning and this made him confident. And so, with victory in sight, Garland and Voyager went for gold. They wanted to capture all the modified soldiers as well as their technology.

Since the enemy soldiers proved to be a handful, they divided the entire army of New Birth Forth, save a few to guard the Fort and trap Arthur's team. With this, it would be easy to capture the three. But they were wrong.

As it turned out, they walked right into Lowengren's plan, and now, only a handful of survivors remained. Morning, Evening, and Dawn, done in by the Green Suns.

"Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall." Lowengren laughed.

Garland lifted his cannon in search for Lowengren. He kept shooting several cannon attacks and laser attacks on the vicinity where Lowengren and the girl were last seen.

"LOWENGREN!" Garland screamed angrily.

Garland's Armor took to the sky and started bombarding the area with attacks. The Exoskeletons with him flew higher while the other Armor's continued their barrage. The massive rockets destroyed the rubles and the underground base was revealed.

"All surviving JPE's destroy this district in front of me!" Garland ordered in anger.

Little did they know, that someone was waiting just behind Garland's squad. At the blazing bright lights of Meryl, a Pangean Exoskeleton had zoomed out and positioned itself discreetly behind them.

The JPE's soon arrived and unloaded their bombardments.

BOOM!

A series of massive explosions shook the ground as the entire block in front of Garland was reduced to rubble.

Garland gazed with intense anger in his eyes as the rubbles of the buildings collapsed from the massive attacks.

"Such a fool to the end." A mocking voice was transmitted over to Garland's Armor.

"LOWENGREN!" Garland exploded in anger. His attack had missed again.

"JPE's! Scout the area! I want this entire area cleared! Fire at any human signatures in this entire area!" Garland screamed.

Garland then turned to Lander and was about to give more orders when he realized it.

No JPE's responded.

As the surviving JPE's rushed by and dropped their payload, the waiting Exoskeleton, also fired shots.

His attacks weren't noticed due to the cover of the loud and huge explosions.

It's two hands were equipped with a miniature version of the Solarium cannon that Arthur used. With it, it shot down all eighteen JPE's in a matter of seconds.

The Exoskeleton was equipped with Superior Imaging, allowing its pilots to zoom in and out with just the movements of their eyes.

Though the pilot couldn't fully emulate Arthur's Chaos Order, it could calculate the locations of these jets as well as determine their future locations. Emulating Seeker's Unlocking allowed this pilot to even tap on Seeker's Advanced Recall. At this moment, the Pilot could easily fight on the same level an Advent Inhuman could.

With time on his side and a reaction speed which he minimized to match the fastest movements that the Superior Imaging could follow, a simple stroke of both its arms which shot several bursts of green lights massacred the JPE's.

After which, it took its time to slowly approach Garland and his squad who was busy observing the sight before them. He stood among the Exoskeletons and then he began his massacre.

The shots were precise and the close-range allowed him to maximize his turns to immediately kill all the Exoskeletons save for one.

At the sound of the burst fire, Lander immediately moved to evade. This was a true veteran-hero. The surprise attack did very little to phase it. Lander turned and started shooting at the Exoskeleton which was zooming upwards as it continued firing a long blast towards the Armor.

Lander immediately started attacking the enemy. As his suit started rising in the air, the long blast of attacks started blasting the Armor. Despite the Exoskeleton's fast turns, its attack managed to remain on a consistent spot. Though the burst of light was intermittent, there were so many bursts that it would seem like a constant beam hitting the Armors.

The Armor's pulled back and started to attack the enemy and Lander himself charged forth. The Armor's attacks were wide and visible. It was something that the enemy could easily evade.

Lander knew. It was up to him to defeat this flying foe.

Before acquiring the title, the Hero of Helion's Tragedy, Lander was known as the Tasmanian Devil. Named after a Post-Modern era cartoon character known for its tornado-like movements.

Lander's whirling blitz was unstoppable and untouchable. None who faced it lived. Each attack was intentionally shot to minimize the possibility of evading the next. This was the skill that made him a hero.

Lander began his twist and started shooting. Several green blasts missed Lander who was now giving chase to this Pangean Exoskeleton.

Lander's Exoskeleton was equipped with a specialized mini-gun that could even kill Armor pilots. Such technology was not mass-produced among Exoskeleton's due to its high costs and only Lander was equipped with it. Any of these bullets could easily pierce through and kill the Pangean Pilot. And under the cover of the night sky, these "Traceless" bullets would be virtually unseen by the naked eye.

However, what Lander never expected, was that the enemy was able to see these bullets clearly.

In Seeker's future, the Earth's survivors tried to find ways to reproduce the Paths of the Ranked Heroes and World Champions. But it all ended in failure as it would take too many resources and too much time for it to bear any usable results.

In order to imitate or reproduce a similar path isn't just about copying the biological changes within the Unlocks physical and neurological traits. To be able to copy it, would mean to be able to emulate the person's brain itself. The imitator has to feel what the imitated feels. The imitator must also think and even believe according to the level of faith that the imitated has.

And as no two persons can ever be the same, no two Paths which is exactly the same could ever appear. The ability to have multiple paths was even harder. Believers tend to "believe" in their specific path and therefore cannot believe in another. The Overcomers were of a similar vein and there was also a sense of pride that hindered them. To forcefully make a Believer imitate another would result in psychological or mental problems and so this research was discarded despite its potential.

With the disregard of this study, the possibility to make an ultimate fighter was a far-fetched one as the impossibilities of uniting even two paths were impossible.

Until he appeared.

Meryl's eyesight was unique. No form of darkness or brightness could ever hinder its sight. By being able to emulate a part of this path, the Traceless bullets were easily seen especially since a continuous green flash filled the area.

However, seeing these bullets and being able to evade it, are two different things. Even if he had Arthur's instant calculation and Seeker's emulation of higher ranks of the Unlocking, he wouldn't be able to dodge an attack of this level. Lander was just too skilled and experienced in fighting against Exoskeletons.

But as the bullets drew closer, the Pangean soldier immediately flew directly towards Lander.

The Pangean Pilot came prepared. After regaining consciousness, he watched several classified footage brought by the Alakaster sisters. These recorded Lander's battle techniques and some footage of his fights. The Pangean pilot even watched bits and parts of Lander's interviews.

And since Lander wasn't even Unlocked, mimicking him was very easy. Such was the absurd skill of this Pangean Pilot.

Eagle called his Path "The Narrow Road" for only he could walk in it.

With expert turns and twist, the Pangean Exoskeleton evaded bullets by the millimeters, as it executed a twist similar to Lander's but far superior.

He flew directly towards Lander and aimed for Lander's jetpack. A small burst of green light struck Lander who then lost control of his Exoskeleton and was sent twirling recklessly and crashed on a nearby abandoned building.

The attack which no man had survived, he easily evaded. The Hero of Helion's Tragedy was easily defeated as if it was swatting an aged fly on his last flight.

The Pangean Exoskeleton then landed on the ground, not wasting any second to continue shooting green beams that killed more and more soldiers.

Garland panicked and immediately revealed his trump card. His left arm retracted inside and transformed into a cannon slightly different from his right arm.

A loud and continuous strange sound blasted through the air along with a powerful shockwave. Lander, who was at the rubble couldn't move as his heart was gripped with a painful and paralyzing sensation at hearing this strange sound.

Garland's armor was equipped with a noise canceller to prevent him from getting affected. He then switched his right arm to cannon mode and aimed to fire at the enemy.

"So this is Peal's of Thunder?" A curious voice spoke through the Exoskeleton's speakers. Garland couldn't hear this comment but it was clear based on the movements of the Exoskeleton that he wasn't affected.

"Too bad I'm an Inhuman now." The casual and gentle voice was heard before it dashed off to destroy Garland's Armor.

Alean stared in shock at Arthur's explanation.

"You mean Lynd's already awake?" Alean was shocked.

"Yes. Your hypothesis proved correct Doctor." Arthur gave a nod to Charles and then immediately flew towards the last battlefield.

Alean gave a meaningful look to Charles.

"It would take time for Lynd or Seeker to adjust if we introduced the coolant liquid to Lynd's body. At most, we could only stabilize their brains before I could develop something that they can use. However, my studies led me to a certain hypothesis. What if instead of the coolant liquid, we give them blood from a human who has survived these experiments? Looks like it worked. They probably drained Lynd's and Seeker's blood and replaced it a Dawn Soldiers blood." Charles laughed.

Garland's Armor laid in pieces. His body was suffering from various 3rd-degree burns. He couldn't even move.

"Monster." Garland stared in disbelief at the Pangean pilot who hovered before him.

Lowengren figure appeared and stood next to the Armor.

"Just kill me."

"Not yet. What would happen to the remaining forces inside the fort if they can't communicate to you but detect that your Armor is still up and running? Killing you now would send them in total panic and retreat. If you're alive, they'd send a rescue team. Such is the honor reserved for the Heroes of Australia." Lowengren smiled.

Immediately after Lowengren said those words, several lights could be seen flying over the Fort.

"Why are you doing this? We've already lost! Spare my men!" Garland screamed angrily but pleaded at the end.

"You still don't get it, do you? No matter how you try to block the signals from outside, satellite imaging can still capture the explosions we did. What will the greedy, technologically hungry countries do if they noticed such a massive explosion that damaged nearly half of your Fort?"

Garland then realized it.

"No! You can't!"

"There's surprisingly a lot of JPE's remaining. Can you handle it? You need to finish them quickly. By Colonel's estimates, you have about 10 minutes until they arrive."

The Exoskeleton zoomed immediately.

"I guess I shouldn't kill you yet. I'll let you see the death of your last forces and how the foreigners you hate so much will raid your fort and steal all your techs." Lowengren shrugged.

He who walks the Narrow Road walked the impossible Path. Aside from his ability to use multiple Paths, he could combine it with his other learned paths. Switching from one Path to another was theorized to be impossible as the clash of the different mental and psychological states could result in a mental and psychological implosion.

But not him. He did not suffer from theorized mental and psychological backlash of diving into the minds and hearts of several Ranked Heroes and World Champions.

With all these Paths converging, the remaining forces were all eliminated within 5 minutes.

What was once believed to be a vast Path of endless possibility, he managed to turn it into a single path.

He is the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord.

He who treads the Narrow Road, Lynd Indigo, the "Prophet Elijah" has awakened.