บท 83: Meeting the Blind Lady again!

The next destination was in Didsbury, a suburb of Manchester.

A detached house in a wide, leafy street. A gate and a path led through a garden that was perfectly neat, with an array of spring flowers. Masaru raised the knocked on the door slamming it like he was at home, he naturally knew of this woman and did not care if he offended her.

He was simply could not fathom how this Nexus group try playing heroes for Humanity, yet despite their acts as heroes they still go off placing all the burdens on the so called five kids, kids who had special powers. However, he could only endure these fools so he could get more information about these creatures he will have to face eventually.

A minute later the door opened showing a thin, dark-haired woman who stood there, not looking at them but past them or more accurate she looked at Masaru's direction, her eyes covered by two circles of black glass.

"It's been a few years since I saved you in the Vatican, and never would I believe that you would still get actively involved into this kind of world" Masaru spoke, Susan was shocked she recognize this voice and it was the same boy who saved her from that hell hole all those years ago.

"Masaru?" Susan asked,

"The one and only, can we come in... Think we found one of your kids" Masaru said nonchalantly, he was really curious what Nexus would do once one of the five was discovered.

"I'm not her son!" Matthew retorted at Masaru while Richard was suspicious.

"Your name was not Steve?" Richard asked,

Masaru smirked since he did not care being exposed, if needed he could simply rewrite Richard's memories in an instant "I am not the same as Matthew Freeman who got involved in this situation, I have been sent to investigate those people who want to use him instead"

Richard felt like he was tricked by a boy which hurt his pride, but since they were going in the left the questions for later.

"Why are you getting involved?" Susan asked as she walked in the front while holding Masaru's sleeve as an excuse to stick close to him, Masaru smiled wryly as he knew this woman was something else.

"I got involved when I saved you in the Vatican... You people sure know how to play heroes but making more trouble than it's worth" Masaru complained.

One of the servants of the house went and brought a pot of tea with cups placing it on the table between the couches, soon Susan began talking with Richard and Matthew including about how Matthew fits in the story about the Old Ones.

But she kept her explanation short since there was another man who could answer their questions about Raven's Gate, Professor Sanjay Dravid who was currently in London.

Masaru answered some of Richard's questions before he and Matthew went to relax in another room so Susan and Masaru could start their private conversation.

Susan is quiet, she could feel Masaru was angry at her and Nexus, "Do you think Nexus is a secret? If we can find it then others can too! Have you ever considered that there is a spy in your group?"

Susan was shaken at this thought, "So I want you to tell me Susan, is there another gate apart of this Raven Gate which I do not know of?"

Susan took a deep breath and began telling Masaru about the gate they located in Peru, "Yes, we have found another gate in Preu, their infamous Nazca lines. Although we are not certain how the gate functions, but we have already arranged someone to research it ahead of time"

Masaru naturally knew of the Nazca lines especially how on a night all the stars link with the lines yet for a single star, he could naturally already guess how these people were planning to unlock that gate so he immediately sent a recording device to Ajuka through teleportation magic.

"Keep the discussion between the two of us a secret, like I said we are not certain if there is a spy and best that there really isn't one... I will have some of my subordinates keep an eye on that gate, you best keep contact with them since I will have them kill anyone who gets close to that gate. It may be severe, I will rather be certain than taking a gamble"

Susan nodded at Masaru's words, she was only a blind human so she could not do much but at least thanks to her years of experience she could sense no lies in Masaru's words which placed her at ease. "I will speak with them during our next meeting, could you prevent killing till then?"

"Fine" Masaru said before leaving the room.

"You have done flirting?" Richard asked sarcastically.

"I'm only 15 you know" Masaru said nonchalantly without feeling bothered about Richard's sarcasm, he knew there would be strains but they need to focus on the problem.

Richard glanced at Masaru wondering if he was really fifteen, "Yep, that would be one ticket straight to jail for such a relationship"

Masaru sighed feeling tired to deal with Richard who became like this, "I know you have many questions but for your own sake ignore it, my job is only to ensure the safety of the two of you and prevent Raven's Gate from opening. However, I need to have concrete information on why they need Matthew so specifically as an ingredient for their Ritual"

Richard stood up getting ready to leave, he still wondered if he did not hallucinate that night when he came face to face with a hound. Since after all, a dead animal should leave behind a corpse. "You mean that Witchery and stuff? Does it exist?"

Masaru smirked as he decided to ask questions that could answer his question, "That hound you saw that night, was that real? Want me to refresh that memory of yours?"

Hearing that question Richard shut up instead, that hideous dog was definitely not something that should exist in the world. Since the appointment time was late at night the three of them got in their car heading straight to London, by the time they reach there it should be time to meet.

Masaru had several theories on how they needed Matthew for their ritual, but then again he might have to let this boy get captured so he could lure all the fishes with a single bait.

'I will wait it out a bit more, the information I gathered so far about the Old Ones is quite intriguing' Masaru thought as he watches the city lights going on as the night came calling.

Their destination was the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, London which Professor Sanjay Dravid recently opened, when they arrived there was nothing new he told the three of them about the Old Ones.

These were dark creatures who survived on human misery many many years ago before the bible even started, how they once wanted to rule the world.

But like most fictional stories they were transported to another dimension by five children with supernatural powers. The Five, or the Gatekeepers, they are known as such. After they won the battle, they went and built the Raven's Gate to hold the evil creatures away.

According to Professor Sanjay Dravid, Mrs Deverill and the villagers of Lesser Malling are part of a group of witches who seek the return of the Old Ones by opening Raven's Gate using witchcraft.

Masaru could agree with this point since it added to everything he found out by himself and the reports he read from the Pendragons, but then another finer detail was given. They intended to sacrifice Matthew in order to open the gate.

"This whole witch and stuff. If it was not for my experience then It really would have been difficult to believe it all. But gatekeepers? He is but a boy!" Richard took Matthew's hand and started to leave.

Masaru, however, was wondering for a while now why the room became cold all of the sudden, he felt some mana was gathering on the ground floor but from the feeling, it was death attribute

'Necromancer?' Masaru thought as he stood up walking out of the room ahead of everyone, on the ground floor is where all the dinosaur bones were pieced together and some were even hanging.

Masaru went down the stair feeling the death attribute mana being quite thick in the surroundings, there was even white fog covering the floor up to his knees. He looked left and then right yet he sees no one so he cast detection magic for both Life and Undead.

Using the two detection spells he managed to only find two strong signature targets outside so he went outside in a hurry because of the result he gained from those detections... Old ones. He was certain they opened a smaller gate to allow weaker creatures to come into the human world as it happened back in Kyoto.

"S-re-So, y-gu-you're the one who kept getting in our way" a Bald middle-aged man who was waiting together with a beautiful young lady in the alleyway near the Museum spoke in a broken tone.

Masaru was taken aback as he did not expect to meet intelligent creatures this soon. Masaru immediately summoned his sacred gear.

[Don't call me! Don't CALL ME OUT!!! I don't want to touch those disgusting things... huh? You will take your grandpa's place? Your such a cute little grand daughter]

Masaru felt quite annoyed at the exchange in the middle of the current situation but he still covered his fingers with liquid metal produced from his fingerless gloves turning them sharper and pointed.

"I smell our blood in your veins... why you oppose our king?" The lady spoke

'THIS!?' Masaru was taken aback at how an answer for his theory in regards to Misla Bael would be answered here, if he was not strong mentally then he would have been affected by this.

However, he broke off in a sprint, he unsealed his strength and manipulated his KI cycles throughout his body in full throttle. Dust rose behind him like a trail forming along the way he passes by, within a moment he already appeared before the old man and he slams his fist into his face.

The impact of the punch forced the old man to blast off into the skies, ignoring the lady who was taken aback at how decisive Masaru was while Masaru himself leaps into the air towards the old man.

From the detection he knew this old man was similar to the first creature he fought back in the Vatican, it's super regeneration ability and that single-core that moves around within his body making it hard to kill him in one stroke.

The old man did not expect to be attacked so soon, while in mid-air he started to shed off some of his skin revealing his true purple skin that was underneath but much bulkier than his original body was before.

When he saw Masaru was already onto him he threw a right Jab at Masaru, the attack missed when Masaru used wind magic to manipulate the direction of his movement mid-air while dodging the attack. Arriving in front of the old man, he unleashed another jab with much more force compared to his first fist, smashing the old man's face causing it to cave in.

It was like the two of them froze mid-air for a moment before the old man was launched like a bullet breaking through wind barriers a few times before crash landing into the street, the surrounding ground shook, the streets tore apart while surrounding buildings began to crack and windows shattered.

Masaru already sent an SOS signal to Pendragons so they will be on their way so Masaru could focus on handling these two, the lady already ripped off most of her skin revealing a reptile skin and her face was still the same but she has a snake tongue which was long.

"Hell no!" Masaru commented as he felt a bit grossed out because of the long tongue with that ugly face, he simply could not accept that such a beautiful lady would house such a horrendous monster within her body.

The lady leapt towards, seeing that this lady was much more skilled than the old man. Masaru materialized his five pairs of devil wings, with the usage of his wings he managed to keep himself in the air while avoiding her attack.

"DIE!" the lady yelled at the top of her lungs,

"No no! Keep those dirty hands away!" Masaru used wind magic to compress a very large volume of air into a tiny sphere, within the sphere millions of wind blades compressed together were flying wildly within it.

When the lady nearly reached him, Masaru used space magic to disappear from her range of attack but instantly appeared in front of her with his hand smashing the wind sphere into the face of the woman.

When the sphere exploded, the millions of wind blades came free, destroying her head along with her body in the process. Luckily unlike that super regeneration creature whom Masaru fought with first. this lady was a creature who only had strong defence on the body but the head was relatively weak.

It was luck that he many experiences in facing against these creatures, so Masaru could respond to the situation quite relatively faster and deal with these creatures faster.

The old man had just recovered enough to stand up, saw his companion get killed so easily roared out of anger but he still felt a bit of fear towards this boy. He had faced this boy only once but he heard from his comrades in the other world that they had faced this boy several times already.

And from the looks of it, this boy was becoming more and more proficient in killing them and their kind which should not continue. It cannot!

While the old man was having such thoughts Masaru already used warp movement magic to traverse through space appearing behind the old man with a similar sphere, however, this sphere was different.

Instead of a regular air bomb, Masaru compressed multiple air blades enchanted with life steal effects within this sphere which were the perfect technique for this regeneration monster to cut up the core in one go.

The old man only felt a cold hand slamming his back, it could be because of the body he possessed. However, despite his lack of sense for pain. His spinal cord snapped at the heavy blow of Masaru's palm strike before he felt something slicing everything within him to pieces till he exploded like a bloated balloon.

Looking at the two bodies turning into Dust this confirmed that they were indeed creatures summoned from the Old One's dimension to posses Human bodies, but when Masaru turned to sense where Matthew was to see if they're fine he could not sense them at all.

Not to mention Sanjay Dravid was dead,

'The Pendragons are not here yet!' He thought, he sensed the museum again but he could not pick up signs of Richard either, could it be the both of them got kidnapped while He was distracted by the creatures.

Masaru could not wait for the Pendragons to arrive any longer so he teleported towards Lesser malling which required him to jump several teleportations before he could reach there. As he wanted to check the road along the way to see if he could find Matthew's kidnappers, he was certain that it was Deverill since the woman detected his tracker and removed it from Matthew.

"This is going to be a shitty night", Masaru finally arrived in Lesser Mailings however there were no signs of Matthew at all, even the power plant there was no activity.

"I will camp the night here" Masaru spoke to himself as he flew the highest point of the power plant to sleep for the night as he was a tad bit tired from his confrontations, he felt better though, the fact he could feel his soul was close to completely healed.

>\/<

It was late morning Matthew woke up in a wooden room after being captured by Deverill and Noah last night in the Museum, the last thing he remembered was Richard was buried among the rubble before he lost consciousness.

"Richard? How am I going to escape? I have to get out or else I will be killed!"

Looking at his surroundings, Matthew realized that the floor was made from wood planks. If he could pull it out then he could but a trap.

After coming to an answer on how he could proceed, Matthew pulled off the mattress before he found a piece of an iron bar that was part of the bed frame that snapped loose. With a bit of twisting and pulling he managed to get off a piece of iron about 10 centimetres, he began flattening one end before he officially started to pull out the nails.

One by one Matthew started to pull off the nails out of the wooden floors so he could take out a plank each time. When it comes for lunch Matthew covered the hole he made in the floor with a mat to cover it, and when Noah left the room he continued his works.

And it was only later that night the hole was large enough for an adult to fall down from the second floor crashing through the first floor into the ground floor.

When the time came Noah enters the room to take Matt to Mrs Deverill,

"You old pig, your nothing but a little loser who behaves like a dog for an old woman!"

Matthew taunts Noah to come and get him,

"We are going to kill you tonight, and I am going to watch it close how they slaughter you like a pig" Noah muttered as he angrily walked towards Matthew, he did not notice the oddity of the mat that wrinkled strangely as if sinking.

The moment when he stepped on it he fell into the first floor with the sickle he had in his hand, when he crashed through the first floor he let go of his sickle due to the force of the impact. But the moment he crashed into the ground floor the sickle impaled his chest and he died.

With no time to waste Matthew ran out of the room not daring to waste time to check if Noah was dead or not, he immediately took off on the road running and running, the worst thing was the fact it was raining tonight so his clothes were stuck onto his body from being soaked in rain, luckily for him tonight there was no loop magic so he was still running but soon a car arrived next to him.

The car that arrived was a black sports car, jaguar made.

"Good Heavens boy get in!" Michael Mars came out of the car helping Matthew into the car.

"I have seen people at the nuclear plant, you don't have to worry boy I will have the police investigate them and Mrs Deverill. I can't believe such a thing happened" Michael said with a serious face.

'Didn't Masaru say...'

But then Matthew remembered Masaru's words and he was about to act but the smart old man already had a tazer, with a jolt he ends up knocking Matthew right out.

"Hmph! If only that damned woman did not screw up so many times I would have not needed to make a move myself" Michael said,

Masaru who was nearby and watching this entire scene playing out in front of him, "With this, I can finally follow them and see just how these madmen intend to open a gate"

Masaru turned his head in the direction of the power plant where he could finally sense Richard being held captive and it appears Michael was heading in the same direction with Matthew. Since he knew the villagers would be present, he immediately removed his battle gear and got dressed in villager attire so he could slip within the crowd.

Using Trackless steps when they arrived at the Power plant, Masaru merged within the crowds following them inside towards the reactor chamber.

The reactor chamber was a great circle with silver walls and a domed ceiling at least thirty metres high, The floor was covered with black and white squares along with strange runic scribbles, and the roof was made of steel, with red and blue gantries extending over each other like crosses high above the ground.

On the second floor, there was the Observation Window that went around in a circle which was where Masaru was currently taking his seat among all the people. Currently, he as well as every participant was waiting for the rest of the people to gather before he would start his attack in earnest.

Across the centre of the chamber two railway tracks ran parallel with each other and there was a massive tower mounted on wheels so that it could move backwards and forwards. The tower's presence dominated the chamber by how grotesque its appearance was.

For the moment, it was silent. Masaru could see that Richard was being held captive at one side on the ground floor, however, Masaru decided that it was best he waited for Matthew to be here and have them start to be sure that everyone involved was here. But luckily he did not have to wait that long...