Novel New Game+

Chapter Fifty-Eight: Death and Distraction
“Here! We get a good shot here!” The cameraman pointed towards an open area.

The news reporter hurriedly took his position and the broadcast started.

“We are here live in New Birth Park to witness one of history’s worst mass shootings. There was over a thousand crowd gathered to witness Algonites first concert when two armed men started a shootout.”

Several gunshots were heard in the distance as the news reporter ducked in surprised.

“As you can see, the shootout continues as the police have tried to reason with the two armed men. After the death of three policemen, the police have then since used force as the order to kill the two armed men as dozens of civilians were either wounded or killed since thirty minutes ago.”

The news reporter on the main office had a shocked expression at the shootout.

“That’s just horrible Bill. Any idea on who the shooters are?”

“The police have yet to identify the two shooters. They have a relatively small build. It is even suspected that one of them is a woman. But as of now, we are all in the dark in who they are.”

“Bill, can you clarify the number of dead civilians?”

“There are about thirty civilians outside the barricade but we know the shooters continued their massacre towards the inside of the concert ground. We can only estimate that more than a hundred were caught in the crossfire.”

“Bill, you mentioned that there were some cops killed during the shootout, are we to assume that these two armed men are experts?”

“Yes! The shooters are clearly experts at handling the gun. The first officer was killed with a headshot when the armed man shot from a distance of more than 20 meters. We actually positioned ourselves a bit further away in fear of getting shot.”

“How far away are you from the barricade?”

“The police created a parameter about 50 meters from the entrance while I am about a hundred and twenty meters out from the main barricade which should-”

A bullet pierced through the head of the reporter and then the camera immediately shut down.

It was Arthur wearing a different mask. He was hiding in the shade of the dark.

As the civilians who were huddled at the area panicked and started running away, Arthur immediately unloaded a barrage of bullets on all the media reporters and cameramen.

Despite using an automatic sub-machine gun, Arthur was able to ensure that every single shot would kill someone or would destroy a camera.

The police immediately panicked and started running back towards the reporters to shoot Arthur. But Meryl also resurfaced from the barricades and immediately started shooting. Just like Arthur, not a single bullet was wasted.

All the police officers in the area were killed within a minute.

After killing all the cops in the area, Meryl and Arthur immediately sprinted shooting the night lights and the CCTV cameras to hide in the shade of darkness.

Arthur immediately jumped on the convertible and drove away. He took out the mask he was wearing. It was a different mask from the first mask he wore when he started the shooting.

Meryl jumped on to the seat next to him and removed the mask she was wearing. In her hand was another mask. It was the first mask that Arthur was wearing.

“Good acting. The cops really believed that they were facing the two of us.”

Arthur had removed his mask and sneaked out after the chaos of the first shootout. Meryl switched from one mask to another in order to make the police believe that they were still facing the two of them. Arthur had actually sneaked out of the barricade during the panicked exodus. He walked over to the media and waited until the opportune time.

“Why did you wait for the media to arrive before killing them?”

“We can’t kill the police yet if the media is there. If they get a hold of a single video, the military might send out their forces. It’s better to keep the enemy guessing on how good we are. So I waited for all the media to arrive so I can kill them. That way no clear video could be used to describe our appearances or how we left the scene.”

Meryl sat quietly. As the seconds passed tears started to fall down her cheeks.

“We still have more task to do. This won’t be the first time you will be killing innocent lives. Better brace yourself. And you better start changing now.” Arthur opened a small bag at the bottom revealing a jacket. Meryl remained unmoved.

“How do you do it?”

“The truth is; their lives are expendable. If we want the human race to live on, we should be this brutal. The lives of Lynd and Seeker far outweigh their life.”

“With just that you can easily kill a hundred innocent lives?”

“One hundred fifteen. Most were over 20’s, some teenagers and a few mid 30’s. I killed all with a headshot. They felt no pain when they left this Earth. That’s about the only thing I can do. And no, that truth is not enough. Those hundred and fifteen souls will haunt me for the rest of my life…”

Meryl was surprised at Arthur’s response.

Arthur continued to drive with the speed of their car zooming through the city. Arthur looked straight ahead. And his gaze seemed to avoid the faces of every human he would meet on the cold street ahead.

“How many did you kill?” Arthur finally asked.

“Twenty-seven civilians, and all fourteen cops.” Meryl slowly answered.

Tears continued to fall as Arthur paused for a while as the traffic light blinked red.

“I killed twenty of your targets.”

“I know. Don’t think I didn’t notice you giving them a headshot. I didn’t count those twenty on my list.” Meryl sobbed.

Arthur sat there silently and finally turned to Meryl.

“Much is at stake here. You cannot hesitate. No one who clearly saw us can be allowed to live. When I ask you to kill, you should kill.”

“I know.”

The traffic light went green and Arthur continued to drive off towards their destination. Meryl slowly started wearing the clothes that Arthur offered. It was then she realized where they were heading.

“The police station!” Meryl realized.

“Our next act will be here. We just need to wait for the signal.”

“What signal? And why here?”

“This is police headquarters and is also where the Comm team of the entire Australian Police is based. We take that down, then the cops in the city would have a hard time organizing themselves. What we are waiting for is the next step of our plan which will create massive panic. Once a bulk of the forces here move out, we rush in, pretend we need help. Once inside the police station, we discreetly massacre our way to the Comm Office.”

Meryl frowned.

“You can’t put discreet and massacre in one sentence, Arthur.”

“But we have to.”

Arthur parked the car a few blocks away from the station. They waited in the car and Arthur started browsing through the international news.

Meryl sat quietly. Her hands were visibly shaking. She kept staring at Arthur who seemed to be acting as if nothing happened.

“You’re strong.” Meryl smiled.

“Not strong enough.” Arthur sighed.

Meryl then noticed that Arthur was doing his best to stop his hands from shaking.

“Still, you’re mighty strong.” Meryl smiled.

“Here it is. Looks like it has begun.”

President Hoross appeared on an emergency broadcast channel in the Pangean networks. He was seated behind a desk in what looked like a small office.

“People of the Pangean Nations. This is Malay-Pangean President Albert Hoross. I have just been rescued by Major Cipril’s team and is now on my way back to our country.” Albert spoke calmly.

“I have to address these issues in case anything else would happen to me or my people. Australia has sent several of their best elites to kidnap me. I feared they were going to implant me with a certain device in order to blackmail me or control me. Regardless of the case, it is clear that Australia has evil intentions towards our country. I plead to all my fellow leaders, protect our country. I may not know what-”

The broadcast abruptly ended. The screen flickered and went black almost immediately.

“What happened?” Meryl asked in confusion.

“The second act. Wouldn’t it be suspicious if several terrorist related events were to appear one after another in this city?”

“Of course. A fire and a bomb threat happening in different places would cause the government to consider an attack! ”

“That's why we need to downplay the threat. We present a false reason for all this chaos.”

“How?”

“Just wait for it.” Arthur smiled.

Immediately a broadcast appeared with General Harker sitting down with a grave expression. Unlike his previous broadcasts, Harker was now seated in a command center. Several computers and high-end devices could be seen in the background.

“Fellow citizens of the Pangean Nation. I regret to inform you that we lost contact with the plane that Albert Hoross was flying on. Our team is busy investigating the status of the plane. Albert Hoross’ state remains unknown as of now. We cannot say for certain if this attack was caused by Australia. But if so, then that’s the last straw. My army won’t keep quiet.” The broadcast immediately ended.

Meryl was confused all the more after seeing the broadcast.

“Won’t that make the military all the more suspicious?” Meryl asked in confusion.

“You’ll see. That’s not the broadcast we are waiting for.” Arthur laughed wickedly.

The pair continued to browse through the news. Arthur continued to remain silent about the plans.

Meryl continued to scour through looking for anything that could cause widespread panic.

The world itself was falling into chaos. The One World Ambassadors of the different regions were pleading with the Pangean Nations to withhold their plans for war.

Australia continued to insist that the scandals found in Malay-Pangean grounds were linked to several powerful organizations and although have its roots in Australia, is not directly connected to the government. The Australian ambassadors even speculated that these were all done by a possible third party that wished for the two nations to fight it out.

News about the mass shootout continued to circulate the local news. New Fort City was in a state of alert. The mass killings which killed all the media reporters and the police on-scene led to the dispatch of several military personnel.

After about an hour of waiting, it finally happened.

On several commercial jumbo screens that stood on several prominent parts of the city, the broadcast was hijacked and revealed an angry face. Most gamers recognized the face. It was none other than the General of Warfreakz, Sebastian Hoross.

“My father came to this nation, bypassing all security protocols because he wanted to support me. Support my stupid game. Before being the president, he was my father. But thanks to that, he’s now dead. Australia, you are to be blamed. I’ve lost my father and a country has lost its president. But you? You continue to live your life in peace without care of this world. It’s unfair. So I decided to make this day as memorable for you as it is for me. I’ve placed a bomb somewhere in this city. At least in this way, thousands will mourn just as I have. Good luck finding it.”

The broadcast then ended.

Meryl looked in shock at the broadcast.

“I didn’t expect that. Faking the president’s death then making Lowengren a terrorist?”

"That's right. That is a probable cause for everything that will happen soon."

“So after the police in the station scramble out, we go in to kill everyone who remains inside right? But won’t our resurfacing inside a police station still make things look suspicious?”

“You haven’t figured out why we did everything to ensure no-one could describe our appearance? Alean should be meeting with Cliff after starting a few fires. They will then reveal themselves somewhere near our first shootout and start another mass shooting. This time, in full view of the media."

"So everyone will think that that's us!"

"Right. in the distraction of the bomb threats and the shootouts, we can cripple the headquarters.”

Meryl was stunned silent.

“A distraction to hide deaths. What a plan...” Meryl commended.

“You haven’t seen half of it.” Arthur grinned mischievously.

 

Chapter Fifty-Nine: Convenient Truths

Right in the corner of New Birth City, was the military base New Birth Fort. It looked like a huge modernized castle which overlooked the city and towered by the seas. New Birth Fort was one of the most sophisticated bases that the world has ever seen.

During the Continental Wars which nearly destroyed the nation of Australia, New Birth Fort proved to be an unconquerable fort. Its anti-missile, anti-mortar, and anti-stellar systems were unquestionable. No jet managed to drop a bomb on this fort, no missile ever penetrated through its sophisticated system and even the rain of mortar bombardments from the seas could not damage it.

New Birth City felt safe with this goliath nearby. But tonight, terror and chaos reigned like never before.

Deep within the confines behind the thick walls of this fort, a tall and black soldier paced the walls and had an angry look on his face. He wore a black bulletproof vest and had several men following him.

All the soldiers who he would pass by would stop and salute. A deep sense of respect filled their eyes.

The soldier soon reached a room which had tighter security. Several soldiers guarded the entrance and even a military gate pass was required to undo the electrical fields which barred the entrance.

Unlike others, however, the soldiers guarding this gate immediately turned the electrical field off and gave a respectful salute as the soldier responded and continued to walk towards the main door.

“General Garland.” The soldier saluted as he addressed the man who sat in the middle of the room.

The room was a command center which acted as the heart and soul of the New Birth Fort. Only the highest ranking officials could enter this room. It was because of the soldier’s special traits and status that he could freely enter this room despite his Lieutenant rank.

“To what pleasure do I owe the visit from the Hero of Helion’s Tragedy?” The General smiled.

The General was a man in his late 30’s. He wore a standard Australian General’s outfit but was too lazy to button the coat of his jacket to the very top. He looked undignified, lazy and even had facial hairs that made him like a slob. Yet despite this appearance, he was one of Australia’s youngest and most terrifying General.

“Send me out there, General. I feel that something’s up. It wouldn’t be this simple. Not with Lowengren.”

“I know. That little punk’s beaten our country so many times that even when I was secretly playing against him, our country still lost. I already sent out several teams. Don’t worry. I won’t treat him like the other General’s.” Garland laughed as he kept on scratching the back of his head.

“Still, with respect, I would like to request to have my platoon do a full sweep on the city.”

“Alright. I know when not to argue with the insistent Hero of Helion’s Tragedy.” The General gaze a lazy stretch and sat down on the General’s View.

“Take whatever you need.”

“Thank you, General.” The soldier gave a respectful salute.

“And Lieutenant Lander… Try to catch Lowengren alive.”

“I understand General.”

The city was now in chaos. The police were scrambling across the city. There was an emergency broadcast which requested that the people were to evacuate malls and all prominent buildings were also asked to ensure their security.

Various office buildings conducted a quick sweep through the building to ensure that no bomb has been planted I the building.

The Octagon Square was now a busy place full of people. The offices of many skyscrapers near the area had to do their security protocols to ensure that the bomb wasn’t planted in their building.

On the roadside stood several limousines. There were a group of armed men protecting several important persons of the various company which towered around the Octagon Square.

“This is stupid! Why should we evacuate over some threat coming from an angry nineteen-year-old?” A tall businessman complained to his guards.

“We can never be too safe Sir. After all, that’s Lowengren. Who knows what he could do. Despite being a kid, he’s a genius with one of the highest IQ in this world. And he is the son of a Pangean Nation’s president… He could be serious with his threats.”

“If you ask me he’s just bluffing! Where the hell would that kid get a bomb anyway? He’s just making us panic.”

“The security team will confirm if there is a bomb in the building and we can safely return, Sir.”

“Of all the days for this to happen.” The man grunted and gripped his fist in anger.

“I can’t believe Gary’s dead.”

The surrounding bodyguards stood silently. They knew that the moods of their bosses were terrible at the death of their boss’s friend.

Not too far away from the cars, were water fountains. The water fountain was surrounded with marble tiles which the people usually used as benches. On one of its sides, sat Alean and Cliff.

“Well? Your reaction seems nice.” Alean smirked.

“Yes, Miss. It’s confirmed. He is associated with Gary Corner.” Cliff shook his head still in disbelief.

“I can’t believe that Arthur’s simple hypothesis would actually be correct. If Gary Corner is associated with that guy, and that guy owns most of the buildings here, then the good thing is that what we are about to do is aimed towards the Aragarian’s or their supporters.” Alean did her best to smile.

Cliff sat silent.

“I don’t think I’d be able to sleep on the next days. This is just… too many people.”

“I know. Even for me.” Alean shook her head.

“I’ve killed quite a few you know? But they weren’t innocent or helpless. But this will be the first time. It’s funny. I finally am doing something that I know will help the future, and I should be happy. Instead, I’ve never been more uncertain of something in my life.”

“I can go first if you want,” Cliff suggested.

“It’s alright. I should be the one taking care of you guys. You still are my students, after all.”

“I wonder how Meryl felt.”

“I’m sure even Arthur felt this pain. Honestly, you seemed awfully calm for a student who is about to massacre and kill people. What are you thinking at this time?” Alean laughed.

Cliff sighed.

“I… I just imagine myself as Seeker. How he would feel, or how I think he feels. I just kind of like- imagine his face. His expressions. How he would look when he’s shooting these guys. I try to imitate that. Somehow it helps. I really think I’m doing something for the future.”

Alean was silent.

“Well… Our future is doomed to war. So I guess, you can’t say that karma will get to us.” Alean then pulled out a mask from her pockets.

“Get ready.”

A small metallic ball rolled from the ground and went directly to the center of the Octagon Square.

A bright light blasted on the middle which shocked everyone. The sudden blast caught every one of guarded and a panic ensued.

People were stumbling down while others were screaming. In the middle of this chaos, Alean sprinted towards the limousines and unloaded a magazine of bullets.

Upon hearing the gunshots the blinded crowd started panicking and started blindly rushing and stampeding against each other.

Cliff was already standing on the other end of the square. His guns were aimed at another group of businessmen.

The bodyguards could only shoot blindly. Many were blinded at the flashbang and the remaining few who were able to turn their backs on the bright light were the first to die.

As the shouts and scream continued, Alean gave a curious look at the main streets which connected to Octagon Square.

“That was fast.” Alean readied her gun as the first set of police officers approached.

Arthur and Meryl continued to wait and check the news.

“Strange. Alean and Cliff should be starting now.” Arthur frowned as he noticed several cops rushing outside.

“Did you notice?” Arthur asked.

“Yes. Those police officers looked more worried than the other officers who rushed out of there.” Meryl wondered.

“Something’s wrong. Even the bomb threat didn’t make them panic.”

“Maybe they found the bomb?”

“Unlikely. But that’s none of our concern. We’ll take this shot.”

Arthur and Meryl finally entered the police station.

People were screaming and fighting, demanding things from the police.

“Wow. I didn’t expect it would be this chaotic.”

“It’s not just because of us. Remember, we have a battalion of soldiers in this city. Lowengren assigned them special tasks for each squad. Most of which involves breaking the law.” Arthur smiled.

“I have to ask. Between him and you, who’s smarter?”

“I’m smarter, but Lowengren’s wiser.” Arthur then strode towards the hallways connected to the deeper parts of the police station.

As the pair walked deeper into the police station they witnessed more complaints and unruly people screaming at the top of their lungs.

“Shouldn’t we supposed to be massacring are way in by now?”

“No. Something’s wrong. It would be unwise to proceed with haste and recklessness.” Arthur then found the door which led to the restricted section.

Arthur approached a nearby police.

“I am Arthur Humphrey of the Covenant of the Strongest. I have important information regarding the whereabouts of Lowengren. I will only talk to the highest official present.” Arthur spoke softly to which only the officer he spoke to could hear. But there a strict demand in Arthur’s tone.

The police stared in shock. But the familiar face of Arthur prompted him to act quickly.

“Follow me.”

The police officer immediately opened the door which led to the restricted area.

The officer walked in haste and led the pair directly towards the commissioner’s office.

“Commissioner!” the officer barged in without even knocking.

The Commissioner was in the middle of a heated discussion with several other officers.

“What now?” The Commissioner roared.

Arthur quickly closed the door and immediately dashed towards the middle of the table and started beheading people.

Meryl quickly followed suit and started aiming for the throats and necks of everyone inside. In a manner of seconds, eight officers were dead.

Arthur carefully positioned the last officer in a slanting position before killing the officer with a thrust through the skull.

“What are we doing here?” Meryl frowned.

“We just killed the leaders of the police force. This should give us more time to cause chaos. But the main reason why I had him lead us here is that this should be the only room that is not under surveillance. Let’s go.” Arthur quickly removed the coat of the officer and checked to see if there was any blood on it.

Arthur walked out of the room while holding Meryl by the hand as if he was an officer who was leading a prisoner or criminal.

“Make sure not to damage anything in the Comm room,” Arthur warned.

The pair walked towards the Communication’s office without garnering attention from the rest of the officers on the floor.

Arthur strode in and the exact moment the doors were closed, Meryl and Arthur started killing the officers watching the room.

Meryl glanced at the various screens being displayed in a huge monitor.

The screens displayed various places in the city. Some were residential mansions while others were corporate offices. But the one that caught attention is a live stream of the Octagon Square. Alean and Cliff could be seen shooting everyone around the area.

“I don’t understand.” Meryl was confused. Was this why they witnessed panicked police officers who sprinted out of the station earlier? They immediately found out about the shoot-out?

“I do. That screen over there. That one, and these screens here.” Arthur pointed to several parts of the monitor.

“Those are businesses that are known to be in association with Gary Corner’s and Feltrick Ung-glaive. And those are the known residences of the CEO of these companies and organizations.”

“What do you…?”

“No wonder Seeker didn’t show any remorse when he planned on attacking Australia. He probably already knew about it.”

“About what?”

“This country has already sold itself to the Aragarians.” Arthur declared. A hint of joy surfaced on Arthur’s once gloomy eyes.

 

Chapter Sixty: Concert of Chaos
“What do you mean?” Meryl wondered.

Arthur’s phone started ringing.

“It’s me. Three Comm Uplinks are up. It should be safe to communicate for now."

“Perfect timing, Lowengren! Hypothetically speaking, if you are an alien race who wants to take over this world, and you plan to weaken it through making the natives fight each other, how would you do it?” Arthur immediately asked.

Lowengren was surprised at the sudden question.

“If it was me, then I’d level the playing field. I’d aid some of the countries and make them strong.”

“Just as I suspected. Anyway, I’m in the Police Comm office. I want you to take note of the following locations and I want you to find a way to attack these places. Make sure to make it look random.”

Arthur then immediately began listing all the locations that were displayed on the monitors.

“You got all that?”

“You’re asking me to attack the most influential and powerful men in this region!” Lowengren frowned.

“You have to. These guys are in collaboration with Gary Corner. Think of them as people who are in the same fold as Feltrick Ung-glaive.”

“Then they have to die.”

“These locations were being monitored. The police have been immediately dispatched to Alean’s position the moment they started the shoot-out. It seems the police are protecting these people with high-priority.”

“Then we have a problem. If what you say is true then the military may have been dispatched to Alean’s position. The Hero of Helion’s Tragedy is based here.”

Arthur frowned.

“Have them retreat. Now that we’re inside the Comm office, their mission is already accomplished.”

“On it.” Lowengren abruptly ended the call.

“It is as I suspected. Even Lowengren had the same idea.”

“What did he mean by level the playing field?”

“Make many nations stronger. If this world has only one or two superpowers, then it would be unlikely for a war to happen because everyone would be afraid to offend them.”

“So they made other nations stronger to take away that fear?”

“Yes. Seeker knew about this. That’s why he didn’t show any moral dilemma with attacking Australia. Australia is already under Aragarian control. The fact that they are protecting these places prove it! This nation was doomed to destruction in Seeker’s eyes since the beginning.”

“But isn’t it that our final enemies would be African-Russian union?”

“It could’ve been any nation. The Aragarian’s divided their resources and sent different spies on different countries to improve it with a limited set of technology. Whoever won this game would be the nation that they would control.”

Suddenly Arthur paused as he realized the urgency of Seeker’s command.

“Of course! Even Seeker can’t tell which nations belong to the Aragarian’s. And if we attack Australia then the future changes! It’s no wonder Seeker asked me to protect them.” Arthur continued to contemplate.

Meryl gave a curious look.

“Protect who?”

Arthur then sat down on the chair and started working on the computer. Several of the displayed screens were enlarged and Arthur started writing down instructions on to a piece of paper.

“Meryl, go over to these locations. I need you to raid these places and check if there are activities of human trafficking. Save as many of them as you can.” Arthur handed the paper to Meryl. He then took off the coat belonging to one of the dead officers in the room and gave it to Meryl.

Meryl didn’t argue and simply took the paper and wore the coat.

“Contact Lowengren and have him send you some of his men to help you with the extraction. Ask Lowengren to hide them somewhere safe. I won’t be there to protect so be careful.”

“Wow. So romantic.” Meryl gave a sarcastic laugh.

“What are you going to do?”

“I’ll stay here. I’ll be the conductor of this concert.”

“Concert?”

“The Concert of Chaos.” Arthur grinned. Immediately, Arthur started typing commands and orders and sent them out on the various police officers around the city.

Meryl gave a light smile as she looked at the serious Arthur. She quietly left and gave a long stare at Arthur before closing the door.

“I guess he’s not that bad.” Meryl chuckled and started sprinting out of the room.

The chaos at the Octagon Square started to escalate. The sudden and quick response of the police made Alean and Cliff retreat into one of the buildings nearby.

“Damn! That was fast!” Cliff complained as he crouched over to hide from the view of the windows.

“It’s like they immediately saw what happened!” Alean cried in frustration.

“We’re not safe here.” Alean then started to sprint further inside and Cliff followed.

Several gunshots were heard outside as the police noticed the two fleeing further inside the building.

Several bullets started piercing through the concrete walls and surprised the two.

“Concrete piercing rounds.” Alean frowned.

BEEP!

Alean immediately answered.

“Kind of busy here, Lowengren!”

“I noticed. Get ready to jump on the eastern window.”

“What? There’s a lot of cops there! They’d shoot us and with that many bullets we’d be dead for sure!”

“Don’t worry. Charles is already there. I’ve prepared a huge distraction. Use that to escape.” Lowengren then ended the call.

Alean immediately started running for the eastern side.

The Australian Special Operations Police team finally started moving in. Each officer wore a full body armor that could render Alean and Cliff’s guns ineffective.

The team entered the building tossing smoke grenades and flashbangs at the entrance.

Alean finally reached the eastern side of the building. She dared not peak outside in case people would notice her.

“What now?” Cliff inquired.

“Lowengren’s planning something. Get ready to take off your mask and change your disguise.”

Overlooking the northern building near the Octagon Square, the large screen monitor that was held high by the building suddenly turned itself on and the image that appeared was a familiar face.

Lowengren stood alone in a dark room.

“Did you really expect me to announce my plans? Idiots! Why would I give you the chance to disarm my bomb? Also, to the two nut jobs is ruining my night… This is my concert and I won’t have you two shooters ruin it! So get ready to run because hell is about to hit you! Australia, remember tonight! Enjoy this Concert of Chaos! For President Albert Hoross!” Lowengren immediately pushed the button of a small device he was holding.

BOOOM!

The mall on the opposite end of the building where Alean and Cliff were exploded.

A series of explosions then followed and devoured everything that was in the mall. The mall was not a prominent commercial building. It was a small-time mall which was only two stories high. And so, there was no evacuation order given to that mall.

The explosions caused panic and everyone around the mall started screaming. Several bystanders who simply stood in front of the building were burnt to death at the massive explosion. The entire building collapsed and all that remained was fire and rubble.

Alean and Cliff took the opportunity to jump outside of the building as the ring of explosions began. They sprinted off towards an area where the police were most affected and distracted. As they approached the police cars, they noticed Charles holding a miniature rocket launcher.

Charles fired the rocket towards the open window where Alean and Cliff jumped out off.

The missile zoomed in.

Back in the main headquarters, Lowengren was overlooking the monitor of one of his team members.

“Failure is not an option, Stanley.” Lowengren’s cold voice instructed.

The person manning the computer was navigating the very rocket that Charles launched. With expert skills, he navigated the missile through the narrow windows and through the doors and corridors and eventually it reached the lobby.

“What’s that?” An officer screamed as he witnessed the approaching rocket.

“Perfect.” Lowengren gave a satisfied smile and pressed on a detonator.

The rocket was strapped with several plastic explosives and was a world-renowned bomb. A masterpiece found only in the Pangean Nation. Of the Eradicating series, this was known as the Area-Eradicating Bomb.

Alean and Cliff waited beside Charles right in the middle of the police cars. The police were so distracted that they didn’t notice the three who were crouching near them. And right before any of the officers could take notice, it happened.

BOOM!

The building which Alean and Cliff just jumped out of exploded with the same terrifying force which reduced the small mall into a pile of debris. The first level of the building was burned and even the concrete started to deteriorate fast but the Adamant metal frame which held the building resisted the blast and continued to hold the building up.

The three snuck away in the midst of the confusion. The changed appearance of the two and with the fact that people were running around in fear allowed them to easily disappear into the crowd.

“That was a little too much, don’t you think?” Alean laughed as they finally found a place to hide.

“If Lowengren hadn’t acted quickly, you’d probably have a lot in your hands. The Hero of Helion’s Tragedy was on his way. And he was wearing a Torque Series Exoskeleton.”

“That guy's famous!” Cliff mumbled.

“You should listen more in class,” Alean grumbled.

“If he's wearing that Exoskeleton, then his Armor should be on one of those trucks.” Charles shook his head.

“At the very least, we wouldn’t stand a chance fighting him. Not with these weapons. Looks like our tasks end here.” Alean sighed.

“Don’t worry. You didn’t fail. Arthur’s in position. He should be starting hell soon..”

The military was finally dispatched. The entire city fell into martial law and soldiers started appearing in almost every corner of the street.

Lieutenant Lander overlooked the quick action of his platoon. Of all the soldiers there, only three wore the same Exoskeleton that he wore though lander had a distinct design and manned his trademark Purple suit.

The Exoskeleton was a 3-meter tall metal armor. It allowed its users to maintain human movements

“I knew he’d do something out of the box. He really got us.” General Garland sighed.

Lander stared at the video projection displayed on the right arm of the Exoskeleton.

“I never thought that Lowengren would be this cruel outside of the game.”

“He’s far crueler than you give him credit for. He just lost his father. And if the Malay-Pangean President was willing to go all the way to an enemy country to watch his son play then you could only imagine how close those two were.”

“What do we know of the attack on the Pangean President?”

“The Malay-Pangean President escaped after the fiasco with Gary. There were three planes that escaped this country all of which, sank. We’ve already found the crash sites. No one survived.”

“Whoever’s planning this wants to start a war.”

“We’ll deal with that later. For now, dealing with Lowengren should be our priority. If he wants death, he’ll aim for residential buildings. He doesn’t seem to have any problem killing innocent lives. However, he could also want to blow up more commercial buildings. Bring Australia down through an economic crisis.”

Lander frowned.

“Requesting for backup.”

“I already sent them. Work with the police. We need all the help we can get.”

The call ended and Lander immediately called the police through a direct line to the Main Comm Office of the police.

“This is Lieutenant Lander of the Australian Military. I need all the information you have.”

“The Hero of Helion’s tragedy himself! It’s an honor to talk to you, sir! What information do you need? It’s chaos out there sir. Reports of arson, robberies, and break-ins are piling up around the city.”

“Send me the residential and commercial zones which you haven’t secured yet. The priority is to ensure that no other bomb blows up in this city. I’ll send you the coordinates of our men so that you can fill the gaps. That is all for now.”

“Sir, Yes sir!”

Lander immediately disconnected the call and sent the GPS tracking of all soldiers in the city.

On the other end of the call, Arthur could not help but smile.

“This makes things a lot easier.”

 

Chapter Sixty-One: Central Police Bomb Squads

Lowengren walked down the main halls and went into the last functioning room in the building.

As Lowengren entered, a startled girl immediately stood up from her seat.

“Kristine?” Lowengren was startled as he identified the girl.

“Hey there, Sebastian! Arthur must have forgotten to inform you.” Kristine answered back. They have always been acquainted with one another and have even shared interviews together. But now Kristine had a wary look in her eyes.

“You were watching the news?” Lowengren noticed the television and then realized Kristine’s cautious attitude.

“Don’t look at me like that, Kristine. Arthur planned about half of everything that’s been going on!” Lowengren shook his head.

“Must be easy for you. I bet the moment you step out this room you would be in full game mode. The cold calculating leader of Warfreakz.”

“It isn’t like I have a split personality! I had to get out of that room to take a break! I’ve already ordered the death of hundreds!” Lowengren’s shouted.

Kristine was startled at the angry face of Sebastian. He had never shown his angry side to her.

“I’m sorry. I can’t imagine how it feels. It’s just. Arthur’s out there. And I just can’t imagine that he’s living the life he swore to run away from.”

Lowengren stood there and clench his fist.

“I’m sorry. Things have been too much for me. You’re right. The moment I walk out that door, I’d get back to my game mode. At least I calmed down after seeing you.”

“Arthur probably didn’t tell you that I tag along so that you wouldn’t see me.” Kristine giggled.

Lowengren was silent.

“Even if I knew you were here, I probably wouldn’t have gone to see you despite my clear intentions. In fact, I believe, it’s time for me to just cut my losses and stop running after you.”

“Did Arthur threatened you? I’m sorry if he made you feel a little uncomfortable. He’s like my big brother. So, he does have a tendency to act a little bit overprotective.”

“A little uncomfortable? Didn’t you hear our screams from the room above? I basically converted to five different religions with Arthur’s mace tricks!” Lowengren vented out in anger. The horrors he experienced a few hours ago continued to leave him shaking every time it comes back to memory.

“Those were your screams?” Kristine questioned but she carried an irritated look.

“Yes! That was my entire team! And it took nearly an hour to get everybody up back and running?”

“With what? Arthur’s little tricks! You’ve just had one session and that was with Arthur! I’ve had three of those and it was with that little demon over there! You’ve changed religions? I’ve tried summoning the devil in my mind to keep me away from one of the devils brothers! So don’t you dare have that tone with me when talking about that session I’ve had worst!” Kristine screamed in anger.

Lowengren was surprised that Kristine went through a similar experience. He then turned to the direction which Kristine pointed at.

“Is that him?” Lowengren then slowly approached a huge pop which stood upright. The small glass window in the front revealed a young teen wearing an oxygen mask and was floated amidst a greenish liquid.

Kristine gazed at the pod. Apart from her memories from Seeker’s nightmares, was the shocking scenes of death she witnessed a few nights ago.

“Yes. And the pod next to him holds Lynd Indigo.”

“We’ll be moving them. I’m just waiting for the team to enter this room. As per Arthur’s instruction, this would be the last room to clear out.”

“We’re moving?”

“Just transferring to the basement.” Lowengren sighed.

“I have to get out there. Thanks for the small chat. It really managed to calm my nerves.” Lowengren smiled.

“I’d do a friendly side-hug, but I’m too scared to do it now.”

Kristine and Lowengren laughed.

“Scared of my big brother?”

“No. After our session upstairs, he told me to keep my distance from you. Apparently, Seeker’s got a thing for you. And Arthur warned me, that Seeker’s far crazier than he can ever be.”

Kristine was shocked at Lowengrens’ statement and couldn’t help but stare at Seeker’s figure.

The door immediately opened as several soldiers rushed in.

“Sir. We are ready to clear this room.”

Lowengren sighed.

“You know Kristine, it would’ve been so much easier if I did have a split personality. At least I won’t remember everything I’ll be doing tonight.”

Immediately Lowengren turned towards the soldiers and a serious expression appeared. He was back to the cold and distant commander of the Heroes Army.

“Do it. Kristine. I need you to clarify things for me. I want the full story behind Seeker Carlean and this war.” Unlike his previous tone, Lowengren was now commanding Kristine.

Kristine was startled at the sudden shift.

“You probably won’t believe it.”

“I’ve seen a petite, Asian girl wipe out an entire brigade of soldiers. I’m prepared to believe anything right now. Let’s go. Tell me along the way.” Lowengren walked out of the room. This time, he walked with the dignity of a commander.

In the main entrance of one of the most prominent buildings, the overseeing lieutenant assigned in the area waited outside the building and noticed several police officers rushing towards the building wearing bomb suits.

“Sir!” The police saluted.

“What are you doing here? We’ve already finished checking this building.”

“Orders from Central Police. We’ve brought bomb-detecting gear. The Commissioner suspects that a special bomb was used which bypassed all security protocols during the first attack. If Lowengren has access to Pangean bombs, then anything is possible.”

“I see. Then go ahead. Our forces should be done sweeping the building and will be moving on to the next assigned destination.”

“Affirmative. Team, let’s move.”

The Lieutenant gave a curious look at the smallest officer on the team.

“Aren’t you a little too young or… too small for this job?”

The officer just gave a blank stare at the questioning lieutenant.

“I’m not sure how to respond to that, sir.” The officer replied.

The lieutenant shook his head.

“Right. I’m sorry for discriminating. Carry on, Miss.”

The team of police officers entered the building and immediately went their own ways upon entering.

The leader of the team along with the smallest officer went to meet the head of security who was overseeing the exit of the military forces at the lobby.

“More of you?”

“Orders from Central. We have orders to check each and every floor of this building, including the restricted areas.”

“Denied. No bomb could have gone to the restricted areas. Under no circumstances-”

“Gary Corner is dead. Will you forgive Central for being a little too paranoid? A Pangean Eradicating bomb can go down to a size of a cellphone. Are you sure that nothing went through the bags and pockets of anyone who went into that room?” The small officer interrupted.

The head of security was silent.

“Alright. I’ll call the boss. Follow me.”

The trio went to meet the CEO of the company. He wore a black business suit and had a strict stare.

“I understand Central’s concern. But that classified room holds classified technology. We cannot let you-”

“Pardon for the interruption Sir, but we really have a lot in our hands. We don’t need to enter the room. Take us to the floor and we’ll use our devices to check the area. Our devices should be able to cover more than 80 percent of the floor.” The small officer quickly spoke.

“Fine.” The man immediately responded.

“Follow me then.” The man walked towards the exit and four of his bodyguards immediately followed.

The group quickly left for the elevator and the CEO immediately used a special key. The elevator moved at the turn of the key.

The group quickly went out of the elevator and was greeted with a large steel door.

“This should be a problem. That metal door will block the signal. Could you open the door, Sir? We don’t have to enter the room.”

The man frowned but immediately signaled to one of the bodyguards.

The bodyguard used a retinal scan and the door immediately opened. A large plastic curtain was immediately seen preventing anyone to view what was inside.

“I hope that that won’t be a hindrance?” The man spoke in frustration.

“Not at all, Sir. Thank you.” The small officer smiled.

The two officers immediately dropped their bags and started shuffling through their belongings.

The small officer immediately stood up with two handguns with silencers on hand.

Immediately, the four bodyguards and the head of security received a headshot before they even realized what was happening.

The small officer shot the throat of the CEO. The man fell down and blood poured out as he started struggling. He couldn’t scream as his wound prevented him from doing so.

The other officer took out a small cylinder rod and tossed it to the small officer.

The small officer caught it and immediately it expanded and became a glass sword.

Meryl took off her mask and immediately thrust the sword on the right side of the man’s chest.

The man squirmed and struggled but as the pool of blood below him started to grow, his struggles slowly turned to peace.

“Aragarian. So Arthur was right.” Meryl frowned.

“Orders Captain?” The soldier asked.

“Ummm. Let’s just do as planned, I guess. Make sure no one’s around the basement area and get ready to pick up the folks I rescue. I’ll go in now and see if there are any more enemies.” Meryl struggled.

“You mean we are to secure the extraction point while you eliminate all tangos in that room?”

“Look, if I knew how to speak military, I wouldn’t have rehearsed everything! Geez, give me a break!” Meryl immediately sprinted towards the room.

On the wide parking areas of yet another prominent commercial complex, a purple Exoskeleton stood.

“Sir! The bomb squad from Central has just entered the building.”

Lieutenant Lander nodded as he gazed at the other buildings in the area.

Suddenly his attention turned to the sky as a rocket zoomed out of an open window of the building which the bomb squad just entered.

The rocket was aiming for the adjacent building which was the residence of yet another prominent businessmen.

Immediately, the Australian anti-missile defense system sprang into action.

Spread out in New Birth City, were tall black steel post. These post had a small camera-like device attached to its very top. The camera-like device shot a small reddish ray of light which struck the rocket's warhead.

BOOM!

The rocket exploded in mid-air causing no damage.

“Whoever did that underestimated our city’s anti-rocket capabilities” The soldier boasted.

“I want a full lockdown of that building. The enemy couldn’t have gotten far.” Lieutenant Lander immediately ordered.

“Sir! We found the bomb squad in the main lobby of the first floor. They appear to have been attacked. They managed to hide from the enemy assault but some of them are wounded.”

“Get them to the paramedics.” Lander started to walk towards the main complex.

“Sir! Our platoon wasn’t able to find anything! The other platoons couldn’t find the attacker as well."

Lander observed the entire complex and was dissecting each end of the building for any escape paths that the assailant could have made.

As he slowly approached the building, it happened.

Above the Area Eradicating bomb, is a much more potent and powerful explosive. Of the Eradicating series, it was known as the Zone Eradicating bomb.

BOOM!

Lander was thrown back from the strong explosion. If he wasn’t wearing his Exoskeleton then he would have been dead.

Confused and in disarray, Lander slowly stood and witnessed the entire complex falling down on itself.

The bomb squad was already driving away in the ambulance.

A bomb squad member gazed at the desolation they had just caused.

“Arming the rocket with a miniature gun to shoot windows open and using the glass elevator shaft as a quick and undetectable route…” A soldier voiced out as he shook his head. He has never seen such precise navigation on a controlled rocket. The rocket they fired was near the entrance of the lobby. Yet it reached all the way to the ninth floor.

“No wonder Warfreakz is considered the best.”

Back in headquarters, Stanley’s hands were covered in sweat.

“Sir. Per-permission to pee.” Stanley finally squeaked.

 

Chapter Sixty-Two: Lowengren’s Madness
“My entire platoon is dead,” Lander reported.

“At least you’re alive. You should have noticed by now. With the equipment’s they have, this is more than just an ordinary terrorist attack. How do you think they did it?”

“The enemy should have easily snuck in and out of the building without being noticed. The only groups of people that could do that are the military and the police. So it should be the Central Bomb Squads.”

“Correct. Then you already know your next mission.” Garland gave a lazy reply.

Deep anger was surfacing in Lander’s eyes.

“You are now promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Lowengren sure has a lot of weapons.”

“Yes, sir. It’s as if he already had an army here.”

“Maybe that’s how he did it. The Pangean Nations have always been wary of us. What if they’ve been sending immigrants who would travel here to be a part of a secret army?”

“That would explain the organized attacks and access of weapons.”

“I’ll send an order to detain all Pangean natives.”

Garland immediately ended the call.

The military received orders to round up all citizens who have Pangean blood and started raiding residences and using their detailed network to capture all Pangean natives.

While the chaos increased, a bus was slowly traveling on its usual route while being escorted by two police cars. One police car led the way while another was on the back of the bus.

A military blockade was seen on the front and the first police car approached an awaiting soldier.

“Officer. Who’s on the bus?”

“Sir! These are the relatives of Mark Haulfed! We were instructed by Central to escort these group to a safe house.”

“Alright. We’ll do a quick check and identify the people-”

“INCOMING ATTACK!”

BOOM!

The police car behind the bus exploded. The bus immediately moved to the left side in an attempt to move through the blockade and the police car in front. As the bus moved out of the way, another rocket was seen approaching. The two officers bailed out of the police car and jumped behind the military convoy as the rocket blasted their car.

Several gunshots were heard and several passengers of the bus were seen to have been shot.

The driver panicked and accelerated.

“Move! Go! Go! Go!” The soldier commanded and ordered the military to give way from the rushing bus.

The soldiers immediately guarded the bus ensuring to cover its tail.

“Find them! HQ, the BOC’s and their relatives are in danger! Enemy attacks have been directed towards them!”

The bus continued to drive at fast speed.

“Looks like they bought it.” Alean sighed.

“Lowengren sure knows how to make a plan.”

While Alean and Charles talked to the soldier, Cliff, who was the driver of the other police car shouted and immediately detonated the explosives which destroyed the police car at the back.

At the immediate moment of the explosion, Charles, who feigned to have ducked under the police car during the explosion, launched another miniature rocket at the bottom of the police car. The rocket zoomed below the police car and went under the bus. Stanley’s quick control turned the rocket around after it passed by the bus and the moment the bus moved away, the rocket appeared to have been zooming towards the bus with the intent to hit it.

The Pangean soldiers hidden inside the bus shot at the dead bodies they’ve recently acquired to make it look like the bus was under attack.

Alean then turned to look at the other passengers. Many of them had grateful looks while others still had a fearful expression.

“Who would have thought that Seeker’s strange orders would surface this early? To think that most Aragarian human trafficking operations were targeting the Jews?”

A purple Exoskeleton was zooming on the skies of Australia. It finally found its destination. It zoomed towards the building and shot several rounds of its Propulsion Rounds and broke the walls of the building.

“Where is the Commissioner?” Lander demanded at the surprised expression of the officers in the building.

“The Hero of Helion’s Tragedy?”

“Where is the Commissioner?” Lander shouted in anger once more.

“He’s in a meeting Sir! In that office!” The officer pointed.

Lander dashed towards the room and did not slow down as his Exoskeleton came crashing through the wall.

He immediately found the Commissioner’s body along with several other high-ranking officers.

“Commissioner!” The police officer shrieked in horror.

Lander frowned. Seeing the surprised expressions of all the officers around him, he knew that they were unaware that their Commissioner’s been dead for some time.

“Where is the Communication’s office?” He demanded.

The officers jolted at the shout of Lander.

“Where is it?” Lander shouted once more.

“Over there!” The officer pointed to another room.

Lander immediately dashed and came crashing through the wall once more.

Once again, he witnessed dead bodies around the room. And there standing next to the exit, stood a masked man.

“The Hero of Helion’s Tragedy himself!” A crazy laughed resounded.

“That voice... Lowengren.”

“How do you like the send-off party of my dad?” Lowengren then gave a manic laugh.

“You’re insane. You’ve killed hundreds for the sake of your revenge!”

“HE WAS MY FATHER!” Lowengren screamed once more.

“We didn’t kill him! Stop this now!” Lander extended his arm as several holes extended.

“Go ahead and shoot! Death is what I await after this party! Even my entire team was willing to blow themselves up for this! So go ahead, Hero. Kill me!”

“You have eight members in your team. If you’ve made them suicide bombers then there should be six more bombs set to blow up in the city. Tell us where the others are. Think of your mother! Do you want her to feel the pain of losing her son? What about your friend's parents? Stop this now!”

“HAHAHAHA” Lowengren gave another manic laugh.

“My mother would be proud if she knew what I did! Oh, wasn’t it brilliant, Hero? My best play yet! Father? Did you see it? How I infiltrated the police and used their communication devices to get the needed bombs? Did you see how I fooled everyone by mixing my team in their bomb squads? My team did you proud!” Lowengren gave another crazy laugh.

Lander looked at Lowengren and couldn’t help but feel pity. He pitied this deranged kid who fell into depravity because of the loss of his father. Lander clenched his fist and vowed to make whoever is trying to make the two nations start a war.

Lander lowered his arm.

“Lowengren! Stop this. If you order your team, they will stop. Kill yourself if you must, but don’t kill your teammates who trusted you and believed in you! Don’t send them down that path!”

“Shut up! Shut up!” Lowengren gave a berserk cry.

“Lowengren. Tell us where your other team members are. They don’t have to die. This was all a misunderstanding. We did not attack the plane your father was on. Stop this game!”

“Game? You want a game? Then let’s play Pokémon!” Lowengren immediately took out a red and white ball.

“Go Arceus!” Lowengren tossed the ball which simply fell below and rolled on Lander’s feet. Lowengren then did a deranged laugh.

Lander continued to look at Lowengren in pity.

“Stop this Lowengren. This has to stop!”

Suddenly Lowengren’s movement’s changed.

“You had your chance to kill me. That was stupid of you.” Lowengren’s voice suddenly turned serious. A hint of pride could be heard in his voice.

Lander gave a strange look at the sudden change of Lowengren’s mood.

“Lowengren! Stop this stupidity! You’re delusional! Look at yourself? The once world-renowned gamer now a crazy kid with a Pokéball! Tell us where your friends are and stop this madness!”

“Madness? This isn’t madness, Hero.” Lowengren spoke in a calm expression.

“This was a well-thought-out plan. Your hesitation allowed me to live longer. My team will continue to sacrifice themselves and I myself will be the final grand bang. And lastly, Hero. That’s not a Pokéball. That’s Voltorb.” Lowengren pointed.

“Voltorb?” Lander looked at the Pokéball.

Lowengren took this opportunity to jump behind the wall. A faint laugh was heard as Lowengren softly commanded.

“Voltorb… Self-destruct.”

BOOM!

Lander was caught in the blast and was thrown backward. He was once again, thrown into confusion and disarray.

Lander felt intense discomfort as a strong whiplash made his sensation go all haywire. The Exoskeleton, however, was well equipped to prevent such damage. Lander immediately checked the state of the Exoskeleton before moving.

Lander stood up and was about to ask the surrounding officers for Lowengren’s route but noticed everyone else on was also thrown off from the blast.

Lander cursed in frustration. He immediately dashed out of the building and began looking around for any signs of Lowengren.

The crowd below were of no use to Lander. None of them saw what had happened after the explosion as they saw a powerful bright light coupled with an intense sound which disoriented them.

Meanwhile, in the sewers directly under the police station, Arthur finally removed his mask.

Several soldiers were already waiting for Arthur.

“Let’s move,” Arthur ordered and they started to sprint.

“Great acting Arthur. You managed to match my voice perfectly.” Lowengren commended. His tone, however, returned to his usual serious voice.

“Speak for yourself. Still, I can’t believe you’re stupid Pokéball plan worked.”

“An unexpected attack is always the one that deals the most damage,” Lowengren smirked.

“I didn’t expect Lander to react that fast though. My lies should buy us more time but its best to assume they’ll immediately figure it out. Meryl managed to rescue another group of Jews. But I ordered her to make them stay there. I think that that facility would be the perfect hiding spot for all rescued Jews.”

“I see. So that’s where Charles and his team is headed too.”

“Right. We are pressed with time. You all have to save as much as you can while I cause more distractions.”

“I’m sure that’s not hard for you. You should have a lot of tricks up your sleeves.”

Lander finally stopped searching for “Lowengren.”

“General.” He finally called.

“I was watching your mounted camera but it got trashed right after the bomb. Did you catch him?”

“I’m sorry sir. I was deceived.”

“No. That was pure genius. Feigning insanity and throwing that ball when you lowered your guard. Did you at least see where he went?”

“He used a flashbang blind everyone outside. No one saw how he escaped.”

“Oh. So Voltorb used Flash?”

“What?”

“Never mind. I want you to maximize the operations in capturing and detaining all Pangean Natives. Give an alert that all who refuses to comply will be shot on sight.”

“But sir, why would we do that? It’s clear that Lowengren’s acting alone with his team. He took control of the Police station and probably managed to acquire the weapons that the police have procured from the recent weapon smuggling operations they completed!”

“Wrong. This isn’t a terrorist attack by some crazy kid, Colonel. This is war. He might have fooled you with his antics but that Voltorb wasn’t just an ordinary bomb. That was a Pangean Whiplash bomb. And if he managed to configure it into a Pokéball, then they not only have people here but a military headquarters as well.”

Lander was shocked at the General’s statement.

“Gather all the Pangean-Natives and make it look like we're trying to search for traitors. Place a bomb at the center of the crowd, blow it up and make it look like its Lowengren’s doing. We can use Lowengren’s anger towards these natives for migrating and betraying their country.”

“We’re killing all those people?”

“Yes. The enemy soldiers should be Pangean-Natives. With such a large scale spy network established over a long period of time, it’s expected that these spies will only develop relations with one another. So if we kill a large number of them, then we might draw out some angry enemy soldiers.”

Lander remained silent.

“Prepare yourself, Colonel. We are about to start a war. And I don’t want to start this battle with the enemy in control of the flow.”

 

Chapter Sixty-Three: Arthur's Grand Plan
A total military communication and network blackout was made. All devices lost signal to their corresponding networks and even Internet providers were disallowed from providing services.

The Australian military started raiding homes and offices of any Pangean-born citizens. Anyone who had a record of staying on any of the Pangean nations for more than six months was also detained.

Several deaths were already being made. Unresponsive citizens where shot on the legs while others who retaliated were killed on spot. All Pangean-owned business was raided and checked.

All except Olax Industries. A small explosion occurred which tore this building down.

The fires in Olax Industries was so great that it was starting to burn the neighboring buildings and homes. The explosion damaged the very foundation of the main warehouse and the building collapsed.

The fire department could not keep up with the number of fires that the city experienced that night. And so, like many other residential and commercial buildings that caught fire that night, the unimportant businesses and residential places that caught fire were ignored.

But buried deep under the rubble and burning stones of the fallen Olax building was a large metal door on the ground. It would take hours to excavate the buildings in order to reach or see this door. This door led to an underground path, which continued deeper until it reached large rooms with a lot of computers, weapons, and soldiers.

This was the headquarters of the Heroes Army.

“Sir, the communication blackout has been lifted.” A young teen reported to a young teen who stood in the center of the room.

“By the looks of things, they seem to be suspicious of an army. Looks like my lies were ineffective.” Lowengren frowned.

Three media channels were enabled two of which were privately owned and one which was owned by the government.

A news reporter stood wearing a grave expression.

“A Severe-Level command to have been issued by the G.P.A. If you are of Pangean blood or have stayed in any Pangean nation for more than six months, please proceed at the New Birth Fort Entrance Gate 3. Citizens are warned that non-compliance to this command gives authorization for the military or police to shoot offenders. The military will also check all residential and commercial buildings owned by Pangean natives..”

The broadcast announcement continued to be reiterated even as the news of fires and other criminal activities filled the news channels.

“Shoot on sight? Isn’t that too harsh?” Cliff wondered.

“Not really. Considering Australia was once on its last leg. All citizens and even tourist are made aware of the military level commands. Severe-level allows military officers to kill anyone at any given time.”

“But it feels a little too discriminating.”

“Discriminating? What are you? From the Post-Modern Era?”

“You really should listen more in school, Cliff.” Charles laughed.

“I’m a Regular! And one of the most notorious in school!” Cliff complained.

“True. But who’d expect that a Regular like you would be Unlocked? Whatever made you want to help Seeker in the first place? He didn’t threaten you, did he?”

“Of course he did!” Cliff sighed.

Charles and Alean laughed.

Cliff waited for the laughter to die down.

“But I think ever since I met Seeker, I felt curious. What made him strong? I guess that’s what made me stay. I’ve never amounted to anything. I’ve always felt useless. But not anymore. Not when I can save this world.” Cliff gave a light smile.

“It’s kind of difficult to respect or believe you when you’re stepping down on that Aragarian.” Alean laughed.

Cliff was standing with his foot pressed down on an Aragarian’s face pining him to the ground. The Aragarian was tied up and gagged.

“Hmm…” The Aragarian whimpered slowly. Tears kept falling down his face.

“Oh come on. I just said I would shoot your leg if you made another sound.” Cliff immediately shot the leg of the Aragarian.

“HMMMM! HMMM!” The Aragarian screamed in pain and was struggling.

“Don't shout or I'll hurt you more. Isn’t that what you kept asking that lady when you were electrifying her to death?” Cliff answered in anger.

“Why are they like this?” Cliff asked the other two.

“They came here to rule over us. It’s only natural that they see us as playthings. Creatures for their fun and pleasure.” Alean moved closer and stepped on the gunshot wound.

“HMMM! HMMM!” The Aragarian’s shouted louder.

“Too bad he’s out of urine. I wanted to see him in a pool of his own making.” Charles spoke in distaste.

“This looks fun.” An emotionless response echoed at the back.

“Arthur!”

Arthur was entering with a group of soldiers. The soldiers with the trio started greeting the new arrivals.

“I believe Lowengren ordered you to infiltrate this building to rescue the Jews. However, you decided to massacre everyone in this building.” Arthur gazed at the tortured Aragarian that Cliff was stepping on.

“Well, it all worked out, didn’t it? When I appeared at their doors and asked for help to hide me while the arrest was being made, this Aragarian's got hungry and immediately called me to his room.” Charles asked in a boastful tone.

"I see. So Lowengren asked you to be a tempting bait to get you to the boss's room. You destroyed the internal comm system from the inside and massacred everyone."

"Oh stop. You make it sound like I'm a heartless and cruel person. I have always been known for my love of people. That's what made me a National Treasure of Pangea. Everything I do, I do for the benefit of mankind!" Charles complained. He then turned towards the Aragarian.

BANG!

Charles shot another round at the palm of the Aragarian.

"Sorry. Couldn't help it. I just don't like the idea of them using this entire commotion as an excuse for my disappearance. If I weren't Unlocked I'd probably ended up as one of their torture or sex toys." Charles spoke angrily.

"Truly, you exhibit the traits of showing love towards people." Arthur mocked sarcastically.

"Yeah. Well, you know what they would do to me if I allowed them to take me."

"I doubt they'd allow others to torture you. You're too good of a material to waste. Unless of course, these clients would be willing to pay top dollar for torturing a national treasure. That is quite stimulating to think about." Arthur casually remarked.

Charles gripped his fist in anger. But then he released it and gave a deep sigh.

"Oh well. I'm glad I rescued more Jews. I just wished we arrived earlier to save more. I don't know what you plan to do with this one but I'm glad I walked the higher road and didn't murder him." Charles gave another sigh as he casually shot the toe of the whimpering Aragarian.

"Hey. We told you to keep quiet. Another peep from you and I'll shoot another toe." Charles ordered.

“Why do we need this guy alive anyway?”

“It’s best that you don’t know the details of the upcoming mission.”

“Sorry, I’m late!” A fast blur could only be seen and Meryl suddenly appeared next to Arthur.

“Alright, now that we're all here, down to business."

Arthur took out a small device and placed it on the ground. A light and hazy hologram started to appear revealing the map of the city.

“Alean and Charles, you are to separately attack the buildings here and here. I'll send a message to indicate when you can start attacking. The military will be too busy to check on these places so just kill everyone inside and get the Jews out quickly."

"Finally, a straightforward command to kill these monsters." Charles grinned.

“As for us, we will be entering the Fort through the Third Gate.”

"We're going to attack the base?" Meryl almost shouted in surprise.

"No. We just need to get past the gates."

"How do we get in?" Cliff asked excitedly. He recalled Lowengren's precise and complex solutions to break through military blockades.

Charles awaited Arthur's plan with a held breath. He just had witnessed their complex strategies on how he rescued Alean and Cliff.

Alean expected a simple yet cruel plan. Having noted that a group of normal soldiers did the impossible and killed the entire platoon of the Hero of Helion's Tragedy. What daring and grand plan does Arthur have to break through the military gate?

"Do we use remote-controlled rockets as a distraction?" Cliff asked.

"Do we blow up more commercial buildings?" Alean waited in expectation.

"No. Meryl and I just need to walk right in."

The group remained silent. Everyone gave Arthur a puzzled look.

“Alright. Let's move.”

"Wait! That's it?"

“Lieutenant Golderon, you’re with our team. Lieutenants, divide your platoon’s and follow Alean and Charles.” Arthur ordered, ignoring Alean's puzzled expression.

The lieutenants hesitated and looked at each other a bit before finally following Arthur's orders.

The groups started to move their separate ways with Alean and Charles cursing at the vague orders of Arthur.

Arthur's group boarded a military truck which looked like what the Australian's used. Using this disguise, they managed to get through various blockades and approached the Fort.

A large number of people were walking towards the entrance of the gate as military personnel was busy checking and going through security measures. The Pangean natives were held right inside the large open field beyond the walls of the gate.

Arthur and Meryl walked towards the entrance of the gate. Cliff and the other soldiers held their breath as they watched the two enter the gates through their binoculars.

“Name?” A soldier asked.

“Arthur Humphrey.”

“It’s Arthur from the Covenant!” A soldier cried in surprise.

The soldier had a confused look until some of his companions whispered something in his ear and another soldier took over questioning.

“Arthur Humphrey! Such an honor. And this must be the new member! Casual Carlean’s manager and friend, Meryl Mikado! Big fan of the Covenant! Where are your other companions?”

“We lost them. In fact, we are not sure if they're alive. We’ve come here as ordered by the government hoping that our friends are here.” Arthur gave a cold and impatient response.

“I don’t think any members of the Covenant came in. But don’t worry. I’m sure they’ll be here soon.” The soldier immediately comforted.

"Can we finish this? I am in a hurry to look for my friends and other acquaintances who may be inside." Arthur demanded.

The soldier immediately nodded and made the two go inside without further questioning or additional security checks.

“That's it?” Meryl asked.

"What's it?"

"The plan to get in here. I didn't expect it to be this dull. I thought when you said we would walk right in, it would be between the corpses of Australian soldiers burning from the fires of our weapons."

"You're disappointed?"

"Kind of. I was expecting a grand plan."

"And that's why we succeeded. Of all the things that our enemies didn't expect, is that we would be able to walk through these gates without any resistance. We have a legitimate reason for being in this country and an even more legitimate reason to get inside the base. Sometimes the grandest of plans are those covered in simplicity.”

"I guess your right. We got in thanks to the grandeur of simplicity." Meryl giggled.

"What now?"

"We wait. There are still too few people in this place. We need a larger crowd so we can easily move around and start our mission."

"Right! Since we've got the time... Why is it that the Aragarians have been targeting the Jews?"

"It's a long story."

"We've got time, Arty."

Arthur gave a curious look at Meryl.

Meryl laughed.

"Sorry. Seeker liked calling you that. I thought I'd just give it a shot."

Arthur remained silent and finally sighed.

"No. I guess you should start calling me things you like. It would be weird for a couple to be on a first-name basis. The early I get used to this the better."

Meryl was surprised at Arthur's sneak attack and blushed to the extremes. She avoided Arthur's gaze and started looking for soldiers who could be a threat to two Unbecoming beings.

"The Aragarians plan to obliterate any forms of hope that the future could give birth to. Doing so will preserve the ideology of this era."

Meryl immediately started to pay attention.

"On the other hand, Seeker's plan is to change the ideology of this world."

 

Chapter Sixty-Four: To Change an Era
“What do you mean?” Meryl gave a bewildered look at Arthur.

“Do you think that the entire world could be enslaved to one perspective or have one similar opinion on a specific matter?”

“I’m not sure why you’re asking that.”

“Because it’s necessary. The world has always followed a general perspective and lives according to the philosophies of an era. In fact, we’ve had many of those in our history and right now, we live in the Supra-Modern era. And along with it, comes a common perspective in things.”

“I really don’t get why we are talking about ideologies. What’s that have to do with war and an alien race trying to take over this planet?”

“Everything. You see, it is in the present ideology of this world that can determine the success of the Aragarians plan. Depending on the worldviews that hold this world, nations may or may not ally with the Aragarians.”

“Ideologies and worldviews can do that?”

Arthur pointed to the huge walls that towered over New Birth City.

“If the Aragarians revealed themselves now, would Australia join or oppose the Aragarians?”

“Of course they would oppose it! It’s an alien race after all! Humanity would unite to fight that!”

“Really? Look around you. The power that Australia has, came from the Aragarians. You sure they would give this up?”

Meryl was shocked at Arthur’s statement. She stood silently and gazed at the towering heights.

She recalled all the horrible actions that the Aragarians were doing in this place and remembered that they were still being protected by the police and the military.

“But that won’t make this country fight for an alien race! Why would anyone want to exterminate their own kind?” Meryl argued.

“The benefits of the majority outweigh the survival of the minority. Isn’t this the main thought in our Supra-modern society? If this was the Post-Modern era, we would have because that era brought was a desire for equality and acceptance. But now, our current ideology would drive nations to prioritize themselves rather than their neighbors.”

Meryl remained silent. This has been the state of the world after the Continental War. Nations like Australia, the Americas, and the South-States have always had a xenophobic treatment of any other humans which isn’t from their own race. And then it dawned on Meryl.

“Wait! Then that means that Continental Wars and the Minority Uprising-”

“Were probably being controlled by the Aragarians from the background. They are very cautious. They manipulated the world to be so wary of each other and broke the unity that once held that. Soon, they’ll instigate another World War which will drive this world to its knees. And before we could even recover, they appear. And to top it all off, they will use this worlds ideologies to make nations pursue their own safety and join the Aragarians.”

“Then who would oppose them? Why didn’t the world just give up?”

“The world probably did give up. But something must have changed the minds of some countries. I’m not sure what made these countries fight back. I have a guess as to what, but I’m not too sure yet.”

“So… Seeker wants to use the Jews to change this future?”

“You’ll need to remember your history to understand,” Arthur smirked as he took out his mobile device.

Arthur searched and opened a link which revealed pictures of ancient wars.

“Changes in ideologies always happened during great events in the history of the world. Way back since the Ancient period all the way to the Medieval period, Theism was the main ideology. Everyone believed there was a god. And through that era, do you know which nation stood out?”

“I don’t know. Greek? Rome? Assyria? Babylon?”

“Those were the most powerful nations. But no. Assyria and Babylon are gone, Rome and Greece have fallen from its original power. I’m talking about the Jews. They continued to exist regardless of the fact that all of those nations you mentioned waged war against them.”

Arthur showed Meryl several websites online detailing the exile of the Jews to Babylon and other events that threatened their existence.

“So what’s so special about them that the Aragarians got all flustered?”

“Their existence. Their survival. But most importantly the religion that they brought in. Remember, Theism was the thing during that era. And soon almost all of the known world at that time adopted different forms of this religion especially during the rise of Constantinople.”

“You mean Christianity? Why is this important? Is Jesus really the answer to everything?” Meryl gave a sarcastic remark.

“It’s important because that’s not how the world views things anymore. Theism had its run and peaked during that time but then, the Renaissance happened. And it shifted the focus from gods to men. What became important was the good of man and not a belief in god.”

Meryl had a slightly impatient expression.

“First you tell me that the Jews are important because of religion and now it’s important because religion became outdated?”

Arthur unusually gave a light smile.

“I didn’t expect that explaining things to someone would be this fun... I guess that’s why I fell for you… Humanism, which came out of the Renaissance introduced a new ideology. Rationalism. With the pursuit of man’s greatest good, they found that technology could be the answer. The good of man achieved through science. In fact, we still carry remnants of that belief today. And the pursuit to Rationalize everything led to Atheism. The very opposite of Theism.”

“Ok? So what? People stopped believing in the God which the Jews introduced. So how can that help us in an intergalactic showdown?” Meryl ignored Arthur’s candid statement and hid her blush with an impatient face.

“Let me finish. Rationalism instilled the idea that newer is better. Science made life easy. And this pursuit of the new gave birth to a world of new possibilities. Out with the old and in with the new. Anything for progress. And you know what that progress brought?”

“People got smarter?” Meryl hazard a guess.

Arthur shook his head and presented yet another series of images on his mobile phone. This time it displayed primitive tanks, guns, and other weapons.

“Modernism. Which brought revolutions and more wars. Because men continued to progress, the old system was deemed obsolete. Revolutions such as the French and American revolutions occurred. Communism came and various progressive solutions to governance were also invented. This search for progress led to the first two World Wars. The aftermath of those wars led to the abandoning of Modernism and embracing the Post-Modern era.”

“I remember that in class. Because people were sick of war and the idea brought by the Nazis in being a superior race, we decided that every system and culture had to be too respected.”

“Exactly. Hitler’s control over men on being the master race gave the world a terrible shock. And so, we stopped pursuing progress on the opinion of each nation and embraced every other views, race, and culture. The idea of a master race was deemed evil. So racial, cultural and sexual discriminations were scorned upon. People who were racist, and who did not value equality for all, became hated. Everyone wanted everyone to accept each other.”

“But those all ended when…”

“Right. The Minority Uprising. That rebellious time led to Supra-modern era. The Aragarians manipulated the world to adopt this new ideology. Lastly, they need to display their power. Make a powerful nation for all to see and offer the choice of joining to a few nations.”

“Why only a few?”

“The goal of the Aragarians is to make room in this planet for their people right? So they must push this Earth into a state of war. Offer the alliance to some nations and make them fight the rest.”

“If you can’t beat them… join them…” Meryl unconsciously quoted.

“Then how can the Jews help us?”

“Because of their religion.”

“I’m confused… Didn’t you just explain that religion is an outdated thing?” Meryl’s frown resurfaced.

“Yes. That’s why I think Seeker intends to take things back to the era when Theism was the thing. Seeker wants to use the acceptance of a worldwide religion to give Earth a better shot at winning.”

“How can Religion help?”

“Because it has the capability to create fanatics and instill indomitable zeal to the masses of the Earth. Religion, if used properly can turn the tide and perception of this world. It has in the past, and it can in the future.”

“Then why the Jews? I mean, there are a lot of religions out there!”

“Of all world religions, Christianity and Judaism arguably had the most evidence as grounds for their faith. We tie their faith to actual history, preserved literature and even to the accurate prophecies fulfilled in their teachings. I just explained that the Romans, Assyrians, and Babylonians took them into captivity and all the actions of those nations were somehow prophesized forty to a hundred years before it actually happened.”

“I didn’t know that!”

“That's because there was a lot of skepticism regarding those prophecies and so, most don’t believe it. But what if something that could endanger the whole world would come and these sketchy prophecies suddenly become a glimmer of hope?”

“Like an evil alien race! The Aragarians!”

“Yes. What if the God of the Jews is real? And what if God will help the Jews and Christians? Wouldn’t humans cling to whatever hope they could find? That’s what Seeker is planning. Turning this small string of hope into a grand rope that will unite this world against the Aragarians.”

“Then that means! The Aragarians had already noticed this!”

“Yes. They probably studied our history intensively and probably deemed that these two religions had to go because it could be used against them.”

“But why the Jews and not the Christians?”

“There are too many Christians all over the world and too many countries holding on to that belief. However, Christianity has its roots in Judaism. Their faith both believed in many similar things and some branches of Christianity still hold the Jews as an important evidence of their God’s power. After all, the Jews continued to live on despite the many massacres they faced throughout history. So if the Jews are wiped out, a strong evidence of Christian faith vanishes as well.”

“So if you kill the Jews, you kill Christianity as well.” Meryl summarized.

“Yes. That’s one way to put it. The Book of Revelation holds the strangest prophecies about the Apocalypse. A desperate mind could easily cling to that for hope. However, the book also mentions 144,000 Jews. And since the Aragarians don't want people to tie an alien invasion as some sort of heavenly prophecy, they take away the Jews. No 144,000, then that book isn’t true.”

“They are going that far to remove hope?” Meryl was horrified at the thought that the Aragarians killed an entire race to simply stop the possibility of religious fanaticism in the future.

“That far? No. It makes perfect sense. Morale and hope should be extinguished to win a war. And that’s why we need the Jews.”

“So that’s why they used human trafficking operations! Israel fell in 2063 and they were all over the world again!”

“They already were dispersed even before that. The Jews had always been all over the world due to the many times their country was broken apart and sent into exile. So the Aragarians set up their base of operations all over the Earth to accomplish this. All the other benefits, like the experiments, sex trade, were all secondary. The primary purpose had been the extinction of this race.”

Meryl was silent. She couldn’t believe the plans that they were involved in. But the more she thought about it, the more it made sense.

“The Jews may have been extinct in Seeker’s future. I’m guessing the surviving humans probably clung to the remnants of Christian faith. But that brought no allies. Seeker saw knew that if he could change things, it would bring more allies.”

Arthur gazed at the dark skies above. Arthur gave a deep sigh.

“It’s about time for us to move. Once we start this mission, the war will officially begin."

Meryl took a deep breath and displayed a serious expression.

"The Jews can wait. For now, we kill these traitors." Meryl spoke softly.

The time was 11:32pm AEST.

Twenty minutes from that time, a battle which shook the world began.

 

Man, that was a good history lesson

 

I know right

 

Chapter Sixty-Five: Go to Pharaoh and Say
Cliff stood impatiently and gazed at the tall walls that could be seen in a distance. Despite the fact that they were inside the garden of one house, New Birth Fort’s sky-piercing wall could still be seen and seemed to have dwarfed the tall fences and walls of the house. Cliff continued to look at his right arm and would check if the small watch-like device he wore on his right arm would flicker.

“Sir!” A soldier approached Cliff.

“The set-up is complete!”

“For the millionth time, man! Don’t have to call me, Sir.” Cliff gave an angry and exasperated response.

The soldier maintained his serious expression.

“I can’t sir. Right now, you have an unofficial rank which is equal to that of a Major. So as of this moment, I have to report to you and address you as this.” The soldier gave a frank response.

“Whatever.” Cliff sighed.

“I still don’t get it. We have rockets and missiles, but why do we have to use this junk?” Cliff asked again.

“New Birth Fort has a system that automatically shoots and destroys incoming rockets and missiles, Sir. It will detect anything with a heat signature and shoot it. This was what made it stand against the armies that surrounded it during the war. Mortars, missiles, and other similar weapons are ineffective against this Fort.”

“I still don’t get it. Still, I just need to detonate this 2.4 seconds from its launch correct?

“Yes Sir. Colonel Arthur specifically instructed for it to be detonated exactly after 2 seconds and 400 milliseconds any lesser, it would be too far and wouldn’t do much damage. Any longer and the impact might destroy it.”

Cliff took out his mobile device and opened the timer app. He started it and immediately hit the pause button. It was exactly 2.4 seconds.

“Impressive!” The young Lieutenant complimented.

“This is nothing. Besides Meryl and Alean can do two decimals. Not to mention that Lynd.” Cliff complained.

A small light flickered on the armbands of the soldiers.

“It’s the signal! Commence Operation Go to Pharaoh and Say!” Golderon transmitted.

Cliff and his team then went on to their battle positions.

Several Exoskeletons zooming high on the sky, zooming towards the Gate. One of the Exoskeletons appeared to have been damaged as there were several charred parts on the armor.

Lander continued to zoom faster and faster.

“General. I am approaching Gate Three.”

“Arthur from the Covenant of the Strongest is among the crowd. You must get him.”

“I don’t play Piercing games. So I don’t know why this is important.”

“Apparently the BOC’s value him and his dad. They were planning to get him during the Stormson raid but he disappeared. So protecting him is important. Find and get him out of there. Otherwise, we can’t commence the mission.”

“Several of our men may die in the explosion, General.” Lander frowned.

“Probably. But if we want to make this look like Lowengren’s work then some of our men have to die. Anyway, I’ll send the order out. The gates will now be closing. It’s time to start this show. Do your job, soldier.”

“Yes, sir.” Lander sighed and started zooming towards the Fort’s entrance.

Suddenly a voice started to resonate throughout the city.

“I will not kill my fellow men!” A loud shout was heard.

Everyone stared at the large monitors on the city but noticed that it was all pitch black.

“This government is cruel as it is rotten! It has decided to kill all Pangean Natives and blame me for it! It has renounced its morals as a country and pursued wicked ends to achieve their goals! They used the love of a father to deceive and kill him and now they plan to use me as a scapegoat for their plans of massacring innocent civilians!”

The transmission this time did not show a clear image but a dark screen with only audio audible. Garland gave a surprised expression as he heard the opening broadcast.

“Lowengren!” Garland frowned.

A video finally appeared. A gagged man was shown. He had a lot of wounds over his body. His legs and arms just looked worthless. As if it was crushed and shot several times.

“Australia! If you kill my people, then I will also kill this person and his entire family! Keep in mind that he isn’t the only Bringer of Change I kidnapped! My countrymen! They are planning to kill you! Get out of that Fort!”

Panic ensued as several from the crowd started to rush towards the gate. The soldiers, however, immediately shot anyone who would approach the gate. This caused the crowd to run around in chaos. However, no one could leave the fort as the soldiers kept threatening them.

“Send a ping to all Bringer of Change.” Garland ordered.

Several lights appeared on the screen along with pictures of the most prominent personality in Australia. Out of the thirteen, only nine were lit up.”

Garland slammed his arm on the desk.

“How the hell did Lowengren manage to kill four behind our backs?” Garland frowned.

“Lander! Move quickly. I’m blowing that place up the moment you get out of the explosion's range.”

“What! Sir, he has Grekker!” Several of the soldiers next to Garland gave a surprised response.

“Just do as I tell you! Losing one more B.O.C is better than losing all of them! Saving that one is pointless. Send the nearest platoons to the respective headquarters of the surviving B.O.C!”

BOOM!

Several explosions bombarded the top walls of the Fort.

“What the?” Garland gave an irritated expression.

The added explosions caused the soldiers on the Gate to go on full alert.

The large crowd started rushing chaotically and more risked their lives to run through the soldiers in their panic.

BOOM!

Another series of explosions paraded the upper wall. Several soldiers were immediately killed form the barrage of explosions.

“How are we not detecting those!?” Garland demanded.

“We can’t see anything, Sir! It’s as if those rockets don’t have any heat at all!”

“Let me see that!” Garland rushed towards the monitors which displayed the continuing bombardment of the wall.

“General!” Lander communicated.

“Grenades. Their using grenades to cause those explosions. It won’t break through the wall. They seem to be using some device to throw these grenades.”

“Catapults!” Garland realized. He gnashed his teeth in frustration. The once untouchable wall of New Birth Fort, heavily damaged by some night catapult attacks.

Meanwhile, Cliff enjoyed the fireworks as he stood next to a flat metallic object that would hurl the grenades up reaching the high walls.

“Pretty strong for a small dude.” Cliff looked impressed.

“It’s not just any catapult. It uses magnetic repulsion technology to throw things. Why didn’t our experts think of this?”

“Cool! So this dudes an X-Men!”

“Magneto’s not even a part- ugh… never mind.” Golderon gave up.

“Well, I guess we need to move with the next part of the plan!” Cliff smiled.

“Sewer team! You’re up!” Golderon ordered.

In the dark sewers near the fort, soldiers were awaiting their signal. At Golderon’s orders, they fired a larger version of the remote controlled rockets they were using.

Three rockets fired by three different soldiers.

The rocket zoomed down the sewers until it finally zoomed out the manholes. Each manhole had a vehicle parked right above it hiding its exposed state.

The rockets swerved with expert precision exiting the manhole and zooming under the car.

The area where they appeared was already near Gate 3.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Large explosions reverberated throughout the city. The sudden appearance of the rocket from under the car did not allow New Birth Fort’s defense system to protect itself.

Soldiers were burned up and even the Exoskeleton could not leave undamaged.

“General! Were under attack! We have confirmed three missile hits near Gate Three!”

“Where did those rockets come from?”

“I don’t know! The system only detected it before it hit our base!”

“General!” Lander once again called out.

“The rockets aren’t coming from the sky! I saw a rocket zooming at an extremely low altitude! It was barely touching the ground! It being controlled! I saw it zoom below cars!”

“It’s them! Warfreakz! Lowengren lied! They were all alive!”

Cliff and his team had already switched locations for their next catapult attack. Cliff held the detonator in hand.

“Alright. I’m ready.”

“Release the packages on my mark…” Golderon immediately ordered.

The platoon was divided into three different teams and positioned themselves on three separate locations. Each had a miniature canon –like object that would throw the grenades towards the Fort.

Golderon waited for another round of missile attacks to hit another sector of the walls.

“NOW!”

The three teams launched their respective packages together.

The moment the catapults released their load, Cliff watched his timer.

When the timer reached 2.4 seconds, Cliff pushed the button.

BOOM!

A stronger explosion rocked the different parts of the wall. Several large holes could now be seen on the middle of the tall wall.

“Dammit! That’s an Area- Eradicating bomb!” Garland cursed in anger.

“Lander! Retreat! I’m blowing up those stupid Pangeans now!”

Lander stopped his rush and went on full retreat.

“Blow that place up!”

“Sir! But our men!”

“DO IT!” Garland gave an angry scream.

The soldier had no choice but to detonate the bomb.

Turning back time to a few minutes earlier, during the first volley of grenades that shook the wall, Arthur and Meryl were busy making their own preparations. Mixed in between the third salvo of grenades, were two small metallic cases tossed over by their catapults. Due to the commotion as well as the bright explosions and small debris of falling rubble, no one noticed that these small boxes made it over the wall.

It fell towards the large crowd. But before it reached the ground, Meryl caught it.

She tossed one small box to Arthur and immediately the two began to work.

Arthur was wearing a black bag which he found lying in the middle of the crowd. After pretending to be the owner, Arthur confirmed that these were in fact, the planted explosives.

Arthur took out from the metallic box a pair of handguns equipped with silencers. He then dashed towards the entrance while Meryl sniped soldiers from within the crowd.

Their assault was fast and detailed. All shots were headshots. None of the soldiers expected the crowd to be armed and many immediately fell silent without knowing what killed them.

Then the missile attacks rocked the gates further confusing the soldiers. Arthur’s speed surpassed a normal human being’s speed.

Several Exoskeletons noticed Arthur and started moving to confront Arthur. But then a terrifying explosion blasted a hole on the upper-middle region of the huge wall revealing a hole. The rubbles and sudden confused the soldiers. Using his built up velocity, Arthur then flung bag as far as he can. Immediately Arthur started sprinting backward.

Arthur’s sprint was extremely fast and he managed to get out of the blast range.

BOOM!

The large explosion blasted loudly shaking the very ground. The loud rumble sounded and as the dust clears, a large part of the wall was broken down. Soldiers, Exoskeletons and even Tanks lay helpless in the aftershock of the explosion.

The explosion startled everyone. The crowd of Pangean natives looked at the large hole. The blast was just as strong as the Area-Eradicating bomb but did not have the same corrosive effects.

The sudden explosion surprised the soldiers the most. The attacks outside had not shaken them due to the thick and impenetrable wall. But this explosion happened on the inside. The large bang did not happen in the middle of the open field as was planned. It happened right at the very entrance of Gate 3.

The crumbling entrance slowly gave way. The soldiers gazed in shock. In all of their history, this was the first time, their gates were forcefully opened. While the soldiers stared in great shock, the crowd stared at the open gate.

“RUN MY COUNTRYMEN! GET OUT THERE!”

A loud shout was once again broadcasted.

One started to run sprinting out of the Australian death trap. Soon the entire crowd followed.

Arthur and Meryl went towards the ruins of the Gate entrance. And once they were in position, Arthur held a Comm device on hand and shouted the signal to start the next part of the mission.

“Let my people go!”

 

Chapter Sixty-Six: The Light Breaker
The dust and dirt still hadn’t cleared yet as countless spotlights from the main Fort’s building focused on the broken wall. A large crowd was rushing outwards.

Deep in the rushing crowd stood two people. Somehow, people were avoiding them despite the chaotic rush and stampede, none of the rushing people would bump to these two individuals. As if they knew that they should avoid these two.

On the outside of the wall, the rockets that once paraded the entrance started zooming and hitting other directions. Tanks, Exoskeletons and the appearance of Armors were busy avoiding these rockets and even the falling grenades.

Suddenly a pair of rockets suddenly appeared from the dust and rushed just overhead of the rushing crowd.

Arthur and Meryl stood ready for the passing missile. As it zoomed by, Meryl and Arthur used their extreme perception to immediately unlock the lock which held the package.

Two cylindrical bluish tubes were received along with a smaller cylindrical object which was their extendable blades.

Back in the main command room of the Australian army, Garland was very angry. He was the assigned general to hold the Fort and yet, it was broken through. The implications of their poor defense could make the world see that this Fort wasn’t as impregnable as they once believed.

“Sir! Multiple platoons have reported to being under fire!”

“Two BOC’s have triggered the alarm, Sir! They are being attacked!”

“There’s another salvo of incoming rockets! Some may breach through the entrance!”

“Fire the Light Breaker!” Garland roared.

The soldiers in the command room were all shocked.

“Sir… We don’t have permission-”

“Permission?! This country is under a full-scale invasion! New Birth Forth has been breached! Are you saying that we need permission to protect our country? Fire it NOW!”

The soldiers immediately shuffled to active Light Breaker.

Up in infinite space beyond the Earth’s atmosphere, one of the satellites that continued to circle the Earth has already repositioned itself, aiming for New Birth City. A large satellite dish on the hull of the satellite started glowing with a reddish hue.

Suddenly a shockwave was released from the dish and it zoomed down towards the Earth. It was as if the space around it was bending. Several of the satellites which circulated nearby suddenly lost all power and some were sent crashing on towards each other while others plummeted down the Earth.

Back down in New Birth City, the powerful shockwave enveloped the entire city. The city itself began to shake from the sudden blast and all electronic devices, gadgets and even wireless signals were lost.

The once bright city turned dark. All that could be seen were the burning buildings and fires spreading throughout the city. The flying rockets soon died down and tumbled to the ground.

The remote-controlled rocket which just passed by Meryl lost all forms of power and smashed towards the wall of the building. No explosions followed afterward.

The attacks that came from all directions ceased almost instantly. The sudden change in the situation resulted in silence. Though they felt a strange force pressing on to them, none were hurt. After a few seconds, chaos returned as the civilians started panicking.

“Switch to Source Power!” Garland ordered.

The dead fortress suddenly lit up. Spotlights started appearing one after the other. The tanks, Exoskeletons, and Armors that seemed to have lost power suddenly sprung to life with all its technical capabilities brought back to full power.

“Trace the source of the attacks and finish them! Use historical heat-tracking to learn the paths of the rockets and trace it back to the source!” Garland ordered.

On the main road of the city, a platoon of soldiers was frantically switching to source power. Several of their companions were already dead as three convoys and one tank suddenly exploded due to a surprise attack of grenades, missiles, and planted bombs. The few survivors were then met with a torrent of bullets.

At the firing of the Light Breaker, the attacks stopped and the soldiers managed to regroup.

“Move now! Their rockets are ineffective and they have to switch to manual control to use their guns! We kill them before they regroup!” The Captain angrily ordered as he gathered the survivors of his platoon and rushed towards the building which was the source of the attacks.

The team of soldiers did not act slowly and used thermal detectors to locate the enemy easily. Without the thermal jammers, hiding was now pointless.

This scenario played on the various locations of the city where a sudden attack against the Australian army occurred causing severe death tolls. But after Light Breaker was activated, the attack followed by a total turning of the tide. The rockets which were used to halt soldiers from recklessly diving into the open fields were gone thanks to the EMP attacks.

All over the city, the Australian’s finally managed to make their first kills. None of the Pangean soldiers they faced survived or even managed to escape.

The Captain led his team through the stairs. As they reached the floor where the Pangean soldiers were reported to be hiding, he signaled the team and a soldier threw in one magnetic bomb.

This bomb “exploded” releasing pulses of electrical arcs which shot at any metallic object the room had. The room became a web of lighting and various mini-explosions sounded out as even the bullets inside the guns started exploding as their gunpowder was heated. Soon, even several grenades exploded.

The Australian team rushed in and started shooting at any moving enemy.

“Pseudo-Skeletons!” The Captain growled.

“To think they’ve had such gear with them!”

The soldiers in the room wore suits that made them look like robotic astronauts. They had a thick black glass visor which protected their face and thick heavy metal armors which could prevent even armor piercing rounds.

However, the magnetic bomb had stunned all the soldiers in the room and even disarmed them. In such a scenario, the Australian forces, easily shot at them one by one, aiming for the glass visor.

The thick armor and helmet could not prevent the obvious display of fear that the last Pangean soldier had as the Captain shot him several times in the face.

“Open up their helmets and scan their faces. If our intel is right, they should be Pangean natives who are Australian citizens.” The Captain coldly ordered.

The soldiers did as command and stripped of the helmets and visors which these enemy soldiers wore. “SIR!” An alarmed cry was heard and the Captain immediately turned to the crying soldier.

“This is Nathan! He was serving under Captain Lawsons! He’s not a Pangean native!”

A shocked look surfaced on the Captain’s face. The soldiers they had just unmasked were all gagged and their arms seemed to have been broken.

Suddenly, shots coming from the ground below penetrated through and killed all the soldiers in the room. The floor was made of both concrete and steel yet bullets pierced through it.

The Captain managed to evade by rushing out but several shots pierced through him maiming his legs.

The Captain reached for his communicator but another shot pierced through his heart.

“Rail guns?” The bewildered Captain stared as he identified the attacks. The attack came from behind the wall.

The thick should have been able to withstand even armor piercing rounds. But these attacks pierced through it like it was paper.

The Captain could make out person silhouette as his vision started to fail him. But he could clearly see, the soldier wearing thermal visors as well as a thermal jammer. All of which, shouldn’t be working because of the Light Breaker.

The silhouette aimed his gun at the Captain and a bluish light became the last sight the Captain beheld.

The instant massacre of several platoons was left unnoticed by the majority. The soldiers in the city had no time to do a roll call as they have their hands full.

Back in Gate 3, the soldiers were now trying to reorganize and capture the Pangean natives that escaped. However, the series of explosions outside were exploding on very precise locations that allowed the citizens to escape unhindered.

This cover of fire hindered the ground forces while the flying Exoskeletons had settled on the top of the wall in order to switch to Source Energy. By the time they could lift off, most of them ignored the running civilians as they immediately sought out the enemy in the area.

Unnoticed to them, all the soldiers inside who stood near the gate and survived the explosions, were now dead.

“Meryl. You’re up. Get ready.” Arthur ordered as he was removing a bloodied blade which pierced through an Exoskeleton.”

“Amazing. This sword’s pretty sharp.”

“It’s not sharp. It just applies Eradicating technology.” Arthur casually responded.

“Then why aren’t more of this made?”

“What can a sword do against guns? Not everyone’s like us Meryl.”

“Oh right…”

“Soldiers coming. Move into position.”

A group of soldiers came running inside to check the area and was surprised at the deaths of their fellow men.

“Search for the enemy! And be on full alert!” The commanding officer shouted as the soldiers from the outside sprinted inside.

“Sir! We’ve confirmed it! These are Pangean made weapons!” A soldier reported as he stooped down to retrieve the missile which almost blew apart the main doors leading to the main building.

“Those damned Pangeans!” Another soldier cursed.

“Relax Corporal. The Light Breaker has been activated. Whatever army they have here should be dead within minutes. Without their tech, they won’t stand a chance.”

“Report! Is the Sector clear?” A voice spoke through the Comm device.

“Sir, Yes sir! No incoming attacks seem to be reaching this area.”

Immediately, the large door behind them started to roll up. The entire metal gate was about two meters thick.

A large number of soldiers wearing Exoskeletons and Pseudo-Skeletons marched out.

“So Evening came huh?” The soldier holding the rocket grumbled.

“The Morning light wasn’t enough to win this battle. It’s time for the Darkness to have a shot at the enemy. An Evening commander greeted the grumbling soldier.

The Morning soldier offered a salute.

The Evening commander approached the soldier and took a look at the rocket on the soldier’s hand. It had several dents on its warhead and even some parts of it were badly bent.

“Pangean Remote rockets? To think that this little thing here could make Australia send the Night.”

“Sir! Look! A Pangean native!” A soldier pointed to the open field.

Meryl stood at the center of the field. She walked as if she was wounded and limped closer towards the gate.

“Should we shoot her?” The soldier asked.

“Don’t be too heartless. Hey little girl! Come here!” The Evening soldier beckoned.

Meryl sighed.

“Just as Arthur predicted.” She mumbled as she limped closer.

The soldiers around did nothing to this poor Pangean girl as their commander had called her out.

“This should be close enough.” Meryl then stopped her approach and stood on the field.

“Hey, little girl! What are you doing?” The Evening commander asked.

“Waiting for the signal!” Meryl shouted back.

Before the confused look of the commander appeared on his face, a series of strange beeps could be heard.

The soldiers by the gate then searched for the source of the sudden beeps. It was coming from the small rocket in the hands of the Morning soldier.

BOOM!

The rocket exploded.

The sudden explosion created panic as all the surrounding soldiers immediately rushed towards the explosion to check on their comrades.

As the soldiers approached a loud crackling sound echoed loudly, distorting the soldiers nearby and then a bright light blazed forth blinding everyone.

The light wasn’t just an ordinary flash bang but it was one of Pangean’s special-grade, light-blinding explosives designed to provide longer blinding effects for the enemy. The Ever Bright.

Meryl easily entered the through the main door and rushed deep into the facility. She was now wearing an Australian soldier’s attire and had several bloodied parts on her body.

It wasn’t long in her rush inside that she noticed two women and a man blocking her path.

Meryl slowed down on her pace and walked as if she was limping.

"Help me... Please." Meryl pleaded with a saddened expression.

“Meryl, I presume?” The taller woman asked.

Meryl had a surprised look.

“Harker’s Programmed Slaves! I didn't expect to meet you so soon! Thanks for all your help.” Meryl gave a courteous bow.

 

Chapter Sixty-Seven: The Glass Canon
The Light Breaker was Australia’s secret weapon. The satellite that was launched into space was approved by the World Governing Powers as it was declared to be a network jamming device.

Australia was granted permission for launching this technological marvel due to its unique positioning in South Asia. During the Continental Wars, all of the surrounding nations were Australia’s enemies. North of the Pangean Nations was the group of nations that caused so much devastation to Australia that a deep hatred continued to this day. The South Pacific United was the most aggressive country during the Continental War. And they lead a united front with Pangea, New Zealand, and New India against Australia.

Due to the history of this nation, they appealed to the World Governing Powers to launch several satellites which gave them a network shield. This had the capability of preventing network, wireless and even radio hacking. The xenophobic nation of Australia however, hid a secret in their launch. The satellites were capable of more than just providing a jamming signal for network attacks.

The rest of the world caught word that Australia has officially activated a Comm Blackout. No communications of all sorts could get into Australia. This could only mean that Australia is at war.

The South Pacific United immediately marshaled its forces for a potential attack. President Victor Colestart, who is immediately approved SPU’s entry. But immediately, a political war suddenly emerged.

Various members of the Pangean Senate across all of its nations agreed with General Harker’s opinion in not granting entry to Pangean soil. President Hyron of Indo-Pangea voted against Colestart’s decision and immediately pleaded for martial law to be in place in all three Pangean nations and put General Harker as the temporary President of the country.

The political movements were swiftly decided. The majority voted in favor for Hyron’s suggestion as the masses were in fear of being attacked. Pangea had already lost one of its National Managers and thus, the foreign phobia that laid deep within this nations roots sprang out.

As Harker finally grasped complete and total control over all of Pangean military, he threatened that if the SPU were to march into Pangean territory, he would treat it as an act of war and immediately attack the SPU without mercy.

The media caught the attention of their interactions as both countries communicated via live-video feeds.

“President Harker! We are only acting in the best interest of both our countries! Australia has always been our enemy after the war and we were always allies!”

“I will not be deceived!” Declared Harker with intense emotions.

“Who’s to say that this is all but a plot! Did you not manipulated every nation in this region to wage war against Australia during the Continental wars! Whose to say a Nation as deceptive as yourself isn’t planning to do the same tactics?”

“And should your paranoia turn out to be wrong? What then Harker? Will you allow Australia to come knocking at your doorstep? Are you ready to face the consequences?” The angry president growled at Harker.

“I trust my men! Leave it to the Heroes Armies to defend this land!” Harker immediately disconnected the call.

When two nations that are at odds with each other need to settle political issues, live video-feeds were the first option in order to ensure no assassinations to take place. But in all of the video-feeds between nation, no country would be so bold as to disconnect the call prematurely. Even the World Governing Powers considered this act as grounds for waging war due to the many elements and implications that that action represented.

Harker had a furious look on his face. His entire body was visibly shaking from the intense argument that he just had. He immediately walked down the prepared platform as the media reporters celebrated in Harker’s actions.

Almost all citizens deemed Harker’s actions as commendable. His arguments made sense. Never was there a time since its conception that the Pangean Nations were so united in spirit and actions.

The Gate Three of New Birth Fort was in total mess. The Ever Bright continued to blaze out while soldiers prepared for battle.

The Evening soldiers were now on full alert as they immediately created a perimeter in case other attacks would be made.

Meanwhile, just near the mounds of ruble by the Wall, Arthur was lying down on the ground. No soldier noticed him as he was fairly hidden from view.

Arthur twisted the two bluish tubes together. Slowly, the blueish color started growing.

“Are you up for using that one?” A voice in the Comm Device inquired.

“After everything that you’ve seen you still doubt us?” Arthur humored Lowengren with the return question.

“It’s because of the device you’re using. One of those cost more than a Pangean battleship.”

“Of course it should. Pangean technology isn’t cheap. This thing could power up a city and I’m going to use as a bazooka.”

“Still… that’s too fragile. She practically asked me to deliver the core weapon system without the main armors.”

“As I’ve said… the armor is too heavy for any of us to carry. Relax. I know that a single bullet hole could break this masterpiece. I just need to make sure that I won’t get hit or place this weapon in a compromising position and I’m good.” Arthur slowly stood up and mounted the bluish tubes inside the glass cannon.

“Looks like there are no cracks made from the drop. The Solarium Eradicator cannon seems to be working fine.”

Arthur finally attached a small square box which fitted perfectly in the back of the cannon. Arthur carried the canon over his shoulders.

Arthur took a peak out of the rubble and saw that the soldiers were still on a tight perimeter guarding the entrance while others were waiting for the Ever-Bright to fade. Several Exoskeletons took to the sky and watched for incoming rocket attacks.

Suddenly the entire fortress lit up as sparks of electricity could be seen blasting out in an arc.

“There it is. Australia’s perfect defense. Enigmatic Magnetic Field.”

Arcs of lightning started zooming out in the immediate outskirts of the building. Shards of metals and other pieces where immediately bolted as the lightning rained down on the nearby buildings. Any metal which was deemed foreign were viciously attacked.

“And with that, the soldiers rejoice,” Arthur smirked.

The Evening and Morning soldiers were all cheering at the sight. It had been decades since the full potential of the Fort was utilized. And tonight, the Fort reached its true glory.

“Seeker came prepared. Glass cannons huh? He's really confident..”

Arthur took another look at the area. His vision needed no technological aid. At the dying down of the first Ever Bright, just near it was a round plastic ball that was nearly buried on the ground. It was as if someone planted the ball deep in the ground to avoid being seen.

Arthur pressed a button and another explosion occurred.

The Whiplash bomb produced a thunderous shockwave and people around it stumbled down. The soldiers reacted to the sound and some were thrown by the shockwave.

Arthur ran out of the open and started dashing for the exit. Once he neared it, Arthur pointed his glass bazooka towards the area which held the most soldiers.

A blue laser beam shot out of the canon. Arthur led the rays to and it slashed through the perimeter of soldiers. The beam swiped by quickly and the soldiers who were hit were immediately halved.

The Exoskeletons that were hit were knocked back and screams could be heard. Their suit was burning with intense heat from the passing laser blast.

Arthur then aimed for another Exoskeleton and fired once more.

The beam blasted at the armor and the Eradicating factors came to work and slowly cooked through the armor and then penetrated through it.

Arthur then sprinted out of the gate unleashing a small burst of laser attacks every now and then to the soldiers nearby.

“Not bad. Two seconds to penetrate through Exoskeleton armor. I need to try it on an Armor.” Arthur smiled as he ran.

Suddenly a rain of bullets fell behind him as several Exoskeletons started to shoot from the sky. But Arthur had already long anticipated their attacks. His speed suddenly increased as a burst through surprising the flying Exoskeletons.

Arthur them jumped forwards and turned his body in midair. He faced the skies and shot a quick blast towards an Exoskeleton. Arthur continued to spin and landed back on his feet to which he continued his sprint.

The Exoskeletons zoomed to chase Arthur but Arthur kept adjusting the speed of his sprint. Every now and then, Arthur would jump and manage to hit yet another Exoskeleton.

The zooming Exoskeleton’s started descending to get a close shot of Arthur.

“RETREAT” Immediately an order sprang out. The rushing Exoskeletons halted in confusion but followed nonetheless.

Garland stared at the screens with his face carrying an extremely angry expression. The state of the Fort would surely bring down his career.

“They even have an anti-EMF plan.” Lander frowned. He had long returned back to headquarters at Garland’s orders.

“Indeed. Our Intel’s been compromised.” Garland frowned.

“But how?”

“No time worrying about that. I’ve already secured all access points within the building to make sure no one enters restricted areas. I called you here to discuss some issues that I feared would be compromised.”

“What are my orders?” Lander asked seriously.

“We need to find their headquarters. Having organized attacks means they somehow managed to bypass our network blocking system and established a network of their own..”

“Impossible.”

“No. just unlikely. They must have established a Comm Relay within the city. Find them and that will lead you to their headquarters.”

“I believe my duties lie in protecting this city, Sir. Are you really going to take your best soldier and send him in a reconnaissance mission right in the middle of this war?”

“Our enemy has yet to reveal their true power. We utilized the best of our Enigmatic Magnetic technology and still, they have cards up their sleeves. I already deployed something that I’m sure they do not have knowledge about.” Garland sat down and gave a strange look at a monitor which displayed several soldiers walking towards the exits.

“Your mission is just as important, however. These are the areas which seem to be broadcasting a unique signal. Use this signal to trace it back to the source.”

“Yes, sir!” Lander responded and sprinted out immediately.

“Now to find the rat in this building.” Garland then frowned and accessed his computer.

On the ground level facilities, Meryl was limping alongside three peculiar individuals who were dressed as a scientist.

“So, um… who are you guys?” Meryl asked innocently.

The tallest of the three was a woman with very thick glasses. She had red flaming hair and a very strict posture while she walked.

“I’m Sonia, this is my sister, Saunia.” The shorter woman then waved. She had the same fiery red hair as her taller sister but wore no glasses. Unlike her sister, she didn’t have the same strict movements.

“And this is one of my batch mate, Eric.”

“Charmed.” The male scientist fiddled with his phone giving no interest to greet Meryl. He was tall, wore glasses with a slim frame and had a darker shade of skin color.

“Batch mates since college? Nice!”

“No. She meant we were captured and turned into Programmed Slaves together.” Eric gave a casual response.

Meryl sighed and continued to follow the ‘cheerful’ bunch.

The group soon passed by several restricted gates and finally entered a heavily confined room.

“Boss!” a scientist worriedly ran towards Sonia.

“The wars progressing for the worst! We’ve received orders to check our database to see who has accessed the latest technology. General Garland believes there’s a spy among the scientist!”

“I already know who the traitor is.” Sonia gave a bland reply.

“It was us. Meryl, please kill everyone here.” Sonia gave a sweet smile.

“Eh?” Meryl was surprised at the calm request.

 

Chapter Sixty-Eight: The Opened Path
The burst of speed that Meryl displayed was astonishing. She zipped and zoomed across the rooms jumping over a ten-meter distance and could decapitate two or three scientists in that leap.

The scene was horrific even for the three Programmed Slaves. They knew this small girl to be a secret weapon of Harker, but they never expected such brutality.

They stared in shock as Meryl finally finished the last of them. A minute barely passed and all thirteen were dead.

“Amazing…” Sonia was stunned.

“How long have you been working with these scientists?” Meryl ignored their curious expressions.

Eric gave a confused look at the question.

“About thirteen years.” Eric shrugged.

“Seriously? You worked with these scientists for thirteen years and you don’t even shed a tear for them?” Meryl uttered in disgust.

“My dear Meryl, why are you disgusted? What do you expect for people like us?” Saunia laughed.

“I don’t know! Maybe a bit of concern or even sadness!” Meryl shook her head.

“Just do what you got to do so that we can get out of here. I can’t believe I have to protect you three.” Meryl grumbled.

Sonia nodded to Eric, who turned and walked over to a computer and started working.

“You seem a little annoyed at our emotional states.” Saunia laughed at Meryl as she approached.

“Do you even have emotions?” Saunia and Sonia laughed at Meryl’s disgusted response.

“The reason why we aren’t in anyways affected by your actions is that our emotions are being overlapped. It’s not that we didn’t feel sad at their deaths. Of course, we are! But right now, were too happy to be sad!”

Meryl gave a strange look and then soon realized.

“Wait! Happy? You mean it’s that chip in your head?”

“Correct. Convenient isn’t it?” Saunia gave a smile.

BEEP!”

“Oh, that must be your boss!” Sonia cried excitedly.

“Hello?” Meryl answered immediately.

“Have you met them?”

“Yes. We’re in.”

“Good. Continue with the mission.”

As soon as the call ended, Sonai, Saunai, and Eric suddenly shivered as immense pangs of delights shook their faces.

The three had maddened faces. Eric continued to tinker with the laptop but it was clear that he was experiencing a delirious state. His smile broadened as he continued to work.

Meryl also noticed Sonia and Saunia’s expressions as they shivered in happiness.

The state of disgust that Meryl had for these three scientists turned into shock.

“Just like that?”

“This is why I love this job! It’s so easy to become happy!” Eric smiled as he rushed to a nearby computer and started booting it.

“Harker gave the controls to your leader. We fulfilled the first part of the plan. And so he must have flipped our switch.” Saunia giggled in delight.

“But… It’s a lie! You guys aren’t happy! You just think you are!”

“A lie? That may be true, my dear.” Sonia laughed in glee.

“But don’t we all live in a lie? Everyone pursues happiness! And they try to imitate or follow a path which they think can make them happy. Some to work, some to love, some to accomplishments. But can those things really make you happy?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean happiness itself is an illusion! Do you mean to say, my dear, that it’s your path that can make you happy? How many of those end their lives at the end as it couldn’t deliver them happiness? You can pity us, my dear, but the truth is, we are better than you!” Sonia’s laughed continued to resonate.

“My happiness is an illusion? That’s stupid!”

“Of course it’s a lie. What is it that you think will give you happiness??” Sonia asked.

“Let me do it, Sis.” Saunia turned and gave a smiling glance at Meryl.

“I took the liberty of reading your profile as well as review your sudden rise to fame. At first, I thought it was just cover. After all, how can such an assassin be such a sweet girl? But if what you say is true, then let’s see… You follow the one with the most potential in the class among your classmates. Seeker must have always been that diamond in the rough, correct?”

Meryl frowned at Saunia’s assessment.

“Oh, don’t give me that look. I may be a Slave, Sweetie, but I’ve got several degrees and masters in human behavior. Tell me honestly, you secretly want to be famous right? But you’re not confident enough. So you decided to stick to someone who can become famous. You love looking at the bright light and yearn for it! If you can’t get it, be around someone who has. So your happiness is found in fame. Ironic for someone as timid as you are.”

Meryl was silent.

“You followed this lie and it corrupted your will. This illusion of happiness directed your paths. This made you choose your friends and even brought you where you are right now. You accuse us of living a lie and having no will of our own. But how are you any different from us?”

“These were my choices. I’ve always followed my will. I am the master of my faith! The captain of my soul!” Meryl recited the one poem that struck her in school as boldly as she could.

Saunia chuckled.

“Are you really? You are guided by whatever childhood upbringings you have and led by whatever psychology applies to you. The thing that you think will make you happy is a subjective opinion! You are not the master of your faith! Your geography, family, culture, and experiences are the master of your faith! You are a ship tossed and led by the waves and wind around you.” Sonia laughed in an almost manic manner.

Meryl was silent. Somewhere in her heart, she realized that what Sonia and Saunia were saying was true. She gazed at the bright light on the ceiling of the room.

“Is this why I like looking at bright things?” Meryl thought to herself.

“Don’t you see child? We far more superior because we can find true, perfect and constant happiness easily!” Sonia grinned.

“We can be the most generous people who will give our lives for others because we can find perfect happiness in that.” Sonia continued with wild gestures.

“And at the same time, we can massacre millions at your orders because we can find true and perfect happiness in that as well. We are not bound by morality, conscience, egos or psychology! We may not be the Captain of our ships, but we will always be enjoying the cruise!”

“What about you? What of this fame that you longed for? Is that the answer to happiness? Is that the truth? Who among the two of us are living in a lie and who is living in truth?” Saunia challenged as she laughed.

Meryl continued to remain silent. Seeker had always had it and he was the only person a simple Rising like her could ever be in touch with. This was why Meryl became friends with Seeker. She always believed that Seeker was bright enough to reach the stage she yearned for.

“Was this really why I wanted to be friends with him? My will was corrupted?” Meryl thought in anguish.

And then it struck her. She recalled the moments when Seeker trained her.

“I don’t get it Zeek! That’s impossible! You mean to say that your little body is stronger than a professional bodybuilder?”

“Of course it is. Should you realize it, you can then easily do what I do.” Seeker playfully stroke the large halberd he held with a single arm.

“What do you mean by "realize" it? How do I realize myself into that area?” Meryl angrily demanded. If she didn’t figure out Seeker’s riddle, then the halberd session with Seeker would be a thousand times scarier. And she was done with that.

“It’s kind of hard to explain and explaining things won’t help Believers like you. You have to realize this on your own. If I lead you to it, it won’t help you as your will may limit you.” Seeker smiled and started attacking.

“My own will limited me?” Meryl slowly returned from her recollection.

“That’s it!” Meryl shouted in surprise.

“My will is limited to my knowledge and experience! What I know, what I believe, why I believe… But is this really the truth? Everything I know about my own body is a limitation set by my own self which affected my will! But what about now? With my Unlocking?” Meryl smiled as she stared at the light.

“My first true act of free will was to look at that bright light and believe that it wasn’t bright enough to stop me. And that became reality! I was no longer bound by the naturals laws! The Will of my Eyes surpassed it!”

Sonia had a confused expression. Meryl seemed to be as happy as she was!

Meryl gripped her fist and gazed at it. She then closed her eyes.

“Alright, Zeek. I won’t go after your brightness anymore. I’ll be my own brightness. This too will be my own will. Not pursued by happiness but pursued by my own choice.” Meryl took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Slowly an interesting change started to occur.

The Believers of the future weren’t simply classified by the quick rate of speed which they manage to push their Unlocking. Seeker Carlean always had the fastest speed and even reached a higher Unlocking than most of his peers. But the one thing that he failed at, was to make his own Path.

A Believer was someone who not only could climb the stages of the Unlocking abilities but would possess abilities which allowed them to make miracles. These miracles would be enough for them to conquer a nation within four days.

When the Thief in the Night awakened her path, Italy was defeated within three days. The undetectable stealth and high speeds gave birth to an almost undetectable cloaking capability which later was used as the foundation of many cloaking techs in the future.

And in the comparison of Paths, the Thief in the Night was vastly inferior to Meryl’s Path.

Meryl’s own skin which was white, started to turn brighter as a mixture of gold started to slowly cover her skin. Her entire appearance seemed to radiate light. A thin layer of heat started to appear on her skin.

“Impossible!’ Saunia stared in shock as the golden light enveloped Meryl. She slowly drew closer to Meryl as her curiosity peaked.

“Don’t touch her!” Sonia cried.

“Look! That golden glow is heat!”

“How’s that possible? Creating fire from nothing?”

“No! We’ve seen this yet we haven’t proven it. Spontaneous combustion. But what she’s doing is on a very controlled level!”

“Oh my God! You mean it’s true? Spontaneous combustion is possible! But why isn’t she burning up?”

“I don’t know!”

“Doctor Sonia! Please report! The camera feeds in your office were all cut!” A soldier buzzed at the door’s entrance.

“Sweetie, they shouldn’t see us.” Sonia alerted Meryl.

“Even now, you guys are still happy?” Meryl giggled as she opened her eyes.

“You looked like a changed woman.” Sonia smiled.

“Wow. So beautiful.” Saunia admired.

“Not even my happiness can eclipse my jealousy to your flawless and perfect skin.” Saunia gazed longingly.

Even Eric could not help but stare with mouths wide open as he stared at Meryl. Her golden glow and flawless skin made her look like a goddess.

“Thanks. If it wasn’t for our talk, I may have never reached this level. Anyways, I think I’m bright enough to deal with those soldiers. They shouldn’t be able to see you now.” Meryl giggled.

Meryl’s light continued to grow brighter and brighter. The room also started to become warm.

Meryl finally unlocked the door and opened it. A sudden blazing light enveloped the halls blinding the soldiers on the other side of the door. Within seconds, the soldiers were all dead and the mounted cameras on these soldiers were all destroyed.

“WHEW!” Meryl sighed as the light diminished.

“I’m so hungry!” Meryl growled in complaint.

Meryl Mikado, the Empress of the Sun, has awakened.

 

Chapter Sixty-Nine: Dawn
It was a massacre. Traps after traps were set before them. Planted bombs exploded on several key locations in the middle of battle. Those who barricaded the buildings were surprised with underground rocket attacks which utilized the sewers as an entry point to blow up a building from the inside.

Then came a chain reaction of exploding bombs detonating like crazy across the city. Some explosions just rose out of the streets, others from unsuspecting trashcans, and some were even attached to cars. All over the city, explosions could be heard.

“To all surviving platoons in Third Quarts, head for LANX Mall!” The flying Evening Exoskeletons broadcasted.

They heard the sudden announcement and immediately took out a flare and ignited it.

“There! Incoming signals from more survivors! Get them in here!” the Captain of the Exoskeletons ordered and pointed to the building.

Several gunshots erupted from the distance and a rocket zoomed from the ground rising quickly.

The Captain evaded with grace as the missile swung pass him off into the skies. The Fort’s defense mechanism’s then made quick work of the rocket.

Several Exoskeleton’s immediately sped towards the source of the rocket.

“Retreat! Remember our orders. Save the Morning.” The Captain slowly spoke.

The Evening soldiers halted their flight and retreated towards the signal from a Morning survivor. The Morning soldiers were then escorted by the flying troupe who also provided covering fire from the various enemies in the area.

As the surviving Morning soldiers gathered at LANX mall, the Evening troops continued to scout the perimeter.

The medics were already ready. Various devices were positioned on the basement levels and the wounded were escorted to be treated.

Evening came prepared and brought the necessary equipment’s to scan the entire building. The underground paths were blocked and finally, it was activated.

Several metallic pillars were erected on the four corners of the building and finally, an electric spark started to fill the entire area. Arcs of lightning came forth from the pillars which attacked any unidentified metals on the area.

“The magnetic field is up!” A soldier announced.

The Morning soldiers rejoiced at the sight of it. A miniature magnetic field was deployed. They were finally safe.

The appearance of the field caused other soldiers who were wounded in the area to surface and started sparking their flares for rescue. A safe haven was finally available.

“Captain! The magnetic field has been set up!” A soldier reported in glee.

The incoming volley of rockets were all blown to bits as an electric field protected the perimeter of the soldiers.

As the army rushed to gather, a Pangean soldier who spied through a binocular whistled in surprise.

“A miniature magnetic field huh?”

“Not even our grenades could break through it now.” A soldier stared worriedly.

“Don’t worry. Have you ever wondered why we saved our Pure Eradication bombs till now? We just got word from Lowengren. Another daring plan. No metal can get through that, but concrete can.”

“Concrete?”

Golderon pointed to the sky. The soldier stared at the object pointed at and gave a confused look. Golderon then took the cylindrical magnetic catapult and aimed somewhere.

“You’ll see,” Golderon smirked. He took out the Comm device with his free hand and turned it on.

“Make Babel fall. Ready.”

“Make Babel fall. Ready.” A response immediately came back.

“Make Babel fall. Ready.”

“Make Babel fall. Ready.”

“Make Babel fall. Ready.”

“Confuse their tongues.” Unlike the other responses, the last one came from Lowengren and it was an order.

Golderon took the mini catapult and aimed towards a nearby skyscraper. Various platoon leaders scattered throughout the city did likewise. Some aimed high on the middle portion, while others went for the foundation.

The Pure Eradicating Bomb was a bomb that didn’t have a large explosive radius. But what it lacked in its reach it compensated in terms of its power.

All throughout the city, near the very buildings where the Australian armies secured and activated a magnetic field on, the tall skyscrapers nearby suddenly shook as a part of their foundation where eradicated. Some of this sky suddenly had a large hole right in the center. The loss of foothold caused these tall towers to fall. And the crashing concrete’s path of landing was the very perimeter the Australian’s secured.

The sight of a falling building left the Australian Evening Captain stunned silent. They could ward of bombs, rockets and even had techs that could deal with bullets. But nothing against tons of concrete falling on top of them.

The crashing concrete fell on the LANX mall and a cloud of dust emerged from the area.

The Evening Exoskeletons could be seen flying away from the building, saving whoever they can along the way.

“Evening. Move out. Leave the Morning survivors alone. We’ll have another team to deal with them. Remain airborne and search for the enemy. Ping their locations and do not attempt to engage until Dawn has come.” A broadcast was announced towards all Evening soldiers.

“Dawn?” The Captain had just barely escaped the crashing building and frowned at the strange order.

“Captain? That was General Voyager! What did he mean by Dawn?”

Golderon frowned at the sight of the Evening lights.

“To the mountains,” Golderon ordered over the Comm device.

On the high reaches of Fort New Birth, a large hangar opened up as another platoon of Evening soldiers zoomed out and went on the offensive. Behind them, a large group of shiny silver could be seen slowly forming ranks.

They stood over eight-feet tall. They looked like a group of golems from the fantasy tales of old. Pure steel meshed to form a giant man. Deep inside the thick armor, they bore the weight of something that weighed nearly a ton.

Some were slowly walking over several platforms with complex mechanisms that equipped these huge men with the metal gear that their other companions wore.

The men that entered these metal suits had a very huge build. They looked like a mass of muscles with disproportionate heads.

“Gentlemen.” The strict voice of General Garland sounded.

“We are about to use you for the first time in history. Your enemy will not expect you, they will not know what you are, but you must not underestimate them. Evening has made their attacks but it may take some time before they can exterminate our enemies.” Garland gripped his fist as he spoke.

“But we don’t intend to let this war continue any longer. I want you to go out there and eliminate all of them within the next hour. Evening will support you. So march out and end this darkness! Let these Pangean parasites know that Dawn is coming!”

The large hangar opened up as the entire top tower of the Fort opened wide allowing the entire city came to come into full view. Garland glared in anger as his city looked like a war zone.

A large metal platform was rolled out facing the open hangar.

“Quite a plan, General.” A thin man walked over towards General Garland.

“General Voyager. It’s good that you’re here.”

“I’ve taken command of Evening. Focus on your Dawn soldiers. Still, quite a bold plan. I didn’t know Dawn Creations are so resilient that they can be used like this.”

“Of course not. Their armors will be equipped with a small rocket upon launch to nullify the landing.”

“Oh. I thought they’d survive the throw.”

“Each one of them is worth billions of Roos. You want to risk damaging them for that?”

The Dawn soldiers stood on the platform and various mechanic claws started appearing from the ground and equipped the Dawn soldiers with a metallic jetpack. Various sparks then started to appear on the ground as the platform underwent a “charging” phase.

The Dawn soldiers then wore the last of their equipment. A large metallic helmet with only a grid of holes in front of their faces to provide them with sight.

ZOOM!

Like a rock thrown from a slingshot, the Dawn soldiers who boarded were thrown out of the Fort and into the city.

The soldiers were thrown like large rocks from catapults. As the Dawn soldiers freefell into the city, the backpacks then started to give a powerful burst which slowed the landing down on top of the air. The soldiers remained midair for a second and then started freefalling again towards the buildings below. The height of their freefall was over thirty feet high.

Golderon stared in shock as he witnessed it. Towering behemoths started falling one after another in different parts of the city. Many of which were the locations where the other Pangean platoons hid.

A Dawn soldier crashed down the building and kept falling down the floors as its heavy weight was too much for the floor. As it crashed on the last floor, the Dawn soldier slowly moved to stand up.

This dramatic entry was then met with a volley of bullets as the Pangean soldiers immediately shot at the downed enemy.

The bullets ricocheted and could not penetrate the thick steels.

Electric shots were then fired. The entire armor could be seen lighting up from the electric shots. But all these did nothing to stop the Dawn.

Suddenly grenade launchers and eradicating blast were fired. The explosions continued as the Pangean soldier carried on with their barrage.

Amidst the explosions and smoke, the figure finally stood and the thick metals on the monster’s forearms suddenly expanded outwards and revealed several holes. The giant aimed at the Pangean troops.

BOOM!

Explosions could be seen from the outsides of the building giving the once confident Golderon a heart-gripping fear.

Several explosions could then be seen from the outside and then, there was silence.

Walking out of the rubble remains of this building was the Dawn soldier. None from the Pangean platoon survived.

“Platoons! Do not engage the full metal soldiers! Retreat!” Golderon shouted using the comm device. But all that he got back was static.

The standing Dawn monster suddenly turned over to the direction of Golderon.

Golderon paled in fright at the sight of the monster locating him through sound. He rushed back to escape as his men followed. A few seconds when they rushed out of the roof, an explosion took place as the Dawn soldier attacked the building.

Deep in the underground base, Lowengren sat silently as he continued to hear terrible reports coming in from the different platoons all over the city.

“Tell me what we know.” He ordered.

“The enemy appears to be using modified soldiers equipped with Benteriallyon steel. However, its conductive properties seem to be not working as electrical shocks are ineffective against them.”

“They are immune to most chemical attacks and even whiplash attacks can only do so much.”

Several of Lowengren’s assistants immediately reported.

“Sir, the battle drawing near the Exodus.

“Unbecomings,” Lowengren ordered.

“I need a diversion. Some of the modified soldiers have been reported near the Exodus.”

“We’re too far! We’ve just finished the drop!” Charles responded.

“I can’t help as well! I’m kind of busy here. The crowds moving too slow! I have to use my aura just to get their attention!” Cliff shouted back in frustration.

“Lowengren?” Lowengren asked.

“I’m on my way.” A calm response was heard.

Zooming at a speed of 140km/h was the silver convertible that Arthur was driving.

The military paid no heed to this car as they thought he was merely a civilian running around panicking in the midst of war.

Three Evening Exoskeletons were zooming towards another location with reported Pangean forces.

Arthur held the canon with one hand and aimed for the flying forces.

Moving at such a speed, with an enemy zooming in an airborne fashion, it would have been impossible for humans and extremely difficult for Unbecomings to hit them.

But not for someone with a Pseudo-Path.

“I guess it’s time to use Instant Calculation.” Arthur gave a sigh.

Three shots with each trigger held down for 0.4 seconds each were made as Arthur drifted to make a sharp right turn.

Arthur then aimed for the gasoline station ahead.

The attacks struck the three and the sudden blast knocked them off the sky and they fell towards the gasoline station.

Arthur then shot another quick blast once more. Aiming for the underground tank which held the gas.

BOOM!

A rare smile of satisfaction surfaced in Arthur’s face.

“Looks like I can still play Piercing:Edge tonight.”

 

Chapter Seventy: Chaos Order
Golderon ran across the street as his fellow soldiers sprinted along with him. The airborne enemies continued their pursuit as a stomping sound could be heard from a distance. Suddenly several beams were seen in the sky which blasted the three zooming Exoskeletons straight to the ground. Golderon couldn’t see where the enemy landed but only saw a large explosion erupting from behind.

“What was that?” A soldier asked.

“That was probably the Colonel.” Golderon sighed in relief.

A vehicle then turned from the corner and sped towards the soldiers and took a sudden stop.

Suddenly several gunshots could be heard and as Golderon turned and witnessed a giant metallic soldier firing reddish rounds of explosive bullets toward them.

“Take cover!” Golderon cried but it seemed too late.

A laser blast shot through the explosive rounds and it exploded in midair.

The silver convertible was now seen turning from the corner. It sped fast towards the Dawn soldier.

The Dawn lifted its arms and took aim but Arthur’s barrage of beams kept on striking the arms of the Dawn soldier inhibiting his aim. Each blast drove the Dawn soldier further back.

As Arthur approached, Arthur blasted a long powerful blast right in the center of the armor and the Dawn soldiers blasted through a building. Arthur kept on blasting the enemy as he drove towards the team.

“I got rid of the air support. But I have to hurry towards the underground area or all the civilians we just rescued will be killed.”

“Colonel, that route should be full of those metal monsters and Exoskeletons!” Golderon exclaimed.

“I know. But I need to keep them busy until the Exodus completes.”

“How can we help?”

“If you manage to kill one of those Golems, that would be extremely helpful.”

“How do we kill those things? We’d need a canon like yours to be able to kill it!”

“No. My cannon didn't kill it. I just damage it. That golem’s still alive. Benteriallyon armor as thick as that should require more than 15 seconds of a concentrated blast from my Solarium Eradicator. Not to mention their armor has a strange… structure. Solarium Eradicator heats up metal and causes a unique eradicating reaction to all metals. My shot should have burnt and whatever circuits or gadgets that are associated in that armor. But my blasts didn’t seem to have done that. It’s as if that armor doesn’t have a skeletal frame or a power source.

“No power source? Then what’s making it move?”

“The pilot.” Arthur shrugged.

“What?! That’s impossible!”

“Observe the facts once more, soldier. Every single metal that that soldier is wearing is purely made with Benteriallyon steel. And that metal is highly conductible and easily heatable. Any small shock of electricity or heat could kill the pilot along with any electrical or magnetic technology it may be using. Why would Australia deploy such a weapon if it has such an obvious weakness?”

“But… Colonel, that’s over a ton of metal! How can a human bear that weight?!” A soldier countered

“Calm down, Private. The Colonel’s right. Remember what we saw. That same Golem met the entire barrage of one of our platoons. Each of our platoons has a Shocker. The pilot would have been fried from one blast.” Golderon gave a grim look towards the ruins of

“These are modified humans. This was exactly why Meryl gave you a session. A pre-taste of the horrors you will face tonight. It would be better to assume that they are immune to shock attacks, burning attacks, and of course if Australia managed to go this far, whiplash attacks.”

“Then how do we kill it?”

“I’ve weakened the integrity of the armor. You should be able to disrobe that armor. Try to kill it then. Piercing it with bullets might.”

“How can we take off that armor?”

“I haven’t seen the armor up close Sargent. So you just have to play it by ear.” Arthur shook his head.

“But here’s my advice, that things quite slow and seem to have limited sight. The best way to kill it would be through close-range combat.”

“That’s crazy! Who would go near that thing?!” The soldier cried once more.

“That’s exactly what the Australian’s were thinking when they made these golems. And therein lies its weakness. For your eyes only, Sargent. Additional instructions if you manage to kill that one.” Arthur handed Golderon a piece of paper.

“I can’t afford to waste any more time. Looks like that beast is back on its feet. You guys take care of him. Hope you all survive this.”

Arthur then sped through straight and went right towards the main highway.

The tongue-tied team looked back at the rubble to which the Dawn blasted out off. The slow crunching sound of metal could be heard as the arm of the Dawn soldier was seen climbing up from the hole on the wall that it blasted out of.

“Sa-Sargent…” The soldier gave a grim cry.

Golderon looked at the piece of paper and gripped it.

“We have our orders, Private. Follow me.” Golderon then dashed towards the ruins of the building the Dawn soldier’s blasted through from. The hand of the Dawn soldier could be seen reaching upwards to rise from its fallen rubble.

“We’re going to die!” A soldier squealed as he charged towards the battle.

“Calm down, dude.” Another soldier finally spoke up with a giggle.

“That things way slower compared to Master Meryl.” The soldier smiled as she recalled their battle with Meryl.

“She’s right. We’ve faced a speeding devil. We’ve had faced the fastest thing that could kill us. This one's moving in slow-motion compared to her.” Golderon smirked as they approached.

“Barrage!” Goldenrod ordered as his soldiers unloaded several grenade launchers at the climbing monster.

As Arthur took the sharp curve and reached the main road, a warzone presented itself before him.

The skies looked chaotic as Exoskeletons could be seen zooming to and fro the areas. Buildings were being shot down as some of the poor Pangean platoons tried to fight back from the onslaught brought by the metal monsters aided by the deathly strikes from the sky.

Arthur even saw several metallic monsters crashing on specified locations within the city. Meteors came crashing on buildings and some on homes. Arthur, who helped Lowengren formulate the plan, knew that the golems came crashing right on top of where most of the soldiers were assigned.

Arthur took a deep breath as his perception started to see and think faster. The loud sounds of explosions and screams died out as one second became several.

The Believers of the future weren’t simply classified by the quick rate of speed which they manage to push their Unlocking. Seeker Carlean always had the fastest speed and even reached higher Unlocking rank than most of his peers. He was one of the few who reached Surmounting stage of Ranked Hero. But the one thing that he failed at was to make his own Path.

The Believers were actually identified by the development of a set of strange and unique Skills which either aided in their speed of Unlocking or allowed them to develop super-powers. When a skill or a combination of skills reached a certain level of power or usefulness, it would then be classified as having a “Path.”

Although a single skill could be a Path, the general trend among Believers was that a Path was always a collection of several skills. The best way to identify if an Unlocked have manifested their own Path is if they managed to defeat an enemy country, or a force of equal value, in a single clash and end it within 48 hours.

But there is always an exception to the rule.

The Selective Unlocking of Arthur was originally deemed to be ineffective and poor. But the United Nations Army's was shocked as the wars ragged and found that Arthur Humphrey really lived up to his name. Several battles concluded in victory as the Atomic Thresher manifested his own miracles. These miracles were made possible through his previously looked down upon “Instant Calculation”.

It wasn’t technically a Skill. Any Unlocked individual could do Instant Calculation in theory but none but his father could ever compare to Arthur’s mastery.

Soon, his status and prestige slowly lived up to his heritage. Being the son of an Overcomer, it was expected that Arthur would follow on the footsteps of his father in being his own Overcomer or at least reach the World Champion level.

Alas, Arthur's great potential died out just before it ever manifested.

“So this is my path? A pathless one? I just have to maintain and improve Instant Calculation?” Arthur asked Seeker.

“I wouldn’t call it Pathless, Arthy. In fact, you never called it that. I always remember you calling it a Path rather than a Pseudo-Path. You would actually constantly correct those who would refer to it as a Pseudo-Path.” Seeker laughed.

“That may have been true for the future me. But isn’t it possible that the 'me' of the future pursued that path in pride as I found myself being overshadowed by other Paths? After all, we both haven’t manifested a Path of our own. If time was a problem then, it would be better for me to improve Instant Calculation rather than build a new path. But right now, I have time to figure out or create a new Path.”

“Probably. But creating one’s path isn’t as simple as you think it is. We aren’t Believers. That’s the issue. We don’t have that level of faith they have. And besides, I didn’t get that impression from you.”

“You seem confident of my own opinions even though you aren’t me.”

“You were just that confident! And besides, we wouldn’t have survived as far as we had if it weren’t for you. So trust that your Path is the right one. Just don’t try to do the Threshing Floor. You’d need to be at the Surmounting rank of the Inhuman stage to pull that off. Focus on your calculations for now. And let’s get back to training.” Seeker then went to the weapon racked and dropped the massive hammer and picked up a huge two-handed sword.

“Wouldn’t it be more efficient to start me off with some smaller weapons?” Arthur frowned at Seeker’s selection.

Arthur continued zooming through high speeds, he took out the glass cannon he held in his hand.

Arthur’s reflexes have long evolved to a speed that can outmatch his previous calculating skills. With the slowing of time, Arthur now could even think and calculate properly and not make any split-second calculation. A single swipe of the Solarium Eradicator brought out twelve split second shots. These small bursts of attacks would do very little damage and wouldn’t even be enough to kill an Exoskeleton.

But what a man like Arthur needed was not pure destructive power but accurate and sufficient power.

An Exoskeleton was shot at the booster, the sudden redirection caused him to collide to another and a chain effect of collisions occurred.

Another Exoskeleton about to fire his weapon was shot by the arm and its new target was the head of his fellow Exoskeleton. The headshot immediately killed the pilot as this soldier went spiraling downwards shooting everywhere and causing all forms of friendly fire and finally crashing down on a Dawn soldier. The impact caused threw the Dawn soldier off the window saving the Pangean soldiers in the building.

All that was caused by two simple shots. Arthur sent twelve shots in one wave of the cannon. And in a span of ten seconds, he did three waves averaging 10 to 12 shots.

The chaos he created was accurate chaos. Accidents after accidents fell unto the enemy.

“Get that vehicle!” An Exoskeleton cried after seeing the havoc that the passing convertible did.

“Soldiers! Heed your Colonel!” Arthur announced as he tried to sound like Lowengren while making a complete 180º turn.

“It’s Lowengren!” A well-informed Evening exclaimed.

“Fight and shoot as much as you can. I’ll be here to support you.” Arthur revved his engine and a small smile appeared on his face.

“Well, whatever. This may or may not be a path, but this is my path. Let's see... I guess the future me, would have named this path…Chaos Order.”

Now equipped with the unique Pseudo-Path known as “Chaos Order”, Arthur Arthinar Humphrey, the Atomic Thresher has awakened.

 

Chapter Seventy-One: Purpose behind the Chaos
The convertible dashed onwards and did complicated turns. His attacks came precisely on time and either bought more time for the Pangean soldiers to escape by the skin of the teeth or cause “accidents” to the enemy soldiers.

Suddenly, Arthur caught a view of several large metallic objects hurling down from the high skies.

Arthur stared at the falling meteors and realized they were the very Golems that he had been fighting.

“Copycats... Using magnetic technology to launch those golems and drop them off specifically on top of the targets.” Arthur observed.

“It would be a shame if someone were to alter the landing course.” Arthur gave a wicked smile underneath the mask.

As he rode through the cities wreckage and evaded the coming attacks from the enemies, Arthur blasted the falling Dawn soldiers and hit them right at the boosters.

The metallic meteors were then blasted a second time. Arthur was quick to make sure that all the meteors within the site were hit at least once. A single shot caused the well-positioned Dawn soldiers to spin out of control in mid-air. Their once steady position as they zoomed across the sky now became a whirling, falling sight.

The redirected metals crash-landed on its allies.

One Dawn soldier was stomping towards the building as it continued its assault. Suddenly a large metallic being crashed right on top of its head.

The metal dented and blood started to drip out of the helmets of the two large soldiers.

Two metallic monsters were immediately killed upon landing.

The sight of this alerted the Evening soldier.

“Sir! Reporting a confirmed death of one Dawn soldier!” The Evening broadcasted.

Garland stood frozen at the sight of it. Two soldiers costing billions each were gone just like that.

Despite the miracle that he just pulled off, Arthur was not pleased.

“Just two dead?” Arthur sped around observing the crashed landing. The only ones that were killed from his attacks were the two Dawn soldiers that collided head-to-head. The sound of their impact was so loud that those nearby could even feel the walls vibrate. The collision dented the armor to the extreme that the heads of the two were crushed.

However, the others only seemed hurt from the landing. The others landed on thick concrete, smashed on other Dawn soldiers, and a few fell on the frame of a certain building which collapsed on itself after four Dawn soldiers came crashing in.

The Dawn soldiers slowly stood up but it was clear that they were injured while others blasted out from the rubbles of concrete they fell into.

“What tenacity. The threshold of their resistance from impact and shock is so high.” Arthur continued to zoom throughout the highway while continuing its barrage of attacks on the skies and ground. The Dawn soldiers then went to the offense, some going for Arthur, while others attacked the closest Pangean soldiers.

Arthur kept zooming back and forth to the highway. He kept attacking enemies who could attack and damage him and at the same time kept evading the barrages of bullets he could avoid.

Sweat was pouring out of Arthur’s forehead because of the mental strain he maintained. Slowly, Arthur’s attacks were becoming more and more inefficient as the enemy forces started to regroup and change their tactics.

The Dawn soldiers then divided into two groups, one was rushing for Arthur and another was going for the remnant Pangean soldiers in the area.

The attacks were escalating and Arthur was now on full retreat leaving the soldiers to fend for themselves.

Suddenly, Arthur immediately slammed on the breaks and made the car ski through the road and took a 180º turn before stopping.

“Let’s get this show on the road,” Arthur ordered without even looking. Out of the dark rubbles of a nearby building two figures dashed out and jumped on the front passenger seat while another jumped at the back seat.

Both were carrying an exaggerated amount of weapons.

Charles carried a large bazooka like object on his shoulder, and a minigun which was usually mounted on helicopters and planes. Alean carried a large, thick tactical shield which she carried with her two hands.

On their waist and strapped on their backs were additional machine-guns, Shockers, and several grenades of different forms and colors.

Without missing a beat Arthur sprang out of his seat as Alean took over while handing the shield over to Arthur.

Alean hit on the pedal and the car accelerated faster.

“Charles, I trust you know how to use those?”

“Are you kidding me? I’ve had my share of handling these back in the day. And now against super-slow bugs, you could say I’d be unmatched in the human world.” Charles then excitedly sent out a barrage of bullets at the flying Exoskeletons. Every single bullet pierced through the helmets of the flying Exoskeletons.

“Evade!” The captain of the Evening soldiers exclaimed as his team of Exoskeleton’s started scattering.

Amidst the chaos of their escape, there was order.

Arthur fired several blasts and struck the fleeing enemies at a timely moment that they started ramming into each other and the entire platoon started falling down like bowling pins.

“Wow. I think that’s a strike.” Alean complimented as she looked at the back mirror. She then continued to zoom straight making quick turns and evasions that even Arthur could not pull off as he was holding a large glass cannon.

Their return became more daring as Arthur would use his shield to block some of the bullets.

The group returned back to the heat of the battle and were now helping the remaining Pangean group.

Alean wore a grim expression and started to drive faster.

“We’ve got to hurry. We have to give our soldiers a chance to regroup.”

“That would be impossible even for us. The Armor’s are back.” Arthur pointed at the sky.

Up at the heights of the buildings, hovered several man-shaped robots. They looked like a larger version of an Exoskeleton. They stood over twenty feet tall and hovered slowly over the buildings. It was as if a Titan from the times of the Roman gods had descended to judge the mortals of the Earth.

The Armors were like the tanks of modern Australia. It was only piloted by one individual. And this individual would be wearing an Exoskeleton. The technology Australia took was geared into using man-like tanks and weapons for flexibility, movement, and diversity. It was apparent that in the end, it was to help create soldiers like the Dawn but on a more terrifying scale.

The Armor was used to prioritize the civilian escape in the city. Its large size could easily remove stones and slabs, break through obstacles and protect plenty of the evacuating Australian citizens. As soon as the attack on the Fort began, New Birth was on full evacuation alert. The Armor’s immediately went out and rescued the civilians as there were several bomb attacks occurring everywhere. The priority to protect the civilians never lessened since several attacks and ambushes occurred every now and then. This was a strategy that Lowengren employed to get the biggest headaches out of the war zone.

“Can we handle them?” Charles gave a worried look.

“Sure. I just need about 20 seconds of concentrated shot to kill one of those. But the problem will be their attacks. If any of their attacks explode within 30 meters, we’re dead.”

“So… this is it? We leave my men to die?”

“Don’t underestimate your soldiers. Did you actually think, that that little session with Meryl had no effects? We don’t do anything without a reason, Alean. There is purpose behind the chaos. So trust that even the deaths of your men are still within our calculations.” Arthur readied his cannon.

“For now, focus on keeping these Armor’s distracted. They’ll probably try to lead us into a more uninhabited location before nuking us with their bombardments.”

“So we're trying in populated places?”

“No. Just the opposite we go to those areas. I’ll deal with those attacks.”

Meanwhile, while the many battles throughout the city continued to occur, one particular battle was reaching its climax.

A rocket was fired at the foot of the Dawn soldier. The explosion created a small hole and the Dawn soldier lost its footing and fell forward.

Golderon and three other soldiers threw a pack of grenades over the Dawn solider with a whole bag sent into the hole on the ground right before the Dawn soldier stumbled on top of it.

“Johnson! Now!” Golderon screamed.

The team bombarded their rocket attacks at the pillars of the building. Inside the lobby of this small building were Golderon and the Dawn soldier.

Golderon sprinted out of the building. The destruction of its last pillars and the walls that held it up caused the building to collapse on itself. At that moment, time seemed slower than usual. Golderon could see the very rocks falling down as he dashed outside of the building.

Yet time was still not enough for Golderon as he was caught in the falling rubbles at the outskirts of the collapsed building.

“Sargent!” A soldier called out as she sprinted towards Golderon.

Some of the other soldiers rushed at Golderon and used their guns to send a “shock” through the stone slab and freed Golderon out of it.

“Sir… the others.”

“They're dead. Just move!” Golderon ordered immediately. The team ran away from the rubble.

Golderon immediately pushed the button.

The Dawn soldier was struggling to move deep inside the rubbles and was about to use its weapons to destroy the rubble. But then the explosions occurred.

Surrounding him were several grenades. All sorts were there. Eradicating Light grenades, shock grenades, and a bag of whiplash grenades. It all went off together.

The series of explosions caused a strange site as the pile's rubbles were blasted out of its place.

Golderon was the first to run towards the wreckage. As the dust fell, the image of the Dawn soldier was revealed.

It was still struggling to move. Blood could be seen oozing out of its armor.

“Kill by piercing you. That was Colonel’s lie. He knew from the start that our current weapons could not dent the armor you have. You heard him, didn’t you?” Golderon gazed bravely at the Dawn soldier.

The surrounding soldiers gave a curious look at their Sargent.

“A soldier who wears nothing but steel and has no technological support with him. How can it fight with its limited vision? Colonel theorized, it has extreme hearing capabilities. That’s why Evening Exoskeletons which are flight capable accompanied it. It would either react through the sounds that his enemies make or from the shouts of the Exoskeletons guiding him.”

The soldiers realized Golderon’s words and gave a curious look at their enemy. So this was why it could withstand whiplash bombs which were invented to kill the pilots through pressure and whiplash.

“So the Colonel thought what could kill a metallic beast such as you. The metal is almost impenetrable. It can absorb whatever shock and vibrate it away. This served as a way of protecting the pilot from any traumatic shocks and explosions it faces.”

Golderon took out a shock gun and shot a light attack.

The Dawn soldier started shaking and shaking. But unlike the previous times, it was hit with a full blast of the shock gun, it seemed to be in pain.

“But what if, it can’t vibrate its way out? What if, it was buried in tons and tons of rubble and bombs were placed all around it? It wouldn’t know how to vibrate and ultimately, it would crush the pilot. It would rupture the pilot's blood vessels, burst out so much damage that the organs should be crushed.”

The Dawn solder stumbled back after the shock attack. It could no longer move. Golderon kicked the helmet’s visors out of the way to see the large face of the Dawn soldier.

“Truth be told; any normal human being would be killed from that. But not a Golem like you. Now that you’ve lost quite a lot of blood… the shock should hurt now right?” Golderon smiled as he returned his Shock-gun back to its holster.

Golderon immediately grabbed the gun of the soldier nearby and shot the head of the Dawn soldier several times.

“Let’s move men. We have a mission to complete.”

 

Chapter Seventy-Two: Brink of Defeat
Ten large and fast objects could be seen flying around the city of New Birth Forth. The Armors relentlessly attacked and used advanced homing lasers that shot out of their shoulders. The violet rays would arc from their shoulder and plummet to the designated location. These attacks pierced through concrete and even if their target was behind a building, the laser blast would just pierce through the laser and hit the target.

But the opposing force which continued to flee from the barrage of laser shots was a simple convertible with three passengers.

“Take a left turn here” Arthur ordered as he continued to shoot out another barrage from his glass cannon.

The car swiftly curved. There was less than a second when Arthur ordered Alean to turn, but with Alean’s Unlocking, it was more than enough to make the turn.

The laser attacks weren’t the only things that would rain upon them. Accompanying these Armor’s were Jet-Powered Exoskeletons which hovered carefully behind the Armors.

Their last attack didn’t go so well. A group of J.P.E’s intended to use their fast speed to unload a barrage of bullets and surprise the convertible. But the entire group was easily annihilated by the man with the mini-gun on the convertible.

The chase continued with the Convertible being able to evade all the incoming attacks and zoomed across the city.

“Why aren’t they using their big guns?” Alean couldn’t help but ask.

“They are taking the better route. I wagered they would want to kill us with all the damage we’ve done. But it looks like Lowengren was right. Human greed is amazing. They are trying to capture us.”

“Capture us?”

“They think we are the result of a Pangean human modification experiment.”

“So what do we do?” Charles gave a satisfied smile at the news.

“We should charge back in the city and help my men!" Alean gave an angry reply.

"I’m sure you’ve noticed this a while back, why did you have us run around in circles?”

“To create order, Alean. If we charge back in, then we would be in danger of crossing their bottom line and will be forced to eliminate us. We continue in this safe route.”

“My men are dying, Arthur!” Alean screamed in frustration.

Arthur stood quietly and continued to attack.

“Arthur!” Alean screamed once more.

“Fine. Turn right after three blocks.”

Alean stomped on the acceleration faster and zoomed further.

At the sharp turn, a group of J.P.E was seen zoomed right in front of them and were already attacking.

Alean immediately turned the wheel to evade the barrage of bullets.

Arthur held up the shield to block most of the bullets while Charles shot at the J.P.E’s.

Suddenly Arthur spotted a missile zooming in behind the group of J.P.E’s. Arthur frowned and immediately and jumped forward avoiding several bullets and stood at the hood of the car shot at the missile.

BOOM!

The missile explosive force generated a powerful shockwave the shook everyone.

Alean gripped the steering wheel and turned once more to prevent any damage. Charles who stood at the backseat stumbled down while Arthur who didn’t have any good footing was thrown off the car.

Arthur crashed on the floor and as he stood up and attempted to rush towards the convertible, another missile was rushing right in between Arthur and the convertible.

“Go!” Arthur ordered.

Without hesitating, Alean stomped the gas pedal and drove forward as Arthur jumped back and jumped to the window of a nearby building using his shield to break the hard glass.

The explosion separated Arthur from the two and Armor’s immediately flew right on the burning fires of the explosion to make sure that the division remained.

Arthur gave one look at Alean and simply nodded.

Alean drove further away without hesitation while Arthur dropped the shield and ran.

Back at headquarters, the soldiers overseeing the command and flow of orders couldn’t help but be shocked at Garland’s smart and ruthless calls.

“Lowengren said his cannon is damaged. He needs to change the battery or something…” A man spoke as he listened attentively to the various devices connected to him. He had a large headset on and sat down with his eyes closed as if intensely listening to the audio generated from his headsets.

“Oh? What a fragile weapon. Too breaking after such an impact? No wonder they gave it to Lowengren.”

“His Comm device just received a response. It looks like they will use one of the cores at their base to replace Lowengren’s cannon core. A team of soldiers just picked up the core and they are to rendezvous at somewhere called the 'First Salvo.'”

“Of course! What else could power a military base in our city without us detecting it? They brought with them their own power source.” Garland realized.

“Shall we attack Lowengren?”

“No. That glass cannon’s strong enough to kill a Dawn suit. We need that technology. If we manage to get that and Lowengren then this entire battle will make up for our losses.”

“Roger.” The officers saluted.

“Order the Armor’s to continue the same intensity of attacks. It would be suspicious for Lowengren if he realizes this plan if we back off for just one second.” Garland continued.

“Any news on our little rats?” Garland asked through a comm device.

“Sir! They’re dead. We’ve confirmed that the intruder managed to infiltrate the base and kidnap the Alakaster sisters and Eric Douglas. We’ve confirmed their DNA and found an unidentified forth body. We cannot confirm who the intruder is. He’s not on our database.”

“And the bright lights and deaths?”

“We’ve found traces of several Pangean Ever Bright bombs along with several Eradicating bombs. Video surveillance displays the attack which caused their deaths.” A video appeared on the screen displayed in front of Garland.

A small, petite body entered the room and was surprised to see the room full of soldiers who immediately shot at the young teen.

The teen tried to back off and tossed an Ever Bright but the awkward toss caused it to hit a small hanging sign near the ceiling which caused the bomb to bounce back on the door’s entrance where the teen appeared. The teen attempted to throw another bomb but did not notice that the Ever-Bright was directly below him. The flash appeared and brightened the screen and another explosion was heard.

“Pitiful. That soldier’s stupidity led to the deaths of our traitor scientist.” Garland laughed.

“To think they had such a spy of high positions among our ranks. Lander. Report.”

“General, I’ve managed to track the communications relay all throughout the city. Each Comm relays acted as an amplifier which kept boosting the signals to reach all over the city. ”

“That means destroying some comm relays and analyzing the strength of the signal should allow you to pinpoint the epicenter of the signal.”

“Already did, Sir. But I can’t seem to find any points of interest in the zone where their base should be at.”

“Send me a map.”

Immediately a map of the city was displayed showing the eagle-view of the entire city. Garland studied the mapped and switched to satellite view to see the city.

“Interesting. What a brilliant plan. No wonder, no one noticed it.” Garland smiled.

“Which point should I attack?”

“I'll lead the attack. I want to see this base personally.”

“Lowengren ordered the convertible to rush to lead our forces away from the base.” The man with various devices connected to him spoke out.

“Lander, destroy all the Comm Relays. I’m certain where the enemy hid their base now.” Garland laughed.

“Sir, Yes sir.”

“Team, keep Lowengren and that convertible apart. Launch missile attacks if you see any of them headed in the direction of the other.

“Good Job.” Garland patted the Eavesdropper.

“Good job? With all due respect, General, I simply did what I was built for. Do you thank a screwdriver for its ability to screw?” The man joked.

Garland gave a good laugh. The soldiers were surprised at the rude response of the Eavesdropper.

“I know you're not a soldier, but be more respectful to your officers. I would penalize you but since you guys are may become heroes of this war then I’ll let it slide.”

Garland then started to walk out of the room.

“Prep my Armor. I’ll handle this personally.” Garland strode with a grinning expression.

Garland utilized several highly classified technologies for this battle and even brought out the Eavesdroppers.

The Eavesdroppers were modified humans which applied the same science which created the Dawn soldier’s intensive hearing capabilities. This was the first time the Eavesdroppers were used in war. The Armor’s body was equipped with an intensive audio pickup in order that the recorded sights and sounds that the Armor can transmit back to base if ever it met its demise could be used to pinpoint the location, cause and other information about the battle.

Using this powerful audio feed, Garland ordered to amplify the sounds and have the Eavesdropper listened and reported the very words spoken by any unfamiliar wavelengths in their database. Since all citizens have DNA records and audio files, isolating new sounds was easy. It was because of the Eavesdropper, that Garland learned of Arthur’s conversations which allowed him to set up the ambush.

Slowly the surviving soldiers were killed one by one by the ambushes that were in store for them.

Golderon continued to move silently across the buildings. Their progression was quick but careful.

“It’s time.” Golderon suddenly ordered.

The soldiers gave a grim look to each other before giving a salute and then the squad divided into three groups each headed to a different area.

“Sargent. Please give this to my wife.” A soldier passed on before turning to leave.

Golderon gave a simple nod and accepted the letter. To Golderon, it was a mission, but for the rest of them, it was a suicide mission.

Twenty minutes ago, Lowengren met with the troop in the underground base.

“Arthur needs his weapon. Based on what happened to him, we can assume that the enemy has hacked our comm devices. So we cannot use them. Golderon, Amber and Lawnford. Your mission is to protect and hold on to these three containers. Inside is the very same fragile device that Arthur needs as the power source of his cannon. We couldn’t bring this out immediately since it’s fragile. But now we can.”

Golderon stood quietly. After defeating the Dawn soldier, they sprinted out and gathered as many survivors they could on their way back to base.

Amber and Lawnford were two soldiers from different platoons. Their entire platoons were wiped out but they managed to survive. Unlike Golderon who received help from Arthur, their survival was only due to one factor.

“You three have stepped in the very grounds that the Colonel, Lieutenant Colonel Meryl and their bunch has. You are what they refer to as the Unlocked.”

The soldiers gave a surprised exclamation. Amber couldn’t help but smile at Lowengren’s explanation.

“The medicine that you just took were packed nutrients developed by Doctor Lindmitt for the purpose of boosting your state now and providing the necessary nutrients to make it throughout the night. I have no time to explain how you reached that point but since you achieved that but each of you will be assigned with protecting and carrying one of these boxes in case Arthur needs it if his weapon breaks again.”

The three soldiers simply nodded.

“Golderon, divide your team into three groups. Move to these locations and gather as many survivors as you can.” Lowengren then turned to the other soldiers standing by.

“To the rest of you soldiers, you have but one mission now. Make sure these three live. Die if you must. The enemy has weapons beyond our initial comprehension and we are on the brink of defeat. But we must not accept defeat. If you want this war to end in our victory, then these three have to live. Everyone’s life, including those civilians we just rescued, is dependent on our victory.”

The soldiers gave a grim look. Some were visibly shaken. They knew this was a suicide mission. But with everything they’ve seen and learned that the Australian’s were doing and could do to their countrymen, they stood and gave Lowengren a salute.

“Sir, Yes sir!” Their brave chorus was determined and full of resolve.

 

Chapter Seventy-Three: You've Lost, General

“The Convertible is about to pass here! Get ready to attack!” A soldier announced.

They have been trying to find a way to attack the convertible. Since the Armors went after Arthur in order to find him, the Convertible was able to do roam more freely facing Dawn soldiers aided with JPE and Exoskeletons.

But since the army couldn’t blow the car up, they had to resort to wounding or incapacitating. The problem was, the car was too fast to hit, and the mini-gunner was always able to shoot first. Even JPE’s would die at a prepared charge, what more for regular Exoskeletons and soldiers?

Several soldiers saw the zooming vehicle. They readied their sniper. This maneuver was quite hard. They had to set up several Dawn soldier blockades to lead this convertible here.

A muffled sound went out.

The snipper was shot dead.

Golderon paused and simply gazed at the passing car. He frowned.

Golderon did a series of sign languages.

“Colonel’s not here. Let’s move to position.”

Along the way, they had ambushed and eliminated several soldiers which they found patrolling the area. Among their kills were two Dawn soldiers which they buried together on a building and killed them using the same method they did to kill the first. Sadly, no survivors from their team could be found.

The ambushes were fast and effective leaving none alive. Golderon could easily kill a flying Exoskeleton with his new skills. They were able to easily kill and escape without being detected because of the secret path Lowengren had created.

After the initial attack on the wall, the city was rocked with several explosions and planted bombs. This brought panic and immediately ushered a state of a city-wide evacuation. The Armors were deployed to aid in the evacuation as well as rescuing civilians which were trapped in burning buildings.

What the entire Australian army didn’t know was the fact that several underground tunnels were also subject to the explosions. Underground train operations all halted due to the explosions and damages. Trains were stopping in between rails and the passengers evacuated. Outside the Fort, the citizens living nearby immediately fled to leave the city.

The army did not have time to round up the fleeing Pangean natives which escaped from the Fort as the attacks from every side of the Fort began. But what the Australian army didn’t know that the Pangean natives didn’t run amok with the other Australian citizens but escaped through an underground tunnel led by Cliff.

The subterranean explosions did more than just paralyze the train network. It created a new underground path from Gate Three of the New Birth Fort, all the way to a large building owned by a BOC. This created path was directly under the main highway where the most Pangean troops were deployed.

The cover of war and Arthur’s Chaos Order gave the Pangean citizens the chance they had to escape without being detected.

Golderon’s squad used this underground tunnel to easily reach the assigned locations.

Soon the squad finally arrived at the designated spot.

“Be on guard team. And remember, no one talks.” Golderon signaled once more.

The soldiers nodded and went to different areas of the ruined building and remained on guard.

Minutes passed as they quietly held their position.

Golderon sat down quietly and observed his surroundings. He kept a close eye if any sign of movement would appear. To his dismay, it all belonged to several Australian soldiers moving about the area.

“We can’t fight right now. Not until the Colonel gets the package!” Golderon thought.

He continued to observe the enemy and hoped for their Colonel to arrive.

The longer they observed, Golderon somehow got an uneasy feeling.

If he was a normal person, he wouldn’t be able to notice it. But as someone in the Advent rank of the Unbecoming stage, it was obvious. The slowing down of time and his increased perception allowed Golderon to take a clearer look at the soldiers and Exoskeletons near their area.

The movements, the patterns expressions and even the attentiveness that stood out which the enemy soldier tried to hide by ignoring their location. But the unconscious glimpse that these passing soldiers would do, gave it all away.

“They know we're here.” Golderon realized. Immediately, he fired a flare gun to the sky.

As if acting in full synchrony, Golderon noticed two other red flares reaching for the sky. Lawnford and Amber also faced similar circumstances.

Golderon’s expression paled as he took his gun and started shooting at the enemy.

The three teams were all discovered.

On the industrial zone of the city, a large Armor finally reached its destination. A burndown buildings rubble was the only thing of interest in this location.

Due to this location being on the industrial side of the city, the battles didn’t extend to this area as the flammable materials could cause fires and unnecessary explosions.

The Armor raised its arm and aimed for the rubble of the building.

“That won’t be necessary.” A voice shouted.

The Armor took a look at the source of the voice and it was from a teen exiting the piles of rubble. It looked like there was a path inside the rubble.

“Lowengren?” Garland gave a surprised cry.

“Then who was that man?” Lander asked immediately. He knew this wasn’t the same person he confronted a while back.”

“A soldier. The idea was to get you to believe that he was me.”

Garland gave a laugh.

“Amazing. Even at the brink of defeat you still can surprise me. Regardless… We finally meet. Such an honor to meet a genius. I’ve faced several General’s in my career but none- no one- could compare to you.” Garland laughed.

“You must be General Garland. The eccentric War Hero of Australia. Quite an entourage. Even the Hero of Hellion’s Tragedy is here. And of course, your new weapons. What do you call them?”

“Dawn.”

“Oh. So they are going to be part of your actual army? This means, your nation already has the resources for making a new branch of the military?”

“Yes. Morning, Evening and the Dawn. And if we manage to catch your impostor and his two friends on that convertible, we might be able to form Twilight.”

“Twilight? Sounds gay.” Lowengren shrugged.

Garland laughed back.

“This was quite a good game you played Lowengren. Albeit this will be the last. You managed to make me use the classified weapons of our government.”

“Yes. I’m sure you’ll have a lot of problems dealing with the aftermath of this battle.”

“All that the world will know, is the usage of the Light Breaker. But I’m sure they’ll let it slide considering we faced such a threatening opponent.”

“You really believe that the world will take my involvement on this war so seriously?”

“Yes! You probably don’t know that I’m not the only General who played against you.”

“Is that why last year’s game was so tough? So you did collude with other nations to defeat of me.”

“Blame yourself. You played so well that several world-leaders got nervous at a potential general of Pangea and wanted to test your potential.”

Lowengren gave a calm sigh.

“At least…I guess it’s over now...”

“Don’t worry. We won’t kill you. Your three friends will die in this experiment, but I don’t think we would let go of such a talent as yourself.”

“I appreciate the offer…”

Garland laughed.

“… but I can’t say we would give you the same treatment General.” Lowengren gave his own laugh.

“How cute. Still in the mood to threaten me? Or are you doing that because you plan on killing yourself or are you confident that you can escape me with your fast movement and skills like your three friends? Too bad for you, the Armor I’m using is one of a kind. It’s the only one equipped with yet another technology ready for use that can incapacitate you.”

“Colonel told me of this… Is this the technology you developed imitating Richie’s skill?” Lowengren guessed.

“WHAT?!” Garland reacted. How did he possibly know of that name?

“What did you call that technology? Our Colonel called it Peals of Thunder. Of course, it is named that way to keep it in continuity with the terms that would be used in the world that our leader intends to make.”

Garland frowned but kept quiet.

“Whatever. I’ll capture you and kill all the rats you’ve planted in our base! And once we capture you and take your little friends, it won’t matter if other nosy nations will get involved after this battle, we’ll have the technology- oh…” Garland then noticed three flares up on the sky.

“SIR!” The comm device Lowengren had started to transmit.

“We are under heavy fire! The enemy knows of our locations! All of our teams are under heavy fire! It’s a trap!” Golderon shouted.

“Impressive. Your soldiers seemed to have discovered our little trap. Those three teams should have people similar to your three soldiers on that convertible, right? Too bad. We're prepared now. You've lost, General Lowengren.” Garland laughed.

“Kill them. It would be annoying if the kid with the cannon reaches them. Just don’t blow them up.” Garland ordered.

With that order, a torrent of bullets was fired into the three teams.

Golderon’s metal case was securely attached on his back. He ensured it wasn’t damaged from the recent attacks and then immediately sprinted out and managed to evade most of the sudden shots fired at them. He gazed at his surroundings and realized that his entire team was wiped out. The sudden rail-attacks must have been prepared to kill them all instantly.

“I must not let them meet Colonel!” Golderon thought. Without his weapon and the convertible, even the Colonel would be unable to survive.

Golderon got up and sprinted out evading the bullets. The wounds on his legs were opening up but Golderon bore the pain.

Suddenly, right in front of him, the wall crumbled as a Dawn soldier broke through. Instead of backing down, Golderon dashed forward and met the Dawn soldier.

He evaded the wide swings made by the Dawn soldier and used the large frame as a foothold to jump towards the nearby Exoskeleton.

The Exoskeleton flew higher in an attempt to evade Golderon but Golderon was quicker.

Golderon held the boosters of the Exoskeleton and disregarding the burning heat of the metal, Golderon forcefully altered the direction of the booster causing the Exoskeleton to spiral out of control in the air.

At the twirling fall of the Exoskeleton, Golderon jumped out and landed on a nearby building. Without missing a beat, Golderon ran and jumped from the edge of the building on to a small opened window on the other building.

Golderon fractured his burnt left arm at the fall but kept on running.

“Lawnford! Amber! Get out of there! Let’s meet at the first salvo for real this time!” Golderon could do nothing but risk using the comm device. At the very least, this could also alert Arthur and know where to go.

He continued to sprint towards the underground path they just used.

“Amber! Lawnford!” Golderon called out again.

“I think Amber’s dead.” Lawnford gave a calm reply.

“Lawnford! Confirm if you are headed to First Salvo!”

“Negative, Sir. I can’t move my legs. Damn... these Golem’s look scary up close. Sorry, sir. But your all we've got left. Be sure to give the package to the Colonel.”

BANG.

"LAWNFORD!" Golderon cried.

Golderon felt as if his stomach was twirling. They had failed. Arthur would not get his weapons and the amount of enemy surrounding him was too much.

Several rail-attacks pierced through once more. And although Golderon tried his best to evade, he was still hit.

Golderon could no longer stand. He tried his best to force his legs up but all he could do was kneel.

Several soldiers were walking in the building he was at.

“Sir. I’m sorry. I’ve failed.” Golderon reported through the comm device.

“It’s ok, Sargent,” Lowengren responded directly.

Golderon was alarmed. Lowengren wasn’t supposed to use this line otherwise his location would be revealed.

“You were never meant to succeed." Lowengren paused.

"Still, you’ve completed your mission. You have served your country bravely and with honor. Rest well.”

Lowengren gazed back at Garland.

“You’ve lost, General Garland.” Lowengren smirked.

 

Chapter Seventy-Four: Lowengren's Maneuver

“Attack now!” General Voyager commanded as the team of Exoskeleton’s and JPE started rushing forward.

As the rest of the Army continued to patrol the area where Arthur was supposed to rendezvous with, Voyager led his elite team to deal with the last two surviving soldiers on the convertible

“Sir! We’ve found another survivor from the wreckage. The solider just regained consciousness.”

“Consider yourself lucky to have survived that soldier.”

An Exoskeleton gave a trembling nod as it walked out of the ruined building

“Begin the attack!”

Immediately entire platoon of Exoskeletons started rushing. Amidst the perfect formation was a clumsy and confused Exoskeleton who seemed to be zooming randomly, trying to keep up.

Meanwhile, a strange look appeared on Garland’s face.

“Sir? We have the three cases. The soldier guarding the third case is alive.”

“Keep him. His performance points to him being a modified human. We can use him.” Garland replied then turned his attention back to Lowengren.

“I’ve lost? Tell me how you plan to win this battle?” Garland then gave a sarcastic laugh.

Lowengren gave a small smirk.

“You’re mistaken. We were supposed to lose this battle.”

Lowengren took out his phone and revealed a recorded video.

Using the techs technology, Garland zoomed his view on the video recording.

Garland was shocked.

Various recordings of the Dawn experiment were displayed. The very science and reports itself were shown on screen. Then several live video recordings were also displayed on the test being made of the Dawn soldiers.

“HOW DID YOU GET THAT?” The large Armor raised its arms and aimed for Lowengren.

“We’ve had this quite a while back. The rats you mentioned before managed to acquire this and delivered it to me.” Lowengren added before Garland could panic.

“Impossible! We’ve killed those four-”

“Really? Then why is she here?” Lowengren pointed towards the side.

The bright lights from the Armor and Exoskeleton’s which were solely aimed at Lowengren immediately moved to the very direction Lowengren pointed at.

Blinded by the lights, a cute, petite teen wearing a sexy school uniform with short skirts posed with a victory sign. The lights magnified that splendid skin tone of the small girl as if the girl was reflecting the lights back.

“I can’t believe I have to do this!” Meryl muttered under her breath before immediately dancing in synchronization with a sudden music that Lowengren played. The music was heard all around as the nearby monitors and amplifiers played the very same tone.

The music was one of the famous k-pop dance music from a very popular group.

Meryl danced the exact dance routine and moved towards Lowengren at each step.

For the first time in the history of all wars on Earth, from the first three World Wars to the Continental wars, never has there been a moment such as this on a battlefield.

Having no prior training or orientation towards such circumstance, no one knew what to do.

The Evening soldiers didn’t know what to do.

The two highly-trained Armor capable pilots didn’t know what to do.

The Hero of Helion’s Tragedy didn’t know what to do.

General Garland, the Eccentric War Hero of Australia didn’t know what to do.

Acting as if nothing strange was happening in the middle of the war zone, Lowengren started applauding Meryl who eventually stood next to him.

“Stop playing around!” Garland shouted as several bluish beams started to gather on his cannon.

“We gave that video to all the world leaders.” Lowengren laughed.

The bluish blast stopped gathering as Garland froze in fear.

“Impossible! The Light Breaker’s firewall prohibits any outgoing and incoming communications of any sort! You may have managed to connect and create a Comm Relay inside this city, but nothing can go past that firewall! You can’t trick me! Light Breaker blocks radio, Comm arrays, Satellite or linked connection! That’s the very science of the Light Breaker!” Garland shouted in anger. There was fear in his voice and he shouted this to assure himself that the information was safe.

“That’s why we used the Light Breaker to send the signal. Being the top scientist in your base, they had access to it in case they need to send their entire research data to another base to preserve that information.”

“WHAT!?” Garland then remembered who the three scientists that the intruder kidnapped were. He didn’t know that these three could access the Light Breaker. Even among the top brass, those who could freely access the Light Breaker’s various technologies were classified so that this weapon could not be abused.

“General Cipril has received this video hours ago. And after that, he sent it to the various world leaders all over the world. They know all about your technology and with it the heinous crimes you did to accomplish that. The Americas, One China, New Great Britain, South Pacific United; they all know about your technology now.”

“Why would you…?”

“You thought we were after your technology. That assumption made you disregard the possibility that we won’t keep that tech for ourselves but broadcast it to the entire world. What do you think will happen if several world powers find a very powerful, and threatening technology in the hands of another? We may have lost this battle, but we will win this war. Even if we won’t be the ones who will be fighting it.”

A grave expression surfaced on Garland’s expression.

“That’s insane! You’d be bringing down your own country with you!”

“Oh? Why is that?” Lowengren challenged.

“Sir, it’s a massacre! We’re under attack!” A soldier reported.

Garland ignored the pleas and continued to converse with Lowengren. The implications of Lowengren’s words weighed far heavier than the losses of a few men. Lander assumed command and started responding to the solider, but the soldier was no longer responding.

The Exoskeleton which that soldier used to communicate to Garland fell on the ground.

Voyager witnessed the soldier falling and couldn’t do anything. The blast burnt most of his armor and disabled the capability for his suit to communicate.

Their attacks all went haywire due to the flying Exoskeleton which just joined their ranks. As the attack commenced, this Exoskeleton did a simple spin as he zoomed and unleashed a barrage of attacks. Most of the JPE’s died on that simple spin. After which, it continued zooming towards one of the collapsed building and after passing through it, it carried a green cannon which was similar to the one Arthur carried.

What followed next was a massacre.

Who would have thought that inside the clumsy moving suit, was Arthur? To top it all off, he had the same glass cannon he used to carry.

Now donning an Exoskeleton, killing him, was far too difficult. The anti-air systems of New Birth were not programmed to attack allies, and as this Exoskeleton was zooming confidently in the formation, the enemies could not attack for fear of friendly fire. The first to fall from a concentrated blast attack was the Armor. After that, Chaos Order easily wiped the remaining members of Voyager’s squad.

“Arthur?” Alean cried in surprise as he witnessed the sudden crashing of Exoskeletons. She drove towards the enemy and Charles started finishing off the survivors.

“Good thing you managed to reach this place without scratching the convertible.” Arthur commended as the visor of the helmet opened up.

“I thought your cannon was damaged?!” Alean stared in disgust.

“No. It was all a ploy.”

“Most of my soldiers are dead now! If you had that cannon and that Exoskeleton, we could have saved more of my men.”

“I did tell you, Major Cipril. Most of your men won’t survive this battle.”

“What are you planning?! How do we win this battle without our soldiers?!” Alean screamed in anger.

“We were never supposed to win. Meryl had already broadcasted the video of Australia’s tech. Now all the world knows about the modified humans of Australia along with its other technologies. With that, our victory is assured.”

“What are you talking about?! How does that assure our victory?” Alean demanded angrily. Whatever respect he held towards Arthur were all gone.

“Calm yourself, Alean. Think about it. Even if we destroyed the Fort, Australia will be at war with Pangea. And if they deployed all of their techs, even if we ally with SPU, we could still lose the war. Also, it would distract Seeker from fulfilling his plans. His aim has always been Australia’s immediate downfall. We’ve proven that Australia is working with the Aragarians. So how do we win this war easily?” Arthur explained.

“Seeker intended to reveal Australia’s technology to the world. Doing so would entice the entire world to condemn Australia's inhuman actions and attack it. Of course, the real reason is that the world fears Australia’s technology or would want it for its own. And now that it’s revealed, this nation is doomed for extermination.” Arthur explained.

“Then… we are supposed to lose this battle!” Charles shuddered suddenly.

Alean turned at Charles who seemed enlightened.

“Why?” Alean immediately turned to Charles.

“How do we explain to the world if we defeated Australia in this battle? The world would assume that we have our own superior sciences and could even conclude that we also have modified humans! We’d be putting the Pangean Nations on the spotlight! It could even lead a united coalition against us!”

“Exactly. If we won this battle, we would be putting not only our nation but ourselves at greater risk. And the Unlocking must not be discovered!”

“But Arthur, the Australian’s can easily reveal us! There were too many witnesses! We'd have to kill the entire army to make sure we aren't revealed!"

“Meryl already took care of any video footages. She destroyed the cloud storage systems in the Fort. All that’s left is to kill the entire Australian army.”

"But then, we'd win this battle! And even if we make it look like that we barely won, the very fact that we gave Australia a hard time is already suspicious! The nations will still think we have some powerful technology!” Charles argued."

“That is the problem, right? The end results of our attack may reveal the Unlocking. Not only that, the Unlocking would be revealed if we leave any survivors, but it will also be revealed if we wiped out the army… What should we do? Or rather, What would Lowengren do? If you’ve been following his career, you’d know what he’d do.” Arthur answered vaguely.

“No! You don’t mean…” Alean remembered.

“Lowengren’s Maneuver!” Garland cried in terror.

Lowengren’s Maneuver was the iconic tactic Lowengren did to win the battle on last year’s Nations of the World E-Sport Meet. Facing a united attack from several countries, Lowengren used a suicidal nuclear attack that wiped out the armies that were aiming to kill Lowengren in-game. Though Lowengren died very early in the game, the losses that his enemies experienced were too much that Team Warfreakz managed to eliminate two other nations before getting wiped out. This secured Warfreakz spot on the top three and even allowed Lowengren to retain his World Conqueror title.

Ignoring Garland's shock, Lowengren, pushed the button.

The three Solarium Cores carried by the three soldiers started shaking.

Golderon was listening to the entire conversation between Lowengren and Garland. He stared at the box and smiled.

“At least I’ll die a hero.”

BOOM!

Three large greenish explosions covered the city. The green blast eradicated everything on its path leveling the city.

The positions of the three sergeants were accurately placed on specific locations that would maximize the radius of the explosion. The blast covered three-fourths of the city and a part of the Fort was eradicated in the blast.

Right in the middle of these three explosions, was a small untouched area, barely a kilometer wide. Arthur calmly gazed at the blast while Charles and Alean were holding tightly to withstand the shockwave.

Garland snapped at this moment.

He didn’t concern himself about Lowengren’s value and raised his cannon to shoot.

But a bright light surfaced from the very spot Lowengren and the small girl stood and caused Garland's attack to miss.

The light disappeared and no traces of the two could be found.

“You can’t escape me! You may have killed my army, but you have nothing left as well! There’s no way for you to fight back anymore!”

“No way?” Lowengren's sarcastic voice was broadcasted.

“Then let me show you… The Way.”

 

Chapter Seventy-Five: 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 Sun.

“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

“Such a fool to the end.” A mocking voice was transmitted over to Garland’s Armor.

“LOWENGREN!” Garland exploded in anger.

“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 Advance 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 Exoskeleton which was zooming upwards as it continued firing 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 to the Armor. Despite the Exoskeleton’s fast turns, its attack managed to remain on a consistent spot. Though the burst 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. Something that the enemy was easily evading. It was up to Lander 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 which was 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 which 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 Earths 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 persons brain itself. The imitator has to feel what the imitated has to feel. 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 which 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 footages brought by the Alakaster sisters. These recorded Lander’s battle techniques and some footages 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 rubbles 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? Those two were bold enough to try it. Looks like it worked. They probably drained Lynd’s and Seeker’s blood and replaced it with the Dawn Soldiers.” 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 of the Heroes of Austrailia.” 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, technological hungry countries do if they noticed such a massive explosion that damaged nearly a 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 Path’s 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.