PoV Tsuitame
After rapidly waking everybody up, I gave them each a small snack to eat on the way while we were going to take a vehicle to move around. Forren was carrying my brother, who was too sleepy to walk, and I was carrying Valis in my arms.
As always, we were covered from head to toe with extremely baggy clothes, even in that extreme heat, to hide our race from the humans.
Once the elevator opened, we found many vehicles ready to use. Forren was able to recognize a few of them, and so he decided to be the driver instead of letting someone else drive for us. The vehicle he chose was black and relatively big. The windows were also blackened. The doors didn't open in a conventional way; they scrolled sideways.
"It should be sturdy enough to take a few bullets with no problems." reassured Forren.
We strapped my brother and Valis to the backseats while Diego and Folarin were sitting in the front seats.
We were the last ones to exit the vehicle storage. Many VIPs were also residing in the building at the time and were now escaping. Of course, their lives had absolute priority.
"From what I gathered yesterday night, they shouldn't have many more of those monsters. What we faced were mostly juvenile test subjects with next to no combat training. I said this while trying to slowly wake up Valis.
I was mainly trying to open her eyes delicately. When she eventually shut them down again, I would block her nose for a while and repeat that cycle.
"So those are not even the strongest ones they have got?" responded Folarin.
"No, thankfully, they do not possess any monster that is both adult and trained. Those were the first few successful monsters they managed to create. Apparently, they want to create an entire army of those things, but right now they would need a lot more funds to make that a reality."
I then heard Forren take a sigh of relief while also tapping lightly on the steering wheel.
"Thank God."
"Any updates on our mission?" Asked Folarin
"Still unknown. As far as we know, we just have a countdown." responded Forren.
"Diego seemed to know something about our goal here." I added
"Did he tell you anything about it?" asked Forren.
"Nope." I answered.
"Of course…" commented Folarin while pushing her seat backward.
"And now we're-"
Suddenly, I heard a voice coming from Forren's pocket.
"We located the bulk of our enemies in Frobius Street. They brought tanks and choppers with them." It said,
"Those bastards are really asking for bloodshed, huh?" said another voice.
"What was-" I was trying to ask what tank or chopper meant. I also wanted to ask who those voices belonged to, but Forren cut me off at that moment.
"Folarin, can you please turn on the GPS and see where that street is?" Forren asked.
"Yeah, sure." She answered while tapping a couple of times on a screen that was lying in front of her.
"I can't do anything with this; this is not the alphabet I know." She then handed me the little screen.
"Can you ask your dear friend?" She probably meant the soul weapon made by the guy I captured.
'Hannis?'
He didn't answer, so I simply raised my shoulders as an answer.
"Please, we will all die if you don't help us."
'Hannis, wake up! I need you now.'
Hannis: Shut up, I'm having the time of my life. I can finally sleep in peace.
"I need some help to decipher the SPG." I blurted it out.
"It's GPS."
Hannis: It's GPS.
Both Hannis and Forren said it at the same time.
"Whatever."
'Can you help me?'
Hannis: Well, since I'm already awake, I might as well do it. What do you need me for?
"What do we need him for?"
"Frobius street!" Shouted the impatient Folarin.
Hannis: Is she ok?
'No distractions! Can you do it?'
Hannis: Sure, just press the symbols I'm about to describe.
After a bit of struggle, I managed to put the symbols that Hannis described on the little screen, and then I passed the little screen back to Folarin, who then put it in front of Forren.
He guided the vehicle while periodically checking the small device.
That small device was incredibly annoying. It was constantly saying to turn right, and Forren always ignored it and never once turned to the right.
"Do you know where we are going?" I asked.
"No idea." he said before following the instructions of the small device.
"What I do know is that we are about to change our current vehicle."
"Don't you dare." Said Folarin.
"What's going on?" asked the sleepy Valis while slowly opening her eyes.
"We can't just escape; if Diego really knows something, then we must follow his plan."
"HE HAS NO PLAN!" Shouted Folarin.
"I worked enough with him to know that he has one. He just doesn't trust us to not fuck it up." Forren tried to defend him.
"Then leave him alone." Folarin shouted.
"Fine then, we're not helping him, so where should we go now?" He asked her.
"The opposite way of where the enemies are headed." She answered
"So where exactly?"
"I don't know, I don't know shit about this place; why are you asking me when the one who has the faintest clue is Tsuitame!" She complained.
Forren then drastically changed the direction of the vehicle and began accelerating.
"Then keep your mouth shut and let us do the talking; you're useless at the moment!"
"Guys, I don't think we have much time to argue." I tried to butt in, but she immediately created something in my mouth to stop me from talking.
Then Forren ignored the next instruction from the small screen, telling him to take a turn to the left.
"Tsui, I'm hungry." said Valis in a sweet and low tone. It was adorable in my eyes, but not appropriate for the moment.
'Dammit, this is not the time to be asking for snacks.' I thought while quickly opening a bag and giving her a jam-filled brioche.
In the distance, I could hear a loud noise, and then I saw some vehicles flying above my head.
Hannis: Those are choppers.
Then Forren stopped the vehicle abruptly. The sudden stop managed to wake up my brother, and due to the shock, he immediately summoned his armor.
"What's happening?" He shouted, confused.
Forren had removed his safety belt and exited the vehicle.
He was still arguing something with Folarin when I started hearing a weird smell and noise in the air.
My brother and Valis quickly started following the arguing couple while I was still uncertain of what I was hearing.
Even my brother seemed uncomfortable and was trying to communicate that with the two of them.
Valis instead decided to stick close to me and asked politely for another snack, which I gave to her.
Then it happened.
A large explosion ensued. I immediately jumped in to protect Valis, creating a barrier with my aura to shield us.
Hannis: Wow, I never saw so much energy.
Whatever exploded created a shockwave strong enough to destroy my barrier as if it were made out of paper. Unfortunately, we were walking in the middle of a commercial street. All the shop windows were blown away, and the shattered pieces of glass were flying in the air like projectiles.
I felt multiple shards piercing my back while I was trying to rebuild the barrier of aura, but the amount of pressure applied by that shockwave was too much for me.
We were barely holding on to the ground. Many vehicles and other sharp objects were flying at that moment, so I decided to burn all of the mana that Valis stored inside of me to create enough aura to at least protect her. So I started creating a barrier of wind to protect her, and then I covered it with layers upon layers of ice. Then suddenly, the world turned dark.
PoV Chris.
I was in the middle of restoring the destroyed neighborhood when I heard an extremely loud explosion.
I saw Areus rush towards me. A sudden wave of mana crashed into our world like a tsunami, and just like a tsunami, it destroyed anything in its path.
He covered his arms in flames and created a sword of flames. With that sword, he performed a slash that cut through the wave of mana, creating a sea of flames spreading around us. The flames were expanding at an extremely rapid rate, and Areus was having trouble keeping them under his control. It was probably because of that that he started trying to absorb most of the flames and instead create a dome of ice around us.
Many flames had escaped from Areus' control. Normally they would've started eating all the mana around them and growing exponentially, but that didn't happen. Instead of growing, the flames suffocated under all the pressure put on them by the wave of mana.
'That's not a normal reaction. Aura should tramp mana.'
Even Areus was struggling to keep the dome in one piece. The wave of mana was strong enough to crack the walls and slowly shred small pieces away.
"The portal!" shouted Areus while creating more ice to add to the dome.
"I can't hold on for much longer!"
Then the ground started to rumble.
"Kane to the rescue!" Shouted Kane while emerging from underground in a large, fiery explosion.
He then helped Hollis sustain the barrier while Hollis and Nassus were helping some of the warriors that fought with us flee from the other side of the portal.
"Daniel, why is the portal dug under the ground?" Asked Chris.
"I'll figure that out later. For now, go help Kane. "
As the group focused on expanding and maintaining the protective dome around us, I took Hyung's healing cocoon and dragged it to a much safer space to have a 1 on-1 conversation.