Chereads / Doing Freelance Work Across the Universe / Chapter 39 - The Man Behind the Hood

Chapter 39 - The Man Behind the Hood

The two men stared at each other as the elevator door closed. Umbra turned around to face the control panel and pressed the up button. With his back still turned to Folorunsho, he took off his sunglasses and peeled off his mask, revealing hair so black it looked as though it were blue.

"When did you figure it out?" Toby asked.

"I had my suspicions when you called me by my name back at the Helix Centre," Folorunsho admitted. "But I concluded that you were Umbra when I followed you after I saw you at the hospital for a few days. You came by here a lot and fortunately, I assumed correctly that you'd come back again. This time as Umbra,"

"Once again, you've thrown a wrench in my plans," The dark-haired laughed mirthlessly. "I should have taken care of you the moment you came into the orphanage searching for Lola,"

"Why did you come here?" Folorunsho asked. "There's nothing for you at the Placeholder,"

"You were smart enough to deduce who I really was but I suppose even you could not make so wild of a deduction. I'm not going to take anything from the Placeholder. I'm going to blow it out of orbit,"

Folorunsho's eyes widened in utter horror. What Toby was trying to do was destroy the entirety of Shandel by using the Placeholder as the murder tool. However, such an event would not just claim millions of lives in the capital, but all across the planet as well. The resulting catastrophe would be on par with the first time the moon fell returning the planet to a dark age for years to come.

"You can't be serious,"

"I am not a man of jokes, Folorunsho," Toby replied. "If I can't force the government to resign, I'll just have to wipe them out, even if it costs the whole city,"

"It'll cost more than the city you fucking idiot!" Folorunsho yelled. "If you bring down that moon the whole planet will be in danger! Did you even think this shit through?!"

Toby gave no response. His eyes refused to meet Folorunsho's gaze.

"Of course, you haven't," Folorunsho concluded. "Because it wasn't your idea,"

"It doesn't matter whose idea it was. All that matters is the end result,"

"But of course! Ruling a world on fire is the best idea! What a way to stick it up to the government!"

"I do not want to rule Pedtro. I want to set it free from those too incompetent and self-centred to do a proper job and have the people rule themselves. If the world must go through a baptism of fire for that to happen, then so be it,"

A siren blared as the elevator began its ascent. Their speed began to increase the higher they got, reducing the surrounding city to a blur of images as the planet dropped.

"What about Mikael?" Folorunsho asked. "What about all the other children of Meiden?"

"I can only hope they will survive the storm that is to come. I have faith in their strength. They have experienced hardships before and will go through them again regardless of whether or not the Placeholder falls,"

"That's not an excuse for you to bring suffering on them in your pursuit of an ideal world," Folorunsho grimaced. "If you do this, what makes you so different from the people you're trying so hard to get rid of?"

"Say all you want. I have already made up my mind," Toby said. He pointed his sword at the freelancer. "You can stop me, or you can die trying,"

Folorunsho rolled up the sleeves of his blue uniform and unbuttoned it, revealing a black undershirt and covering the bandages wrapped around his torso and forearms. Despite the treatment he had received at the hospital, he was still yet to fully recover from his last encounter with Toby. He was not going to stop him.

"You're a decent guy, Toby," He said. "But you're definitely not thinking straight. So I'm going knock the lights out of you and then knock some sense into your thick ass skull and afterwards, we could get a pair of malts after,"

Toby launched forward at Folorunsho, his blade ready. The freelancer called forth his Revel to cloak himself and tried to intercept the blade. As soon as he tried to block the attack, Toby dispelled the energy blade and recalled it after his hilt had gone past his hand. Folorunsho quickly dodged, managing to get away with a burn on his cheek.

Folorunsho was not given an opportunity to breathe as Toby twirled his sword and brought the blade down on him. He dropped to the ground and rolled backwards letting the blade impale the elevator floor. Toby dispelled and resummoned his blade once more. The leader of the Ebon Shroud took a low stance and made his approach towards Folorunsho.

A blue shirt flew over Toby's head. His attention was immediately drawn to it, distracting him from Folorunsho's true attack. Before he could brace himself, the dark-haired man felt a knee push itself into his gut. Folorunsho grabbed the shirt mid-air and covered Toby's face with it. He then grabbed him by the collar and tried to slam him into the wall.

Before he could execute the attack, the energy blade swung around to strike the freelancer. Folorunsho immediately stepped back as the blade collided. with his Revel, creating sparks from their collision. Toby pulled off the shirt from his face, his hazel eyes Lazer focused on the man in front of him.

"You'll have to do more than obscure my vision if you don't want me to see you," He said.

"Well at least your vision is still sharp," Folorunsho commented. "Unlike that sword of yours,"

Toby raised an eyebrow at his statement.

"You haven't realised it, have you? With your sword like that, you'll never be able to cut me,"

The elevator continued its ascent with great speed. The blue sky of Pedtro began to fade away to the black of the universe. The two would arrive at the Placeholder within the next 10 minutes. Their fight would have to reach its conclusion before then.