It happened around 7 in the evening, when the sky had almost turned dark. Zeke had just left the graveyard only for several silhouettes to appear.They didn’t immediately attack, but they were holding oddly-shaped artifacts that pulsated with Aether.Blue lightning crackled around Zeke as he stared at the Zyth closest to him.Out of all the Zyth here, he only recognized this one, which only added to his surprise and confusion regarding their unexpected arrival.One of the professors at Erys, the Zyth known as Nayro. He was one of the few Zyth that lived on the Aether Planet rather than staying with the rest of his kin.“Zeke, my boy! It sure has been a long time.”Nayro was as cheerful as ever as he let out a joyful laugh.“Indeed it has.” Zeke swept his gaze across the other Zyths, which numbered no less than 20. They weren’t moving, but their wariness was more than apparent.“I suppose this illustrious company you brought is for me?”“It’s just a precaution, my boy! You’ve grown st
“What do you hope to achieve by bringing me here?”When he heard Zeke’s question, Viator’s beady eyes stopped their incessant movement and focused on the young man.“Instead of staying on your doomed planet, we want you to come with us. With your cooperation, we might be able to study the Paths of Extinction System. We are ready to accommodate you and anyone you want to bring along. We have no destination in mind and what little fuel we currently have is only enough to run away from the Dead Ends. Eventually, we will run out of fuel and be stranded in space, withering away with the passing of time. You store enough Aether in your body to fully power our Mother Starship and allow us to travel longer distances.”“If you know about the Systems, then you surely know that mine will interfere and force me to stay.”“Yes, we are aware of that. Our efforts for the past decades weren’t completely fruitless. We know how the Night Goddess resisted the System and emerged victorious. If you agree,
“Why did you do this?”After a short silence, a brave Zyth stepped out of hiding and glared at the human.“It was your kind that forcefully brought me here and planned to lock me up.”The Zyth, enraged, jumped at Zyth while unleashing a wave of vermillion flames.Unfortunately, the flames were overpowered by Zeke’s voltage. The Zyth, too, was blown away with ease.It was apparent that he wasn’t a fighter.“S-stop!”“Don’t!”Female and male Zyth rushed from all around and ran toward Zeke as they saw him about to attack again.“You attack me and then tell me to stop if I retaliate?”“Haven’t you killed enough of us? Our leader is dead!”Another Zyth stepped up and yelled atop her lungs. She looked like any other Zyth, only her outfit was different.The confrontation between Zeke and the remaining Zyth was short-lasting as an intense tremor assaulted the Mother Starship.The lights stopped working and there were a series of explosions happening from the way Zeke had come from.The Zyth f
Now that he had been freed, Frederic stood up and channelled his Aether. A sparkling white light coated around his body and healed some of the minor injuries.“Alright. First and foremost, I’m going to need you to unlock a new path.”“That’s your plan?”“It’s part of it. You can’t deny that, during our time together, I didn’t give you good advice on growing stronger and making perfect use of the System’s functionalities. It’s a shame that we turned into enemies, though.”“Spare me your pointless commentary.”Frederic let out a soft laugh and nodded. He raised his left hand and let out small bits of Aether.“Even though you only have one eye right now, I’m sure that your Aether sensitivity and Aether Control should be high enough to allow you to perceive Aether and even see it.”Zeke nodded as he stared at the somewhat disjointed flow of Aether that emanated from the Vagabond’s hand.“The path you’re going to unlock is a time-gated one, so you need to use your PE to quickly unlock it.
Celestia had learnt of Zeke’s meeting with Teresa Moon, but even though the night had fallen, he hadn’t come back yet.She was in the villa along with Jack, Signora, Angel, Katrina, Wolfie, and Sulong.“He’s not answering… Did something really happen?”Sulong looked a bit nervous as he put down his phone. If this was the General’s doing, then, considering Zeke’s flashy skills, there would have been a big commotion, which would have reached Celestia’s ears by now.However, there was literally no news whatsoever.“Hm?”Celestia and Katrina were the first to hear the sounds coming from outside.“Enemies. Get ready!”The moment Celestia spoke those words, everyone got into position. Katrina unsheathed her blades and stood close to Angel.Red flames wrapped around Sulong’s fists, and a white glow burst from Signora’s body.The wall-sized windows leading to the garden were shattered as a couple of smoke bombs were thrown inside. However, before the mist could spread, Celestia extended her
“How’s this going to help us?”Zeke stared at the 2 meter-long metal rod in Frederic’s hand. It looked like an unremarkable rod rather than an actual artifact.“Technically, it is an artifact. A conductor and storage for Aether. There are several of these inside the Mother Starship and it facilitates the flow of Aether.”He sighed and tested the rod, “Unlike you, I can store and use only a limited quantity of Aether. I require somesort of a boost, so to speak. Okay… the ship is going down so he’s what we’re going to do…”…The Mother Starship, which was the size of a small mountain, fell down from the sky and brought with it explosions and flames.The sight was horrifying, especially from a spectator’s point of view.There was a deafening rumbling and a bright flash of light as it was about to crash on the coast.The Special Agents sent by the Minister had kept their distances and raised layers upon layers of small barriers.There was even a magical wall that surrounded the entire cap
“This place should be safe.”Julia Lopmore took them to a spacious underground banker South of the city.The energetic girl from five years ago had matured a lot, either in terms of attitude or appearance. However, as she laid low and avoided public attention, no one really knew what she had been doing the past couple of years.“Thank you.”Celestia, who was the unofficial leader of their small group, bowed toward Julia.They didn’t have a place to hide as the General surely knew all their bases. They could have gone to the company, but that would involve other people.The Lightning Flame Mercenaries might have grown in popularity and become nationally recognized, but they were still a small organization compared to the Department of Defense.Moreover, as Zhang attacked them in their villa, it was apparent that he didn’t care about the public attention it might consequently bring.“We still cannot contact Zeke.” Said Azmer as he let out a heavy sigh and glanced at Cecilia.The old Imp
As she witnessed the slaughter, the young Layla turned around and puked. Even though she was a mercenary, she wasn’t used to such brutal sights. Admittedly, Zeke’s voltage had burned almost all the bodies, but some were blown to pieces or filled with bloody and gaping holes.Even Vins looked disturbed as he tried to not look at the gore and blood. In contrast, Kiam Hells and George Mill weren’t the least bit affected. The former hailed from a tribe of warriors and the latter had been a veteran soldier for more than a decade before joining the Lightning Flame.It was a horrifying sight to see a young man kill so many people so fast and with ease. Any doubts any of them had harboured toward his strength was not replaced by fear and awe.When Layla saw Zeke stare at her and the other three and then approach them, she got a little bit tense.“I remember seeing you. You’re one of the mercenaries?”“They’re our finest, actually.”Young Jeremy, whose handcuffs were broken by the voltage, sto