The Matriarch

Chapter 7 Investigation

Sweat in his forehead, hands, even in his underarms just kept on trickling, even if he’s just staying still on his chair all the while surrounded by several white-haired men. He could not help but make quick glances at the stars decorated on the uniforms of the old men who were still discussing something with one another.

Chris would hear murmurs and a bit of bantering along with one or two arguments here and there, it was like he was nonexistent at the moment though he was already surrounded by them.

Everyone quickly straightened out when the doors that were behind the generals' table opened, in came another white-haired man, though his face was crinkled showing his age his posture was still quite firm and straight, walking with pure authority as he went to the chair that was situated in the middle of the room.

All of the people there were instantly at their best, even the guards quickly stiffened just by the sight of this person.

Chris being curious made another quick glance at the man, and he was able to see several medals on his chest along with numerous stars attached to the shoulder side of his uniform, making him the highest general there.

He ended up swallowing hard knowing the possibilities of what might happen to be in the presence of such high-ranking officials.

“Is this him,” the army general gives Chris a quick look and smirks.

Even with his fatigue on Chris’s frail and thin figure was still noticeable, and it didn’t help out that he was looking like a white ghost at the moment as his color was so pale right now.

“Yes sir,” one of the other generals who was wearing glasses answered, taking out his documents to check something on it.

“He doesn’t look much does he,” the Army general let out a chuckle, raising a brow as he looked at Chris.

“He’s a power user, sir,” the general wearing glasses quickly pointed out.

That quickly changed the man’s face, from amused to serious. “I see,” he then looked at the papers in front of him to check on it. “An unknown rank F, that’s new,” he states after reading the reports.

“Yes sir, though we believe his power was the cause that those monsters' coordination became messed up,” the glass-wearing general quickly informed the group.

Chris was now becoming more nervous seeing as he was now being checked once more in terms of his abilities. He could not help but shake in fear in his chair, knowing that if the people surrounding him deemed it necessary, he would once again be sent to the laboratory for checking.

“And the reason for that is?” the army general frowned, still not impressed with the reports.

Seeing this the glass-wearing general quickly turns to a soldier who was standing behind him and nods as a signal.

“Why don’t we show the general the footage,” he says after a few moments.

The lights were turned off and the windows closed as the projector was turned on. From Chris’s side, he could see the events of what looked like videos taken from the CCTV cameras that were within the area where they were before.

It showed the appearance of the black hole and then the sudden burst of light, even the camera seemed to have been affected by it since the clip from that time went hazy before showing a blank screen for a moment. When it came up once more everyone within the vicinity of the lights explosion was knocked out, it could also be seen that the black hole became a solid levitating dark sphere which was now releasing some kind of ashen fog, before everything was covered by the mist they managed to see the sphere dripping some kind of slime which contained the wolf-like creatures.

The video change perspective as there was nothing else can be seen from the CCTV cameras when the fog took place. The next footage was taken using drones dispatched within the surrounding area of the fog, there were aerial ones that manage to show the vast scope of the smog.

It then showed how the army intercepted the mist the moment they got there, entering the mist with no fear and in a formation, after a few minutes loud shooting noises were heard along with screams and shouts of pure agony and terror.

“Why don’t we have any footage from the inside?” the army general hissed, gritting his teeth as he slammed his palm on the table in disappointment.

The general with glasses remained calm as he faced him. “The cameras and drones would get distorted when they got inside the mist sir,” he answers with a straight face and monotone voice.

The army general let out a sound of disapproval hearing that. “Have they found the reason for the blackhole’s appearance in the first place?” he growled, quite impatient on what was happening.

“No sir, though our intel states that it may be the enemy's new weapon,” Another general answered.

“So, why are we all discussing this right now instead of making preparations against this so-called weapon?” the army general glared at everyone around the room.

There was a deep silence for a moment before the general with glasses forced a coughed to get everyone’s attention once more.

“If you’ll look at the next footage sir,” he states signaling the operator.

It then showed what seemed to be the fog suddenly subsiding because of some blast from the bombardment that happened, by that time several of the wolf-like creatures were visible.

Everyone in the room gasped when the camera’s close-up revealed several piled-up bodies near the black sphere. Blood was scattered all over the place all the while several of the wolf-like beasts remained to guard the said area.

Murmurs and whispers of anger and hatred quickly spread across the room, showing their rage at the scene that was shown.

All the while Chris could not help but feel shocked, miserable, and regretful, shaking in remorse the moment he saw the number of people that were being held in that pile. He could feel his chest tightened, just thinking about all the people he was unable to help out, all because of his worthless ability that he could not even know.

Swallowing hard Chris tried to stop the heat in his eyes from continuing, knowing that tears would just cause him problems if the people around him saw it.

It took a few minutes before the whole scene was once again covered by the ashen mist once more, managing to calm almost everyone. The whole video was then put on pause so that everyone was able to properly get their bearings once more.

“If you were able to see how the beast was coordinated in guarding the corpses that they had, now please take a look at this next footage,” the general with glasses proceeded to signal the operator to start the video again.

Once again the certain clip caused a whole new ruckus, managing to zoom in on the scene. It wasn’t that hard not to recognize who it was, as Chris’s face could be seen clearly.

The certain shot showed how Chris was being dragged by one of the beasts away from the sphere, being a few meters from the said object. It took everyone a few minutes to notice the whole scenario because of the ashen fog, but the moment it was shown everyone was in awe seeing the conflict that was happening all over the place.

Several of the beasts were fighting and mauling one another while the others were now surrounding Chris as if they were guarding him, though it was obvious that he was unconscious at that moment, it did not stop the creatures from staying with him.