25 Ninth Circle Base
After tailing his targets to their destination, Oliver discovered it to be the empty mansion, his hunch proving right. Of the three locations obtained by Tockman, the purpose of the mansion was the only one he failed to determine. He theorized that it served as a temporary residence for Dante during his stay in Star City.
Whatever the case, it didn't matter now. Upon arrival at the location, the hooded acolytes hastily parked the vehicles in the garage of the house and escorted their leaders outside. With [Eagle Pulse] active, every inch of the compound was privy to Oliver, who as a result, knew the reason for their odd behavior.
The compound around the mansion was just as empty as the building itself. To ordinary and oblivious people, the only things to be seen were the sparsely positioned trees, bushes, the swimming pool and the carpet of lush green grass. There were no vehicles or means of travel anywhere.
But as if Oliver's targets didn't know this, they marched across the grounds in a manner that suggested they'd be walking to their headquarters. They soon stopped at a particular spot, where one of the two leaders, the woman, took a few steps forward and tapped a black watch on her wrist a few times.
In response to her actions, a square-shaped section of the space in front of her "opened" like a hatch, flipping over like a slowly falling mirror. As it came down, its other side was revealed to be a black platform that extended and shifted to form stairs.
Due to the exceptional range and powers of [Eagle Pulse], Oliver discovered this cloaked aircraft the moment he arrived. Courtesy of his fast movement speed and equally fast mind, he put two and two together in less than a second and marked the invisible vehicle, solidifying his chances of finding their base.
And so the impossible scene he just witnessed came as no surprise.
Followed by the acolytes, the two leaders climbed into the dark interior of the invisible vehicle, disappearing from sight as the hatch closed behind them. Not long after, the two large rotors on the sides of the craft began to spin, causing it to ascend.
In his observance of the vehicle that reminded him of those he'd seen in the Avatar movie, Oliver noted something that piqued his interest in the Ninth Circle even further.
Right as the craft lifted off the ground, its rotors kicking up fierce winds and loud noises, an invisible and spherical bubble emanated from its interior and encapsulated its entirety, effectively muting it.
This development heightened his desire to go after them even further. This plane/helicopter hybrid possessed powerful noise canceling capabilities, not just those of visual cloaking.
'I bet it's invisible to radar too,' he speculated as the vehicle flew off in the direction of the sea. 'No use thinking about it now. I'll know when I deal with them…'
In the same manner in which he tailed them from the warehouse, he followed the craft until there was no more land for him to run on. That didn't deter him though. Bringing up the system, he added half of the available points to agility and the remaining half to durability, bringing them both to 102.
With the familiar warmth coursing through his body and elevating his agility and durability to that of a hundred average people, he pushed aside the pleasurable sensations associated with it and sped up, using his improved velocity to cross the last stretch of land between himself and sea in a matter of seconds.
At the last point, he leapt into the ocean with the gathered momentum, all his clothes vanishing a split second before he hit the water. With a loud splash, he disappeared from sight and sank beneath the waves, swimming in the direction of his target at over 100 knots.
The plane had long disappeared from sight, and the water had reduced his velocity by more than three and a half times. Nevertheless, he maintained his pace and endured in the direction of the spirit marks. No matter their location or the amount of distance that separated them, he could always sense them.
Besides, he needed neither rest nor air, and due to the Mirakuru and points, his physique had improved such that activities that strained him before, no longer did so now. In essence, he recovered from any accumulated fatigue before he even had the chance to feel it.
His healing factor solved the most pressing problems with regards to this maritime endeavor, but it failed to do anything to soothe his boredom. That's why even before jumping into the water, he psyched himself to expect countless hours of a long and mind numbing swim.
For all he knew, the secret headquarters of the targets were in another country and not on the sea like he expected. He would have liked to use a boat, but he didn't want to take that risk. Fortunately for him, his expectations regarding the location of the base turned out to be true. It was somewhere on the ocean.
At the twenty minute mark of his journey, he felt the spirit marks cease movement. Uttering thanks to God unconsciously, relief as though he'd been saved from a terrible fate filled him. Alongside this relief, came renewed vigor that made him activate [Limit Removal], earning himself a stronger resistance from the ocean.
Despite his sturdy constitution, the overclocking of his body stressed his muscles and bones, tearing and fracturing them repeatedly. His healing factor patched him up as soon as these injuries cropped up, but its tireless efforts joined up with his continuous vigorous movements and formed a loop where his body fell apart and rebuilt itself constantly.
Such pain would drive many mad, but his face told another story as he swung and waved his limbs with relentless effort, making them look like the propellers of a human speedboat. In this manner, he persevered and arrived at the spirit marks' location one whole hour after they stopped.
Upon arrival, he swam up and kept his head right below the water surface, activating [Eagle Pulse]. To an ordinary observer, his current location and vicinity looked just like an empty sea. Apart from the calm waves, there was nothing else for miles. To Oliver though, it didn't look that way.
His sensory abilities showed him something different. A few tens of meters ahead of him, [Eagle Pulse] highlighted a massive ship, surrounded by a bubble not unlike the one around the plane he tracked here.
'Damn, these guys sure are slippery…' Oliver thought as he examined the edges of the bubble with his powerful eyesight.
He deactivated [Eagle Pulse] and examined the point where the illusion met the waves, finding it flawless without a hint of discrepancies with the real world. It was the height of the afternoon, yet nothing above sea level in the ship's vicinity hinted at its presence, as though it didn't span nearly a 1000 ft long and weigh tens of thousands of tons.
Marveling at the technological capabilities of his crazy reality and the resourcefulness of this organization, Oliver moved his attention to the individuals highlighted by his powers. He counted over 130 people, most of them acolytes, who milled about doing god knows what at various points on the vessel.
As for the remaining ones, they consisted of the ship's crew, Dante's subordinates, and the man himself. He was the only gold hued individual on the vessel, and currently, he seemed to be speaking with the man and woman Oliver tailed here. Everyone apart from him was designated as red by [Eagle Pulse], even the ship's crew.
'Makes sense I guess…they're not the kind of people to take chances and hire normal people.'
Shifting his eyes over to another section of the ship, Oliver observed what he surmised to be a vault. What led him to this conclusion was the massive cube-like shape and dimensions of the room and the presence of the marked notes in it.
Remembering how rich he'd become and the immense wealth the circle possessed in the comics, he painted himself a vivid image of what awaited him should he eradicate the organization and enter that vault.
For a moment there, a part of him wanted to rush over and start the termination now. But he remembered his plans and stuck to them. Lodai would be done with his order in a few days, and he'd be properly geared and armed then. There was no need to act on impulse and take unnecessary risks.
He wanted this takedown to be perfect, and so stowing his impatience, he dived deeper into the sea and swam in the direction he came from, vowing to find a way to fly.
....
[Blüdhaven, Lodai's workshop, January 15, 8:45 PM]
Arms stretched wide, Oliver received a thorough patting down from the engineer's paranoid guards before getting a go ahead. He faced no problems this time, having learnt his lesson and dropped the sat phone in the vehicle he came here with. His orders were not only many, some were quite heavy.
Since he could not flaunt his inventory, he needed something to carry the things until he got out of sight.
Sauntering into the inner part of the warehouse, he found Lodai the same place he was the last time, seated behind his workshop tinkering with something. The engineer sensed someone behind him and raised his goggles, revealing his two eyes, one bulging out of its socket and one sunken into it.
Oliver missed this sight as his gaze and touch traveled over to the black cases of varying size arranged on another table. Before he opened any of them though, he turned to Lodai, who gave him the go ahead to open them. With a series of clacks, he opened the first case, and found two black rods reminiscent of escrima sticks.
He picked one of them up and waved it around, producing "whum" "whum" noises with every swipe. Satisfied with that test he gazed at the silver end of the stick and moved downwards to the position of his grip. He noticed two divisive lines near his thumb area and rubbed the finger on it.
This caused the partitioned part to slide clockwise, triggering sparks of blue electricity from the silver end of the stick. He nodded at this and thought, 'Good. Now I have a proper non-lethal takedown…'
Unlike how the movies made it seem, head trauma was a real thing. This was especially true for someone with his physical capabilities. A simple attempt to knock someone unconscious from him was enough to mortally wound the person or leave them with serious brain injuries.
That's why he came up with this as an alternative and added them to the order. Besides, they were fun to wield.
-Whum! -Whum!
Placing it beside its partner in the case, he moved on to the next, definitely lethal object: his redesigned katana. This guy was not in a case and just lay there on the table in a sheath as black as the night. He picked it up with one hand, causing Lodai's bulging eye to fall out of its socket.
That thing weighed over 70 kg, the weight of an average man, yet he picked it and held it like a paper weight.
'No wonder he asked me to make the weapons this way. He's a freak…'
Meanwhile, Oliver enjoyed handling a proper sword for the first time. Grabbing the hilt of the blade, he slid it out of the sheath just a bit, noting its pitch black shade and light absorbent quality.
Nodding at the quality of the work done and the fulfillment of his request, he slid the sword back in and checked the remaining items.
They all met his expectations, making him so engrossed in the testing that he missed Lodai's expression when he pulled the bowstring on the bow with a draw weight of 250 kg like it was nothing.
Once he checked the last thing, an ordinary looking phone, he turned to the engineer whose expression now contained a hint of fear and said with a grin, "Everything is perfect. Can your guys help me get these into the car?"
"S-sure."
