Chapter 129

Alvin was flung forward due to all the force from the explosion. He banged against the walls and floor of the tunnel multiple times. His head was ringing, and he couldn't see or hear anything.

Thankfully, he had worn the red ring mystical item he had swiped from Goatee, and hence was being healed little by little. The loss of rationality was the least of his concern, as he suffered multiple severe fractures, and his life was on the line.

He could only imagine what the 4 still in the epicentre of the explosion were going through. Since they were of a higher Sequence, and may have some mystical item on them, they were probably going to survive, but he was sure they were going to be badly hurt. He wasn't sure if the blast would reach the factory, but he was sure that the Beyonders in there would be dancing to avoid debris from the factory, which undoubtedly would be collapsing.

For some reason, Alvin imagined Blondie escaping his pursuers in the chaos and going back to steal the contents of the safe.

Alvin finally skidded to a stop after being flung halfway across the tunnel. He had countless injuries on his body that were being slowly healed by the red ring. He just lay down, unable and unwilling to do anything until he got a bit better.

Suddenly, he heard a few clanging sounds of metals. He immediately tried to sit up, with half a mind to expand the Red Castle, pour out all the gunpowder he hid away, and detonate it, even at the cost of worsening his injuries.

But after carefully listening, he figured that the sound was coming in front of him rather than from behind him.

He looked up to see what looked like a person wearing some rusty armour with complicated patterns and joints coming over.

Upon spotting Alvin, the figure paused, and slowly questioned, "Alvin?"

Alvin looked up, and saw that there was the symbol of the Machinery Hivemind on the armour. The faceguard also swung open, and Alvin saw the familiar face of Fred behind the armour and suddenly relaxed.

He then felt an inordinate amount of rage fill up inside him and yelled, "I thought the plan was supposed to be for you to ambush the Beyonders outside the factory? And I would be fine as long as I held off the guy stationed inside for a while? Well guess what? ALL THOSE BEYONDERS ENTERED INSIDE! A JUDGE, AND A BARON OF CORRUPTION, AND A BUNCH OF PEOPLE WITH THEM! I TRIED TO ESCAPE FROM THE TUNNEL, AND THERE ARE TWO FREAKING WEREWOLVES HERE! AND BLONDIE KEEPS TRYING TO STEAL THE SAFE AND I AM DYING! WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU?"

Fred looked at the raging Alvin awkwardly. More footsteps sounded, and the other members of the unit of Machinery Hiveminds appeared, looking equally awkward. Sven stepped forward and held Alvin, who was struggling to push him down, and poured some liquid down his throat.

Alvin felt his injuries healing, and his rage calming down after drinking the liquid. He took out the red ring from his finger, and exhaled.

"A Sealed Artifact that has increased rage as a side effect?" asked Fred.

Alvin nodded, and said, "I took it off Goatee"

"So what's this about Werewolves? And who are Blondie and Goatee?" asked Sven.

Alvin quickly filled them in.

Sven nodded, and said, "Luca, stay here with Alvin. The rest of you come with me. You can pursue lethal force against the members of the Rose School of Thought. Restraining force against the other Beyonders"

"No, Luca should go too. I am good enough to walk, and I am walking far away from here. Like I am going back to the bar now" said Alvin as he walked towards the exit. Shrugging, Luca followed the rest of the Machinery Hiveminds towards the factory.

Alvin quickly exited the tunnel and looked in the direction of the factory. While a huge fire was not visible, considering that most of the explosions happened underground, and the factory was mostly built with fireproof materials, the smoke could be seen for miles.

He reckoned that the incident would now alarm everyone in Backlund from head to toe. The newspapers would have a grand old time, and the public would freak out. He was pretty sure that members of the churches and MI9 would probably use transportation mystical items to quickly arrive. So he was quite sure that the two Werewolves from the Rose School of Thought would be caught and interrogated, or killed and have their spirits channelled.

They were probably informed of the tunnel's existence by the second person who approached the Red Knife Gang, who created the tunnel to underneath the factory and took the gunpowder. So they would probably get a solid lead on him. Also, the fate of the Beyonders who worked for the enabler of the illegal gunpowder smuggling business depended on what kind of pull he had. But the members of the Red Knife Gang would definitely be handed over, and the clues to the first guy who approached the Red Knife Gang would probably be extracted.

With all the clues, divination should be able to lock on to them. Thus, the whole incident was probably going to be over.

Plus, the case would definitely receive much more attention from the higher-ups after this whole fiasco.

Alvin walked for about 10 minutes, and sat down on a bench in an empty, poorly maintained park. He did not manage to get a carriage until now, and his injured legs were now aching.

He closed his eyes, and just sat there relaxing.

After a few more minutes, he started to hear a weird sound, that's sounded like something jumping up and down, rapidly approaching the place he was at. Alvin opened his eyes, to barely make out a humanoid figure rapidly approaching, and landing a few feet away from him with a thump.

Alvin could barely recognise it as the female Beyonder from the Rose School of Thought who was at least a Werewolf. Her skin was badly burnt, she was missing an eye, and there seemed to be a hole in her abdomen. But she still looked like she had strength.

And she was looking Alvin in the eye, not hiding her desire to rip him to pieces.