Chapter 31

—Where the manor once reside—

"Quick! Evacuate every civilian within a kilometer distance!" A supervisor shouted as he monitored his radiation counter. It hit 20 in one minute, signing him it is very bad.

"Wear your protective suits!" He shouted once again before he fitted one himself, white in a color and seems to be only composed of plastic.

The time he placed his goggles on, he instantly saw two middle-aged women walking directly to the crater who have no sign of stopping. "Hey what are you two doing! Get out there or you'll body will be damaged!" He quickly went to them shouting, but unlike the worried person he is, they didn't heed his shouts and were never minded of.

Not soon and he arrived in front of the two, "hey I said you two can't be here, what are you two doing?" He asked once again as he felt disrespected before.

"To inspect," Charlotte answered straightforwardly while she tied her maroon hair into a ponytail

"But it's boiling hot down there, not to mention the thick smoke can suffocate the lungs to stone," he explained as he pointed at the still hot crater, where thick smokes gush out from the bottom with a temperature that could simmer any normal beings that would near it.

"I don't think you will survive without proper suit and trainin-hey!"

"Do we look like we give a fuck sweety, that's her property, we're going in." Elizabeth answered him as Charlotte already jumped in, she followed and landed at the bottom. Leaving the man above the crater stunned by their doings.

Below the crater is a dark cave full of rising smoke where charred debris lying all over the ground were seen.

"It's darn smoking in here." She commented

"Yeah, specimens would be perfect with this amount of smoke, it would give the effect of a high-quality product—too many stupid nobles can notice it." Charlotte answered her with the intuition of an alchemist before she bent down and touched the ground.

Smoke rose from the smoldering soil while the temperature passed a hundred degrees, but it didn't bother them as their bodies are already used to this kind of extreme environment.

The seemingly dark cave is as bright as the day to their eyes, they don't use light to see. They use high-frequency waves to visual things in their brain--something a normal person would call the sixth sense.

"12 o'clock." Charlotte suddenly said and walked in that direction, Elizabeth who can also see it shrugged and followed her.

They walked past some charred bones and stepped onto scattered energy stones— looking at them and she could already guess what caused the explosion.

"How can the terrorist know about this?" she asked Charlotte in front of her.

"Probably from someone who lived under our roof," she answered.

"Ohhh, yikes."

Twenty more steps and they arrived in front of what they saw before, its another crater on the ashen ground. The bottom is filled with neon liquid that glows in the dark, while the bottom held luminescence stones.

"Pretty guessed this much," Charlotte said before kneeling in front of the neon pond before she extended her hands and submerged her index finger to an inch deep.

Nothing much happened other than her glowing blue as currents of electricity filled her, "It was caused by the reactor's overwork."

"But why would they detonate it? What motive lies behind this attack? Planned? Or an accident?" she pondered why but no one answered her, causing her to ponder more.

"Charlotte, six o'clock." Her attention was reaped when Elizabeth suddenly gave her direction as she gazed there too.

Charlotte quickly looked in the direction and saw a charred skeleton standing in front of the lake, nothing seems to be extraordinary here but the fact it survived standing. No one in the people left before has the body to stand that explosion and have intact bones afterward.

"This kind of body doesn't belong to any sane human, feet of a goat, horns of a sheep, and bones stronger than steel. This, this doesn't make any sense." Elizabeth said as they neared the charred skeleton.

"No, it makes sense when they are modified." But Charlotte wasn't the one that answered her, it was the voice of a man whom they quickly identified.

"Sheriff? What are doing here?" Charlotte asked confused, as she knows he should be on his desk planning and reporting.

"I'm here to investigate like you," he answered before graveling the ashen ground with his feet, there lied bones and glowing stones beneath the ash. "Our childrens encountered more than the supposed terrorist who caused the explosion. They also encountered this." he suddenly spoke and showed them a vile of glass, what floats inside is a small insect-looking fish that already lied dormant peacefully.

"A Genentech, so one really did survive." she thought out loud before distress hued her eyes, "so out of everyone that was left here, this skeleton probably belongs to old Greg." she analyzed with shaking hands.

He has been a very good man to her family that the family already considered him as one of them, he emits fatherly love every time he would greet them with his warm smile.

"Probably, but what's buried must remain buried, the remaining officials will hunt every single one of them." He said to the two with duty engrave in his voice box.

"I've already relayed orders of recruiting volunteers, what we need now is additional gadgets to exterminate them—what we have is a bit off dated you see, So as someone expert in this course, I request both of your help for the sake of this town," he added and requested them for their help--even if it's minute

"But what about the terrorist?" Elizabeth asked first.

"By connecting visible dots, What they probably want is the moon shard that fell three years ago, and coincidentally, next week is the full moon. Its power would be too much for the seal to hold it hidden and would appear above the pillar for ten hours starting at 8 pm. So we have one week in maximum before they probably make their move." he answered explaining.

"Hmmm, that's interesting," Elizabeth commented while pondering. Charlotte beside her quickly elbowed her abdomen lightly to sign her to stop, and she did.

"Are they connected with the sudden appearance of these parasites?" Charlotte questioned and he shook his head in denial while he checked the charged skeleton. "I believe it is a mere coincidence, as they wouldn't kill the first boss and wave of mutated beings if they came from them, they would probably leave them be in the sewers and even help them mutate further if they are somehow connected to them," he explained while be highlighted the bone in front of the neon lake and bones scattered on the ground.

"I really picked the worst time to visit," Elizabeth commented and slightly wished she had wine to sip.

"The parasites should be the main threat, for now, these paradise devotees don't have the spine to attack when placed directly against the spotlight. They'll stay low for now and-" but he was cut off by Elizabeth's words.

"We already that much Marck no need to explain that, So tell us something interesting, something like; have you already reported this to the headquarters?" candid as her brows, she asked him about his actions.

He can only shrug and attested, "I've already sent a report about it but surprisingly, the headquarters didn't reply and another group messaged me. It was from the main family of Lustrave, they said that the problems will quickly resort when they arrive but I don't want to trust them, I can feel it would turn to worst if I somehow let them handle these parasites-- I can leave them the problem with the terrorist but not the genetechs that has infinite potential to worldly chaos. So I went here for investigation and is now asking for help to resort this parasite infestation quickly." he answered what he knows while the two contemplated.

"It sure is rowdy here." Elizabeth muttered again.

Three seconds and Charlotte replied, "We are glad to help exterminate these parasites, but we would need to view the remaining data about them so that we can help more." Charlotte agreed and asked for the sheriff's documents about the genetechs.

"Errrr... that's the problem, you see when our childrens went here to have some fun, they made these parasites as their topics because marc took them here, the reports, data, and gadgets were burnt with the house."

"Then how can we create a good weapon against them without proper data?" Elizabeth asked and the sheriff answered by raising his shoulders one time, then highlighted the bottle with the parasite inside by extending his hand to them a little.

"What do you mean eh eh?" She asked once again by mimicking the sheriff's response, "that isn't how alchemist works when we are requested to create something Mark, we need ready to use data cause that's where we'll base our-" but she didn't continue as Charlotte stopped her by signing with her palm.

"Then by any chance, does Marcus know anything about these gadgets, cause you know, he's their mechanic so he's the one who probably handled the gadgets." She handled it calmly, by analyzing all information she has.

"Well I have high confidence in him so I think so but I don't know, you want to see him?" he answered with a question.

"We would want to do so..."

'Before we leave this town, this the last thing I can do for our people's sake.'

---

"Sir reporting!" Feet again settled in front of the plastic curtain with a shout, calling out his attention while asking for permission to go in.

"Come in!" Louie's affirmed in this early night.

The soldier quickly came in and saw Louie on his desk with documents on hand, filling them with inks guided by his penmanship, "We have completed the mind hijacking to one of the captured minotaurs and now have the full map of the dungeon below kuruuk, Sir."

He then passed a rolled paper with the seal, dungeon of kuruuk, to the general and Louie quickly opened it. With eyes serious than ever, he looked at the map contemplating.

"Quite large isn't it?" He said with a smile before he noticed something, "the shape seems... Odd doesn't it?"

The soldier nodded and attested, "The intelligence team also think so, it seems like their recent activity is digging towards the town's direction."

Louie contemplated first before he stood up with thoughts in his mind, "do the intelligence team have the copy of the minotaur's memory for this past two days?" he asked as he started to walk out of the tent.

"Yes sir." The soldier answered and followed him out of the general's tent to the intelligence section's main tent.

Not long after their walk in the middle of the night, they arrived in front of the intelligence's tent.

"Sir!" they quickly gave their respect when he passed through the plastic curtains.

Here inside settled different machines they use for gaining information, machines of boxed shape at the right, while caged monsters at the right--looking through their eyes, one can see them identical to the prisoners who have enough of the suffering they experienced.

"I need to see the minotaur's memory." he quickly said and the head chief of this town's intelligence team led him to their devices.

"When sir?" she asked

"Two days ago." He replied hurriedly.

She nodded before a white screen appeared in front of them, then like a recorded video, what the minotaur encountered for the past day played on the screen. They just stood silently while the general watched the screen seriously.

"Fasten its speed," he commanded and the video quickened its time.

"Faster."

"It's now in four times sir."

"Faster."

"It's now in eight times sir."

"Faster."

"It's now in Sixteen times, sir, we're already at the max speed."

The general just nodded and continued watching the fast-moving image, with a gaze deeper than black, he observed every scene transpire in this fast-moving video.

"Your tool is a bit off-dated isn't it?" he commented as he watched the video, the head just scratched her head with a fake laugh.

"It isn't smooth in this kind of speed," he added while the rest looked at him in disbelief.

"You can tell its performance in this speed, sir? I can only see one picture at a time," she commented as she started over the screen, it's chaotic and is hard to understand.

"I was gifted with good eyes you see, I can see things moving very fast at normal speed, My record was times 128 when I was exploring beyond the rifts, but I don't know if I got better or worse. What do you think?" he made a conversation while watching seriously.

"Well... You're pretty talkative compared to other generals aren't you, sir?" she answered him honestly.

The room went quiet beyond that while Louie continued watching,

"We aren't gonna lose our job are we?" One murmured to his colleague and the other answered, "I don't know, but stay quiet, he might hear you and worsen the mood."

"This head chief of us doesn't know how to communicate really well but I hope the general doesn't take it seriously."

They started to have conversations with murmurs in this awkward atmosphere.

"Stop!" But their chatters were soon killed when Louie suddenly commanded the video to halt, she who was listening did it instantly and a still image was seen frozen in time.

"There, two humans kids while that boy is holding something." They stopped at the scene when the minotaur was strolling peacefully in their built main-circle below the soil, crowded with thousands of monsters—the minotaur was bargaining for a spear in exchange for the meat it hunted, but Louie didn't mind that and pointed to the background where two boys are running with their very might. They were Trevor and Gio, holding something that got the general's attention.

"It looks like a skull right?" He asked and the others nodded while they checked the image carefully, surprised and amazed, the general's eyes are something to brag and be jealous of.

"Seems like the boss is an undead," he said with experience backing up his claim.

Louie contemplated first before he remembered something, "where did the bladed rats go?" he asked and almost all of the soldiers here were choked with their saliva.

"Sir we already let them go."

"Why didn't I heard any reports of their spiritual analysis?"

"Because sir, we thought it was harsh for kids like them and just let them go."

The general paused for a while before he finally made eye contact with the Intelligence department officers, "say what now" but he wasn't answered by them, a shout did.

"Sir emergency! The Manor was attacked by the notorious terrorists: paradise! They detonated it to ashes!"

His attention was quickly reaped by that so he gazed back and asked worried, "was there any death count?"

"Sir, only one. We believe it's your old guard Greg."

Louie went quiet first, which signed the officers he's either mourning or pondering—but they don't know as he shed no emotion to be seen.

"I'll remain here and guard the forest, the town has enough manpower to take of their problems there. We must hold until the reinforcement arrives next week."

The others nodded with his command before he relayed another to the intelligence team, "send three of your members to the town and try to find all the bladed rats and these two boys, search them for the skull, and confiscate it by the military's name. If they retaliate, you're permitted to use force."