DARK CLOUDS

Noah regained consciousness as the antidote was injected. He was kept under strict observation for another 6 hours. What surprised him was the fact that none of his friends came to visit him. Only Principal Beck, Professor Sawyer and some others had briefly visited him.

He asked a nurse if any of his friends were around, at least Melv should have come.

"They are in the next room..." replied the nurse.

"You can meet them tomorrow if they wake up."

"Wake up? What happened? How are they?" Noah tried to rise up from his bed.

"Relax. You are not in a condition to move yet. They came yesterday in pretty bad shape. Some severely beaten and some exhausted. All were admitted and are under care."

Noah was unaware of what had happened to them while he was unconscious. He only hoped they would recover fast.

The next morning, Principal Beck came to visit. Noah heard in detail what had happened. Angelika brought the antidote and collapsed upon delivering it. The Black Market fight and all. Though it was banned for students to go and fight there, this was a special case, so the Principal was being lenient this time.

However, concluding the discussion briefly, the Principal took his leave, letting Noah get a bit of rest. He had almost left the door when he turned around. This was becoming a habit of his.

"Ah, I totally forgot. Our mutual friend lent a hand in this procurement of the antidote. He left a letter for you. Open it after you are discharged."

The unknown assailant who beat the crap out of the Manager of the Underground Battle arena was none other than The Whisperer of Death himself, Kane Calderon. He got a message from Beck, who heard the conversation when Kaisha came back to ask for help from Marty and James. Being a wise man, Beck fully understood the shady dealings of the Black Market.

So, time being of the essence here, he had to involve Kane.

Noah visited his friends in the afternoon. He thanked all of them dearly and had a banter with Melv and Marty. Angelika, however, was still unconscious or rather she pretended to be. She didn't want to have a conversation with Noah in her current state. It would hurt her pride.

A week went by as they all recovered and went back to their normal daily life.

But the question for Noah was, "What Next?"

…

Meanwhile, in some other part of the world.

"Please take your seats. We shall start with the Press Conference."

All the gossip, camera clicks and hustle died down in an instant. The Primus Corp was holding a Press Conference to announce something huge. The speculations were already brewing for quite some time. The Press Conference Meet will make things clear. Media and News agencies all round the globe had gathered for this specific event.

Among the executives present from Primus Corp, apart from the Regional Head and Executive Head, there was an unknown face. Even with facial recognition apps, the news agencies were unable to ascertain the identity of that stranger. They were getting impatient.

"Thanks for coming on such short notice. I believe you all have heard that our President, Sir Davilius Antorep Cunningham has been unwell for the past couple of weeks. We have consulted with our resident doctors and they have requested him to be rested for a while."

The media personnel started to wonder what had happened as a sudden chatter swirled in the room.

"As such," shouted the Regional Head of Primus Corp to silence the media personnel.

"We need someone at the helm to anchor our huge Corporation. After a long consultation, the President has nominated the youngest of his sons, as the acting president. May we present to you our new Acting President Mr. Leopold Cunnningham."

"That young man. That is him? The president had another son? They are saying he is the youngest. But why is there nothing on him anywhere on the web?" Various questions were popping out of the heads of all the surprised people gathered for the event.

As the light focussed on the young man, people could gauge him around 22-23 years old. Bronde hair, which is a perfect balance of blonde and brunette, dark hazel eyes, pale skin with prominent features. A massive amount of shutter clicks were heard as the media personnel were busy taking snaps of the new face of Primus Corp.

"Hello everyone. My name is Leopold Cunningham." Leopold introduced himself in a calm voice.

"Let me ease up your minds with some of the answers you are searching for. My father is a bit unwell, but that's nothing serious. He needs a bit of rest after working hard for such a long time." Leopold gave an assuring smile.

"But the most important question. Why me? That's what you were wondering, right? Well, I am not sure either. But I will respect my father's wishes and try to live up to his expectations. Any other specific questions?" Leopold looked at the media teams.

"Yes, you there."

"This is Flora Hahn from Republic Union News. So does it mean that you are officially taking over Primus Corp?"

Leopold chuckled at the question. "Ohh, Flora. Nice name by the way. I am still in my Twenties. C'mon. I want to party a bit more. Do you want me to die young?"

All the personnel present started to laugh at the reply. The mood in the room just shifted within minutes.

"Primus Corp is a mammoth Corp. I am not that strong to carry it whole. But I will help the Corp in any and every way until my father is fit to resume his tasks. I am too young and inexperienced to do that, so I ask the current officials of Primus Corp and all of you. Please lend me your strength."

"Fresh blood brings fresh changes. Maybe Primus will grow even more now. The new Acting President is quite charming, isn't he?" Several comments started to flood the media as the event was live broadcasted.

"Well if that answers your questions, I will share some good news with you for attending this Press Meet. Recently one of our subsidiaries, a pharma unit, had been invested in creating a recovery Protein. It will recover your health and stamina in 10 minutes, even heal minor injuries. This one is 37% more effective than those currently present in the market. We have named it rePrux serum. We will launch it next week and the first 10K pre-orders will get a 50% discount as an introductory offer. We wish all of you good health."

All eyes went big as the announcement was made. This was huge. This news will make their day. TRPs will soar high with such an announcement. The journalists started asking more questions. The chatter had suddenly come back to the room.

Leopold gave a big smile as he stood up to leave. He had hit a perfect home run.

"That will be all. Thank you for coming." The other officials announced the end of the Press Conference. They followed Leopold, who left the hall.

There was an impression of enigmatic charisma left behind by Leopold. The Press was impressed by his words and demeanor.

"Charming new face for Primus Corp. Let's put it like that in the next news update..." stated a news journalist impressed by the state of events.

…

"Pop!" The cork was removed from the neck of a wine bottle. A 60-year-old Chateau Cheval Blanc was being poured in a glass. Taking the glass in his hand, Leopold walked back towards his desk. It was the 147th floor of the Prime Tower, his new office. He could view the whole city from up there as it was glass walls on all 3 sides. He walked closer to the glass wall.

Taking a sip of his wine, he uttered, "The annoying part's done. It went better than I expected."

"Are you there?"

A masked person appeared behind him out of nowhere. Clearly, he was an EVO with high EQ.

"Monitor all the journalists and their families that came today for a week. If they tend to write something unnecessary, you know what to do. And… make sure you do a clean job. Leave no trace."

There was a notification from the door. "Mr. Festaud is seeking your permission to enter the room. Please provide your approval."

Let me remind you of the era where smart homes have been taken to a new level.

The masked person vanished as soon as the notification sounded. His task was clear to him.

"Let him in." Leopold replied.

The door opened on the authorization as the Executive head walked in. He was also one of the officials who were present in the Press Meet, Cieland Festaud.

Leopold however, continued to gaze at the view outside unwavering to the fact that someone entered the room. Minutes passed as none of them spoke anything.

"I guess you are here to report your failure then." Leopold was the first one to break the silence in the room. "That's not surprising though. You failed quite a number of times this past week."

Leopold turned around this time to find a trembling Festaud on his knees unable to utter a word.

"Ohh Festaud, what will I do with you. You have grown incompetent. Maybe it's old age. Seems like I have to put you to rest as well, like my father." The tone had a grim aura to it.

"No sire. I...I.." Words won't come out of the mouth of the 53-year-old as he kept trembling.

Leopold walked towards his couch and relaxed.

"So what you are trying to say is that you could not forge a deal with the Athena Corp. That's bad. But that's bad for them." Leopold rubbed his thumb across his lips.

"But not getting any further information, even after that traitor resurfaced, that's bad for you my dear Festaud. I need the tech from that guy. He stole years of research and just vanished."

"Give me another chance..." cried Festaud.

"Chance. Ahh, they are hard to come by..." sighed Leopold.

"Nobody gave me a chance in my entire life. I had to snatch them to survive."

"But you. I won't kill you yet. You are still of use to me." Leopold looked at Festaud.

"As for the matter of Kane, in a few months, the Athena Tournament is coming up. Being their 10 years celebration, they have invited us and we will have a team participate as well. That will be the best time to take care of him." Leopold took a sip of his wine.

"So cheer up. Make sure your usage doesn't end fast for your own sake. You may leave now."

Festaud was relieved to hear the words from Leopold. He got to keep his life, not only his but everyone associated with him.

The superficial charm was a veil that Leopold wore in public. The man behind was nothing short of a monster. Leopold gazed at the view outside as he relished a sip of his precious wine.

At around 9 PM, an alarm was sounded. Leopold pressed a device and all the glass walls turned black. Nothing inside the room was visible from outside anymore.

"No disturbance from now on, until I say otherwise." As Leopold ordered, the smart home AI locked the door. Leopold brought out a cape and hood made out of fine linen cloth, black and gold lining with a symbol.

2 inverted triangles, forming the shape of a star. In the middle, there is an eye. Outside the star, there is a circle, rather a snake biting its tail. Each small triangle also had some ancient symbols. Leopold quickly put on the cloth as a Holo Meeting started. There were 12 people present in the meeting apart from Leopold, each having their own Holo projection. Their faces were superimposed with a mask and their voices altered.

"We are in all corners of the world. We see everything. We guide humanity to life and beyond."

Uttered everyone present in unison.

Thus started the meeting of the shadow group, The Eye of Enlightenment.

Leopold was the newest addition to the team, the 13th Apostle.

...

Coming back to RedRock city, a week has passed by, the annual exams and promotion battles are over, now Noah had to set his goal for the Adventurer Guild. But he was still not strong enough as clearly visible from the events of the Promotion Battle. Else he shouldn't have been poisoned so easily. Noah packed his luggage and was ready to leave. He received an invitation from Kane to train with him.

At the gate, he met Angelika. She was waiting for him. "So you are leaving? How long?"

"I will be back soon. Let's keep the dinner I won in bet due for now…" smiled Noah.

"And also, keep a place for me in the qualification Battle for the Tournament..."

Bidding farewell to Angelika, Noah left for the next phase of his life. A long road ahead for him.

The invitation to train with Kane mentioned a place near the Ghettos. Noah left RedRock city and traveled for 3 more hours to reach his destination. However, before he could find Kane, he found a tranquilizer shot to his neck. While losing consciousness, he could feel someone pulling and throwing him into a vehicle. Though not in full sense, he could grasp the fact that he was being abducted. In simple words, NOAH has been CAPTURED by some unknown assailants.

Wait! What in the name of Thanos just happened? Watcher, are you seeing this?

Kidnapped? Where is he taken? How will he get out? What will happen to the storyline now?

Stay tuned as the journey of Noah continues after we return from a short break.

See you on the other side.

...