Chapter 534: Chapter 35: The Return of the Demon
Thorn District, Siluoke high-rise apartments.
Cao Xinling sat in the armored car, her expression tense, hands uncontrollably trembling.
She had to be nervous, everyone was tense. They had received an impossible mission, which was to attack a weakened hero of the skies.
Everyone knew this mission was doomed; even if they somehow succeeded, they would become mere stepping stones for the grand scheme – no credit, no glory, certainly not the pioneers of a so-called new era. But those villains harboring resentment against the hero would get money, and she would gain the possibility to leave the City of the Skies. That was enough. That was enough.
Cao Xinling activated her Superpower, the Heart Connection Net, gathering the thoughts of everyone nearby into her ears. The skill was one-way, she could listen but not speak, a lopsided communication tower.
To embody the equality between teacher and student, Onowell Slorock lived in the Thorn District rather than the safer Cangshou District, which provided a substantial convenience for their action. Onowell’s residence was on the 15th floor of this building, and their primary target would be achieved by demolishing the apartment.
“Commence the action,” Cao Xinling ordered with a shiver, hearing the brash shouts of the mob through the Heart Connection Net. Hidden by superpowers, alarming weapons started revealing themselves in the rain, twenty utilitarian-manufactured land combat tanks, fifteen multifunctional armed helicopters developed by the first lab of Vireta University of Technology, each operative equipped with individual firepower that would leave the regular army speechless, and the military hardware made by research maniacs possessed an attack range beyond the pale. The assembled force below this building could annihilate a district in half an hour!
The heavy ammunition was launched, the barrels spewing smoke, helicopters dropped bombs of staggering yield, and the rocket launchers fired in rapid succession; weapons far more powerful than standard live ammunition screamed towards the building, ready to transform this place into the opening scene of hell!
Through the car window, Cao Xinling watched those terrifying weapons, feeling the moment just before the explosion, as if time had frozen at that instant, leaving the world in the rainy night before devastation.
(…What’s happening?)
A team member asked blankly. The rain continued to pour outside.
She realized that the pause in time wasn’t just her illusion, because the rain was still falling…yet the shells and bullets were suspended in mid-air!
Cao Xinling’s blood ran cold; she remembered a scene she had witnessed long ago. In haste, she grabbed the communicator: “Forget the destructive power! Switch to beam weapons!!”
(I can’t fire my weapon!) (Team Three’s lights are out!!) (What’s going on?!) (Can’t contact my teammates!) (This looks like… Ah!)
Her commands were like stones dropped into the ocean, no one took the next step. In the real world, only the sound of rain was quiet; but in the mental network, everyone was screaming, roaring, begging for mercy, going mad!
What reached her ears were inarticulate wails, the elite task force couldn’t even send a complete thought, and before they could utilize their prideful abilities, they were annihilated. One by one, subordinate connections to the network went dark, like lamps extinguished in the darkness. In less than ten seconds, she couldn’t hear anyone’s thoughts. The Heart Connection Net was pitch black, silent as death.
Those rounds hanging in the air, unbeknownst to her when, had fallen, landing neatly in a circle beside her car like loyal guards. Cao Xinling shook as she turned her head; the bodyguard in the passenger seat had eyes rolled back, already passed out.
She could no longer hear the rain.
After a long time, Cao Xinling remembered the legends of the City of the Skies when she first arrived: high-rises ground into dust, monsters sliced into pieces, the unseen demons deep within the Murderous Wings District…
She couldn’t bear it anymore, her mind completely shattered by fear. Cao Xinling frantically pushed open the door, wanting to flee recklessly. But her legs seized up just as she started to step out; she saw a figure in the rearview mirror, a black and red shadow.
The figure leisurely walked towards her from behind, as if on a stroll. Where he walked, the rain ceased, not a sound to be heard.
“Ah ah…”
Cao Xinling let out a faint scream, uncontrollably. She couldn’t control her fear and began to shriek hysterically.
“——!”
But no cry came out; an invisible force was choking her throat, her body shaking, powerless as she watched in the rearview mirror the black and red Demon approach, bend down behind her, and softly say:
“Hush.”
·
Mo Yuankai sat in the principal’s reception room, his expression blank. The tea had gone cold; he hadn’t touched it.
The old principal had gone, too, to participate in a battle doomed to failure. There was Aorus, Budman, John, and Onowell was just a Clarity Mage. He would get nothing but ridicule and scoffing, his only ending to be humiliated in public.
But Onowell still went, putting forth his last effort, wanting to change the minds of these stubborn kids he saw, not realizing that he himself was just as stubborn, just as childish.
Why, though? He knew why – because the principal felt a responsibility. But hadn’t Mo Yuankai once felt the same? Didn’t he stand up because he thought he was strong, so he had the responsibility, the duty…
Now he couldn’t use his power anymore. Was he going to shove off those intangible burdens he had once carried?