I looked at the half dead demon in front of me as he barely kept his consciousness. Under the silent breath, one can hear the words 'kill me' being repeated over and over again, as his emotions were getting less and less numb.
"Is there anything else you know?" asked Angela again for the 14th time as she looked at that demon with a silent smile. Despite that cute face of hers, she didn't look less than any devil right now. Even Irene, who was observing the torture during the first few minutes, decided to move out to get fresh air as she started pitying the demon in front of us.
"Kill… me…" the demon begged as he kept looking down at the empty space in front of him. I had read most of the things through the [Inspect] skill. But perhaps because the difference between our base power was a bit high, I couldn't see through him much. Hence, the interrogation…
"You want me to go further?" Angela asked as she looked at me with a questioning gaze. Though previously smiling, now she got bored with it. All the more since the demon gave up too quickly.
"Do you have any methods to preserve him for sometime? While I don't need him right now, I could use him later on,"I said as I observed him as I wanted to sell him for Cronas. Hopefully, he will be sold for quite a sum.
"Sure,"Angela answered as she created a black mist out of her hands and spread it around the demon, converting him for a while. Not even a few seconds later, that demon vanished from there as if he had never existed.
"Done. So. Where to next?" Angela asked as she looked at me with slight excitement. I pondered for a couple of seconds before looking at the still unconscious Leeway and spoke,"for now, let's collect our people."
After that, I moved out of the room, finding Irene standing there as she was simply standing there. Hearing our footsteps, she turned around with a slight complex expression that completely vanished in an instant as she asked,"you guys done?"
I nodded, making her take a relaxed breath before she asked the same things as Angela,"Where to next?"
"Let's go meet Caroline first. Angela, can you transfer us about… 16 kilometers south of here… the direction is almost… this," I pointed while looking at the [Space Time Map] and she observed me a little before nodding as the darkness covered the three of us before we reappeared in front of my University.
"That was convenient," I said as I found us on a rooftop of the building right opposite to the west gate of my university. My eyes traced the entire area as I found a couple of familiar faces, but not the one that I was looking for.
"Let's go down," I said as I looked at the lift and, while taking it, I slowly descended to the ground floor. Angela and Irene walked behind me as we started walking through the reception area, making everyone turn their heads at us. Though most of them were looking at Angela and Irene, especially because of their beauty.
Ignoring them, we reached the university, soon entering it. The pathway wasn't exactly long, but since we were taking slow steps observing the surroundings; we took more time than usual to reach the dorm room where Caroline could be. But will she even be there?
"Michael!!" I heard a familiar voice from afar as a girl in pink hair ran towards me with a slightly agitated look. A smile formed on my face as I looked at her coming in our direction, while I wondered what could have possibly happened to make her that agitated. I had a couple of guesses…
Running up close to us, I saw her stopping a few meters away from me. She caught her breath as she barely kept herself on her feet. It took her sometime, but she finally caught her breath before she looked at me and spoke,"You are really Michael, right?"
Though there was confusion in her eyes, I could only smile as I spoke,"I take it as the changed reality was a lot harder to take in?"
And as soon as I spoke those words, she ran up to me… and punched me in the face, making me fall back on the ground.
"Huh?" I was confused as I observed her irritated face.
"You could have at least told me about it… do you know how hard it was for me when I saw those unfamiliar faces? And the creepiest fact was that all my friends were no more to be seen… and the unfamiliar people who came up to me as friends…" I could see her creeping out as she mentioned those 'friends' of hers.
I got on my back as I spoke,"But I wasn't the one who did it…"
Her eyes widened as she looked at me for a couple of seconds before she asked,"but you told me about the time regression you were doing?" "Yeah… but that and this are different,"I said as I scratched the back of my head. I could see why she was confused and why her line of thought ran the way it did. She observed me for more explanation and I asked her,"Remember the Zombies?"
She nodded, and I spoke,"their leader is the one responsible for this. I don't know why he did it or how he did it… but it was him… probably."
As I ended my sentence, my eyes turned to Angela who simply shook her head signaling 'don't look at me. I told you everything I know'
Caroline then moved closer to me as she gave me a hand. Taking her hand, I stood up before she asked,"And? Who are they?"
'Ah! She doesn't know them,' I almost forgot that in all the regression and reality bending, this was the first time they were meeting.
"This is Angela. You do remember her, right?" I introduced Angela first and Caroline pondered a little before she asked,"the leader of Dark Oracle or something?"
"Yeah. But in this reality, she isn't the leader… as for the other girl.." I then began describing the events that led me to meet Irene. Caroline heard it all silent before she nodded at me with a sad look.
"Just how many girls are you going to end up with?" She asked in a low tone at which I could only make an awkward smile. It wasn't in my control, now was it?
"So… what are we going to do next?" she asked with an odd expression. It suggested that she wasn't liking it here even one bit and wanted to go back home as fast as she could. And I shared her sentiment.
"For now, we have a couple of goals to follow, but before that, let me get another one of our regressors," I spoke and Caroline nodded,"William, right? Have you talked with him?"
I shook my head as I spoke,"I got busy with things left and right. Only now, I am free enough to think about it."
"It's fine. I had an idea that you were busy, so I checked up on your brother. Since he was another regressor like me, I had a slight idea that he might be someone who was from our timeline. So…" she was about to complete her sentence before I saw someone waving at us from far.
The familiar black hair and blue eyes as he walked towards us. His smile which was filled with annoyance as he began moving faster and faster until he finally reached me and..
-POW!
Punched me in my gut.
"The heck is wrong with you a lot?!!" I spoke with irritation as I saw the ever so smiling face of my brother. He chuckled before speaking,"Good to see you alive and kicking, brother. And yeah, for the shit ton of troubles I had in the past few hours… you definitely deserve this punch."
As I stood back up, I looked at him with a sigh and asked,"anyways… you okay?"
"Not really. I am the current head of the branch of the Dark Oracle in Black Water City. And you know the problems I had with mom explaining the reasons to meet you all of a sudden? Man! I just found myself in the middle of a meeting out of nowhere,"he spoke with a dejected face as he observed me while I looked at him dumbfoundedly.
"So those spies are with you?" I spoke as I saw those half-Zombies standing at the gate a bit far from here. They were continuously gazing at us, so I thought they might be here to trouble Caroline or William.
'Seems like it isn't that the case,' I corrected myself as my eyes focused back on William.
"Yeah. They have been following me for quite a while… hard to shake them,"he spoke as he shrugged before observing me again and looked around,"Your Harem Increased?"
He was smiling even more than when he first saw me here. This idiot.
-Smack!
A smack on the head before I continued,"Anyways. Since all of us are here, then that leaves Walter and another person whom I haven't met yet. But we shall cross that bridge when that time comes. For now my plan-"
As I was beginning to explain, Irene then spoke in between as…
"Ummm… I and Angela actually met Walter before we came here,"she added with a complex expression appearing on her face.
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