Bianca and the rest took several steps away from the door.
"Sir..." Jenny's voice was shaky. "Why are you here?"
"I didn't go home, as I told ya'..." The man's off ancient accent whispered out, with a strange spiky tremor in his voice.
"I only came to check up on ya'... So why don't you let me in?"
Let you in?
Chris swallowed hard. "Sir, if you want to help us, call the police using your phone."
Oh?
The man's lips grew wider and his eyes thinner as he raised his phone for them to see.
Ring!!!!
Someone's phone suddenly rang in the room. But they didn't even pick it up, yet it connected to a voicemail somehow.
[The number you have called is invalid.]
The man... The man spoke the exact words in the same voice while smiling at them with a tilted head.
What more could they not understand?
[The number you have called is invalid... So LET US IN NOW!!!]
~Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang!
The windows were covered in an instant, and everyone fell on their butts, kicking and crawling backward with their hands.
No... No... What's going to happen to them now?
Everyone's attention was on the front, not noticing several hands reaching for their shoulders. And soon...
~Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh~
....
The night passed in a blink of an eye.
Location: The Black Scorpio Hotel, Ape City.
"Grandmaster, if there's anything you need from us, please do not register to reach out."
Several men in military attire gave Dorian a formal salute, taking off after escorting him from the airport.
Dorian came alone, without his usual limo or anyone to drive him about. They did offer to do so, but he turned them down.
Those who escorted him didn't know why he was called the Grandmaster but dared not slack after getting several calls telling them to tuck their pride and never offend him.
A few words to the wise were enough.
It had been a very calm day for Dorian. And after eating in the hotel, he headed out, taking a taxi to his destination.
The cab driver felt he should caution the youngster about where he was headed.
"Kid... This ain't no joke. There have been too many reports of missing people close to Kong River."
The cab driver fixed his puffy cap, looking at his mirror to stare at Dorian from time to time.
He still kept 2 hands on the wheel, knowing how crazy Ape city's traffic could be.
"Im telling you, that place has to have some gang kidnapping people. The cops say they can't find a thing. But my theory is that the criminals are working with the cops."
Huh!
The man said exaggeratedly.
"I tell you, man; they've got to be working together. Or else why is it that everyone who appeared missing has no corpse ever found?"
The more the man spoke, the more he reaffirmed his suspicions, taking them as facts.
Huh!
He huffed.
"Some say the people fell into the waters below the cliff, sinking, never to be found. But how is that possible? Don't bodies float every 2~3 days at most? Okay! Let's say the bodies get eaten by some crazy sea animal. But what are the chances that all of them would be eaten?"
~Blah, blah, blah, blah...
The cab driver was happy.
"Hey, kid... You're really a good listener."
"_"
...
Vrmmmmm~
The vehicle moved towards the mysterious location, around the city's outskirts bringing off the highway.
The driver poked his head out the window, placing one hand on his door, staring at Dorian, and thinning his lips a little worriedly.
"Hey, kid... For giving this old guy a large tip and being a good listener, why don't you take down my number and give me a call once you're done? There are hardly any vehicles that would come this way. So give this man a call, and I'll pick you up."
The man hesitated before staring at Dorian more intensely. "Kid... If you meet any danger... I mean any danger, and for some reason, you can't dial the 3-digit emergency number, call me and say the words: Fish. That would be our code."
The man might be talkative, but he had a good heart.
Dorian stared at his face, giving him a talisman.
"Keep this with you at all times. It will keep you safe. Never take it off until 6 P.M."
Today, this man will be met with a blood disaster. But he didn't want to specify... Too lazy to do so, especially to someone who doesn't believe in the supernatural.
Dorian had no saliva to waste on unnecessary talks.
The system's non-existent mouth opened in the form of an '0'.
[Host, I can't believe you listened to that man ramble for over an hour and a half without even stopping him... Host, you've changed]
Dorian said nothing, but at the back of the cab right now, a certain talisman was burning away but by bit.
What was the talisman for? Silence.
Whatever the driver said didn't reach the back seats.
Of course, Dorian allowed the system to listen to whatever the old driver said, that way, the system could collect information for him.
This system was not under his payroll and should at least make itself useful.
If the system knew it would be used as some tape recorder, it wouldn't know whether to laugh or cry.
What changed? Its host was still a big meanie!!!
However, since it was oblivious to this, the system only felt Dorian's icy personality was starting to thor out.
[Host, I can't believe---]
'Noisy.'
[...]
.,
~Swish!
Dorian vanished, appearing in several faraway points under a few seconds.
Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh!
Not here... Not here... Not here...
Where was it?
He widened his search scope, morning across the vast terrain. Until finally, he felt something in the air.
Dorian's eyes dimmed.
Loki, Loki, Loki...
Just how many surprises have you planted in this world over the years?
Before destroying that space and saving the many disappeared crew members, he had already found the destination of his next clue site to be here.
Of course, he did so by divination which by the way, was 10 times harder when looking into anything cornering heavenly beings.
Blood flowed down Dorian's nostrils when finding just a teenie, tinny glimpse into the definition.
The only reason he stopped was because of a famous saying: — Just as one stares at the abyss, the abyss also stares back at them.
He was looking into something far long back in the past. Yet, the Loki there paused and stared at him with a smile, though the other underworld beings he was surrounded by didn't notice him.
Dorian felt his brain buzz and almost explode with that simple encounter.
Strong…
Dorian felt his true enemy might be Loki and not any of the underworld princes.
The Almighty must be crazy to create such a ticking time bomb. What was so irksome was that the Almighty could wipe Loki clean, and this matter would be resolved.
Yet, the guy allowed Loki to cause havoc everywhere.
Honestly... he was starting to doubt which side the Almighty was on.
The Almighty didn't like the matter of one's being disappearing forever.
This was why even if he 'killed' them, gods, humans, or underworld beings, he could send them to the underworld or through various reincarnations.
For gods, they would reincarnate back as gods in the heavens. But even so, one day, they would realize who they were, and everything would come back to them.
This was probably why the Almighty never 'killed' and 'reincarnated' Loki or sent him to the underworld.
That guy was already a maniac, but at least he was in the heavens and won't be holding some grudge about getting killed and reincarnated or driven away.
Of course, he understood that the Almighty lived all creations made, no matter how twisted they were. But sometimes, please... Just put your foot down!
Just because the Almighty handled his matter like that didn't mean the Almighty couldn't eliminate Loki's essence completely.
Once eliminated, there would be no reincarnation... Nothing!!!
Dorian felt the Almighty should just get it done already. The guy was a nightmare, making the work of all exorcists 10 times harder for his amusement.
As for the Almighty who went on Hiatus for hundreds, thousands, and millions of years, Dorian had one word for him ---- Annoying.
...
Dorian coached down, hovering his hand inches above the ground.
[Host, I feel the strange fluctuations too.]
'Hmmm...'
It was getting stronger.
This way.
~Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
He moved like lightning, gliding through the scene until he reached an open space with trees planted and growing evenly spaced in a circular pattern.
Dorian took out a long strip of white fabric with strange symbols written on each corner.
"ExVillion."
Divide!
~Streak.
A ripping noise echoed as the long scarf-life cloth tore into a million pieces.
No. Rather than tearing, several chunks of fabric strips undid themselves, flying high in the sky and standing around the circular space.
Alright.
.. Time to see what his dear friend was up to.
~Bam!
Dorian clapped his hands together.
"Galtonnium!"
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