Chapter 376 He'll be coming back
Booomm
The ground shook as a loud voice echoed in the area. A few broken pebbles weakly rolled on the ground and dust rose to the air.
"Seriously, that was only a mid-level monster!"
Someone grumbled with a half-astonished, half-scolding tone. Another voice responded to him in a relaxed way.
"Let him release all his anger on those monsters. If he doesn't, I'm scared he'll suddenly make our headquarters crumble to dust."
"Hmm..." The first one to talk groaned then mumbled in a low voice, "Poor monsters..."
BOMMMM
Another quake ran through the ground.
"But is it alright to leave him act like that?"
"Can you stop him?"
"No but..." Darren glanced at the area. "But I'm somehow worried about the natural ecosystems, you know."
"Pfft, what?"
Someone else arrived beside him and burst into laughter as soon as he heard Darren. Darren shot a cold glare at his teammate, Carlson.
"I might not know what exactly an ecosystem is, but I can still worry about it!" Darren ignored the laughing Carlson and continued in a firm tone. "Just look at this place! It's in ruins. When we teleported here, there were two mountains and lakes around us, now there is one mountain, one large hill which used to be a mountain, and a flat land whit water splashed everywhere, where a lake used to be! Isn't this scary? Doesn't it make you worried?"
"He sometimes returns to restore that destroyed land."
"Sometimes! Sometimes!!!"
Darren let out a huff and shook his head.
"Whatever, I can't win against him so I'll shut my mouth. I guess even the commander is scared of offending him."
"He sure is."
"Hah!"
The group of three was silent for a while, all looking in the direction where strange noises were coming from. After a few minutes, a figure appeared in the distance, slowly walking toward the rest of the group with slow steps.
"How long will he keep doing this?"
Darren asked once again.
"Who knows?"
It wasn't Carlson who answered but Alan. He started walking towards the man in the distance.
"Maybe until he dies."
Alan shrugged his shoulders.
"...Our planet will be destroyed by him until then."
At Darren's shaken state, Alan stopped walking. He took in the sight of the half-destroyed land and let out a chuckle.
"I don't think that'll take long."
Alan resumed walking after that short sentence.
"He managed to last this long only by believing that the little boy is alive somewhere."
No one heard his last sentence.
. . . . . . . . .
"Was that the last one?"
Reynold's question seemed more like a sentence meant to confirm his guess and not a real question. Kairen wiped his forehead with his sleeve and nodded his head.
"I can't sense any other gates. I searched for a few hours but there is none. The only thing that I could detect were smaller gatherings of universal energies which later split into smaller parts and scattered around."
"They must be normal monsters appearing throughout the planet."
"Hm!"
Kairen nodded his head again. It had been around 10 days since he started to absorb gates. It was hard and slow initially but it got faster and easier as time passed. By now, he could sense the flow of power throughout the planet if he concentrated for about an hour. He had gotten considerably strong. Not his physical body, but his soul had become sturdier and more stable. He could now use even more power.
Of course, it wasn't without a price.
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah..."
Kairen ignored Reynold's concerned gaze and got up to his feet.
"I'm ignoring them."
He waved his hand in the air before approaching the stairs that led to the lower floors.
"Mhm."
Reynold followed suit.
"Now that my job is finished, can I go back to my own world?"
"Sure you can. But you should take some rest first-"
"I don't need that. I want to go home as soon as possible."
"Sigh!"
Reynold couldn't help but shake his head. Kairen had started persuading, or to be more accurate, threatening Reynold three days ago, asking him, or probably, ordering him to send him back to his world as soon as his job was done in here.
Reynold had agreed to that.
"Still, don't you want to bid farewell to those people or something like that?"
"I will."
Kairen knocked on the door to one of the floors before opening it. Inside, Daniel was sitting behind a table, busy organizing multiple documents.
"Done? You mean t-the gates?"
"It's done.", Kairen stated as soon as Daniel raised his head.
The middle-aged man's eyes opened wide. He put down the papers and got up from his seat.
"Done? You mean t-the gates?"
"Yeah."
"Ah!"
The man gasped with an exasperated face. His gaze wandered between Kairen and Reynold. Daniel strode over towards the two with a lost expression.
"Ah? Really? The gates are all gone?"
He couldn't believe what he was hearing. The red-haired man had told him that they could take care of the gates, but he didn't expect them to manage to do it, not in this short time at least.
"Are you sure? Is there none remaining? All of them are gone?"
"You can check them with your devices."
Kairen pointed at the strange machines and devices that were placed all over the room. They could each do different things. Some could detect monsters and some observed all of the gates in the area.
Daniel had to turn them off after Kairen began absorbing the gates. It was because he received too many notifications and messages from all over the world about the strange phenomenon. Everyone was clearly confused and scared. The gates that had made their lives miserable for years kept disappearing one by one. How could they not be afraid?
Even Daniel, who was given a brief explanation of the situation, still felt that it was all just a dream. His mind was not yet ready to accept such a miracle.
"Check them after we leave."
Kairen commented at that moment.
"Ah?", Daniel gasped once again. "You are leaving? Already?"
"I finished what I've been staying here for."
The young boy shrugged his shoulders. Daniel could tell from his pale expression that he was exhausted. He had seen how hard this young man kept working all these days.
"You're leaving now?"
"Yes."
"But... But we need to somehow pay you back!"
"What?"
Kairen's eyes widened slightly in panic.
"You... Ah, you just saved our world?"
"Ew, no!"
His face contorted to an ugly frown.
"I didn't save shit. I just absorbed some gates. And your world is not completely safe yet. Regular monsters will keep appearing just like always. You still need to fight."
Kairen folded his arms and glanced at the devices.
"I guess it's easier if you just feigned ignorance and pretended not to know how the gates had all vanished."
"But I really don't know..."
Even if he was given a short explanation, Daniel couldn't understand everything.
"Then I'll be leaving now."
"Wait wait!"
Daniel shouted out and rushed towards the young man.
"I- it's, Uh... man!" He was flustered. "What should I do? This doesn't seem right! This dude just saved the world. Uh! The world! We are saved! The gates are gone!", a look of joy appeared on the man's face. He still seemed to only half-believe things.
It was just natural, Kairen thought. He wouldn't believe things so fast and easily if he was in Daniel's shoes either.
"What should we do now? Prepare a feast? But we don't have the money... Release the people in the shelters? Built cities? Farm?"
"...."
Kairen watched Daniel walk around and talk to himself for a while before raising his voice once again.
"Hey, dude! We are leaving. I came to say goodbye."
"Wha-" Daniel jolted out of his thoughts. "Why? What is the hurry? You can stay here and rest for a few days at least."
Kairen firmly shook his head. He'd already decided that he wanted to go back as soon as he dealt with the gates.
"I want to sleep in my own bed tonight."
He really wanted to go home. Straight home and nowhere else.
"Ah!"
"Then, we'll be leav-"
"Wait!"
Daniel stopped Kairen once again.
"This... this!"
He ran back to his table and pulled something out. It was a small box.
"Take this."
"??"
"They are the only belongings I could gather."
"Belongings?"
Kairen took the box and examined it.
"Aaron's belongings. Take them with yourself."
"Oh!"
Kairen grabbed the box with both and curiously gazed at it.
"Can I take it?" He was asking Reynold.
"Yes, most probably."
Kairen nodded and smiled upon that answer. He didn't want to open the box yet. All he wanted to do was to leave this place.
"Then, we'll be leaving."
"..."
Daniel took a deep breath.
"Yes. Yes, have a nice trip. Thank you for everything. I hope you find Aaron. I hope you'll be safe and healthy."
Daniel lowered his head a little bit as if to bow. He hadn't completely recovered from his shock yet and everything was happening too fast. He couldn't find any proper words to express his gratitude and good wishes.
"Thanks..."
A gentle and faint voice thanked him before a gust of wind blew up in the room. By the time the breeze subsided and Daniel raised his head, the two strangers were no longer in the room.
. . . . . . . . . .
"Hmm?"
A golden-haired man who was about to examine the corpses of two dead mid-level monsters, Alan, suddenly flinched and looked up. His gaze wandered around aimlessly as if to search for something.
"What's wrong? Is there another monster?"
He completely ignored Darren and stood up. Alan frowned slightly as he mumbled something under his lips.
"There was definitely a fluctuation..."
The frowning man sent another glance at his group before his body slowly vanished from sight.
"What? Where did he go?"
No one knew the answer.
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