Chapter 128: Ch166. Sickness - 21 (Declaration of war)
"Can this guarantee that I will at least be able to escape Kha’Ur’s influence for a little while longer?" Kurt asked, after hearing the alternative that Essentium had presented to him.
"It’s not a certainty..." She said, looking deeply into Kurt’s eyes.
"But a possibility is still better than no possibility at all..." Kurt sighed.
"And I still need to beat that [ANTIBODY] before I can get out of here, right?"
The woman nodded.
Kurt sighed, stretched, and smiled sarcastically.
"So let’s get on with it, after all, I don’t have all the time in the world to achieve all this, do I?"
The woman before him smiled shyly, and approached him.
"Don’t forget, Kurt Blake..." She said, with each step, closer to him. "This power should only be used at the right time. Otherwise, it won’t work at all, and your efforts will have been in vain."
Kurt nodded, and felt the woman’s arms touching his chest.
An embarrassed chuckle echoed in her throat.
"It’s strange that, after so long, I still feel strangely emotional, hearing your heart beating..." She said, as she put her ear to Kurt’s chest, and wrapped him in a hug.
"You should take this form and appear up there more often... Humans are more interesting than you think..."
The entire crystal cave lit up with a bright, dazzling green light.
And when Kurt opened his eyes again, he was outside, on the surface.
There are exactly a few steps from where he had fallen.
And on the other side of the hole that still existed, the [ANTIBODY] waited for him, impassive.
"I think you’ll find our fight a little more interesting now..." Kurt said, smiling.
And his afterimage slowly faded away, as the [ANTIBODY] looked around, appearing, for the first time in what seemed like ages, confused by what had just happened.
***
[HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF JAPAN]
Evellyn’s light reached every wielder there, and as they were touched by the gentle warmth of that golden luminescence, they were all thrown back against the backs of their seats, suddenly overcome by a wave of visions and sensations they never thought they would be able to experience. someday in their lives.
Minutes passed with the wielders in that position, gripping the arms of their chairs until their knuckles turned white.
The eyes were rolled back, with only the whites of them showing, and the expressions on the faces were one of astonishment, astonishment, and even...
Horror.
Evellyn didn’t want them to feel afraid, but she needed them to experience, firsthand, the events of not only that world, but also the echoes, and even the world where Kurt was trapped, fighting the terrors that haunted him in that cursed forest. by the Calamity.
Minutes later, everyone returned to normal, panting heavily, sweating coldly, not even knowing what to say, stuttering and looking, glazed over, in the direction of the red-haired girl.
"This... I-is this... Some kind of joke? What did you..."
"What you just experienced, ladies and gentlemen..." Toshinori stood up, speaking in a calm tone despite doing everything he could to control his breathing. "...It’s the power of an Oracle."
Those words were enough to cause a greater commotion than what Evellyn had caused with her own powers.
"Oracle?"
"You mean this girl..."
"You have got to be kidding!"
"Is she the oracle that was reported a few years ago but has suddenly disappeared from every page of the media?"
Toshinori nodded
"She is the Red Oracle."
The jaws of everyone present dropped almost to the floor.
"A child... A simple teenager..." Melissa gasped.
"And this simple teenager, as you say, Miss Stormshield, has shown us all just now, things that none of us even imagined about the world. You still say she’s a ’simple’ teenager?’ Toshinori and the Prime Minister asked, almost at the same time.
"Well... I guess that ends the discussion." The Arab wielder said, with a huge smile on his face. "Let’s create this task force soon, and go kick some purist ass."
Almost no adult there made any attempt to follow the Arab wielder in his almost youthful enthusiasm.
But everyone there agreed with his words.
But before tempers could even rise to excitement and heat, everyone suddenly fell silent as their holowatches began to beep.
A brief, sharp warning, that only guild members received, that something very important was happening on the internet, or even in the media.
Evellyn, Nikolai and Robby approached Rodrick and Toshinori, who increased the screen size so they could watch together.
It was a special broadcast from the United States.
And when the US government logo disappeared from the screen, some were scared, others were outraged.
But everyone shared the same feeling of disgust and nausea when they saw Octavius Blake’s face on the holographic screen of their holowatches.
"Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the world.
My name is Octavius Blake, and as you know, I am president of the North American Wielders Association, as well as an honorary founding member of the New Dawn guild.
We work day and night for the betterment of human society, getting rid of regular garbage, which only delays the evolution of society..."
Octavius’ words turned Rodrick’s stomach, and everyone else there.
’Kurt would hate to see this... I’m sure.’ Evellyn thought, paying attention to what the paladin would say next.
"A few months ago, I had a pleasant encounter with my son, Kurt Blake, in a heated battle, which, unfortunately, did not allow me to complete my objectives with him. So I sent some of my trusted followers to gather information, but decided not to spend more time with useless, filthy human beings... I’ll be direct in what I’m about to say."
Everyone watching the broadcast seemed to hold their breath at that moment.
With a warm, welcoming smile on his face, Octavius’ eyes glowed an unnaturally dark shade of red.
"You have seven days to hand over Kurt Blake to me, or I will kill every regular AND irregular in the entire world."
A sepulchral silence took over the representatives’ house.
But as if that wasn’t enough, Octavius continued speaking.
"And to prove that I’m not bluffing..." He lifted a human head by its hair, towards the camera.
Less than a second later, the camera panned away, revealing that Octavius was holding a man by the hair, and he was writhing, screaming in pain and fear.
"Please... I don’t even know you... Let me go, I have a family, no, no, NO, BECAUSE-"
The man’s head just exploded, on national television, like it was no big deal.
And the red of that man’s blood painted the studio floor, the camera lens, and Octavius’ apparently very expensive suit.
"... To prove that I’m not bluffing, here’s one less regular on Earth. And every hour, there will be a hundred of those around the world." An inhumanly wide smile spread across his face. "For me, this is a favor to the society of wielders. For some wielders, however... I know you like these little animals, so... If you want them alive, you know what you have to do..."
When the broadcast finally ended, and the holowatch screen returned to displaying the United States government logo, both Rodrick, Toshinori, Evellyn, Nikolai, Robby, and everyone else there, were speechless.
Suddenly, however, Melissa’s angry roar was heard throughout the House of Representatives.
