Chapter 10: Ch50. The approaching storm (2)
When I got back to the Black Market, Evellyn had gone to sleep, Nikolai and his father were talking about something, and the rest of the building was as silent as death.
I announced my arrival, and went straight to my room.
It looked cold from my part, but I just didn’t want to have any small talk after what Oliver had told me.
After a shower, I went straight to bed, and after a few minutes, there was nothing left around me.
I didn’t even remember when I fell asleep.
All I remember, is waking up the next day, in which Evellyn came to my room after breakfast to plan everything out.
We didn’t have much time, since we had to go to school anyways, and everything was sort of messed up after everything that had happened, so I got my backpack, shoved my notepad and my mask inside it, and we left.
But when we arrived there, the main gate was blocked by a human barricade that consisted of several agents of the Association.
Not only the monitoring division, as I initially suspected.
The point, anyway, was that we couldn’t get inside.
"What’s going on?" I asked, trying to hide the urgency in my voice.
"A Nest has opened inside the secondary building, so no classes today kids. Go home, and wait for further instructions."
The one who said it wasn’t a member of the monitoring division, he was probably from the field analysis, wearing a blue uniform and glasses, holding a tiny device that measured the mana level in the air.
We turned around and pretended to leave, when we saw the cars in the parking lot.
Expensive cars that could only belong to high ranking wielders.
And not only that.
Those were the only cars in the parking lot.
There were not a single staff’s car there...
"The guilds are here already." I told Evellyn, trying to see if she was taking the same hints as me, but she wasn’t looking at the same direction.
"Yeah, but something’s off." She looked at me. "Do you see any members of the Shadow guild around? Or from the Golden Scythe, or any other guild non-affiliated to the Association?"
I saw no one from the Shadow guild around, and about the other guilds she spoke?
Never even had the pleasure to meet them, so I just shrugged.
"What’s on your mind, Evellyn?"
"I think you should go investigate. I’ll go back to the guild and see if anyone knows anything, okay?"
But before she could take the first step, I grabbed her hand.
I felt movement behind me, and looked over my shoulder, ever so slightly.
And what a surprise, huh...
"Wait... It’s not a Nest opening."
She raised a brow.
"What do you mean? How do you know?"
"Look behind me. Discretely."
She did, and saw the monitoring division being allowed inside.
Even Evellyn could feel the almost non existent level of mana in the air, and for the monitoring division to take part in it, it had to be a pretty big Nest.
Either that, or it was the New Dawn guild.
And I didn’t even know how Nadia and Nikolai could be useful in this situation, so maybe they would have to sit this one down, this time...
"Go alert the Shadow guild, and tell Yuri that we’ll probably need his guild here too."
Evellyn looked at me, curious and perplexed.
"What’re you going to do?"
"Just what you said, I’m going to investigate."
And before she could say anything in return, like ’Don’t do anything reckless’, I activated [SHADOW WALK], and vanished from her sight.
***
I jumped over the human barricade of association agents, and smoothly landed on the school grounds.
It was exactly like I thought.
The members of the monitoring division were moving around and wearing the same kind of robes the guys I killed were using when they kidnapped Nikolai.
And the other Association members were doing nothing about it.
’Just as I thought...’
They were planning on doing something at the school, along with the New Dawn guild.
I took the smart recorder, which I learned to always keep with me, and started recording.
In my holowatch’s screen, I typed a message to Nadia asking her to stream the recording I was making at that very moment, which she promptly did.
After that, I took the mask and wore it because you never know, right?
After that, I went to the roof.
When I got there, I left the smart recorder in a safe spot, aiming at the ground, filming each of their best angles.
I also asked Nadia to manage the live stream for as long as possible, and to put a single, specific tag in the video.
#SilenceIsHere
I left after that, going straight to the Black Market.
And that’s when everything started to go straight to the gutter.
***
We spent the whole day watching the live, and seeing the people commenting it by the thousands.
<Hades361: I don’t care what they say, this right there is strange as fuck.>
<ImTheGuy8756: Did they say it was a Nest opening?>
<HolyPrincess987: Where’s Silence?>
<ForeverBroken: No way he’ll pick a fight with all these wielders at the same time, sis!>
<Sixsixsix666: But isn’t that why he SHOULD take them all down?>
<OnlyNo5: Bro, only reckless Wielders do that shit. He wears a mask for a reason, and he’s probably smart enough to know when NOT to fight>
I was glad someone understood why I wasn’t fighting.
<KDJ57312: But why are they all there?>
<BoredOnceMore230: Are they planning on doing something with the kids?>
<KingOfAll7265: If they are, people are definitely going to be mad.>
Some of them were quicker than the others to catch up on what was possibly going on, but something was horribly off about what the Association was doing.
It became more and more obvious that they were working together with the New Dawn Guild in whatever they were doing.
It was just a matter of time until they showed their true colors.
But time seemed to be the only resource we couldn’t afford to have.
So I spent the whole night awake, thinking and planning.
But more than that, I spent some time looking at the system window and trying to get the hand of why everything felt so fast, so rushed.
I mean, I played a few video games back in the day, and I know that, unless you’re a speed runner, who already knows all the ins and outs of the game, there’s not an actual way for one to get as strong as I felt, right there, in what felt to be just the beginning of that ’game’.
***
The next morning was silent, with only the gray clouds covering the sky in a lifeless light.
Evellyn had gone back to the Shadow Guild, and Yuri had some business to attend to, so he left me and Nikolai at the former abandoned building, now brimming with a little more life than before.
Yuri had given a few of his Wielders to the Black Market, in order for Nikolai to be able to protect what he was building, because in a few weeks from now, the paperwork to turn the Black Market into an official guild would be ready, and Nikolai would be the first regular to own an entire guild.
During lunch time, though, the building suddenly started to shake, as if there was an earthquake happening.
But I could feel a strange mana signature around, a familiar one that sent shivers down my spine.
’What the hell... It should be long gone by now...’ I thought, getting up.
Every single hair in my body went up with a strange fear that just shouldn’t be there...
I’m stronger, aren’t I? I’m not bound by fear of anything, or anyone...
While everyone ran around looking for shelter, I ran straight outside to make sure I wasn’t just hallucinating.
Although I had to, because it couldn’t just be true.
No...
It couldn’t.
But when I arrived outside, my heart sank to my stomach at the sight of the owner of that powerful energy signature.
Quintus Blake was looking straight at me, as if he was waiting for me all this time.
"Hello, little brother. Did you miss me?"
