Chapter 279 - Hated By The Heavens

The following day, Zeel's eyes snapped open from his session of meditation. It was important to get his emotions under control before he went on an emotion-fuelled rampage.

Experiencing new things was always welcome, but the intensity with which he experienced new things was far too potent.

White-Crystals filled every nook and cranny of Zeel's hotel room. It was a similar technique to what Alice used on Skull Island.

Crystallize the energy present inside his body, refine the energy, and then reabsorb it. Zeel exhaled a deep breath as the myriad crystals broke apart and swarmed around his body.

Soon, the energy disappeared entirely, re-absorbed into his body and the chill from the room was gone.

Meditation helped Zeel to further fortify his mind. Zeel was almost immune to mind attacks as a Homo-Superior, but each new emotion presented a new point of exploitation in his mind.

Along with his growing emotions, Zeel's mind also required new fortifications. After all, Zeel's mind did not account for emotional imbalance previously because he didn't have any emotions.

Now, his emotions had become an essential part of his growth as a person.

Just as Zeel was about to enter meditation once again, his senses focused and vaguely discerned the ragged breathing and frantic movements of Jenny in her room.

Zeel knew that something was wrong, and with a flicker of transparent lightning, he was gone from his room and once again at the cocktail lounge in the lobby.

He didn't have to wait long until Jenny and her two companions, John and Ori, came to a table with infinite frustrations present on their faces.

∞∞∞

"How could you lose it?" John asked.

"I don't know, I had it last night and this morning it was gone…" Jenny replied, coming to a startling conclusion.

Ori nodded and seemed to reach the same conclusion as Jenny.

"That man… Nick stole it right?" He asked, a bit gloatingly.

Jenny smacked the table and swung her head around in frustration.

"Ugh! That f*cker took the letter!" She yelled, causing everyone in the lobby to look over, but they later dismissed her as another crazy person.

"If we leave now we can make it to the site before him!" John said, standing from the table.

Jenny sighed and replied "We can't! Henry specifically said that we have to wait for the asset,"

"The so-called Supernatural Asset?" Ori replied scoffing.

Jenny and John were displeased at Ori's attitude. It was well-known that Ori was a loose gun in the organization, and had a questionable past.

Hearing up to this point, Zeel made his way over to the table with quick steps.

"What happened?" Zeel asked, frustration building in his heart.

He could somewhat guess what occurred but he needed confirmation.

"Who are y-…" Ori was about to complain but didn't get to finish his statement before his neck was broken.

Zeel withdrew the hand he used to twist the neck of the unfortunate man and directed a deadly stare in Jenny's direction.

Jenny and John were about to make a scene but Zeel's aura suppressed any of their complaints immediately.

Jenny and John felt as if they were covered in freezing water from head to toe.

Zeel was also not without his own complications after killing Ori.

Zeel also had to suffer the consequences of The Restrictions, since he had just killed someone for no apparent reason.

Luckily, the man he killed was not so virtuous, and that managed to allow him to forego the Heavenly Tribulation that should have descended due to killing someone.

Feeling his Draconic Energy getting riled up, Zeel calmed his mind and cursed his impulsive actions.

Zeel then opted to explain the matter entirely.

"I am the Supernatural Asset Henry told you to wait for," He stated slowly and steadily.

Jenny was frozen for a bit and managed to stutter out a reply.

"H – h – how… you have been here for days," She replied.

"I know… I was observing at first but now things have become complicated. You said that you lost the letter containing the location?" Zeel asked, his voice growing more irritated by the second.

Noticing this, Jenny was swift and concise with her replies.

"Yes! The friend I had in my room last night took it. We have known each other for a couple of years and he has a questionable character," Jenny stated, not daring to hide anything.

Before she could continue with any further explanation, Zeel raised his hand to indicate a pause.

"His name is Nick Morton right?"

"Y- y – yes," Jenny replied meekly.

Having confirmed that it was his potential friend-candidate, Zeel immediately activated the tacker he left on Nick the previous day.

The tracker was not meant to work indefinitely since it would be removed the moment Nick changed clothing.

The tracker was more of a way for Zeel to find Nick for the off-possibility that he required another drinking-buddy session, but it seemed Nick was more of a trickster than Zeel originally noticed.

Codes flickered across Zeel's eyes as the tracker pinged from a location in Erbil, Iraq. But Zeel could tell that the ping was where Nick had discarded his clothing.

"He was in Iraq," Zeel stated, catching the attention of Jenny and John.

"Specifically, he was at a location that sold camels," Zeel said and turned to Jenny "Is the location of the tomb near there?"

"Uhm, yes… It's near Mosul, he would have to rent a camel to reach the location since it's basically in the middle of the desert," Jenny replied excitedly, already forgetting about her dead colleague in the next chair.

Zeel started to murmur to himself "How far is Baghdad from Mosul?"

Hearing the question, Jenny was about to reply but Zeel beat her to the punch as codes flickered across his pupils.

"6,880 miles," Zeel stated as a route to reach Mosul was already plotted in his mind.

"It's morning and I need about 8 hours to get there," Zeel murmured then turned to Jenny "Get to Mosul in the next ten hours. That should leave us enough time to do what we need to!"

Done saying his piece, Zeel walked to the dead body of Ori and tossed it into his storage dimension for later disposal.

Jenny wanted to ask about certain things, but the entire situation progressed a bit too fast for her muddled mind.

The next moment, Zeel was gone with a flicker of lightning. Nobody in the surroundings seemed to notice anything, and Jenny was left slightly stumped.

But Jenny had her mission so she immediately packed up and darted to the US Military outpost in Baghdad.

Jenny and John were not too concerned about Ori since he had only recently joined them. Working for Prodigium was also known to be a very dangerous job.

∞∞∞

Zeel stopped running once he was clear of any civilization. Currently, he was at a cliff near the coast.

The ocean winds and splashing of water on the cliff's edge were clearly discernible.

Zeel tossed Ori's body onto the ground and stared at it for a couple of minutes. After being sure that there was nothing amiss, Zeel pierced the stomach of the body and retrieved a small black rock.

Henry had asked Zeel for a way to manipulate the fate energy in his body, and Zeel asked for something in return.

Something Ancient that only an organization like Prodigium could possibly have.

Henry was the leader of Prodigium but he was not without oversight, so he was forced to be creative to get the object to Zeel.

Zeel's Draconic Energy had indeed gotten a bit of control, but it was not enough for him to Ori. Such an act was against The Restrictions and his calculative nature.

Zeel simply needed an excuse to kill Ori without eliciting any suspicion from Jenny, John, or anyone else who was watching.

The black rock was immediately broken down and absorbed by Zeel's nanites. There were no outward changes to Zeel's body, but his blood now had a slightly darker shade to it.

Zeel was pleased with the results and sat down to better integrate the changes.

Ten hours was more than enough time to reach Mahul, but Zeel needed time to stabilize the new element in his blood.

Two hours later, Zeel stood up with resignation on his face. Something about the black rock was not meeting his expectations.

Lightning flickered around Zeel's body once more and he shot off the cliff. A lightning streak could be seen shooting across the skies in an arc, but the streak never returned to the ground.

Zeel knew he could not yet run on water without complications, so he instead activated the anti-gravity boots on his feet.

The shoes on his feet dissolved and reformed into silver boots pulsing with blue streaks. Codes darted across Zeel's pupil as he urged his divine lightning into the anti-gravity boots.

Soon, Zeel was running on the air itself. Still, he didn't drift too high since he was afraid that Heavenly Lightning would suddenly strike down and injure him.

After all, he killed someone for benefits, and that could not go unpunished by The Restrictions.

The headaches were already assaulting his mind, so Zeel made sure to not harm even a fly as he ran through the air.

The Restrictions only needed a small excuse to call down Heavenly Lightning. Zeel felt like the Heavens hated him for some reason.