Finding the Truth I

There was someone that was deliberately trying to destroy the tunnel from above.

It was the conclusion that Clyde, Agnes, Mika, and Leo all came to.

"W-Ehat's happening!?"

"Is it the demon beasts!? Have they found us!?"

"Are we going to die!?"

…

Seeing that the people were starting to panic, Clyde enhanced his throat with aura and shouted, "Calm down!"

The surge of aura that was accompanied by his loud voice instantly calmed the crowd.

Sensing countless pairs of eyes instantly turned looking at him, Clyde couldn't help but feel nervous deep inside his heart.

He was not the type to lead people, nor was he an extrovert.

In fact, he was the complete opposite.

Nevertheless, he steeled himself and said with a loud voice, "You don't need to worry. This tunnel is specifically built to be tough. The stomps of the demon beasts won't be enough to make this tunnel collapse."

He spoke in a slow voice that emitted a strong authority, something he himself didn't know that he could do.

On the side, Agnes and Mika looked at him with proud expressions on their faces.

***

Meanwhile, on the other side…

Jin and Portia were currently eating bread they got from an abandoned store.

"Would you look at this? It seems like the demon beasts wave still has its own advantages~"

"You're right, Brother Jin!" 

The two of them conversed in a relaxed manner, anyone who saw them would think that they were genuinely enjoying their situation.

However, only the two of them knew that what they were doing was merely an attempt to desperately escape their reality.

Furthermore, upon looking at the area they were currently eating in, one could see the numerous dried corpses of demon beasts that almost formed a wall around them.

"What should we do next, Brother Jin?" Portia asked as she munched on the bread.

Hearing her question, Jin froze for a moment before letting out a sigh.

Tilting his head backwards to look at the stars resting above, he spoke, "To be honest, I'm not sure. I don't know where the one called Kael or the other dark clothed figure was."

"I'm also not sure where the others evacuated…"

Jin glanced at the direction of the Training Center and saw that the turbulence of mana there was the largest.

At first, he wanted to take a look to see what was going on there.

However, the thought of leaving Portia alone weighed in his mind. He also scrapped the thought of taking her with him.

After all, he did not know what danger might lurk in there.

All of those led to the current situation.

"How about you? Do you want to go anywhere? Maybe you have some distant relatives you want to visit?"

However, Jin's question was only met with a shake of head from Portia, "My mother was the only family I had left…"

Feeling that he had touched upon a forbidden territory, Jin felt guilty in his heart.

"Well, we can just think about what we want to do as we travel."

"Mhm!"

At this moment, Jin's eyes suddenly widened in alert as he looked in a direction.

Thinking that he had sensed another demon beast, Portia kept quiet while waiting for his instructions.

It was what they did up until now.

Whenever Jin sensed a demon beast approaching, he would tell her what to do.

However, Jin looked at her and said in a low voice, "Hide."

Portia immediately nodded and hid inside the store without even asking what was happening.

That's how strong her trust towards Jin was.

"Ugh, I can't believe this! Those heretics were really able to kill one of us?"

At this moment, a voice could be heard a few meters away.

"I thought that this would be easy work since we were able to rattle the demon beasts in the Stygian Forest and make them go berserk… How unlucky, tsk!"

The voice of a man wearing dark cloth that covered his whole figure seemed to have a tinge of anger in it.

"Ehh? What's that?" 

The dark clothed figure asked out loud as he saw the dried corpses of the demon beasts that formed a wall around a store.

He approached one of the corpses and touched it lightly with his finger, "Weird. Even if someone could kill this amount of demon beasts, why are the corpses dried…"

"...as if it was a vampire that fought the–"

Before the dark clothed figure could react, he felt a hand covering his mouth and something sharp lightly touching his neck.

'Heh, he doesn't even have an energy core. I can just use my aura and… What!?'

The dark clothed figure found out that he was unable to utilize the aura from his energy core.

"Don't try anything stupid. I have already sealed your aura."

'Impossible…!'

The dark clothed figure felt fear gripping his heart as he heard the voice.

He was well aware of some means in sealing one's energy cores and circuits. After all, their organization uses this means too.

However, all the knowledge he knew about sealing energy had something to do with the use of certain artifacts.

The destruction of one's energy core was one of the ways of sealing energy too.

'But I haven't even felt anything…'

This was what the dark clothed figure was truly afraid of.

He was just walking when his energy was sealed in the next second. Not even a breadth of wind was felt.

"If you want to keep your energy, then you better answer my questions properly."

"Just kill me inst–"

Shkk—

A slight trail of blood could be seen trickling from the man's neck.

"No. I will make sure that you will live, don't worry about that. Only without the ability to use energy for the rest of your life, that is."

'Fuck…!'

The dark clothed man cursed in his mind as he gritted his teeth, "Fine! What do you want to ask!?"

He didn't know what kind of psycho he encountered.

He also didn't want to risk being subjected to this person's mysterious means of sealing his energy.

'This is a good start…!'

Jin's eyes brightened as he felt the truth behind the current situation at his grasp.