Chapter 20 - Crystal Kleal

Clack.

All of a sudden, they heard a loud boom from the distant forest, and darkness descended. The lights all around the camp turned off, and as if a blanket draped over the entire land, shadows and silence replaced the missing light.

But very quickly, the lights once again turned on as the rumbling sound of backup generators powered the camp once more.

In that sudden change, Two's hooded face twisted into a maniacal smile. He turned to look back at his tablet, and he saw a gray circle on the side of the screen turn green.

His eyes turned piercing as he gazed out of the windows and saw the lights in the distant hallway that leads down to the underground bunker flicker a second late, and he laughed.

Two hurriedly went and stared at his tablet, tapped numerous buttons, and opened his mouth, "Men!" He smiled and grinned, a look of pure euphoria surfacing in his eyes as the tides of the battle is about to turn, "Start!"'

From the hidden earpiece in each member's ear, they heard Two's announcement. With their predetermined plan now taking a step further, they hurriedly took off, ignored the comatose bodies around them, and proceeded with the operation.

They took off in a flurry, going in various directions. Some stopped nearby buildings, others beside random trees, and some grabbed shovels and activated their quirks to dig up the ground.

Then as they dropped their respective bags to the ground, they pulled out strange devices that resembled a black cylinder with spider legs attached to one end and a black box on the other that glowed a dim blue color.

As they did so, Two tapped the soles of his shoe to the ground, and a purple wormhole appeared below him.

…

"What are they doing?" Aleksandra muttered as she hovered high in the sky while pressing her right ear.

"It must be related to that sudden energy outage a while back," Luke mumbled and dragged an unconscious body toward him.

"They're more cautious than I thought." Dolian clicked his tongue, grabbed the forehead of the person Luke gave him, and closed his eyes, "There wasn't any mention of this from those guys."

"They must have only sent people who don't know the full plan to go through the hallways, but why?" Alastor surveyed the area around them to see if there were anyone close by.

All of a sudden, both Luke and Alastor turned to look toward a distant area, and they both sensed the same disturbance, "The electricity… It's being drained!"

"Electricity?" Dolian opened his eyes as he browsed through the series of foggy memories that came from the unconscious body in front of him, "I get it!"

He widened his eyes in shock and stood up, "They're planning on disrupting the gravity field in the bunker! If there's no gravity field, they can directly raid the others without anyone to stop them!"

"You mean…" Pindle gasped and pressed her palm against her gawking mouth.

"Shit!" Golden scales protruded out of Dolian's body and his vertical eyes dilated, "We have no time for this!"

"They've divided themselves into ten teams, and they're planning on draining the electricity that powers the bunker. Once no energy is left to power it, the gravitation field is going to turn off!" Dolian twisted his neck and stared at them with a pressuring gaze, "You know what to do."

Just as they felt puzzled by his words, all of them, including Aleksandra who was hovering high above the sky felt a stream of knowledge pour directly into their brains.

'Divide and conquer. We'll each head off in different directions and deal with the different teams that are planning on disrupting the energy.'

'Listen up because this is going to be quick and important. I'll each help all of you maximize your combat and utility prowess so open your ears wide.'

'Alastor, you must learn to not fight so closely and utilize your long-range aspect better. You can bombard them with lightning, suffocate them by sucking out the air near the vicinity, or even grab some potions from Pindle and use that to poison, paralyze, or make the air flammable and burn them using your quirk's wind manipulation.'

'Aleksandra, you need to spam your laser eyes more. It's more effective than your super speed because rotating your head by a single degree can "deal" with more people. Also, stop holding back on your physical strength because I know you can launch our school bus like it's a pebble.'

'Luke, I know you can transform yourself into smaller objects like a drone or even create remotely controlled robots. What you need to make a habit starting from now on is to, you guessed it, learn how to fight from a distance and not just go "I'm gonna go blazing in and start fighting with my fist like a stupid lizard."'

'Pindle, you should really learn just how powerful your quirk really is. You can make yourself invisible, drink a potion then you can lift a car with your bare hands, make poisons, and all other kinds of bullshit. Even your quirk is low maintenance because you directly create those potions from nothing! So what you need to do is to just drink, drink, and drink. Poison, paralysis, hallucinatory gas, super steroids, just create them all and you'll see what miracles you can do with your versatility.'

'Lastly, and this is going to be hard to accept; if the situation calls for it, kill.'

By the time they regained their senses, they were surprised to see that Dolian's figure has already vanished.

"Good luck." Pindle bit her lips and grabbed a couple of vials from her belt, and with a shake, they were filled with colorful fluids that came from nowhere.

"Mmm." Luke turned around and his body rapidly morphed, turning into a small jet the size of a toy and flying off.

"Don't mess this up." Alastor grinned. Giving her one final look, he looked away and set off, leaving behind a gust of wind in his wake.

Now left alone, she clenched her teeth and opened her mouth wide. Gulping the different vials without pause, her eyes dilated and her veins popped as if boundless energy surged through her being.

With a gasp, she slapped herself in the face and clenched her fists, "Let's do this."

…

Aleksandra flew through the air, and her speed neared the speed of sound already as afterimages were left behind her trail. She glanced down from the sky, and her heightened senses allowed her to see sparks flying off from a distant tree cloaked in shadows.

All of a sudden, her heart seemed to relax and her mind turned clear as if a douse of cold water was splashed on her face. She lifted the edge of her cheeks and shook her head, 'That guy…'

With her coolheaded mind, her eyes started to glow red and the surrounding air around her eyes became hotter and hotter.

"Hmm?" A certain cloaked figure raised their head toward the sky as if they sensed something amiss and were surprised to see two glaring red orbs floating in the sky under the starry night sky.

They seemed to radiate intense heat and danger, like a pair of lasers ready to fire off catastrophic beams of flames.

"Above us!"

A teammate of his quickly responded to his shout and planted both of his hands on the ground. The ground around them started to move and rise into the sky, forming a huge earthen sphere that would give them a bit of time to perhaps move away and distance themselves from whatever attack may come.

Alas, Aleksandra wasn't dumb enough to give them that time and, now that she was exposed, didn't bother to hide her presence anymore. But even so, she inexplicably felt something was wrong as her eyes continued to grow brighter and brighter.

Under the starry night sky, the pair of glowing red balls turned bright orange, and two bright orange beams bombarded the earthen sphere with ruthless might.

A horrific cry exploded out of the earthen sphere before they then disappeared in the next second. It was as if those wales of pain were just an illusion and they never existed in the first place.

She stopped. Her eyes stared down at the molten lava and dark smoke rising up into the sky. At that moment, she felt her heightened senses turn into a curse as she smelled the residual charred flesh, the sight of flesh and bones floating above the molten ground and saw the burning bodies that stared with terrified eyes towards the sky—towards her.

Her eyes turned daze. Aleksandra expected herself to become confused, and terrified; to puke her brains out, but nothing happened. She still felt that now foreboding calmness and serenity, as if the human life she just took was akin to killing an insect and a bug.

'Is…' Aleksandra stared out into the distance and saw the lightning strike down from the heavens above, like a god's wrath descending down to punish the heathens that dare to threaten the life of Glory Academy Students, 'Is this what it's like to kill?'

…

Alastor stood in front of charred corpses with a baffled face. All it took for him was just a single snap, a single wink, and lightning struck down from the sky; in the next… they were dead.

It was so effortless and easy that it almost made him confused. And amidst his confusion was terrifying clarity, 'I killed…'

He stared up into the sky as if locking eyes with an invisible figure hovering under the starry heavens, "Is this… Is this the right thing to do?"

…

Luke in his RC Jet form hovered in the sky, inspecting the group of villains fiddling with a strange cylindrical device that was connected to the exposed wires in front of them.

Without making a single sound, without even being noticed by them, he maneuvered the tiny robots the size of ants through the dark forest and onto the villains ahead. On each ant was a tiny bomb that, even though tiny in size, when piled together in great numbers, would result in a gigantic explosion.

As Luke was about to activate the bombs in that window of opportunity, he paused.

'Isn't this going to kill them?' He stopped just as he was about to activate the bombs and felt puzzled by his actions, 'Even if killing is indeed effective, there are other more gentle methods like paralysis or-'

Boom!

A sudden explosion rang in his ears, a sound that made his heart unknowingly drop. He refocused his gaze toward the abrupt commotion and saw mangled flesh and ripped limbs splattered all around the ground. Blood and bits of flesh dyed the forest crimson, and a sea of scarlet blood spread all throughout the surrounding area.

…

"W-Wait!" Pindle hopped back and avoided the long blade that was about to puncture her throat. She waved her arms and tried to negotiate, "Couldn't we talk this out, fellas?"

She moved fast and nimble, relying on her enhanced senses and beast-like instinct to dodge one blow after another as if she had eyes all around her body.

But soon, under the continuous barrage of attacks, she was pushed back to a corner and felt her back plant against a tree.

In front of her, a feral claw glinted under the silver moonlight, and the sharp claws were about to gouge her face out without mercy.

Her eyes dilated and time itself seemed to slow down. Her instinct to live overridden her body's control, and as if possessed by a ghost, she moved like a shadow.

By the time she realized what happened, she felt a warm liquid along with something weird and moving wrapped around her forearm. Her unfocused eyes quickly regained their glow as she looked down.

What she then saw was her fist poking right through the chest of a man covered in brown fur like a scene straight out of a fighting video game where a guy goes for the finishing blow and just pierces through the enemy's body with their hand.

The only thing missing from that surreal scene was her holding a beating heart and crushing it to give an exploding end.

But no, this was real, and she killed someone so fast that it didn't even feel real at all.

Strangely enough, her mind felt crystal clear as if what she did was the natural thing. Before she can even process what just happened, the hair on her body flared as she saw a silver blade aiming straight at her face.

'There's no time to stop!'

…

Inside a strange grandeur palace hundreds of meters tall and more than a kilometer long, a man with black hair and dark brown eyes sitting atop a golden throne stared at the numerous floating screens in front of him with an apathetic gaze.

Through each screen, what he saw were piles of corpses and seas of blood. Mangled flesh, melting bones, charred bodies; he remained emotionless as the horrifying scenes of death were calmly processed and observed.

"Once all of them are dead, only I would have the truth grasped, and would in turn hold the corresponding control over the reality of this story." He knocked on the edges of his golden throne, closed his eyes, and muttered, "Soon, I'll have my own hidden organization established in this world."

AN: This chapter has 2257 words.

Kleal, get it? Because Clear + Kill is Kleal? Heh, I know, I just rizzed you so good that you wanna fall in love with me and have me as your boyfriend... right? PLEASE! I WANT A GODDAMN BOYFRIEND! LET ME BE GAY FOR ONCE!

Anyways, if you feel like you don't understand anything after a certain point in this arc, then that's okay. It happened in Braun-sama's journey, so it's not strange for it to happen here too.

(April 9, 2023 - 500th day of writing)