Ch38. Do or die

"But I think I need you to help me spread the flames." Kurt swallowed dry.

He took the smart recorder from the inner pocket of his jacket, and handed it over to her.

"Play it." And Nadia did as he told her.

The video showed Laurent Leblanc, chief of the monitoring division, threatening to kill a regular, until someone showed up and fought him.

The recording was almost five minutes long, and Nadia watched it as if it was a full-length movie. Her eyes didn't leave the screen for a second, and after the recording stopped, she looked at Kurt.

"Was that... You?"

After a few seconds of consideration, Kurt reached the inside of his jacket and took a mask from there, showing it to Nadia, who immediately went crazy over what she was seeing.

"Oh my God! You're... You're like a superhero, even nowadays when we have the wielders to raid the Nests and keep the peace. Well, supposedly. That's so amazing! But... What do you need me for?"

"You're after the New Dawn guild, right?" She nodded. "Do you want to help bring them down?" She nodded again. "Then I need you to support me as much as Nikolai is. I've been having some issues with my abilities, and I can't do it alone like that, so... I want you to become part of the... Team?"

Nadia's eyes glimmered with enthusiasm as she got up and hugged Kurt, taking him completely by surprise.

"OH MY GOD WE'RE GONNA BE SUPER HEROES!" Kurt couldn't help but laugh in her embrace. "What's the plan?"

And Kurt told her what he needed to do with the video.

They spent the other half of the day creating a social identity for Silence, a channel on YouTok and everything else.

She uploaded the video, and in less than ten minutes, it already had ten thousand views and some more comments.

<User3256: is it some kind of movie advertisement?>

<QueenBunny1407: OMG that mask is so creepy!>

<ReDante505: Are you all guys nuts? Fuck the mask or whole setting! That's Laurent Leblanc, from Association's Monitoring Division!>

<Hades307: Holy cow you're right! Is he just going to kill the man?>

<QueeRaven: And his words... My god! Does it mean that the purist guild thing is real?>

<HimikoT859: The masked dude is kinda hot, tho>

Kurt felt a bit overwhelmed by all the information and the comments, but most of them showed initial hostility towards Leblanc, which was a good thing, so Kurt left Nadia to do her job, telling her that him and Nikolai would be back in a few days.

When he arrived at the Black Market, the place was in complete chaos, with wounded guards all around, and all the floors were torn apart.

Three guards were left alive, and when Kurt asked them what happened, the answer sent shivers down his spine.

"The... Monitoring Division... They took... Master Nikolai..."

Kurt gritted his teeth and clenched his fists.

'Come on, it's no time to get angry. Think, Kurt. Think!'

It took a great deal of effort for Kurt to cool down and think straight, but after he remembered what happened at where now is the ruins of Blake mansion, he slapped his face with his two hands, and his eyes immediately fell upon his new holowatch.

He activated the call function, and just as he imagined, Nadia's contact was there, followed right by Nikolai's.

He touched the screen, and a few seconds later, Nadia picked up with a big smile on her face. But the smile vanished gradually as she saw the serious darkness in Kurt's eyes.

"What happened?"

"I think Leblanc has taken Nikolai, I need you to trace his location, 'now'."

Nadia didn't say a word, he just turned to her computer, and started typing, opening program windows and typing some more, in a speed that almost made Kurt dizzy, but after one or two minutes, she looked at the screen again.

"I'm sending you the data through your holowatch, follow the red dot and you'll find them. But please, be careful, and whatever you're going to do, make sure you're recording it."

"Got it." And Kurt ended the call.

He opened the link Nadia sent him, and there was a real time map with a red dot pointing to a location near the docks.

'Why am I not surprised?'

He tried opening his system window to check on what he might need for the mission, but only to find the whole thing glitched.

"Tsk!" Kurt gritted his teeth and started to run, feeling the strength in his legs.

He could still run at his usual speed, so he put all his strength on his legs, and everything began passing by him like a huge blur.

[THE-PLAYER-*&%¨-NOT-MAKE-*&]

"SHUT UP BEFORE I BREAK YOU!" Kurt shouted through his gritted teeth as he felt the sharp migraine kicking in. "If you try to kill me, I'll take you with me!"

He followed the streets, turned where he needed to, and less than five minutes later, he arrived at the designated location.

"Nadia, can you tell me anything about where I am?"

"There are five readings inside the abandoned warehouse to your left, one of them belonging to Nikolai. The docks are empty, though. Oh, are you still with the holowatch box?"

"Yes, why?"

"Lift the bottom layer inside the box, there's a pair of ear pieces that'll make our communication easier."

Kurt did it and found a little earphone-like piece, he put it in his ear, and was able to clearly hear Nadia's voice.

"Now, I guess you didn't wear your mask yet, so do it. There's a skylight on the roof, so you could watch them from there. Whatever you do, don't get caught! I'm assuming the four unidentifiable readings are from members of the monitoring division, and no matter how strong you are, it's gonna be tough to take them all at once."

"Don't worry, I'm already thinking of a plan." Kurt said as he ran towards the warehouse.

He focused, remembering that the level of his skills had been decreased in half.

But it didn't mean he couldn't use them, so he activated [SHADOW WALK] and ran as fast as he could, jumping towards the roof of the warehouse.

When he arrived at the top, he could see the skylight. Kurt approached and silently prayed for his weapons to not be bound by the system constraints.

The [MIDNIGHT SISTERS] appeared in his hands as soon as he called for them, and he looked down inside the warehouse.

He activated the smart recorder and saw with great relief that Nikolai was still alive.

But only for a while.