Ch 79:- A Mental Dilemma (Ver. 01)

~A few hours ago, before Peter's breakout~

Cia could be seen exiting from her hotel room after reading through the content of the book given to her by Rayne. As she was making her way down the corridor toward the arena, the way was blocked by a man with dark hair and a masculine physique wearing dark clothing. Seeing him, she immediately started sweating because she knew she had messed up.

"Agent 72, report," the man said with a certain level of authority in his voice. But Cia was able to maintain her composure due to the several hours of meditation she did on a regular basis. However, she was also a little on edge. She was contemplating whether she should act like she forgot everything, just like how it was supposed to be, or tell the truth.

"Uhh... are we," but she stopped midway because something happened. Her eyes turned glassy, and the world slowed down. In front of her floated two pictures with some text written under them. The first picture was the same as her current situation, both of them standing across from each other with the text being [Who are you?].

As she read it, she concentrated on it, and immediately the picture started moving, showing her asking the man who he was and that she didn't know him. The man was able to see through her lie and apprehended her. The image started breaking before becoming blank.

'Okay, so I guess I can't choose this possibility,' Cia thought as she moved to the next picture titled [Tell the truth]. She concentrated once again, and it started moving, showing her telling him about how Layla wanted to stay with her friends. This was followed by the man having a conversation over his comms. He then hummed before saying that the plan would still be followed, and she had been given the task to keep Layla protected for as long as possible. The vision broke a little before ending with the imagery of a blazing inferno and the echoing screams of pain.

'Pure failed?' Cia questioned herself, thinking both of them were bad choices. Although her instincts were telling her that the second choice was much better and that Rayne would be pleased by her choice, she knew better. It was the vampire blood in her veins that was speaking; after all, it liked carnage better than peace. But her rational part didn't agree with either, and hence a third path occurred. This time she knew it would be the best one out of the previous two.

"Hello, Agent 72, can you hear me? Hello," the man waved his hand in front of Cia, waking her up from her stupor. Immediately, she readied herself to get her act together.

"Yes, I can hear you. As I was saying, Agent 100 doesn't know about it. She refused and wanted to stay with her friends. She feels betrayed. You can already understand the teenager's rebellious phase,"Cia said animatedly, perfectly employing her character as the secret agent.

"And you didn't try to reason with her?" the man said.

"No, too many people were present, and she confessed to a boy,"Cia said.

"And why are you saying this,"the man asked.

"Thought Agent-05 would like to know," Cia said.

"Hmm," the man said before reaching for his communicator and immediately started relaying the information to Agent-05.

While the man nearly convinced her to continue with the attack, Cia interjected, "Are you sure about it? I mean, I don't doubt our organization's capabilities. It's just that all the world leaders are in the same place, and they're all in their prime. From my perspective, all the people involved in the attack should at least have more high-tier armor. Maybe we could try later on because I deem it quite risky with some casualties."

Agent-05, who was still on the line, heard it clearly and was contemplating what to do because it was looking like a risky mission. "What should be done, Ma'am?" the man said. "Ask the girl if anyone else knows," Agent-05 said through the comms.

"Does anyone else know that today we were planning to attack?" the man said.

"Although I would have said no, I guess I actually heard that Truedream, along with one of the military base's two generals, Duke, is anticipating there will be an attack from us. So they are a little vigilant," Cia said.

Hearing the information, the agent's eyes widened, and Agent-05 said, "This is getting riskier and messier. How can they know? I hereby command that all agents lay low and ask her if anyone else other than those two knows." Agent-05 connected to all other agents' communication devices mid-conversation and sent them the message to lay low.

"Does anyone else know?" the man said.

"No, those two are the only ones who know. And from what I heard, they were expecting any one of the Pure members to come. But if I may suggest, I think it would be a wonderful idea if we can somehow eliminate Duke from Military Base Two and make it look like our doing. It will work as a fear factor, you know, making them think that we are keeping an eye on their every move. We also know the supposedly hidden location of Military Base One. It's only if you allow," Cia suggested.

The man stood there, hearing Agent-05's reply before saying, "The Ma'am speaks that it is too risky. It will expose our members working in the military base to risk."

"Okay, I understand," Cia said.

After the conversation was finished, the man walked away, no longer in the mood to explore the arena. She retired to her room and lay on her bed, looking at the ceiling before thinking, 'I am really good at this. Being able to manage situations and think of quick solutions under pressure.'

She still didn't understand her unique power of premonition, which didn't seem to be related to her normal abilities. Instead, it felt more mystical in a weird way. It was only her fourth premonition, but it seemed to be affecting her. At one moment, she thought that during the vision, she was hearing unintelligible mumbles of a strange-sounding language, which gave her a nasty headache when she tried to concentrate on it. "My brain feels like it is squirming. I guess too much premonition in one day is not good for health. Maybe I should just sleep," Cia said aloud. As soon as she spoke, she yawned and immediately fell asleep.

In her dream, she felt like she was floating down a sticky crimson river, and the next moment, she heard countless screams and people speaking, one overlapping the other. It felt like she was trapped in some web of madness, with unintelligible mumbles and screams. Through it all, she held on and progressed further, but her mind was overwhelmed with symbols, glyphs, and runes that she didn't know the meaning of but had only seen occasionally in some of Rayne's writing. Then she felt a tugging sensation, as if she was dragged from an ice-cold bath, and she woke up gasping for breath. Just now, she noticed she was not in her hotel room but instead in the underground base she had become all too familiar with. Looking to the side, she saw Rayne with gloves coated in blood, holding onto something invisible to the naked eye. From the disgust he was showing, it was not something pleasant.

He turned around and walked to a bowl, seemingly making charcoal and a glowing rainbow diamond-shaped crystal appear out of thin air. He set them on fire, and the flames engulfed them, transforming them from their normal color to a purplish-black color. He dumped what he was holding onto, and as soon as it touched the flame, a horrid scream of a hundred people tore through the chamber, echoing and shaking it as if an earthquake was happening.

"It's a parasite that feeds off the psychic energy and life force energy of the host. It's very rare to find, almost so rare that it is almost impossible to come across them, unless one doesn't live in the normal plane of existence. Now, my question is, how did you get it?" Rayne's voice echoed as he looked at Cia, who was lying on a gurney, wearing something similar to a hospital gown, with a flask dripping red-colored IV into her vein. There was a large scar on her chest, which was slowly healing.

"I really don't know. I fell asleep, and then I was dreaming, floating down some kind of crimson river. Then I was in some kind of distorted space with screaming and a whole bunch of mumbling. I saw those symbols that you use. I was able to see them. Each and every voice present there was telling me something, but I can't understand anything they said," Cia said in one breath.

"Now, what you're saying is a little bit troubling. Were you able to see anything that I was holding onto?" Rayne said.

Cia shook her head, saying no.

"Now that is a relief and also concerning. If you are that far gone, you should at least be able to see it. But I guess it's for the best," Rayne mumbled to himself.

"Now, I don't want it to happen again, so I am going to turn you into a vampire, which is probably not a good decision. But I have no real option; otherwise, you will die from one of these demonic parasitisms or gaining too much insight," Rayne said as he took a syringe and drew some of his blood before injecting it into the flask.

"Will I become a banshee or a vampire?" Cia asked, feeling nervous.

"Well, there's a high chance of becoming a vampire and an extremely low chance of becoming a banshee. The chances are so low that they're almost negligible," Rayne said as he went away, teleporting back to the school festival.

"Guess I am alone. But is the process painful? I know in some fiction, it's portrayed as being extremely painful," Cia wondered as she looked at the IV, which was now fully red and was being fed directly into her veins. She closed her eyes, gritted her teeth, and the pain came, making her feel agony. But she pushed through it, utilizing her Qi to soothe the pain, unconsciously mixing it with her vampire aura. As the pain subsided, a familiar warmth spread throughout her body, and she abruptly opened her eyes, sitting up. She immediately felt the change, her connection with the mana surrounding her increased, making her almost feel its presence in the surroundings. Her vision, her speed, and everything got a significant boost.

She got up from the gurney and went to examine herself.

Meanwhile, Rayne could be seen staring at a screen in front of him.

[Congratulations! on creating the first ever evolved Vampire.]

'Fuck, what's this evolved vampire now?' Rayne thought.

"But I guess it's better at least she will be protected from the madness for a little while before succumbing to it," Rayne said out loud as he still remembered what he was holding onto it looked like multiple eyes sprouting from a tentacle like creature body.

"Ugh, it's always the oracles who succumbs first," Rayne thought as he looked at the book he was holding overlooking an ancient magically surgerical process to grant one power of mana.