LOCATION - DIA'S FATE

|Location: Wasteland, battle|

-OMNISCIENCE-

[UPDATE COMPLETE… SYSTEM REBOOTING.]

"My body feels crap?"

Zero slowly opened his eyes and proceed to examine the debris around him along with the people near it, he immediately saw Nuk on the ground along with two other people. Zero felt happy but his reunion was immediately cut off when he suddenly heard his stomach screaming.

"Ugh! Why do I feel Like my stomach is empty?"

Nuk heard a familiar voice, he turned around as soon as the dust settled around him and saw the silhouette of a familiar figure, he turned to his side and saw no one besides him. Nuk's body felt relieved and smiled when he saw Zero's back.

"Zero!"

Dia grits her teeth in disbelief, the person she least expected to see and fight appeared to be holding her vines with ease.

Vexed from the sight of Zero, she yelled her feelings out. "You! How are you alive!"

Standing in front of the morphed monster, Zero directly received her screams making his ears ring because of it. Anna needed to give a lot of effort when she dealt against Dia's vines but it seemed to be like cotton when Zero effortlessly ripped it apart in front of her.

"You're loud!" Zero yelled back at Dia in annoyance.

After ripping her vines apart, he quickly dashed in front of her without giving her any moment to react, he kicked her face upwards launching her into the air. Zero then jumped towards her and swiftly kicked her by the abdomen, sending her far away.

"Kyah!" Dia yelp, golden blood spewed out of her mouth and flew across to the other side of the land.

Zero landed on the ground like a feather, he glided his hand across the air and a holographic map appeared in front of him. He smiled after knowing that the information he extracted in the 'network' appeared to be doing fine. He looked back at the map and saw a red dot representing Dia moving further away at a high speed and stopped when it reached the opposite side of the map.

"That should keep its mouth closed for a while."

Anna was left speechless after what she witnessed; she clenched her chest pocket where the letter is kept as she watched Zero walk towards them. She muttered to herself in awe. "Damn Leila, what did you see?"

Nuk quickly stood up and ran towards Zero.

"Zero, you're okay."

Despite his body screaming in pain, he rushed towards Zero and slammed Zero's face against his chest while wrapping his hands around 'his' back. Nuk immediately received a backlash after what he did, for a moment he lost the feel on his legs when the pain shocked him like electricity. Good thing Zero is right in front of him and managed to catch him on his shoulders. "Gah!"

Zero placed Nuk back to where Joshua and Anna were sitting, still shocked and couldn't believe what they just saw. They speechlessly watched Zero as he got closer.

"Nuk! What happened here and who are these people?" Zero asked after he made sure Nuk was sitting comfortably.

Nuk smiled at Zero, he explained to Zero they are allies and people that can be trusted. "You don't have to worry, they're here to help us."

"How can you introduce us like that?" Joshua looked at Nuk as he pouted, he felt disappointed even though he knew of Nuk's rigid personality but there's still some expectation at the back of his head that he hoped.

(Sai scan.)

[Physical biometric data… Showing]

After the update the data gathering functions of SAI also improved as expected, before there's a limitation but now those restricted functions got an upgrade and could also extract data freely as long as there's little to no restriction around it.

Body information appeared in front of Zero in the form of a well-organized panel. The first one is Anna, graphical data about her body is shown to be combustible which Zero thinks of as odd. Then next is Joshua, his data was also unique, his cells appeared to be disintegrating and reconstructing on their own.

Zero also looked at Nuk, his cells also appearing to be attracting and repelling one another in an endless cycle. From all the data in front of him there's one thing he found common with the three and that is their origins. The blood flowing in them has a degree of compatibility with each other, in short, their father's bloodline appears to be similar.

"Your half sibling." Zero said, which shocked Joshua.

"Wow, spot on! How did you guess?"

Joshua said with amazement written to his face. "Do we look alike?"

Anna stood up, staggering as she walked towards her broadsword, picking it from the ground she placed it back to her sheath. "Stop with the chattering, we need to defeat that thing."

Zero somehow didn't realize the moment he opened his eyes; it might be due to him having the 'perfect' sight or just because he's sometimes oblivious but he finally noticed the bright sun shining on top of them. But his eyes adjusted immediately as he directly looked up and stared at the sun. "Wait, now that I think about it, what happened to the wasteland? Why is it too bright?"

"It's the sun, can't you tell." Joshua said bluntly to Zero.

Zero just stared at him for a while after feeling that he was just mocked, but he didn't fight back and just ignored Joshua. He looked at Nuk. "Then who was that monster?"

Nuk tried to speak but he paused for a second. Zero saw how distressed he was when he asked that question. Nuk then looked away as he answered. "That's Dia."

Anna stepped in, she looked far ahead and saw how devastated the land was. It was just a few minutes during their fight and it already caused too much damage. She knew that if Dia was to be left alone, she would cause more damage than what she sees now or worst case she would follow them and her subordinates could get caught up with her madness.

She looked at Nuk and flat out voiced her opinion.

"Nuk, I might not understand how important Dia is to you, but I think it might be best to stop her." Anna said to Nuk, she knew how important family is to him because she knows it herself. She lost a family once and knows of the pain that comes with it, but she has no choice but to tell him this to survive. And after seeing what Zero did, she knew they had a chance to kill her and save more lives.

"Killing her now would be for the best."

Joshua suddenly bursts in after hearing his sister.

"Hey are you crazy, even if you could block the attack before there's no telling it will work the next time."

Joshua couldn't believe the idea that came out of his sister's mouth, a very absurd and dangerous one in fact. Unlike his sister Joshua has doubts even after seeing Zero fight, for him escaping should be their first priority.

"Joshua, stop!" Nuk interfered, he couldn't let the two of them fight. He then looked at Zero.

"Can we stop her?"

Nuk finally understood the reason why his sister insisted on bringing Zero back to their camp; she might have foreseen this happening. But for now, Nuk set his reminiscing aside and focused on the things at hand. He might feel bitter after what he said but their safety is his top priority.

After listening to their conversation, Zero somehow realized how daring their situation is. If Dia isn't stopped, she might cause more problems to them and to the people at the camp. But he cared less as to what might happen to the people who showed hostility to him, he's more concerned for Nuk. Dia is his sister and he doesn't know how he will react to what he is about to say.

"I can put an end to her. But Nuk you-." Despite speaking so confidently about his ability Zero still felt hesitant as he spoke, but Nuk placed his hand over to Zero.

"I'm okay Zero, I already left the notion that she can't be saved." He smiled warmly at Zero as he softly shook his head. He paused before he swallowed the last of his remorse towards Dia and looked at Zero firmly. He said without hesitation. "This must end, even if we need to kill her."

Joshua can't believe what he just listens to, them against a monster that scale would never result in something easy. He slaps his hand on his face as he slides it down, he then looks at Nuk and Zero in disbelief. Before he pointed out his opinion, he sighed.

"Hey am I the only sane person here, that's a high-class apostle."

Nuk understands where Joshua is coming from but the word from his sister is starting to make sense but after witnessing Zero's previous fight and even the enigma around who Zero is, those are things worth considering.

Nuk smiled at Joshua as he firmly believed in Zero. "Just trust him."

"You guys should go; I can handle her." Zero said confidently.

Joshua looked at Nuk and his sister, he couldn't believe what he just heard. He never imagined that Zero would propose something like this. Joshua was about to say something but when he saw how Nuk and Anna looked at Zero, he let out a deep breath in defeat, at this point he knew there's nothing he could do to stop whatever they are planning.

He went over to Nuk's side immediately after helping him stand as they were about to flee the place leaving only Zero to confront Dia, though he isn't really in sync with the plan, but he doesn't have a choice. "Ah! Come here Nuk I'll help you."

"I wish you luck." Anna was tempted to help Zero, but Leila's letter weighed over her mind. In the end she chose to believe whatever 'she'.

"Thanks" Zero smiled before he immediately went off to confront Dia.

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