The Ace

Her tone was filled with such seductive power that I couldn't resist. Back in my life I didn't have the luxury to feel any girl's warmth.

"What is that look on your face?" Just as I was trying to control my desire, she dared to lean over and place her head just next to my neck. "I said I'm yours. Do you think little of me?"

I had to step away from her fast before I would lose it. "Ahem, it's not what I wanted from you," I had to say something to stop her. But how could she be stopped?

She came again and looked at my eyes with her beautiful pair of enchanting gems. "Do you think I don't know how to please you? I might look young but I had few adventures and fun before. I know how to make you like me…"

Without even realizing it, she was already speaking in my ears. I could feel her warm breaths entrapping my heart and arousing all my desire on fire.

Her two arms found their way towards my lower parts, and it seemed like she wanted to keep going and do more.

"Please, can we stop here?" I hurriedly freed myself from her witching grasp and added in a tone that held a lot of my struggle, "we aren't in a time to play and fool around. Our lives are at stake here."

"And what?" she shrugged as if this was all normal to her, "I have you by my side. You saved me from thousands of monsters and such deadly traps. I'm sure you can stand against anything. I've shat my eyes on you already."

"Keep them for yourself for now," I said before widening the gap between the two of us. This girl… she was dangerous in her own strange ways.

"I want to know why they were after you," I said in a firm tone, putting an end to her little fun here.

"Didn't you hear them? I was once a traitor," she said like it was a known fact.

"I heard, but I wanted to hear more," I said before adding, "I never expected traitors to be able to break free on their own will."

She gave me a deep gaze before she sweetly chuckled. "It's me here who should be astonished by these words of yours. I never heard of you before as a traitor, and it's not possible for anyone else to hear about us."

"That's my business," I slowly said, "and I was the one to save your life, not the other way around."

"Alright alright, don't act this cocky with me," she stopped her eyes over my body for a second before she regained her lewd expression, "I love cocky boys, especially those holding secrets and immense power like you."

"I'm still waiting for your answer," I didn't let her return to that path. C'mon, we are at the early stages of this apocalypse and all she could think about was satisfying her desires?

Let us survive the upcoming ordeals first, then I'd make you regret fooling with me in many ways.

"I was given a chance to hold power beyond anyone's imagination," she started to finally talk seriously here, "who would in his right mind refuse that offer? Although we all thought this was kind of a game or a joke at first. But when we tested our power in the real world, we couldn't help but be shocked with it. Then the apocalypse came and we had strange orders…"

Her face changed to show her pain for the first time. It seemed the quests of the angels weren't well accepted by many. I never heard of any traitors turning their backs to the angels before. This was totally new to me.

"We gathered around fifty of our strongest people and decided to not follow these shitty orders. Killing humans to get coins? That's brutality! We didn't sign up for this kind of sh*t."

She seemed a bit enraged about this. Just thinking about what she said, I had to admit she got a point here.

Not all humans would be absorbed in their desire to get stronger. But that was new to me, so I had to know more about this.

"But what makes you special?" this was one of the main dilemmas in my head, "compared to you, I caused more trouble to them."

"Well… This…" she seemed to struggle to answer my question, but I had to get that answer no matter what. Even if she betrayed them, there was no way she would come higher than me in their hit list.

She must have a secret, and I wouldn't stop before listening to it.

"Aiming at you is normal, but the effort, the trap they set, everything they did tells me you are more than just a normal traitor."

"I told you, I'm one of the strongest out there," she said in defense but I didn't buy it.

"Not enough," I shook my head, "there must be another thing. Why are they after you in such a persistent way?"

They came at her sacrificing a hybrid monster, a teleportation array, and almost most of the monster power in the park. That wasn't logic.

The hybrid monster was triggered earlier than expected by me. That could explain part of things here. But when I was fighting them, they never showed any sign of retreat.

Even when I managed to scatter their forces, they used the horn of leadership to regain control over them. It looked like killing her was much more important, far more important than even their lives.

Even if there was a big reward on her head, it shouldn't be enough.

"I… the group of fifty I talked about earlier… We hold a secret…" she finally started to spill her beans out. "We have much stronger humans in the middle of our ranks. We call them: Ace, and it happened that these aces got to hiding away from their hands. They wanted to know where the aces are, or at least killing all of us to make sure they killed the aces."

"Ace…" I was shocked when I heard these words. It wasn't strange. After all those who established the three human kingdoms back at my time were all called ace.

'Don't tell me those aces were traitors to begin with… Unbelievable! Even the old man and his mentor never knew of this knowledge before!!'

Gradually I started to be sure that whatever the old man told me wasn't everything. It was merely what that strong human gathered through his continuous return in time.

But that wasn't enough! Just this secret alone was enough proof for that.

"So one of the aces you are talking about is hiding in the US?" I asked a question I already knew the answer about.

The life story of each ace was like a legend to all humans back at my time. It was natural for me to know everything about them. I even knew where that human was.

"It's not a secret anymore," her complexion suddenly fell before adding, "one of ours got attacked earlier while I was entrapped there. They now know about where the ace is."

"..."

I didn't see that coming. A secret should only be kept to oneself or else it wouldn't be a secret anymore. Just fifty people knowing about it seemed inappropriate.

However I would understand. After all, things seemed to happen so fast and they had to improvise without good planning. But there was something else I noticed from her words.

"Can you talk to each other?"

"We bought a communication item from the market before the apocalypse," she nodded, "our group is scattered all over the world after all. We heard rumors about hitting our world with some sort of weapon to make all the technology we have useless."

"That's what happened," I agreed this was the best course of action here, "but that means your ace in California is at risk now."

"Who said he is in California?" she looked weirdly at me before suddenly adding, "he is here, in New York."

"What?!!!" This time my shock was greater. I memorized the life stories of those legendary humans by heart. The ace who established the empire in the US continent was in California.

That was something I was totally sure of!

"The ace is here? Where?" I asked while she seemed a bit hesitant to tell. "C'mon, you said it yourself. They already knew about his location."

"Knowing his location won't help," she slowly said, "after all the ace knew about the weakness of the early quests. Monsters can't appear in water, so he chose a secluded island. He must be safe for now."

'Secluded island in New York…' I was lost in thoughts after hearing her words. The New York I knew and read many records about had only one worthy of note island that could be considered secluded.

"Don't tell me…" I looked at her and she nodded.

"He is in the statue of liberty, away from any monster reach," she said as if it was about how safe that place was. "Even if other traitors were sent there, they won't be able to come closer as the ace already bought tons of items from the market before even the apocalypse began."

This girl! It wasn't her fault. After all humans were originally pure creatures compared to all the darkness coming at us now.

"Do you have a connection with that ace here in New York?" I asked while now I realized why the two stories about the ace were different.

They were two different aces after all! And I knew the reason behind this.

"Sure, I can send a message anytime," she looked in a strange way to me before adding, "don't tell me you want to go all the way there."

"No, the ace will have to move from there and come to meet us," I firmly said and her face turned ugly the moment I said these words.

"There is no risk for the ace there, why would he leave the place and come here?" she didn't seem to see through my intentions here, so I had to elaborate further.

"That place isn't safe, in fact it's very dangerous during the upcoming hours."

"How come… Don't tell me you have intel we don't have?!" She knew me by now. I wasn't the type to fool around or say anything groundless.

"Monsters can't invade water, and the water monsters won't appear this early," I said in agreement, "but you made a grave mistake underestimating your enemies."

"The angels?" her face and tone told me she got what I was trying to say. "Will they use the same weird trap like they used on me?"

I beg to differ! It seemed that ace here was someone they were terrified from. I now knew why the statue of liberty got attacked and smashed down in early quests of the apocalypse.

"They'll use a far brutal and deadly way to kill the ace," I said it with firm tone as this already happened in my time, "that ace had to move fast, leave as far away from that statue before it's too late."

"But…" Angelica's face told me she had something she didn't tell me about yet.

"But what? Monsters? Traitors? The ace can just come directly to here. The way here isn't that long and if he stuck to the main streets, using his items, he could survive. Then we'll wait for him and protect him properly."

That was the best plan I could come up with. I didn't know about any safer place than here. Plus I was now reconsidering to get my item.

After all these angels seemed to be more tricky than I initially thought. If I faced another hybrid monster, I would never be able to defeat it.

I just got lucky that the hybrid monster back there had a mission to accomplish. If not for the teleportation skill embedded inside it, I would rather be heavily wounded by now or even worse.

"The thing is…" her face kept showing that troubled expression, "the ace doesn't have battle abilities. In fact she was gifted with a sight to see through the future of the surrounding monsters. We call her the monster nemesis. She would never survive this journey alone. Her stats are all locked except for intelligence!"

"That…" So she was a girl after all. But that wasn't the main issue here.

I never heard of something like this before. Stats locked except for a single one… wasn't it like dooming that person no matter what? But if that was the case, then that girl would be dead either she stayed there or left.

What should I do? What could I do?