Chapter 19 - Impending Doom

The group of five slowly stood up from the ground, on their face were solemn expressions that showed their worries and anxiety. Human traffickers that dealt with international waters, captured and kidnapped hundreds of students all around the country; of course, they would feel scared and fearful.

Dolian eyed them and sighed. He snapped his fingers, and their mind seemed to inexplicably calm down as if a guiding hand went on to grab all their anxious thoughts and negative emotions dispersed into air, leaving a tranquil lake beside their hearts.

They weren't surprised by this sudden change and silently received it with gratitude. Dolian has already done this multiple times before, and they were quite used to these sudden bouts of calmness that soothed their fears.

As they let out a turbid breath, they couldn't help but thank Dolian from the bottom of their hearts.

"No probs." Dolian smiled as he once again snapped his fingers. A shift started to occur as their presence seemed to meld into the shadows around them, concealing their existence from those around them and making them invisible to the human mind, "I don't want you guys to suddenly turn into pig teammates after that speech now, would I?"

"Ha… ha." Pindle's mouth twitched as she averted her eyes from Dolian's back. But as she did so, she felt a hand pat her on the shoulder and turned to see Dolian's eyes staring back at her.

"Hey, just calm down." Dolian chuckled and pointed at the assortment of vials and glass bottles on her waist, "Just concoct some potions for us, follow my instructions, and we'll deal with them all without much worry."

Dolian's confident smile seemed to ease her newfound worries that resurged even after a placate; it was as if that unwavering belief that they can succeed made her want to also believe in herself and her capabilities.

"And…" Dolian chuckled, "I don't like to say this, but I have a pretty big brain, you know?" He knocked the side of his skull and put on a toothy grin.

"Ugh." Alastor rolled his eyes while soft gusts of wind condensed into an invisible barrier around them. He did a simple test and snapped his fingers, a mannerism he unknowingly gained from Dolian's constant snapping.

As they heard the snap, they were surprised to see, or hear, that the snap didn't go much farther and seemingly stopped right at the edge of the wind bubble around them.

"We're all set." Alastor stomped his foot to check if it still worked, and he was greeted with once again another success, "Sound nullification and psychological invisibility. This would give us a bit more safety and stealth with what we have now."

With them now all set, Pindle carefully gave a vial of blue liquid to Luke.

His hand morphed and changed, turning into a simple metallic spray bottle wherein he inserted the vial into the makeshift spray bottle, and pale blue vapor enveloped their bodies.

Like magic, their bodies quickly vanished as light seemed to refract around them. And so, with the final preparation now finished, they went on and embarked on foot through the silent hallways.

Tip, tap, tip, tap.

They heard the sound of their footsteps through the silent hallway, but none echoed or reverberate like usual. They could only hear their footsteps within their small bubble of air, a sound that continuously disrupts the suffocating silence of the empty hallways.

Surprisingly, even after walking, though only for a short while, they haven't encountered anyone else yet. But they accepted this surprising outcome with gratitude and continued walking, trying to make sure to not bump into each other in their invisible and presence-less states.

And before they knew it, they took a turn and found themselves right at the entrance to the complex, maze-like hallways that lead directly to the underground bunker where more than a hundred students resided in.

'It seems like only a small amount of them were sent out to go through the hallways to locate the underground bunker.' Aleksandra peeked through the open entrance and saw numerous cloaked figures walking around under the illumination of multiple lights scattered all throughout the camp. But even with all the shady people walking around, she still can't help but view the camp as desolate and lifeless, with no signs of their teachers being seen at all.

As she was about to take a step forward through the gates, she felt a hand grab her shoulder and pulled her back. She held back the urge to let out a sound and instead followed Dolian's finger that pointed straight at the door.

Taking a closer look, she saw many strings wrapped around the entrance like a spider's web. Not only that, but she can even feel the various other measures set in place that would alert the people around them if they were to walk through so suddenly.

"There's a trap. If we touched those strings, we might alert them and throw away our stealth advantage." Dolian whispered to the others while observing the roaming guards around them with wary eyes.

"It looks like I'll have to create a large-scale illusion." Dolian crouched down to the ground and stabilize the illusion around them to act as another layer of protection.

In a world where numerous quirks ranging from simple fire starters to godlike abilities that can rewrite the very order of the universe, there is no such thing as being too safe, "Pindle, you have some potions ready?"

"Yes!" Pindle hurriedly grabbed a pair of vials from her utility belt and gave it to Dolian, "A potion that can dull the senses of others and a potion that gives a slight hallucinatory effect."

He stared at the potions in his hand with an interested gaze but didn't linger on for too long, "Luke, be sure to make the stream slow and steady."

"Mmm." Luke nodded and his glowing blue eyes shifted like a camera lens would. Then, after grabbing the vials from Dolian's hand, he morphed both of his hands into a strange gun-like appearance and connected tubes into the two vials.

As Dolian closed his eyes and nodded his head, Luke followed in tacit agreement and sprayed out a colorless, odorless mist that no one noticed or felt due to the minor illusion Dolian created at the same time, and they waited for the mist to diffuse.

Alastor, you'll know what to do."

…

Inside the Glory Academy school camp, over a hundred cloaked figures roamed and walked as they inspected every bit of the camp around them, hoping to find any hidden rats and capture them to gain benefits from the organization they were part of.

Located within a certain building that resembled a watchtower, on the highest point of the camp, a man with black hair and dark purple eyes surveyed the entire camp from his higher point of view and went to stare back at the tablet in his hand.

"There's still no report from Team A." The nameless man scratched his chin as he hummed, "Did that Blitz fellow already enter the bunker?"

"Well…" He chuckled and peered at the distant forest where smoke rose and the sound of explosions echoed, "It doesn't matter in the end."

"I just need to wait for lights out, and this entire farce would end with a plentiful harvest." He laughed, planted his elbow on the railing in front of him, and then proceeded to rest his face with his palm.

All of a sudden, as he was doing his routine inspection once more, he moved his gaze towards the entrance to the complex hallways full of traps for intruders that leads down to the underground bunker and noticed something strange.

"Did someone go through the entrance?" He squinted his eyes as he looked all around the camp and saw nothing suspicious other than the subtle change in the entrance, "Maybe they became tired of activating their quirks for a long period of time? Or was it the wind?"

He then chuckled, "Of course not!"

As he was about to head down to see the entrance for himself, he suddenly saw that tens of his men abruptly turned towards each other, and activated their quirks.

BOOM!

A loud barrage of quirks was unraveled as if a mass hysteria was unfolding right before his eyes. Many lost limbs, some had wood punctured through their stomachs, and others were flung towards a distant wall and had their backs literally broken.

Of course, in today's current advancement through the help of quirks, fixing stuff like a broken spine was an easy matter with enough money, but what happened was still bizarre.

In the next instance, he felt a chill crawl down his spine as he realized the cause of this sudden shift, 'Dolian Tatori!'

At the same moment he realized the cause of the sudden twist, he felt his heart constrict and his intuition for danger erupted. By sheer instinct, a wormhole appeared right below his feet and he disappeared from the building he was on.

Inside one of the random houses in the camp, a wormhole opened and the nameless man's body was flung out. Quickly regaining his balance, he turned to look back towards the watchtower he was just on and saw a bolt of lightning strike down.

"Holy fuck…" He shuddered and gasped; he realized just how terrifying the students were in Glory Academy.

…

"Urk." Springer felt the insanely powerful blood bullet crash against his tougher-than-steel body and he was flung toward the air as if a cannonball just hit him in the gut.

Then as he was flying through the air, he turned his gaze toward the gigantic fist that was the size of his entire body and he clicked his tongue.

"Shielda!" He shouted, and a blue barrier instantly appeared right in front of him to block the metal giant's fist.

Of course, he knew that the flimsy barrier in front of him would be able to stop it, and instead used this opportunity to use the barrier that appeared below his feet as a midair platform and retracted his spring-like legs.

With the immense strain on his legs, he shot forward with a boom and arrived explosively right in front of a young girl with scarlet hair and blood-red eyes. "Gotcha!"

As his fist was about to connect with the young girl's stomach, he suddenly felt a sudden pull on his body and he found himself stopping in midair. In less than a second, he already realized that the metallic parts of his suit were controlled by an external force, and he identified the true quirk of the one maneuvering the metallic giant, "They have someone who can control metal in their team!"

While he shouted out his newfound information, and as the girl's blood-red sword was about to pierce his forehead and kill him without mercy, a fiery bullet tore through the air from the trees beside her. Relying on her instinct, she crouched down to the ground and barely dodged the incoming bullet.

With this short window of opportunity, Springer's spring-like arms compressed as he felt his muscles roar with strength. Then, with her unable to move any further, he grinned, "Bang!"

His fists launched forward with immense might. The air around his arms quaked and produced a loud bang as if he pressed a gun's trigger, and with nothing to stop him, both of his fists landed on her stomach.

Spelch.

The sound of muscles, organs, and bones breaking can be heard as the young girl's body was flung towards a distant tree. Her back arched horrifyingly as blood seeped out from her mouth and wounds, like a broken doll being smashed against a metallic rod.

"Huff…" Springer took a deep breath and landed on the ground. Now with the girl in front of him a nullified threat, he retracted his legs once more and flew up into the sky.

In the sky, a woman flew through the air while leaving behind a trail of light behind her body. Following her was a cloaked man whose feet released catastrophic explosions each second, pushing him forward through sheer force and giving him the ability to fly.

"Come here!" One shouted with malicious intent. He raised both of his arms and as a spark lit up, a loud boom erupted and a mighty explosion erupted.

Lux hurriedly conjured a barrier of light beside her and increased her speed before the explosion could break through her barrier and successfully distanced herself away from One.

As she did so, she heard a loud bang once more, and a bullet as tall as her body appeared from nowhere.

'Crap!' Her eyes widened in shock from this sudden attack, an attack that kept pestering her throughout their entire bout that she couldn't get used to because of its sheer speed and size.

Then, as she was about to fly away and dodge the attack using her lightning-fast reflexes and renowned flying speed, a metallic fist suddenly appeared from nowhere that was even larger than the bullet before her.

Now with two attacks aimed at her in two different directions, she almost despaired at this unavoidable combo when a spherical barrier appeared around her body.

Knowing that her barrier can't withstand the attacks of the two gargantuan objects, Shielda pressed down her palm and the barrier swerved downwards toward the ground, but not fully avoiding the two attacks.

The upper part of the barrier quickly cracked as the two attacks collided with the barrier, breaking it apart in swift succession. But that was enough for Lux to escape and fly away into the distance once more.

Then, from the trees below, a figure bathed in orange flames flew up with a maniacal grin, "EAT THIS! SHITHEADS!"

Then, from the bright orange flames gathered around his hand, they rapidly transformed into a large cannon with a ridiculously long barrel. As the intense heat submerged the area in a hazy mirage, Guns grinned and activated the cannon, "DIE!"

A pillar of flames shot forward, enveloping the metallic giant in bright orange flames and dying the area around it in yellow and red. The metallic giant swiftly melted down into a puddle of goo and the area around it burned.

"HAHAHA!" Guns laughed as he finally dealt with the annoying metallic giant, when all of a sudden, they heard a loud boom echo in the distance.

They snapped their heads toward the explosion and saw a sight that left them dumbfounded. In the middle of the forest, a grassy mound of dirt was enveloped in thick black smoke, and sparks of electricity crackled around it.

"Shit…"

"The power source!"

"The gravity field in the bunker is going to!"

They turned their eyes to the camp, and like an ominous sign, the lights in the camp turned off one by one, enveloping the land with total darkness that left them hopeless.

…

"Hey." A nameless student tapped the shoulder of his fellow classmate.

"Yeah?" They raised their eyebrow.

"I was just wondering, you know, but didn't they have a guy in their group that can create portals?"

"So why don't they just open a portal directly in this room? Not that I hope it would happen."

"Oh, that? The school also thought of the same thing so they created a gravitational field in this bunker that causes any form of spatial teleportation to fail."

"Oh…" The student's eyes lit up, but he murmured, "But if it turns off?"

"If it turns off?" Their fellow classmate chuckled, "Then we're fucked!"

Just as they said so, they saw the lights above their heads blink before a voice echoed, "Back up generators activating."

"Time left before power disappears: 10 hours."

"Bzzt. Time left before power disappears: 9 hours."

"Bzzt. Time left before power disappears: 8 hours."

They stared as the timer in front of them rapidly dwindled in time, and their impending doom neared closer and closer.

AN: This chapter has 2671 words.

Hey... you. So, I was just wondering, but are you perchance interested in a nameless guide for writing and a bunch of other crap that is written by yours truly?

I kind of just want to be a good samaritan and this thought has been bugging my mind lately. I mean, not to brag but I've been in this hellhole for well over 500 days already. I'm more than qualified to write a little guide for newbie writers.

(April 8, 2023 - 499th day of writing)