Chapter 31: The Compound

He had packed enough water to last a normal person a few days in the desert but with his immunity to the heat, it seemed like it would last him much more with him not wasting any on sweating.

Lucas found himself walking through the desert for nearly 4 days until he found himself near the compound.

He stared at the map in front of him and found out that there seemed to be people patrolling the perimeter of it. There were at least 5 groups of 4 guards walking it every hour and it seemed rather easy to dodge them, but past the perimeter, there was a wall that held surveillance cameras... at least that was what the map said.

'This is gonna be difficult... I should just walk up. They should be friendly right?' Lucas thought to himself before shooting it down instantly.

'I can't trust people anymore... Not since the hospital,'

'If I get caught, I get caught. I can always fight my way out.' Lucas decided.

He made his way forward through what looked to be a gravel road that surrounded a large concrete wall that seemed to not have any entrances. The only thing that was on the wall seemed to be small slits that were most likely where the surveillance cameras.

The wall was nearly 30 feet tall and after some examination, Lucas decided that there wasn't any easy way to climb it as it was mostly smooth.

The map said that the fairy was near the center of the building so there wasn't a benefit of going from a specific side...

'Let's wreck this shit,'

It took a single supercharged swing of Indissolubilis to cause a visible crack to appear in the building.

'Looks promising,'

He continued swinging the bat until there he had gotten halfway through the wall, but the sounds of feet pounding on the gravel road behind him stopped his progress.

"Trespasser caught on the perimeter. The individual is of average height with a burly build. Match's the description set in the bounty" A male's voice echoed out through a helmet.

Lucas turned to find himself slowly being surrounded by 4 men wearing black suits. They had simple black helmets and wielded machine guns that looked to be military-grade... Lucas would know that much at least.

The sound of crackling static could be heard and muffled words echoed back through the 4 men's helmets. They all nodded simultaneously and raised their guns towards Lucas.

"Ugh... I didn't want to get in a fight so soon but it looks like I got no choice," Lucas sighed before readying his trusty bat.

"Halt! Lucas Walker, We are under strict command to bring you to our general. Shall we do this peacefully or..." The center guard echoed through his helmet.

Lucas pondered for a moment on what to do then slowly nodded.

"Fine," he said curtly.

'Hopefully, it gets me closer to the center faster.'

The guards slowly put their guns down and nodded before reporting back to their 'general'. After a few minutes of debate, Lucas found himself slowly being led into the compound in a rather friendly manner.

During the whole interaction, Lucas wasn't asked to turn over his weapons or was trying to be killed or used as a guinea pig by some random chick.

'Would rate it a 4/5 so far. The ambiance isn't what I hoped it would be but it could suit unique tastes...' Lucas jokingly thought to himself as he noticed the guards didn't seem to be one for small talk.

After approaching the corner of the compound wall, one of the guards approached it and placed his hand against the wall. In an instance, a stairway was revealed and they motioned for Lucas to go up.

He nodded and made his way forward to find himself in a large military-like camp. The ground was mostly gravel and patches of grass that seemed to have been artificially brought here. Many small buildings and large bunker-like buildings filled the space as well as a random training field ever now and then.

'So this is what remains of the military... Doesn't seem too promising.'

'Why the hell are these people even treating me this nicely when they tried to kill me previously?' pondered Lucas.

After a while, Lucas was led to the main building in the center of the Compound and Lucas found that he was in the same building as the Fairy.

The building they entered was made out of bright white steel that seemed to reflect the sun in a manner that seemed to make it glow.

It was a three-story building and had a few windows on the top floor. It seemed to be a 'headquarters' esque building as there was security almost at every inch of the building. Lucas felt his instincts flaring up as he noticed it would be hard to make it out of here if they all turned on him but Lucas decided to put some faith in this interaction.

'The government doesn't seem to be very smart. So why would they lure me here if they had no motive? They openly allowed me to get close to their leader, This shows trust... or desperation,'

Slowly the guards lead Lucas into the third floor. What he saw there put his body into pure shock.

Cages lined the wall. And inside of them were a few kinds of special races.

In a cage to his right, there was a simple fairy that seemed to be what he was looking for but after further inspection, the creature simply shifted into a new form... that of one resembling him. The creature gave a devilish smirk towards him and waved gently.

Lucas turned his attention towards another cage and found a small tiger-sized sleeping dragon. It had green scales that had a certain char to them, almost as if it was being cooked slowly. Smoke gently exited its snout every few moments as it breathed.

The third cage had the fairy he was looking for. It was an old lady who had bright golden wings that had thousands of faces on them that seemed to be screaming for help. The lady met his gaze and nodded gently as her opaque white eyes stared through him.

Lucas turned his attention from the cages to a man sitting at a desk not far away from him.

The man had a skin tone that was a dark shade and was wearing a formal military outfit that had many decorations on it. His hair was a typical crew cut and his body's physique was a very muscled one. He typed away at a keyboard that linked up to a sleek computer and after a few minutes finally finished what he was doing and stood up to greet Lucas.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Lucas Walker!" The General said as he approached Lucas and reached his hand out for a handshake.

Lucas reached out and shook his hand with a firm grip, that to his surprise, was received with the same amount of strength if not more.

Lucas nodded appreciatively before being stopped by a system notification.

<User is under the effect of <Charm of a General>. User has total soul immunity so the skill does not work on user>

Lucas furrowed a brow as he stared at the general who furrowed his in kind.

"It seems like you are much stronger than our information reported," The general said in a deep voice that demanded to be in command.

"I haven't seen a human with a soul affecting ability yet. Though I haven't been able to fight many humans as of late..."

The general frowned even further before sitting down and offering Lucas a chair in kind.

Lucas hesitantly sat down and waited for the general to speak.

"My name is Nicholas Carter. And yours is Lucas Walker." He stated plainly.

"I am the general of this proud country... or at least what remains of it."

"And you are, or were, the vice representative of The Hand. The dangerous criminal group that had rained down upon this continent for nearly a decade."

Lucas nodded to each statement without denying a single thing.

"I, indeed, was a part of The Hand. Though after some personal life reasons I decided to turn over a new leaf as a friendly neighborhood construction worker."

The General frowned as if this was information that he hadn't received before.

"Are you not still a part of The Hand?"

"I haven't been a part of The Hand for nearly 5 years now, General. As I said, I turned over a new leaf."

The general continued to frown and put his hands together in a sign of concentration.

"I apologize full-heartedly Lucas,"

"I apologize for doing all of this to you,"

"I had intel that said you still had your chip in the pile. That you and The Hand were just waiting for the right time to come back,"

"The Hand disbanded and you know this. So why do you speak as if it never truly died?" Lucas chimed in and asked.

The general sat back in his chair and released a deep sigh.

"The Hand never dies. It's been around for nearly 200 years, Lucas. It always dies down for a few years before resurging twice as strong."