The Mark

Chapter 44

Chapter 44

"Oh, right. Thanks for listening to me and going to Ikrego to help the Hunter Union. We officially received a letter of gratitude from them," Ayn informed Xander. "Good work."

"It was nothing. I am glad I was able to save citizens. I don’t need any gratitude from them. However, the team they sent was pretty arrogant." Xander remembered the way Hunter Union members acted.

He didn’t bother with them previously, but now he was finding it ironic that they sent a letter of gratitude to them.

Ayn felt like something was wrong. Did they behave badly with him? The Hunter Union members were known to be arrogant, after all.

She grew ever so serious. If they actually behaved like that with the Delta Squad leader of APF, then it was a serious issue that she needed to raise with them and demand an apology from Hunter Union.

They couldn’t misbehave with APF and go freely when they called APF for help. Let alone Xander, even if something like this had happened to a lower member of APF, she would be just as furious.

She asked sternly, "Did something happen between you and them?"

"It’s nothing. Please don’t bother with them. Just some inexperienced kids that didn’t know how big the world actually is," Xander answered, shaking his head.

"If you say so," Ayn said as she dropped the topic unwillingly since Xander didn’t want to blow it up.

...

While Ayn was talking to Xander, another conversation was taking place.

This time, however, the conversation was between two leaders of the Variant Uprising.

The Level leader of Variant Uprising, Vega, was talking to Level leader of Variant Uprising, Dion.

Since they weren’t sure where Lucifer would turn up, they sent Level leader Caen and his team to Erygas. Level Leader Dion and Level Leader Isona were sent to the Dillion Research Facility, which was Lucifer’s target, according to Vega.

Now that it was certain that Caen found Lucifer, Dion and Isona were being told to come back.

"Sigh, I was already prepared to help the kid blow up this place. Unfortunately, he ended up in the wrong location. I guess you were right. APF fooled the kid and made them think that the Facility was in Erygas," Dion told Erygas. The disappointment was evident in his dazzling eyes.

"Yeah. You aren’t needed there anymore. Come back now. Also, bring Isona with you," Vega commanded.

Dion nodded his head, agreeing to the orders before he disconnected the call.

He walked over to Isona.

They had set up a temporary base near the Facility, which was conveniently hidden to keep them safe.

Dion walked inside Isona’s cabin after knocking once.

"Hey, don’t you think you should wait outside and not enter a young lady’s chamber without her permission?" Isona asked as she gazed at Dion. Her cherry red lips curved to form a beautiful smile on her face.

Her smile was so pretty that it was sufficient to make any guy fall in love with her at first sight, but Dion was clearly unaffected.

"Get ready. We are going back," Dion informed Isona, stunning her.

- : He Knows

- : He Knows

- : He Knows

"Are we going back? Why? I am yet to meet the cute kid we are after," Isona inquired, wondering why they were going back so soon.

She soon thought of something as she asked, "Could it be that Caen...."

"Yeah. The kid went to Erygas. Caen has him. He is bringing him back to the base," Dion answered, completing Isona’s sentence.

"Cheh, I guess Caen got lucky this time. Whatever, we can meet the kid at the base as well. As for this Facility, we can blow it up when we come here with the kid to show him our goodwill," Isona let out casually as she stood up from the chair.

The two of them left and collected their teams. After informing their teams, they vacated the place and went back as silently as they came.

...

The Facility where Lucifer had died was protected by the Army of Elysium. It boasted of having the best defense, yet they failed to know of the threat that was lurking right around the corner.

The Variant Uprising members came here and camped nearby and left, all without letting the army find even the smallest of clues about their presence. It showed how trained the Variant Uprising members were and how lax the security of the Facility was.

The army only kept an eye on the Facility, not even bothering to go on patrolling outside even once in a while.

They had come to think that no one was going to attack them. They weren’t aware that there were people after this place... People that were capable of leaving the establishment in ruins... people who could make rivers of blood flow wherever they went.

If Lucifer wasn’t given the wrong address, they would most probably already be dead since not only would Lucifer be attacking them, but Dion and Isona would have come to help as well. They had barely escaped a disaster.

...

Inside the Facility, Doctor Rao was sitting in a chair in his chambers. He was looking at his computer screen, which was showing the data of some human experiments.

"Not bad. If she is like this, she might actually awaken soon. She is nothing like that useless kid that couldn’t awaken despite having such a superior bloodline," Doctor Rao muttered as a smirk formed on his face.

"Soon, it’ll be time," he continued. "I guess I should thank Lucifer for his contribution. No matter how useless he was, at least he did help with this."

"Doctor Rao, wouldn’t we be in trouble if someone else finds out about her? So far, only us know about this," Doctor Laymen expressed his sound concerns. "How long can we keep it a secret for?"

"We are not the only ones who know about this. There is one more person who knows just as much. Even though it is a secret, didn’t you ever wonder why we were able to keep it a secret for so long?" Doctor Rao asked with an amused smile on his face.

"Why? Who else knows? I thought only the two of us knew about her?" Doctor Laymen asked.

Doctor Rao shook his head as he answered, "We aren’t the only ones. General Maxwell knows as well. It’s only because of his high authority that we were able to keep it a secret for so long."

"Ah? Is that why he didn’t give APF the permission to search the Facility when they came last time to find out about Lucifer?" Doctor Layman asked, understanding the secrets that he was unaware of until now.

"That’s right. If the APF guys had searched the Facility, they might have found her. We couldn’t let that happen. It was the same for General Maxwell. That’s why he was so stubborn," Doctor Rao replied.

"Oh, it’s certainly more clear now," Doctor Layman mumbled.

He suddenly thought of something as he sat straight.

"That reminds me. The APF guys were here with the claims of Lucifer being alive. Could there be truth in this?" he asked.

"How could it be true? We all watched Lucifer die. We also have all the data to prove that he was dead," Doctor Rao refuted straight. "There is no way a person whose Cell Destruction was hundred percent could survive. He was dead. Not even the gods could have saved him."

"Why did they claim that he was alive then?" Doctor Layman inquired again. The more he asked, the more his questions increased.

Doctor Rao smiled confidently as he answered, "It was obviously because they wanted to use that as an excuse to search our facilities. They are concerned with variants, and there are a few rumors about our Facility."

" It is clear why they would want to investigate us. They probably found Lucifer’s dead body. They knew they couldn’t search us legally, so they used the excuse of Lucifer being alive. The excuse of national threat is a valid excuse to search us after all."

"That’s true. It’s good that General Maxwell took care of the problem and didn’t give them the permission to search," Doctor Layman sighed in relief.

...

In a different place, a man in a military uniform stepped out of his vehicle. He walked inside a beautiful-looking mansion.

As he stepped inside, he was greeted by the butler.

The butler asked, straightforwardly, "What business brought you here?"

"I wish to meet General Maxwell. I have an appointment with him," the army man said.

"May I know your name?" the butler inquired.

" I am Maine," the middle-aged man answered without getting impatient.

"Very well, Mister Maine. My Master is waiting for you inside," the butler answered after making sure that the name matched.

He escorted the middle-aged man to a room where General Maxwell was sitting on a sofa. He was watching the news on TV.

"Master, Mister Maine is here to see you," the butler conveyed to General Maxwell before he took his leave, giving them privacy.

General Maxwell turned off the TV lazily, using the remote.

"Take a seat," he casually said, without even glancing back.

- : Sacrificing A Few

- : Sacrificing A Few

- : Sacrificing A Few

Maine walked forward and sat on a chair that was in front of general Maxwell.

"So, Maine. Did you find what I asked you to? Is Lucifer really alive or not?" General Maxwell asked without delaying for even a second.

"Is he alive?" General Maxwell asked Maine, carelessly.

Maine stayed still for a few seconds before he opened his lips and said with a tinge of uncertainty, "I don’t know."

"How can you not know? I gave you the permission to use all the resources and the authority needed. You still couldn’t find out if they were telling the truth or not?" General Maxwell asked, looking unimpressed.

"I did find a few things, but none of them were enough to ascertain the validity of those claims. That’s why I can’t say for sure if they were lying or telling the truth," Maine lamented.

He also wanted to be of service to the General and help him by providing the information that he needed, but he couldn’t give unverified news as that defeated the whole purpose of it.

"Oho? Even you weren’t able to verify it fully?" General Maxwell asked in amazement.

Maine nodded his head as he sighed.