The Mark

Chapter 45

Chapter 45

"The APF database is almost impossible to break in for us. As for their words, that’s something we can’t trust," he said. "What I found did make it seem like their words were the truth, but I found no convincing evidence to prove that they weren’t lying. It’s entirely possible that they used an ongoing situation to make up the whole thing."

"What ongoing situation? Tell me everything that you found," General Maxwell commanded in his heavy voice.

"There have been a few strings of murders. Not little murders but full-on slaughters. Apparently, an ability user is involved. That’s why APF has the jurisdiction."

" They haven’t released the pics of the culprit or any videos of the murder sites. I am not sure if they themselves have the videos since the places where this happened didn’t have cameras," Maine started explaining.

"Anyway, from what I heard, it was done by a ten-eleven-year-old kid, which matches the description of the boy, so there can be some truth to it, but with no video evidence, I can’t verify this piece of information," he continued.

"True. If it is really a scheme by APF, they could have just planted the witnesses to make it seem like it was done by a kid. It is not something hard for them. I also wouldn’t put it beyond them if their aim is to investigate me," General Maxwell muttered as he fell into deep thought.

"Without damning evidence, it can’t be ascertained if it is the truth. My men are entirely sure that it is a lie since they watched the kid die. I am more prone to believe that as well, but I still put you to investigate the claims for my satisfaction," he continued. "Who knew it would only raise more questions."

"Should I keep searching?" Maine asked.

General Maxwell shook his head as he answered, "There’s no need anymore. If you weren’t able to find anything, I’m sure you can’t find it later either. Let’s put it to rest."

"The kid is certainly dead. On the off chance that he is alive, as they said, APF can deal with him. There is no need for me to concern myself so much," he continued.

"As you say," Maine said as he stood up. "I’ll take my leave."

He turned back and walked out the door.

After Maine left, General Maxwell threw his head back as he looked at the roof.

He softly muttered, "APF guys, huh. It’s fine if it’s only their Delta Squad trying to snoop. I can even handle it if the Beta Squad joins. However, Varant is another deal altogether. If he jumps in the mix and tries to dig in deep, things could get messy."

There was a complicated look on his face.

...

Back on the battlefield, it was a mess. The Variants that were jumping out of the falling helicopters were being killed by Lucifer. They weren’t even getting a chance to position themselves in the air to counter before they were killed.

Noticing the screams of the ones that had jumped out, the ones inside realized something was happening outside. They looked out only to see dead bodies lying on the ground.

"Don’t jump outside! That grim reaper is killing everyone one after another. If you jump out, he will kill you as well."

"You expect us to stay inside and die after the crash? We have no chance of survival if we don’t jump outside!"

"Yeah! We need to go out, or we can just wait inside to die!"

"All of you, stop wasting time!" Flourance shouted, ending the discussion of his teammates. "All of you jump out at once! He can’t kill everyone at once. The long-range attackers can position themselves and fire on him to keep him busy!"

"Doesn’t that mean a few of us that jump out would die?" One of the Variants asked.

"There is no other option. We can either take the risk and sacrifice a few, or we can all die! I see no other option," Flourance answered, objectively.

Even he didn’t wish to have people sacrifice themselves, but this was the only option. If all of them jumped out at once, it was evident that some of them would be killed by Lucifer, but that would give others the chance to position themselves to counterattack.

This was better than dying one by one after jumping outside or dying in the crash.

"Do it now! Don’t think too much!" he thundered in a commanding tone.

The others also realized that there was no other option left. After gathering their courage and stoning their hearts, they jumped outside.

Lucifer was wondering why no one was jumping out as the helicopter kept going down, twisting and turning uncontrollably. He was even thinking about going closer to see, but that’s when he saw people jump out.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t one or two that jumped out but everyone else as well. They all jumped out together.

Lucifer tried to find Flourance amongst them to target him first, but he wasn’t there. Even though everyone had jumped out, Flourance was not amongst them.

Everyone jumped out with a parachute except Flourance.

Flourance wanted to go out last since he was sure that he would be the first person Lucifer would kill if he went out first.

Even though he was someone who had the Spatial Displacement ability to survive even the most dangerous of attacks, that ability has a limitation.

- : Fight Back

- : Fight Back

- : Fight Back

Flourance had a very special skill, but it came with a few limitations that rarely anyone knew about.

Firstly, it could only be used for a second at once before it was automatically canceled. The bigger problem at the moment was the second limitation of this ability which was something that Flourance was actually worried about because that was basically his true weakness in this situation.

The second limitation was that the object he was carrying wasn’t affected by this ability. That made it so that the parachute was still vulnerable.

Even if he could survive the attack, if his parachute was hit, the outcome was going to be the same. That would result in him falling on the ground, face first, and dying.

As he was worried about this, he let the others go out first so he could jump after Lucifer was already engaged by his team members. It was no less than using his team as bait for his survival.

All he wanted was to get to the ground successfully. He could handle the rest after that.

After not Finding Flourance amongst the crowd that had jumped out, Lucifer decided to go with the second-best option, which was to kill as many as he could.

He raised both his hands towards the front and fired the lightning bolts simultaneously towards the ones that he found to be strong.

"Aaa!"

The ones who were hit by the bolts screamed in agony as their entire body was electrified. Not only that, but the lightning bolt also left a big hole in their bodies.

Lucifer understood that these people were going to kill him or imprison him forever, so he needed to take them out to escape that fate.

Since everyone was getting close to the ground, they all pulled the strings of their parachute, opening it.

In the time it took for the Parachutes to open, Lucifer had only managed to kill four people; however, these four were among the Delta Squad’s strongest.

Flourance had kept the strongest of his team in the first helicopter in which he was traveling. The weaker ones were traveling in the third one. Thus, the ones that Lucifer had killed were all the top of the top in the Delta Squad.

Xander was the Leader of the Delta Squad who was already pained when he found out that two Variants were killed in catching Lucifer. He had no idea that it was only the start. Close to eight were killed already.

Flourance didn’t have time to call and inform Xander about the disaster they were facing.

Eight people were killed by him by now, leaving only six more. The six people were tougher to handle, though, as they were all the ones that had the power to attack from a distance. They had enough time to balance themselves as well since Lucifer was distracted in killing others.

This was all the time Lucifer got before all six of them started attacking Lucifer. The attacks all came at the same time, as if they were all in sync.

This was also when Flourance jumped out of the helicopter, making it so that no one was left inside. He also opened his parachute without delay for even a single second.

Seeing his men attack at the same time, he complimented them.

"Good work. Keep attacking him," he said. "We just need to survive until we land. Just one more minute!"

...

"There they come. I knew it wouldn’t last for long. They are fighting back. Lucifer’s free reign is over. I wonder if he can kill them before they land on the ground. The fight would get tougher if they managed to land," Caen muttered as he observed the changing landscape of the battle.

From the one-sided s*******r, it was looking more like a proper battle as the Delta Squad members fought back.

There was a phone in his hand. He had already expected that they would fight back. He knew things wouldn’t end so quickly since he was more experienced than Lucifer.

He understood all too well how resilient the APF was. That was why he had already called his team members.

They were all waiting some distance away from them, ready to blow up the helicopters. Caen told them about the change in plans and commanded them to come here, prepared for the battle.

He still hadn’t informed Vega about how the situation had changed. He had previously told Vega that he had the kid, and he was bringing him back soon.

He didn’t wish to explain how things were screwed up now. Also, he didn’t see any point in it since it wasn’t as if Vega, Dion, or Isona could come here to help them.

"Even though only seven members are left, I can see they are all strong. Do I need to involve myself in this battle? Or should I let the kid handle it until my team comes?" Caen muttered.

He saw a barrage of attacks coming towards Lucifer, who dodged most of them.

Even though he dodged, he was still hit by what seemed like an illusory knife that stabbed the right side of his chest. It was targeted at his heart. However, Lucifer moved in the last moment, making it miss his heart.

The illusory knife stabbed in his chest, but it disappeared, leaving a wound in his chest.

It was the attack of a red-haired man who was called Vey.

Vey was counted in the delta squad’s strongest members since he was strong, and his ability was pretty peculiar.