Chapter 64 - Aftermath Part 2 (1/2)
Minutes before the hotel began rumbling, a short, round man in an expensive grey and black suit stood atop the building, on the highest floor's balcony, looking out over the expanse of darkness to the west. This man was Haylon Nightingale, the master of the underground organization known as Haylon's Shadow.
In the room behind him, dozens of young, lifeless corpses were scattered about as if they were articles of trash. If one were to examine the bodies further, they would see that each one of them had a fist-sized hole in their chests, just beside where a human heart would rest. These remains were all severely dehydrated, almost to the point of mummification, and had an expression of terror and pain etched forever in their childish faces.
Upon sensing the death of all his slaves, including the strongest, Myer Avio, Haylon had expedited his extraction process without caring one bit about the suffering of the children. To him, these human children were nothing more than research subjects that would further enhance his own power and knowledge. As such, even with the corpses strewn across the room, he was entirely unaffected.
Looking into the distance, Haylon's eyebrow furrowed, and his eyelids narrowed as he sensed the incoming fleet of ships. ”Tsk, It seems as though one of the little rats has alerted their family.” His eerie voice seemed to drip out of his throat, with a strange accent that made it evident that the common language wasn't his natural tongue.
”Nine years and seven months of research have been destroyed due to the incompetence of these filthy human slaves. I knew I should have fully blooded them.” A strange pale yellow light flickered in his eyes as he shifted his vision, from the vessels flying towards his location to a monitor hanging in the living room. On it, he saw two young children covered in blood, wearing shredded clothing on the screen. The two boys were collapsed in the rubble of their own creation and panting heavily.
”There is something strange about these two. To jump Tiers and fight on even footing with someone many times their age and strength….” His voice trailed off while remembering the scenes of the two boys erupting in colorful Mana particles and slaughtering their way through the lobby before eliminating his strongest subordinate.
Shaking his head in disappointment, Haylon looked away and stepped to the edge of the balcony before casually hopping up onto the railing.
”It's a shame they've crippled their Codexes and Circuits; Tier-0 is the extent they will grow. They would have made brilliant research subjects otherwise.” Then, waving his hand lazily and assembling a mass of sickly Grey Mana particles around himself, Haylon stepped off the balcony's railing and into the air before calmly walking several feet into the air above the hotel.
”This base has been compromised; neither the Naturalist nor Purist factions will allow its existence. Unfortunately, those hardheaded, idiotic fools have been joining together to hunt me as of late. Unfortunately, it seems the enemy of their enemy is barely enough to stop their incessant infighting long enough to work together. Hmm, I suppose I am to blame; after all, I have taken the youth of both factions.” His pale yellow eyes scanned the surrounding buildings before taking note of a swarm of heat signatures on the first floor of an abandoned office building.
This sight caused Haylon to grunt in dissatisfaction. Although he could quickly go and recapture these escaped children, time wasn't on his side. He could feel a powerful presence rivaling his own on the lead ship not far away. Cutting his losses and vacating the premises as quickly as possible and not being forced into a pissing match with this other being was the more logical path.
A fight between two beings of the 5th Tier would draw unnecessary attention and last for a significant amount of time. Furthermore, it wasn't easy to kill someone of their Tier and as such, going into combat was not the right choice.
No longer thinking about his present situation, Haylon waved his hand lazily, and a hazy Grey fog congregated around the entirety of the hotel like a giant serpent and began constricting the building. It would swiftly start decaying wherever the fog touched, causing the metallic material to rust and creak loudly.
Nodding his head in satisfaction, Haylon turned his back as the building began crumbling behind him and slashed out his right arm. The action caused the space in front of him to shatter, revealing an endless expanse of starlight and violent storms of Mana particles.
Closing his eyes and paying no attention to the destruction behind him, Haylon stepped into the spatial crack and disappeared. A second later, the tear in space sealed itself as if it never existed.
Back in the collapsing hotel's lobby, Cynrik and Brance were running around like chickens without their heads and trying to extract as many of the Mana Codexes from the corpses scattered about from their earlier battle.
{Fuck, FUCK, THIS PLACE IS COMING DOWN, BRANCE HURRY UP! OUR PRIZES WE HAVE TO GET OUR PRIZES!!!} Jumping to the side and narrowly avoiding a large chunk of concrete the size of his body, Cynrik screamed into the mind link.