Clearly, there was nobody to blame but themselves, as well as the decisions they made. That is what brought them here in the first place, and now they were facing the consequences.With the female guard stepping forward, the remaining guards retreated back against the rubble as close as possible until they were backs to the wall, leaving only her to face the onslaught of the frenzied attackers alone.But she wasn’t scared, and with a self-pitying smile, the female guard closed her eyes and unleashed her powers.Fwoosh!The sound of rapid air currents pushing forcefully to form a highly compressed wave of air pressure that spread outward came like a clap of thunder and blasted everything surrounding the female guard away, knocking the guards and attackers away like rag dolls.Everything was sent flying away, from Cale’s people, who tumbled away to fall into the open rift with an inaudible splash, their fates unknown, to the remaining guards who, along with the rubble at their backs, we

The commotion in the laboratory did not go unnoticed. With the violent quake that served as a precursor to the fateful showdown in the lab’s lower levels, it was very hard not to notice that something was going on. Especially in the outer district of the fortress where the laboratory was located… as soon as the quakes hit, every resident of the outer district was alerted, with many who lived close to the epicenter of the quake running away and abandoning everything in panic. All of this naturally drew the attention of certain entities within the fortress, all of whom made a beeline for the hilltop upon sensing the commotion. It was only a matter of time before the center of the quakes would become surrounded, but amongst the interested parties, the security bureau was the first to arrive, responding quite swiftly to the disturbance, as was their duty. Conrad stood outside facing a partially collapsed hilltop, which was suspected to be where the quakes had originated from. Around hi

“Sir, we have discovered something.”As soon as Officer Woniel reached Conrad, he went straight to the point and gave his report.Turning his attention away from the two accompanying individuals, Conrad asked, “What did you find?”Officer Woniel replied, “We found a black site facility built deep inside the hill, extending at least fifty meters underground, sir—maybe more.”Hearing this, Conrad glanced at the two people beside Woniel while musing aloud, “Is that so? How did you discover this?”Woniel answered, “The partial collapse from the quake revealed a hollow inner cavity inside the hill, exposing part of the facility’s top structure.”“Then do you know what type of black site facility this is?” Conrad asked again.“No, sir. We were still in the process of investigating when we ran into these two individuals here, who requested to see you.”Now that the matter of the man and woman beside Officer Woniel had come up, Conrad finally turned to them and asked directly, “And who are yo

At the same time, in multiple locations all over the fortress, several people were getting the same message all at once…A few minutes later, an emergency conference meeting was being held by Hive members to discuss an urgently pressing issue.Eight people were gathered, all of them in different states of untidiness, showing just how hastily they had all tried to be here. As it was early in the day, most of them had other engagements prior to this that they had to be pulled out of just to show up for this meeting.As soon as everybody was gathered, one of them immediately spoke out in irritation.“What is all this fuss about? I was handling a very important task when I suddenly received the summons to gather urgently without so much as an explanation as to why. So, whoever is responsible had better have a very good explanation for all this!”That person wasn’t the only one with complaints. Several others among the eight also expressed severe dissatisfaction at being dragged here on su

Faced with Credence’s reprimand, the meeting became much more civil, with minister Cole and minister Bolovia no longer going at each other’s necks. There was silence in the meeting room for a while until minister Eisendale finally spoke up, asking, “What else do we know about the earthquake—specifically regarding the anomalous source project?” This question was directed at old Ludwig, but it was minister Bolovia who answered. “The project already risks complete exposure. As of a few minutes ago, I received information that the fifth division of the security bureau, which is the closest in the area, had already arrived on site and begun investigating the cause of the earthquake. It is only a matter of time before they discover the black site facility buried deep in the hill.” Hearing this news, all the ministers were immediately alarmed. “That fast? Then aren’t we wasting time here by doing nothing?” “Exactly! The anomalous source project can never be known to the public an