Epiphany Of The Weak 135 Into The Underground City

When Leon opened it, a descending staircase came into view. The pathway was dark, so we couldn't see anything besides the staircase itself.

"This one staircase leads to the underground city?" said Jennifer.

"Yeah. Straight down and anyone can reach it," replied Leon.

"I see." Hope proceeded to ask Beatrice if she could get Klaus to tell about the civilians' safety. Later, she informed us that they were indeed safe

"Why, Hope?" she asked him.

"Ah, well . . . Just to make sure that there will be no trouble from here on out."

"Huh?"

Hope cast a glance at Leon. "Are there any more entrances in Saratov that will lead to the underground city?"

Leon nodded. "The entrances were spread throughout Saratov. This warehouse is the closest one, and I used this entrance before to run away."

I looked at Hope. He seemed to know what I had in my mind from the very beginning. Perhaps he sensed my doubts when we followed Leon's lead. As expected, I could depend on Hope without actually telling him what I was thinking.

I nodded at Hope.

"Alright," he said.

Swiftly, he grabbed Leon's arms and kicked him in the leg. Leon screamed before he fell on both knees. "What are you doing?!"

My crimson scythe slashed the air and I pointed it at his neck. The scythe pulsed in red, as it tried to harm Leon right at that moment. Truly, my hatred had taken its roots a long time ago, affecting how my Aegis crystals react.

"What . . ." Leon's jaw dropped, his eyes cast glances at each member of our group as if he was trying to understand why we did that.

The scythe that I had formed from my right arm touched Leon's neck.

"Eeek!"

"Stop acting, Leon," I said.

Aside from me and Hope, everyone else was confused.

"Ava," called Beatrice.

Leon's eyes glared at me. "I demand an explanation."

"Of course."

I slashed at his right ear.

"AAAAARGGH!"

Leon gritted his teeth, trying to suppress the pain.

"Av-"

"Leon is an Aegis User," I said before Jennifer could finish her sentence. "My Aegis told me back at the Teria airs.h.i.+ps that it sensed Leon's Aegis."

"What?" Beatrice narrowed her eyes at Leon.

Everyone focused their attention on Leon as his right ear regenerated. Sofeea, however, had a blank expression on her face as usual.

"See?" I swung my scythe in front of his face and he jerked his head back. Then, something unexpected happened.

A thick layer that covered his face fell off, revealing an entirely new face underneath. He was wearing a mask all along, a synthetic one too at that.

"WHO ARE YOU?!" I yelled, causing him to whimper on the spot.

Hope nodded at me. "First of all, his explanation was strange." He adjusted his hold on Leon's arms."It's not like I had set foot in an underground city before, but I'm fairly certain that there would have been quite an amount of supplies pre-stocked. Surely the ones in charge of that city would have antic.i.p.ated something like a blocked supply route into account. To counter any shortage of supplies, I'm sure they have one or two methods to restock the necessities."

Leon's eyes were wide open as if he didn't realize he had been exposed to be an Aegis User a few minutes ago. "B-But--"

"Killing civilians is not something The People's Light would do as far as I'm concerned. I was a part of that group before, and even though I didn't get to meet the main group in Russia, the rest of them were acceptable human beings. Even though a few had some grudge on me for some reason," said Hope.

Beatrice held her hands in front of her chest. "You were from The People's Light?"

"Yeah . . ." Hope glared at Leon. "If The People's Light is indeed in charge of the underground city right now, killing civilians wouldn't solve anything. Those rebels could just drive them out as a last resort, and I'm sure they wouldn't want to be involved in an internal conflict in dire times like this."

Leon was shaking.

"They were trying to kill us! And I'm sure they still do such thing to the rest of the civilians!" said Leon.

"Even so, the fact still remains that you hid your status of being an Aegis User from us," said Beatrice. "And I don't buy that nonsense you spoke of. You are clearly lying to us."

We nodded at Beatrice.

Leon's expression turned bitter at his inability to counter her statements. "I . . ."

"Who are you exactly?" I asked him again, my scythe threatened to cut his throat if he attempted to run away.

Lily sighed. She entered her Full Aegis Form and walked over to Leon's side. "You know . . ." Her right hand immediately grabbed Leon in the jaw as her yellow eyes looked straight into his soul. "Perhaps Klaus knows who you are."

Beatrice had activated her Hologram Bracelet, revealing a hologram of Klaus in blue light.

Klaus's face turned pale as soon as he saw us, including Leon.

"T-That's Kian! He's the First Pillar!" exclaimed Klaus.

The blonde man, Kian, smiled when his name was called.

"Hm!"

I cut open his throat with one swift slash, and Lily smashed his head onto the cemented floor after that.

"Ack!"

He tried to break away from Hope's hold on his arms, but it was futile. Hope then covered Leon's body slowly in his golden Aegis crystals. My crimson scythe turned into liquid before taking the shape of quadruple blades with one hilt.

However, before I could deal any significant damage to Kian, his own Aegis crystals surfaced from his arms and legs. His crystals had the color of glowing white, with spots of bright red that sparkled ever so often.

It was too bright, of which my eyes were forced to squint just to look at it.

A moment later, Hope's golden crystals that were coating Kian's body disintegrated. When the white crystals touched Hope's hands, something happened.

"What the!"

Hope's hands immediately ceased to exist, as if he never had hands before. That one event pulled everyone's attention to him.

"Aaaaah!" Hope screamed. A few seconds later, his hands began to regenerate itself, which calmed him down.

Kian grinned when he managed to slip away from Lily. It only took him a moment, and yet, he was already at the underground city's entrance.

"I have high hopes to play around with you guys a little more. Such a shame, really." He smiled at me as his injury healed. "Big Sis Ava, I'm happy that you're doing alright. Gotta tell Ama when I get back. Welp, time to vanish into the darkness."

"Wait!" I yelled.

Kian disappeared into the underground city's entrance. Sofeea and Lily tried to chase after him when the warehouse shook. A few seconds later, the walls that formed the path leading downwards into the underground city merged together.

The quake stopped after that, leaving us with the closed entrance.

"We should chase Kian right now," said Jennifer and Lily at the same time.

Sofeea shook her head slowly. "No. Forgive me, Mer Lily, but I'm sure we shouldn't tread into an unknown territory such as the underground city without caution and much-needed preparation."

I raised my hand. "I agree with Sofeea. We should at least wait for Caesar and his group to arrive here."

Hope nodded as he watched his hands regenerating. "As much as I want to chase after that guy, we should stick together. There's no telling what awaits us down there."

Everyone else nodded in agreement.

We contacted Caesar after that, and he informed that his group would arrive in five more minutes. As we waited for them to get there, an idea popped up in my mind.

"I know! Um, I can melt the wall blocking the staircase's path with my flames. Then, when Caesar arrives, we can just get in there without wasting any time."

"Yeah. It's worth a try," said Hope.

"I agree," said Beatrice and Lily.

"Can't say no to that," muttered Jennifer.

I looked at Sofeea and she bowed at me. "It's a brilliant idea, Mer Ava."

"Hehehe. Now I'm embarra.s.sed," I said, scratching my head.

"Well, get on it," said Beatrice finally.

"Oh right."

I formed large, white muzzles from my palms and white flames burst out from it. The merged walls melted in a matter of seconds, revealing the staircase and a faint light at the end of it.

"Maybe I can check if the path is still blocked or not," I said.

"Oh, I'll follow you, Mer Ava," offered Sofeea.

"Okay."

Both of us descended down the staircase, where every side of the walls glowed in red from my white flames. We reached the foot of the staircase soon after.

"Woah!" I muttered.

"What is this?" said Sofeea.

Both of our jaws dropped at the sight.

There, a city with stone buildings everywhere greeted both of us.

Ma.s.sive, metal slates had been soldered at the side of the buildings, with metal pipes protruding from it. The metal pipes were connected to the gla.s.s dome that encompa.s.sed the entire city. Also, the gla.s.s was not just a mere gla.s.s. Every few seconds, the clouds that the gla.s.s displayed moved slowly as if an actual sky was shadowing the underground city. Looking at the artificial sky, one could tell it was a video of some sort that played, perhaps, through an entire day.

There were five ma.s.sive, metal slates that hogged each four side of the sky gla.s.s display. From a glance, I a.s.sumed the slates were air vents, filtering and providing air for the underground city.

"Ava!" shouted Hope from the surface of the entrance. "The Freya rebel group has arrived along with Caesar!"

"Oh, guess we should head back, Sofeea," I said.

"Indeed."

"Hold up! What are you two doing here?" said a burly man in casual clothing. He approached us with a gun in his hands. His friends were behind him, also aiming at us with their guns.

"Ah, well, can you wait until the rest of us come down here?" I said. My red and blue eyes glowed faintly as if my hatred was poked a little in the inside. Looking at those guys kind of irritated me, but, I calmed myself down.