A glowing blue portal cracked open near the middle of the Central Hub, with three figures hauling a body into the room. Terry walked with a man slung on his shoulder, while his helmet retracted back into the tight neckline of his bodysuit.
Karsen shouted something and workers rushed in, putting the man in some strange cage before disappearing into the hallways away from the view of others.
In total, less than five minutes had passed for them to apprehend the rogue super.
“Pretty swift, eh?” Braun asked with a skewer of meat at hand.
“That’s how we usually do things here,” said Jonas. “Send in three Level 2s, and basically overpower the rogue super in the shortest time possible.”
“Smart,” commented Braun. He then looked at the hallway where the workers took the apprehended individual and pointed at it, saying, “So… what will they do with that guy?”
“That…” Jonas wore a wry grin.
“We don’t know.” Terry shrugged his shoulders and grabbed three skewers from the table near him. “Well, I do know that they take them into some portal, but as for what the higher-ups do with those rogue supers, that’s for them to deal with.”
“I see,” muttered Braun. Then, dismissing his previous question, he leaned on a table and asked another question, “So, what ability did they have?”
“Level 1 Blood Knife Creation. He was doing a little bit of knife stabbing in some alley, so he was probably a murderer before he got his abilities, probably through a crystal in the wild.” Jonas took a glass of champagne and sat down on a nearby chair.
“Mhm.” Braun nodded his head, then smiled. “So, how frequent were super activities before the meteors? I assume they weren’t this many before that.”
“Oh, they were a lot rarer compared to this!” Terry sighed as if reminiscing a once glorious past. “We probably had like months where we didn’t have to do anything! Superpowers were originally rare, you know. The rate of being born with superpowers is like one in a thousand… or was it ten thousand? I don’t know, it’s just rare!”
“Fortunately, the Ten Council Members influenced the trajectory of a majority of those crystals and even caught many of them before they could hit the Earth. If not, then superpowers would be commonplace already!” Jonas said, with awe clear in his voice.
“Ah yes, the mythical ten council members…” Braun grinned. Ten entities that are at least Level 6, with the third, second, and first seats being known as ancient monsters that had existed since the age of gods.
Ruling the entire world with an iron fist; with their radars, it’d take a miracle for any other humans to reach Level 6. Just the mere energy fluctuations from ascending to that realm would be like a flame in the middle of the night. It wouldn’t take a genius to know what would happen to those unfortunate few.
Braun inwardly praised Aegis’ deadly grip over the entire world and quietly listened in on the conversation of others, zoning out the distractions to gather more info while having his share of the fun.
…
As the day slowly came to a close, Braun found himself wandering into a hallway with a metallic gray door that served as a stark contrast to the neat white halls. Raising his arm clad in a black, skintight suit, the sensors beside the door detected his presence and confirmed his identity.
The door opened on its own, revealing a room that was both minimalistic, but had plenty of room for personalization.
This was his personal living quarters in the base, a place where he could live indefinitely for as long as he wanted for absolutely free.
His housing had four sections: A living room attached to a kitchen, a small bathroom, and a bedroom. All of his belongings were already transferred here when some workers took his luggage, and arranged neatly in their respective rooms, with his clothes in wardrobes, or his toothbrush and facial cleanser in his bathroom.
Yawning softly, he walked into his bedroom and lay down on his bed, his eyes staring contemplatively toward the ceiling.
So, first things first, deal with the oath sworn to that Heavenly Promise. Braun closed his eyes, with green flames manifesting near his heart, causing his chest to glow green.
Taking a deep breath, his consciousness plunged into a strange place, and he vaguely sensed the existence of his soul. Past experiences of sensing the metaphysical space inside his body that housed his crystals helped him a bit, but his soul remained a vague outline of what it truly is—fortunately, the mark itself stuck out like a sore thumb.
It relies on some sort of identification system so that it can still mark me no matter how far away I am from the thing that marked me, but because of that, the identification is specialized—well, not really, because who in the world could even change the essence of their soul besides me?
In the next moment, he opened his eyes wide and opened his mouth by habit, but held back the urge to scream. A soul-wrenching pain erupted from deep within him, to the point that he almost went insane, but his mind and body rapidly adapted to the extreme pain, pushing him into a state of numbness.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
It was akin to being half-awake and half-asleep. The pain was still there, but like an outside observer, he remained rational and calm.
Slowly, he vividly felt the mark stamped onto his soul begin to malfunction as if encountering an error.
If it were sentient, it would probably be thinking, Huh? Where did the guy go?
If he had to give an analogy, it’s basically the same scenario as a ‘villainous’ scientist being unable to differentiate when a highly trained platypus wore a fedora or not.
As quick as it came, the process only lasted a few minutes before the mark fully disappeared. Feeling his senses return, Braun’s face smiled, but there was a sort of disconnection compared to before.
Oh… disassociation? Braun guessed, his thoughts calm and rational, more so than usual. Oof… I kinda have this coming.
Braun pushed himself up and got into a sitting position. Muting out everything else, he calmed his mind and slowly felt that sense of having his body be a mere video game character disappear. However, after a few minutes passed, there remained a sense of being separated from his body.
Well. Braun half-willed, half-moved his body around and rubbed his chin, wearing a contemplating look. It’s not that bad, to be honest. In fact, it’s quite a big boon. The amount of times I nearly went insane from pain is quite a sum, so that wouldn’t be a problem anymore. It’s just that rather than dulling my sense of pain, my body just decided to not dull it out but give me a way to constantly remain calm and rational.
Eh, you win some you lose some. It wouldn’t be too hard to adapt to this minor feeling of separation. If I think about it, it’d be like puppeteering myself as both puppet and marionette.
Braun wasn’t bothered that much by the fact that he was, in a way, mentally deranged compared to before and simply pushed all of his worries away. As long as it benefited him, then he wouldn’t mind sacrificing that part of him that maintained his humanity.
Standing up to grab his laptop, he sat on a comfy chair and turned it on. Clicking on an app where he can code, he slowly typed out the project’s name:
[Aegis Access Permanent]
…
The next day, Braun arrived at a certain area with the name ‘Weapons Training Room’.
Looking into it, he saw plenty of guards and fighters wielding some harmless versions of real weapons, with dull edges or non-pointy tips, fighting against some humanoid holographic projections in intense combat.
Walking into the room, the people training inside acknowledge him with a nod, showing their respect for the most recent super joining their ranks and his widespread reputation of taking on four of their strongest fighters while all alone.
Unexpectedly, well, maybe expectedly, he saw Nora training in an open space against her clones rather than the usual holographic projections.
It was a chaotic battle royal with each of her clones wielding their specific weapons, either a bow, a sword, a spear, etc.
Braun watched in silence to the side, observing her every move with an insightful eye. If one tried to make eye contact with him at that moment, they’d feel the same sensation of being read like an open book or having their soul stared at.
When they finally finished fighting as the original Nora finished the last of her clones, she looked back at Braun with a grin, “Need anything?”
Braun remained silent and instead stared at the earrings latched onto her ears, with a pair of green crystals glowing dimly.
“Is that an artifact?” he pointed at the earrings, his eyes revealing his curiosity.
“Oh, this?” She took a sip of water. “Yes, they’re a Level 1 Artifact called Earrings of Greater Stamina.”
“Is that the one you chose when you finished your training as a trainee?” Braun inquired while walking closer to her, more specifically, to the wall of weapons raised beside her.
She nodded her head and wiped her sweat. Then, as she stomped her foot on the ground, a wooden staff landed in her arms, with a challenging grin appearing on her face, “You need a sparring partner?”
“Woah there.” He hurriedly stepped back, wooden staff at hand. “I never wielded a weapon in my entire life, nor any combat training for that matter!”
“Really?” Nora’s eyes widened, clearly surprised by Braun’s statement. “Not even once? You never learned any martial arts, or fought in street fights before?”
“Why would why? I was a normal dude studying history, working as a barista before all of these stupid shenanigans.” Braun rolled his eyes, walking closer to Nora. “Heck, facing you four was probably the first time I ever fought.”
“This…” Nora nearly choked on her saliva. “Are you some sort of genius?”
Braun paused upon hearing her words, just a few steps away from her. He stared down at the wooden staff in his hand, deep in thought.
A glint shone in his eyes as he stared back at her, a smile forming on his lips, widening to reveal his toothy grin.
“A genius? Nah, I’m a monster!”
He abruptly shifted his position, planting his right foot firmly on the ground, while letting his grip on the staff loose. He lifted his arm, allowing his hold to land near the bottom end of the staff, and swung it in an arc forward, maximizing the amount of force he could muster by leveraging all of the weight at one point.
Nora quickly responded by raising her staff, hands firmly placed closer to the two ends of the staff. She buckled her feet and blocked the attack, nearly losing balance by the absurd amount of force she had to endure.
What kind of strength is that? Nora was alarmed and hurriedly slid back, causing Braun, who was pushing all of his strength forward, to nearly slip and lose balance.
Then, using her backward momentum, she spun at the heel of her shoe and hurriedly directed her staff to Braun, who still had an unstable balance.
Calm and unbothered, he simply leaned forward, letting his body fall, and used the length of the staff to act as another leg at the front.
Nora missed her attack, giving Braun an opening.
He kicked off and spun using his staff, launching a devastating kick towards Nora.
She slammed her staff to the ground, using her missed attack as a way to defend instead.
Braun’s kick rammed right to her staff, launching her backward, and Braun fell to the ground.
The two hurriedly stood up straight, their eyes radiating brightly with fighting intent.
Braun spun his staff in a simple manner before taking a stance, legs parted to the side, staff pressed against his back directed to his left shoulder.
Nora simply stood tall, with staff pressed against the ground.
“You… Fine, let’s see what kind of monster you are!” Nora smiled, the veins on her hands and forearms popping.
Braun just chuckled and rushed forward with a grin.
The two once again clashed, with the two glaring at one another, a smile dangling on their face, showing the true emotions they felt—it wasn’t anger or arrogance, but sheer happiness of getting to enjoy a pleasant fight.