"Lot," Key said as he and Loter's last match ended. He reclined his slouching back against the back of his revolving chair.

The response came out of his green headset. "Yeah? You want to call it a day? You do need to rest more for your arm to recover."

Key sighed in exhaustion, "No, and yes. I want to ask you for a favor."

"What favor?"

"I need you to take me to Cobble with your flying power."

"Wait, what?"

"..."

"You want to sneak out of the campus?"

"..."

"But why?"

Key took a long pause and sat up straight, gathering his breath before opening his mouth. He said with a firmness in his voice, "I know you probably don't want to 'ear me yap about my past, so I'll make it simple. There was a villain organization that 'ad done things to me. I thought 'Ero Union 'ad already dealt with them, yet it seemed like they 'ad returned. I need to defeat them this time."

Loter took a second to process and replied, "But you don't need to. The heroes will sure handle them this time if they did it off last time."

"But those 'eroes aren't me. I need to be the one who beat them this time!" Key's voice raised gradually.

"So…" Loter paused his sentence for a moment, attempting to understand Key's perspective. "You want to take your revenge?"

"It's not about revenge… If they are who I think they are, I need to see them! They gave me the power and turned me into who I am today. I don't know 'ow to explain this to you, but I 'ave to meet them."

"But your right arm 'asn't, hasn't healed yet—"

"Please!" Key suddenly exclaimed, pronouncing every stress with extra strength. "It's my only chance, Lot. I need to do this. I 'ave been waiting for this day for three years. I need this, Lot!"

After his abrupt exclamation, a dead silence was the only response. Not a noise or rustle was present. Key could not even hear Loter's breathing through his phone. As he slowly put down his phone, Loter finally replied.

"Does this really matter that much to you?"

"What? Say it again. I didn't 'ear it."

"Does this choice really matter that much to you?"

"Yes… Nothing matters more than this."

"Fine. I'll help you."

"Thanks, pal."

Loter and Key met outside the dormitory. Key reached out his hand without delay or hesitation. Loter checked Key's determined visage one last time before holding his hand. Their physical bodies went invisible, and their emotions connected. Seriousness, nervousness, anxiety, and a speck of worry occupied the atmosphere.

They ascended into the sky, flying over the tip of Mountain Vault and descended along and above the slope. As they flitted through the sky, they suddenly noticed their speed increasing. They could see the city far away becoming bigger and bigger in their vision. When they looked toward the mountain beneath them, they realized the trees were already dashing past their eyes.

"I never know you can fly so fast."

"Me too. I thought the speed boost only applies when I'm running. Now, I guess I have underestimated it."

"'Ow much more can your power do?" Key asked after giving a mocking chort to himself.

"I can also shoot laser from my fingertip, but I've only done it once, and I'm not sure how to activate it."

Key sighed, "You'll learn 'ow to do it, eventually."

"Yeah, I'm not worried about it."

As the chat went on, they arrived at Cobble, and Loter slowed their speed. They hovered above the city and under the lustrous moon.

"Okay, where should we be going from here?"

Key pointed a finger in a certain direction and said, "That tall building over there."

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"The one that says 'Believerance'?"

"Yes, that one."

Loter squinted his eyes and inspected the building as he flew toward it. The dirty gray walls were the same as those of the other buildings nearby. The only things that set this one apart were the big red cross sign around the third-floor level and the big "Believerance" written beneath it.

Loter dropped Key off on the roof of the building. The moment he let go of Key's left hand, Key's body reappeared before him.

Landing with his feet on the ground and knees bent deftly under the force of gravity, Key told Loter without looking up, "Thanks again, Lot. I'll call you when I'm done."

Loter turned off his ability and stood beside Key. "Are you sure you don't need any help?"

"The sun will be up in six 'ours. You need to get back now so people in the academy won't suspect you."

"Yeah, you're right," Loter answered, reactivating his ability and disappearing in thin air.

All by himself, Key shoved open the door to the stairwell and sneaked down. Despite being Alt-Evolvers' lair, Believerance's Hospital was still a functioning hospital. He had to avoid normal nurses and doctors while finding things that were actually tied to Alt-Evolvers. For that purpose, he would much rather stay in the stairwell than explore the entire hospital. He set his first stop as the basement.

Key slowly crept down the stairs, step by step and landing by landing. Whenever he arrived at a new floor, he would peek through the door lite and bend his back down when he spotted a living thing, whether a nurse or a patient. For every floor he passed, Key's heart bumped a bit faster. On the landing before the first and the second floors, he paused and braced a hand against the wall, inhaling and exhaling heavily to balance his breathing.

It is not even the dangerous part. I 'ave to calm down. I need to calm down if I want to reach my goal.

Repeating the sentence three times silently to himself, Key blew a puff of air and continued down the stairs.

Eventually, he arrived at the basement floor. He put a hand against the steel door and peeked into the basement through the door lite just like how he did it to every other floor. The hallway was dimly illuminated by weak recessed light on the ceiling. The white walls were not dirty but not as white as spotless. The gray concrete floor had a dark hue due to its antiquity.

Key cautiously pushed the steel door open just enough to create a small gap for him to slip through. The door quietly closed behind him as he scanned through his surroundings and swiftly sneaked forward, mapping the entire floor in his head. With each new door plate and every turn in the hallway, a green road map was slowly but gradually generated in the corner of his vision.

He would silently walk into empty rooms like the storage and HVAC.

He would jump upward and hang onto the ceiling with one hand when footsteps approached.

He would crawl through the vent to check on occupied rooms like the waste management and CSSD.

He would eavesdrop on the nurses, janitors, and doctors as they chatted about their lives, patients, money issues, and else.

Yet, not a trace of Alt-Evolvers was found. Everything seemed so natural and unsuspicious that it felt impossible for a secret villain organization to set their lair here.

Then, footsteps coming from behind the corner startled him. With a flinch, Key stepped his right foot backward.

"Tunk"

A light noise was made the moment his right foot touched the ground. Ignoring the footsteps, Key flicked his head around, staring at the manhole lid his right foot was stepping on.

Are there usually manholes in basements? No, right? 'Ow is this—

The doctor turned around the corner and stepped on the lid as he passed by. Beneath him, Key climbed down the hole with a hand and two feet on the rungs.

After both of his feet touched the ground, Key activated his thermal vision. What appeared before him was a huge drainage tunnel. The wall was as cold as the odorous stream flowing past. On both sides of the stream of wastewater was a narrow path. Both paths were slightly higher than the water level and only wide enough for one man to walk through.

Normally, drainage tunnels are built under the city to prevent floods. Nobody would build one like this under a basement, especially not a poor 'ospital with money problems. This tunnel is practically a place that people do not expect to exist. It's like one of those secret studies in detective movies. If I can't find Alt-Evolvers 'ere, I doubt I will ever find them anywhere.

Key silently walked forward. Just several tens of meters away was a turn, and just behind the turn were multiple rooms with dim lights emitting through the empty doorways. Key peeked his head over the corner and turned off his thermal vision.

There were about three different rooms within this section and a T-junction at the end of it. Key's ability activated again, analyzing the floor and picking up every possible trace of someone or something walking past.

Although vague and disjointed, a possible trail of footprints appeared on the other side of the stream, going through the entire section and making a left turn at the T-junction.

Key felt his own heart racing again. A wave of cold sweat slid down his forehead. Reclining against the dirty wall, Key pressed his left hand lightly against his left breast and took a few deep breaths.

Thoughts, coward ones and weird ones, intruded his head as he closed his eyes. Just as a precaution, Key asked himself again if this place was the actual lair of Alt-Evolvers.

Believerance's Hospital.

Key reopened his eyes and stood straight. He sneaked past the corner and peeked into the first room on his side of the tunnel. Inside, rolls and packs of steel cylindrical containers were tied in ropes and stacked upon each other. Some were put on shelves. Others were just against walls and each other. A wooden table was in the center of the room, with some papers and pens on it. Above was a cheap pendant light that solely provided the dim lighting in the room.

Key could not be more familiar with those cylindrical containers. He had seen more of them, a lot more, when he was first kidnapped by Alt-Evolvers. He gasped at the sight of them and swallowed a mouthful of his own saliva. Although Key already knew Alt-Evolvers were back, the actual emotional realization only hit when he could see these containers with his own naked eyes.

Key, again, took a few deep breaths to calm down before turning away from the first room. Sure, he could take some time to check out those papers, but that was not his objective.

He needed to find Doctor Jamount, who was the head of Alt-Evolvers at the time and who had turned Key into the Ever-Evolving Grosteque.

Key had to find him.