"Alright. I'll follow your lead," Caen replied before he disconnected the call.
But he seemed clearly frustrated that what he was worried about was exactly what happened. They were turning back. Now his entire plan was useless.
He couldn't believe how bad his luck was. If only this idiot hadn't found out for five more minutes, things could have been different.
...
Flourance went to the pilot who was flying the helicopter he was in and gave the command himself.
Mid-air, the three helicopters turned back one after another.
"They found out that you aren't in the cage. They are asking to go back to search for you, thinking that you jumped down along the way. It looks like we would have to change our plan since we can't go further," Caen informed Lucifer about what was happening with a concerned look on his face.
Lucifer saw the helicopters returning back and understood that Caen wasn't lying.
Lucifer looked at Caen, wondering what was about to happen next.
This question was also answered by Caen.
"We would need to fight after getting the right opportunity because they'll certainly ask why the second guy in this helicopter is missing during the search. We need to fight before they kill us themselves," Caen told Lucifer as he sighed.
"Wait a minute. I'll tell my guys to come here. Since this is going to happen, we might as well plan for backup," he added, but before he could realize it, he saw Lucifer turning back.
Lucifer walked towards the door of the helicopter but didn't jump out. Instead, he gazed back at Caen as he said, "I'll do it myself then."
"What do you plan to do?" Caen asked, confused.
" I'll do the same thing you were going to do. I will blow them up while they are in the air," Lucifer said as black lightning flickered through his arms.
"Wait. I have a better idea," Caen called out.
Lucifer stopped and glanced at Caen, waiting for what he had to say.
"I can try to take out their leader with my disguise when we land. I will kill him myself using my Shapeshifting ability," Caen suggested. "He won't even know that the person getting close to him isn't his teammate but me. By the time he knows, it's going to be too late."
"As for the rest, You can take them out much more easily when they are alone."
Lucifer looked at him for a brief second, but he didn't say anything.
"Do you find it acceptable?" Caen inquired.
He couldn't believe that he, a Variant Uprising leader, had to talk to a kid so respectfully. If it weren't for the situation's demand, he would never have done it.
The way he spoke to Lucifer was as if the two of them were in the same position. It was even stranger considering that Lucifer was only ten-eleven years old at the moment.
Caen took Lucifer's silence as his acceptance. He went back to focusing on flying so that the others wouldn't find anything suspicious.
"If we go by my plan, it might take longer, but we can wipe them much more safely," Caen said as he casually glanced back towards Lucifer, only to get stunned.
Lucifer wasn't there. That place was empty. Caen looked all around the cabin, only to be disappointed as Lucifer was nowhere.
"That bastard is so annoying. He didn't listen to me and jumped out," Caen cursed as he grew extremely annoyed. "That Flourance must have seen him by now. It is going to be extremely difficult now."
Just as he had assumed, Lucifer jumped out of the helicopter even after hearing Caen's idea.
He knew that taking them out one by one, after their leader was dead, was probably a good option for them, but it wasn't the best.
Everyone was in the air. Air was his domain as he had the A-Rank Power of wind. Even though he wasn't able to bring out even a fraction of the abilities that this power allowed, he could still fly. He couldn't fly upwards, but he could fly horizontally. As for Caen's plan to blow up when they were in the air, he felt this had some merit.
He generally used his incredible strength to jump incredibly high, later using his power of the wind to stay on the height and move ahead, making it seem like he perfectly knew how to fly.
It was different this time. The three helicopters were already in the air and almost at the same level. Thus, he didn't need to jump upwards. He could actually just step out of the helicopter and find himself flying at that level.
This was to his advantage since the other Variants were mostly able to fight on land. In the air, he was the king.
Also, as all of them were already inside the helicopters, he could take care of them much more easily. Rather than wasting this opportunity, he wished to utilize it.
Generally, he would have preferred to go all out, brutally killing them on the ground, but he had realized that he needed to be wise. Even though he thought of humans as nothing but beasts, one needed to crush the beasts while they could.
"F-Flourance!" the pilot of the first helicopter suddenly called out.
Flourance walked up to him and asked, "What happened?"
The pilot didn't say anything and simply pointed ahead.
Flourance gazed where the man was pointing and saw a young kid flying in front of them.
Lucifer was showing his palm towards them as if he was signaling them to stop, but Flourance was aware that it wasn't what was happening. He could see lightning flicker around Lucifer's arms.
"He's about to attack!" Flourance let out, stunned. "Hold something!"
He looked back towards his men hurriedly as he said, "Gray! He's ahead of us! Attack him now before he does!"
"Do it now!" Flourance said furiously.
He didn't have any long-range attacking powers, so his only option was to rely on the ones that did.