Chapter 109: A Lead

Xander's phone started ringing when he was in the middle of the conversation with Ayn.

He brought the phone out of his pocket and looked at the screen to see who was calling him.

"Kaden? How come he is the one calling me instead of Flourance?" He wondered as he saw who it was.

It was Kaden who was a part of Xander's team. However, the strange part was that Kaden was with Flourance in the group that was escorting Lucifer. It was odd for him to be calling instead of Flourance, who was in charge of that team.

He instantly picked up the call, wondering what it might be about.

"Yeah, Kaden."

The words were followed by the long silence of Xander.

It was the first time Ayn had seen Xander look like this. The Xander, who always looked in control, seemed to be really lost now. One of his powers allowed him to control his emotions, but he wasn't using this power. It was apparent that he didn't want to control his feelings in the situation and was trying to resist his ability.

The phone soon fell from his hand, dropping on the ground, but Xander didn't move as if he didn't care.

He clenched his fist tightly. The nerves in his hand became visible, and it seemed as if he was going to scream. The temperature of the room started increasing. 

Even though the AC was on, Ayn had started sweating because of heat that only kept increasing with each passing moment.

"Xander?" Ayn called out softly. "Is something wrong?"

Her voice acted like the ray of light in the darkness that was trying to swallow Xander whole. 

Xander came out of his state of mind briefly and used his Emotion Control. His second power let him stay in perfect control of his emotions no matter how bad the situation got.

As he used his power, he returned back to normal.

"Yeah, I am fine."

"You don't look fine," Ayn alleged as she gazed at Xander with concern. "Tell me what happened?"

"I will deal with what happened. You focus on your mission and leave me to mine," Xander alluded lightly as he picked up the phone, which was lying on the ground. He placed the phone on his ear again. "Where are you right now?"

He opened the door of the room and left. 

He stepped inside the lift as he said, "Kaden, Do one thing. Send me your coordinates instead." 

After verifying his fingerprint, he went to the roof.

He stepped inside the helicopter, which already had the pilot inside. He gave the coordinates to the pilot. 

The helicopter started rising in the air.

....

A helicopter landed in the middle of nowhere. Only sand could be seen as far as the eyes could see.

Two people stepped out of the helicopter, who was none other than Lucifer and Caen.

Lucifer looked around only to realize that they were in a desert. He had thought that he would be taken to their base, but they came to a desert instead?

He couldn't help but ask, "Where are we?"

"We are at our base. Just wait a few seconds. You will see," Caen let out as a sneaky grin appeared on his face.

"Your men didn't come with us," Lucifer asked again. 

He didn't stop just there and simultaneously issued a threat as well. "If this is a trick, it wouldn't end well for you."

"Don't worry. We don't trick our family. We aren't like those despicable humans and the traitorous Variants that serve humans. We would never betray our family members as they do," Caen answered. "As for the others, they would come here in cars. They would be picking up some stuff along the way."

Lucifer nodded his head. That was also when he saw the ground shaking. The sand started moving sideways as the ground started rising up.

Soon, a cylindrical lift came out of the ground that seemed to be big enough to accompany tens of people. If one were to see from the top, one would see it as a lift with a diameter of five meters.

"This lift will take us to our destination," Caen alluded to Lucifer as he stepped towards the lift.

He placed his palm on the surface of the lift.

"Scanning Completed. Welcome, Leader Caen."

A computerized voice came out of the lift as the door started opening.

"Come inside. Our other family members are waiting to see you," Caen called out as he gazed back at Lucifer. He moved his fingers, gesturing to him to hurry.

Even though Caen seemed like he wanted Lucifer to hurry, Lucifer walked at his usual pace, not seeming to be in a hurry.

He soon reached the lift and stepped inside with Caen.

The door of the lift closed, and the lift submerged in the ground again, disappearing from sight.

...

The green helicopter landed on the ground. Another helicopter was standing right ahead. Many bodies could be seen spread around. It seemed like a crash site of a helicopter whose pieces could be seen nearby.

A group of people was also standing near the bodies.

The door of the green helicopter opened, and a man stepped out of it.

The man had flaming red hair and a dark gray long coat. He also wore two black gloves in his hand.

"Captain." A blue-haired man from that group walked towards the latest arrived helicopter. 

"Lucifer…?" Xander asked the blue-haired man.

"He is missing. We believe he was behind this," Kaden answered.

"Tell me what happened after you caught him," Xander inquired.

Kaden started describing everything from the beginning about how they caught Lucifer and how they carried him. He then talked about how they found out that Lucifer was missing and how they broke up into teams.

"So your team was going to search from Erygas, and his team was going to come scanning from here. When you came here, you saw this." Xander summarized.

"Yes," Kaden answered.

"So you didn't see Lucifer doing it?" 

"We… ah, we personally didn't, but it seems like his work."

Xander walked near the bodies and started observing them. "This does seem like the work of his lightning."

"Where is the second helicopter which was taking the cage? I need to see how he broke out of it," he asked Kaden.

His question was only answered with silence.

"Why aren't you answering?" Xander asked, seemingly confused. "I'm already in a bad mood. Don't make it worse."

"The second helicopter… it is missing," Kaden acknowledged.

"It's missing? Did it get destroyed too? It should be easy to track it if it is fine," Xander replied. "There are trackers in every helicopter."

"We did look around, but we didn't see its pieces anywhere. It doesn't seem like it has crashed. We did try calling the pilot, but the phone is off," Kaden explained.

"Interesting. Someone took it and possibly Lucifer with them too. That someone must have helped Lucifer get out of the cage too," Xander guessed as he gazed at the sky.

"It is better that way. The helicopter will lead us to the real culprits."

He brought his phone out of his pocket and called a number.