Chapter 139 - Time

POWW

"GASP!"

Kairen gasped due to the pain, subconsciously letting go of his hand that was holding into the man. As soon as he did so, the man and the teenager entered the portal.

An immense pain spread throughout his body.

"Argh!"

Kairen curled up from the pain. He felt dizzy for a moment, his legs gave out, and plopped down to the ground.

As soon as the man vanished into the portal, the soil barrier collapsed and all the soil and mud fell on top of Kairen's head.

"Gasp!"

He gasped again.

It hurt!

It hurt so much.

"Kairen!"

"My god!"

Kain and deputy team leader Bray rushed at him.

"Are you alright? Kairen?"

"Gasp!"

No, he wasn't alright. 

His body hurt, he felt dizzy, and he wanted to throw up.

"D-don't move. You might've gotten some broken ribs!"

Kairen swallowed his saliva.

'There would be a hole in my stomach if not for this uniform!'

He expected to get hit by the man, but he didn't think it would hurt this much.

Seeing him in a lot of pain, Serria also got up and approached him.

"H-hey! Don't play tricks! I've got hit with it as well, it wasn't that bad!"

Just as she said, she looked perfectly fine even after being hit with that man's punch.

'You aren't a regular human! You wanna show off your powerful body? Don't you see I'm in pain? Get lost!'

Of course, he couldn't say those out loud. He couldn't open his mouth as he was afraid he would throw up. 

And even if he could talk, he would be too scared of Serria to say those words without Reyan being around to protect him from the consequences.

Not wanting to think about another painful situation while he was in the middle of dealing with pain, Kairen looked away from Serria and curled his body even more.

The three members of unit 5 heard a voice in their ears at that moment.

-How is the situation?

It was team leader Dains whom they had gotten separated from not long ago. 

The deputy team leader looked around and hesitantly reported.

-Most of the enemies are taken care of. 

-Good.

She looked down at Kairen and opened her mouth to inform team leader Dains that they might need Asa's help when she heard the team leader's voice again.

-I've lost contact with Darren and the two others since a few minutes ago. I'll go check the situation there. You guys take care of everyone outside the building but don't enter it until I come.

Deputy team leader Bray paused and raised her eyebrows.

"Did something happen to them?"

-... I'm not sure.

The conversation was cut off after that. 

Next was Kain's turn. He touched his communication device and talked in a clear voice.

-All of the forces, gather near the building's entrance once you are done and wait for further orders. Make sure not to leave any of the enemies. Capture as many as you can.

He didn't say anything else and instead turned to Kairen again.

"Hey, do you have difficulty breathing?"

. . . . 

After the three people left using the portal, the situation was quickly taken care of. 

There were no losses and only a few people were injured. 

After capturing or killing the enemies outside, the two units entered the near-collapse building. 

The wall of fire that was covering the whole building except a small path to inside was put out using Kain's water and the mages' water and earth spells. 

What they encountered as soon as the fire was put out was a pile of corpses. The people who had died due to the explosion. It was a truly disgusting sight. 

Fortunately, Kairen could avoid entering that building by using the punch he had received as an excuse. He stuck to the team that consisted of the injured agents and healers and a bunch of other agents to protect them and watch the captured enemies and could stay outside. 

"The area of damage is big. I can't heal that much now, but there is no need to worry. There were some fractured bones but no damage to the organs. I healed the bones so it must be fine, though it might still hurt for a few days."

Asa took her hands off of Kairen's body and stepped back.

Kairen was amazed. Most of the pain in his body vanished as soon as Asa used her power on him. He looked down at himself in a daze and thanked Asa.

"Thank you."

She simply nodded at his answer and moved towards the next injured person. 

"This little brat is not bad! To use the power of time to heal wounds must need great accuracy and delicacy."

Kairen turned his head to look at the one who had said those. He could see Alan sitting on his right side and looking at Asa.

"Jeez! You are not injured! Why are you here?"

"I got pushed back by the impact of the explosion and hit the ground real hard!"

Alan pointed at the bruises on his arm.

"I can not heal such minor things! Show me a REAl wound. A place where the flash is torn and blood is gushing out!"

"Look at this- I'm not weak enough to receive such a wound!"

"CHE!"

Asa sent a disgruntled look to Alan and moved to the next person in line waiting to receive a healing. Carlson, the next person who was waiting to get healed, was sitting a few meters away from Alan. He peeked at Alan from time to time as if he was scared of him and didn't dare to get close.

'Just what happened?'

The only thing that Kairen knew was that The Fifth was too strong for the three of them to handle and that they were saved by Alan.

"Tch!"

Alan clicked his tongue.

"Look at these brats! I've done so much for them and that's what I receive in return! They can't even heal me! Ungrateful bastards!"

He shook his head with a face showing how wronged he felt.

"Um..."

Kairen leaned towards Alan. He didn't know how but had somehow achieved the thing that he wanted for the past few days, and that was talking to Alan. Not wanting to waste this chance, Kairen hesitantly opened his mouth.

"Are you really the one who found out about that place?"

He couldn't just go on and say 'Hey, dude, do you know anything about traveling to another world?' In front of everyone. So he just ask another question that he was dying to know the answer to.

"Yeah!"

Alan leaned against a broken piece of wall.

"How?"

"I tagged behind the man who created that chaos in the city and ended up here. How else?"

He said that as if that was the most obvious thing in the world.

"You followed him? But you were with me at first... How did you find him and follow him without him noticing you? And how did you pass through the barrier without destroying it? And how did you remain unnoticed until the end? Also, how did you inform the team leader? Did you have a communication device? Why did you even help us?"

Kairen poured out all of his questions all at once at the man's face.

"Ack. So annoying."

Alan sighed and mumbled "There is no point in not telling them now anyway." and looked back at Kairen.

"I simply used my power."

Kairen tilted his head.

"Your power?"

The other unit 5 members who were also standing outside the building all perked up their ears to listen to the conversation. 

"I can manipulate time, just like that little brat over there."

"You did that all by manipulating time?"

Alan nodded and continued his explanations.

"Following someone like that wasn't a hard task for me. After the monsters attacked, I used my power to move back in time and return to the point on time when the attack first started. I could find that man easily and followed him. Every time he noticed me, I turned back time to the moment before he had noticed me and changed my course of action. After finding the hideout, I manipulated the barriers' time and returned it to the time when it wasn't yet created, entered it, and returned its time back to normal."

"...."

"...."

"...."

Silence descended in the area.

People looked at each other as if they had heard something hard to believe, 'He did what?' written all over their faces.

Kairen was no different from the others. 

"C-can you manipulate time for anything and anyone... as you wish?"

"Yep."

Alan nodded his head as if it wasn't a big deal and leaned back again, putting his hands behind his head and leaning his head against them.

But the people who had heard his words weren't as relaxed as him.

'Isn't that too overpowered? Isn't that cheating?'

Everyone listening to his words was thinking the same thing. 

Unique powers usually, no, always, had some limits to themselves. 

For example, Asa, who also had the power to manipulate time, could only use her power on a small scale but her power was too accurate that she could use it to heal people by turning back the time on a small area of the wound and returning the body back to normal.

On the other hand, deputy team leader Bray, who also had the power of time, couldn't control her power as meticulously as Asa. In exchange, her power had a large scale and had greater power.

In addition to that, all of the powers had a limit of usage, like when Kairen ran out of mana and couldn't cast spells anymore.

All of the unique powers in the world had such restrictions to themselves, but now this man was saying that he went around and used his power in various ways as if there were no restrictions for him.

'Such a strong power must have heavier restrictions to itself... He had been using his power for a few days without any problems... There is no way that his power has no limits!'

But obviously, Alan wouldn't just go on and tell the others about the limits and restrictions to his power.

As Kairen thought about the man's power, another question appeared in his mind.

"Then... If you can turn back time for anything and everything whenever you want, then why didn't you turn back time when we captured you in your house?"

Hearing that question, Alan's lips curled up.

"And what makes you think that I didn't?"

"...."

Seeing his blank face, Alan's smile grew even bigger. 

'This man is scary!'

If there was something he knew for sure about Alan, that was this one thing.

Suddenly, the man's smile vanished from his lips and he sat up straight. He looked into Kairen's eyes with a strange gaze, making Kairen flinch.

"Now it's your turn to answer, brat."

"...."

Seeing his blank face, Alan didn't hesitate to ask his question.

"Earlier, how did you stop that explosion?"

"...."

Kairen flinched at the unexpected question. He could feel all the gazes shift to him in a second. 

But there was no need to worry. He already knew the answer to that question.

Kairen took a deep breath and looked into Alan's eyes with a firm gaze.

"I don't know."