Chapter 74 - Crouching Tiger (2)

"This is Rico Garcia, reporting live from Rio De Janeiro. Behind my back you can see the dungeon portal in which elites from the White Wolves guild and a warrior from USA went in." The news reporter went on, "After digging up some information all we were able to find out was, that the warrior had been a student of Master Fernandez.

"It has been 8 hours since they went inside and- wait a minute, we've just got some information from the studio... the President has released an official statement about the incident, I'll tell you what written in there, and I quote, "What has happened in Rio, this morning is utterly disrespectful. The White Wolves guild had already reserved the rights to the dungeon and the man who went in first had no legal authority to do so. If anything went wrong inside the dungeon, he wouldn't go unpunished.""

Nearly every news channel was broadcasting the same thing over and over again. Branding Arnold as the one who 'sabotaged' the raid and not the White Wolves. The things were taking a turn for the worse, and this paid media wasn't helping at all.

"Senhora Christina, you should leave. The situation would only get worse and you're reputation might get tarnished because of it." Gabriel suggested, as the crowd was getting more and more agitated. It had been 8 hours since Arnold and the others weren't into the dungeon. (Author's note : In Portuguese-speaking countries, 'Senhora' is often used as a title or polite form of address a woman)

"I don't care about my REPUTATION! Why is he taking so long to return!? It has never taken him this long to clear a dungeon before... did... something happened to hi-?" Christina gasped when someone tapped on her shoulder.

"My student isn't that weak you know." Nicholas smiled as his stepsister hugged him. He was dressed in all whites. No one had even noticed his presence until now. The chaotic atmosphere near the portal quickly changed into a calm and peaceful one, as Nicholas' aura spread throughout the crowd.

"You came!"

"I had to. I wouldn't let anyone frame my student or family, no matter who it is." Nicholas said finally breaking off the hug, "And as for you media people, I believe you're ready to get sued for your biased coverage of this incident and if you prevent any such thing then keep your cameras rolling and focus them on me."

All of a sudden, the phones of the media personnel started ringing. They were being called by their respective studios and instructed the reporters and cameramen to do whatever Nicholas was telling them.

Seeing that his plan was taking effect, Nicholas then turned towards the crowd, who were still overwhelmed by his sudden appearance and continued, "People of Brasilia! You all are being misguided by this corrupt government and their paid media. They've always been fooling you, thinking you the masses, are nothing but dust that they scr.a.p.e off their shoes..."

Nicholas kept speaking about the injustice the people had been facing all these years, under the current government's regime. After seeing Nicholas dr.a.p.ed in his white clothes, one might think he was a Messiah sent by the Gods, who was there to guide them towards the right path, but in truth he was no saint. He had his own agenda for doing all this and the people were simply the 'pawn' in his game.

Nicolas had grown tired from his 'superhero' role and wanted to do something new. Then one day while watching a video of the current President of Brazil, he came up with the idea of overthrowing the government and rule over Brazil himself, because he thought ruling over a country would be interesting. He had been bidding his time for the right opportunity to move his plans into action but he knew that trying to sway the minds of the masses wouldn't be an easy task, and hence he decided to use his secret ability to provoke the crowd. He had named this ability of his as 'Incite', because of what it did.

When he used this ability, he could essentially look into someone's mind and force their best or worst memories to resurface again to manipulate their feelings according to his will.

His ability seemed to be working on the crowd as the silent crowd got agitated once again and started cursing the government as well as the media personnel, who were present there. But Nicolas didn't wanted them to cause a scene right then and there, so he stepped in once again.

"They are the enemy, but it's not the time for us to retaliate right now!" He said, "it's been 8 hours since those souls entered that dungeon. Who knows what happened to them inside? Someone has to do something, and even if our government doesn't cares about them, I DO! I WILL PUT MY LIFE ON THE LINE TO RESCUE THEM! JUST PUT YOUR FAITH IN ME PEOPLE AND I'LL NEVER DISAPPOINT YOU!"

Nicholas bellowed as the people pushed away the members of the White Wolves guild and cleared a path for him to enter the dungeon. He acknowledged everyone's presence with a nod, and kept walking towards the portal which led to the dungeon, but right before he was about to step into the portal, it disappeared. Everyone got confused. Just what the hell was going in there?

People started murmuring and whispering among themselves. When suddenly someone shouted and pointed towards the other side of the road. Another portal had been opened there, but it wasn't a violet portal, it was a white portal. Nicholas was quick to react and ran towards the portal.

"The sudden disappearance of the violet portal, and the simultaneous appearance of this portal could only mean that it was a trans-dimensional portal," Nicholas mumbled as the people quietly stood behind him, "that son of a gun, actually cleared a trans-dimensional dungeon!"

Although it kind of disrupted his plans, but still he was happy that Arnold was able to clear the dungeon by himself. There were a dozen ways Nicolas could still use this situation for his benefit.

"Look someone's coming out of the portal!" A woman exclaimed.

"Indeed, it must be my prized student. He has a talent for-" Nicholas stopped as soon as a man walked out of the portal. "Who are you?"

"Me? I'm Rion Tameron, and if you were waiting for someone else... then I'm sorry to inform you that he's no more." Rion said with a smug look on his face as the portal closed behind him.