Chapter 155 - 154 - Time Trouble(Part 13)

Point-of-View: Aku

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Hm? Oh, looks like someone's breaking down the door to this control room...guess that's my cue to leave, I've done enough damage as it is. 

After I left the Sanctuary following my encounter against that time-manipulator, I had initially planned to head straight back and regroup with the other Wights, but then I came across what appeared to be a large, metal fortress.

I realized that the Sanctuary must be expanding their territory with these, and immediately reported back using the telepathic link that had been active since before I first infiltrated the Sanctuary. 

The link was with a Wight named Sai, and the only way to break the link was for him to replace it with a telepathic link with someone else. Once he reported my findings to the higher ups, he gave me my next orders...infiltrate the base and learn about how it works. 

I then spent my time observing, slowly but surely gaining knowledge and understanding on how some of their devices and machines work. I also learnt that there were several other bases just like this one, and that the Sanctuary planned to keep expanding indefinitely, as well as the small bug-like surveillance drones they had scattered all over the place. 

And then, a couple days ago, the higher ups were satisfied with my findings and ordered me to return in a few days upon their signal, since the plans to launch a large-scale attack against the Sanctuary had begun. 

I'm a pretty key player, so they wanted me back for that. And in no time, it was today, the day I'm supposed to return. I was getting impatient waiting for Sai's telepathic signal for me to return, I tried to contact him, but couldn't...which means he's either asleep or ignoring me, or busy with another telepathic link. 

Either way, my impatience and boredom led me to the idea of destroying this place before I leave. And so, I headed for the control room, destroying the keypad to prevent anyone from entering and then messed around with the door and shutter system, as well as the device that generates radiation to keep Mutants away. 

And since the Mutants are now already inside and I've destroyed most of the controls, there's nothing more for me to do here...so I might as well get a head start and leave now. Huh, why didn't I think of that before? I could have just left. Eh, whatever, this was fun, so I don't care anymore. 

I then left the room, casually walking past several humans and Mutants completely unnoticed, stepping past corpses and puddles of blood. Because of me, all these people are going to die...I wish I could hear their thoughts right now, all of them had been working peacefully for weeks, and now, they were suddenly, and seemingly inexplicably, all in the jaws of death. 

Heh, they don't even have any idea how or why this is happening, that thrills me. An amused chuckle escaped my lips as I reached the exit and strolled out of the base, the echoes of screams and cries of despair growing fainter and fainter with every step I took...when suddenly, a deafening noise burst out, so loud that for a moment, I thought that everything had gone silent. 

Before I could even figure out what just happened, I felt the ground beneath me start to break apart, as my feet got lifted up off the ground and sent flying forward with immense force, the rest of my body getting dragging along with them. 

I quickly began adjusting my intangibility as I began to close in on the ground, to avoid falling right through. I hissed in pain as I crashed onto the ground and skidded painfully on the parts that I'd made tangible, my skin getting torn off until I eventually crashed onto a large rock, knocking the wind out of me as I let out a sharp gasp of pain. 

Ow...so much hurt, this is seriously way too much pain. What the hell just-...? 

I stared in speechless shock at the massive plume of black smoke rising up from where the building had been, the area all around it thoroughly devastated...h-holy shit. 

Was that an accident? Or did they do this deliberately? Could it really be the latter...they may have a lot of these bases outside, but even so, to just blow up such an important structure just like that...I might have underestimated these humans, I definitely didn't see that coming. 

Tch, ow...every time I move, twinges of pain erupt all over me. My intangibility isn't flawless, it has a weakness. I'm not completely untouchable in that state, I have to make sure that the soles of my feet are always tangible when touching the ground, for one thing. When I have to walk through a wall or something, I make my foot fully intangible and then tangible again when I land on the other side. 

Otherwise, I'd just fall through the ground, and I don't even want to know what'll happen then. Stuff like fire and lightning can also affect me while intangible, though not much. When testing the limits of my powers, the Wight higher ups made me stand in the middle of a bonfire while intangible once. 

At first, I felt nothing, but after a couple of minutes, I felt a sense of discomfort which kept getting worse and worse, until it felt like I was suffocating. As for lightning, I don't have any actual experience with it, but if fire has an effect, then lightning probably does too. 

When I turn intangible, I lose the need to breathe altogether, and after that fire experiment, I figured out why...I don't disappear or anything when I turn intangible, my body is simply in a different state of matter, from solid to gas, the only difference is that my particles don't disperse. 

I retain my shape when intangible despite shifting states of matter, and I don't need to breathe because I can just absorb oxygen since I'm in the same state of matter. And it's when I'm in a situation where I can't absorb oxygen that I start to take damage in this state, which is why fire affected me; it was burning the oxygen around me, leaving me nothing to absorb. 

That's why I left the Sanctuary before they could implement that vacuum layer thing, I probably wouldn't have been able to get through it. And if I'd still been inside this building before the explosion, I probably would have survived so long as I'd stayed intangible, but I don't think I'd have been completely unscathed. 

"Aku? Are you there?" 

Finally, it's about time! 

"Sai? Where were you, I've been trying to contact you for hours!" I exclaimed indignantly. 

"I was in a meeting with the higher ups, so I had to ignore you. It's time to come back now. Do you have anything new to report?"

"Uh, sort of...," I responded, before explaining what had happened over the past half hour or so. 

"Hm...I'm not sure that was a good move. Anyway, start heading back, we've got a jeep a few kilometers outside the range of the bug drones you mentioned. It'll probably take you a few days, at the very least, so hurry. I'll report what you did to the higher ups in the meantime."

With that, he deactivated the link, and I began heading southeast with a sigh. I've got a backpack full of canned food and water bottles, which should last long enough, but...it's heavy. And I can't exactly toss it aside, because then I'd die of starvation or dehydration, whichever comes first. 

It'll probably be a couple of days before Sai contacts me again, and that'll probably just be to check on my progress. Yeah, the next few days are going to be pretty boring... 

... 

To my surprise, a few hours later, he contacted me again... 

"You there, Aku?" 

"Yeah, what's up? Didn't expect you to contact me again so soon."

"About that...the higher ups are furious at you. They were planning on using your ability to make others intangible to have several of us infiltrate and take down all their bases simultaneously, or maybe even use the teleport devices in those bases to jump straight into the Sanctuary. But now that you've done this, they'll probably ramp up security around the other bases. Just felt like I should warn you that you're in hot water, that's all," He warned me, before ending the communication. 

...shit. I mean, I highly doubt they can figure out a way to counter my intangibility, unless they implement vacuum layers on the exteriors of all the bases...but no, that would take a while, not to mention that they can't make the entrance a vacuum. 

Unlike the Sanctuary, which can generally only be entered via teleportation, the bases all have physical entrances, a thick metal gate. Oh, well, it should be fine, it's unlikely that they'll come up with something that can definitively keep me out. 

At my current course, I should get within the vicinity of another of their bases within a couple of days or so, maybe I'll sneak in and see how they're responding. 

I then frowned as a small bug buzzed past me, realizing that it was a surveillance drone...tch, even though I know about them, they're pretty hard to spot. However, their range isn't limitless, so even if some do manage to follow me, they won't be able to follow me all the way back. 

There are some caves and mutated shrubbery on the way there, I'll have to use those to hide from their surveillance drones and recover my Chikara...I can't stay intangible forever, when my Chikara, or XFE as the humans in the Sanctuary call it, runs out, my power will deactivate. 

Alright, time for a whole lot of walking... 

... 

... 

A little over two days later, I came across the base I mentioned, and...it didn't look any different. I mean, you'd think they'd be making huge security additions to the exterior. Maybe they're still trying to figure out a way to counter my intangibility. 

Alright, time to go check things out inside, it should be fine so long as I don't do anything, I doubt anyone will complain.

As I walked towards the structure, I squinted a bit as I thought I spotted something...what is that? A mirage? It is pretty hot out today, so it's not impossible, but...something feels wrong. 

I stopped and narrowed my eyes further, trying to figure out what I was looking at...there, I think I can just about make it out now, it looks like...a large net? Okay, definitely not a mirage...some sort of barrier, maybe? Why does it have gaps, though? Oh, probably to reduce energy consumption or something, I guess. 

Hmph, do they really think a simple barrier is enough to stop me? It's probably just a stop-gap measure until they think up something better, but come on, this is just straight up insulting. 

I continued walking towards the barrier, feeling a bit irritated...after seeing this half-assed defense measure, now I'm definitely going in, maybe I'll kill someone while I'm at it too, it's not like the higher ups would ever find out.

As I reached the edge of the barrier, I slowed down, feeling a bit hesitant. Tch, stupid paranoia, I'm probably just worrying pointlessly and overthinking this, but whatever, better safe than sorry, I guess. I scoffed at myself as I moved in to poke the barrier with my index finger, maintaining my intangibility. 

I have to say, if nothing else, this barrier is extremely difficult to spot. But that's irrelevant, being partially invisible isn't good enough to stop me. Yeah, I'm going to feel pretty stupid when my finger simply phases through the barrier as usual-...huh? Wh-what the...? 

"Ahhhhhhh, wh-what the hell....!?" I exclaimed in horror, stumbling back and trembling in shock and pain...as the tip of my index finger was gone, blood pouring out of it.

What...what is this!? They had a barrier like this up their sleeves the whole time!? Damn it...damn it, damn it, damn it!!! 

Shit, I fucked up...they must have activated this barrier as a result of my actions. Damn it...had I not erred on the side of caution, this barrier might have killed me just now. I...I really messed up... 

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