Chapter 204 - Too Late

"That's everything I know."

Said Ivan while staring at the masked guy surrounded by fireballs, all of them, ready to take off anytime if he ever wish for. Even now, Ivan is still shocked at the magnitude of this guy abilities. If Chris was here, perhaps only him could put up a fight with him. 

Ivan couldn't help but thought back to the time when Chris told him about 'the awakening.'

They are two types of people upon awakening, the first being full awakening without any help from item or someone. In this case, if they also has a good potential as bonus, they would definitely became a great person with frightening magnitude of abilities if nurtures with all their resources. Unlike the second type, this type can grow beyond their limit if their talent didn't hold them back. Perhaps, this guy might be in this category, the same as Chris.

As for the second type, they are people that forcefully awaken themselves with the help of item, someone, or something taboo that shall not be mention. Even if they have good potential, they won't be able to get far as the moment they awakened with this method, it is the same as cutting their own path beyond their limit. No matter how much they trained, be it ten years or thousands of years, they wouldn't be able to surpass their limit. And Ivan was included in this category.

With how thin Mana is in the air, it is hard for one to awaken on their own at such young age. Heck, if they stay in a place where it's rich in Mana, one could potentially lost their life due to Mana Sickening, a state where their cells would slowly die off because their body was unable to adapt to the Mana. Before awakening, Mana is nothing but a foreign energy that the body detected could cause harm to the host. And so, if one prolonged their stay in such a place, there's no other result other than death for those idiotic people.

With that said, they have no other choice other than the forceful method. Again, in a world where Mana is so thin that only a few special spots exist throughout the world, if one await to awaken on their own with that kind of condition, they might not even being able to experience being half-step away from awakening before dying of old age. 

If that wasn't the case, the world would have been filled with all sorts of wannabe superheroes by now. But unknown to Ivan, the guy behind the mask in front of him could awaken literally anyone, so long as they are invited to his hidden world. Furthermore, the said hidden world is also a place where Mana thrives. If any secret organization came to learn of it, they would never leave the man alone. 

"Huh, so he didn't lie back then."

"He?"

"Rodrick Jayson. An arrogant young master that should have known his limit and lay low after my warning, yet he couldn't control his emotion which lead him to his death. Didn't he follow you here? He want to make me suffer, but in the end, it was him that suffered in my hand. How laughable."

'Is this the reason why that brat wanted the gem for?' Before entering the highschool's premise, Rodrick suddenly asked him that he wanted to buy the gem at any cost, just name the price. To Ivan, the gem isn't much since it was given to him by the Mad Scientist, and he would never be that guy experimental rat again. 

He never thought of using it and was going to let it rot in his pocket, but who would have known that there was an idiot that willingly wanted to be one, and he would even get money for it. It's a win-win situation no matter how he looked at it.

However, it was just as he had expected, the gem couldn't do much against someone whom had a full awakening. It was like throwing a rock against a boulder, it stood no chance of surpassing the latter, be it raw power or size.

'Hmm? Something isn't right. Rodrick was aiming for a high school girl, but the person in front of him is a guy without a doubt. Which means...' It was now that Ivan realized the guy real identity might actually be that high school girl. After all, it couldn't be a mere coincidence for him to be here unless he's a student of this high school. 

Rodrick had repeatedly advised him to be on caution on many occasions before arriving to this location, to the point that it annoyed everyone on his group. Other than that high school girl, everyone else is just a normal person with no special ability like them. By the process of elimination, Ivan easily reached conclusion.

He didn't know how the girl was able to look completely different from the picture shown by Rodrick, perhaps, there's a powerful artifact in her hand that could do such things. it could also change her voice to that of a common guy you could find anywhere on the street, powerful indeed.

"Now that I already told you everything and you have also confirmed that I'm not lying, take me out of this place, just as you promised a moment before."

"Hmm, that's indeed the case. I did give you such a promise."

Sheila nodded her head in agreement.

"Sure."

Though he was relieved that he's finally out of this shitty space with nothing but darkness, Ivan couldn't help but grows suspicious as things went much smoother than he thought. He was prepared to bribe his way out of this since he recently earned a lot from the prideful brat. His life is way more important. After all money can be earn again, but if you're dead, there's no second chance, unless you're the protagonist of fictional story.

"Really?"

Ivan doubtfully asked, still unable to believe that this is happening. If it were him, he would have ask for a ridiculous amount of money in exchange of their life. 

"Of course, do you doubt me?"

"No no, of course not. I was just asking, haha."

It doesn't matter what she's thinking as the moment he was set free, Ivan is determined to launch a deadly move the moment his feet touch the ground. If only there wasn't a mask covering her face, Ivan would have been able to read her to a certain degree and take the momentum to his advantage. 

"Alright, here we go."

With her nonchalant words as the trigger, Ivan that was freely floating in darkness suddenly finds himself standing on the marble floor of the classroom within the blink of an eye. Without a second waste, he immediately charge with all his might toward the masked girl in front of him with a sharp dagger in his hand. The speed of his charge is astonishingly fast as one could only see blur if they were to witnessed it.

Seeing his target not showing any sign of making movement of either dodging or defending himself, a grin appeared on Ivan's face. He hadn't mentioned it before but, his awakening ability is called Leap. Within a short span of time when the skill is active, Ivan's speed would increase tremendously, to the point that it appeared as if he had just teleported from one place to another. With this skill, he managed to kill many of his enemies caught off guard.

The moment they noticed his movement was the moment their head was then plucked off their neck. Ivan believes the current situation would also follow the same pattern as it did heretofore with all of his enemies. 

*Swish!*

And just like that, a head flew up high as the headless body immediately fell following the consequence of his action. Mission success.

"No matter how powerful you are, once caught off guard, you're nothing but a prey ready to be behead."

Ivan nonchalantly whispered under his breath while wiping the blood off his dagger with the dark napkin he had at all time. If the plan didn't work out, he had already prepared himself to escape the moment it fail, but unexpectedly, it actually work in the end. 

"It is unfortunate, however. If we were to meet on a different term, we could have been colleagues. With your abilities, you might ended up becoming my boss though. Now that I think about it, yeah, I don't like it. It's good that you're dead."

"Is that so?"

"!!!"

On reflexes, Ivan quickly turned his body around before leaping backward, putting the distance between them. To his astonishment, the girl that he thought had died after getting beheaded is now standing perfectly fine. If not for the bloods on her shirts, the evidence of his action, he would have thought everything so far was just an imagination of his. 

"I-Impossible!"

"What is? Oh, are you talking about me coming back to life? Naw, that was nothing. It was just some skills of mine."

Sheila cheekily replied. Ivan's expression is simply precious, almost godly even. If not for the serious situation, she would have laugh out loud. 

"But I'm sure that I sliced your neck! I even feel a bit of resistance from that!"

With a dumbfounded look on his face, Ivan yelled in denial. In his experience as the priest of Ignis Church, he had witnessed almost all things that one considered insane, and managed to stay sane till the very end. Yet at this moment, everything that he came to knows, all crumbles to dust. 

"I had initially thought of letting you go after hearing of your story, and though I expected this is how it's gonna turned out, I still hope that you would just escape the moment you're given the chance to do so. Honestly...you and I are no different from each other. We both have our own goals and something that we treasured. We both trained hard to became strong enough so that we can protect our love ones with our own strength."

She then paused for a moment as Ivan could feel her eyes staring at him hidden behind the mask.

"But you disappointed me. You choose to eliminate the danger to your organization first instead of running away. Logically, you're not wrong. However, I must have misjudged your priority. I had thought your mother, your love one, is more important to you than the organization that's forcing you to kill people like it was nothing. You are a disappointment, Ivan."

Every words she said pierce ruthlessly through his heart. That's right, ever since he was busy with missions, he had never once visited his mother after he bought a house for her. The fact that such a thought never crossed his mind brought him to silence. 

The reason he joined the Church to begin with is mostly because he wanted his mother to have a good life. A life free of worries and sadness. But how could she be free of worries if her only son had suddenly stopped visiting her just after gifting her a warm house to stay. 

"Only now did you just realized it? But it's already too late. The kind me has long gone, you should now repay your sins with your life."