Chapter 121 Heroes

Jake's calm rationality when he asked Linus if he wanted to be escorted out of his [master's home] made his words feel far more ruthless.

It was as if he detached from his ego and let every word and action become ammo.

Everyone watched Linus, waiting to see what he'd do. After swallowing nervously, he glanced at everyone and then at his hand.

"Look…." Linus sighed, looking at the emperor, "I'm an idiot with a temper problem. I'll work on it, so please don't make me leave."

Kaze glanced at the man with a piercing glare that sent waves of shivers crawling down his spine.

"Then sit." Jake ordered calmly, answering in place of his emperor. His calm was psychologically terrifying in its own way.

The athlete dry-swallowed and turned around, walked to a free spot in the back of the room, and sat obediently.

Jake made eye contact with Kaze, who gave him a solid nod of approval.

"Let's pick up where I left off." Kylie announced assertively, "I have a family I want to be with, but they're likely dead and nearly guaranteed to be soon.

I'm not here to convince you that Kaze saved your life or that our families are already gone.

Instead, you can see for yourself. This is police footage of what happened after the Qi influx at the apocalypse party.

It will show you everything you couldn't see in the panic."

—June 22nd, 2032 | The Apocalypse Party | Immediately After the Fourth Influx—

The grassy party park at the apocalypse party had a rich aura illuminating it.

Everyone Kaze gave luminescent breathing to was glowing red and also surrounded by a faint green barrier, depleting fast from the calming emotions.

A blaring chain reaction of emergency announcements from Malta's government abruptly sounded on hundreds of phones simultaneously.

—

Due to overexposure to Qi, many are falling ill. If you have cultivation techniques, please post them online and help your friends, families, and partners learn them.

We will provide updates as soon as possible.

—

The drunk partygoers turned to the Lockheed students, flickering like a candlelight vigil, mourning the death of modern society.

There wasn't a person who didn't know what Illuminent Breathing was.

"They're cultivating!" A woman screamed in panic, "The government says they need to share!"

Two dozen immediately descended upon the group. However, once they entered the green light, they calmed down instantly and closed their eyes.

The Forced Tranquility present could force someone into cultivation, and many people sat down to regain their balance.

Seeing the strange technique working in the background, the partygoers began picking up rocks. Then—

THUD! Thud! Thud, thud, thud…. "GahhhhHH!"

A person attempting to throw a rock took a blunt wave of Qi to the chest, sending them flying and rolling on the ground.

"What the fuck was that!?"

"That was a cultivation technique!"

"It must have been them!"

"Are you insane? Those people are cultivating with their eyes closed."

"The fuck you just say to me?"

"I'm saying they can't attack you when they're cultivating, you idiot."

"Hah! You're right. That means it was someone here!"

A fight broke out, with five people getting pulled in instantly.

"Calm down! Where's Kaze? He was the one that gave everyone that technique, right?"

"You're right!"

"KAZE!"

"Kaze!"

"Answer us, you sick motherfucker!"

"I just realized this, but… he gave everyone a technique super easily, right? That means he left us all to suffer and maybe die!"

"Yeah, he came here, taught people that technique, and bounced, leaving us to suffer!"

"KAZE! GET OUT HERE, YOU MOTHERFUCKER!"

"I'm going to fucking kill that guy!"

The green barrier and the Lockheed student's Illuminesent Breathing ended abruptly.

"Wait… what happened?" Kylie muttered in confusion, opening her eyes to the sound of screaming and yelling.

"I… don't know." Sammy replied, looking around in shock.

"They're awake!" A woman yelled.

A flood of partygoers swarmed them instantly.

"The technique!" Someone yelled, "We need that cultivation technique!"

Kylie's eyes trembled in confusion. "Technique? This technique is available to everyone online."

"Don't give me that shit!" A woman snapped, "No one could learn that technique online.

Yet everyone here learned it instantly in one night?"

"W-Whoa, calm down!" Sammy requested frantically, "Kaze touched our foreheads, and we just learned it. We don't know why."

"Wait! So it was that motherfucker!"

"Yeah, he gave these hoes the technique and left everyone to die!"

"Hey!" A brunette yelled indignantly, "I'm not a hoe, and fuck off!"

A dozen people turned to the petite brunette with crazed eyes.

One woman instantly tackled her, sending her into other Lockheed students waking from cultivation.

The brunette fought to break free, but the woman held her by the hair.

One of the men in the area followed, kicking her in the stomach.

"Did you just hit a fucking woman!" An Asian man yelled, decking the man in the face.

"Don't hit my friend!" Another yelled, punching the Asian in the back of the head.

A massive brawl broke out in the area, with the fighting women getting trampled.

Kylie grabbed Sammy's hand. "Let's get out of here!"

"What about Whitney and Sage?" Sammy cried, "We can't leave them!"

"Shut up, let's move." Kylie yelled, pulling her friend's arm just in time to prevent a falling man from crashing on top of her, "Let's run! We also can't help Whitney if we're dead!"

They ran away with another fifty students, with and without the technique, who escaped in their direction.

As they did, a mob chased after them, screaming to give them the technique.

The drone footage zoomed in on the side streets.

Mercenary teams waited in alleyways in tactical gear. Once the students got near, they jumped out, shooting sleeping gas into the area.

They immediately identified their targets and bagged their heads as quickly as possible, zip-tying their hands and lifting them into trucks with more sleeping gas.

The mercenaries beat everyone else with batons and shot tear gas into the crowd after they acquired their targets.

It wasn't fair, as most were just fleeing like the students. However, it was necessary to contain more than two hundred people chasing their targets.

Meanwhile, at the park, the woman beaten initially was on the ground, dazed from being trampled.

Her back got damaged from falling on someone and getting stepped on, so she could only scream for help as a man walked up, unbuckling his belt.

"Get over here, you cultivator whore." He laughed sadistically, "I'm not going out without one last go, and you're scum."

CrrraaaCkKK!

The woman watched in horror as the man's neck twisted abruptly, instantly snapping. The predator dropped to the ground lifelessly, causing a panic.

Golden light radiated around the woman, and her injuries healed instantly. She lay there in disbelief, unable to process what had happened.

"That was a cultivation technique!"

"She has one, after all!"

"Give it to us!"

"Wait, she killed that guy!"

The woman froze instead of running away. She had only been healed for less than twenty seconds before people began trampling her again.

Everyone kicking her got hit by an invisible force, sending them flying a dozen feet again. It broke some of their bones, and they screamed in pain.

"Run, you fool!" A male voice yelled in the night as her body glowed and her wounds healed again.

"K-Kaze?" She stumbled, unwilling to move, "Where are you?"

"Run, Leera! How many times must you be beaten—"

Unfortunately, she was focused on the voice in the background instead of her environment.

Midsentence, another mob descended upon her.

—8:00 a.m. | July 1st, 2032 | Lockheed Mansion | 6 Days Until the Rapture—

Kylie stopped the video there, looking at everyone's horror-stricken expressions.

"I'm sure everyone has a different perspective on what happened that night now that you've seen it for yourself." She asserted.

"There are a lot of things you may take from this video—but there's only one thing that matters.

Kaze taught us a technique, and we're fine. Those he didn't teach instantly turned into aggressive, homicidal animals, and some became predators.

Then they rioted, razed the city, and killed people. You saw the footage.

Everyone in the world experienced this—including our friends and families.

Kaze saved our lives, and we should be grateful, but he didn't save our families, so they're likely gone."

"That technique... the invisible one that helped Leera..." A voice remarked emotionally in the room, capturing everyone's attention.

"It wasn't a dream!" Larkin yelled, "That was you that saved my life from those guys beating me up, wasn't it, Scrawn!?"

The emperor glided his eyes to his jester slowly with a cold glare and then back to the students.

He wanted to deny it, to prevent favoritism claims and hide his healing technique, but their eyes said they wouldn't believe otherwise.

"If I were, do you think I'd confess to crimes in another country?" Kaze asked calmly, "I am many things, but I am not a fool."

Larkin's eyes lit up when he saw his noncommittal expression.

He pulled his elbow back, closed his eyes, turned to the sky, and let out his characteristic battle cry with tears rolling down his eyes. "Scrawn fuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!"

The room exploded in a mixed bag of emotions, many laughing with awkward pain in their voice.

They saw Larkin, who Kaze saved directly, crying. It was something no one felt was possible.

Many started crying after they stopped laughing.

After a few minutes of emotional processing, the emperor's spokeswoman brought people back to focus.

"Listen, everyone." Kylie requested loudly, "You can leave Immortal Skye tomorrow.

But first, please remember what it was like to get attacked by desperate people who demanded you help them.

I ask you never forget what happened to Leera or Larkin in the panic."

The Lockheed students shuddered, holding onto her every word.

"There are two thousand desperate people in Immortal Skye." Kylie warned chillingly.

"If we don't band together and contain them, the scene we relieved will repeat on a far larger scale.

If you leave tomorrow, no one will blame you. We have friends and families, and leaving them behind is hard without knowing if they're gone.

But first, consider the massacre and injustices that will occur here if we don't keep order.

We're the only people that stand between thousands of people and the fate you just reexperienced.

We can save countless lives, protect countless women, and ensure a tragedy doesn't happen.

Please consider that before deciding between being [an elite] and leaving."

She concluded her statement and let people process her words.

After five seconds of rapid whispering, Larkin yelled out in assent, and cheers rang out in the room. It was an emotional moment.

Determination filled everyone's eyes, and those who wanted to leave didn't blame Kaze.

While everyone was wrecked, everyone successfully transposed their experience on both their parents and the faction members.

No one looked forward to facing tomorrow, but they felt obligated to prevent women from being assaulted and a massacre from occurring.

To be heroes.

The emperor looked at his spokeswoman in satisfaction, pleased that his judgment was not misplaced.

—July 1st, 2032 | Strategy Meeting | 6 Days Until the Rapture—

"With that footage, I can close." Kylie replied unwaveringly, "No matter how much risk it presents, showing that footage is necessary.

The footage shows how fast people changed.

We can use that to convince everyone that their families were instantly affected and are already gone.

Their imaginations will magnify the potential outcomes, making them terrified of returning home."

Everyone glanced at the cute brunette with puffy eyes in disbelief, confused about how the cheerleader spoke of trauma tactics like their leader.

Only the emperor smiled, satisfied that the woman had correctly interpreted and learned her job.

"More importantly, they'll remember what happened that night." Kylie continued, "And we'll truthfully explain they're needed to prevent that.

After they transpose the massacre on the people around them, they'll find saving everyone to be a duty.

Everyone wants to be a hero."

"I'm impressed by your keen awareness of human behavior." Kaze smiled, giving her an earnest expression, "So I will entrust the task to you.

Do not let me down, as a task of this magnitude has no room for mistakes."

Kylie nodded confidently. "I won't let you down."