Chapter 229: Realization

Chapter 229: Realization

I picked up a stick on the way to the destroyed park, where most of the swings and slides lay in ruins. With the stick, I began writing down everything I knew on the playground sand.

First, there was some individual attempting to alter the past, adding an extra layer of complexity to the situation. Despite halting my team's interference, this person had not intervened when Agon had come here.

I was well aware that I couldn't be arrogant enough to believe that a powerhouse like Babylon, its guards, and the creatures inhabiting it would back off due to my power. But whatever that silver-haired dipshit had in mind, it was going to end horribly.

Even if, by some chance, he succeeded, what would come next? He would only erase himself from existence.

"Hell yeah! We're so damn good!" Agon exclaimed.

"C'mon, we need to meet up with the others," I said.

This place was either the remnants of a time long past or perhaps ruins from the future. Either way, like every other location on this cursed island, it undoubtedly harbored something dangerous, and lingering here for too long could be risky.

I leaped toward a broken skyscraper, using the nails on my hand to secure a hold on the solid concrete. Almost instantly, Agon joined me, one of his hands covered in white scales, and his nails a dark purple that nearly appeared black.

Agon imitated my actions, gripping onto the building as well.

"You know, this feels kinda cool," he smiled.

"Of course, Ord is always cool," I smiled back and positioned myself horizontally, and jumped off the skyscraper.

The wind tousled my hair, and I gazed down below. I stood at a height equivalent to a twenty-story building.

In my previous life and even when I arrived here, I had always been afraid of heights, like most people. However, knowing I could survive such heights, even having fallen from higher points a couple of times, gradually made my fear disappear.

Those heights that once terrified me had now become comforting and familiar.

As I landed on another broken skyscraper, the aftershock of the jump caused me to slide down a bit, leaving a claw mark on the building's wall. Eventually, I slowed down and grinned, looking back at Agon.

"Oh, shi-" was all he managed to utter before crashing through a wall and into the building.

As the dust settled, he poked his head out of the hole in the wall, his dark hair, with a purple strand, now covered in dust, and his face also dusty. "Don't worry, I'm okay."

"I was more worried about the wall," I clarified.

He frowned, then grabbed a rock from the debris he had created and threw it at me. I leaned back, dodging the projectile. "Hey! Asshole, don't do that."

He looked away and tried to act innocent, looking away and whistling. "What're you talking about? M-My hand just slipped."

He was a terrible liar, and even a blind man could see that.

I settled down next to Sei, the lingering smell of coppery blood no longer bothering me as much as it used to.

It was peculiar to think back to the man I used to be as if my life as an office worker was a distant memory that didn't even feel like me anymore. I had indeed undergone significant changes.

"What happened here?" I whispered to Sei, careful not to disrupt Anika's concentration. Her precise and skilled Ord control was a display of her extraordinary talent.

"We were stopped and defeated," Sei sighed, gazing at the purple-ish sky with a tinge of melancholy. "Our enemies keep growing stronger, and we seem to be improving at a snail's pace in comparison."

***

'Except you,' Sei wanted to add, but he decided not to be childish about it. Kon being able to handle Avalon Island was a good sign for all of them.

However, it truly felt like with each step they took, the enemies they were facing took two.

The world had grown a lot stranger lately, and it wasn't the same one he used to read about as a kid.

He closed his eyes and dreamed of simpler times a time when he would lean against the mirror his mother was sealed in, holding a book on his lap, while his mother read it to him.

That beautiful world of friendships and defeating demons together was just a fairytale. In reality, people died horribly, and friends were temporary when faced with the inevitability of death.

Sometimes, it was almost suffocating. No matter how much they grew, their next enemy would be ten times stronger than the last one.

For example, in the war, encountering an ultimate class demon was rare and unlucky. Yet here on Avalon Island, every battle they had was at the ultimate class level or above.

Sei had killed the weird lizard Ultimate class demon that could burn mountains and felt a sense of accomplishment from that. Yet his enthusiasm was crushed when the silver-haired man suppressed him as if he were nothing more than a fly.

"All done, this is all I can do for now," said Anika, leaning back and breathing a sigh of relief, and breaking Sei away from his thoughts.

Agon came and sat next to Kon, his legs dangling off the edge.

"Are you okay?" Kon asked Anika, who was leaning on the ledge.

She shrugged. "Yeah, though it was strange how the enemy could forcefully put Ord in my body. It was as if some kind of special ability was being used that allowed them to control their Ord perfectly."

As soon as she said that, Kon's eyes widened, and as if realization dawned on him. Anika continued like she didn't notice, massaging her own shoulders and saying. "But at least feeling such a precise Ord inside of me gave me some ideas on how to control it better. Sadly, I don't think the level he did it at can be replicated unless someone had a special ability specific to that."

As Anika continued speaking about this mysterious silver-haired man, Agon suddenly perked up. "Uhm, I think I know who you're speaking about. He has silver hair and red eyes that look like a cats eyes, right? He helped me after I was taken away by some weird naked monster without a... rod."

At that, Kon's mask slipped even more, and his shock was clear to everyone there.

However, Sei had his own thoughts and didn't pay much attention to what Kon was doing. What Sei had in mind was his hesitation when the silver-haired man appeared. Next time, he wont hesitate, and attack immediately.