Chapter 77: Very Close Call

[00 Months: 04 Days: 05 Hours]

"P-please don't... I... I won't disturb you ever again."

As Lucas began begging for his life, his voice was filled with desperation and fear.

'This guy...' I listened with an icy detachment.

Just a few moments earlier, when it seemed like he had the advantage, his words were completely different.

I already knew of my fate if I had lost, and so I now understood his own fate since he was the one who lost.

"D-don't do it..."

His words washed over me, but I remained resolute in my decision. Trusting him was too great a risk, one I could not afford to take.

"I want to believe you, Lucas," I replied, my voice laced with cold indifference. "But the stakes are too high, and my own safety demands certainty."

Time and time again, I had been shown how fickle trust was. And how people didn't deserve the trust I would have otherwise placed in them.

'I can't even trust my allies. Why would I trust my enemies?'

Lucas's eyes widened, a flicker of hope and desperation mingling in his gaze.

"Please, spare me," he begged, his voice trembling. "We will never cross your path again. I promise."

A heaviness settled in my chest, a weight born from the necessity of my actions. It was in moments like these that I was reminded of the person I used to be.

'I couldn't even kill Lisa and her friends back then...' And those people did much worse things to me than Lucas had done.

Yet, I had changed so much.

I wasn't hesitating in my decision. Not really. I had every intention to end this man's life simply based on the threat he would pose to me and the rewards I would gain from his demise.

Nothing more, nothing less.

That was the merciless pragmatism that now guided my every step. The sacrifice I made in the pursuit of my own survival.

"I wish it didn't have to come to this," I murmured, my voice tinged with regret. "But I cannot afford to leave any loose ends."

Wasting any further time would be detrimental, so I decided to end the conversation and simply execute my task. The first thing to do was extract information from him, and once I knew everything I wanted to... I would kill him.

"Alright, Lucas... hmm?"

As I prepared to use the <Truthful Glare> Skill, a sudden foreboding washed over me, a premonition that something terrible was about to unfold.

Time seemed to slow, and instinct propelled me to activate <Visualize>, granting me a glimpse into the immediate future.

In those fleeting seconds, my eyes widened in alarm.

'W-what? This is...?!'

Lucas was about to explode, his body turned into a living bomb. The sheer radius of the blast was something I couldn't withstand.

Not even with <Haven>!

The very air crackled with imminent destruction as I let go of my prey, also forgetting about the other three that remained on the floor.

Survival was my only priority now.

Without hesitation, I shifted my focus, my mind racing to find a way to defuse the imminent catastrophe.

My vision shifted to the furthest destination I could look at and I instantly activated the <Teleportation> Skill. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough Energy to make the jump.

'Shit!'

At this point, I could already hear the sound of the blast preparing to erupt.

'S-shit!'

Swiftly activating <Turbo>, I sped away from Lucas, pouring as much energy as I could to protect my body from the imminent eruption that threatened to swallow me whole.

"<Fallen Foe: Mr. Stone!>" I yelled, racing away as the blast began.

~BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...!!!

At this point, the Earth Golem appeared right in front of me, and I reached out for it instantly.

"Protect me!"

Mr. Stone quickly grabbed my hand and threw me far away, plunging me into the air as I watched the blast consume it.

The explosion, albeit mitigated, still rushed towards me, threatening to swallow me as well.

"<Haven>!" I yelled, gritting my teeth as I poured the last of my energy into the barrier that surrounded me.

~... OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!~

"Gurk!" I groaned, feeling the impact of the shockwave as I was pushed away, crashing into a mountain's wall.

"Guark!"

The recoil sent my body aching, and at this point, my <Haven> was now completely shattered. Pain seared through my body, and I felt myself being propelled backward, crashing into the ground.

The earth trembled slightly as I crashed into it, creating smoke and dust all around me. I could feel some bones broken, and my skin tingled with a lot of pain, enough to make me cry out.

Mr. Stone was destroyed, and all my targets for investigation were now dead.

Fortunately... I survived.

"Haa... haaa..."

My <Visualize> skill had given me a precious few seconds to react, but it was not enough to escape the blast entirely.

Any second slower and I could have probably died.

'But how did I sense that something was off? Was it intuition, or...?' I couldn't say.

I was just very fortunate to be alive right now.

As the dust settled, my body aching and bloodied, I struggled to rise to my feet. The air was thick with the acrid scent of smoke, and debris littered the scene of devastation. Lucas and his subordinates were gone, consumed by the explosion that would have also spelled the end for me.

Bitterness mingled with frustration within me as I stared at the wreckage.

"So he blew himself up, huh?" Discover more stories at m,v l'e-NovelFire

Lucas had played his final hand, sacrificing himself and his comrades to ensure that I did not learn the truth they held.

At this moment, the weight of their secrets, their motives, particularly the nature of this 'Alliance', remained forever shrouded.

'He got me good.'

There was one problem, though. It gnawed at me so much that I simply couldn't ignore it any longer.

'Was he really the one who blew himself up?'

Lucas didn't seem like he was willing to die for anything, talkless anyone. I didn't think he had it in him to kill himself.

So who killed him? His superior perhaps? Times like this made me wish I had more information about Lucas and his organization.

'Fuck them...'

Breathing heavily, I surveyed the wreckage, the remnants of a confrontation that had shifted the course of my journey.

As expected, there was nothing in sight. All of them had been turned into nothing but dust. It was a close call for me indeed.

'A... close call?' I found myself surprised at my current line of thought.

Why was I so concerned about my death as if it held much significance? Sure, I would have to repeat the day again, but I wouldn't have missed out on too much. Searᴄh the NôvelFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

No, in fact, it would have probably been even better if I repeated the day.

I would have been able to act more efficiently and gather more information. Why didn't I think of that back then?

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[A/N]

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