Chapter 121 The Calm Before The Storm I



Christmas Eve had finally arrived. The Octagram City was festively decorated, bringing a livelier atmosphere to the bustling city that was never asleep. Tall Christmas Trees were installed on the sidewalks, bulb lights alike connected by wires and such wrapping the trees helped the lamp streets to illuminate the road and city.

Meanwhile, in Octagram Academy, although the campus was decorated with a Christmas vibe, the atmosphere was serene as most of the students were returning to their homes to celebrate Christmas, enjoying the winter holiday, and expecting the new year to come in a few days.

Approximately 120 out of 4000 students stayed in the academy, celebrating with the other students at the cafeteria. They had a nice, small banquet and dance session, and the music was being played by a group of talented students that fancy arts, particularly music.

Lux and Grace were seen together having a nice meal as they watch the others dance. Sitting at a table crowded with students was Lumi, as popular as ever, to be expected as she was the heir of the top 1 Guild and company in the world.

Recently arriving at the cafeteria were Seo Yeong-Ha and Leonardo. They didn't come here together, but it was a 'coincidence' they bumped into each other according to Leo's testimony.

Seeing Leo together with Seo Yeong-Ha, a feeling of jealousy bloomed inside Lumi. They were always together from a young age but now they were like strangers to each other. Leo would always dismiss her every time she wanted to talk with him, saying that he didn't have time for playing with her.

Leo didn't greet her, not even sparing a glance as he and Seo Yeong-Ha passed by her and Lumi also seemed not to have any intention to call him out, not when people were crowded around her table.

Zio was a bit of an anomaly here. When everyone was having a good time inside the cafeteria, he was sitting at the table outside the cafeteria alone. At least that was what the passerby saw when they noticed him.

In reality, a black-haired girl with red ruby eyes accompanied him, she wrapped her arms around Zio's shoulders obsessively.

"Nanana~ nanana~ nanananana~"

While everyone else was having a nice time with each other, Zio had to deal with an annoying ghost that always followed him from the first day of enrolling in the academy. 

A few days ago, this ghost was trying to kill him with a kitchen knife he wasn't sure whether that could kill him or not. But after finding out that his sword clanged with the knife, he was left confused.

At first, he thought that the girl was a real person who enrolled in the same academy and existed in the same world. Then he found out that the girl was just a ghost and started to ignore her existence, but as he did that the ghost tried to kill him and its form was solid like a human.

"Please, Zio. Don't forget about me…"

The girl cast a dark gaze at Zio.

"And, you shouldn't take that ugly candy anymore, it'll be bad for your health if you keep consuming it."

She pulled her arms off Zio's shoulder and shifted her position. Standing in front of Zio, she spread her arms wide open with much freedom, the darkness on her face replaced by the happiest face she could make.

"See this, Zio? If you ever need a hug, you can just ask me!"

Rolling his eyes, Zio tried to ignore the girl. His hand reached for the candy inside the pocket and when he took it out, the girl's happy face contorted to a grim and dark expression.

"YOU CAN'T!"

With massive force, the girl seized the candy from Zio's hand and ran away.

"Hey!"

Zio had no other choice but to chase her for the stolen candy as it was his last candy. It was supposed to have 30 candies inside the pouch he received from Ember, and that should have been enough for a month because he was supposed to take a candy a day.

But, he was forced to take extra candy when he used his other form as Euclios Niveus or the White Demon. Killing people had taken a toll on his mind.

Why did he kill people in the first place? And why did he kill the heroes? Aren't he on the good side?

The heroes that he killed were the corrupt heroes that had a lot of bad track records such as killing civilians or r*ping them while hiding behind the hero title. Not only that, after thorough research and investigation on them, he found out that half of the heroes he killed had tried to make contact with demons or demonic humans.

How could he kill the heroes? Aren't they supposed to be stronger than him?

Of course. But, Zio had made sure to list only a hero that he could fight or one that had a lot of hooks and weaknesses. By exploiting their vulnerability, he successfully established the White Demon's existence in the Enhanced world.

Not only that, but he also carefully selected his target by their names. From the 28 targets he killed, if one was clever enough, they would notice that if they took the first letter of each of his target's name, it would make up a sentence that read:

"Meet Me At CBD Back Alley Utopians"

The message was for Valka and her teams.

There was a risk that someone else, especially Omega and the heroes to notice this but he already calculated it all.

Since the heroes he killed were those lower than D-rank, the Omega wouldn't pay much attention to them, making his plan go smoothly as intended and the one who came to meet him was Valka and the teams, thanks to Zoe for noticing the message.

Eventually, he got recruited by them. But, the problem was the mission he got. He didn't know that he (Zio Varrez) was being targeted by Valka.

'I should ask her why she wants me to find me later.'