THE LAST KEEPER

Chapter 215: 215. FIRST WEB

Silence. Silence stretched out for minutes, if not hours. It seemed this was a game of patience, and neither was willing to move first. The silence was unbearable. Suddenly, a thin sound tore through the air. It was thin, then it grew sharp and irritating. Sagiri was not wearing his seals, and the thin sound was the cruelest thing he had ever heard. To his ears, it was like torture. It felt like they were exploding.

His opponent must have come prepared. The sound rose higher and higher and higher, and Sagiri could not feel anything besides the agonizing, crippling white sound tearing at his sensitive ears. He fell on one knee, panting in agony. His hands rushed to his ears to cover them, but it was futile. Only his seals could stop all the noise. His hands came in contact with something wet.

Blood

They were trying to fry his eardrums. He had never found a way around his enhanced hearing. It was a blessing and a curse, but he had never found a way around it except the seals Bakuru gave him. Right at the moment they were in his pockets, yet he could not reach them. He could not move his hands from his ears to get them, but he knew he had to. With a pained groan, Sagiri pulled one hand from his ears, but he immediately put it right back as another wail of torture reached his ears.

As if the uneasiness was stirring everything inside of him all at once. Sagiri’s skin began to burn slightly. Right. The blackrot residual had been silent in his body, only to act up when he was fighting not to collapse from the high-pitched ringing from all four corners of the small shopping centre. He could feel his skin begin to burn, and he knew if he it was only going to get worse. He could handle the backlash of the poison and the wailing noise at the same time; that was for sure. One thing had to give.

The markings on Sagiri’s body crawled to his fists. He did not try to hide the glow of the marks this time, and they glowed violently. It took all of Sagiri’s will and strength to jump off the roof and land on the ground. Only this time, he landed with his fists. He had grown even stronger than the last time he split the ground back at Ko’alsi City. His fist connected the ground with such force that a depression two feet deep and 20v wide formed. It did not stop even then. The ground shook and brought all the houses in the small place down, flattening them. Whatever innovations that were making the crippling wail must have been in range because the noise died down instantly.

Sagiri remained in the same position as he felt the hot liquid flow down his ears. He panted with his breath coming in rasps. He had not realised how much damage he had caused until he finally gathered the strength to stand up and saw that no house was standing. The place had been completely flattened, and he was standing in a long, very deep, and very wide depression. He was still wearing the union coats they stole from the young couple’s house. It now blew behind him in the unfiltered air of the night. The markings on his body had not seized and they were crawling under his skin like rings of fire. The black rot backlash was making them hotter.

The dust soon settled.

Now that the houses were and whatever his opponents had been using to hide their presence was gone. He could feel the hundred or more people scattered in the darkness. Only one set of special units had such capability and innovations to enable them to capture anomalies. Handle rare abilities research, develop magical weapon development, energy manipulation, arcade defence system, and most of all, as Lotaga said, they are also obsessed with Unusual power signatures, Unregistered anomalies, and individuals who ”should not exist.” The seventh wing. The Magical Warfare wing.

They were indeed not to be underestimated at all, but they angered Sagiri even more. They must have been the ones in cooperation with the fourth wing who captured Myama and tortured the beast to death. Myama could have flattened the war headquarters at any moment, but she didn’t. He was not feeling as generous as Myama.

”Are you going to keep lurking and use your petty tricks?” Sagiri seethed after a moment of his opponents remaining still as if that could stop him from feeling their presence.

”Who said we are hiding?” A voice said before someone stepped forward. According to the decoration on his combat suit, he must have been the captain of the squad. It seemed they had dispatched several Squads, and his was the closest and fastest to arrive. If Sagiri could not perceive his feelings, he could have been filled by the air he was putting forth, but after his display, he could tell the man was more skeptical now about approaching him carelessly.

”Isn’t the seventh wing supposed to be the third most deadly unit of tagayia, or is it the fourth?” Sagiri said, tilting his head. He did not wait for them to answer before he asked the next question. ”Why do you need to hold a little girl without her consent?” Sagiri asked again.

He had felt her the moment their veil machines were shattered. She was being held down by two warriors.

”The girl refused to tell us where you were when we found her running. It seems she hates you, but still did not tell us where you were,” the captain said. ”Is she your girlfriend or are you two having a lovers’ squabble?” The man asked, looking at the union coat he was wearing. It looked like he was buying time or avoiding a fight, so he just kept yapping.

”What does it have to do with anything?” Sagiri sighed with irritation. Weren’t they eager to just kill him and trap him by cornering him with their stupid tricks mere moments ago?

”We are here to escort you to the war headquarters. We will not harm your little girlfriend if you come willingly,” the captain said, and Sagiri almost laughed at how ridiculous that sounded. A whole warrior unit of Tagayia was bargaining on the life of a girl to capture him. Weren’t they supposed to protect her from him or something? The Northerners were indeed cruel.

”What makes you think I care if you kill her or not?” Sagiri breathed an irritated sigh.