Shades of the New World

Chapter 96: Dead teens' meetup

It was obviously the Time bomb that Evin set off.

There were not many uses for the World of Time itself, aside from dysfunctional ones, but raw Time energy had some niche uses. Time energy's most prominent feature was its ability to corrode. Anything would start rusting and corroding at the influence of time. Even magical constructs and other energies fell victim to its powers.

Just like how the energy explosion destroyed the portals around Evin, it destroyed the Space Barrier surrounding the battlefield as well. The excess energy inside the space lockdown would then breach into the atmosphere, painting an enormous dark-blue energy cloud.

Obviously, powerful mages like Kena would be able to easily perceive such things.

"A lesser-imposer, huh? Why don't you stay still for the time being?" Kena said in his staticky voice and directed the metal rod towards the boy.

The latter struggled to keep himself safe, but there was no way he could outmaneuver a former Authority. When Kena wasn't here, the rods were basically on autopilot, so Galashin had some success in dodging them. But with the Cobfolk's added control, the lesser-imposer's fate was sealed.

A few moments later, Galashin stood motionless, a metal rod slithering through his body, keeping his body still.

Kena approached the Lesser-imposer with unhurried steps, his focus on keeping Evin alive.

"Now, would you like to tell me where you've come from?" Kena asked.

"Make a Velvet Contract with me, I'll tell you everything about it," Galashin replied with a smirk.

"I'm afraid that won't be possible, as I had used the last I had with the boy, you see?"

"What did that Child show you, for someone like you to come personally to save him?" Galashin could not understand the reasons.

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that. I just know I won't be getting bored until I die, thanks to that boy," Kena seemed to smile behind the mask and continued.

"Well, since you won't be complying, I'll have to use some extreme measures," Kena said as he touched the boy's forehead and his hands took on a silver hue.

'No!' the boy decided to kill himself when he noticed the silver light. Silver meant Thoughts and that could only mean brainwashing, or mind reading, which were both extremely lethal to the organization.

Noticing the boy's intentions, Kena decided not to be so considerate and immediately started delving through the boy's mind. There was only one thing he was searching for, and those were locations and entry methods.

Not even a second later, Galashin's head exploded into smithereens under Kena's silver hand, but Kena had gotten what he wanted. Galashin had come straight from their organization's base, so the location of a secret base in the East was etched upon Kena's mind.

The Cobfolk then unhurriedly walked towards Evin.

"Well, we should definitely try to fix that," he muttered, looking at the deformed boy.

The boy's facial skin had completely melted on itself, before molding itself due to the Life energy that was supplied through Kena's rod. His forehead had sagged down to cover the boy's eyes, creating a two deep pockets that outlined the visual organs. Evin's ears had melted down to almost his chin, a row of teeth outlined around it through the boy's sagging cheeks

The rest of Evin's body did not fare well either, creating something that looked like a badly made mud golem.

Thankfully, the boy's bones did not melt, which was probably the only saving grace in this whole situation.

As monstrous as Evin looked, his heart was still beating, unfailingly pumping blood throughout his body. His mind worked in full power to keep the World of Life effects on himself, never allowing itself to lose consciousness.

The boy stubbornly clung onto life.

Kena gently touched Evin's head with his silver hands, allowing the boy to enjoy his well-deserved rest.

In one obscure underground Oasis of the East, a white clothed worker was diligently cleaning a row of life-sustaining tanks. Children of all ages were contained in these tanks, occasionally sending bubbles of air upwards. The whole room itself was illuminated with blue light, as there were naturally created mana-lodestones growing from one of the walls in this cave, supplying the tanks with its much-required energy.

Since the East's climate was on the dry side, it didn't take a lot to maintain these tanks. Just wipe them with a damp cloth once a day and everything was dandy. The worker's job was a monotone one. Aside from cleaning, all he had to do was to watch over these tanks to check if nothing happened.

He had to work in shifts, since there couldn't be a moment when there's no worker nearby when something happened from time to time... like now.

One of the tanks, which was doing its job without any issues, started blaring an alarm. The worker hurried to it and saw one of the teenage girls pounding on the glass of the tanks from inside.

The worker inputted the command to release the girl. The liquid inside the tank was drained, and the teenage girl inside dropped down to the tank's floor with a thud. She tried getting up and walking away, but her legs, which sorely lacked exercise in standing up, much less walking, gave up on her, forcing her to tumble down onto the cold concrete. Thankfully, the worker caught her before she fell, saving her from the pain of scraping her brittle skin against hard concrete.

The teenage girl calmed down soon afterwards after realizing what had happened.

"Lady Li'shan, what would you like to have me do," the worker glanced at the name on the tank and asked politely.

"N-nothing fo de taim bein tauwel, pleas," the girl answered and asked for a towel in a broken way, unable to properly form words with the unfamiliar mouth, shivering all the while.

The worker scurried away, and brought back a towel and some other clothing necessities. He also helped Li'shan drink some hot tea, careful of the girl burning herself with her unaccustomed new hands.

A few minutes passed, and Li'shal's shivering stopped. She was thinking about how she died and realized that the dagger inside the boy must have met the test subject and learned how to use the latter's powers.

She took a glance at her body, and saw a pale white skin, delicate and alluring. She then grabbed at her forehead, to check for something else.

'A normal human, then,' she judged, finding no horns.

'This isn't too bad. Although I can't go invincible, I can at least use more Worlds' as Li'shan thought about her future, two other pods started sounding the previous alarm.

The worker hurried on to release the two newcomers. Noticing that the newcomers were boys, he hurriedly threw the towels and clothes at the two teenage boys, and put two hot drinks in front of them. He then went to the communicator and informed the necessary personnel.

Li'shan waddled closer to the two and saw the names on their tanks. Sure enough, they were Hor'rak and Zantis.

The handsome, blonde Zantis had turned into a dark-skinned boy, and the ugly Northerner Hor'rak had turned into a red-haired Westerner.

"Hei, Risha," Zantis said, noticing the girl.

It took a little while before the three got used to their new bodies. The three sat together and practiced speaking and flexing their arms.

"How did the fight go?" she asked after a while.

"Fucking Hor'rak got stuck inside the dark-haired quarter-core's spell, making me fight that Cosmic and twin-horn alone. Do you know how hard it is to fight an enemy that can decapitate you with a single attack? Not to mention the old man who would keep throwing flaming blades to distract me," Zantis grumbled.

"That spell wasn't normal. I couldn't see anything inside, and I was constantly getting weaker with every second. Even my flames were weaker than before. I couldn't escape and I couldn't hit the brat too. In the end, I was torn to pieces by a huge dark maw. How can a quarter-core have such powers?" Hor'rak snarled in response.

"Did you buy enough time for Lord Galashin, at least?" Li'shan asked.

"We did. He should be done by now, don't you think?" Hor'rak answered and Li'shan calmed down.

"Perhaps he's melting the poor bastards one by one, it was his younger brother after all," Zantis shrugged.

"Well, as long as we've succeeded. It sucks that we died, but I guess it's just the occupational hazard. Oh, and also, Hor'rak, pretty sure you were getting weaker and weaker because the boy was snatching away the air around you. He did the same to me, completely removed all of the air around me suddenly, which was the reason I was put in a passive state and killed in the first place," Li'shan mentioned.

"That also explains why my flames were weaker! Cheeky brat! If the Revolutionary didn't kill you, I would have surely gone to take my revenge," Hor'rak exclaimed.

"Oh, and also, the boy's armor and dagger was a metal skinshifter, which was the test subject. That was the reason why he was able to hurt you through your invincibility," Zantis explained.

Dying wasn't a bad thing for those who could revive. At least they could learn from their past mistakes.

As the three chatted about random things, the door to the tank room opened and dark-masked official came in to inform the three about their mandatory post-reincarnation body familiarization session.