Listen While Reading: SHADOWED

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  “You’ll see, Wingspeed! I’ll be free before you know it!!"

  Doctor Frost screamed furiously as he was tained by several devices that bined both sd magic, the test teology to restrain Awakened people, whipletely shut down their Mana and Sealed their Skills.

  His wrists, legs, chest, and head were all equipped with these pieces, which were actually made by not only bining teology with magic, but also by using the System’s own powers, such as people with Craftsman, Bcksmith, and Runic Bcksmith Csses.

  “Yeah, yeah, it looks like you ’t even freeze anything with that armor on, and it’s super heavy too. Have fun in prison, old man.”

  Wingspeed shrugged as he saw Doctor Frost being taken away by a rge group of Gover Agents, which also included Armored Knights, for the first time.

  “Are people in this world really wearing armor like they’re medieval knights? And these are gover agents?”

  As the speedster wondered what kind of universe this even was, a duo of agents walked to his side, two of them wearing bck suits and sungsses, simir to the gover agents he was familiar with.

  However, the third was an incredibly tall man of over two meters of height, wearing heavy bd red armor and holding a golden, round shield alongside a long spear decorated with a coiling dragon.

  His helmet looked simir to Spartas, and his sharp crimson eyes gred at Wingspeed with suspi; he had short bck hair and a scar across his face.

  Between all three, Wingspeed instantly detected this man had an incredibly powerful Aura.

  “Finally, someone’s going to address me?” He smiled as he tried to joke about his current situation. “I know that it has only been a day since I nded here, but I really thought the gover would be faster.”

  “We’re sorry for deying it so long; too many things were happening at the same time, sir. My name is Agent Lisa,” said one of the agents, a woman with short red hair and azure eyes. “Your name is…?”

  “Wingspeed, Speedster, Superhero, Desdant of Hermes,” said Wingspeed, presenting himself. “You guys seriously don’t have a version of me here?”

  “Not at all… It is our first time meeting you, sir. o meet you; my name is Agent Wick,” said the ent, a man with short silver hair and white eyes. “Usually, people that e from other worlds are separated on two sides. Those that attempt to kill us or invade us, and those that are peaceful and desire alliarade, and so on.”

  “I see… You’re used to this, huh?” Wingspeed wondered. “Does it have to do with that huge tower over there?”

  “Mostly, yes, it appeared around... eleven or twelve years ago,” said Agent Laura. “Sihen, our world has been ected to this pce, the Tower. It ects to a huher worlds; each world is a floor withiower. And there’s billions of beings living across every world. They’re as big as our own. Some are smart and friendly; others were mohat wao kill us. We’ve been progressively adapting to the ges and rapidly evolving to fight against them. Awakened are people that have adapted to these powers and have mao attuh the System that ects all things.”

  “Woah, woah, woah, calm down there; that’s a lot of things you’re expining to me…” Wingspeed said. “I really barely had time right now; I gotta go meet with some other friends right now. We have to figure a way out of here first.”

  “I would reend you not to walk away, invader,” the silent armored man behind the two agents finally spoke, his spear glowing brightly. “Despite your friendliness, you are an illegal immigrant of this try, and you will first have to be treated to court, where judges shall decide your fate.”

  “e again?” ughed Wingspeed. “Judges will decide my fate? Who is this guy anyway? Is he from Earth too?”

  “You dare…?!”

  “He’s an Aura Knight, a part of the anization that directly serves the King,” expined Lisa, trying to calm him down.

  “I don’t need someone else to introduce me,” the knight said. “My name is Atticus Felix, heir of House Atticus, Spear Aura Knight of his Majesty.”

  “His majesty?! Okay, hold on, are we in America right now? There’s a King in America?! What about the president?” Wingspeed asked. “How did this even happen?”

  “It’s a long story…” Said Agent Wick. “There is a…”

  “His Majesty King Caesar took over this pitiful try, defe from monsters, and sihen has been proteg it as his territory,” Atticus Felix spoke. “We heir from Floor 74; this try is aension of the Empire; our King, his majesty, is the son of the Great Emperor.”

  “You’re not even from this world either?!” Wingspeed said angrily. “Hey, you ’t just e and invade America, dude!”

  “They didn’t teically invade us; they helped us survive. Without the help of his majesty’s troops and his quick thinking and strategy-making, America would have been swallowed by the Gates and would be in plete ruins. We owe him our lives,” said Agent Wick.

  “That is, indeed, what happened,” nodded Agent Lisa. “Now, sir, Wingspeed. I am fairly sure that is merely your alias. What is your real name? you also take out your mask? We o at the very least register you as a visitor from another world.”

  "Sorry, but my identity’s a secret,” said Wingspeed. “I just ’t-”

  Atticus didn’t eveate, swinging his spear against Wingspeed and almost pierg his stomach with it, if it wasn’t because the speedster rapidly evaded.

  "Hey, what the hell?! Why are you attag me with your pointy stick?” Wingspeed wondered, several meters away.

  “He’s fast…” Atticus said. “I did what I must do; I was se you to the judges and to identify your true iions with our try. I was told by his majesty that I was free to force you to cooperate if you weren’t willing; as there’s no alliance of tries or worlds with your ins, there’s no reason ould aice with you.”

  “B-But I saved you from Doctor Frost! I’m a hero!” said Wingspeed.

  “Hero? You rescued a psychopath, and then you call yourself a hero? That man was an invader aiming to kill i people,” Atticus sighed. “What sort of mentality do you have to spare his life after he had already frozen a dozen or so civilians? He will be executed promptly after tomorrow in the m.”

  “W-What?! You’re exeg him?!” asked Wingspeed. “But he’s nht in the head; you have to spare him and send him to an asylum!”

  “Insane or not, he has itted grave crimes against the gover, and his majesty does not ass murderers,” said Atticus. “Now, will you colborate or…”

  Wingspeed suddenly realized several more knights appeared, surrounding him, their magical auras and powerful ons on full dispy.

  “Or will you make us do this the hard way?”

  As Atticus spoke, Wingspeed felt shocked, beginning to sweat rapidly.

  He g the two agents, who waved their heads while looking apologetic.

  “Please cooperate; we’ll do our best, so you aren’t hurt,” said Agent Lisa. “But the w is the w. And the King’s decree must be obeyed.”

  “We believe you’re a good person,” nodded Agent Wick. “Please e with us.”

  Wingspeed smiled a bit.

  “Hahah… This world’s fucked.” He ughed. “Nah, I’m getting out of here.”

  FLASH!

  Wingspeed disappeared from there, moving at lightning speed and only leaving a small golden and red-colored blur behind.

  “Catch him!” Atticus roared. “And if you ’t, kill him!”

  The knights quickly started chasing him around, but he started moving so fast they were uo find where he went.

  “He was so fast!”

  “I couldn’t even see him moving.”

  “How someohis quick?”

  “He said he was the desdant of a ght?”

  “Hm, perhaps Lady Bing Xue could catch him…”

  Atticus groaned as he gritted his teeth; hearing Bing Xue’s name always made him mad. Not only that woman had humiliated his king, but she had also forced him to create an alliand even recruited him as a part of her strange cult, against his will.

  “Silence!” he roared. “We don’t require that woman’s help! We do this on our own! His majesty said we had to guard and look over the streets anyways, so spread out!”

  At the same time, as the majority of the knights had gathered in a single spot, some of the vilins that had e from aimeline, lurking in the darkness, started to act.

  Having already learned about the potential of the System and its powers, that night there was a sudden increase in murder rates.

  People, mostly i civilians, were captured and killed out of nowhere.

  And unlike monsters, they could hide well, act like other people, and then stab another when they least expected it.

  Of course, someone else wasn’t going to let these small fries do as they pleased.

  “Hahaha! Aahh! I feel s! What’s this?! This world is just the best!”

  A man wearing a full-body skintight suit of green color with a huge golden kite behind his back ughed, his hands covered with blood.

  “I ’t believe that killing makes me stronger now… No longer will they ugh at me anymore!”

  He grabbed the knife, which was deep in his victim’s chest, a young adult woman who was hugging her son, who had also been stabbed to death.

  Their tears could still be seen in their faces, as their eyes were open even after death.

  “Now where should I go pick more of them?” wohe vilin, lig the blood off his knife. “One I level up and gain more skills, I’ll be able to even be in pairs with the big-time vilins like Jester…”

  Unaware of this, suddenly, a shadoeared behind him.

  BAAM!

  With a strong ki the head, the man was sent flying, hitting the floor and rolling over it, looking at his perpetratrily.

  “Wha…?! You’re here too?!”

  “You’ve fallen low, Green Kite.”

  “Nightman! I am not the same as before! I’m not going to be the ughingstock of the rest, you fuck!”

  “We’ll see about that, you cold-blooded murderer…”

  Nightman’s appearance was revealed amidst the shadows: a man ed in gray and bck robes with a wolf-shaped mask and eerie red eyes.

  He had an unattended short beard, muscur and tall frame, and a strange aura, as he held nothing, but a rosary ed around his fists.

  “Yeah, I’m not the same as before.”

  Green Kite smiled as his Aura surged from his body, making Nightman’s eyes widen in surprise. Winds gathered around the vilin, lifting him up from the ground.

  “See?! See that I am not the same, you fucker?!”

  Green Kite ughed like a maniac as he rushed towards Nightman, attag him with a spiraling tornado of emerald winds.

  FLUOOOSH!

  “Ugh…!”

  Nightman stepped baotig Green Kite’s knives already stabbing his bulky arms.

  “This damn bastard…!”

  He punched Green Kite’s face he got closer, breaking his mandible.

  BAAAM!

  “Arrgh!”

  As he dropped off the ground, his magic suddenly dissipated.

  “Magic or not, you’re still the same pathetic piece of shit.”

  Nightman walked towards him and kicked his ribs before he grabbed his arms and was about to put a handcuff on him.

  “What the hell did you do to me?! My Magic’s gone?!”

  “How do you think I’ve been keeping up with creeps like the Jester this eime? I know how to deal with tricksters and magis a bit.”

  The rosary ed around his fists was no mere rosary, but a special type of artifact he brought from his inal world, an exorg object that temporarily seal magi a target.

  “You’ll see! They’ll free me ter anyway! Hahaha!”

  “Until then, yoing to the damn asylum…”

  As Nightman prepared t him away, suddenly…

  “No, I don’t think he will.”

  “Huh?”

  His sharp crimson eyes noticed someone—a woman made of golden light.

  FLASH!

  With a single beam of light, Green Kite’s head exploded.

  BOOOM!

  “W-Wha…?!”

  Nightmare gasped, stepping ba disbelief. He gritted his teeth, gring at the woman with utter wrath!

  “What did you do?!”

  “I killed a dangerous man; what about it?”

  She desded from the skies, quickly waving her hands again.

  Light ed around the bodies of the victims as their bodies were fully healed, and life was once more breathed into them.

  “Aaah! W-What happened?!”

  “Mom!”

  Nightman gasped in disbelief as he saw a miracle that in his world was nothing but impossible without trived, dangerous methods that always had terrible downsides.

  “Y-You revived them?!”

  “That man had been on a killing spree; he had already murdered ten people. You wao just bring him to prison? You’re insane… He deserved death.

  “Deserved death?!” asked Nightman. “Nobody deserves… Nobody deserves death! If you kill them, the you the same as them?! What makes you different from another vilin?”

  “What sort of foolish logic is that?” the woman wondered. “Of course I am better thahey’re killing is; I am killing maniacs. If they die, the rate at whis die will naturally decrease. It doesn’t take a genius to guess this, and I’ve been living for eleven thousand years, mind you.”

  “But that’s… If you kill a murderer, their numbers never decrease because…!”

  “Because you bee ooo? So what? Kill two, three, four, five, six, or ten murderers. Problem solved…”

  “A-Ah… No, still, it’s illegal to kill.”

  “Have you ever heard of self-defense? Well, not like it matters here. Sure, go around keeping murders and psychopaths alive all you want; if that’s your hobby, I don’t care. I’ll e and kill them ter. Round them up for me; put them in a pce all together.”

  “Y-You’re insane!”

  Nightman screamed, rushing towards her.

  “You must be stopped!”

  He tried pung her.

  “What a fool you are…”

  Bing Xue sighed, raising her leg and kig the man’s faster than he could react.

  BAAAM!

  “Ugh?!”

  He dropped over the floor with his lower jaw dislocated.

  “I’m not killing you because you don’t seem like a bad person… But I’m keeping a close eye on you and your kind; better behave around my world. Or else, I will not hesitate to take you down.”

  The woman disappeared, dissipating into particles of light.

  “Hahh… Hahh…”

  Nightman fixed his jaws back together as he groaned in pain.

  CRACK!

  “Ugh… This world… is fucked.”

  He looked at the night sky; the full moon looked beautiful despite everything.

  “Nightman! Finally found you.”

  “Huh?”

  Nightman heard a familiar voice as a muscur young man appeared above the rooftop.

  “Gaxy Man! So you’re here too… That woman, did you see where she went to? you stop her?”

  “Oh, you met Bing Xue—good lord! Is that Green Kite?!” Gaxy Man gasped as he saw Green Kite’s body, whose head had been blown up.

  “Yes, he was murdered at cold blood by a woman made of light, then she proceeded to… revive his victims, kicked me, a,” sighed Nightman. “What is this world, Hall?”

  “I-I… don’t know,” muttered Gaxy Man. “But I think she went soft on you… If you knew what she’s capable of…”

  “What? Who is she? She said she was Bing Xue… No idea who that is,” said Nightman.

  “She’s… she might be the stro being in this universe so far,” said Gaxy Man. “Without a doubt, she’s at my level her.”

  “WHAT?!”

  The Viginte of the Night couldn’t believe he survived su enter.

  As he rubbed his , which was still in pain, he sighed.

  “Have you met the rest?”

  “I found Wingspeed, and I think Marvelous Woman is iy too. Martian and Jade Star aren’t around, though.”

  “Alright, let’s quickly find her; we have to do something about this pce… or better, just get the fuck out already.”

  “My same thoughts exactly; let’s go, friend.”

  “Insane how you still smile after everything that has happened… You’re really an alien, Hall.”

  “Hah, always so harsh with your words…”

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  Pach