With all their detectives away, the Confederation would be desperate. Jason was aware of this and planned for it.

  “Prepare yourself, my pretty little fools,” Jason spoke and continued to fuse the device into Spring Control, the water supply monster, using the Potentia Historie. He caught the whiff of a certain group coming fast towards them, “We got blood-suckers on our trail.”

  Jason predicted who the Confederation would send since the best detectives weren’t available. It was either the Conglomerate, Red Panda Mercenaries or Spaggiari. Conglomerate having the highest chance of coming since they had major profits in the water supply system and had their prisons in the sewers.

  “Oh? And I tried so hard to hide my presence,” The vampires revealed themselves, Silver stepped out with his bored expression. Mercy in her stress sent him and Micheal to deal with the problem. He grinned, “You guys smell special though, give me a good fight!”

  Jason’s Mourning Stars, Yvette and Oliver took defensive positions. They didn’t attack immediately, the most important objective was to protect Jason from all corners. And to make sure the device fuses into Spring Control.

  “Loud Ghost!” Silver began to release multiple attacks at them. Yet, for some reason, they couldn’t see them. Only a very blaring noise zooming at all of them.

  They were all having trouble defending against his attacks, the impacts of it was no joke.

  Silver laughed manically as he slowly rose into the air by the same invisible power, deafening destruction happening as he attacked, “Is this all you got! I said entertain me!”

  They couldn’t risk attacking back or they’ll give Silver an opening to attack Jason, stopping the device from fusing into Spring Control. Silver could release multiple attacks at once, they could not risk it.

  “This isn’t enough for me..!” Suddenly, objects started floating off the ground ominously. The flashing red lights and blaring noise worsened as a moment of visibility came to his action, showing the constructs being translucent and only showing outlines before going back invisible. “Loud Ghost. Naughty.”

  Multiple projectiles zoomed towards them, having incredible power to every single of them. So much that they look like streaks in the air. There was no way they could defend from an onslaught like this without Jason and Spring Control getting harmed.

  “I have this!” Douglas, the newest edition, stepped forward with her glaive in hand. With a powerful swing, every one of the projectiles were deflected. With all of its energy also deflected.

  That wasn’t Silver’s true attack, it was a distraction to prepare a more powerful one. He stood perfectly still with his hands spread apart, building up another invisible attack that caused outrageous noise, “Ghost L-!”

  He couldn’t release the attack because Yvette slammed him away with a strong hit, sending him colliding into a wall, “Terah!”

  “Dammit…” Silver was hardly damaged but, he was dazed. He wasn’t aware of the attack, so he didn’t prepare for it properly since most of his concentration went into his failed attempt.

  “Good! Keep them off, this is almost done!” Jason shouted. Turning an inanimate object into an organic tissue organ took time, even with the Potentia Historie. “Then we can expose these bloodsuckers to sunlight.”

  “I guess you need my greatness to help you after all,” The other vampire who watched silently finally stepped forward. By just his [Pheromones], it was clear he was much stronger than them or even Silver. “I will end this.”

  “Stay out of this, Micheal, I hardly get to fight,” Silver got out of the rubble and dusted himself off. He walked back slowly, “Let me relish this battle.”

  “No, Turner, my powers are unstable, and I plan to use them” Micheal made his intentions clear, with his ego making it impossible to argue with him. “Don’t get in the way of my greatness.”

  Silver clicked his tongue and stepped back, knowing that he was being serious.

  Jason was careful of him, despite his love for a chaos. There was something familiar about Micheal, as if he was a seedling. A seedling that will grow into a monster that shouldn’t exist by the universe’s laws.

  “It doesn’t matter! It’s about to finish now-!” A bright light emitted from the device as it was now living but, suddenly Jason stopped and so did the light. That instance kept on being repeated, again and again, the light would emit and the stop suddenly. As if they were being reset and played back to that moment, then recycled again. A strange text revolved around them like a circle band.

  “Don’t bother trying,” Micheal grinned. He was the source of this phenomenon. The man was manipulating time! “My power. It is eternal.”

  The others moved to attack him. Realizing that they couldn’t defend against a concept like that, they had to kill the source.

  “Didn’t I say don’t bother?” They were trapped in the same instance as Jason. As they pounced at him, they returned to their original position and pounced again. Stuck in a loop of time, trapped in by the same band of strange text. “You failed the moment I appeared.”

  In his unmistakable pride, he walked slowly towards Jason. He wanted Jason to fall in despair; to realize he came across a greater monster. Each delayed step displaying great pride that no matter what, he couldn’t resist Micheal’s power.

  “Ae-!” Micheal was going to kill Jason but, he was stopped.

  Unexpectedly, Douglas attacked him. With a powerful swing of her glaive, she cleaved through his chest.

  “What?” Michea was unaffected by the pain, immediately his wound healed. Jason was right, Micheal was a seedling to become that type of monster. He snapped his fingers and saw that his time loop didn’t affect her, “What are you?”

  Micheal lost focus and accidentally released the time loop on all of them.

  “Meet Douglas! The newest member of my Mourning Stars, one of my prized creations!” Jason fully integrated the device into Spring Control, the monster fell asleep after. He hopped off the monster and went behind the protection of Yvette and Oliver, “A [Principle]!”

  “You didn’t need my help, huh?” Silver mocked Micheal, coming to help him.

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  “I need no one’s help, no one can match my greatness,” Micheal spun around and a blade of energy exerted from all around him. He looped this attack to repeat over and over, “Aevum.”

  They had to avoid this attack since it was ever-growing and ever-repeating. Even Silver, his ally, had to evade it.

  “But no matter what, my prized creations cannot defeat a seedling so easily,” Jason muttered, he still had the same insane smile. Since he knew his saviors finally arrived.

  A young man with multiple majestic and giant wings descended, being accompanied by a strong monster. A giant feline-like creature with a humanlike face.

  “You won’t stop the Cult of Jason,” The young man muttered, a strange insignia opened before him and hundreds of monsters rained down on Micheal and Silver. They had troubles defending against these monsters but, they soon all fell.

  It was just a distraction. As the young man held a sword radiating a bright white energy and the strange feline monster fused her existence into the ground. Suddenly, the ground exploded and from above the young man released this devastating blast of power.

  “Now!” Jason yelled. The feline monster exited the ground, grabbing Jason and placing him on her back. Quickly, they all escaped from the sewers. Leaving the site with their mission complete.

  “Dammit! I shouldn’t have played around with them!” Silver yelled. He was covered from head to toe with wounds, he was healing slowly. Yet, he hung onto life.

  Micheal’s phone was ringing, he answered it seeing that it was Mercy. He only had two but, incredibly vital wounds. One to his chest and another to his neck that healed extremely slowly due to the boy’s strange power. Micheal was completely confident that he would live.

  “Status report,” Mercy ordered, a slow relaxing song could be heard in her background.

  “My greatness wasn’t enough.”

  “We lost Spring Control to Jason.”

  ~//~

  They all gathered back at Able’s apartment, it seemed like the norm after a mission now. Luluwa and Carla were brought back with them. And for obvious reasons, they were all weary of her but still communicated as if nothing was wrong.

  She is Jason’s daughter after all.

  Bryant wasn’t in the living room with them, he stayed in a guest room with Carla. She was unconscious, losing her arm and eye to the encounter with Icarus, Bryant’s older brother. He felt guilty and ashamed, yet he was glad that Carla was still alive and her baby unaffected. He watched her sleeping, imagining if it were Xitalli.

  He would set the world on fire.

  As Able wrote his report to the King of the Damned, he couldn’t help but include his suspicions on Luluwa in it. Something wasn’t adding up to him. No matter how much he cared for her and would kill for her, key information was needed to trust her. That’s why he was reconsidering on adding her to the team.

  His laptop screen turned red and a vertical eye appeared on it immediately, being the King of the Damned sending a message.

  Add her to your team… But be careful of her.

  Able grunted, he was frustrated that he had to do so. He knew his brother knew best so he went along with it. Closing his laptop and turning to the blonde haired girl, he spoke, “Luluwa, I have something to ask-!”

  “Yes!” Luluwa responded immediately, without knowing the request. That’s what her father wanted, it was the only way to save her mother and Ezekiel. She was too trigger ready.

  “You don’t even know what I was going to ask?” Able tried to resist glaring at her but, he involuntarily did. The others also took note of this and became silent.

  “Oh… I already got an idea of what you guys are,” Luluwa nervously chuckled, trying to save herself from the situation. “A group of rebels, I’ve heard about you all from monsters all over the slums.”

  Some of the members of Zebra Effect accepted this, since they were growing in fame. Able didn’t, his suspicions were still there, “We’re more than that.”

  Upon hearing that, the members of Zebra Effect began the chant. Drumming a certain rhythm, all except Peaches.

  “We are Zebra Effect. A sword to call for a nation’s needs!” His voice demanded morale from them and it worked, an atmosphere of pride, passion and comradeship summoned. “What we trade for in numbers is great power amongst all of us. Every individual able to take on hundreds by themselves.”

  “A sword meant to take on millions!” Able circled around the room as they all cheered. Except for Luluwa, who had a quivering smirk on her face. Wishing that she could be more genuine with them, as she truly wanted to be a part of them. Ever since Jason came back in her life, she hasn’t felt kindness like this in a while.

  “Luluwa… Mauter,” Able hesitated when saying that last name in such a good purpose, it felt wrong to him. “Will you join us?”

  “A thousand times again,” Luluwa had a smile hiding her bitter feelings, “Yes.”

  She was closer to saving her mother and brother now, “I am all up for it.”

  ~//~

  The detectives that Zebra Effect killed weren’t the only ones there. Having great stealth abilities, a secret Detective sent by Nolan, the Representative, recorded everything.

  Diane learnt of this almost last minute and quickly send news to the King of the Damned. Who guessed the Representative would pull something like that.

  It was now time for his new right-hand man to prove his worth and loyalty to the King of the Damned.

  “He said that you are just behind Gisseupe in strength here in Minohwa, is that true?” Franz stepped out of the corner, carrying a large bag of spears. He had a frenzied grin plastered on him.

  “You weren’t supposed to see me, kid. Now I have to eliminate you,” The Detective muttered. Rushing towards Franz with a knife attached to his gun, he attempted to gut Franz.

  Franz smoothly drew out a spear and defended the attack. Clashing with the Detective and overpowering him slightly with his tremendous strength, “Detective Scout, you certainly are strong.”

  Kinetic energy was rising around Franz, “But you’ve just came across the strongest warrior since Lu Bu.”

  ~//~

  Everyone had left Able’s apartment. Only Heart, Logan, Eden and Luluwa remained there since they now lived there.

  Able was out that night, so was Bryant and another unexpected figure, Kayne. With their wings emerging from their backs, they flew cautiously to avoid detection and found themselves outside the walls.

  “Where are you taking her?” Kayne muttered, his heartbroken that Carla was so damaged but glad she and the baby were still living. Bryant carried Carla, still unconscious in his hands.

  It was the first he was outside the walls. Not too far, outside of it. As far as the horizon, it was desert wastelands of cracked and dry sands. Nothing could survive here except monsters that could endure the hunger and thirst. It was depressing to him, that this was her fate.

  “To the City of Angels,” Able responded with a faint smile. Although he can be hot tempered, he had his good moments. This was one of them, he knew Carla would be better there. “The King of the Damned agreed to take care of her.”

  “I…” Kayne hesitated. He did not know how to feel about that. He was taught by the Confederation that the King of the Damned is a dangerous monster, as powerful as nothing he met before and as deceitful as Jason.

  “Kayne, she can’t stay here. You know what happens to traitorous detectives right?” Bryant reminded his classmate of a traitor’s fate. “They inject them with [Acrimony] and throw them off the walls.”

  “Don’t worry, the King of the Damned is not a bad person,” Bryant gave him a reassuring smile, expressing that Kayne can trust them. They were all doing well to hide their presence so no Confederation agents would spot them.

  “Here they come…” Able muttered. Suddenly, before them the winds whirled, and dust clouds formed. Clearing afterwards to reveal a huge beast, a canine creature with green fur and black strips, having a white underbelly.

  “Hello Ino, how are you doing,” The canine bowed its head to Able and allowed him to hug him. “Did you miss me?”

  The giant beast blew a strong wind in his face, as if he was scoffing. Able became agitated, “You stupid mutt!”

  “This creature… is taking Carla there?” Kayne was conflicted once again. Monsters from outside the walls are definitely different. An actual predator was in front of him, not something that aimlessly killed like in the walls. This beast killed to survive, not because it is overstimulated.

  “Trust, Ino is an intelligent creature. He won’t let anything harm her,” Able said with a faint smile. Ino slowly approached Kayne.

  Kayne went into his defensive mood, as the stone-cold killer he is. If it moved to attack, he would respond. The beast took a deep breath and smelled him, suddenly bowing before Kayne.

  It was confusing to him but, to him the creature was somehow familiar.

  They laid Carla on top of Ino and he stood up gently. Slowly starting to stride off, the creature’s speed picked up by the second.

  “She’s in safe hands,” Able soared up, so did Bryant. They were preparing to leave.

  Kayne clutched his fists, realizing he needs to get stronger. He nodded, the beast ran so fast it looked like it teleported. He hoped Carla was okay, “I will come back for you soon.”

  “Then we can be a family again.”