Chapter 294: Time To Go Hunting

The silence that settled over the sunlit caldera felt colder than the ash beneath their boots.

Through the radio in Selena’s hand, the distant wail of Grayland’s emergency sirens filled the air. Static hissed through the speaker, mixed with frantic shouting from base personnel and the sharp sound of gunfire echoing through the underground corridors of Sub-Level 9.

Selena stood frozen, the heavy containment case pressed against her side. The color had drained from her face.

"Dana, repeat that," Selena said, her voice suddenly cold. "Did you say B is loose?"

"He’s gone, Selena!" Dana’s voice came through the radio, ragged and strained. "The assault team came through the drainage shafts beneath the city! They had some kind of corrosive Qi that melted straight through the security seals! Nectron tried to stop them in the lower lobby, but they released some kind of gas that shut down the guards. Two dozen garrison soldiers are down!"

Dana coughed before continuing.

"B tore his stasis restraints apart, broke into the security vault, and copied the entire translation archive onto a portable drive before collapsing the main lift shaft!"

"Casualties?" Nicholas asked.

His voice was calm, almost quiet, but it cut through the frantic transmission.

"Twelve dead from the third response squad," Dana reported, coughing again. "Nectron is alive, but the gas damaged his lungs. Eric is coordinating the emergency medical teams right now."

She hesitated.

"But Nicholas... B left a message on the blast door."

"Read it."

For a moment, the only sound was the Andes wind moving across the cooling basalt.

"It says: ’Thank you for finding the first two. I will collect the rest.’"

The radio went silent with a burst of static as the high-altitude signal finally disappeared.

On the plateau, Julie lowered her camera.

The excitement that usually surrounded her was gone. She looked between Selena and Nicholas, her eyes wide with genuine fear behind her dusty sunglasses.

"He... he has the map?" Julie whispered. "The fake has the coordinates to Africa, Europe, Asia... all of them?"

"He has everything," Selena said through clenched teeth. "The locations of the remaining five master stones. The terrain data. The ancient translations."

Her jaw tightened.

"We just handed the Dominion’s keys straight to Dr. Vance’s people."

Zero stepped forward, his boots crunching over the shattered volcanic rock. His cloak was torn and scorched from the battle, but his hand remained on the hilt of his longsword.

The purple gemstone in the guard gave a single, dull pulse.

"The clone is not a fool," Zero said, staring toward the northern horizon. "He knew he could not defeat Nicholas while relying on an unstable crystal shard. So he withdrew. He let us spend our strength clearing the first two sites, then waited for his allies to free him and bring him the complete map."

"He’s thinking ahead," Vixen said, running a soot-covered hand through her hair. Her emerald eyes were filled with cold anger. "He knows Nicholas can track him if he stays in the city. If he leaves the continent now, he could reach the third stone before we even finish our report."

"He won’t just reach it," Nicholas said.

He turned toward the extraction point as the distant sound of the Association transport chopper grew louder.

"He’ll absorb it."

Nicholas’s dark blue eyes held neither panic nor anger.

Only focus.

"The shard in his chest was raw and unstable," he continued. "It gave him enormous power, but he couldn’t use it properly. If B reaches another complete master stone and manages to combine it with the shard inside him..."

Nicholas paused.

"His power won’t simply double. He’ll become something that normal hero rankings can’t measure."

"Then where is he going?" Julie asked, hurrying after him. "Which continent is next? We have to beat him there, right?"

"We need the remaining decryption files," Selena said, walking beside Nicholas as the transport chopper flew low over the volcanic ridge, kicking ash into the air. "Dana only had enough time to fully decode the Appalachian and South American sectors before the attack. The remaining five locations require the main cipher key stored in Grayland’s central system."

"Then we return to Grayland first," Nicholas said. "We secure the two stones, confirm the remaining data, and find B before he leaves the region."

The flight back across the hemisphere was silent.

Inside the transport, Selena sat at the central table, cleaning her sidearm while staring at the two locked containment cases on the floor.

One held the deep emerald Earth Stone recovered from the Appalachians.

The other held the blood-red Crimson Fire Stone taken from the skull of the fallen S-rank impure.

The two stones hummed quietly inside their cases.

Julie sat in the corner with her knees pulled to her chest, absentmindedly cleaning her camera lens.

For the first time since Nicholas had met her, she hadn’t mentioned money, views, sponsorships, or ad revenue.

She simply stared at the two cases.

Four hours later, the aircraft passed through the gray clouds above Grayland.

The private airfield was nothing like the quiet staging ground they had left the previous day.

Armored vehicles lined the runway. Emergency teams stood around the entrances to the underground elevators, while armed Association personnel moved across the wet tarmac.

When the rear ramp opened, the smell of ozone, burnt wiring, and wet concrete filled the cabin.

Eric was waiting at the bottom.

The Director looked much older than he had that morning. His dark coat was torn at the shoulder, revealing a rough bandage underneath, and exhaustion was clear across his face.

Six security officers stood behind him, each carrying a heavy stasis locker.

"Status," Nicholas said as soon as his boots touched the wet ground.

"Contained, but barely," Eric replied.

His voice was tight.

"The attackers used an old subway tunnel that was sealed forty years ago. They blew through the rock beneath Vault 9 and entered from below. Nectron intercepted them in the lower corridor, but they weren’t interested in fighting. They released the gas, took B, and caused a cave-in while escaping."

"Where is B now?" Selena asked.

She handed the two containment cases to the security team. They immediately placed them inside the heavy stasis lockers.

"Gone," Eric said as he turned toward the command bunker. "Our satellites picked up a low-flying aircraft crossing the Atlantic about an hour ago. It was moving extremely fast and staying below normal radar coverage."

He looked toward Nicholas.

"He’s heading toward the Mediterranean."

Nicholas stopped.

Rain fell steadily through his dark hair and ran down his face.

"The third coordinate," he said. "Where does the parchment point?"

Eric stopped beneath the bright runway lights and turned toward him.

"Dana managed to isolate the ancient wording before the system was wiped," Eric said, his voice lowering. "The third stone is in North Africa, near the ancient ruins of the Nile Delta. It’s buried beneath the desert inside a sunken underground necropolis."

He looked at the group.

"The stone there is the Azure Storm Stone."

Eric’s expression hardened.

"According to the ancient records, it controls the atmospheric currents across the entire eastern hemisphere."

He took a breath.

"B is already three hours ahead of us. If he reaches that tomb first and absorbs the stone..."

Eric’s jaw tightened.

"We won’t be fighting a rogue clone anymore."

His eyes settled on Nicholas.

"We’ll be fighting a god."

Nicholas stood in the cold Grayland rain, his hands hanging loosely at his sides.

The quiet hum of his copied abilities—Void, Gravity, and Space—settled beneath his thoughts.

His expression remained calm.

"Fuel the jet," Nicholas said.

His voice cut through the rain.

"We’re going hunting."