Chapter 127: Wake Up

"..."

Zero had a blank expression on his face as he continued flying with his clone towards the sleepy man who hadn’t noticed them yet.

His expression was because of his clone... After all, it seems that the part of his mind within the clone ran purely on intrusive thoughts.

"How scandalous," Overdrive said, "to think I’ll be carrying myself in a bridal style."

That was it.

The hitman let go of the clone, causing it to fall, but a few seconds later, the clone was floating beside him, with propulsors beneath his boots, created by the hitman.

Though it was technically him saying all that, it still annoyed Zero that he spoke every single thing that came to mind when he was in Overdrive.

Perhaps he was running mad.

The two were close enough for the sleepy man to notice them, but he seemed uninterested in obstructing their approach.

The closer they got, the more obvious it became that the man truly wasn’t interested in them. He floated in the sky with his eyes half-closed, looking as though he could fall asleep at any moment.

"It’s been a while," Zero said with his hands in his pockets as the two floated in front of the sleepy man. "Last time I saw you, you were just a mercenary; who’d have thought you were part of the Argent Ring."

The sleepy man looked at him with an exhausted expression as he spoke up, "I’ve been looking for you."

"Yeah," the hitman nodded, turning towards the city below them, "your little monsters already made that obvious enough."

He then turned back to the man and asked, "So, what does the Ring want with me?"

Of course he knew the answer to that; after all, the past year had been spent interfering with the Ring’s operations.

But the Ring couldn’t blame him either, since he was only a hitman completing a contract... right?

"You’re a problem," his response came in a lethargic voice.

"Yeah, I figured," the hitman let out a sigh, "now that you’ve found me, why not release everyone else from this nightmare? After all, using your Factor on this many people must be taking a toll on your Pragma."

There was no change in the man’s sleepy expression, but Zero could tell that he was quite surprised by the fact that the hitman knew about the burden placed on his Pragma due to the number of people in this dream.

Slowly, the sleepy man extended his hand, snapped his fingers, and the next second, the city surrounding them faded into complete darkness.

"Strange," he said, looking at Overdrive, "I believe everyone except Zero should be awake now."

"Oh, right," the clone let out before fading, causing the sleepy man to frown, but he didn’t think too much of it in the end.

Perhaps it took a while for his Factor to work against the new hero ...which was strange, but he paid it no mind.

Instead, he focused on the target, Zero.

"What happens now?" Zero asked, looking around the empty void. "We fight?"

"Hmm," the sleepy man nodded, and the next moment, the darkness started morphing into the shape of a giant monster.

The silhouette was vaguely the shape of a humanoid being with spikes on its hunched back, unnaturally long arms, reversed knees and a tail.

"I can’t permanently kill you here," the sleepy man explained, "but you dying will give me the information I need."

"Welp, I guess I just have to not die," Zero said as his katana formed in his hand again, "come at me, Phoebetor."

With his words, the monster moved faster than he had anticipated, and before he had the chance to react, the creature was already upon him.

Zero quickly put up the katana, blocking the creature’s claw, but the force of the attack launched him backwards.

Before he had the chance to recover, though, the creature sank into the darkness, appeared behind him, grabbed him by the back of his neck and tried slamming him into the ground.

Zero felt himself quickly approaching the ground, but before he could be slammed into it, he managed to twist his body around.

In the same movement, he drew his katana and then,

SLASH!

The blade cut cleanly through the creature’s arm, severing it at the elbow, and the monster’s grip on him immediately loosened.

Zero landed on his feet and rolled across the dark surface before quickly coming to a stop.

He then looked at the severed arm that had fallen beside him and then back at the monster. "That was close."

The creature stood several meters away, staring at the stump where its arm had been severed.

Zero slowly rose to his feet with his katana still in hand. "You’re pretty fast."

The monster continued looking at its hand for a while before it slowly regenerated as if it had never been cut in the first place.

"How convenient," the hitman muttered with a sigh, though he wasn’t worried in the least bit.

"It’s useless," A lethargic voice interrupted his thoughts; the sleepy man was pointing towards the severed arm.

Zero then turned towards the arm and watched it take the form of a monster identical to the first.

"As long as we’re within this darkness, it’ll be almost impossible to defeat it," the sleepy man continued.

"Is that so?" Zero muttered as a smile appeared on his face, and he dismissed the katana. "Thanks for shedding light on the situation."

And he very much intended that as a pun because the next second, a small device appeared in his hand, and before the creatures had the chance to react, Zero tossed it into the air.

FLASH!

The device exploded into a flash of light, illuminating the darkness around them and temporarily blinding the creatures.

Even the sleepy man was forced to close his eyes, and Zero was unwilling to let go of that chance.

The katana formed in his hand again, and he quickly closed the distance between him and the sleepy man.

Without hesitation, the hitman drove the katana straight through the man’s heart.

The sleepy man opened his eyes wide in surprise as he looked at the hitman, who had a smile on his face. "It seems you underestimate me a bit too much."

"Time to wake up now."

With that, cracks started forming in the space around them before it completely shattered.

***

"..."

Liam looked at the ceiling above him, confirming that he truly was back in the real world.

Feeling a weight on his chest, he looked down, noticing a head full of brown hair, which caused him to smile.

Placing a hand on the head, he smiled and said,

"It’s time to wake up, Olivia."