Chapter 213: Security Breach

Eeee-Eeee-Eeee!

Eeee-Eeee-Eeee!

Eeee-Eeee-Eeee!

"ENEMY ATTACK!"

"THE WESTERN GATE IS UNDER ATTACK!"

Eeee-Eeee-Eeee!

Eeee-Eeee-Eeee!

"REPORTING, THE EASTERN GATE IS UNDER ATTACK!"

"WE’RE UNDER ATTACK!"

"SIR, THE ALARMS OF THE SOUTHERN AND NORTHERN GATES WENT O—"

Ugh~

"NUMBERS!"

WHOOOOOSH~

"THEY HAVE AN ARCANIST!"

"THE LIGHTS! BRING BACK THE LIGHTS, NOW!"

"YES SI—"

Ugh~

"FOLLOW DEFENSE PROTOCOL, DEFEND THE GATES!"

A young voice suddenly screamed, "GET BACK! THEY... THEY’RE ALREADY INSIDE!"

"DAMMIT, ENCIRCULATE THEM!"

Aghhh~

"Save us..."

In the dead of the night, a place where troops were stationed suddenly turned into chaos.

"ESTEEMED ASCENDERS, PLEASE HELP US!"

"THEY’RE MOVING TO THE STORAGE!" The young voice cried again in the blinding darkness.

"ALL TROOPS, PROTECT THE STORA—"

Ugh~

"CAPTAIN!"

Screams, wails, and cries echoed from every corner. Lights were constantly killed before they had a chance to be restored.

Even the hue of Echo activation didn’t offer a moment of visibility before whoever activated it was killed.

"ESTEEMED ASCENDERS ARE JOINING!"

"AT LAST!"

"WE’RE SAVED!"

The activation of Combat Arts produced a varied mix of lights, allowing everyone to finally see the way.

Yet—

Bang~

"UGGGH, MY EYES!"

"WHERE DID THAT LIGHT COME FROM?"

Blinding white light exploded.

"THE INNER GATE... THEY’RE AT THE INNER GATE!" The young voice screamed his lungs out.

Desperate cries rang out, screaming for help, screaming to be saved.

Trying to, at least, understand, to see what was actually killing them.

A sudden night raid, enemies unknown, numbers unknown, and even an Arcanist actively helping them stay under the cover of the night.

How could they see, and how could they trigger the alarms of the four gates at the same moment?

No one could answer; no one could tell.

Fighting the unknown. Finding oneself locked with a creeping, inevitable death. Counting how long one has to live, how long before the person standing next to them would get killed without a warning.

"THEY HAD BEEN HIDING PEOPLE LIKE THIS!" Someone cried in bitterness.

"Ha... Hahah... People... Hahah." Someone started laughing, a hint of madness laced in his tone. "What people?" He said, falling onto his butt, looking into the glowing stare down on him.

Stab~

"There’s only one... in-trud-ugh"

"WE CAN’T STOP THEM!" The young voice screamed, "PROTECT LORD LORIAN!"

’Man, fuck this mess,’ Moon asked himself, watching where they would move now. ’I’m never doing this again,’ he promised himself, following them.

’Well, how the fuck did I end up here?’ He suddenly wondered.

The story goes back, way back, to the day the rift swallowed him from his room.

While Moon was in the rift, getting prepared to fall headfirst, back in Moon’s room, Ed stood still. He kept staring with an empty gaze at the spot where Moon disappeared.

For a long moment, he didn’t move.

While he was like this, Samuel entered the room. "Did you really have to say that?" He asked.

Ed exhaled slowly. "We shouldn’t be bringing our bitterness to kids, Samuel; I don’t think we should be doing this." He turned around.

"One time it backfired, and now..." Ed paused. "Samuel, I don’t think we can afford sending a kid to die."

Ed was speaking about the long history between them... a history Moon wasn’t aware of.

Samuel didn’t say anything; he turned around and left, leaving the door open.

He also seemed to have too much going on in his mind, but for now, they both needed to get moving elsewhere.

The Control Center, where the higher-ups of the warring factions were, along with Lucen and the other teachers.

Ed took some time alone, walking around the facility.

One second it was lively; the next, it became a ghost town once again.

"I thought I was prepared for this; how many times did we send waves away anyway?" He said to himself.

His legs led him to the students’ eatery, where Uon was.

"Uon, working so early already?" Ed called.

Uon let go of the large box-shaped metallic object he was holding. "Chef Ed, good day," Uon said with a smile. "I’m deactivating everything while we wait for maintenance to come."

Ed nodded. "Want to watch the trial?" He asked.

Uon raised his eyebrows. "Can I?" He asked.

Assistants had no means to move between branches; they were also not invited to watch trials from the Control Center.

"I mean, if you want, I will bring you," Ed said. "No big deal."

"I didn’t know I could be allowed," Uon said, still surprised.

"Just finish whatever you’re busy with first," Ed said dismissively. "If I want to bring you, no one can oppose," he added.

Uon’s eyes lit up. "Sure," he said, before lifting the object again and proceeding to finish his work faster and more energetically.

"Right, Uon, don’t you want to ascend again?" Ed asked, leaning at the entrance, watching him work.

Uon paused for a second. "I guess I’m not fated to ascend," he said with a soft laugh.

"So you’re ditching the offer that little brother of yours made?" Ed asked.

Uon shook his head. "I had to ditch more than I could have ever imagined I would to keep my freedom."

"Think about it while we watch the trial; it’ll be a very long one, so you’ll have enough time to think things through," Ed answered in a heavy tone.

Meanwhile, while Ed and Uon were chatting, Moon—

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA~"

Was still falling through the rift, with no end in sight. "GET ME OUT!" Moon shouted, "DAMMIT, LET ME OUT!"

He held his head that was about to explode. "WHICH SON OF A BITCH IS MESSING WITH ME NOW?" He cried.

Yet, no answer came.

He had almost forgotten, over the time he had spent sheltered inside the Southern Branch of the Normalization Facility, how cruel this Tower truly was.

To him specifically, more so.

Still, he couldn’t do a thing but curse, shout, and scream endlessly, waiting for his fall to end.

"Please let me at least fall without getting mashed."

More time passed, driving him more insane, going through the same cycle of screaming, cursing, then praying he wouldn’t turn into a blood smear once this free fall was over.

Before long, Moon began to adapt to the sensation of freefalling. He spread out his body, relaxed, and let his stress melt away.

"No need to worry anymore; I’ll probably die of thirst or starvation before I hit anything at all," Moon concluded. So there was no need to worry right now.

In a day or two, maybe... For now, he’d just relax and enjoy this situation that he didn’t believe anyone other than him would come to enjoy.

Ding!

"Am I about to die?" He said the moment he heard the notification, thinking it was a Fate Alert telling him he was about to get flattened.

[Death Echo Detected]

[Hidden Quest Triggered]

[Theme: Succeed Where Others Failed]

"Bruh, I knew you bastard been cooking something," Moon exclaimed; his eyes went for the rest of the quest details, yet—

"What the hell is this?" He said speechlessly.

Before his eyes, the window didn’t seem to be a quest window, but rather an outright death sentence.

It didn’t even have a single detail that he could use or understand.

Title: Containment

Details: None

[Quest Rules]

None

[Penalty]

Death

Quest Takers Count: 229

Quest Failures Count: 229

Moon looked around for a few seconds, then at the number again. He couldn’t help it—

"DAMMIT, LET ME OUT!"