Free Web NovelChapter 146: Chapter 145 - Mastering Dispel(Part 1)
Point-of-View: Neo Cronje
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Today’s the 27th of August, 2026, a bit over a month since X joined the Outliers’ campsite, and since then...well, nothing’s happened in the last month or so, really.
There’s been no sign of Chaos, no Monster outbreaks, no Vampire or Demon attacks, nothing whatsoever. There’s also been absolutely no sign of Eden lately.
At least, that is, until yesterday. Richard managed to come across a group of Eden Meta-Humans who were hiding out, fought and killed some of them, and managed to capture two of them.
And having interrogated them intensively using a combination of torture and Dark Skill techniques, we found out that the Eden higher ups have retreated to some secret hidden base, along with the Meta-Humans they’ve deemed to be trustworthy and have no chance of being double agents for Chaos. The ones left out have no idea where this hideout is, unfortunately
The majority of Eden’s members are still out there, but they’ve essentially been cut loose, and have no idea what to do now. We couldn’t get an exact number, but it sounds like their higher ups have only taken somewhere between four to six thousand members to this new hideout.
Even from their combatants, that’s a pretty small percentage, and an absolutely miniscule percentage when compared to the entirety of their population.
In other words, there’s effectively around nine and a half million or so Meta-Humans that aren’t affiliated with any organization right now, and that’s a huge problem.
Dieter has almost fully mastered Thought Communication, and once he does, we should, hopefully be able to locate his sister and potentially the other Outliers, along with Eden’s higher ups and trusted members in their current hideout.
Wherever this new hideout is, it has to be a pretty big facility, otherwise they couldn’t house so many Meta-Humans undetected.
If all goes according to plan, we should be able to carve out Eden’s heart and crush it, but the issue of the rest of their members will be a big problem afterwards.
Without their higher ups and leaders to guide them and keep them in check, there’s no telling what the several millions of abandoned Meta-Humans will end up doing.
That’s a scary thought, and it’s probably exactly what Chaos has been gunning for. That would explain why Anarchy and their followers have been so quiet since the battle at the Lotus Tower, they’re probably waiting to see how this plays out without interfering themselves.
Yeah, at this point, Chaos is definitely our biggest concern. Eden is hardly even a threat anymore, but Chaos, with their connections to Dracula and Hell, could be even more difficult to deal with than we could imagine.
So, we need to completely and utterly remove Eden from the equation, to make things easier. If we can take out their higher ups and a significant number of their strongest Meta-Humans, they won’t ever be able to recover their former state, the stragglers they’ve abandoned will almost cause trouble further down the line, but they can’t really do any real damage, not without their Category 0s and other high level Meta-Humans who have moved to the new hideout.
All of our Category 0s and 1s are on standby, waiting for Dieter to master Thought Communication. Because once he does, we’ll waste absolutely no time in heading there and destroying Eden.
One thing I’m concerned about is their Outliers...X confirmed that they’ve all been inflicted with the Dark Skill: Condition, preventing them from defying or betraying anyone from Eden.
Even after all this time, and having advanced the healing capabilities of his Light Skill deep into uncharted levels, Inoka was still struggling to figure out how to use the Dispel technique.
It’s true that different Meta-Humans have different affinities and compatibilities for certain techniques, but still, I really thought he’d have mastered it by now. Guess my expectations were unfairly high.
I was currently at the Outliers campsite in Sri Lanka, looking for him. We had considered moving them somewhere else, but so long as we don’t know how Chaos found out about this place, there’s no point in moving.
There’s still the possibility that the attack on that small town nearby by Lucifer was just a coincidence and unlucky timing, but somehow, I doubt that.
How exactly did they find that out? I’ve been asking myself that question constantly since that incident...could it really be that someone who knows about this place is a double agent?
Even if that is the case though, it doesn’t explain what happened back then...according to Mike and the Outliers, the decision to go to the town was a last minute, impulse decision that they made.
At that point, Mike was the only one here besides the Outliers. Those involved in the construction of the base inside the waterfall had the day off that day, Kiyana was busy with her work in the Antarctican base, and Liling, who’s been dropping by regularly to help with training, was on a mission in China.
But knowing the both of them, it’s hard to suspect either. On paper, one explanation that pops up is that Mike might be a traitor...but, no, that’s a laughable notion, there’s just no way.
In which case, the only other plausible explanation I can think of is that a listening device has been placed somewhere around here. But that seems far-fetched too.
I oversaw the purchase and transport of every single RV here, so if that really is the case, then someone planted a bug after the RVs were brought here.
If that’s the case though, who could it be?
One of the construction crew? We’ve cleared each of them from suspicion using Dark Skill techniques, but those methods aren’t foolproof. Chaos has the means to selectively erase memories, something we can only overcome if we have a Dispel user.
I need to stop speculating like this...the more I overthink this, the further I’m going to be getting from the truth, that’s far from ideal. Instead of focusing on possibilities based on assumptions with no real proof, I should focus on the present and what comes next.
And for right now...
"Hey, you in there? I’m coming in," I called out, as I knocked on Inoka’s door and opened it, stepping inside.
He was seated on the floor, his back to me, and he was experimenting on a lizard, earphones plugged in, probably to help him focus. Looks like he’s working on that Augmentation technique.
He then jumped in alarm as I tapped on his shoulder, standing up with a start as he spun around, before relaxing as he saw it was just me, and then giving me an exasperated glare.
"Seriously? Could you not sneak up on me while I’m in the middle of something?" He grumbled, as he pulled out his earphones with a sigh.
"Sorry, my bad. By the way, shouldn’t you be working on Dispel instead?" I asked him, as I glanced down at the lizard.
It had eight legs, a row of spikes down its back and tail, and twisted horns...wow, he’s really modded the creature out, hasn’t he?
"It’s no use, man...I feel like I’m losing my mind trying to figure it out, I was just taking a break with this to try and calm myself down," He responded with a grimace.
He’s mastered it to the point where it’s so easy that it works as a calming ritual for him? It is true that doing stuff you’re accustomed to can help ease tension and nerves, but still...for him to be doing that with such an advanced technique is really quite something.
"It probably won’t be much longer before Dieter masters Thought Communication now, you know. Without Dispel, the Eden Outliers-," I began. freewebnσvel.cѳm
"Yeah, I already know that, okay? But knowing isn’t going to magically help me master this technique," He cut me off dryly, before heading for the door.
"Where are you going?" I inquired, as he stepped out.
"Taking a walk to clear my mind a bit," He replied, before heading into the woods, to the east.
Zoraiz and Fenris were training in the west, and Aurora and Alexis were doing the same to the south, and the waterfall is to the north, so guess he’s heading that way by default.
Mike’s in his RV, and Kiyana is back at the Antarctican base, just for today, in order to help her replacements with some work that they’re not sure how to carry out. And Liling’s on another mission right now.
I suppose I can’t really do anything besides leave him be and hope for the best, I don’t exactly have any advice or anything of the sort to offer him, nothing that’ll actually help, anyway.
Getting a more experienced Light Skill user to train him won’t work either, since no one else has mastered Dispel either. The only one that I know of is Anarchy...heh, but that’s way out of the question, to put it lightly.
And it’s not like they would help even if we could somehow ask. The fact that I even considered such a possibility just goes to show how far I’m grasping at straws right now...I need to get my mind sorted out already.
I have to accept that, in all likelihood, Inoka isn’t going to have mastered Dispel in time for our attack on Eden, we’ll just have to figure out how to deal with the situation without that.
I suppose I might as well leave now, there’s nothing for me to do here. I should-...hm?
I glanced around with a frown...I could’ve sworn that I felt someone watching me just now. Was I just imagining things?
Must be...no one can slip past our detection barrier, not to mention the Anti-Teleportation Field that’s active around here. It had to have been my imagination...right?
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