Hi! Internet right now is really slow and it's been so since yesterday. The (Luzon) Island-wide Electricity is in the verge of being disrupted because of the Super Typhoon so I'm having a hard time posting this since yesterday.
I'm gonna be posting this Chapter here as a full PILE so please enjoy and I hope you provide me feedback and ask questions if you see something worthy of reacting to.
Seriously though... I need those feedbacks.
Thanks and please enjoy the read.
AN: Don't mind the title. Please. It's intentional.
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Chapter 066: Rex Kingsley Yuropean Shinigami
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The four men split up. One of them was headed straight for Rex's location.
"Tango-Bravo, Tango-Bravo. This is Romeo-Two-Four, we are detecting issues on Foxtrot One Zero Six. Requesting Eye Check. Over."
<Romeo-Two-Four. This is Tango-Bravo. Sauron confirmed. Eye Check is beaming. Describe your situation.>
"Tango-Bravo, switches are not responding and the entire floor has no light. Sounds are coming close to my 20. I'm heading over to check. Over."
<Romeo-Two-Four, be advised, we have a Tech Team on the roof fixing the Sierra Tango. Procced with the detail and leave your eyes open. Over.>
"Copy that. Romeo-Two-Four OUT."
He didn't know that his Comms Channel have long since been cut and his reports of suspicious state of this side of the floor were only sent to Cortana while the rest of his team mates only heard that all and everything else was okay around him.
The lights were out but there was the sound of a strong gusting wind. The guard ducked low, it was the stance of a trained person, his gun on his right while he held a flashlight on his left —the flashgun pose, standard SWAT operative's stance.
Wherever the flashlight points to, the muzzle also points in. the guard's eyes were peeled wide, his gaze checking for shadows, his ears listening to the smallest of rustling sounds, his skin sensitive to the danger that slowly crept over him.
Sauron—their security cameras in operation—had confirmed that their cameras and sensors were all working fine and so since they were blind here, it was all up to their state-of-the-art multi-sensor wall cameras to detect things for them.
He controlled his bearing and voice whispering on a low growl.
"Tango-Bravo, Tango-Bravo, this is Romeo-two-four, I have a Code Blue in my 20. Over."
<Romero-two-four, Romeo-two-four this is Tango-Bravo. Roger on Code Blue. What's the situation there? Over.>
"Tango Bravo, I hear movements on my 20 and my senses are tingling. Require assistance. Over."
<Roger on the sit-rep. Sending Romeo-Two-three for backup. Over.>
<Copy that, Tango-Bravo. I'm en route. OVER.>
"Ten-four. Romeo-two-four OUT."
When the security guard approached the office that Rex crashed into, his heartbeat became short in between and sweat began to trek his back.
There was a time when he once survived a bomb from a terrorist group; he advised his team leader to check the ventilation shaft but the team leader did not listen and proceeded to check the house and even kicked him out of the team and assigned him as scout. And then, ten minutes later, his team aside from him got wiped out in a blast.
But because he didn't persuade his Team Leader, he was kicked out of the SWAT team and with it he proceeded for a discharge and chose a private security company... leading to here.
Ever since then, he decided to always trust his instincts and that is also the reason why he called in for backup even if he's still far away.
Although he could hear the strong rustling of the wind from 15m away, the creaking chairs with the rattling of the blinds is making his senses dull with the screaming danger.
Unfortunately, his sense of danger was still blunt as its only honing platform, his former team, had kicked him out and thus this 'sense of danger' had gone bland. If he was in the frontline battlefield, a small amount of that feeling would have made him call in the entire team to assault the location.
Still, he radioed in, "Tango-Bravo, this is Romeo-Two-Four. I'm entering the office. Request Unit to be at entrance position. OVER."
<Copy that. Romeo-Two-Three, what's your 20?>
<Tango-Bravo, this Romeo-Two-Three. I'm on the entrance. Confirm Eye Check.>
There are no cameras inside the office and every office only have one entrance and exit doors. The cameras are on the hallways and the doors, and as for him, he was on the exit door, the nearest to his original post's location.
<Romeo-Two-Four, Unit is in position. Eye Check is beaming and negative on results. Proceed with the sweep.>
"ROGER that Tango-Bravo."
Since he was the one who called in the 'Ally Unit' for support, he was the 'superior' between them so he was the one who replied.
(AN: All of these radio courtesy jargons and such, you can just try to research them all in Google. All of this here is my knowledge from my former post as a soldier. But please be advised that Military Radio Courtesy is fundamentally different than the 'Civilian Version' I'm using here now. This is a typical example only applicable if the two units are on the same rank or position within their team, but there are exceptions to this rule that I don't wish to elaborate since they're inappropriate to the entire chapter)
The door creaked as he gently pushed it open but halfway through —his eyes went wide open for he felt his right hand was clasped by something with a monstrous strength, crushing the smaller bones on them and ultimately disabling him from firing his gun as a reaction.
"Argh! Cyclone! Cyc—Hmmmmppphh..."
He could only roar in pain.
And yet before the man could even finish a report, Rex had him on the throat and his monstrous hard grip threatened to crush his pharynx along with the rest of his esophagus.
Rex didn't kill him immediately and only met the man eye to eye. Rex removed his mask and on his forehead was a golden eye that shined brightly in contrast to the dim room.
The man's eyes dulled from the hypnotic lasers he received directly, entering into an 'honest' state as Rex began the questioning after letting go of his neck that still had the marks of his hand. The man coughed but stood straight, looking at Rex blankly, ignoring the bleeding broken right hand.
"Did you kidnap a group of people a day ago from the airport? Yes or no."
"Yes." The man answered like a robot.
"Is it by the order of the Duke of Levingston?"
"Yes."
Rex's fists trembled as he fought with himself to not kill the man immediately.
He asked next, "Why?"
"Because of the succession to the throne of the Christiana Queendom... the Duke wanted to use the Princess as a bargaining chip to the House of Bryn. Until she's confirmed to really be that of the direct bloodline descent, she will remain safe."
Rex felt his fists loosened, so she was safe at the moment. But there is also a single piece of news he confirmed at this time.
They knew that Amanda was indeed the Princess but still needed proof that she was from the direct lineage of the House of Bryn that Queen Brynhild belonged to.
—odd...
—–if they want to become the next Monarchs and flip over the lineage of the House of Bryn, then why not just kill her? Why keep her alive?
Rex didn't have time to pondering over these now.
So there is a possibility that she was still alive.
That was the news he was most urgent to know about right now. But still, the issue was with Matt and the rest.
"Where are the kids you brought here yesterday?"
"They're on the 87th floor. There are twenty of my friends guarding them."
"Are you going to kill them?" Rex hissed.
"If the Princess is confirmed to be a legitimate heir by the bloodline testing, we will use the kids to put a leash on her neck. But if she's not, then they can just all die."
Despite the anger, Rex understood them.
Now that they utilized such violent methods of pulling Amanda on their side, they can't expect her to work on their favor willingly. Since both parties knew that Amanda is the only legitimate heir to the throne of the country, then if she dies, the House of Bryn will have all the reasons to pin down this blame to the four Duke Palaces. The Dukes knew this and so, they needed leverage; Matt's group.
They can't possibly tame her so they'll coerce her into submission to favor the House of Levingston by taking Matt and the rest as hostages. Wise.
But this was also fortunate. Now that they're safe, there was still a chance that they can be rescued.
At that, he looked over the man coldly. Despite in hypnosis, the man still felt as if his life hanged on a proverbial thread the moment their eyes met.
"Where did you take Amanda?"
"A secret warehouse in the north away from the core of the surrounding cities... its address is..."
Rex asked a few more questions to the man such as confirming the number of units in the building, their passwords, and arsenal details. After he had confirmed all information he needed from him, he snapped his neck, stabbed his chest, and threw him on a chair. It was not his problem anymore of who would clean up this mess in the Duke of Levingston's company.
It was he who started this war against him first.
Using the information he received from the man, Rex radioed in, "Tango-Bravo, Tango-Bravo, this is Romeo-two-four. Nothing on my 20. Over."
—of course, the Tango-Bravo that replied to the man ever since earlier was none other than Rex himself. And what more, these four were already isolated from the original Tango-Bravo and all of their reports and calls for aide have all been him as well for the entire time.
After taking care of the first guard, communicating to their team was optimal to arouse no negative suspicions until he questioned all of them.
<Roger on that, Romeo-two-four. Proceed with the usual rounds. Over.>
"Roger on that. I'm going back to my post. OUT."
After confirming that the other Romeo Units are all still on the floor searching for the source of those flying papers outside, Rex checked all the camera feeds on his vision —seeing the ghosts of all the Romeo Units of the floor looking relaxed on their rounds and even keying in some conversational talks on their radios and matching the sounds with the other units' communications channels.
99% of this building's system is under his thumb.
To the others, nothing was wrong, but to the men on this floor, everything was suspicious and the more they wandered about, the more they knew that something was indeed amiss.
No lights were on the floor and there were also a weird whooshing sound coming from almost in all directions around them.
What more... there was actually a palpable sense of dread surrounding the entire floor as if they are all lives unwanted in this very place.
A fear of darkness, multiplied many times over by the unnatural quietness of the floor except for that whooshing sound that seemed to be coming from all sides of their surroundings.
Those occasional (intentional) rustling of the glass wall blinds and those (deliberate) clattering of the chairs along with the occasional whoosh as if there was a shadow hiding in some corner, waiting for them to get close so that they could prey on their souls... this type of fear permeated into their bones that Rex only needed to do a little and their minds will do rest for him.
Although it has only been three full minutes since Rex arrived at the place, they've already felt as if they'd spent an entire night in this appalling floor.
"Should we go back to the others?" One of them talked over the radio. He was the real Romeo-Two-Three who confirmed he was in the entrance to the office where Romeo-Two-Four was killed.
R-25: <What, you scared?>
"No! Who the hell is the one scared? What I mean is that should we call in for more back up?"
R-25: <Why?>
R-26 <Yeah, why?>
"Because... because this floor is so large, just the four of us checking every inch and corner of it will take more than twenty minutes."
<Armand, why do I feel like as if you're actually a bit scared right now?>
"I am not scared!"
<Look. It's our job to take a look at this floor. If the boss finds out you're slacking off, he's sure going to fry your weekend passes this week.>
<Hahahaha...>
"Great, yeah, just great. Forget I said anything."
There was radio silence.
Armand swallowed down his fear and continued to carefully check every room until he neared the office where the whooshing sounds were coming from. And then, he recalled.
"Hey guys, where's Richard?"
No one answered. Not even a static.
"Guys?" his voice cracked. The cold silence was too suffocating that the whooshing of the wind only helped to worsen the increasing sense of fear in him. "Guys?" he asked again. "Guys! Can someone say something to me? This isn't funny!"
There was still silence.
He checked his Comm Device and it was working perfectly fine with full battery.
"Weird." He whispered.
He then checked the settings, nothing wrong. He checked the signal strength, nothing wrong either.
And then, he felt something move behind him.
"Who goes there?!!"
Flashgun stance but with trembling knees, Arman checked the area where he thought he heard the source of the sound and when he checked, there was only a pile of papers.
"Whew... you scared me there."
Then, another rustling sound came from the other side of the room and there, he saw a shadow, the guy's flashlight beaming on his face preventing him to see who the man was as he approached.
"Arman?" the shadow called before anything else.
When he heard the voice, Arman sighed in relief.
"Richard! You motherfucker! So it's just you. I was beginning to think that—"
In the middle of his sentence, Arman stopped.
Because on his left where the whooshing sounds were all coming from, there was a man on a chair with his neck bent on an ugly angle, chest bloody, and a blood pool on the carpet. The edge of his flashlight's light touched the man's face who ought to have been the owner of that voice that called to him just now.
He felt his body cold and liquid running on his neck as if to accentuate the fear in his heart.
Only, the liquid this time wasn't the proverbial fear he was feeling but actually his blood.
A blade had cut his throat and the man he thought should have been Richard, was looking at him as if he was a dead man standing on his two feet.
It was a death god with a golden vertical eye and two coldly glaring eyes of murder from a dark hood that masked his face. There wasn't the well-known deathscythe on his hand but what he had is a military grade razor claw knife —sharp and shiny even through the darkness of the hall.
"Wh-Who..." Arman reached for his neck and felt the oozing lifeblood choking him drench his hand.
He knew he was dead and without ever letting out a single cry for help, he fell at the man's feet. His last thoughts the realization of his mistake...
This was no Death God..!!
His mind roared.
Alas...
It was too late.
They didn't know who he was or why he's here, but he wouldn't be alive to know the answer to his question.
Four minutes since Rex's forced breaking in, Rex had already killed two mortals.
Right, to these guys, he might just actually be the Death God of their legends.
It is the 106th floor...
Two dead, two more alive, 19 floors to conquer...
Rex's death sentence for them has just begun and so he started to hunt.
*****
With the third guard, Rex spent three minutes to silence him and ask question, before killing him on the same floor along with his other friends.
And as for the fourth, he was Romeo-Lima —the most superior of the four.
In terms of skills, he was a level higher than the first three combined. He was an ex-mercenary of the world and his killer instincts were sharp as well as his perception of danger.
He received four of Rex's stabs and escaped with no injuries but right now... he was bleeding and is wrecked with half-way cuts on his bodies and four limbs after falling into Rex's garrote wire forest.
"I will ask again." Rex said, sheathing his knife to its sheathe on his leg. "Who are leading this entire kidnapping operation?"
There is a reason why Rex was asking questions again despite the matter being already confirmed as something related to the throne wars. Although he already knew it, there was something else that the Echelon Network picked up not too long ago.
A large Mercenary Recruitment call was issued by the four Duke Palaces and this guy in front of him was one of the ones who responded to the call.
"This is not just about the succession war, isn't it?"
When Rex hissed, the man looked at the golden on his forehead and answered, "Yes."
"Tell me."
"I know but the other guys don't. An even higher existence exists behind the Duke Palaces' plans to usurp power from the House of Bryn. This person can see through anybody and in fact, I'm not even sure if it's only a single person since he preferred to be called [Heavenly Father] but used different people to make deals with us mercs."
Rex swallowed, now this is Intel he was surprised to not know about. He had a bad feeling.
'Cortana, make sure we have tight control over the Echelon Network's data gathering and bug fixing procedures. Conform to my standards at all costs.'
[Yes sir.]
It was this name again, Heavenly Father... the first times he heard it, it was weird, but that lady from the Blue Card Legion threatened Siva about him.
The Riddler's Guise Guild back in Jeremiah as well, spoke of this Heavenly Father. They thought that they were clever but they didn't know that the Liberty Drones he dispersed in the city managed to pick up these terms.
What more, That guy, Gats, he's with the Blue Card Legion and he also can enter the Humans' Pandora Starship. I'm not sure if he's also part of this father's plans but he's still an enemy.
Rex looked at the mercenary, "What's his mode of contact with you?"
"By person."
"When?"
"No exact date. Random."
"How?"
"In my number. They know my passwords and my secret bank account, as well as my habits. They used it to send people to threaten me so I became his lapdog. My freedom is lost and I was assigned here to take part in this plan."
Rex took note of it and processed a plan. Then, he asked the man's habits, passwords, accounts, and all relevant information about the guy, even as far as copying his voice and face, taking note of his bodily physique, and everything else that can be used to imitate the guy.
When he was done, he took a first aid kit on one of his pockets and ignoring the man's pain, put the kit's contents directly on his wounds where it was sealed by force to stop the bleeding.
"From this day forth, you are Agent Smith. You're now working under me, Mitra. Everything you are and everything you do is for my benefits. If you understand, reply by stating your designation."
The man looked at Rex as if he was looking at a living God, "I am Agent Smith. I work for Mitra. My designation is Henchman."
"Good." Rex handed him a few bags of first aid kits and then told him, "For the next few minutes, I will be sending people here and your job is to use these to heal them. I will contact you through your Comms for the purpose of this task later."
"Yes sir."
After brainwashing the man, Rex boarded the lift and headed straight to the 87th floor.
He was seething with anger.
This Heavenly Father... perhaps kidnapping his girl was just a ruse by the World Government; or it may have been because of him, Rex Kingsley; it's also possible that it may also be because of "Siva" because of Amanda's identity as Scion that wasn't a secret to those with two working pair of eyes who wanted to make contact with him; or... it may also be simply because of the throne. Who knows, it may also be connected to Pegasus by a series of circumstances.
Rex didn't doubt it may be possible.
After all, even he, a miracle, was possible. Why not this whole thing being connected to Pegasus becomes a possibility as well?
But no matter what it was, it's making him angry all the same. Those who touch my people will suffer.
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Coldblooded and angry...
The God of Destruction from Terroa arrives!!
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Next Chapter: The 87th floor opera...
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