Unfortunately, in such a space, comprehension of anything supernatural was impossible due to the warped laws caused by an unnatural time flow. I could do lots of physical training though. Or have an extended nap or break. Although I would probably get scolded for slacking off, so I decided to refrain from doing so.
It seemed that slowing or speeding up time by roughly three times was my limit, I discovered after a few dozen tries of playing around. I wasn’t making any more progress, and I was unlikely to either. I got up and stretched, my muscles squeaking softly in protest, before walking up to Aurora who was sleeping on the ‘Boss chair’. Her face was clouded with emotion, and it looked like she was having a nightmare.
I poked her forehead lightly, and she stirred. A pair of slightly bleary eyes looked at me for a moment, before she sat upright. A slightly darker patch on the table she was sleeping on hinted that she had been drooling while asleep, and I felt slightly envious at her nap time.
“Where’s everyone else gone?” I asked, patting her head as I did so. She squirmed and pushed my hand away.
“They went to explore the place.” She pouted unhappily, rubbing the spot that I patted. “I’m an adult, you know! Stop treating me like a child!”
“Sure, sure,” I replied in a patronising manner, as I continued to ruffle her hair, skillfully dodging her flailing hands. It was oddly relaxing when I did that.
Was that how teasing a little sister felt? I smiled and withdrew my hands.
“I’ll be heading off now. If anything happens, just give a yell.”
I looked back right before I closed the door. It seemed that she had been holding back the whole time I was with her, but that flash of worry spoke volumes. At least the rest of us had something to preoccupy our minds with, but Aurora had nothing except for her thoughts to keep company. Even before making it past this ordeal, she was already exhibiting some rudimentary signs of survivor’s guilt.
There was little I could do about it. All I could do was hope that she would not succumb to her own misplaced guilt. There were enough people in this world that were broken enough as it was.
My eyes fell upon the thick steel door that separated the two of us briefly, before I turned and walked down the hallway.
Chapter 23
I caught Hao Wei and Crow a bunch of stairs and hallways later at the receptionist, where they were dragging two bodies behind them, creating a din that was undoubtedly metallic in nature.
“So,” I asked, eyebrows raised, “what happened to the ‘no point trying to get rid of them’ thing that you said?”
There was a rather extensive trail of blood on the floor, criss-crossed and zig-zagging, with the origin clearly being the two bodies that Hao Wei and Crow were dragging around. They should have been disposed of on the spot immediately, not being pulled around like this—and thus creating an unsightly mess. It looked like these two jokers had no idea what they wanted to do with the bodies and were dragging them around indecisively.
“We happened to be walking around the first floor,” replied Crow, setting down the leg that he had been pulling on, “and they happened to be near enough to deal with.”
I raised my eyebrows in reply. Walking over to the two bodies, I noted the extensive cuts and lacerations on them. A few holes, that punched all the way through their bodies, were also visible. I may have gained some immunity to these sights, but that didn’t mean that I was alright with them.
“Right. Convenient.” I took a few steps back. “So, why are you guys dragging these bodies around with you?”
“Hmm.” Crow dropped the hand he was carrying, and regarded the body he was dragging thoughtfully. “I thought it would be a good idea to hoist them outside, as an intimidation factor.”
“Naturally, I said no, so we ended up dragging them around in search of a dumping spot.” Hao Wei shrugged, his eyes thoughtful. “I thought, among our jolly little crew, Crow was quite the normal guy.”
“I thought that you or Miles would win that title, actually.” I lightly kicked Hao Wei’s load, flipping the corpse onto his face and sparing me the sight of its ugly face. “That aside, it’s quite a good idea, other than the fact that the police would probably come busting this place down if someone reported that they saw two bodies hanging around… literally.”
“But the occupation of key areas by Outsider collaborators have them tied down,” Crow folded his arms. “This would be the least of their worries.”
“That’s not for certain,” said Hao Wei, “the last thing we need are mortals hanging around in this mess.”
He paused and glanced at Crow. “Or unaware mortals, anyway.”
He prodded the bodies gingerly with his shoe. “That’s why we were looking for Mr. Meng and Miles: for their opinion.”
“Let’s go look for them then. Wait, leave these bodies behind. It’s too unsightly dragging them around.” I stopped Hao Wei, who was about to pick up a leg again. “Seriously, what possessed you guys to drag them all around? All this blood here just makes the atmosphere creepier.”
Leaving the two bodies behind, the three of us went off to look for Miles and Mr. Meng.
“Come to think of it,” I said, “how did you guys deal with these two buggers?”
“It was pretty easy,” Hao Wei replied. “Both of us snuck up on them, and Crow just went full psycho on his target, while I knocked mine down and kept him there until Crow was done. Then he slit the throat and tendons of my guy.”
I sniffed derisively. Who would go that far in this hot sun? Especially Crow, who always kept with that obnoxiously warm getup. I couldn’t imagine wearing that in this weather, let alone performing any amount of physical exercise. I flicked off a drop of sweat as I tried to imagine the scene.
“Yeah, that’s crazy,” I said.
Hao Wei nodded vigorously in agreement. “Tell me about it. Murder in broad daylight… I thought Crow would just tie them up and restrain them. Sure, there’s a bit more effort needed, but at least no one’s dying here.”
“That’s just crazier,” I murmured softly, to no one in particular this time.
Hao Wei blinked. “Sorry, can you repeat that?”
“No, it’s nothing much.”
I heard two familiar voices grow stronger as we continued walking down, and my footsteps sped up. I turned a corner and saw the two of them poking at the walls with their fingers, apparently in the middle of figuring something out.
“Boss, what’s the matter?” asked Crow.
Mr. Meng looked up, his interest in the wall suddenly lost. “Just trying to figure out how much I’ll need to compensate when this building goes down.”
“Oh.” Crow gave the wall a cursory glance. “Anyway, the scouts we’ve seen earlier are now lying at the front entrance. Should we hang them outside or something?”
“Why… why would you do something like that?” asked Miles.
Crow adjusted his facemask slightly. “To make a statement, of course. Isn’t that natural?”
“No, it isn’t,” said Mr. Meng. He closed his eyes for a while, like a parent trying to think of ways to teach a somewhat dimmer child. “Look, I know you and your crew operate like this, but it would have little effect on the Outsiders and their agents. It’ll just draw unneeded attention to this place.”
Interesting. It seemed, at least, that Mr. Meng was able to understand the mindset of Crow, who turned out to have quite the history. I had been curious about him, but now that we were this close to the fight of our lives, it wouldn’t hurt to learn more about him. I resolved to ask Mr. Meng about Crow, after this little play finished.
“Really?” Crow asked doubtfully, his head slightly tilted to the left.
Mr. Meng smiled. “Of course. For the bodies… just throw them somewhere out of sight, or have Aster or Miles do something about it.”
Crow nodded, before grabbing Miles and walking out.
“He’s surprisingly obedient when it comes to you, Mr. Meng,” I stated. “What kind of p
ast history did you have with Crow?”
“I suppose there’s no harm telling you a bit.” Mr. Meng leaned against the wall. “How about you, Hao Wei? Interested?”
“Naturally,” Hao Wei said. “How did you meet him?”
“It was a dark and stormy night—” Mr. Meng noticed my piercing gaze and changed gears. “—I was on a working trip to Ireland three years ago, to scout out a banshee enclave. It was around late afternoon when I got there, but I only saw a bunch of dead banshees hanging in the trees everywhere.”
“Scary,” I said.
Hao Wei nodded. “So, you got interested and went to search?”
“No, I got cold feet and ran. Who wouldn’t?” Mr. Meng laughed. “Then it turned out that Crow, who was already in that hood and mask getup, had followed me all the way to the airport. He pulled a knife, polished it in front of me silently for five minutes, before giving me a name card and pulling a Batman.”
“A berry short of a bunch, huh,” said Hao Wei.
“Aren’t we all?” Mr. Meng stretched, yawning. “When I asked, Crow told me that he started eight years ago—”
“The same year as the Third Collapse,” I interjected. “We keep finding more things related to the Collapse.”
Mr. Meng looked at the two of us, before staring upwards with some fear on his face. His gaze fell onto us again. “Probably because the leftover supernatural beings were a lot easier to kill,” said Mr. Meng, his voice carrying a hint of caution. “Best we not think too much about it for now. We have a night to get through.”
With that, Mr. Meng turned and walked, following the long-gone Crow and Miles. Hao Wei and I exchanged glances, before emulating him. Our footsteps echoed loudly as we followed, creating yet another dungeon-esque atmosphere. I had the feeling that were I to speak now, the conversation topic would invariably steer to somewhere entirely unrelated.
I kept my mouth shut.
Soon, the familiar figures of Miles and Crow appeared in front of us, with a smell reminiscent of roasted pig. I restrained my urge to lick my lips and looked around instead. My eyes fell upon a large burn mark and my brain put two and two together. I heard from somewhere that a crematorium operated at above one thousand degrees Celsius—it was a wonder that the front entrance was still alright. The tiles weren’t cracked from heat, nor had anything else spontaneously caught fire.
“How did you do that, Miles?” asked Mr. Meng, whose nose was twitching. “I’m sure you burnt the bodies, but there’s no sign of damage at all to the surroundings.”
Miles grinned. “Trade secret. It’s not like you cultivators don’t have anything that can dispose of a body quickly, right? It’s something like that. Good for disposing of bodies in a hurry.”
“We should compare notes sometime then,” Mr. Meng said, looking at the burn marks on the floor. “But yours seems to be far more thorough than what the Alliance has. You don’t even leave ashes behind. For an organisation dominated by old men who don’t kill others with magic, it sure has a tool that cleans up nicely.”
“We don’t use them too often,” said Miles. “We produce and sell them to government authorities worldwide. Albeit sparingly, so unaccounted disappearances don’t pop up that frequently. You will not believe just how many countries worldwide engage in this shady business.”
“Maybe they won’t.” Mr. Meng gestured to me and Hao Wei. “But I can get where you’re coming from.” He glanced at his watch. “We don’t have that much time left. It’ll be nice to discuss a potential collaboration after everything blows over.”
“We’ll leave it for the victory celebration then,” said Miles. His aged face seemed to grow slightly younger as the words left his mouth. “Shall we?”
“Yeah, let’s go then. I left the materials in the ‘Boss room’, so we’ll have to return there next,” said Mr. Meng. He and Miles left, and we hurried along in their wake.
Chapter 24
The rustling of paper was the only thing that could be heard as everyone present, even Aurora, read through the papers. The ‘Boss room’ for some reason had a fully functioning printer, and still usable ink—even though the entire place hadn’t been used for quite a long time. Crow had a weird look on his face when it booted up, and an even weirder one when it managed to print out the papers. Just goes to show that life isn’t all about kicking us when we’re down, I guess.
Hao Wei had patted the printer in appreciation, while Miles had done something magical to it. Meanwhile, Mr. Meng pasted a talisman on the printer, presumably to protect it from harm. I suppose that we just wanted something to go our way for once.
My fingers drummed lightly on the table as I registered certain parts of the plan into my mind. It looked like this entire plan would strain me the most, and I mentally resolved to ask for an increased pay after tonight. I was starting to understand why the Practitioner Circle was so reclusive and unwilling to help the other powers.
Speaking of the Circle, virtually no one from it had contacted me for the past week, despite me reporting upwards about Hao Wei. If I didn’t know anything better, I would have wagered that the Circle had been restricted or hindered by the Far Shore. Hazred, the Outsider overseer, had failed to identify the two of us as Practitioners, which just showed that they didn’t know about the Practitioner Circle either.
How weird. More conspiracies. I turned another page, my eyes scanning the contents on it. Crow really liked fancy military terms, it seemed. I had suspected something when he briefed us previously, but there’s more now. Despite his idiosyncrasies, he possessed an irrefutably human quality.
I stopped reading for a moment and looked up at everyone else. Aurora, surprisingly, wasn’t asleep and was actually reading through the papers. When I first took this job, I had been thinking of a ‘damsel in distress’ sort of thing, and the first impression of Aurora had reinforced that mindset. But what I saw in the end was a loving father and child pair, who just wanted the best for each other: who were willing to sacrifice anything.
My eyes swept across the others. By the time everything ended, how many of us would still be alive to participate in a victory celebration? To receive our pay? To use it? Hao Wei and Miles were only here because of me. I had pulled Hao Wei along, despite knowing nothing about the dangers of the job.
I forced my eyes back to the plans. Now was not the time to feel guilty or whatever. Emotions were superfluous at this stage, and a single mistake could spell our doom. I flipped over another page, looking through it quickly, before reaching the end of the plan.
Crow had made me the centerpiece for this plan. Despite being a mortal, he had thoroughly grasped the abilities of everyone present in three days. Mr. Meng probably gave him his own estimates of what we could do, and it seemed that he was rather accurate.
I felt some resentment as I flipped through the plan again. It was obvious to everyone that my safety was the top priority right after Aurora, and that my safety had to be ensured at all costs. It seemed that my mental health after tonight was the last thing on their minds, which was rather inconsiderate of them.
After reading through, I leaned back and closed my eyes, waiting for everyone else to finish reading too.
“Has everyone finished?” asked Mr. Meng.
I opened my eyes in response, stifling a yawn in the process.
“Then we’ll get started with the defenses then. Mr. Newton, if you would.”
I nodded lazily. It would be far too risky to the plan if I had to use myself to constantly maintain a slower rate of time, as a single lapse in concentration would return the flow of time to normal. It would be better if I created something external.
I imagined a metronome, one that took three seconds to complete a beat, and exerted my will. For a brief moment, my movements seemed far too exaggerated, and then I felt over five million responses submitting to my control over Time.
A light-grey crystal appeared, floating in front of my outstretched hands, where it started rotating of its own accord
, complete with a nice tick-tock. Neat.
“With this,” I said, “time has slowed down to a third of what it should be. I put in quite a lot of effort, and given my natural tendencies, the slowed area has roughly extended to the whole country.”
“Excellent, Mr. Newton.” Mr. Meng checked his watch. “The time now is 5 p.m., give or take a few minutes. Dawn will arrive in thirteen hours, but under this slowed time flow, it will come in four hours and twenty minutes.”
Hao Wei and the rest nodded.
“Now then, let’s set up the welcome party for our guests. Miles, where’s the storage room mentioned in the plans?” asked Mr. Meng.
“Not too far away from here,” replied Miles. “I’ll need some help moving the claymores, though.”
Mr. Meng nodded and got up. The rest of us made to emulate him, when Mr. Meng turned to look at Aurora.
“Aurora,” he said, “stay here. These claymores are the real thing, so you shouldn’t come with us.”
He glanced around fleetingly, daring us to retort or say anything else. I held my tongue this time, earning me a praise from the Igor in my mind. Miles smiled weakly, before walking out of the room, and the rest of us hurried to catch up, leaving the daughter-doting daddy in our wake.
“So,” I said, breaking the silence, “when you say claymores, are you referring to the ones that go ‘boom’ and send steel balls flying in a particular direction?”
“Were you really expecting a modern stronghold to have medieval greatswords?” Miles sniffed, giving me a look of disdain. “Come on, you’re smarter than that.”
“Whoa, hold up,” I replied. “I’m a Singaporean, you know. Other than the armed forces, I’ve never seen any lethal weapon anywhere else.”
“You know, he’s got a point,” said Crow. “I had to leave behind my handgun, butterfly knife and chewing gum in Athens, because I heard Singapore Customs were strict.”
“You could bring in medicinal chewing gum for personal use though,” said Hao Wei. He frowned slightly, trying to recall something. “Yeah, I think you can. Probably. It’s just a bit of gum anyway.”
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