Ability Wielders

"You"re my first kiss and you react like that?" Eun-ha pouted, still encapsulating Hayden"s face with her hands.

"That…" Hayden still couldn"t form any coherent sentences at all with his face this close with Eun-ha"s. "You… What…"

"You…" This time, it was Eun-ha who was speechless. This fellow… was really just a kid… Smiling gently, she let go of Hayden"s cheeks, "Jeez, stop being such a dummy."

"I…" Hayden lifted his face and stared listlessly towards Eun-ha. Unconsciously, he touched his lip as if he was a victim. Shaking his head, he was finally able to wake up from his stupor. "Noona… Why did you do that?"

"Why? You didn"t want my kiss?" Eun-ha glared towards Hayden with a cute pout, causing Hayden"s heart to burn up due to her cuteness.

"No, it"s not that… If anything, I want it more than anything in the world…" Hayden muttered, admiring Eun-ha"s face. "It was just that… It was unexpected and abrupt…"

"Dummy…" Eun-ha laughed, punching Hayden playfully once more. On that note, silence ensued, with Hayden in a state of daze, and Eun-ha slightly beaming at him with a hint of mischievousness.

Hayden, not being the stupid person that couldn"t pick up a green light when it presented itself, took this opportunity to kiss Eun-ha again. He didn"t sense any resistance, allowing his heart and mind to calm down greatly.

The make out session went on for a few seconds. Pulling away, he stroked Eun-ha"s hair. "Wow… I… d.a.m.n, that"s literally the only word I can muster up right now…"

Hearing this, Eun-ha laughed at Hayden going in for another session, which Hayden gladly welcomed. When that finished, the two felt a closer bond with each other, tacitly becoming more comfortable in each other"s presence.

…..

"Okay, this is the plan," Eun-ha a.s.severated. "You already know what to do actually, I go in first, you park the car, you go in, then you go to the staircase. The Celebrity Hub for Baegjo is still down below. See you inside!"

"Wait," as Eun-ha was readying to open the door, he called out. Abruptly, he pulled her towards him and kissed her once more.

"You"re already getting so brazen, tsk," Eun-ha chuckled, kissing him back. "Jeez, are we going to eat dinner or not?"

Hayden laughed. Eun-ha got out of the car and found a spot to park nearby. Alighting, he strode inside, using Divine Perception to determine where the staircase was instantly and walking over there without hesitation.

Descending the stairs, Hayden saw a door alike the one in Executive Hangout, as well as a guard in a black suit. Eun-ha was by the side.

Moving towards her, Eun-ha grabbed his arms. Thankfully, Hayden"s heart was not put in a state of disarray any longer, instead, a wave of affection took over in his heart. Despite that, his heart was still pounding for some reason.

They were let in by the guard, and what entered his eyes surprised him greatly. The place was more than a simple high cla.s.s restaurant, its décor was more extravagant than Nanlo, while its atmosphere was on a whole another world. It was as if they entered a royal palace"s dining room.

A waiter greeted them and led them to their reserved seats once Eun-ha showed the waiter her reservation number. Being seated, Hayden looked around with astonishment.

The décor was of modern Victorian, creating a unique atmosphere, a refreshing and innovative one. On top of that, there were many big names in the Korean celebrity industry in here, as Eun-ha described. "What the… t.i.tANIUM"s Mouth King is dating her???"

At that moment, a menu was given to them, disrupting Hayden"s state of approval and shock when he saw Mouth King, a member of t.i.tANIUM, the main rapper, dating a member of a pretty popular girl group. A few minutes of glossing over the menu, he ordered a 10-course meal, while Eun-ha ordered the same. Despite its Victorian design, the food was mainly Asian cuisine, with some food an amalgamation of two different cultures, there were even Filipino ones, piquing Hayden"s interest.

With that, the two lovebirds chatted. Eun-ha was evidently more comfortable with him, her true impish nature slowly fully coming out. Sneakily, Hayden took out his phone, and when he saw Eun-ha laughing, he took a shot of the striking scene with his phone.

"I wasn"t ready…" Eun-ha noticed this and pouted again, cracking a smile on Hayden. "Here, take a picture…"

Hayden didn"t stand on ceremony, obliging her. Striking up a pose, Eun-ha let Hayden take pictures of him. "Oh, this will definitely be a keeper…"

On that note, Hayden kept his phone and constantly talked with Eun-ha, throwing in a few flirtatious lines here and there, who would then tease him in response. Courageously, he decided to take a new leap, holding her hands on top of the table, lightly caressing it.

Eun-ha squinted her eyes and pouted, ultimately giving Hayden an additional green light. He only let go of her hand when the first meal of the course was delivered to them.

The two"s romantic dinner went off without a hitch, developing their relationship further.

…..

Simultaneous to Hayden"s dinner, Indonesia, at the Vermillion City, Black Devil has fully conquered it at last.

"f.u.c.king h.e.l.l, that was easy…" Black Devil muttered with consternation. They were in the square of Vermillion City, with thousands of men gathered in four directions, which were the four legions of his Kamay ng Lagim. Shouting, Black Devil made another speech, "Victory is ours, this large base has fallen on our hands. Beheading the world of wielders of Indonesia, we have taken the first step of our world conquest, but first, we have a more important matter at hand and that is… To completely win this war!"

Black Devil said that as this Vermillion City was merely one of the bases of Crimson Cloud. Needless to say, Vermillion City could be said to be the capital and center of the whole world of wielders in Indonesia. Despite that, there were still four more branches that they must siege, and now that they have successfully destroyed the main branch, the other four would, without a doubt, tighten their defenses. "Well, it"s futile anyways, with the main branch gone, most of the forces are killed. I didn"t expect that the forces here are so weak however, even those few Level 3 and Level 4 ones were so easily killed, tsk."

It must be said that Black Devil"s surprise attack was fatal to the Crimson Cloud as they were caught unprepared. All the members of the army of Black Devil were not only psychopaths, their combat capability also fits the word "elite." From this, Crimson Cloud"s Vermillion City, regardless of having similarly thousands of wielders with the same Levels as Black Devil"s four legions, were unable to defend due to the behemoth strength that is Kamay ng Lagim"s couple thousand-strong army.

Finishing his speech, vigorous roars in all directions resounded all throughout the city, frightening the wits out of the prisoners of war. Black Devil shouted for the second time "Disperse, in the next few days, we"ll be busy destroying more…"

With a snap of his fingers, four portals were created behind the four legions in all four directions. A few members of the army were dragging with them captured prisoners. Just like that, his army went back to their headquarters in Metro Davao, leaving the other four members of Limang Daliri behind.

The four gathered in front of Black Devil. Closing the portals with a snap, then snapping once more, three portals appeared behind Black Devil.

Rotating 180 degrees, Black Devil stood upright, with the four Limang Daliri members behind him in a half circle formation.

A few seconds later, in the three portals, out came three people, a Filipino woman in her 20s wearing a green dress, an intimidating scar-faced man, and Maestro of Death.

"You"ve done the mission quite efficiently." The scar-faced man in the middle spoke. "Well-done indeed, I take it that you"re going to be able to destroy the remaining four, right?"

"That goes without saying," Black Devil respectfully replied. "As for this one, I take it that you"re willing to take over this currently desolate city, right?"

"Of course." The scar-faced man laughed. Turning to the woman in a green dress and Maestro of Death, the scar-faced man asked, "Do either of you want to utilize it on your operations as well?"

"Well, we did do this to expand our influence, right?" An abaca fan appeared in the woman in green"s hands. "My guys will take care of it in a few days."

A few seconds of conversing regarding their business, the three agreed to become partners to expand their respective fields. As for their businesses? First, the woman was called the Angel of War, a woman that owned a single mercenary organization that branched out countlessly all throughout Philippines. She was one of the sponsors of Kamay ng Lagim.

Her Ability allows her to summon abaca fans. In spite of its weak-sounding power, the Limang Daliri has had one chance to witness her combat Abilities and can be said to be on par with Graybeard"s power. Her moniker is the "Fan Maiden."

Meanwhile, the scar-faced man Ability could be said to be just a little short of being overpowered. The scar-faced man"s Ability was the power to turn into a Kapre, a giant in Filipino Mythology that possesses a height of a staggering 9 feet. His moniker is the "Forest Giant," a lame-sounding nickname that he picked for himself.

His power is unknown, yet, the other two sponsors doesn"t dare to oppose him, even to the point that he is the de facto leader of their sponsors. As for his business? Human trafficking, "debt collecting," blackmail, and black marketing, making him the richest amongst the three, even with the drug dealing Maestro of Death added into the mix. Forest Giant is also termed as the "King of the Underworld," stemming from his immense influence.

As for Maestro of Death, he mainly deals with hardcore modern drugs sold almost everywhere in the Philippines, especially in Tondo. At the end of the day, criminals would never be purged in the world, greedy people will find more ways to do crimes beyond means that one would think of; in other words, true criminals are always a step or two ahead of the world, some even way more advanced than you may think.

With their agreements ending, the three bade goodbye to the Limang Daliri and proceeded to go back. The five Limang Daliri members heaved a sigh of relief.

"That Forest Giant…" Earthquake was the first to talk. "How the h.e.l.l did he evolve into a Level 5 wielder…?"

"f.u.c.k," Black Devil"s countenance underneath his mask darkened. "It seems that we have to act fast. Once we eliminate the threat that is Hayden, we attempt to evolve."

"Are you serious?" Graybeard"s eyes narrowed. "I mean, we have enough Origin Crystals from cognizants, but, isn"t it too early?"

"Well, what do you suggest?" Black Devil"s eerily calm voice creeped the four of them. "You, Crimson Enchantress, you"re nearly breaking through, right?"

"Yep," Crimson Enchantress nodded her head. "About a month, and I"ll be eligible to evolve to Level 4."

"That"s good, you"re a vital weapon in our ranks." Black Devil was satisfied. "I guess it is time for me to evolve… After six long years, tsk… I envy those that have higher compatibility with essence energy…"

…..

Hayden and Eun-ha finished their meal and was idly chatting with each other. A few minutes of chatter later, Hayden paid for their meal, exited Baegjo individually, an apparently common sight as celebrities don"t want to be seen dating, with Hayden going first, and drove back to Seongnam.

"Wouldn"t people be suspicious even if celebrities are seen exiting in that manner?" Hayden asked, a confounded expression on his face.

"No, not really," Eun-ha answered Hayden. "In actuality, many celebrities eat at Celebrity Hubs, so people don"t antic.i.p.ate that something as secretive as Celebrity Hubs exist. On the contrary, people merely a.s.sume that celebrities eating in restaurants or drinking coffee was a popular spot, as, at times, celebrities appear in public at Celebrity Hubs. These Celebrity Hubs are also called "Celebrity Hangout Spots," where celebrities are commonly seen. Most celebrities appear publicly at Celebrity Hubs at times to avoid what suspicion you spoke of."

"How about King? Why didn"t he reveal the existence of Celebrity Hubs if he was kicked out of the circle?" Hayden imposed a question that bothered him earlier, but wasn"t able to ask because of his astonishment with Eun-ha.

"Well…" Eun-ha turned to Hayden, who was driving manually. "Rumors has it that the celebrity who owned the Celebrity Hub where he created unfounded rumors of, blackmailed him. Those are simply rumors however. I don"t know if they"re true."

"f.u.c.k…" Hayden thought to himself. He didn"t dare voice out his curses as Eun-ha was by his side. "These people are kind of hardcore, aren"t they?"

Hayden didn"t doubt for a second that this so-called "rumor" was true. I mean, if one gets forced out of a celebrity circle, more so one that has already caused trouble in the circle"s Celebrity Hubs, why wouldn"t he want to spread the existence of Celebrity Hubs to bring people down? There"s just no logical way that this "rumor" was not true.

"Wait," At this moment, Eun-ha spoke. "Want to go to a Hangang Park first?"

"Why?" Hayden stopped driving at a red light. He checked the time at his HUD. "Aren"t you going to be scolded by your parents or something?"

"What am I? A kid?" Eun-ha said with playful indignation. "Don"t worry about those, okay? Do you not want to spend more time with me?"

"That"s…" Hayden was filled with slight apprehension. In the end, Hayden simply sighed and turned on the automatic driving. Turning to Eun-ha, and stroking her cheeks, "I want to spend time with you, that"s obvious…"

Suddenly, he pinched her cheeks and laughed out loud. "Why are you so cute? Jeez, can"t resist doing this."

Sulkily, Eun-ha pouted another time. Chortling at the sight of this, Hayden removed the automatic driving and drove to the nearest Hangang Park.

A few minutes of driving later, Hayden and Eun-ha went inside. It was already 10:30, thus, the park was desolate. Making their way to the side of the Han River, both of them stared at the picturesque scenery that met them.

"So beautiful…" Eun-ha sighed in admiration, clutching Hayden"s arms tighter and resting her head on his shoulder.

Gazing towards Eun-ha, Hayden couldn"t help but feel the G.o.ddess of Luck was smiling upon him at the time, till he remembered the person jumping around inside the clouds.

Nevertheless, he didn"t let that matter get into his head and decided to enjoy the scenario he was in. Hayden shook off Eun-ha"s grip on his left arm and wrapped it around her shoulders, pulling her to him in the process. Eun-ha didn"t resist.

The two enjoyed the sight together in each other"s embrace, with Eun-ha hugging Hayden"s torso. It was a very romantic scene if anyone ever had the chance to see it.

Actually, there was one who saw this scene, and that person was Kidlat, jumping around inside a cloud using his Ability. Likewise, yesterday, Kidlat perceived virtually everything, with the sole exceptions of how Hayden landed a date, and when they did date in the Celebrity Hubs.

Logically, Kidlat didn"t initially concern himself with Hayden"s dating life, in truth, he didn"t care. On the contrary, he was devising on how he could use Eun-ha to bait Hayden out. As a cautious man, this night, Kidlat unknowingly activated his sensing of essence energy, and sensed an unusually enormous amount of essence energy within Eun-ha. He was utterly shocked.

"This kid is dating a Level 4 wielder!" Kidlat uttered. "This kid"s a Level 2 wielder, he wouldn"t know unless she would tell him… a.s.suming that she didn"t, what kind of luck does this kid possess!?"

As the two lovebirds were focused on each other, they didn"t take notice of Kidlat who was cursing above the clouds behind them, hugging each other whilst admiring the scenery in front of their eyes.

"I have to act as soon as possible or I wouldn"t be able to touch even a single strand of hair on him…" Kidlat felt immense pressure burdening his shoulder. A Level 4 wielder was exponentially stronger than Level 3 wielders, if he was to accomplish his task, he had to do it before the two"s bond and relationship grows stronger. "I have to a.s.sa.s.sinate him when he"s separated with her."

Kidlat hardened his resolve to kill Hayden tonight no matter what. As for using Hayden"s parents to lure him out? That plan didn"t cross his mind, not even for a single second, as Eun-ha literally lived a block away from Hayden. With Eun-ha"s status as a Level 4 wielder, there was no doubt at all that she would be able to sense something if he makes a move on Hayden"s parents.

He also couldn"t go back to White Canary Village this moment as he needed to keep an eye out on Hayden. He wouldn"t risk the chance on seeing Hayden"s true power for a plan that didn"t have the guarantee of 100% success.

…..

"Are you cold?" Hayden asked as he kept Eun-ha close to him.

"No, not really," Eun-ha replied quietly. "Your body is radiating an unbelievable amount of heat, don"t worry."

Thereupon, silence arose, the two soundlessly enjoying the night. A few minutes later, Hayden kissed Eun-ha"s head and asked, "Do you want to sit, or continue standing?"

"Do you want to sit?" Eun-ha softly freed herself from Hayden"s embrace and returned the question.

Hayden nodded, grabbing Eun-ha"s left hand with his right. The two walked hand in hand towards the bench close to them.

Sitting, Hayden immediately wrapped his arm around Eun-ha, who leaned on him. "So, are we… you know, officially in a relationship?"

"What do you think?" Eun-ha squirmed a little, facing Hayden with a sly expression that made slightly Hayden crack up. "Of course we are, dummy…"

"Just making sure, just making sure," Hayden beamed. "Let me ask though, are we perhaps moving too fast? Is this okay?"

"Hmm, I actually don"t have much experience in dating as well," Eun-ha spoke the truth. "You"re the first man I"ve dated, all the other ones, I usually reject, not even letting them take me out once… Paraphrasing your words, I"ve never wanted to date someone until I"ve met you."

"That"s awesome…" Hayden sighed. Moving away slightly, he asked with an innocent grin, "So I guess I"m special, huh?"

"Stop flattering yourself," Eun-ha laughed, slapping Hayden"s arm that was on her shoulder. Unsuspectingly, the two were slowly stealing each other"s hearts.