D Day +67The first morning light was about to break the darkness of the horizon while the wind breezed through the coconut trees surrounding the area.
The 4,000 plus fighters composed of Alex"s elite units, Rico"s troops of special forces, and the Sultan"s Keraton Guards looked towards the hostile"s base, a small port city.
As the troops faced west, the sun rose behind them. Inch by inch, the shadow over the port city gradually disappeared as the morning sun cast its light. The port city was still. It didn"t have any idea about the incoming a.s.sault.
In the center of the army; Alex, Rico and the Sultan were finalizing their attack.
"We haven"t been spotted yet. It"s best we move quickly." Rico was restless. His son"s, along with hundreds of captives, safety were at stake.
Looking over their situation, Alex also came up with the same conclusion.
On the other hand, the old man standing next to Alex wasn"t eager with the plan and said, "It"s wise not to rush into things."
The one who just spoke is the current Sultan of Yogyakarta city. His name is Sultan Kartasurya the Tenth and he"s 70 years old. He is the 10th person to be appointed as the leader of Yogyakarta and has been ruling the city for the last 30 years.
Yogyakarta is one of the most unique cities in Indonesia. Their history backdates to the 1800s where they are recognized as its own kingdom, but soon after, they aligned themselves with Indonesia on Indonesia"s Independence Day and ever since then, it has been categorized as special region.
Although it is part of Indonesia, they have the privilege of managing their own domestic affairs independently.
The Sultan sized up the new president and said, "President Rico, I hear we"re here to save your son."
"It"s not just my son, Sultan. There are a lot of other people too," Rico replied.
"A word of advice Mr. President, you should think about the needs of the country first before other things. If you can"t do that, you should have not accepted the job."
The words struck Rico"s sore spot. He did, in fact, felt guilty about his decision to suddenly leave and look for Adam, but would he just leave his son to die? Of course, he wouldn"t.
Alex clapped his hands. "Ok ok ok. Both of you, we can leave that for later. We need to save the captured people first."
Alex glanced towards his friend, Theo, and noticed that Theo wanted to say a word.
Theo saw Alex"s nod and stepped forward. "Everyone, please remember that most of these people are being lied to. Please refrain from killing them if possible."
The blonde girl near Theo gasped and said, "Seriously? These lunatics killed lots of people! Didn"t you saw the pile of corpses they threw on the streets?!"
Theo, although a bit shy, didn"t cower from Cindy. He instead forced himself to remind everyone to refrain once more from using lethal forces. The world has already come to an end, it"s important for humanity to not kill itself.
Alex understood Theo"s way of thinking. The old Alex would probably do the same, but Alex knew about Hafiz and his followers. The Heavenly Gate, in his previous life, had the ability to turn family and friends against each other.
Reading the report, he was shocked to find that the Chemist was also with them. Hafiz and the Chemist did not work together in his previous life. But his actions caused another b.u.t.terfly effect, and that would be his responsibility. The new Heavenly Gate could not be trifled with. Alex hoped to end both of them now.
"Let"s move, signal the attack!" Rico ordered.
Rico, as the commander-in-chief, was forced to lead in the back. Daisy watched him and could tell that he cared deeply for his son. She saw him leaning forward for a better view and clenching his fist tightly.
Alex"s 500 elite fighters went in first using melee weapons. All of the peak stage mortal realm within Alex"s group moved quickly and killed hundreds of the hostiles guarding the perimeter before the alarm sounded.
The combined fighters rushed into the city after Alex"s group went in. The Sultan"s fighters specialized in rifles and lances, so they were ideal in the middle. As for Rico"s troops, most of them were using long-ranged weapon, thus they"re at the back, providing fire support.
Thousands of mad fighters appeared from all over the place and then it became a battlefield. Blades clanking, gunshots, screams echoed throughout the port city.
In the city center, around 100 pale fighters gathered around the Chemist as they drank from the bowl the Chemist gave and started chanting. After finis.h.i.+ng their ritual, they started running around slaughtering the army, but as soon as they encountered Alex"s team, they fell down one by one.
Daisy saw how Alex"s team fought from a distance; Aria, the twins, Arief, and a weird blonde girl whipping like crazy. They coordinated better than any group of fighters she knew. Even the special forces couldn"t hold a candle to them.
The Keraton Guard Regiment and the special forces saw Alex"s team play and couldn"t help but burn with pa.s.sion.
The regiment walked in formation with their lancers at the front and the shooters at the back. They waited for most of the hostiles to come near and used the back of their lances to knock them out. If the shooters saw that the lancers were being overwhelmed, the shooters fired their rifles to lighten the pressure from the enemy.
The special forces wouldn"t want to let up and adopted a similar tactic that the regiment was using. They used the blunt side of their guns to knock out the hostiles and sometimes fired to decrease pressure. Their vehicles targeted the ground near the faraway hostiles and used the blast to knock them out.
The three groups continued like this until they were close to the hotel.
Daisy used her ability to scan the area.
Alex noticed the girl"s power and found it interesting, but the boy next to her, his power was even more interesting. A psychic and shadow spirit enhancers who already able to show their power in the mortal realm stage, they are as unique as Aria and Arief. Alex tried to recall them if there was anyone like them in his previous life, but none fit the bill. He smiled as the ability of these two Spirit Enhancers were especially helpful.
Daisy found signs of hundreds of people being contained in one of the warehouses and headed there. She ran too far from the group.
Tommy saw her leaving the group and tried to follow her. "Daisy, wait!"
Daisy wished to see any familiar faces; Adam, the misfits, anyone at all. It had been more than 10 days since she last saw her friends went inside one of the buildings. Her heartbeat raced with the hope of seeing them but that clouded her judgment.
When she came near the warehouse, to her surprise, pale men rushed out! A half a dozen of them quickly jumped at her.
"Nooo!" Tommy used his shadow to try to reach her, but he was too far.
Within a span of a few seconds, Daisy got overwhelmed. She could only reflect on her stupidity when one of the pale men"s blades was nearing her. She closed her eyes...
SLAASHHH!!
SPLATT!!
The sound of blood being splashed rang in her ear.
"!!!"
Slowly opening her eyes, she saw a familiar figure blocking the pale man"s blade with his back. Her heart skipped as the figure of the man slowly turned around to face her. It was the image of the man she held dear. It"s him…
"Adam!!"
"I"m glad to see you here." The blade made a deep wound on his back, but Adam still smiled. "Daisy, what"s with the gloomy face? Don"t worry, it"s just a minor wound."
It"s actually quite a big wound, but Adam didn"t mind it too much. Compared to the torture he had to endure in the last 10 days, this was nothing.
Adam turned around and grabbed the blade with his bare arm and punched the attacker with his other arm.
BAAMM!!
The pale man flew back to the warehouse and crashed into several mad fighters.
"PURGE!!!" The remaining pale men simultaneously attacked Adam and Adam flew to a wall and coughed out blood.
Adam hurriedly stood up and dashed forward and did several exchanges with the pale men, but as their fighting ensued, he felt his strength dropping. The pale men attacked relentlessly and Adam began defending. It was 5 against 1. Even the late lieutenant Axel could only face 2-3 pale fighters at the same time. As his strength and speed decreased, he started getting more cuts and bruises.
Alex had noticed the two Spirit Enhancers break off from the group. He wanted to follow them immediately, but his group and elite units hands were full. After a few minutes, everything was clear. He then ordered his group to follow him and went towards the young lady"s direction. Seeing a young man protecting the young lady while the other shadow Spirit Enhancer was holding the line against the mad fighters, Alex group of six sprinted to save them.
The pale man Adam was facing suddenly got entangled by a whip and a man punched the pale man in the face. Adam was dazed for a moment as he watched Alex group of six fought against the four pale men. For some reason, the image of Axel and his special forces resurfaced on his mind as he observed this new group easily taking care of the remaining pale men.
The rest of Alex"s elite 500 fighters arrived shortly and battled with the hundreds of mad fighters flooding out from the warehouse. The battle soon ended and the remaining four pale men died while hundreds of the mad fighters were on the ground unconscious.
Adam then turned around and ran towards Daisy. They both caught each other and hugged tightly as if never wanting to let go. Tears ran down on Daisy"s face for she had thought that she wouldn"t have the chance to see him again.
His body was in a mess and she felt something different about his aura, but she didn"t think of it too much as she kept on hugging him. She had missed him so much and had been worried sick to care about what he looked right now.
While enjoying their sweet moment of reunion. The radio sounded,
"A s.h.i.+p has been spotted sailing away, I repeat, a s.h.i.+p has been spotted sailing away, over."
The battle has only been going for at most 20 minutes, and a s.h.i.+p could already leave the docks, it seems the enemy has already had an escape plan prepared.
Adam"s ear piqued hearing the radio. He couldn"t let them just get away like that. The horrifying things he and his friends had experienced. All of them played back in his mind.
Adam broke off from Daisy"s hug and the rage in his heart welled up.
He then rushed off towards the direction of the pier with amazing speed.
Alex felt something weird as he looked at the running Adam. He found Adam"s power to be interesting, but it felt off, hence, he tried to follow Adam.
Adam finally arrived at the pier and saw the s.h.i.+p sailing away.
"DON"T RUN YOU SONS OF B*TCHES!" Adam picked up a barrel and threw it towards the s.h.i.+p, but it was too far.
Seeing the s.h.i.+p still sailing away, the rage in his heart wouldn"t calm. He looked around and found a small boat near the dock. He jumped straight at it, but it"s unusable. He returned back to the dock and helplessly watched the s.h.i.+ps gradually distance itself far through the horizon. An uncontrollable emotion filled him and something inside him snapped. He screamed.
"AAARRGGHHHH!!!"
He paced around the docks, looking for ways on how to catch them. With his mind being clouded, he tried to jump into the water, but Alex grabbed his hand.
"Let me go!!!"
"Stop... we"ll get them next time."
The word "time" spun in Adam"s mind. No, he did not have time. There were only two injections left with him. He needed to chase them.
He was about to jump and drag Alex with him when he heard footsteps and saw familiar faces. Nathan and Nathalie, Romi, Melissa, Rick, the misfits, and then Daisy.
"Adam calm down!!"
His raging heart cooled down as his friends approached him. They looked like a mess, but at least they are alive. It seemed that the battle had ended. They were safe.
A sudden jolt ran through Adam"s body, either he overextended himself or it was the kickback from all the torture and the injection. He felt weak and his knees lost their strength. He vomited out black blood as he dropped to the ground.
"ADAM!!!"