Rosa and her guards turned to Jun in surprise."You don"t need to go!" Jun said to his mother. "We don"t know where that Portal will take you. I can speak to the army"s higher-ups! I"m one of the few people who planned this, and they"ll surely listen to me!"
Everyone was focused on him and they were indifferent. Most of them even focused on the wrong things.
"What did you just say?"
"Do you mean you helped planning this attack?!"
"Everyone, stop!" said Rosa. "I"m fine, so go and help other people! Let me have some time to talk with my son."
Her guards were hesitating at first but chose to follow in the end. They were glaring at Jun even as they walked away.
Moments later, some soldiers finally got some angle after running to the sides. Shots were fired and several unlucky Halfdeads got shot but received help from other people. This time, the Halfdead community used their summons mainly to prevent enemy vision.
Rosa"s wings could only block the area in front of her and as long as she had Faith Points, the wings would be unbreakable.
Armed Halfdeads were shooting suppression fire at Christian"s group, making them pinned down at the building they were in.
After making sure that she had the right angle to defend, Rosa turned to Jun. "Do you want to learn the truth?"
Jun froze not knowing what to do. His mother didn"t wait for his reply after seeing him freeze up.
"I"m truly sorry for leaving you but I had no choice. You were the older one, the stronger one, so I thought you would be able to take care of your father. At that time, there were two choices—whether they kill us all, or they"ll just make us pay the consequences. We thought we had the best idea, but we were wrong. They left us on our own for a few years, but they came back. They didn"t keep their end of the deal and everything worsened."
"Stop..."
"They hired watchers and kept us in check. Your father accidentally messed with the wrong people," she chuckled wryly, "He didn"t even have protection and the only people he trusts left him be eaten alive."
Jun had a sudden feeling. That something was about to wrong. "I don"t need to hear this anymore. I didn"t ask for it!"
"Just listen, Jun... I still believe that you are my obedient son. With the way I look and how the government sees us, it"s impossible to go back with you."
"That"s not a problem! I created my own government!"
Rosa softly shook her head. "I"m not sure whether these people are still alive and whether they"re even interested in our family but this... Look at me! The military will surely take us."
Rosa glanced at her Faith Points then smiled at Jun.
"I have to go now."
"Take me with you!"
Rosa pondered for a second then nodded her head. She then shouted for the remaining people that were defending to come and enter the Red Portal.
Aside from the few angled shots that manage to make their way to her wings, most of the loss in Faith Points came from linking everyone to each other. Ever since people entered the Red Portal, she had been using Faith Points to make sure that everyone arrives together safely to their destination.
Just like what Jun said, she had no knowledge of where the Portal could lead them. The only thing that she could do was to believe that it was a safe place.
As Rosa walked towards the Portal, she said to Jun, "Make sure to own a t.i.tle. They"re pretty handy and has a lot of uses. Yetu doesn"t explain much but if you ask nicely he tends to answer. He"s like a small child who thinks he owns the world."
As the last Halfdead entered the Portal, the two of them stood on the empty plaza.
Rosa then said. "We have people to protect and we"re both weak now. Let"s see each other once we get stronger."
Jun was surprised by her words but when she tried to reach out to her, she was already entering the Red Portal. He ran after her and entered the Portal.
Ten points of energy got consumed.
When he took another step forward, he was at a familiar place. In front of him was a gymnasium and on his right was the munic.i.p.al building.
The patrols around the plaza caused a commotion when something suddenly came out of the Red Portal. It was early in the morning and the Red Portal usually spats monsters around late afternoon or early evening.
To their shock, a monster really appeared but it"s one monster they welcomed.
Marvin ran out of the Munic.i.p.al Hall together with Cain and Ralph. They were having a meeting on where to scavenge for today when the ruckus happened.
That"s right. Jun was at Angono Munic.i.p.al Plaza.
Marvin smiled then waved his hand. "Boss, we can use these Red Portals now? Is it safe?"
Jun ignored his questions and looked around. "Did a group appeared here? There"s at least four to five hundred of them. Some were unconscious while others were wounded."
Marvin looked for the Patrol Leader and the man shook his head.
Jun saw the man"s answer and immediately turned around, once again entering the Red Portal. The Portal ate ten energy from him then spat him out to his next destination.
Jun was standing at a vast open plaza and there were mountains in the distance. He examined the area but only found R0 Carriers wandering around. If his mother"s group came here then they should be fighting their way out but the place was peaceful. He turned back once more and entered the Red Portal.
This time, he received a surprise after walking out to the other side. There was a Rank 2 Destroyer sitting in front of the Portal as if waiting for unfortunate preys to come over to this side.
The D2 immediately pounded its hand down but Jun was able to dodge. He turned around and left the place.
He repeated this for at least ten times with no success. It was a random teleport and he even arrived at other countries. He knew it wasn"t the Philippines simply because the Portal Area and the written words on buildings were different.
Every time he enters the Portal, he would appear to a place he hasn"t visited. It would always be a unique area with a unique place and people.
After escaping from a dangerous place, he planned to recover some energy since he only had a quarter of energy left.
Christian was contemplating whether to enter the Red Portal. When he noticed that there no one firing from the other side, they chose to move in. But it was too late and the only thing he saw was Jun chasing after his mother.
When the army arrived, he learned that large boulders appeared out of nowhere which helped the rebels escape. Christian then realized that Jun helped the rebels and he became mad! As a man of duty, doing something like that was unforgivable to him.
The army surrounded the plaza and has taken over the munic.i.p.al grounds. They were now spreading out to secure the area for possible threats.
As Christian cursed Jun inside his head, the man himself came out of the Portal and appeared before him.
The two were both confused but Christian was the first to recover. It"s because his anger fueled him to recover faster while Jun happened to be deeply confused.
Jun thought that entering the Portal would always bring you to a unique place. That"s the reason why he was shocked and unable to react quickly.
By the time he woke up from his stupor, he was already thrown to the ground away from the Portal. When he stood up, the soldiers were already surrounding him with raised weapons.
"You"ll be brought to the outpost for interrogation. You helped the rebels escape and you"ll have to answer for a lot of things."
Jun wasn"t listening to him. He was thinking about why he couldn"t chance upon his mother"s group. He gave up resisting and let himself be cuffed up.
As he was staring dazed in thin air, a notification appeared in front of him.
[You were chosen as the benefactor for the Quest, A Mother"s Love. You received a Mystery Gift. The item will be sent to your dimensional storage in one minute. Please make sure you have enough s.p.a.ce.]
A minute later, a Mystery Gift box appeared in his dimensional storage. Even with hands cuffed, he easily accessed his dimensional storage and opened the Mystery Gift.
A fanfare that he could only hear played by his ears, then a black compa.s.s appeared on its place.
[Black Compa.s.s]
[Description] A magical compa.s.s that only points to the thing its user desired most.
[Durability- 10/10]