Warlord – Chapter 34
“This should be the location of the last battle.”
Aaron and his part reached the cave where jing worms had evolved. Karen brought Aaron and rest to here along the traces. They found traces of explosions on top of the cave. It was enough to blow the strongest butcher into pieces. However according to the traces in the cave the anarchist wasn't killed by the explosion.
Fourth-order or more defensive enhancement would be needed to survive such a strong explosion. The traces from the previous battle locations showed that the body of the 'anarchist' wasn't so powerful as Zero's bullets had easily penetrated its body.
It was a proof that the 'anarchist' had an unknown ability with extraordinary value.
Karen couldn't find traces of movement except for Zero which meant that this place was the location for the last battle. The target was eliminated in here without a doubt. But the strangeness lied in the result that the anarchist seemed to be destructed on molecular level. The place was muddy and the corpse of the target wasn't present.
According to the previous fights Zero didn't carry a weapon which could cause destruction on molecular level. As a result the method in which Zero killed the 'anarchist' became a mystery.
Karen couldn't analyze for more information from the scene as the body of the 'anarchist' had become similar to mud and the body fluids were solidified.
“Intervention by a third party?”
Aaron could think of this possibility as they returned back to the base. There were no traces of combat at the scene. Aaron thought that only an ability user with sixth order or more could do something like that.
They brought back large number of specimens that were taken from Hans's body. The answer was negative after they assessed the specimens. Aaron was angry as it seemed that he had wasted a day.
Aaron thought of another way. If they couldn't get results from the anarchist's body then they could get the corpses from the cemetery of the base and extract their DNA's and other genetic information in hope that they could find something.
But the extraction of genetic information would be hard as the time that had passed after the death was long. The workload was extraordinary too. They stayed in the Z7 base for three days before the results came out. Aaron had hit the dead end once more as they didn't achieve success in finding the anarchist's blood sample or DNA.
Aaron was like an angry bull as he exploded because of stress. He asked Jerry in angry tone: "Are these the only ones that had died?"
“Yes, sire. Almost everyone who was in the base was killed… ” Jerry replied.
“Almost?!” Aaron interrupted his words: “Do you mean that there were others who didn't die?”
“Yes, yes …” Jerry replied: “Leah, old Jack's granddaughter is still alive. The poor girl was infected with virus so we exiled her from the base. She went with Zero.”
Aaron grabbed by Jerry's collar: “Why haven't you reported this before? What kind of virus she was infected with?”
“I’m sorry, sire. I didn't know if she was so important. We didn't know what kind of virus she was infected with. She was so healthy until the massacre…we…” Jerry's body shook up.
“Shut up! Where are they?” Aaron roared. The girl was infected after the massacre. It's possible that it wasn't virus but the anarchist's blood had entered her body and she had gone through a mutation!
Aaron clearly remembered that Zero made a head-shot in the pub. The blood of the 'anarchist' had splashed onto that girl! Leah was certainly carrying the blood sample of the 'anarchist' on her body!
Aaron wanted to slap himself on the face. His attention was focused on tracking the traces of the 'anarchist' but he had totally ignored the girl. He hoped that the miner could give me clear direction about her whereabouts.
“I do not know, sire.” Jerry mumbled: “Zero said that he was going to cure Leah. I think they should head over to a big city or a base!"
“There are about 1000 base or cities on the Nakasu continent. Do you want me to check all of them one by one?” Aaron shouted: “When did they leave?"
“The day before you arrive.”
Aaron called Karen to investigate the matter. Expert asked careful questions to Jerry. He learned about the equipment they carried, the food they took and so on. Karen took the map and pointed towards a location.
The finger was pointing towards a colony called Remit which was three thousand kilometers away from the Z7 base.
“It should be their target. At this point they can't go anywhere but that location as they don't have much resources on them and no means of transportation.” Karen replied.
“We are leaving now!” Aaron hit the table.
At the afternoon, Jerry and other miners bid farewell to Aaron and rest. Convoy of three cars left the base and headed towards east.
At the same time as Aaron's group left the base a green car reached the edge of a city. They were at the freeway looking at the foot of the mountain where a big city was located. Most of the buildings located in the city were damaged.
There was a deep moat around the city but the river had long dried up.
At the eastern part of the city a region was clearly divided out from the rest of the city. There were outposts and place was barbed with wire. Armed soldiers patrolled around the whole area.
There was a billboard at the highest building in the area. "Welcome to Remit!"
Zero looked at the billboard. He knew that the first part of his journey had come to a temporary end.