Chapter 149 - Fate

Brock sucked in a breath through his nostrils, and the sweet scent of pancakes followed. A small smile played on his lips, the first genuine one in a long time, as he gazed down at the batter slowly being cooked within the pan. When bubbles started to appear on its surface, Brock flipped the pancake and landed it in simple motion.

His smile grew.

The last time he’d had pancakes had been on the morning after he’d found his brother, James. The last time Brock had actually cooked for himself, had been… a tad bit more. His life for the past what was closing in on a year had been populated by scraps, canned foods, and the occasional meat he’d scavenged or have cooked for him.

Even with his own house and kitchen, Brock hadn’t deigned to cook after it’d all been built. And that simply because he could never find the motivation to. Canned food was always easier, quicker. Sure, he’d have killed to taste some homemade meals, but he just… couldn’t justify it enough to want to make it.

But now, as he flipped the pancake once more and caught it on a plate with his telekinetic abilities, he wondered why the hell he had put off cooking. He lovedit. I guess with all that depression, I just… couldn’t be bothered…

Despite the joy he felt and the delectable smells and anticipation, he still felt that edge of weariness, that part of him that just wanted to sleep and let the move on without him, but he gave it a kick in the nuts. He didn’t want to be sad and sorry anymore. Maybe he was harboring some sort of all-powerful, demonic monster.

But so, what? He wasn’t that monster. And he… the next step is me learning to accept that…

Sighing, and levitating the pancake up to his mouth as he poured another into the pan from his bowl of batter, Brock’s eyes wandered to the large tablet he had hanging above his fireplace. Flames licked up from the alcove beneath it, illuminating the worn tablet and the strange creatures depicted on it in shifting colours and flickering light.

Gotta learn to accept it…

There was no electricity in King’s Cavity, as it lacked the infrastructure of a pre-established town and Margo hadn’t bothered to get people to work on installing it yet, but people were doing fine. Most used candles for lighting, or like Brock, a fireplace.

A few people he’d known downtown had thought to use Thermium Plates in place of lightbulbs and installed them into their own roof. Needless to say, the weren’t exactly the best at controlling the output. All three were crisped and their house had exploded to pieces. There was a reason Brock had those glistening stones in his fireplace. They absorbed some of the unruly heat.

Brock flipped the pancake and began cooking the other side. Licking his lips as he finished off his current one, he glanced out the kitchen window. The world was still bathed in the argent rays of moonlight, although he could see the sun peeking over the horizon and illuminating it a beautiful orange.

Making breakfast before the sun was even up was quite a common occurrence when you only slept for four hours and woke up near midnight. The majority of the time Brock spent in bed was either dedicated to shaking or trying to calm himself. He’d been having nightmares since the incident – or perhaps they were just more of the monster’s memories – and sleep had never lasted as long as it used to.

Sighing, he flipped the pancake onto his plate and poured another into the pan. Silence of the Abyss apparently had excellent non-stick properties. Still wish I had some butter though…

As the time passed by and Brock waited for his pancake to begin bubbling, Brock chewed his previous made one, held still in the air by Silence. He felt somewhat weird biting his food out of the air like some kind of shark, but he was lazy and his other hand was under the pan supplying the flame for cooking.

In between mouthfuls, as the sun’s rays started to shine through his windows, Brock sighed. 42 hours left… what the fuck am I mean to do until then…?

Clicking his tongue, Brock brought up his status menu and peered at the [Evolution Available] stationed next to his level of 100. He supposed he could enter early and search for his mother in the waiting realm, but that begged the question if he could be killed in there and sent back here, failing. He’d never asked about it, so he had no idea.

Plus, with all that extra time, surely there was something he could do that would help him prepare. Wait…

It had been some time since Brock had last seen combat, and while his instincts certainly hadn’t faded, he was rusty and some more practice with his weapons couldn’t hurt. And fortunately, he knew just the place to train. Or places.

Vaguely, he recalled a time a few months ago when Fon had visited him and their uninspiring conversation had naturally drifted to the topic of what the System called ‘Rifts’. According to her, they’d been cropping up at random across the planet and were essentially gateways to an unstable pocket dimension filled with monsters and an unreliable environment that was prone to sudden, unexplained changes.

Of course, with her relatively unique ability to perceive energies – she was one among seven currently – she’d been sent to one of these Rift to study its energy composition and interior. From the data she and her energy seeing peers had collectively gathered, both the monsters, stability and time dilation of and within the Rift varied widely.

The strangest part though, was that when Brock had asked what energies composed the Rift, she went silent and adopted an expression that made her look like she was warring with some inner demon or something. He’d tried to ask the other energy ‘experts’ but something similar always occurred.

One time a guy had even passed out, blood dripping from his eyes and nose. He had no idea what that was about, but he did wonder if the System disallowed people from relaying knowledge about the make up of Rifts. It certainly seemed like something up its alley.

I’d probably have to choose one close… he placed a hand on his chin as he considered the locations he’d been made privy to. And maybe one with a decent time dilation, though no one knows about the side effects of it, if there are any…

Aside from the Rift he suspected lay dormant at the bottom of the chasm, Brock knew of two more nearby. One Rift existed a few kilometers from Tokyo, nestled in the ruins of an old town, while another wasn’t too far from one of the smaller towns in Spain. The average level of both was around late F Grade – the 90s around about – and evidence had been gathered that the levels of the monsters within never grew.

No one’s dissected one… but maybe they don’t have that absorption gland? Brock snatched the pancake off the pan and scoffed it down with his Aura Technique. He finally felt full. As he belched, his eyes flickered over to the violet aura wafting up from a shadow in the corner of the living room. Hmmm?

Brock raised a brow and glanced to his room where his bracer and Lament had been left on the bedside. Clearly, the aura was of some in the E Grade, so attending to an unexpected visit without a weapon was a terrible idea. There hadn’t been any assassination attempts on his life yet, but he assumed there was a first for everything.

Licking his lips, Brock lifted his pan – one made of Zudanite for its immense heat resistance – and let Silence squash and shape it into a blade with a razor edge. It took a considerable amount of aura to do so, but he still had plenty left, especially with his 30% Aetherweb boost to aura volume.

His eyes fell upon the shadow his visitor was residing in, and his aura came down a second later, “You’re not very good at hiding, mate.”

For a moment, nothing happened. Then the shadow began to twitch and the rising aura wavered in shock. Very few people knew he could see aura; Jane, Hiroto, Mio, Harry and Fon were the exclusive group. Many knew Jane could, but it seemed no one connected the dots together that their sight ability related to bloodline.

As far as he knew, people just thought he was really good with aura. And they weren’t wrong. He was certain he was currently the most advanced aura user on the planet. As for Augments, he still possessed the greatest control and insight into the details of their potential uses out of anyone on Earth, but others had long begun to upgrade their Augments to the second Tier.

“Well, that’s a shame,” a feminine voice resounded. It was… familiar. Too familiar. If not for the fact it wasn’t Mio’s, he wouldn’t have been concerned. Despite what he tried, he couldn’t pin the voice to anyone he knew. Then red hair glistened in the firelight, “my parents always said I was good at hide and seek.”

Brock’s eyes narrowed, and his Dexterity pierced the darkness. His first thought had been Minerva, but she’d been missing for a while now, and the intruder’s voice was of a higher pitch, plus her manner of speaking was different. It was less arrogant and more playful. In addition, the features of her face were sharper, a proven result of evolving one’s race at a younger age.

She appeared to be around Jane’s age, if not older, and the dagger at her waist told Brock she wasn’t here to fuck around. He snuck another glance at her face as she stepped out from the shadow and into the light. She was… downright gorgeous.

But Brock didn’t give two shits. The bitch had broken into his house while he was making pancakes. Her gave her the finger and brought his pan-knife forward, “Hide and seek, huh? You should try playing hide and go fuck yourself. I hear it’s fun to play anywhere outside of my… oh?”

He had barely noticed that the dagger that had been resting upon her waist was now sitting mere inches from his foot, its tip pierced directly into the ground. Well… shit. I should be the one playing hide and go fuck myself.

“My mother was right. You are an insufferable imbecile.” She half-sneered half-laughed, an expression Brock found eerily similar to a certain red-haired woman he already knew. He had a sneaking suspicion that he knew who this woman’s mother was.

Brock spared one more glance for the dagger, before using Silence to return the pan to its former state, although it looked rather crinkled afterwards. He placed it on the kitchen bench, “I’ve been called worse.”

“Oh, I have no doubt about that.” She replied, grinning.

“Right. So why the fuck are you hiding in my house at 6 o clock in the morning?” he raised a brow at gestured at the bowl of left-over pancake batter resting next to what was going to be a stove when the technology came around, “you wanted some pancakes or something?”

“I would actually.”

Brock pointed at his fireplace, “There’s some fire. Have fun.”

She chuckled. He looked down at his feet. The knife was gone. He glanced at her waist. It was sheathed once more. She’s good. I haven’t heard of her before, though. She must’ve been missing for a long time. Even then, she’d have to have been training inside a Rift for me not to have seen her in the last three months…

So, she’s a battle junkie. Awesome. From what he could sense from her aura, she was maybe ten levels higher than Gor’eth Kung had been. It was a fairly decent level, certainly above the current E Grade average, though he’d seen higher.

“Maybe you aren’t so insufferable after all,” she smirked. It was a seductive expression, although it reminded Brock of a predator planning to consume its prey. He shuddered, “but I was joking. I’m not her for fucking pancakes. My mother – Minerva – wants to see you.”

What? Brock furrowed his brows, “She… wants to see me? Putting aside the fact that she’s meant to be missing, why me? I thought she hated me.”

The redhead shrugged, “Oh don’t get me wrong, she despises you. But she recently had a run in with a strange creature – she’s gravely injured and thus in hiding – and she believes that she needs to speak with you about it for whateverreason.”

Brock licked his lips, “What kind of creature? She’s meant to be an E Grade, and there’s not many evolved monsters yet.”

The shadow assassin waved her hand, “It was… she told me the name… oh yeah.”

“She said it was called an Error.”