No Second Chances: The Beginning Of The End - Chapter 44

Two days passed and the time for the incursion to Casamira drew closer as Charles, who already managed to reach the area with his team, was updated with the information of his very possible death. After having this audience with Ivan, Charles tried to get more information of how certain his visions are and if there are any other crucial details. Upon further discussion, Charles could feel how the anxiety of knowing he will soon die began to twist his stomach and make his vision blur a bit. Ivan on the other hand, was expecting to see his death come, so he always made preparations in case there was a detail he would forget or oversee, so as a result of this, he had invested years of study and development for a wide variety of devices he always kept in his personal workshop; to which made Casamira an extremely important place by holding on to enough technology to rival the Federation of Orst. However, neither Yan nor Eloise knew about this and so didn’t regard this place as an important area outside of its connection with a huge mine rich in minerals. This was thanks to the efforts of Ivan by avoiding publishing his studies or inventions to the world, keeping them locked for the moment he would meet his successor.

Charles didn’t take the information provided to him very well, but he knew he had to calm himself down and report this information to both his team and the headquarters in Falladis. “I have to announce this will be most likely my last mission as an officer and chief in charge of the patrolling movements of the military. I was informed about my death and given a warning that it is most probable to happen soon, the time for it is not exact, so I could be now, or in a week, but it has been proven that such information is accurate by similar instances announced in the past.” –He said to his team and to the commander of the military along with his lawyer through a video-call made with one of the devices reinforced in Lorenz’s workshop.

Right after making his wishes clear to his lawyer, Charles finished the call and left recorded messages to his family and friends while feeling quite infuriated by the fact he probably didn’t have any option but to accept what was going to happen. However, once he accepted it, he understood there was nothing else but to move forward and face with everything he had. His team didn’t want to accept this and also tried to cheer him up by mention they would also put their lives in line for him.

Meanwhile, Lawrence was traversing the commercial route of the border between Falladis and Delcyt, before noticing the dragon was behaving strangely, coiling on itself several times while convulsing. This worried him and made him wonder if dragons suffered from any other disease besides the virus as the dragon in front of him became rather pale and the scales slowly fell from it.

“I have seen this before on some insects while trying to create a cocoon. But this looks more of a snake, I don’t think it would apply…” –One of the soldiers next to Lawrence pointed out while aiming at the dragon in case it decided to attack them. Lawrence calmly turned to see him before the soldier began to shoot as the dragon tackled him violently, killing him in an instant and swallowing him before coiling on itself once again as if it was anxious.

“So it is shedding its skin.” –Lawrence muttered while his eyes widened in excitement.

The Dragon slowly calmed down while the pale skin began to detach from its body and so, upon sliding from the dead skin, the scales seemed different to Lawrence, showing an odd shine that made him a bit nervous as if the dragon totally changed the material its scales were made of. At this point Lawrence expected the dragon to be a nice opportunity to be unstoppable. If I manage to get a hold of VM01, I could use her as a hostage and finally kill that bastard of a ruler we have, maybe I could even try to rule this rotten country, but it would be too much of a hefty job, so I will put someone else to it. –Lawrence thought while admiring the dragon as it finally stopped shedding.

In Falladis, Gree along with another researcher assigned to be her assistant, rushed to the training grounds to stop Chronos and Sinns from continuing the mock battle. “Okay guys, all good and nice, I know Chronos was about to get his ass beaten but we need to move now, if we want to be able to save everyone in Casamira, then I need you two ready in an hour.” –She commanded while leaving the place almost instantly to look for Francois who was coordinating some workers in the facility for when he leaves with Gree and the rest.

Phil, despite being told to stay and rest, demanded to also go in order to help in Casamira, at least as a coordinator for the people in there to safely evacuate. Elvira was against this and attempted several times to convince Phil to stay and have some rest as his arm wasn’t fully recovered. However, he wouldn’t listen to her and continue getting ready for any sort of riot produced by the confusion of a crowd.

Meanwhile, Nat received a ban from Gree in order to not let her go to Casamira as she could be exposed to a lot of danger. Nat attempted to talk it out but it was refused, so she just stopped trying with a sad sigh. “Please, just come back safe and sound…” –She begged Gree while holding her hands.

“You are worrying too much, we will just get some people out of certain death and then come back. This is not like that time we were escaping from Delcyt, now we are going to save people.” –Gree answered while patting Nat’s head before Francois approached them to announce the transport for the ones going was ready.

Once Gree, Chronos, Sinns, Elvira, and Phil were ready to leave, Francois gave the order to the pilot of the plane to bring them back safely as possible. With this, the plane took off as fast as possible to drop the platoon of soldiers along with Chronos’ group as paratroopers.

As the second team was on their way to Casamira, Lawrence didn’t waste much time after the dragon shed its skin. With an air of superiority, Lawrence commanded the team accompanying him to scout the area in front of them to make sure there was nothing in the customs’ outpost on the other side of the commercial route. After an hour, the soldiers scouting the area confirmed a clear route in Casamira’s direction. Upon hearing this Lawrence ordered to mobilize everyone immediately and surround Casamira in case Sinns escaped if she still happened to be there.

A couple of hours later, the team would approach Casamira without the dragon in order to pass as a convoy bringing materials for the Major. However, the situation turned dire as the entry to the village was denied. Lawrence personally approached the gate guard and asked why their entrance was denied, but before the guard could answer, a wet slicing sound could be heard and the head and body of the guard dropped in different directions. Right after this, Lawrence commanded the soldiers to enter the place and start to look and kill if needed. After a group of the soldiers entered, Lawrence whistled loudly in order to call the dragon and order it to stay around the walls of the village before he went in as well.

Once inside, Charles’ team noticed there was an unusual movement of people nearby one of the gates. Three men of this group reported the situation before going to investigate and Charles got warned as he was next to Ivan in his office. The soldiers leaving to investigate were equipped with special radios reinforced on Lorenz’s workshop, so they could communicate with Charles at all times. A couple of minutes after their suspicions, several gunshots were heard along with the bullets striking steel and concrete while screams drowned the transmission of the radios. Charles got alarmed and stood up while Ivan activated an alarm to keep everyone in the village alert to the threat. “Ivan, is this the moment you saw in your visions?” –Charles asked while grabbing his assault rifle. However, Ivan could only shake his head as he couldn’t know whether it was the moment or not.

Lorenz also knew about the situation and ordered his workers to not leave the facility and try to hide if any of the terrorists entered the building, to which Pascal tried to coordinate people within the facility to avoid panic as Marco tried to check if there was anyone missing.

On the other side of Casamira, Charles’ team attempted to suppress the invasion led by Lawrence, attempting to corner them against the gate they initially came from. The situation pushed Lawrence to call his dragon by whistling loudly as he began to let his mist out to avoid being found.

After hearing the whistling, the dragon began to slither upwards towards the top of the wall, denoting how much it had grown from the time Lawrence took it as his own. Upon reaching the top, the dragon began to taste the particles in the air with its tongue and instantly noticed there was another dragon nearby.

As soon as one detected the other, the opposite happened as well, making Charles’ dragon suddenly leap towards the essence it caught in order to neutralize the threat. However, the one sliding over the wall suddenly opened its mouth in a grotesque way, unhinging its jaws and letting out a cry that overwhelmed the whole village. As soon as this happened, the guards on the other gates rushed to the cannons mounted on the wall to take down the snake-like dragon. However, their attempts were unsuccessful due to the impact of ammunition doing no damage to the scales of the dragon. As it paid no attention to the minuscule threat that the cannons represented, the dragon finally slid down the wall to aid Lawrence and his team by just swallowing the soldiers in front of them.

Charles rushed out of the town hall after hearing his team screaming after the sight of another dragon, to which he also notice his own dragon already moved to then stomp on the snake-like one creating a small tremor. Lawrence, who already left the area by meshing with his mist while there was chaos all around, went to gather information from the people sheltering in their houses, torturing them without hesitation if there was no cooperation. To his surprise, there was a person very willing to talk after being threatened. “I didn’t expect an old innkeeper knew who I was looking for. You must see a lot of guests so I can’t really tell whether you are lying or not, so I will take a warrant.” –Lawrence calmly stated while slicing off one of the innkeeper’s arms, making him scream in agony while dropping on the ground as he desperately tried to make the blood stop by covering it with his hand. “I apologize, but you are not going to live much longer if you struggle too much, so go to the point and I might let you enjoy your misery for a bit longer.” –Lawrence demanded while remaining calm and collected in front of the innkeeper, who slowly mentioned Ivan and his role as the village’s major, and how he was close to the group Sinns belonged too.

After getting the directions of the town hall where the major normally was, Lawrence simply hide in his mist and left to search for Ivan, allowing the innkeeper to live for longer but without one of his arms. Sadly for the innkeeper, a couple of minutes after Lawrence left, he finally tried to leave for medical help but a loud slam produced another tremor and the building collapse on him after Charles’ dragon pushed the snake-like one against the inn, killing the innkeeper and a couple of families hiding in the same place.

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