The Rising Of The Anomaly - Chapter 130

“The procedure should be done within the next couple of minutes, I think,” Informed Director Silva, as she received a message on her I-Watch.

“Is it just me, or is this taking longer than the Awakening Procedure usually does?” I inquired with a concerned sigh.

“Well, yes…but nothing’s gone wrong so far, the processes are just slower with Wights, I guess. They just finished embedding the Awakening chip in him, so it shouldn’t be too long before it’s done,” She informed me.

“Alright, and then what? How do we prove that nothing went wrong?” I inquired skeptically.

“Simple….we run some practical tests, to measure the extent and limits of his power,” She replied objectively.

Wait, hold on a sec…

“What, does that mean you want me to spar with him or something?” I asked warily.

“I suppose that could be a part of it, but that won’t be the extent of it, I think it’ll be more practical and effective to initially have him go up against a Prodigy,” Came the response.

She’s already thought this all through, hasn’t she?

“So, then, who’s the unlucky Prodidy that you roped in for this?” I inquired curiously.

“Actually, it’s two Prodigies…and both Aces at that. You’ve met one of them, but I’ll keep it a secret for now. They both just returned from Missions last night, so they happen to be free today,” She replied with a smile.

Okay, so it’s not my sister, she just left on a Mission a couple of days ago, and it was going to be at least a week long assignment, so yeah. Not Kumar either, since he’s taken a hiatus from Missions thanks to his responsibilities as an instructor at the Academy.

The only other Aces that I know are Johan and Zarina…really hope it isn’t the latter, I don’t like her at all. I then looked up as the door to the lab opened and Hebi walked out, along with the researcher who ran the procedure.

“You good?” I greeted Hebi, as Director Silva walked over to the researcher and began discussing what happened.

“Yup, all good in the hood!” He replied with a grin, a clear look of relief on his face as he flashed me a thumbs up.

Yeah he was definitely more nervous about this whole thing that he’d let on, but it looks like it really had worked.

“So, did you get a crazy power up or something?” I asked, more than a little intrigued, now that the concern had passed.

“I think so, yeah! Like, my XFE is way easier to control now than it used to be, and it feels like there’s a lot more of it now too,” He replied, looking fascinated by the change.

Oh? I see, so a Wight’s XFE isn’t necessarily fully active, there’s a potential amount that remains dormant…and the Awakening Procedure just stimulated his dormant XFE…I could be wrong about this, but I’m fairly confident that I’m not.

“Alright, time to go,” Declared Director Silva, gesturing to Hebi and I, “Come along, you two.”

“Where we goin’?” Asked Hebi, as we followed after her.

“Hm? Don’t you want test out the limits of you current level of power?” Inquired Director Silva with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh, hell yeah, I do!” He responded with an enthusiastic gleam in his eyes…

…

A short while later, we were in the underground facility, the same place where Katie and I had worked on seeing if she could go to the level beyond Manifestation Overdrive and I’d also tried channeling my XFE into the spot between my shoulderblades.

Speaking of which, I was still working on it, but it’s insanely difficult to pull off at all, let alone master…it’ll probably be a while before I can use it with any real degree of reliability.

“So, uh…where are the Aces?” I inquired, looking around at the mostly empty space.

“Late, it would seem,” Replied the director with a displeased frown.

The automatic doors then opened and two people walked in, right on cue. So, then, it’s these two Aces, huh? And yeah, I’d already met one of them…Zarina Serik, the first person to unlock Manifestation Overdrive.

And the other one, I recognized him too, though I’ve never seen him in person before. If I remember right, his name is Altan Jargal. He’s tallish and well-built, with medium-length black hair spiked up in a mohawk with the tips dyed red, red eyes and a whole bunch of tattoos all over his body.

Both his arms were covered in tattoos, with a few on his chest too, and an ouroboros tattoo around his left eye, with a couple of ring piercings on his left eyebrow. He wore a dark gray tank top under black trench coat that was draped around shoulders with his arms out of the sleeves, navy blue trousers and tall black boots.

Also, his manifestations are pretty fascinating, I have to say. Gotta admit, I’m quite interested to watch him fight up close.

“Yo, we’re here and ready to rock, as requested, director!” He greeted Director Silva with a grin.

“I never said anything about rock, and you’re late,” She responded with a look of disapproval.

“I arrived early, but the attendant didn’t let me use the teleportation platform by myself,” Frowned Zarina, giving Altan a glare.

“For real? Why didn’t you just use your clout as an Ace to pressure the attendant?” Inquired Altan incredulously.

“Wha-…because that’s-…tch, shut up, you idiot,” She growled irritably.

Well, she’s about as pleasant as I remember. Oh, she just noticed me…now she’s glaring at me…aaand she just huffed and looked away. I feel annoyed.

“So, you said we’re supposed to fight a Wight that’s on our side or something? That him?” Asked Altan, looking at Hebi, before shifting his gaze to me, “Hey, you look familiar-…ohhh, that’s right, you’re the guy who won the X-Warrior Championship, and Kilella’s younger brother, right?”

“Oh, uh…yeah, that’s me. My name’s Kilzachs Light, nice to meet you,” I replied, shaking his hand as he walked over to me and offered his hand.

“Cool, nice to meet you too, I’m Altan Jargal, the rock ‘n roll Ace!” He introduced himself with a grin.

He’s, uh…very loud. Like, seriously, he’s shouting every word. Still, he seems nice enough, at least.

“Now, then, let’s get straight to it, shall we?” Spoke up Director Silva with a loud clap of her hands, “Hebi, first test out your powers to see if everything’s working as it should be, we’ll move on to some sparring after that.”

“Alright, sure, you got it. So, like, do I start with activating the Primary Manifestation thing or what?” He asked uncertainly.

“Well, uh, let’s see-…,” Began Director Silva, looking unsure.

“How about this, start off with seeing if you can still manifest energy weapons like you could before,” I suggested to him.

“Oh, right, I didn’t even think of that…let’s see…,” He trailed off with a look of focus, before a green energy blade formed in his right hand, “Alright, sweet, it worked!”

“Ho…,” Muttered Altan, his eyes briefly widening before narrowing with a look of intrigue.

Hebi then dissipated the sword and formed a bow and arrow, before switching to a dome shaped defensive barrier around himself.

“Alright, looks like I can form weapons and stuff as easily as I could before, no change there, and they’re more powerful than before!” He called out with a wave.

“Talk about versatile, nice,” Remarked Director Silva with an excited gleam in her eyes, “Now try an activation chant, it should come naturally to you!”

“Yeah, it’s kinda creepy, like a weird voice in my head. Alright, here goes…<Primary Manifestation: Double Python>!” He exclaimed, as green XFE formed around both his arms and extended into two snake-like shapes.

Huh…I’m pretty sure Hebi means snake in Japanese, if I’m not mistaken. Most of the Wights are Japanese descendants, so I’m guessing he probably knows that too, and must have been picturing something to do with snakes during the Awakening Procedure.

The snake manifestations could extend quite a lot and appeared to be pretty flexible too, I’d imagine that they’d be pretty useful in restraining an opponent. Yeah, that looks like quite the handy power…

“Alright, let’s switch things up now, try out your Secondary Manifestation!” Instructed Director Silva.

“Got it! <Secondary Manifestation: Thermal Sense>!” He chanted, a clear hint of anticipation in his voice.

Thermal Sense? As in he can sense heat? He then closed his eyes and focused…

“Woah, this feels really weird! My eyes are closed but I can sense exactly where everyone is! Honestly, it feels like I can rely on this more than my eyesight during a fight,” He remarked with an intrigued tone.

We, uh, should be really glad that the Wights don’t have high tech resources at their disposal, if they found a way to perform the Awakening Procedure, we’d be in huge trouble.

Director Silva then began instructing him to move around and stuff, to test the limits of his thermal sensory ability. Both Altan and Zarina were playing close attention too, looking pretty fascinated by the whole thing.

After a few minutes, the director seemed satisfied, and moved on…

“Now, then, what do you say we take this up another notch? Let’s see if he can activate Manifestation Overdrive, shall we?” Suggested Director Silva with an excited grin.

She’s really enjoying this, isn’t she?

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