Chapter 22: Storm-Edge

“Y-yeah, I suppose… it’s yours now,” Mr. T stammered, struggling to his feet as Elaine rushed to help him. He stared at the nearly-shattered protective glass, still visibly dazed.

“Were you lying about your tier this whole time?” Elaine’s voice cut sharp through the silence, turning sharply to Liam. Before he could respond, a certain realization dawned on her. “Wait… that’s impossible. We had your tier evaluated, wait—oh no, the machine was never broken, was it? Liam, you’re a null-visor?.”

“Hold up, Hold up, stop. What the hell is a null-visor, what?” Liam asked, confused at what Elaine was saying.

That was when Director Grey and Kent stepped in. “Null visors are visors who can conceal their mana level,” Grey answered as he had overheard the conversation right before walking into the situation. He then looked at the cracked protective glass. “Was that you?” he asked, directing his gaze back to Liam.

Liam nodded affirmatively, and Grey and Kent exchanged glances. At this point, Ryan and Serafina had walked into the situation as well, as they had also felt that energy wave. Ryan’s voice announced their entry. “What was that energy?”

Serafina already had suspicions as to where it came from, her gaze fixed directly on Liam since she walked into the place, though she remained silent.

“Agents, back to your positions,” Grey said, causing them all to disperse and slowly file out of the room. Grey then turned to the faction leaders. “I’m sorry about that, but whatever just happened is USOV’s problem. We’ll head back up to finish our conversation.”

They all left, and Mr. T went towards the shattered glass. He was downhearted and somewhat disappointed too while he looking at the protective glass all cracked up, work he took so much pride in.

The other agents arrived back at the agents’ area. At first they were all quiet, then Sarah broke the silence. “It all makes sense why you went to that S-class breach alone. Damn, boy.”

“Okay guys, chill. First off, I’m not a null visor or whatever you guys call it,” Liam said. His gaze moved towards Elaine. “When we did my evaluation, I truly was at the said tier.”

“But it makes no sense,” Elaine replied, there was a visible frown on her face. “That evaluation was only this Monday, but from what we all just felt in that room, you’re at least S-tier or even above it. Just how?!”

“Yeah man, what’s really happening?” Amir chimed in.

Liam sighed, dragging a hand down his face. “Alright. here’s the truth, I haven’t told anyone this yet, but I have a secret ability that makes me evolve faster than usual and beyond the normal limits.”

The three of them all showed different forms of confusion and shock at the same time. Liam was visibly frustrated too, but this was the best way to explain it. He couldn’t start explaining the evolution system and how it works and the sorts of things that come with it.

“So to what extent will this ability evolve you to?” Elaine asked.

“Right now, I’m only trying to figure it out,” Liam replied. “I can’t explain how or when I had said ability, but I only just discovered recently I had such in my possession.”

Elaine hesitated, then asked again, “…Sooo the elf from that day?.” Her question was related to how the elf disappeared after Liam defeated it, this also came out especially as she couldn’t help it anymore.

However, before she went any further, Liam cut in. “All I can say is, it’s all part of how my ability works.”

“Liam the Mysterious Hotshot,” Sarah joked. She couldn’t help it, and somehow they all went into fits of chuckles. That actually reduced the tension. Sarah then continued, “Sooo what else you hiding, man?”

Liam looked at her, folded his arms as he relaxed his back on the wall behind and bent his head slightly with a smile on his face and eyes briefly closed. “Well, I can’t say I don’t have certain secrets, but this I can say, none of them are illegal or straight up diabolical.”

“Silly boy,” Elaine scoffed, and Amir shook his head with amused disappointment.

“But what’s so bad about null visors?” Liam asked, now that things had settled down a bit.

“They’re not necessarily bad,” Elaine explained, “just uncommon. Very few persons can actually hide their mana levels like that.”

That was when Mr. T walked up with both hands carrying the sword, now within a sheath, by its flat surface. “Here you go” he said, looking up at Liam and stretching his hands towards him. Liam picked up StormEdge and unsheathed it, raising his sword as his eyes viewed its beauty. The system pulled out its stats again:

[Weapon Type: Long Sword → +30 Attack Power / Special Effect → Weather Control / Second Special Effect → Attack Power increases further under a wielder who can awaken its true potential]

Another notification screen appeared before him: [Weapon can be added to Inventory]

He ignored the notifications for now, stepping backwards and swinging the sword around, testing its weight. “Thank you,” Liam said to Mr. T.

“I know this weapon is in the right hands. Take care of it,” Mr. T replied. He then turned to leave, heading back to the weapons creation lab.

“He is going to miss that sword,” Amir said, as he looked at Mr. T leave the scene. Sarah and Elaine agreed. They’d been in USOV long enough to know how much pride Mr. T placed in the protective glass case.

Meanwhile, the faction leaders and director had returned to continue negotiations. They didn’t bother to ask again about the earlier energy surge because they knew the director would still hit them with the “it’s USOV business” line. Serafina, on her part, had suspicions kept to herself.

Grey shifted in his seat. “You know what, Ryan? we’ll do it this way. The Dallas Grizzlies will give you 3% of their total earnings per month for 6 months.”

Ryan was about to protest, but then the Director raised his index finger up towards him and turned to Serafina.

“In addition to that, Ray Hooks is on a temporary 6-month ban from traveling out of Dallas, unless granted express permissions by USOV. We will have someone print up the paperwork and have copies sent to you both by end of the day. If there are any changes or inclusions, it’ll be right there in the paperwork,” Grey concluded.

“I believe this brings this matter to an end,” Grey said finally. Ryan looked unsatisfied, but he couldn’t argue it anymore. Serafina nodded in agreement, and then Grey nodded towards Kent, who understood what he had to do next, which was to get Ray out of his holding cell.

Kent left immediately, and then Grey stood up from his seat, motioning his palm towards the door to tell them without words that he would be seeing them out now. They both stood up, and Ryan and his vice went ahead first, and slowly they all left the room.

Serafina and her subordinate, on the other hand, got into their vehicles and waited till Ray Hooks was brought out of holding. However, before Serafina left the main building completely, her gaze briefly fell on Liam, who was in the midst of his friends, and then she moved it away. With both her hands in her pockets as she walked, she muttered, “Didn’t know USOV had such monsters,” and then left the building.

…

A few minutes later, Ray Hooks appeared out of a hallway, walking towards the exit with Kent following behind him. Ray’s eyes met with Liam’s. Liam had a mocking grin on his face, and Ray simply turned away, retrieving his dark shades from his front and putting them on. It covered the glowing red eyes and frown that spelled so much disgust and anger, like he was ready to attack and kill Liam on the spot.

Ray got into the same SUV that carried Serafina, and the two-vehicle convoy rolled out of the premises. Kent walked back towards where Liam and his friends were gathered and said to Liam, “You should go see the director immediately, oh and congrats on your new weapon. That’s one of the good ones we’ve got.”

“Woah, there are more?” Liam asked, and started heading behind Kent towards the Director’s office.

“And better,” Kent scoffed. “You don’t know the half of it.”

Liam smiled at this interesting reveal.

Soon after, they arrived the office, and Liam closed the door behind him. The director motioned towards the cushions positioned to the right side of the office and by bookshelves, as he himself stood to walk towards the set of cushions. Liam took a seat, and the director did the same.

Liam immediately went for an apology. “I apologize for last time. I don’t mean to undermine your authority, Chief.”

The Director waved at him slightly, which meant he was asking him to stop. “I didn’t even think you’d last as long as you did against an S- class threat, but I’ve also realized that we truly have no idea how your abilities work,” Grey continued. “And the monster you faced was a new one—it’s not something we’d seen before. Only that we know it went from an S-class level threat to Titan class level, which is a first for the state and the highest it has ever had to deal with so far.”

“It was an Ancient… I don’t know if that makes any sense…” Liam said. He remembered this because the system termed it an “Ancient” during their battle.

Grey’s facial expression took a little twist when he asked, “An Ancient? Hm, that explains how its threat level grew even further. Ancients are the most powerful kinds of mythical creatures. Based off our findings, some of them are as old as the Family Heads themselves, some nearly just as powerful even.” Grey drew in closer and asked, “How do you know for sure that the one you faced was one? More importantly, explain these consistent sudden growths to me.”

Liam sighed, unfortunately, there was no hiding that one. “Okay, so the thing is, I can’t put it into words properly, but around the time you guys found me, I awakened some ability that lets me evolve continuously. As for knowing it was an ancient…” Liam shrugged helplessly. “I just knew.”

“The ability to evolve continuously? There are no limits?” Grey asked, sort of intrigued too.

“Right now, I don’t see any in sight,” Liam said.

“Hm…” Grey said nothing for a few minutes and then just said, “You can go.” Liam stood and bowed slightly before leaving. The moment the doors were closed behind him, Kent spoke up, “There’s more than he’s letting us in on.”

“Yeah, that much I’m aware of,” Grey said. He continued, “But I’ve seen more than enough to know that we need to get him onboard with the plan.”

“You’re not worried? About this evolving ability? What if he goes rogue? Worse still, he becomes their pawn?” Kent asked.

“Then let’s pray that whatever happens, Liam will keep fighting on humanity’s side,” Grey said as he started heading back to his desk.

…

Meanwhile, on the way back to Serafina’s suite, she noticed that Ray had a clenched fist with visible veins along his forearms the whole time and had uttered no words ever since. “Whatever it is you’re planning, drop it, Ray. We are heading back to Dallas tonight,” she said.

She had known Ray long enough to know that right there in his mind, some sort of vengeance was brewing. Ray said nothing in response, and then she held his neck with her right hand, her magic energy surging. Ray suddenly started gasping for breath.

“Is that fucking understood?” Serafina said intimidatingly.

“Y-yes,” he struggled to get the words out of his mouth.

“Good. You’ve caused me enough trouble already.” She released her grip on his neck and folded her arms back, withdrawing the threatening gesture. Ray’s glasses had fallen off during the struggle, and he clutched his throat with one hand, trying to ease the pain and steady his breathing.

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