An secret integration

"Let me understand all of this first," said Aiden, chuckling as he looked at the two men sitting in front of him, "You want to scan my memory even after I tell you everything. Why?"

"We want to check that you haven't overlooked any minor detail," The man explained calmly, "As you know, we are at war with those monsters right now. Even the smallest detail may be of great significance."

"But why me?" The word 'confused' was written on his face.

"We are a special force that can use mana. Most of them do not know our identity. We can't reveal our existence to ordinary soldiers. But you…" the man pointed to Aiden, adding, "But you're different."

The other man began where the first one ended, "You are on the mission to Earth. Even if they hadn't formally inducted you into the force, you are the same as us. The special mana force. It's not going to be a lot of trouble if you know about us."

"Let me tell you, just in case you don't know about it." Aiden smiled and said, "Robin is a part of the special force too. He can use wind mana." And an awkward silence followed.

"You arrested me out of the military headquarters, without much hassle. That means you got a strong backup." None of them responded while Aiden continued, "Yet you took me to an underground facility as if there was no stasis pod in the entire research stronghold."

In contrast to their expression, Aiden kept a smile on his lips. "How long are you going to act like that? Who sent you over here? A general? A Director? Could he be a councilman?"

In a single moment, the mood of the room shifted. Aiden may have also sensed that the mana was accumulating in their hand. Aiden chuckled, "fire and Earth. You guys are high-level mages, aren't you?"

"That handcuff has the mana suppressing property. It would be better if you forget about using mana."

"According to the last record, you were only a level 2 mage before you lost your ability to use mana." The man smiled, adding, "Other than you, there is no one lower than Level 3 in the entire facility. So, it is better to give up struggling."

"So, you want the data of the Earth mission?"

"Yes. And we have no intention of harming you, as long as you cooperate with us." The earth mage nodded and added, "you will feel nauseous, but it won't be painful."

"The issue remains, then. Who sent you over here?" Aiden spoke in an unhurried tone, "Don't worry, it is nothing personal. I am just trying to understand what will happen if I kill you."

"You!" The earth mage jumped up from his seat and grabbed his collar, "Do you know what kind of situation… kuhk." The rest of the threat quickly turned into a painful groan. Clutching his chest, he collapsed on the floor with foam coming out of the mouth.

"What the heck are you doing?" The fire mage yelled at Aiden, with a human fist-size fireball forming in his hand.

Looking at the fireball, Aiden snickered, "Didn't you say that I can't use magic?" Aiden lifted his wrists to show that they were still bound by so-called mana-suppressing handcuffs, adding, "I didn't even move. He came over to me and grabbed my collar."

"YOU!" The fire mage wanted to curse Aiden, but what had happened in front of his eyes made no sense to him. "John, check the feed. Let me know if he's done something, and send some help, fast."

"If I find you have done something... You'll be..." Whether it was in rage or frustration, Aiden didn't know, but the fire mage couldn't bring an end to the sentence.

He pointed to a strip of light on the wall, adding, "See those photonic sensors. Even if you just flick a finger or move an eyebrow, it's going to record it. There's no way you can... What, John?"

John reported in the ear as he was trying to scare Aiden. "What?" He cried and glared at Aiden with a deep frown on his face. "There are mana detectors in the room right…"

As he yelled in revelation, he was quick to find four knob-like machines mounted on each wall. "Check it out. Check everything from the moment he entered the room."

No matter how much he yelled at the operator, the fire mage was calmer than Aiden had expected.

He maintained a safe distance between Aiden and him. Looking at his reaction, Aiden couldn't stop smiling, "So you are going to tell me who sent you here or not?"

"Does it look like a joke to you?" The fire mage frowned at first, but soon it turned into a grin, "but things are different now. You have dared to attack an on-duty mage, so we can now proceed with the punishment without your consent. Now then…"

"I have just one question." Ignoring the frown on the fire mage's face, Aiden said, "What if the thing that had attacked your fellow 'Special on-duty Mage' attacks everyone in the building?"

"There's a problem," Jhon reported inside the mage's ear, but looking at Aiden's serious face, the fire mage could not respond to it.

"You…" With his back wet with sweat, the fire mage stammered to complete the sentence. "Are you threatening me?" A fireball formed in his palm as the fire mage hurled it to Aiden without hesitation.

There was no way the fireball would miss the target at such proximity. When it hit, a smile appeared on the fire mage's face, "Do you even know where are you?"

Aiden's lack of response made his smile brighter, "Even if we kill you here, no one is going to find your corpse. There are very few people who know the existence of this underground laboratory in the entire… WHAT JOHN?"

The constant interruption from the other side of the communicator irritated him a lot. He cried, "What's the matter with you?"

The more he listened to John through the communicator, the darker his face got. "What do you mean by that? How does he not have mana inside his body? Even if he can't use mana, there should be mana residue in his body. Are you sure that the mana sensors are still working?"

He glared at Aiden, only to realize that there was no wound on Aiden's face. Even though he had controlled the strength of the fireball, there was no way that it couldn't leave a mark on his face.

"The sensors are all right. They can still detect the fire mana inside your body, but it couldn't sense any mana inside of him. It's like his body is hollow, and any mana that touches his skin has disappeared. The same thing happened with the fireball…"

While the rest of the explanations reached his ears, they made no sense to him. 'Even if the report informed me that the boy couldn't use mana, there is no way it should be like this…'

'It shouldn't be like this, even with mana suppressing handcuffs. What the hell is this guy?' Yet, when he looked at the smirk on Aiden's face, a flood of anger and irritation soon drowned the seed of fear.

"So, are you suggesting that even if something kills all of you in this underground facility…" Aiden glanced at the photonic sensor and said, "There won't be any consequences?"

*Boom*

A fire arrow slammed on Aiden's body and soon more followed. "You… How dare you threaten me? You can't even use mana."

As more and more fire mana gathered on his palm, he continued to hurl fire arrows at Aiden. "I am a Level 4 fire mage, and you…" He swung his hand again, yet no fire arrow formed in his hand.

The fire mage frowned as he tried to gather his mana in his hand. A few basic spells were nowhere near enough to put a strain on his mana reserve, yet he couldn't gather mana anymore, much less any mana arrows.

The fire mana, which originated from his mana heart, flowed through his mana channel as it was gathering on his palm.

However, every time it came out of his body, he could no longer control it. Before he could understand what he should do, something was extinguishing his mana.

"Hey, Kyle, something is wrong in the room." John's voice didn't sound too good, "there is mana interference in the room."

"What mana? Wind?" Kyle knew it might be the only answer. After all, Aiden was a wind-type mage.

"No. It does not look like wind mana." John wasn't too confident. "Not only the device can't identify it, it is jamming the feed as well. Something is also blocking the video feed."

Kyle was quick to turn around, only to find that a dense layer of snow was covering the photonic sensor.

"So, they couldn't see anything anymore." Aiden dropped the twisted hand-cuff on the table as he stood up.

"You…" Kyle tried to rally his mana to activate another spell, but to his dismay, he could no longer sense his mana. "What the hell are you doing? Do you know killing a mage captain…"

He tried to say something more, but his eyes bulged up. He touched his throat to free himself from something that was choking him.

He could see Aiden standing a few meters away from him, but he couldn't understand what was pressing down on his chest.

'Could it there really be some invisible monster with him?' The question in Kyle's mind remained unanswered as blood leaked out his eyes, nose, and ears. And in a matter of seconds, the lifeless body plopped on the ground.

"Oh!" The result pleasantly surprised Aiden. "so I can really draw the essence out a living being. That is fantastic."

"He was a very weak one circle beast." At times, Aiden felt that for some unexplained reason, Mraz was always jealous of Aiden's happiness, "If he was a little stronger, it wouldn't be that easy."

"Wait," Aiden couldn't care less about Mraz's jealously. "What do you mean he was a weak one circle beast? I don't think he had a mana circle." Aiden looked at the now-dead Kyle. He wasn't sure whether there is a way to check.

"Of course, he wasn't." Mraz spoke as if it were the most obvious thing, "There's no way that a primitive race like yours could have had such sophisticated knowledge."

"Then why did you call him a one-circle beast?"

"His mana quality was trash, but with the amount of mana, you can compare him to a weak one circle beast."

"A level 4 mage is just a one circle beast!" Aiden couldn't help but shook his head. He didn't even want to think about the future of those on the planet.

He walked over to the door and touched it.

'Even if it is half of meter thick, it is not conmetal.' And he poured an immense amount of ice mana into the door. As soon as a thick layer of ice covered the door and its joints, he punched.

*Boom*

Notification of [Zone] activation did not occur, but the sound of the punch resonated through the small room. He wasn't a Chenoo, though.

Hence, one punch was nowhere near enough. Aiden broke off the door with three punches. The half a meter thick door fell on the floor with a thunderous thud.

When he walked out of the room, the first thing that greeted him was a pair of ice wolves painted red with blood. The deep stench of blood didn't bother Aiden anymore. He looked at the pair, nodding, "Good job."

The ice wolves shattered as Aiden walked towards the door that leads outwards. But with each step, he released an enormous amount of mana freezing the floor, the walls, and the roof under a thick layer of ice.

By the time he reached the stairwell that led out, the dense blue ice had buried the entire corridor. Taking one last glance, Aiden left the palace without hesitation.