Invasion

Soon after Quare and Lia have finished their pudding, Quare wrapped her arms around Lia loosely. Quare did not notice earlier, but she smelled a unique scent coming from Lia. It was a sweet fragrance mixed with a bit of citric smell. It was a soothing yet energizing scent.

Snapping back to reality, Quare asked Lia a question.

“By the way, Lia, shouldn't you be with big brother Dright? Why are you with Raven-senpai?”

Quare's question caught Raven off guard, though she had expected that coming.

Lia did not answer. She was just quietly staring in a straight position, gazing at Rheyya, who was sitting at the opposite side of the table.

“What..?” Rheyya asked.

Lia did not answer. She was only staring at Rheyya, or more like, Lia was staring at the glass of unfinished juice that Rheyya was drinking. Seeing this, Raven answered instead.

“About that, the headmaster had Dright do something for him, so he entrusted me with Lia since I was nearby when the headmaster gave Dright his task.”

“I see,” Quare responded.

“And since I had free time, I asked Lia for a stroll, and she told me that she wanted to see you first. And now, here we are.” Raven continued. She no longer asked how Quare knew Lia, knowing that she and Dright live together and that Lia stayed the night in their house. Some of what she said were lies, but some were also true.

Meanwhile, with Rheyya. She had already noticed that Lia was not staring at her but the juice, so she offered her some.

“Would you like some??” Rheyya asked while emphasizing the glass of juice. Lia nodded twice. Upon confirming, a small panel with menu items appeared at Rheyya’s side. She tapped several icons, and finally, a drone, carrying a full glass of juice similar to what Rheyya's, came and delivered it to Lia. Upon receiving the glass of juice, Lia glanced at Rheyya as if asking for permission. Rheyya smiled.

“Go ahead.” She said while gesturing with her hand. Thus, Lia expressed the same expression as she had when she ate the pudding.

. . .

Meanwhile, with Dright

Dright was still inside the security agency, OCEDA, tweaking some features and upgrading them while he was at it.

“I’m thirsty…” Dright said, then opened his storage and took out a bottle of soda. He opened it, but as he was about to put the lid of the bottle to his lips, Ceda’s screen suddenly started blinking yellow, and an alarming sound echoed inside the room. Dright sighed upon hearing it. He took a look at the screen, which now displays the map of the city, and saw a small warning icon located near Royal Chaos Academy.

“Zoom in, Ceda,” Dright ordered. The screen now shows the view that one of the surveillance cameras in front of Royal Chaos Academy on a bird’s eye view. There was a person whose back was seen on the screen, wearing a hoodie with his face covered with it. He was walking weirdly, like he does not have any energy, and stopped in front of the Academy’s Gate.

“… That guy. I think I’ve seen him before.” Dright thought.

“Ceda, try to get a glimpse of that person’s face.”

Hearing this, the top side of the surveillance camera opened, and a small camera drone flew out of that opening. It flew several meters behind the Academy’s gate, which the person was facing, and it zoomed in to get a closer view of his face.

“Tsk…” Dright clicked his tongue. What he saw was something he didn't want to see. The person’s face had several crack-looking scars, and one of his eyes looked like the eye of a bug type Oblivoid. His face had a mindless expression. Only one organization is capable of committing such horrendous acts as human modifications, the Grimmer. Now Dright knows why he looked familiar. He looked like one of the failed test subjects when he found Lia, trapped inside a capsule.

“WARNING MULTIPLE READINGS OF SIMILAR CREATURES DETECTED..." Ceda warned with its screen blinking in red light. There were eight additional readings on the screen. Two locations are marked near the defense agency, one more addition to the academy's gates, and the other five were scattered within the area.

"Tsk... this is turning into a real mess..."

"Ceda, register these people as C-rank threat and sound the alarm across the city. Also, notify father of the situation as soon as possible." Dright issued his commands to Ceda, and it performed so remarkably fast.

Dright opened his portals afterward and prepared to confront the two readings near the agency. Dimension gates appeared above his toes on each side and moved downwards. The shoes that Dright previously wore were replaced by a pair of white leather shoes. Some parts of the shoes became sharper, and few sharp edges emerged, and its texture turned into that of a scale's.

"I'll be counting on you today, Draconius," Dright whispered and opened a portal that leads towards the two readings near the agency. Draconius is the name of the Shoe type Zed that Dright wore. It can grant its users the ability of a Draconian Lizard, a white-colored Oblivoid with scales. Its scales are possibly harder than steel and are very reflexive and fast, making it difficult to kill. T

The Draconius can make its users grow scales on different parts of their bodies at their own will but to some extent. The higher the compatibility the user has with the Zed, the higher the potency of it, making it also possible to have a full-body armor of it. A Haulus has its compatibility base at 70% on all Zeds until 100% and beyond. Other people, including the Blessed, can be compatible as low as 0% and as high as 70%.

"Understood..." Ceda reported before Dright entered his portal and landed near his two enemies. "Now then..."

Dright analyzed his enemies who have now garnered their attention. One of them had the head of a Crow type Oblivoid, Crowzer, with its hands turned into claws of the said Oblivoid. It has a black, long, and thick tail with the tip shaped like an arrow, which seemed to be belonging to that of a hound type Oblivoid, Cerbera.

The other one retained his facial features when he was still human. Giant bone-like spikes grew out from his back, legs, and wrists, which belonged to a Porcupine type Oblivoid, Hogspike. His sclera had the color of red with enlarged veins connected to it as if he was already far beyond insanity.

Both of them had the expression of madness. Saliva kept flowing down of their mouths like mad, rabid dogs. The Crowzer kept twisting its head into postures impossible for normal humans. The Hogspike person, on the other hand, seemed to have something it wanted to say, but it could not speak a proper word out of its mouth. Their eyes were empty, but at the same time, the genes of an Oblivoid took effect, dictating their instincts to attack Dright.

"GUGH! GAAAAAAHHHH!!!" Two of them released cries of despair as they charged towards Dright mindlessly at once, which Dright dodged swiftly by jumping high enough in line with the sun. The two's gazes followed Dright, flashing both of them. What he did should have blinded the two, immobilizing them, even if they were currently berserk. But to his surprise, even if Dright's enemies' eyes were closed, the Crowzer accurately jumped straight towards Dright.

Dright's eyes widened but countered by creating a portal in front of him and to the ground, causing the Crowzer to crash headfirst, face up and squirming from the pain. Afterward, Dright readied his knee by transforming it whole into a hard scale, opened another portal just below him, and another one above his squirming enemy.

"Don't worry. This won't kill you." He whispered as Gravity pulled him to his portal and landed a knee kick on the Crowzer's stomach, which cracked some of its ribs.

"KUGH!" the Crowzer cried before it lost its consciousness.

Dright noticed that there was a metallic collar on the Crowzer's neck. It had a red circular gem in the middle with fading red light. One moment passed, and the light completely disappeared.

"GRRAAAGH!!" Dright couldn't analyze the gem any longer as he was interrupted by his other enemy, who charged straight at him with its eyes were closed, accurately. Dright dodged again by stepping sideways and formulated a quick theory. "Let me try some testing..." he thought as he took out one of his Handguns and pointed it towards the Hogspike person, who crashed itself into one of the walls of the facilities. After recovering, the Hogspike person charged straight towards Dright again. Like the Crowzer, he also had a Red Gem attached to a collar on his neck. Dright timed the moment and fired his gun the moment his enemy did a stance, accurately destroying the gem.

The gem shattered, but the Hogspike showed no sign of stopping. Dright dodged again by sidestepping. The Hogspike crashed again into another facility wall. Dright watched, and it looked like the Hogspike was now blindly swinging its spiked wrists in hopes of hitting something while letting out battle cries. It also tried to find Dright, but it couldn't. The Blindness it got from the sun's flash was now in effect, which gave Dright the idea, "It seems that gem serves as a controller... and an eye..."

Dright threw away his gun towards his storage and used his portal to teleport in front of the Hogspike person, hardened his fists with the scales from Draconius, and threw a jab followed by an uppercut. Dright did not let it rest and gave two more consecutive straight punches to his enemy's body. Ending his combo with a roundhouse kick, knocking it down and landing with its spiky bones, piercing the ground, making it unable to move like a turtle laying faced up.

Dright approached it in hopes of further analyzing it but stopped when he heard a weak voice.

"Pl...ease... save... me... kill... me... end... my... suffe...ring..."