CONFLICTS IN THE SHADOWS

*****

First Awakened Power____ S.E.[N.S.E] [Locked]

E_Unlocked: Eyes [Passive] [Cost: NIL]

**I can see!!! Lv-1

*Enhanced Vision

*Weakness Finder

*Thermal Vision

Second Awakened Power____ S.E.[N.S.E] [Locked]

E_Unlocked: Energy Drain Lv-1 [Active] [Cost: 20 Stamina]

**Touch the target to drain their energy by 40%

**Host can absorb 10% of the drained energy

**Host can convert excess energy to Stamina

**Stamina regain increased (5 energy/2 seconds)

*****

"Arrrrrgggg!!!!"

Ace screamed. He was feeling immense pain as his body was going through an evolution. He felt as if someone was continuously piercing his body with needles. Every cell within his body was going through a massive change. And due to his weak physique, the amount of pain has doubled.

[Wooosh] Waves of white flames and lightning emerged from Ace's body, destroying the entire medical facility as his body flew higher in the sky. The white flames painted the night sky bright. One can easily mistake it for a bright day.

Everyone cleared out of the medical facility in a hurry. They were standing at a distance, looking at the shining white flames radiating from Ace's body.

"There goes another mansion," Jaxon muttered, seeing half of the mansion turned to dust, "What's his level? You can see it, right?" He asked Irina.

"It's hard to explain..."

"He has no level like us... His energy is like a vast ocean... No!!! To be more precise, it's like the endless sky. I can't see the end..."

"It's magnificent... Truly Limitless..."

Irina replied in astonishment. Her eyes were glowing with the usual pale blue hue.

She felt as if she would drown in an endless abyss of flames and lightning as he peeked into Ace's power. She was trembling and smiling in excitement. As a scientist, her curiosity about the unknown was growing faster. She was barely holding herself back from performing experiments on Ace's body.

"You alright?" Trisa grabbed Jin's palm tightly.

"Yeah, I am better than ever... I was just thinking. How do we face him after what we have done? We shouldn't have done that," Jin said in a sad voice, thinking back to when everyone forced Ace to the corner.

"That's the only way... Had he tried to kill anyone, we would have gotten our answer about which future we are heading to. But now, with his choice, a fourth timeline has begun..."

"Just like that voice said... Nothing is certain, and no one can change the future..."

Irina said, remembering the things she saw and heard in her visions. She felt a little shiver on her skin as those weren't exactly fun memories.

"We will work this out together. While working day and night, we... somewhere lost our way with all these conflicts around... He showed us our mistakes..."

"We used him as that no one can deny... We can not change the past, but let's work together to rectify that..."

Jaxon said with a sad expression. But, he made up his mind to let Ace do whatever he wanted after explaining everything to him. He had faith in Ace and knew that he would understand their reasoning.

[Sizzzle] [Crackle] The energy waves stopped, and the white lightning was still sparking over Ace's body. Two shining white flames wings appeared on his back.

[Booom] He fell to the ground with a loud bang, "Hufff... It's over... Hufff. Hufff..." He mumbled to himself. The piercing pain finally subsided, and he successfully evolved to the second phase of his powers.

*****

[System]

[Congratulations on unlocking the second phase. But, you are too weak and need proper training to utilize your powers to their maximum limit.]

[As you have seen earlier... Even though your mental strength is strong, your weak body nearly crumbled under pressure. Your power overflowed, and you almost fell into the darkness.]

[You must be ready for the third phase because if you don't improve your physical condition, then you won't be able to withstand it, not even with your God's Favor.]

[...You will die...]

*****

"Phewww!!!"

"I know... You don't have to rub salt on my wounds. I am glad that dad and everyone were alright..."

Ace took a deep breath and then sighed after hearing System's robotic voice inside his head. Since his vision was enhanced, he noticed that everyone was healed up, and they were running toward him. He was relieved to know everyone was safe.

"Aaaahaaa," Ace yawned.

"Finally, some peace..."

His eyelids became a little heavy. The cold wind made him a little sleepy. He wanted to stay there for a moment and look at the stars without doing or thinking about anything.

"It's been too long," He thought.

He can't remember the last time he looked at the sparkling stars in the night sky. He was too busy running from death in the past life to enjoy the serenity, and the present life's disability didn't allow him the liberty to stay out late at night.

"Is he sleeping?" Jin said in a low voice, seeing Ace sleeping soundly without any worries, "Shhh!!! Let him be... Let him remain lost in his happy dreams for now..." He swept his hand in the air, summoning a thin Aura barrier around his son. He was relieved to see Ace break through safely without any injuries.

Trisa and Jin sat beside their son in each other's arms.

"What are you looking at? Let them be..."

"We need to think about a way to handle all those swarming reporters and other countries that set their eyes on Ace... It's going to be a mess..."

"And we have to deal with Ivan and his country... What a headache..."

Clare pulled Jaxon by his collar and began to walk toward the mansion. While Irina made her way toward the outer safehouse to look after his injured people.

[Location: Unknown]

Ten people wearing the same masks have gathered around a round table. The surroundings were too dark to see the background, and a small crystal in the middle of the table was illuminating the area dimly.

They were looking at the video, playing on the tablets before them. It has been ten times since they replayed the same video, over and over again. It was when Ace stopped Ivan's explosions, reverting back everything to normal, and his fight with his family.

"Our spy has sent this footage to us today... Another monster has awakened after almost 50 years. And his power is enough to threaten us superhumans. First those Players and now him... Haaa," One of them sighed, holding his head.

"Power to control over time... This is the most absurd power we have witnessed in our lifetime..." One of them spoke. From the voice, it looked like they were using a voice modifier to hide their real voice.

"The Silver World... The land of the monsters. Aiming for that kid is equal to suicide..." Another one spoke.

"Clare, Jaxon, and then there is that lunatic sword wielder girl from the Croft family. Before we intrude, we must find out if the Crofts are involved with them... This is so frustrating," One of them said and slammed his fist on the table.

"We lack the power to mess with the Croft family... That old freak is still alive, and he is stronger than ever... Damn those first generations monsters," Another one yelled in anger. A wave of bloodlust swept through the room.

"Then it's decided..."

"Although we lack the power... We don't lack wealth..."

"We will fight lunatics with lunatics... We will get him at any cost..."

"I have already pinged them for the job... The Night Walkers..."

Another one spoke. From the conversation, it looked like that person was their leader.

[The Night Walkers: An Assassin organization that takes any contract at a certain price. They don't accept dungeon crystals as their reward, but something equal to the value of the target. No one knows their location or identities as they converse through small-time thugs or associations. Once they take on the contract, they will finish it at any cost. But, if they find the contractor missed details about the target intentionally, then the contractor's head rolls on the ground.]

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