Missing

"Stand back!" Kara commanded, her imposing mutant blade leveled at Silas's throat. Silas swallowed hard, his feet halting abruptly as he instinctively raised his hands above his head.

He recognized the faces of the group that had just arrived.

The woman standing before him was Kara. She was a Grade 5 wind ability user and held a prestigious position at the academy, which garnered her immense respect from both students and faculty.

But if they were from the academy, why were they brandishing weapons at him?

"Um… Mrs. Kara, I'm Silas Griswold, a student from the Arc 3 mutant academy. I'm not a mutant," Silas stammered, finally mustering the courage to speak.

"I'm well aware of who you are, Silas. Your uniform alone is enough to indicate you're a student of the Arc 3 mutant academy," Kara responded, her voice crisp and unwavering.

"Then why the weapons?" Silas asked, his tone tinged with confusion.

"The academy's radar has shown that the entire squad sent here has been eliminated. We were tracking them through their skill slots, but now they're all inactive—meaning they're dead," Kara declared, her voice resonating with authority. "All of them, except you, Silas."

Silas's heart thudded against his chest at her words, and he strained to maintain a composed expression, desperately hoping to avoid suspicion.

If the academy discovered that he had killed the entire squad, it would raise questions, and eventually, he'd be in serious trouble.

"I have no idea what happened. I guess I'm just lucky," he muttered, after a long pause.

"Lucky?" Kara echoed with an arched brow, shifting her gaze toward the two men standing behind her. "You two—go and retrieve the bodies of our fallen comrades. Move swiftly; we've got less than five minutes before this place collapses," she ordered.

The duo responded with synchronized nods before speeding off, their movement leaving a faint trail of red lightning behind them.

Within seconds, they reached the dimly lit chamber and began their search without hesitation.

"My God," one of them gasped, his eyes widening in shock as he spotted Aisha's lifeless body lying in a pool of blood, with two severed heads lying beside her.

The chamber was drenched in blood, bodies strewn haphazardly across the floor. Debris and fallen pillars cluttered the space, and more debris continued to fall as the chamber collapsed further.

"What in the world happened here?" the second staff member, larger and more muscular than his companion, muttered as he knelt beside David's body to examine it.

"Do you think the god of this realm was responsible?" he asked, his eyes lingering on both the corpse of the mutant and the bodies of their fallen comrades.

"They had enough strength to defeat the mutant had they fought together. Furthermore, the mutant's blood is still fresh, while the blood of our comrades has long since dried. It's clear they died far before the mutant," the smaller staff member explained, his voice echoing eerily throughout the chamber.

"This is puzzling. If they were indeed killed by the god of the realm, then who, or what, killed the mutant? The last I checked, the god of the realm is the most powerful mutant in any mutant realm, so we can't assume another mutant did it," the smaller staff member articulated, his tone reflecting the gravity of the situation.

"We don't have the luxury of time to figure this out. I'll carve out the valuable body parts from the dead mutant. You take our comrades' bodies back to the academy," the muscular staff member instructed, producing a knife and beginning to slice off the mutant's vicious claws.

Woosh! 

Woosh! 

Woosh!

As he worked meticulously, extracting the mutant's valuable parts, the other staff member swiftly transported their fallen comrades' bodies back to the academy. Within moments, he had secured the bodies, and the muscular man finished carving out the necessary body parts.

He packed the items into his bag before speeding out of the crumbling chamber.

Woosh!

He returned to the spot where he had left Kara and Silas. Kara was still holding her blade at Silas, who remained frozen in place, his hands in the air, his uniform now soaked in sweat.

"All done, Mrs. Kara. I've retrieved all the body parts," the man whispered into her ear.

"And what of the artifact? Did you find it?" Kara inquired in a low tone, careful not to let the young boy overhear.

"There wasn't enough time to search the entire chamber. However, our advanced tracker couldn't detect its raw energy anymore. It appears the artifact has already been taken," the man whispered back, and Kara's eyes widened slightly in disbelief.

'Who could have claimed it?' she wondered, her eyes drifting back to Silas.

She stared at him for several moments before finally lowering her blade.

"Let's move. We need to get out of here," Kara commanded, gesturing for Silas to step forward.

Silas hesitated briefly, then began walking toward the portal and leaped through. The moment he entered, he disappeared from sight.

The muscular staff member also stepped through the portal, vanishing from the realm. Kara, however, remained, scanning the surrounding area with a watchful eye.

'The entire squad is dead, and yet the artifact is missing?' she mused, her eyes narrowing as she scrutinized the dimly lit chamber.

'Who could have taken it? Whoever did must have awakened the power of the Apex Mutant.'

'Could it have been Silas Griswold? He's the sole survivor, while the others perished. If the artifact is gone, then surely he's the one who took it and harnessed its power. And yet, the way he looked, the fear in his eyes—it's hard to believe he could have awakened the most powerful ability in mutant history.'

'Or maybe he did and he's pretending to be scared. I'll have to question him and also keep a close eye on him. If truly he awakened the ability then he has the power to wipe out the entire continent.'

Kara pondered internally before stepping into the portal and vanishing.