The Author's POV

339 Setting the pieces in motion (3]

"...That took way too long."

I muttered wearily, taking my eyes away from the panel in front of me.

It has been about a week ever since I infiltrated the place, and so far, everything was progressing smoothly.

Well, sort of.

The deactivation of the second beacon took a lot longer than my initial expectations.

Compared to the first beacon, the process was a lot different.

The whole process was coded in a completely different manner compared to the first beacon, making it almost impossible for me to complete it quickly.

Any wrong step and I would end up locking the whole system.

Furthermore, the panel I was currently using was less advanced than the one I previously used when deactivating the first beacon.

With those factors added together, the whole process took a lot longer than originally anticipated.

Fortunately, using the excuse that Jomnuk's memories were too jumbled up and that I needed to reorganize them properly, I managed to placate some of the impatient elders.

It wasn't easy, but given my previous performance, they let it slide.

It had to be noted that they were all individuals whose minds were corrupted by demonic energy, so the fact that I managed to calm them down was a miracle in itself.

"Are you done?"

A cold voice reached my ears. It was Angelica.

"Yeah, I'm pretty much done."

Before I knew it, Angelica was standing next to me, looking at the panel in confusion.

Seeing the confusion on her face as she looked at the panel, I shook my head at her.

"Don't bother trying to understand it, even I don't know what I did. I won't be able to explain even if you asked."

I only did what the instructions told me to do.

I had no real idea of what I was doing.

Had I known what I was doing, then perhaps I would've completed it at a much faster pace.

"I see..."

Relaxing her brows, Angelica proceeded to move towards where Tomnuk was.

Standing next to him, she put her hand on the helmet and asked, "What should we do with him?"

"Him?… Good question."

Turning around and staring at Karl, I frowned.

"Also, don't touch that. I don't know what that thing does."

It was a fact that I couldn't kill him.

If he died, then everyone would know that I wasn't the real Karl. After all, the demon that he was contracted with would definitely report back.

That was part of why I didn't want Angelica to touch the helmet. If something happened to Karl, then everything would come crashing down.

"Okay."

Fortunately, Angelica understood that. She removed her hand from the helmet.

"Thanks."

Thanking Angelica, I turned my attention back towards Karl.

'Could I use him to my advantage?" I pondered.

So far, the plan that I set up was perfect. At least, that's how it seemed to me.

But I knew better than anyone else that no plan was ever perfect.

Even if there were no apparent flaws in a plan, anything could ruin it at any time. There were too many unknown variables to account for, especially in my situation.

the whole plan

wouldn't hurt to come up with a plan

middle of my brow, I spoke up after

for now. I'll figure something out while I'm at

"...Okay."

"Good."

the panel, I double-checked the values to make sure that nothing was

'Everything looks correct.'

values seemed out

the second

made sure that there were no

Di. Ding-

"Haa…. Done."

I pressed on the keyboard and initiated the deactivation of the second beacon, leaning back on my chair, I closed my eyes for a brief

will the second beacon's

deactivation weakened

second beacon would have

proceeded to

video images appeared in front of me and I took a look

***

time, in

second beacon

of despair in the hearts of all

as those words faded, one of the lights in the sky started to fade away before

scene firsthand had horrified looks on their faces as they vividly

"It's the second beacon!"

the

Crack! Crack! Crack-

couldn't get any worse, enormous cracks started to appear on the surface

the cracks slowly started expanding all

BANG-! BANG-!

cracks formed continuously, on the other side of the barrier, the demons attacked with greater ferocity. As they attacked,

BANG-！

it looked as though the attacks were working as the earth shook and the blasts were no longer

"Over here."

at the very bottom, right at the edge of the barrier, Hein glanced behind him and pointed towards a small

crack forming over here! Quickly report this

"Got it."

replied and took out a communication device from her dimensional

they had asked her and the

communication device, turning her head right, towards Newton, she ordered, "Newton, go check if there are any more

*Twiit*

its wings and flew in

couple of seconds, it was already high up in the air, searching for any possible cracks

"Good boy."

a message to Smallsnake and told him of

So far, the crack looks small. but it appears as though it is increasing in

Click-

everything, turning off the communication device, Ava looked at

Let's

"Okay."

Hein left the area

***

damage with just

the barrier to weaken that much, just from two of its beacons not working, it

had to be

had expected this type of weakening from the fourth

by just losing two beacons, something had gone terribly wrong with my plans and

needed to operate at a faster

"This is fucking annoying."

of course annoyed by the development. I couldn't

"What happened?"

from

her, I scratched the back of

looks like we have less time than

do you

narrowing

in an exasperated tone, "I mean that we are going to start moving

didn't you say that

right, but things have

a month's period, just the right time to set everything up, but it looked like I

sat back on my

I could now