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 could crumble at

B, it wouldn't hurt to come up with

middle of my brow, I spoke up after

be for now. I'll figure something

"...Okay."

"Good."

my attention back towards the panel, I double-checked the

'Everything looks correct.'

of the values seemed out of

goes the

and made sure that there were

Di. Ding-

"Haa…. Done."

the deactivation of the second beacon, leaning back on

wonder… Just how much damage will the second beacon's loss do

beacon's deactivation

beacon would have a

then proceeded to tap on

long, video images appeared in front of me

***

same time, in Henolur's

beacon is

panicked scream echoed the hymn of despair in

faded, one of the lights in the sky started

the scene firsthand had horrified looks on

"It's the second beacon!"

the world

Crack! Crack! Crack-

looked like things couldn't get any worse, enormous cracks started to appear on the

long, the cracks slowly started expanding all over the

BANG-! BANG-!

demons attacked with greater ferocity. As they attacked, they had bloodthirsty, savage expressions

BANG-！

and the blasts were no longer getting dispersed like they used to before. Even

"Over here."

at the edge of the barrier, Hein glanced behind him and pointed

forming over here!

"Got it."

solemnly replied and took out a communication

they had asked her and the others to report to them whenever they saw

taking out her communication device, turning her head right, towards Newton, she ordered, "Newton, go check

*Twiit*

Newton flapped its wings

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

"Good boy."

a message to

currently in. So far, the crack looks small. but it appears as though it is increasing in size, although very slowly. I've sent you the coordinates already. Check it

Click-

the communication

this site. Let's

"Okay."

Hein left the

***

much damage with

weaken that much, just from two of its

plan had to

weakening from

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

by much, but I now needed to operate at a

"This is fucking annoying."

the development. I couldn't help but

"What happened?"

from the

I scratched the back of my

like we have less time

you mean

asked, narrowing

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

But, didn't you say that you needed

but things have

like Angelica said, the plan was originally going to span a month's period, just the right time to set everything

a small communication device, I sat back on my

the dampener removed, I could now