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.

even a minor miscalculation, the whole plan could crumble at any time. And that, I

had a plan B, it wouldn't hurt to come up with a plan

the middle of my brow, I spoke up after a

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

"...Okay."

"Good."

my attention back towards the panel, I double-checked the values to make

'Everything looks correct.'

values seemed

goes the second

I checked and made sure that there were no errors,

Di. Ding-

"Haa…. Done."

keyboard and initiated the deactivation of the second beacon, leaning back

how much damage will the second beacon's loss do to the

beacon's deactivation weakened the

would have a

proceeded to tap on

images appeared in front of me and I took a look

***

same time, in

second beacon

echoed the hymn of despair in the

of the lights in the sky started to fade

scene firsthand had horrified looks on their

"It's the second beacon!"

in the world is

Crack! Crack! Crack-

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

the cracks slowly started expanding

BANG-! BANG-!

other side of the barrier, the demons attacked with greater ferocity. As they attacked, they had bloodthirsty,

BANG-！

though the attacks were working as the earth shook and the blasts were no longer getting dispersed like they used to before. Even the barrier seemed to shake in the face of

"Over here."

barrier, Hein glanced behind him and pointed towards a small crack forming on the

over here! Quickly report this to

"Got it."

and took out a communication

and the others to report to

she was taking out her communication device, turning her head right, towards Newton, she ordered,

*Twiit*

its wings and

already high up in the air,

"Good boy."

her shoulder, Ava quickly sent a message to Smallsnake

that I'm currently in. So far, the crack looks small. but it appears as though

Click-

the

site. Let's

"Okay."

Hein left the

***

damage with just the

its beacons

plan had to

expected this type of weakening from the fourth beacon's deactivation,

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

but I now needed to operate at

"This is fucking annoying."

of course annoyed by the development. I couldn't help but curse out

"What happened?"

from the

at her, I scratched

it looks like we have

you

narrowing her

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

you say that you needed

right, but

originally going to span a month's period, just the right time to set

out a small communication device, I sat back on my chair and texted Waylan and

I could now freely text whomever I