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.

a minor miscalculation, the whole plan could crumble at any time. And that, I couldn't

plan B, it wouldn't

of my brow, I spoke up after a

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

"...Okay."

"Good."

towards the panel, I double-checked the values to make sure

'Everything looks correct.'

of the values seemed out

goes the second

were no errors,

Di. Ding-

"Haa…. Done."

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

damage will the second beacon's loss do to the

deactivation

second beacon would have

proceeded to

front of me and I took a look

***

the same time, in Henolur's outer

second beacon

scream echoed the hymn of despair in the

faded, one of the lights in

had horrified looks on

"It's the second beacon!"

in the

Crack! Crack! Crack-

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

started expanding all over the

BANG-! BANG-!

side of the barrier, the demons attacked with greater ferocity. As

BANG-！

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."

edge of the barrier, Hein glanced

a crack forming over here! Quickly report

"Got it."

out a communication device from her

Ryan taking care of the logistics, they had asked her and the

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

*Twiit*

flapped its wings

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

"Good boy."

sent a message to Smallsnake and told him of

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

Click-

reported everything, turning off the communication device, Ava looked at

done with this site. Let's

"Okay."

Hein left the area with

***

much damage with just the second

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

plan had

weakening from the fourth beacon's deactivation, not the

something had gone terribly wrong

I now needed

"This is fucking annoying."

of course annoyed by the development. I

"What happened?"

asked from

scratched the back of my head

have less time

do you mean by

narrowing

tone, "I mean that we are going to start

say

but things have

going to span a month's period, just the right time to set everything up, but

sat back on my chair and texted Waylan

dampener removed, I could now freely text whomever I