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.

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

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

the middle of my brow, I spoke up after a

I'll figure something

"...Okay."

"Good."

the panel, I double-checked the values to make

'Everything looks correct.'

values seemed out

the second

I checked and made sure that there were no errors, I

Di. Ding-

"Haa…. Done."

I pressed on the keyboard and initiated the deactivation of the second beacon, leaning

damage will the second beacon's loss

first beacon's deactivation weakened

the second beacon would have

proceeded to tap on the

images appeared in front of me and I took a look at the

***

same time, in Henolur's

second beacon

echoed the hymn of despair in the hearts of all

of the lights in

who were standing below and witnessed the scene firsthand had horrified looks on their faces as they vividly watched the barrier

"It's the second beacon!"

almighty, what in the

Crack! Crack! Crack-

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

cracks slowly started expanding all over

BANG-! BANG-!

formed continuously, on the other side of the barrier, the demons attacked with

BANG-！

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

"Over here."

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

crack forming over here! Quickly report this to

"Got it."

and took out a

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

communication device, turning her head right, towards Newton, she ordered,

*Twiit*

flapped its wings and flew in

high up in the

"Good boy."

shoulder, Ava quickly sent a message to Smallsnake and told

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

Click-

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

this site. Let's go

"Okay."

the

***

damage with just the second

much, just from two of its beacons not working, it seemed like

plan had to

weakening from the fourth beacon's deactivation, not the

two beacons, something had gone terribly wrong with my

I now needed to operate at a faster

"This is fucking annoying."

development.

"What happened?"

asked from

I scratched the back of my

it looks like we have less time than I had

you mean

asked, narrowing

exasperated tone, "I mean that we are going

didn't you say that you needed a

but things

originally going to span a month's period, just

device, I sat back on my chair and texted Waylan and the

could