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

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

my brow, I spoke

now. I'll figure

"...Okay."

"Good."

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

'Everything looks correct.'

the values

goes the

sure that there were no errors, I pressed onto

Di. Ding-

"Haa…. Done."

beacon, leaning back on my chair, I closed my eyes for

much damage will the second beacon's

first beacon's deactivation

the second beacon would have a

then proceeded to tap on the

video images appeared in front of me and I took

***

the same time, in Henolur's outer

beacon

panicked scream echoed the hymn of despair

in the sky started to fade away before

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

"It's the second beacon!"

in the world

Crack! Crack! Crack-

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

cracks slowly started expanding all

BANG-! BANG-!

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

BANG-！

it looked as 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

"Over here."

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

over here! Quickly

"Got it."

and took out a

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

turning her head right, towards Newton, she ordered, "Newton, go check

*Twiit*

flapped its wings

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

"Good boy."

Newton flow off her shoulder, Ava quickly sent a message to Smallsnake and told

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 out when

Click-

turning off the

this site. Let's go

"Okay."

left the area with

***

much damage with just the

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

had to be

of weakening from

two beacons, something had gone terribly

needed to operate at a faster

"This is fucking annoying."

of course annoyed by the development. I couldn't

"What happened?"

from

at her, I scratched the

it looks like we have less time

you

narrowing her

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

But, didn't you say that

but things

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

back on

could