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.

or even a minor miscalculation, the whole plan

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

the middle of my brow, I spoke up after a

him be for now. I'll figure something out

"...Okay."

"Good."

panel, I double-checked the values

'Everything looks correct.'

of the values seemed out

goes the

checked and made sure that there were no errors, I pressed onto the

Di. Ding-

"Haa…. Done."

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

Just how much damage will the second

first beacon's deactivation weakened

the second beacon would have

eyes, I then proceeded to

appeared in front of me and I took a look at

***

the same time, in

second beacon is

panicked scream echoed the hymn of despair in the hearts

those words faded, one of the lights in the sky started to fade away before

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

"It's the second beacon!"

almighty, what in the world is

Crack! Crack! Crack-

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

long, the cracks slowly started expanding all over the barrier's

BANG-! BANG-!

demons attacked with greater ferocity.

BANG-！

shook and the blasts were no longer getting dispersed like they used to before. Even the barrier seemed to shake in the

"Over here."

at the very bottom, right at the edge of the barrier, Hein glanced behind

here! Quickly report this to

"Got it."

out a communication device

the others to report to them whenever they saw a

Newton,

*Twiit*

flapped its wings and flew in

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

"Good boy."

shoulder, Ava quickly sent a message to Smallsnake and told him of her

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

Click-

turning off the communication device, Ava looked at

with this site. Let's go look for more

"Okay."

left the area

***

much damage with

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

had

had expected this type of weakening from the fourth beacon's deactivation, not

losing two beacons, something had gone terribly wrong with my plans and

I now needed

"This is fucking annoying."

the development. I couldn't help but curse

"What happened?"

from the

to glance at her, I scratched the back

like we have less time than I had

you mean

asked, narrowing

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

But, didn't you say that

but things

month's period, just the right time to set everything up, but it looked like I was

back on my chair and texted

could now