Chapter 381: Shield Cross Stars (2/2)

Aliard fell into despair as he felt his memories being eaten away at. No matter how hard he fought back, Leonel's mind was like a violent swarm.

[Mind Search] was a truly sinister technique. A more accurate title would most definitely be [Mind Swallow].

To say that one was searching was completely inaccurate. The truth of what Leonel was doing was ingesting all the memories that were useful to him and discarding all those that weren't.

Due to the style of the technique, Leonel had to build a bridge between his mind and Aliard's. This meant that when he found a memory to be useless, rather than it remaining with Aliard, it dissipated along the bridge, leaving Aliard with nothing.

If the two of their minds have been of similar strength, this bridge would cause a tug of war to erupt. However, Leonel's mind was so much stronger than Aliard's that it was nothing but child's play.

Aliard's helplessness soon became dullness, then was replaced by a complete vacancy as he fell over, drool leaking from the side of his mouth.

Leonel didn't spare the brain-dead man a single glance. He closed his eyes, organizing and sifting through everything he had just learned.

The first thing he realized was that Aliard didn't know much. However, this much was to be expected, he should have been fairly low on the totem pole. Still, for an organization that just expected Leonel to hand over all evidence of their crimes, they didn't take many precautions either.

Finally, Leonel learned of the name of the organization he was dealing with. The name that so many avoided speaking of.

Shield Cross Stars.

It was only now Leonel understood how unlucky he was. This so-called Shield Cross Stars organization was actually a police force of the universe. Its duty was to protect the safety and humanitarian rights of beasts and humanoids across the worlds.

The main issue here was that Leonel had never expected that the same organization he had slighted by not handing in evidence of their wrongdoing was the very same organization that happened to brand him as a fugitive worth monitoring.

Was it just a coincidence? Or had they targeted him on purpose?

From Leonel's analysis, he was fairly certain that it truly was a coincidence. But, if he was correct, just how unlucky was he? Now, an organization that had it out for him also knew his location at all times?

”… Fuck.”

Leonel stood, his jaw becoming steely.

He wasn't safe here. He had to find a way back to Earth as quickly as possible. Since there wasn't a branch of SCS there just yet, it would be more difficult for them to cause problems for him.

The issue was… how?

Entering another Zone would be difficult. Using teleportation platforms was probably another no go…

'I'll find Aina first then think of what to do…' Leonel sighed.

He felt as though a guillotine was hanging over his head. However, at least he was aware of its existence now. Not only this, but he had become aware of many other things…

**

The days quickly flew by. Soon, Leonel would have no choice but to join everyone else within the Central Tower.

That morning, with just a few hours left until the timer would hit zero, a shadowy figure slowly stalked toward the Central Tower.

A prominent hunched back was the first thing anyone caught sight of. As for the rest, it was shrouded in black.

By now, everyone knew that this was the Sword Monstress, the very woman who caused the commotion at the Northern Gate.