Chapter 539 - Follow (1/2)

Leonel woke from another long sleep, his body still aching. In truth, he wanted to go back to bed again, but he didn't have the luxury.

This time, he didn't find Aina by his side. But, with a single sweep of his Internal Sight, he was able to spot her in the gardens of the Abode Setting, diligently swinging her sword.

Beads of sweat fell from her brow, following the slope of her cheeks and nose. For whatever reason, she had chosen to take off her mask at this moment. But, knowing her, Leonel didn't need to think very hard to come up with a few reasons.

Whether it be to help her training or to be a constant reminder, either one was a safe bet.

Leonel sighed but didn't say anything or interrupt her.

Wincing, he pushed himself up, finally turning his attention to the world outside. Since he had lost consciousness, he had no idea where he was. Honestly, he had just trusted Aina to put the Segmented Cube in a safe place and hadn't checked until now.

'So we're still here.'

Leonel nodded to himself. Staying near Dark Cloud Prison made sense.

In the final moments, in order to stop the escape of more prisoners, Escobar had ordered the sealing of the prison. So, currently, where there had once been a hexagonal prison, there was nothing but the flat ground that had swallowed it.

However, this wasn't a long term solution. The Prison needed to be repaired and the prisoners that remained needed to be properly quartered and dealt with.

Beyond this, there was also the matter of the already escaped prisoners. Though they all wore wrist watches, without technology, it was difficult to make use of this.

On top of this, Leonel had a feeling that the main goal of Terrain had been the prisoners. As for what they wanted them for, it was hard to tell if it was as simple as wanting Fifth Generation existences of Earth or if there was a deeper matter.

There was the possibility that they simply wanted to make use of Earth's talents. Terrain lacked the most in this aspect. Though they had a great amount of strength, that was bred over decades of training. On the opposing side, though, Earth was able to produce combatants that could face them simply off the strength of their talent and abilities.

To make matters worse for Terrain, this only mentioned the youths. There were still a number of old monsters like Old Hutch who not only had talent, but had been training for years as well.

Of course, Old Hutch was a member of the Slayer Legion, not The Empire. But, if The Empire didn't have such existences, wouldn't the Slayer Legion have long since won their rebellion? Leonel had the feeling that The Empire wasn't so simple either.

That said… None of this stopped him from feeling that he should be wary.

'Hm…?'

Leonel suddenly vanished from within the Segmented Cube.

…

Noah and Jessica walked toward the Segmented Cube. From their outward appearances, one would never guess that just a few days ago, Jessica was crying out to save Noah's life. Let alone talking about such a matter, they both pretended as though such a thing had never occurred in the first place.