Arc 60 - Powerless - Part 2

Laura cannot be seen anywhere. And Nazar was surrounded by elves with red eyes.

(I have controlled people before and they look a lot like that.) Nazar thought.

The elves looked like they had no sense of control. Their hands were limping down. And moving with rather a difficulty.

(I need to go after Laura.)

Their heads were limping down as well.

All the elves around Nazar jumped on him.

He quickly reached the quiver on Lyrei’s back and picked up the arrows. He had about 10 arrows in his hand.

Lyrei attacked from the back but Nazar immediately turned around and stabbed an arrow through her foot.

She was immobile… or it was what Nazar thought.

Lyrei raised her foot, despite being stabbed with an arrow. Her foot received even more damage, but she moved towards Nazar anyway.

Nazar punched her in the face, which made her lose her balance and fell to the ground.

(Sorry.)

He wasted too much time on Lyrei. The others were already too close to him.

He had no choice but to flee.

He jumped 10 meters in the air. He had limited air time but used it to its fullest. He managed to stay in the air for 1 second before the gravity of the planet caught up with him.

He listened to his surroundings and tried to find that one unique smell. The smell of Laura’s perfume, which had a similar smell to roses. It was not a high-class perfume, but it was still something that smelt good.

He fell towards the ground and did not find which way she was taken.

In mid-air, he managed to throw himself somewhere away from the elves.

“Just where the hell is--”

He then smelt it. It was very faint but it was still enough for him.

“5 meters to le-- no, right.”

As soon as he said that, he moved toward his right.

(I am faster than I was 5 years ago… maybe because I never tested my limits.)

His last recorded speed was 100 Miles per hour and that was about 5 years ago. Since he got his powers, he has been training a lot. So, there is a chance that his original speed has improved too.

However, it was wrong. He could not sense her perfume at all.

“Shit,” he muttered.

He ran back towards his original goal, which was completely opposite him.

He moved so fast that he could be seen as a blue to some. Even though it was night, he managed to keep up with elves.

Within seconds, the scent of her perfume increased.

Nazar had pinpointed the location perfectly.

He ran right after them. He was a few meters away from them. Instead of attacking them from their backs, he jumped 10 meters high into the air and landed right in front of the dark elves.

Of course, Laura and the dark might not have been able to see him but Nazar could ‘see’ them.

He threw a punch and one person was hit. Nazar’s fist had managed to break a bone in the dark elf’s face because he heard a crack. Most likely it was his nose.

Nazar threw a kick to his right and managed to hit a dark elf in the knee. As soon as he did that, the dark elf let go of Laura and fell to the ground.

There was one more elf.

Due to the erratic behaviour of Laura’s breathing, Nazar thought that the elf might be holding something to her neck.

“”

“” Nazar said in a cold tone. “”

Nazar slammed his foot into the dark elf beneath him. He slammed his foot into the elf’s leg.

As soon as he did, the elf cried in pain.

“”

“”

Nazar slowly reached his hand to Laura’s neck and caught the arrow in his hand. He pulled it out and then stabbed the elf in the eye.

Nazar then placed his hand on Laura’s face to check if it was really her.

“Laura?”

There was no answer.

At that instant, the sun rose once more.

In the light of the day, Nazar saw who it was. For some reason, he has been following a dummy version of Laura. Instead of Laura, it was a light elf. She had the same scent as Laura. However, the scent vanished immediately.

And she was also wearing Laura’s top.

“Damn it,” Nazar muttered.

He then looked at the terrified light elf.

“”

“”

The light elf looked confused, so Nazar did not push her any further.

“”

“”

“”

Before the light elf left, Nazar moved past her. She found his speed too surprising.

“Damn it,” Nazar muttered while moving faster than 100 miles per hour in this green forest. “How did they manage it?”

He ran past the village. He searched everything in the village but she was not here.

He then looked at the people, who seemed to back in control. And Lyrei was looking down at her foot in confusion.

“What the hell?”

Nazar just moved on instead.

He ran for a mile or so in this direction. He did not come across anything but trees.

He finally stopped next to a cliff. Below him was a river.

“I looked from the mountain earlier and did not see any river closeby,” Nazar sounded confused.

The river was about 10 meters wide, so it should have been no problem to pass it. And if he fell, he would survive because the height of the cliff was about 20 meters.

“Damn it, my senses after a few meters are pointless.”

He took a step back. Then another. And another. And another. After a few steps, he stopped.

He ran forward at high speed and jumped at the edge of the cliff.

He was jumping from the edge of one cliff to the other.

“Just a little more,” Nazar muttered.

He reached the edge of the other cliff, but he lost his footing. For some reason, it was wet.

He lost his footing and his right foot slipped. He managed to keep his balance with his left foot. It was not enough, so he threw himself forward. As he did, he touched the ground with his hand and managed to regain his footing.

He walked away from the edge of the cliff, just to be safe. Once he was, he looked around to see if she has come this.

“It’s going to be night soon. I have to find her before them. And if she dies… well, she dies.”

Nazar chuckled.

“What is wrong with me?”

Nazar then looked around once more and frowned.

“Why the fuck did I cross the river? There is no way they have crossed the river.”

He slapped himself on the face.

He sighed and crossed the river once more.

When he was doing that, he saw something unusual. From the corner of his eyes, he saw a few people crossing the river with a small boat.

As he noticed that, he looked at them. He did not pay attention to his front and instead wanted to confirm something.

He could not hear them because of the sound of water and they were too far away for his nose to work.

While he was focused on that, he did not reach the edge of the cliff. So, he fell to the water.

Once he fell to the water, he found out that the water was moving very smoothly but it was making a lot of noises. Due to that noise, no one really noticed Nazar falling into the water.

He moved under water, while occasionally taking a break to catch his breath, he moved against the water and reached for that small boat. The small boat was going the opposite of how the water was moving.

As he reached the boat, he went under it and with just a little pressure, he was able to flip the boat.

As he did, everyone from the boat fell into the water. Laura was one of them. As her top was taken from her, she was only wearing her bra.

Nazar evaded all the elves that were falling into the water and reached. As he did, he and Laura managed to get to the side of the river. Just next to the cliff, there was a small space that did not have water in it.

As Nazar and Laura sat there, catching their breath, the elves just swam down the water without bothering them.

Nazar released a sigh of relief and smiled.

“That was certainly interesting.”

He looked at his right side, where Laura was sitting, and noticed that her top was missing. As soon as he noticed that, he quickly averted his gaze from her.

He reached his pocket and picked up a small device and gave it to her.

“What is it?”

“It has clothes in it.”

She looked confused by the answer.

“It works like the Flash’s ring.”

She still looked confused.

Nazar sighed.

He tapped the small device and black clothes appeared out it. It had a shirt, jeans and trainers.

“Wear it.”

“Why?”

“Well, I thought you were going to say ‘Gyahh?! Pervert!’ and then slap me. Like they do it in anime.”

Laura gave him a puzzled look.

“I thought women do not like it when they are seen in their underwear?”

“I don’t really think it's a big deal.”

“I will never forgive the Japanese.”

“...?”

“Anime taught me wrong. It said that women did not like to be seen in their underwear. They lied to me.”

“I am not sure about others, but I don’t like being seen in my underwear by others.”

“Wait, so you are telling me you don’t mind being seen by me?”

“It’s just with your powers, I am pretty sure you probably have peeked once or twice. So, I don’t really see a big deal in hiding myself now. It is too late for that.”

“I promise you that I have not done that. Plus, I prefer 2D over 3D. So...”

“You are going to die alone.”

“Joke’s on you, I am immortal.”

She picked up the shirt and wore it. She buttoned up all the button… but they broke after a minute or so.

“Seriously?”

“What? It is not my fault. It is too small.”

“Well, we both have different sizes. Yours is just unnecessarily big.”

Nazar sighed again.

“Why are they so big anyway?”

“I heard that guys like it big.”

“I don’t see why anyone would be interested in an extra lump of fat on the body. People are weird.”

He took off his shirt and beneath it was a long sleeve sports top. The type that absorbs sweat from the body.

“I mean it looks good in anime and comics… but in real life? No. It does not look that good.”

He then took off the sport's top and handed it to Laura. Once his shirt was off, there can be a few scars seen. One on top of his heart. The other on top of his lungs. One on his hand. A massive one in his stomach.

He then wore his shirt.

She smelt it. And gave him a disgusted look.

“I don’t sweat… at least I didn’t.”

“Still. No one is going to wear it.”

“Okay. Not my problem. I just thought you would be uncomfortable with--”

“It’s fine. Thanks.”

As they were near the river, she held the sport's top under water for a while.

“You really are weird,” Nazar said slowly.

“You are the weird one. Wait, don’t tell me, you wear your clothes without washing them?”

“Um… they were made of nanites. They just rewrote themselves after a while.”

“What do you mean were?”

“Well, I wore these clothes and then merged it with nanites. So, even if nanites fails, I would still have something to wear.”

“You really are weird.”

“It’s going to be night soon. So, we should stay here for now.”

She then wore the sport's top beneath her new shirt.

She sat down next to Nazar.

“And you might want to change fully. Those slippers? They are going to cause problems.”

She picked up the trainers and wore them.

“Do we really have the same size shoes?”

“No. Those shoes can fit anyone. It’s not nanite-based tech so it is still working.”

She nodded.

“And you might want to change that skirt of yours too. If you want, that is.”

“I will do it later.”

“Okay.”

There was a little silence.

“Were those scars?”

“Yes.”

“I thought you could heal--”

“I can but not these ones. I don’t want to heal them. It reminds me of the good old days.”

“Good old days?”

“The Experiment. The First Superhuman was its name. It had its moments.”

“Do you mind if I ask a question?”

“All you have been doing is asking questions. But, yeah, go ahead.”

“How did you get the scar on your heart?”

“They opened my heart to see if it was normal. Then they cut off a pipe to see how long it will take to heal. And this one time, they took out my heart to see if I could ‘rebuild’ a new one.”

Laura probably regretted asking the question.

“I am sorry. I shouldn’t have ask--”

“It’s no big deal. It is in the past.”

“Hmm… don’t you get over some stuff way too quickly? Like a few hours ago when Marco said that he killed your friend. You seemed a little surprised at first, but later it seemed like you have forgotten all about it.”

“No, I have not forgotten about it. I never forget a damn thing. But for now? Now, I just want to focus on something that matters and not something that happened and is too late to change. Plus, not having emotions for most of my life has given me the ability to control my emotions better. I can just turn them off whenever I feel like.”

“How was it?”

“...?”

“How was life without emotions?”

“Hmm…imagine watching 20 slice of life anime back-to-back and not feeling sadness at all.” Nazar paused as he saw the confused expression of Laura. “It’s like you don’t really get sad or feel any kind of happiness. You just don’t care about anything. If someone tells you a joke, you don’t laugh. If they tell you that someone died, you just don’t know what kind of expression to make. You don’t really like anything. You don’t get excited. I pretended I did all those things when I was around Emily but I am sure she saw through it.”

“It sounds… horrible. How did you live like that?”

“When your own mother says she loves you ‘because you make a perfect lab rat’, this does not sound so bad. Of course, if she said that now, I would just laugh and then move on… but she told me that when I was like 2.”

Laura did not really say anything after that.

“So, you did not even pay attention to who you were killing?”

Laura looked at him in confusion.

“This is what you asked me, right?”

Laura lowered her gaze.

“Of course, I remember everyone. Once I see a face, I will never forget them. I can remove them from memories completely but I do not want to. I remember every single one but I want to tell you a secret. A secret that I have not told anyone and was not planning on doing so.”

“Secret?” Laura said as she looked at him.

“I did not kill your parents.”

Laura’s eyes widened.

“When Aarin took my memories, I gave her the manipulated ones. The ones everyone knew about. It is true, I killed most of the scientists. However, some of the bases were destroyed before I got there. However, Zerathos… or as people called him, William Brown, he told everyone I destroyed all of it. But I did not destroy all of them.”

“...?”

“When you said I killed your parents, I accepted it. But when I saw a picture of them, I knew that I did not kill them. And I did not see any point in telling you.”

Nazar looked down.

“You must be confused why I am telling this to you. I am not saying this to you so you can forgive me or something like that… but I wanted you to know the truth. I was going to tell you anyway when Alice returned the other day but then things turned out differently.”

“And you couldn’t tell me this earlier?”

“I didn’t see why.”

“Are you stupid? I always blamed you for their death and now you are telling me that you didn’t even--”

“It’s better to blame someone else than not knowing who did it. At least that’s how it has been for me.”

“Wh-what kind of nonsense is that?”

“My nonsense? I don’t know. It worked for me so I thought it would work for you too.”

There was a little silence.

“So, do you think Zerathos… or whatever his name is, did it?”

“I am 99% sure. That bastard was insane.”

“I… I am sorry for blaming you all this time.”

“I really don’t see why you need to apologize.”

The sun was suddenly replaced by pitch black darkness.

“You know, I hated you when I first saw you. I accepted your offer because I thought I would see you suffer one of these days. But... when I saw you die over and over again, I felt sorry for you.”

“...”

“I felt sorry for you because you cannot die. It can never end for you. And after that, I never really hated you.”

“Oh, so that was when you fell in love with me?”

Laura laughed.

“No one is ever going to fall in love with you.”

“If I was a harem MC, I would have hundreds of girls lining up for me… wait, I have Lian, right?”

“Who is that?”

“The girl I was with yesterday. She is an alien.”

“So, you are into aliens?”

“No. And she is annoying,” Nazar paused. “What about you?”

“I never really thought about it, but I would want my partner to be someone with a normal childhood and have a normal life.”

“I see...”

(Wait, why do I feel so disappointed by that answer? Please tell me they were wrong. Please tell me they were wrong.)

He tapped his chest once and a small screen appeared.

“18 hours, huh?”

“What is that?”

“My back up teleporter. Because I don’t have my powers, it takes at least 24 hours to recharge.”

“What?”

“I have my own teleportation power but I would rather use technology based on instead of using my own power. So, I had this one where it will allow me to teleport if my main teleporter went missing or if it did not work.”

“So, why is it taking so long to recharge?”

“It was merged with my powers. My powers directly recharged it. But because I don’t have my powers, I need to wait for it to recharge itself.”

“So, where is your main teleporter?”

“I was building a new one for Eddie and wanted to base it on my own but when Solace told me about that being, I left the teleporter at home. I thought I was using that, but instead, I used this one.”

Laura just sighed.

“I am sorry, okay?”

“Can you stop apologising for being an idiot?”

“I am not an idiot. I have genius level intellect. I can turn normal household appliances into something magnificent, like a hologram so sophisticated that you would think a human is standing in front of you.”

“Yeah, right,” Laura said sarcastically.

“Emily, who was with me for years, did not notice it for months until I told her about it.”

“Okay.”

“Ugh… don’t believe me but I will prove it to you one of these days. Anyway, what is that rustling noise?”

“I am getting changed.”

“So, now we have matching clothes.”

“Ahaha. So funny,” Laura said sarcastically.

There was silence once more.

In the dark night and next to the noisy river, Nazar and Laura didn't really notice what was happening above them.

About 10 dark elves were standing on the edge of the cliff.

They all jumped into the river in front of Nazar and Laura.

As soon as they jumped, Laura did not notice anything because of the noise. And Nazar barely noticed the splash. But what he did notice was the red eyes. The eyes of the dark elves were red and they were lit up like lights in the darkness.

As soon as he saw the little red lights, he held Laura’s hand and stood up.

“Wh-what--”

“They are here.”

About 10 dark elves were standing before Nazar and Laura. However, Nazar and Laura could not really see them. The only thing they could see was the little red lights.