Heir Of Chaos

It didn’t take Dale long to prepare. He even left his friends behind.

The fact was that he needed to leave as soon as possible to begin his task. There was a reason why it was mandatory, after all.

And much to his surprise — and relief — his friends didn’t mind it in any way. They would also be leaving for their tasks.

Plus they would meet after it so there was no point in dragging on the inevitable.

How, Dale had a small bag with him. His sabers were fixed around his waist as he waited close to Eden.

General Malcolm walked from the core underground city and smiled at him. "Good, you’re ready."

Dale followed, nodding as he tried to avoid any form of direct conversation with the man. Alas, the war veteran was unyielding.

"So Dale Green, I found myself colored surprised when you made it to the top ten. A Dormant defying all expectations." General Malcolm stated with a measured calm.

Dale’s eyebrows furrowed deeply. ’What is he trying to achieve?’ It served no purpose to tell him what he thought so why would he?

Certainly, there must have been an endgame to his blatant revelation.

He shrugged and stared at the General through the corner of his eyes. "I guess that’s the beauty of a world with abilities, miracles happen... or it might have been the efficiency of the military that helped me achieve it."

General Malcolm’s eyes squinted and he smiled, "I guess you’re right. Miracles are quite common in this age."

On the surface, Dale’s response might have seemed bland but underneath, it couldn’t be further from reality.

The reason behind the specific wording of his response was to deflect answering any further questions on the matter while preventing the man from asking, all at the same time.

General Malcolm had asked the question with the hopes of finding out the extent of the relationship between him and his friends.

In particular, it would be interesting to see his relationship with Sarah — the daughter of Michael Song, a major power head.

Instead, what he got was a trap of an answer. By not giving the direct answer, he positioned himself in a sort of neutral position in the silent tug of war of power within the military while trapping the war veteran between a rock and a hard place.

Dale first mentioned a miracle because that was the most absurd thing he could think of on such short notice. As for suggesting the ability of the military, that was an entirely different plan.

If General Malcolm had answered, saying that it was a miracle, he would have been knowingly lying to himself. If he said the military, he would lie to himself.

Dake knew that the general couldn’t ask directly after such an answer because he wasn’t sure if Dale was aware of Sarah’s family. So he trapped him.

’But it didn’t go without its risk.’ He could feel the General’s burning gaze on him. There was no doubting it, the general suspected him.

A weighted silence consumed the iae between them and before the war veteran could ask another question, they reached the end of the underground city.

General Malcolm smiled softly. "You seem very intelligent. That is a good thing but be careful who you show it to. I heard you have some enemies... I can imagine why."

Dale turned his head to the man just in time to see him closing the distance between them.

The war veteran slammed his palm into the back of Dale’s head, making his world go dark.

***

Dale opened his eyes, wincing as a headache slammed into him. The bright lights and whistling sound drumming his ears didn’t help.

Strong, sharp winds slapped his face, startling him and ridding his eyes of all grogginess.

His eyes widened. "WHAT?!" The lights were headlights, the ’whistling sound’ was the sound of whirling blades while the sharp winds were because of the speed he was moving at.

The ground was just about visible from the helicopter he was in.

He felt the seatbelt holding him and frantically tried to remove it. The last thing he remembered was... ’General Malcolm.’

Dame gritted his teeth and slammed his palm into the seatbelt. "Energy Pulse"

The ability skill made the latch of the seatbelt unlock but before he could leap out, a firm hand gripped him and pulled him back.

"Calm down. Are you trying to die?!" A lady’s voice screamed over the noise.

Dale turned to her, seeing a middle-aged woman with vibrant brown hair. She was a seat away from him so how hadn’t he noticed her?

Could he really blame himself? It wasn’t every day that one was knocked out and woke up on a helicopter.

’Should I trust her?’ He looked between her and the ground he could just barely see. One promised an unknown destination while the other was certain death.

Dale kissed his teeth. Certain death was better because he would be in control of his fate.

The woman cursed silently. "I told Malcolm to make sure he didn’t knock you out. He didn’t listen."

Hearing this, Dale finally paused his thoughts of jumping out.

Noticing him calming down, the woman cleared her throat and adjusted her hair thou it did little to shift her wild appearance.

"I’m Erin! In charge of your task. You’re Dale Green I assume."

Dale nodded. So General Malcolm had knocked him out to deliver him from the underground city.

It wasn’t too different from when they had entered. He just wished the man had told him beforehand.

In all honesty, it was a frightening thing to be knocked out by someone after withholding information from them.

He had seen similar methods used in the slums and if the military used anything similar to those, then he’d rather jump off.

Erin wiped her sweaty hand on her skirt and stretched it out for a shake. "Sorry about what Malcolm did. He told me you were sleeping."

Dale shook her hand. Oh, he was sleeping all right.

Despite the rough start, his task was about to truly begin.