Chapter 481
Jake knew that he needed Catalina to learn the blueprint for the energy-based weapons the Spartans used in order to clear New Hope of the Ravage Contamination. But now that the Commander was dead, that plan was in the past.
It was fine, though. After all, the Commander hadn’t created those weapons, it was Mad Mick who had made them in the first place. So if he found Mick, Jake was sure he would be able to make some kind of deal with him.
Which meant that he didn’t really need the Spartans anymore. He could wipe them all out right there and then and be done with them, just like he had done with Los Demonios.
Only he knew exactly where that path led. Killing humans mindlessly, without real cause, was the fastest way to lose what little humanity he still had and turn into a fully-fledged monster.
For that reason, he held himself back. Instead of giving in to that urge, he remained where he was, watching events unfold around him on their own.
Several shots came his way. Catalina cursed as one streaked past her shoulder, missing by inches. She immediately dropped flat to the ground. Jake stayed passive. For now.
But he knew his control had limits. He knew that if the Spartans didn’t calm down within the next several seconds, if they didn’t try to rein in their aggression, he would no longer be able to control himself and would fight back.
One of the shots drilled into his shoulder, making him stagger. Another punched through his upper arm, causing mana to leak out. He was quickly losing his patience.
He stood as still as a statue, showing them through his restraint that he had no reason to fight the rest of them, but they were oblivious to that. Another blast slammed into his back, knocking him forward and forcing him to take a quick step to keep his balance.
When another shot hit him in the back, his patience ran out.
He spun around and shot a glare at one of the Spartans aiming at him. Upon meeting his emotionless stare, the person fired a hasty shot. But due to their nervousness and poor aim, the energy bolt went wide, missing Jake by a wide margin.
He was about to charge at the nearest attacker when Silvia’s shout cut through the chaos.
“Stop firing, everyone, right now!”
Her command carried enough authority to freeze the entire group. The shooting stopped. Silvia swept her gaze across the cavern, making sure no one intended to ignore her, then turned back to him.
“Jake,” she said, “what is going on? Do you plan to turn against us?”
Jake glanced at the Commander’s corpse. Its glassy eyes stared blankly at the ceiling. He then looked back at Silvia.
“No,” he replied. “There was only one person I wanted dead. I’m not planning to go against the rest of you. Unless, of course, you give me a reason to.”
Silvia drew in a slow breath. “Good,” she said. “Good.”
She seemed to be very careful about what she did and said, as if she still wasn’t sure whether she should trust Jake and was afraid that one wrong move or word could send him into berserk mode.
She glanced around the cavern, noticing that the rest of the Spartans were still pointing their weapons at him.
“Lower your weapons, everyone,” she told them. “Jake’s not a threat. He’s not our enemy.”
Her last words didn’t sound very convincing, considering what Jake had done a moment earlier. The Spartans clearly weren’t happy about this whole situation, but at least they did lower their weapons. Sure, they did so slowly and reluctantly, but they did as Silvia told them. At the very least, nobody tried to challenge her authority now that the Commander was gone. It was a good sign.
After making sure nobody was holding Jake at gunpoint anymore, Silvia shifted her gaze back to him. She seemed to hesitate for a moment, as if she wasn’t sure whether or not she should voice her thoughts. Then, having seemingly made up her mind, she took a small step toward him and asked in a quiet voice, “Why did you do that? Why did you kill him?”
Jake replied, “If I were to keep cooperating with your people, there was no way I could continue to do so while he was still in command. I couldn’t trust him. And you knew what he tried to do. Since he tried it once, he could attempt something like that again in the future. So forget about him. If you still want my help, I’m willing to fulfill my side of our agreement. But if what I did prevents you from accepting my help, just say so, and you’ll never see me again.”
But it was obvious it wasn’t easy for her to simply forget about the Commander, especially when his body lay not far from her. Silvia quickly glanced at him. A mix of emotions flickered across her face. Among them was sorrow.
She might not have approved of everything he had done, but he had still been one of them. He had still been their leader, someone who had been trying to get them out of their predicament. It was obvious that his death wasn’t easy for her to accept.
But it was also clear that she understood their team needed to move on. Antagonizing Jake, even despite what he had done, wouldn’t do them any good.
“I understand why you did what you did, even though it’s not easy for me to accept it,” Silvia said. “But I’m willing to move on and work with you. We do need your help in clearing our city of the Ravage, Jake.”
“Then I’ll help you,” he said. “Just make sure none of your people try anything like what the Commander did.”
“I definitely won’t try to double-cross you, that’s for damn sure. But there’s a little problem, though. The Commander was the only one who could teach Catalina and her people how to create the weapons we use. Without him, we won’t be able to teach you. But there’s a different solution. After we clear our city of the Ravage, you can show us the way to New Hope, and we’ll obliterate it for you, since our weapons won’t work in the wrong hands.”
“Good enough,” Jake said as he glanced at Catalina. She nodded in response. Jake looked back at Silvia and asked, “So, with the Commander dead, I take it you’re next in the chain of command? You’re leading the Spartans now?”
“Not exactly. We don’t follow a strict military hierarchy. We have several leaders, each in charge of their own team. I’m one of them. As for the Commander, he was… well, our commander. Now that he’s gone, the leaders will have to decide which one of us takes his place.”
“You should lead the Spartans.”
“That’s not entirely my decision. We’ll probably have to vote.”
Jake’s tone turned hard. “If someone else gets chosen, make sure they’re nothing like the Commander. Because you’ve now seen what happens otherwise.”
Silvia nodded gravely. “You got it.”
Jake looked around. Every Spartan in the cavern was staring at him. While he couldn’t view their memories or read their moods due to some defensive mechanism protecting them from mental intrusion, it was clear that some of them, or maybe even most, still felt hostile toward him.
He looked back at Silvia. “By the way, why can’t I use my mind-reading ability on any of you?”
Unlike the Commander, Silvia didn’t try to hide anything. “It’s because Owen had a similar ability,” she said. “So, Mad Mick created something to prevent his ability from working on us.”
“I see,” Jake said. “I’m guessing the Commander didn’t tell me the whole truth about Owen, about why he hated the Commander so much, and all that?”
“No, he didn’t. The part where he told you about Owen was twisted, far from what actually happened. He didn’t tell you everything about Mad Mick and his teleporter either, and what he did to the poor guy… But before you ask more, I think you should leave for now. I’ll tell you the full story later, and I won’t hide anything. But this isn’t the right moment.”
“Why is that?”
Silvia darted a glance around the cavern before answering in a low, urgent voice, “Because of what you just did, Jake. Don’t you understand? The Commander was our leader, and it won’t be easy for us to immediately accept you after what you did. They don’t like you very much right now, to say the least. So you should leave. Your staying here makes them angry. The longer you stay, the greater the chance that someone might crack and do something stupid. You should go. Let’s give people some time to cool off. I’m sure I can reason with them while you’re gone. Return in a couple of days, will you? By then, we’ll have given the Commander a proper burial, and I’ll have made sure nobody thinks of you as an enemy.”
Jake understood that she was right. The glares full of hatred he was getting from the Spartans made it obvious he should leave for now.
He looked at Catalina.
“What about you? I can take you to New Hope if you want.”
She gave him a wary look. “With the help of one of those huge, scary, dragon-like monsters, I’m guessing?”
“Yep.”
“I think I’ll stay, Jake.”
“She’ll be fine here,” Silvia said. “I can promise you that. Nobody thinks of her as an enemy here.”
“You’d better be right. Because otherwise your entire group will be eliminated as easily as the Commander was.”
“I’ll be fine, Jake,” Catalina said with a gentle smile. “Don’t worry.”
“Alright then.”
There was nothing left to say. Jake turned to leave.
“Be back in a couple of days,” Silvia called after him.
He nodded and dashed across the cavern. A moment later, he left it, finding himself in a maze of underground tunnels. A few minutes later, he finally emerged from the subway into the outside world. He paused for a moment, thinking about what he should do now.
Out of the four newly developed creatures, two of them, monstrosities and scorpos, had proved disappointing, so he decided not to waste any more time on their further development. As for wasps and blastfiends, they had turned out to be surprisingly useful. They were definitely worth developing further.
Unlike his standard combat units, they were small, and that was exactly what made them effective. Making them larger would ruin their advantage. Their size meant they could be deployed in droves. It also meant they could overwhelm targets through sheer numbers.
He could already tell that wasps could become pure nightmare fuel for humans. As for blastfiends, they could be extremely effective against powerful foes protected by strong armor, like armored brawlers or mechs. So yeah, while he had decided to ditch monstrosities and scorpos, he was definitely going to keep working on wasps and blastfiends.
He also wanted to check on his Kaiju. By now, it should have finished developing and be ready to leave the Behemoth Cavern.
Jake planned to get to that all right away when movement suddenly caught the corner of his eye.
He turned and saw a familiar obsidian figure step out from a side street. D stopped about thirty yards away and stared at him in silence for a moment. Then he raised a hand and waved.
But he didn’t seem to be simply greeting Jake. Instead, it looked like he wanted Jake to approach him. He wasn’t acting aggressively, meaning Owen was in control now. He kept motioning for Jake to approach, as if he had something to show him.
That was definitely new. Curious, Jake began to move toward his counterpart.