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Chapter 40: The Race Against Time

– Earlier, House of Crimson Moons (1st Floor) –

Storm and Octane, after parking their truck, were led into the mansion by a servant. It took everything they had not to marvel at the beauty and luxury of the interior of the structure. Large windows lined the walls, letting the sunlight shine in only to reflect on the massive chandelier hanging in the middle of the front lobby.

The two noticed that the carpet was crimson, and most of the furniture was dark velvet. The chandelier was made out of some kind of white crystals, as were the various decorative items all around the house. The walls were painted pure white, pristine of any dust. Up ahead, draping from the overhanging arc-shaped platform, was the banner of the House of Crimson Moons — a wolf head with a crescent moon behind it, painted on a dark red background.

Octane gulped in nervousness as they continued to follow the servant, turning left and entering a large, spacious room with two comfortable-looking leather couches in it, placed before a table and a luxurious throne on the other end.

“Take a seat,” the servant said, motioning to the couches. “I will notify the patriarch.”

Storm and Octane did as told, relaxing themselves onto the couches. They may have been left alone, but there was no doubt the security systems in this mansion could easily pick up on any conversation they tried having, so both kept quiet as they waited for the servant to return.

Storm glanced at Octane briefly and saw that he was even more unsettled than earlier. To shake these uneasy feelings off, he needed a good run — something that couldn’t happen right now.

Now, if everything went correctly… they should be able to buy the other team, led by Finn, about five minutes of time in total. It wasn’t much, but it should be enough. Storm already thought of various excuses he can use to stall time, but if he used too many, it would cause Heartbeat to become suspicious. Closing his eyes, he patiently waited for his target to arrive.

About a minute later, Heartbeat arrived in the room. He was a tall man and looked to be only a few years older than Storm himself — impressively young for the leader of an A-Class Squadron.

Storm and Octane stood up as a formality, and bowed.

“Greetings, Patriarch.”

Heartbeat waved their manners off. “Save the talk. I’m… busy, so just bring me the paper and pen to sign.”

“As you wish.”

‘Goddamn… he’s relentless,’ Storm thought in his head, then turned to Octane. “Give the form to the patriarch.”

Octane made an act of reaching into his pocket, then froze and looked at Storm in the eyes.

“Wait… don’t tell me, you didn’t bring the form?!”

“…!” Octane opened his mouth and tried to speak, but since he was taking on the role of being mute, no sound came out.

‘Nice acting,’ Storm praised in his head, then turned back to Heartbeat, who wore an unamused expression on his face. “I’m terribly sorry, Patriarch… my partner here is new to the job, and I wanted to give him his first real delivery experience so he could learn… I never thought he would be this stupid, even after all the training I gave hi-“

“It’s fine, it’s fine…” Heartbeat growled in annoyance. “Just go fetch the form now. Hurry up.”

‘Tch… I was planning to go on a tangent there to waste some more time… he’s sharp,’ Storm muttered in his mind, then sent Octane an angry look.

“What are you waiting for, dumbass?!”

“…!” Octane hurriedly got up to his feet and began walking out of the room, taking as much time as he could. He even purposely tripped over nothing to buy a few precious extra seconds more of time for the other team, before disappearing from sight.

Storm took a deep breath and turned back to Heartbeat. “I’m really sorry, once again. My partner… he’s mute, and a bit clumsy.”

Heartbeat snorted. “I can tell.”

“By the way, Patriarch, you seem quite young. How were you able to reach such power despite your age?”

“Desire and ruthlessness. All there is to it.”

Storm grit his teeth in frustration. He was trying to make conversation with Heartbeat to make him lose track of time and allow Octane to stall for longer, but it clearly wasn’t working.

“I see… well then, what do you think of the Perfect Outbreak that occurred recently?” He continued, taking care to use a casual yet not too casual tone.

But then, Heartbeat dropped a bomb that Storm had not been expecting.

“Hey… are you really here to just deliver supplies?”

Sweat began forming on his forehead as thoughts flew lightning-fast in his head. ‘Did we get exposed? How? This shouldn’t be possible…’

In the end, Storm just raised an eyebrow and attempted to remain as calm as possible.

“What kind of question is that, patriarch? What else would I do? I’ve never been much of a fighter, but since I don’t want my memories wiped, I was somewhat forced to join the Ghost Hunter world. I don’t want to lose this comfortable job that I only have to do once a week yet pays surprisingly well.”

Storm gulped in nervousness, scared to see what would happen next. But alas, it seemed his worries had been for nothing.

“Hm…” Heartbeat took a sip of the wine that had been placed on the table by the servant from earlier. “I was just wondering, since your question made you seem like some sort of news reporter.”

“Ah… I suppose that is true.”

“But regarding the Perfect Outbreak… I heard the situation is direr than the last,” he continued, gently rolling the wine in his glass. “I wonder… can humanity survive?”

“I believe we can,” Storm said confidently, smug now that Heartbeat had fallen into his trap of conversation. “After all, we have Angelicas this time — we have the means to fight back.”

“Is that so? But I’m afraid… we aren’t the only ones who have evolved.”

At this, Storm stopped.

“… Pardon?”

“It’s just rumors, but I heard about some… concerning things from Ghost Hunters who had been on-site during the Outbreak,” Heartbeat explained, taking another sip of his wine. “They speak of a monster taller than the heavens, able to trample entire cities with every step of its feet. It, was the one who caused the Perfect Outbreak. It, tore open the sky, allowing thousands of Ghosts to escape into our realm. Can you believe it?”

“… An abomination like that would’ve already destroyed the world by now,” Storm muttered. “I don’t think something like that exists, Patriarch.

“Indeed. Neither do I. But you know…” Heartbeat set his wine down on the table and crossed his hands, dark red eyes shining ominously. “… Back before the first Expungement happened, no one would’ve thought Ghosts existed either. Yet here we are, hunting them every day.”

“…” Storm fell silent. He came here to rescue Archon, but had unexpectedly found out some peculiar information.

He didn’t know whether or not Heartbeat’s words were true, as he definitely couldn’t be trusted, but on the off-chance that they were… this could very well mean the end of the human race — completely, this time.

*****

– Outside –

“Alright… that should be about three minutes… time to head back- hm?”

Octane, sitting in the truck, suddenly received a comm in his earpiece.

“Octane. Status?”

Hearing this, he sighed in relief, thinking it was good news.

“Thank god, Ace! Did you get them? Please tell me you got them, we’re runnin’ out of excuses to keep stalling time over here!”

“About that… can you stall for a bit longer?”

“Guh…” Octane groaned, as if he had been hit in the guts. “W-We’ll try. But please, hurry up, Storm’s doing everything he can right now to keep that bastard there!”

“Understood. Tell us when you can’t hold on any longer.”

“Alright, I’m countin’ on ya!”

Finn then cut the comms, and Octane rushed out of the truck to head back into the mansion as he had already taken too long. Storm, naturally, heard this conversation as well. This had not been part of the plan, but if they needed more time, he would have to buy them more time.

Octane soon returned after that, which was good, because Storm was out of things to talk about. He immediately ridiculed his partner, continuing the act.

“What took you so long?”

Octane rummaged his hand through the air, then made a shrugging gesture.

Storm facepalmed, immediately realizing what Octane was trying to do and playing along. “It should be in the glove compartment, you dimwit. Go get it, now!”

Octane, flinching and nodding frantically, quickly rushed out of the mansion again, this time not tripping. That trick wouldn’t work a second time.

Storm turned back to Heartbeat, careful to seem as apologetic as possible.

“Patriarch, I… I’m so sorry for wasting your time like this. I will be sure to give my partner a good lesson when we get back.”

Heartbeat handed his glass to the servant for another serving of wine, then closed his eyes. “… I hope so.”

Storm discretely grit his teeth and clenched his fists tightly below the table.

‘C’mon, Finn… hurry up…!’