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Chapter 284: The Scent of Fear
2023-10-23 Author: Rowing Without Oars 233
There weren't many occasions that required Agent Mike Williams to show up in person; Pal was capable of handling most matters. The few times his presence was needed, it was actually just a clone created from a high-speed afterimage.
Using split consciousness to handle multiple tasks simultaneously had long been effortless for the current Orin Vale. His brain could fully process multithreaded work. Sending a clone out to socialize didn't interfere with any of his own daily work arrangements.
For instance, taking a trip to Kahndaq to confirm if Black Adam's coffin lid was still nailed down.
Kahndaq is one of the most famous fictional nations in DC Comics, and all its stories are intrinsically tied to Black Adam. In theory, it seemed a bit far, but to Orin Vale, no two coordinates on the same planet were truly distant.
Flying there wasn't necessarily slower than teleportation.
A high-speed afterimage, invisible to the naked eye, streaked across the Kahndaqi border, passing through the mountains to lock onto the location he had learned from the archaeological expert during that previous operation.
A tomb.
The ancient ruins had been excavated under the scorching sun of Kahndaq, the sand steaming with heat. Its entrance was man-made—a massive rift, like a wide, devouring mouth leading to a dark and profound world. Looking down, one saw an abyss-like blackness; only the structure of stone and plaster at the cave's mouth was clearly illuminated by the sunlight.
To be more precise, it only looked like a tomb on the outside. Orin Vale knew it was more accurately described as a prison. Black Adam was once the chosen successor of the Old Wizard, but his abuse of power disappointed the Wizard Council, which was why he was sealed and suppressed here. These ruins were, in fact, his cage.
Orin Vale descended into the ruins and found the location of the seal with almost no effort.
"Teth-Adam rests in peace here."
But when he used Ultra Vision to perform a scan, he quickly realized something.
It seemed he was a little too late.
There was nothing here.
The magic barrier beneath the crypt had long been broken, and the one who slumbered had already awakened. Black Adam, bearer of the Power of Six Gods, was now nowhere to be found.
However, Orin Vale was quite certain that he hadn't seen any news about a magical superhuman from Kahndaq recently. Logically, the unearthing of a being on Black Adam's level should have quickly caused a commotion big enough to make the news, but so far, there seemed to be nothing.
But that was fine. Black Adam wasn't usually a major threat; he only cared about his own nation. Even if he had truly revived and wanted to stage a coup d'état or establish a dictatorship, as long as he didn't collude with some otherworld demon or alien invader, it wouldn't fall under the jurisdiction of an M78 official's enforcement manual.
Orin Vale was just here to take a casual look, so there was no need to spend effort searching for him. He gave the tomb a simple scan and actually found the special material known as "Eternity Stone." In the movie, this stuff was quite formidable—used in a missile, it could stun Black Adam; used as an engine, it could create floating bikes capable of supersonic speed and a flash ability. It had a certain Vibranium-like quality to it.
This was something worth taking back to study.
After a casual sweep to confirm there was nothing else worth looting, Orin Vale turned and headed for home. But after flying for just over a thousand miles, the Negative Energy Fluctuation Radar reacted.
A dark fluctuation was nearby.
A quiet town. No one noticed as a meteor streaked across the sky, landing somewhere behind the town.
Night fell, and a small car was parked by the roadside. In the back seat, a couple was engaged in a fierce battle. The poor little car seemed to be bearing a weight it was never meant to carry, shaking and shaking and shaking. The intensity was such that the poor tires looked like they would burst under the chassis's pressure.
With a crash, the car window shattered.
A pitch-black arm reached in from outside the window, grabbed the man by his collar, and violently dragged him out through the shattered glass, flinging him with great force.
Caught off guard, the man flew a long distance along with the splintering glass, tumbling several times after he landed.
He looked up in astonishment to see a dark, twisted thing slowly approaching him. The details of its dark body were indistinct, as if it were sculpted from some kind of sludge. All that was visible on its entire body was a pair of sagacious eyes, just wobbling there, causing one's SAN value to plummet.
The man screamed in terror, his body instinctively recoiling. His gaze shifted to their car, only to see the blonde beauty who had been enjoying herself with him just moments ago had already jumped into the driver's seat with lightning speed, started the ignition, and floored the gas, vanishing in a puff of smoke.
Fuck.
As the saying goes, when disaster strikes, everyone fends for themselves. The moment trouble started, his girlfriend took the car and fled with lightning speed... wait, right now he wasn't even sure if it was his girlfriend or boyfriend. And it had to be said, if it had been a regular girl, she would probably just be screaming on the spot in this situation, her escape likely not being this skillful and swift.
"Hungry... so hungry..."
The twisted specter approached him step by step, extending a withered, black hand.
"Need... fear..."
"Stay away from me!" the man scrambled backward. "Don't you—"
The hand had already landed on his shoulder.
In that instant, his body seemed to freeze. Boundless fear nearly swallowed him whole, his limbs feeling as if they were pinned down. His life force, already somewhat depleted, rapidly drained from his body.
He could feel himself dying.
In his final moments, what the man regretted even more was...
That last blast... damn it, I shouldn't have...
In that very instant, an electric arc seemed to shoot from beyond the horizon. The twisted monster was unceremoniously sent flying sideways, and a red-and-silver afterimage abruptly flashed into view.
"Run."
After tossing the short, telepathic command to the rescued civilian, Orin Vale immediately focused his attention on the creature he had just knocked away.
He had never seen this thing before, and it seemed difficult to match it with any figure he had seen in the Original Work.
But upon a more careful scan, he felt that a trace of the residual energy within its body had a slightly familiar scent.
Was that a faint... scent of fear?
(end of chapter)
2023-10-23 Author: Rowing Without Oars 233
There weren't many occasions that required Agent Mike Williams to show up in person; Pal was capable of handling most matters. The few times his presence was needed, it was actually just a clone created from a high-speed afterimage.
Using split consciousness to handle multiple tasks simultaneously had long been effortless for the current Orin Vale. His brain could fully process multithreaded work. Sending a clone out to socialize didn't interfere with any of his own daily work arrangements.
For instance, taking a trip to Kahndaq to confirm if Black Adam's coffin lid was still nailed down.
Kahndaq is one of the most famous fictional nations in DC Comics, and all its stories are intrinsically tied to Black Adam. In theory, it seemed a bit far, but to Orin Vale, no two coordinates on the same planet were truly distant.
Flying there wasn't necessarily slower than teleportation.
A high-speed afterimage, invisible to the naked eye, streaked across the Kahndaqi border, passing through the mountains to lock onto the location he had learned from the archaeological expert during that previous operation.
A tomb.
The ancient ruins had been excavated under the scorching sun of Kahndaq, the sand steaming with heat. Its entrance was man-made—a massive rift, like a wide, devouring mouth leading to a dark and profound world. Looking down, one saw an abyss-like blackness; only the structure of stone and plaster at the cave's mouth was clearly illuminated by the sunlight.
To be more precise, it only looked like a tomb on the outside. Orin Vale knew it was more accurately described as a prison. Black Adam was once the chosen successor of the Old Wizard, but his abuse of power disappointed the Wizard Council, which was why he was sealed and suppressed here. These ruins were, in fact, his cage.
Orin Vale descended into the ruins and found the location of the seal with almost no effort.
"Teth-Adam rests in peace here."
But when he used Ultra Vision to perform a scan, he quickly realized something.
It seemed he was a little too late.
There was nothing here.
The magic barrier beneath the crypt had long been broken, and the one who slumbered had already awakened. Black Adam, bearer of the Power of Six Gods, was now nowhere to be found.
However, Orin Vale was quite certain that he hadn't seen any news about a magical superhuman from Kahndaq recently. Logically, the unearthing of a being on Black Adam's level should have quickly caused a commotion big enough to make the news, but so far, there seemed to be nothing.
But that was fine. Black Adam wasn't usually a major threat; he only cared about his own nation. Even if he had truly revived and wanted to stage a coup d'état or establish a dictatorship, as long as he didn't collude with some otherworld demon or alien invader, it wouldn't fall under the jurisdiction of an M78 official's enforcement manual.
Orin Vale was just here to take a casual look, so there was no need to spend effort searching for him. He gave the tomb a simple scan and actually found the special material known as "Eternity Stone." In the movie, this stuff was quite formidable—used in a missile, it could stun Black Adam; used as an engine, it could create floating bikes capable of supersonic speed and a flash ability. It had a certain Vibranium-like quality to it.
This was something worth taking back to study.
After a casual sweep to confirm there was nothing else worth looting, Orin Vale turned and headed for home. But after flying for just over a thousand miles, the Negative Energy Fluctuation Radar reacted.
A dark fluctuation was nearby.
A quiet town. No one noticed as a meteor streaked across the sky, landing somewhere behind the town.
Night fell, and a small car was parked by the roadside. In the back seat, a couple was engaged in a fierce battle. The poor little car seemed to be bearing a weight it was never meant to carry, shaking and shaking and shaking. The intensity was such that the poor tires looked like they would burst under the chassis's pressure.
With a crash, the car window shattered.
A pitch-black arm reached in from outside the window, grabbed the man by his collar, and violently dragged him out through the shattered glass, flinging him with great force.
Caught off guard, the man flew a long distance along with the splintering glass, tumbling several times after he landed.
He looked up in astonishment to see a dark, twisted thing slowly approaching him. The details of its dark body were indistinct, as if it were sculpted from some kind of sludge. All that was visible on its entire body was a pair of sagacious eyes, just wobbling there, causing one's SAN value to plummet.
The man screamed in terror, his body instinctively recoiling. His gaze shifted to their car, only to see the blonde beauty who had been enjoying herself with him just moments ago had already jumped into the driver's seat with lightning speed, started the ignition, and floored the gas, vanishing in a puff of smoke.
Fuck.
As the saying goes, when disaster strikes, everyone fends for themselves. The moment trouble started, his girlfriend took the car and fled with lightning speed... wait, right now he wasn't even sure if it was his girlfriend or boyfriend. And it had to be said, if it had been a regular girl, she would probably just be screaming on the spot in this situation, her escape likely not being this skillful and swift.
"Hungry... so hungry..."
The twisted specter approached him step by step, extending a withered, black hand.
"Need... fear..."
"Stay away from me!" the man scrambled backward. "Don't you—"
The hand had already landed on his shoulder.
In that instant, his body seemed to freeze. Boundless fear nearly swallowed him whole, his limbs feeling as if they were pinned down. His life force, already somewhat depleted, rapidly drained from his body.
He could feel himself dying.
In his final moments, what the man regretted even more was...
That last blast... damn it, I shouldn't have...
In that very instant, an electric arc seemed to shoot from beyond the horizon. The twisted monster was unceremoniously sent flying sideways, and a red-and-silver afterimage abruptly flashed into view.
"Run."
After tossing the short, telepathic command to the rescued civilian, Orin Vale immediately focused his attention on the creature he had just knocked away.
He had never seen this thing before, and it seemed difficult to match it with any figure he had seen in the Original Work.
But upon a more careful scan, he felt that a trace of the residual energy within its body had a slightly familiar scent.
Was that a faint... scent of fear?
(end of chapter)
