CHAPTER 410: FOUND HIM.

Neo-Vatra, New City, 3rd church of Pure Light.

In a dark room on the second floor, a young man sat in front of an old-style monitor. His hair was a dark shade of green, and his skin was as pale as that of a fresh corpse.

He appears to be staring at the default screensaver, balancing a knife on the index finger of his right hand. The knife’s sharp tip would’ve already sunk if the hand was made of normal flesh, but the alloy plates covering the entire arm showed it was not.

Receiving a notification, he gave the command to open the room’s door. A man walked in carrying a small box. Placing it on the desk, he turned around and left.

The green-haired youth reached into the box and pulled one of the items—a memory card the size of his thumb’s nail. Inserting it into a port to his right, he navigated to its contents and opened the only video file it contained.

The video showed a simple set of stairs. The camera remained stationary, like the footage captured by s stationary security camera. The green-haired youth didn’t waste time and moved forward to the last few minutes of the video, and for a moment, nothing seemed to have changed. Two priests appeared, heading up to the ground floor. Soon after, a strange figure appeared, scanned the surroundings, then proceeded toward the lower floors.

"I found him." He said.

In one of the corners, hidden in the darkness contrasting the light from the monitor, a tall man opened his eyes and got off the sofa. Making his way to the desk, he leaned his bald head toward the screen and stared at it for a moment.

"What the hell..."

"Yup." The green-haired one nodded. "That was my exact reaction.

He had paused the video on a particular frame showing a strange figure going down the stairs to the 3rd basement floor. They appeared to be dressed in a strange costume made from tight fabric and a gray chest piece, in addition to gauntlets and boots of the same color. Their most defining feature, however, was the strange helmet they wore, the visor of which covered half of it yet failed to give any glimpses at the face hidden behind it.

"That’s one strange asshole." Said the bald man. "Is he really that good?"

"Check again." Green head gestured for the screen. "He isn’t plugged into anything, yet he was still able to take over our systems."

"Damn... how did you catch him, then?"

At the bald man’s question, Green Head could only stare back with a blank expression.

"Already told you, you can’t catch him with normal cams." He said. "You have to use ones with no wireless connections."

"That’s it?"

"The hell do you mean that’s it? You think it’s easy to find those things nowadays?"

"Dunno. Not a tech guy, remember?"

"No wonder your cars got stolen."

"Hey! That has nothing to do with this!!!"

"Yeah, yeah, keep telling yourself that.

The bald man gritted his teeth, looking like he was about to explode. Somehow, he managed to rein it in and turned his attention to the screen once more.

"How did you know how to catch him, anyway?"

"An old acquaintance told me about him a while back." Green head said. "Bastard showed up out of nowhere and ruined everything for them. Even caused them trouble with the BEO. Framed them for the death of a hero."

"Huh..." The bald man raised an eyebrow, and a moment later, his eyes went wide with surprise. "Your acquaintance is from Caligo?"

"Good guess." Green hair nodded.

"You sure about that?"

"Almost."

"Man... this really doesn’t sound good for us..." Saying that, the bald man turned to look at the screen. "Are you sure he isn’t one of them superheroes?"

"Didn’t I just tell you he framed Caligo for killing a hero? He also killed Cryonis and a bunch of other heroes. There is no way he’s working for them."

"Ooooh... guess this hit is way too big for us, huh?"

"We still have to take him down. Although there might be a problem." Said green head.

"You said we just have to use our own eyes, right?"

"That’s not what I’m talking about." Sighing, green head pointed at the monitor. "This was captured on the second floor. That guy made it to the vault. That meant he got past the guards and used the elevator."

"So? We got him trapped, right?"

Another sigh escaped the green-haired youth.

"He got past the guards and used the elevator." He repeated himself. "That means he can teleport, at the very least!"

"Then why did he... never mind. I think I get it..."

An enemy that can bypass most security and reach the final level without much trouble. At first, it looked like the situation was hopeless, but then it got them thinking. If he really could do all of that, why did he feel the need to sneak around? Couldn’t he just use whatever magic allowed him to pass through walls instead?

"I already called Jaguar and the others. You just have to stall him until they arrive."

"Seriously?"

"Yes."

Left with no choice, the black, bald man sighed and turned away, exiting the room. He was going to face the monster underground, so he would have to put on the right weapons.

The bastard might be able to bypass security, and even ignore walls, but his abilities had to have a limit. If they could prevent him from using them or ensure he runs out of juice before he could escape, then it would be their win.

~[ ]~

’Sleeping gas?’

[That seems to be the case. ]

Dante was just done disposing of the robots that had attacked, and he soon learned that things might get out of hand. For a while, he wondered if he should just portal to one of his pocket dimensions and call it a day, but that was something he had been trying to avoid for some time, especially after coming this far. He just didn’t want to go back empty-handed. In the end, he came to that place for a reason, and he wouldn’t leave it until it was fulfilled.