房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

"What are you talking about? This is the main facility. We have the core of the hero in the vault, not to mention the brand new subject secured by the hero avatars."

The two other scholars working on the devices containing the jet-black crystal named by them as the hero's blessing looked at each other before bursting into laughter.

"NO! YOU TWO DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT!"

"!!!"

The first scholar shook his head and screamed on the verge of tears, causing the other two to flinch and gulp down their saliva nervously.

"We've lost contact with all hero avatars besides the one that brought the new subject. We lost contact with all research facilities from here to Barbariacca nation. The contacts outside our control claim there have been a series of almost simultaneous attacks, and everything was destroyed! THE ARMY AT THE BORDER IS RETREATING BECAUSE A SINGLE MAN WIPED OUT THE COMPLETED HERO AVATARS AND TWO FLEDGLING HERO AVATARS, AS WELL AS ALL MAGIC DEVICES WITH THE HERO'S WILL CRYSTALS!"

The scholar ultimately succumbed to panic and started screaming his lugs off while trembling, tearing off his hair...

...his light-brown hair with jet-lack streaks taking over the original color...

"...are... are you sure...?"

"Go to the team in charge of the new subject and make them complete the experiment as fast as possible. He must be ready just in case."

One of the other scholars asked nervously, but the other one taped his shoulder and said in a decisive voice.

"DON'T YOU GET IT?! IT'S HIM! ZOEMI! ZOEMI IS COMING AFTER US...!"

The first scholar howled, dropping to his knees before crawling to a ball and slamming the side of his head against the floor.

As he did, not only was the floor getting stained with the blood that started dripping from the jet-black crystal embedded in his forehead – previously hidden by the man's long fringe – but also the scholar's hair was turning black with each hit...

"Zoemi...! Zo...emi... ZOOEEEMIII!"

Once his hair was completely black, the scholar's hysteria stopped, and he went the different road of madness – anger. He began to repeat a specific name and got out of the room, not even paying attention to his grim-looking colleagues.

"...all of us will end up like this, right? Even those with just the accessories made out of the hero's will crystal..."

The shakier of the two remaining scholars gulped down his saliva and asked in a tense voice, clenching his hands together as if trying to hide a signet on his ring finger.

"... that's the way of the great hero Cherro... Now go to talk with the bunch taking their sweet time experimenting on the subject! It's supposed to be a copy of that whole Zoemi, so if we will be able to turn it into the hero avatar there will be nothing for us to worry about anymore!"

"R-right...!"

The calmer scholar said with a shrug and gave his colleague a reassuring pat on the back, sending him off.

The facility they were working in was the most heavily protected and tightest kept secret in the entire Atreterve. Neither their allies nor even the scholars working in other facilities knew its exact location.

They were fine even under attack because it would be easier to overthrow the Barbariacca nation and the alliance led by the Atreterve nation against the Bellcehpora kingdom than to even find them in there...

*^@#$@^%&#^#@* *BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM* *RUMBLE*

"WHAT IN THE...?!"

Just as the scholar was trying to reassure himself with logical facts, the room he was in trembled from a deafening explosion that must have taken place within the facility's walls.

"HEY! WHAT IS GOING ON?! HAS THE SUBJECT STARTED RUNNING WILD?!"

An aloof-looking woman who captured and brought Zoemi to the facility passed the door to the room, shouting in anger...

"...eh...?"

...and then stopped abruptly when she tried to move past the main hallway of the facility only to see the evening sky...

The sight was captivating in its own right, but what was truly horrifying was the fact that the facility was supposed to be hidden deep underground, below the catacombs of the ruins of the royal castle from the times that Atreterve was a hereditary monarchy.

"Knock. Knock. Hello~ I'm from the cleaning company~! I've heard you got a lot of filth here and came here to get rid of it for good~!"

"!!!" *thump*

What made the aloof-looking woman fall on her butt and start crawling away in disbelief, though, was Zoemi literally steaming with silver mist and slowly descending from the sky towards her.

"GET EVERYTHING YOU CAN! HE CANNOT GET NEAR THE HERO'S CORE!"

The woman managed to move through the opened former main hallway and howled in urgency.

It shouldn't be like this.

Something was very... terribly... horribly... wrong...

The woman thought that she should not be as scared as she was. After all, she faced Zoemi's copy before and even took part in bringing him down.

And from the intel they got on him, there should be no difference in power between the copies and the original – as per Zoemi's words overheard by a perfectly placed spy.

But then... why did she, deep within her core, feel a nauseating fear?

...and was it her who felt that fear...

...or was it actually the self-proclaimed great hero Cherro who felt that way...?

*%^$#^*

"HII... HIIIIIII...!"

The ceiling above the so-called fledgling hero avatar disappeared in a flash of silver light, and the poor woman let out a high-pitched cry of utter terror and teleported.

She appeared in a flash of light in a room together with six scholars – five of which were surrounding the body of a young black-haired man with a jet-black crystal embedded in his forehead.

"IT'S ZOEMI! HE IS HERE! WAKE THIS ONE UP AND MAKE HIM DEAL WITH HIM!"

"B-but...!"

She roared, startling the scholars who tired to protest.

"YOU MORONS, HE IS ALREADY DESTROYING THIS PLACE, THER IS NO TI...!"

*@$&%$#$^*

The fledgling avatar shouted, spitting saliva everywhere, but her words got stuck in her throat as once again the ceiling above her head disappeared, opening the room for the warm outside...

...with Zoemi waiting above it...

"Pffft! So, am I your last chance against me? Go on. Wake me up~"

The black-haired youth in the sky snorted, watching the people below, and waved his hand benevolently.

*ZOOOOOOEEEEEM...!" *$%@#^#$* *GHAAAAAA*

The scholar, who fully turned into a hero avatar, launched from the side towards the young man, howling his name – and got instantly evaporated in a flash of silver light without even coming close to his target.

"Go on~"

"!!!"

Zoemi hummed and nodded encouragingly, but the people in the room below him trembled as if he had just threatened them with their worst fears.

Still, as Zoemi didn't make any more moves even when the scholars and the fledgling avatar began to move. They all focused around his exact copy with the jet-black crystal embedded in his forehead.

After a few tense moments, they moved to the sides as if making space, and the possessed Zoemi opened his eyes.

His first sight was the Zoemi patiently waiting for him while standing on thin air as if he was able to find a convenient platform to stand on.