Spirit's Ascension-Chapter 122—Return

After relishing a bit in the feeling of growth, Cole turned around and proceeded to leave the ring, not bothering with the unconscious Scorpio.

Cole was only this ruthless to his opponent because of the cruelty the man displayed in their first battle. He didn’t care about a kid or anything.

Leaving the ring under the cheering sound of the crowd felt nothing. He just quietly left after completing all of his quests.

Returning to the area where he just came out from, Cole met the menacing man standing there looking straight at him in utter disbelief.

The man’s mouth was wide open with saliva almost dropping from it.

Watching the man’s slightly exaggerated response, Cole said nothing; he only smiled a little and then proceeded to quickly take off his armor and proceed to leave.

The menacing man did nothing to stop him, only standing there and watching Cole leave slowly.

Shuffling through the hoard of people again, Cole returned to where his teammates were seated.

"How was the show," he asked with a smile.

"Short, but exciting," Linda responded smugly.

"Hehe, We can leave now. I am done with what I wanted to do," Cole said.

"So you came here just to beat up that guy," Bryan asked in surprise.

Instead of actually responding, Cole just rubbed his head awkwardly. Bryan noticed that action and laughed.

"Petty," Linda said.

Seeing his teammates’ reluctance to leave the place so soon, Cole could only accept and sit down for a while.

The trio watched three more battles before feeling like it was all enough for them. They then stood up to leave the arena, all with a satisfied face.

Following the path they came through earlier, the trio went back to the building to do a final round of packing.

Linda made sure to take all of her stuff and stored it in her storage space. Cole and Bryan didn’t really have anything to take, so they were quickly ready.

"Time to head back," Cole muttered.

Before they fully left the building, they entered the room and went ahead to knock the two men unconscious again.

The three of them didn’t bother with idle chatting; they only ran as fast as they could through the slums heading for the clearing they came through.

This time they were sporting their academy uniform openly as if giving off a final goodbye to the slums.

The longer they moved through the slums, the more attention they attracted. The previous times they had moved in the slums, they usually tried to keep a low profile, but now they were extremely showy.

After running as fast as they could, the trio arrived at the clearing and looked around cautiously for a bit before proceeding towards the forest that was further away.

The forest was as dark as the trio remembered it, still maintaining its strangely eerie vibe.

"Why so spooky?" Linda muttered.

The trio followed the tiny trail through the forest until they arrived at the same tent.

"Good afternoon, sir," Cole was the first to speak up before the others followed.

"Welcome, kids," the man they met there the previous time greeted them warmly.

"You all really took your time," the man continued.

"We made some certain findings that we would like to report, sir," Cole said.

"Oh, really, but the Academy usually takes care of that," the man said.

"Uhmmm, I think this is something we need to take care of as soon as possible," Cole retorted.

Nothing about the serious expression on Cole and his teammates’ faces and the stance they took. The man was immediately intrigued and gave them permission to speak.

"It really does look serious. Okay, I am listening," the man finally gave in.

Getting the go-ahead, Linda stepped forward on behalf of the trio and began spilling out all that was needed to be taken care of as soon as possible.

From Michael’s body in the underground area, to that special building, to the anomaly that occurred in the settlement, and finally to the unconscious people in the building.

Linda had tried her best to make sure the cases weren’t portrayed as too exaggerated, but despite all of her attempts, they were. The man still remained wide-eyed.

He was so shocked that he just stood there frozen even after Linda was done speaking.

"How the hell did you kids experience so much?"

"Scrap that, how did you all even survive?"

"I need to report this as soon as possible," he muttered before heading towards a machine with jittery steps.

The trio stood in their place patiently waiting for the man to return from his report, and they didn’t have to wait too long before the man came back.

As the man approached the trio, they could observe a weird change in his expression, especially when he looked at Cole.

His eyes displayed a hint of worry that he seemed to want to hide but found it difficult.

"I have reported it, and something will be done very soon; you kids can leave now," the man said.

The trio breathed a sigh of relief before moving towards the purple platform that Cole found out to be a teleporter.

Before the trio got on top of the teleporter, the man had already arrived behind the machine used to control it.

"Get ready," The man told the student as he pressed the button.

Cole felt themselves growing a little lighter as the teleporter glowed brightly.

Before they completely left that place. Cole noticed the man’s lips moving gently to say something, and after straining himself to hear, he finally got it. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

"Take care, kid."

He was just about to speak up and ask further questions when the thing completely activated, teleporting them away.

"Take care, what does he mean by that, and why was he speaking to me specifically?" Cole wondered.

"Could he have found something out?"

While teleporting, Cole’s mind grew slightly fuzzy, making thinking hard for him at that moment.

He didn’t know how long had passed, but he finally felt himself arrive somewhere else.

Panic suddenly filled Cole’s heart not because of the usual darkness that followed teleportation but from the words he heard.

"Murder? How?"