Stanley immediately looked around the moment he entered. There weren’t many people here, just 3 that lay tired and bored at Midnight.

They were surprised by what sounded like an explosion to them. But before they could react any further, Stanley arrived next to them, punching them all in their jaw with a force that immediately knocked them all out.

The sound had alerted the others, so Stanley hurried.

He walked in further, arriving at a hall with a few people that were already on their legs, ready to go out.

Stanley saw a vision of them shooting him in the next 2 seconds, so he pulled out his own gun and shot at them.

5 precise plasma shots flew toward 5 people that were bringing out their guns. It all landed on their guns as it was knocked out of their hands at once. He didn’t recognize any of these people, so he knew they were no threat.

They were also petty criminals who deserved to get sent away to prison, but not killed.

He pulled his sword out before throwing it at an arch over them all.

Then, he moved so quickly that the sound barrier was broken through, with speed which he used to knock these people out as well.

By the time he arrived at the other side of the room, the sword hadn’t even landed anywhere.

He caught the sword midair and placed it on his back before moving along.

He had his future sight active at all times, so he saw a bunch of people coming out of the corner.

He took out a flash grenade and threw it in front of him before closing his eyes. Even with his eyes closed, and his hand in front of him, his vision brightened to the point that it felt like the was looking at a hologram up close.

He put down his arm as the light died down and arrived at the corner where he quickly incapacitated the half a dozen people who were already down from the bright flash.

Once he knocked them out, he moved toward the stairs that would lead him down to where the big shots stayed.

A few people walked out of the stairs.

’How many more left?’ Stanley thought to himself. He didn’t expect everyone to come at once, but he had to imagine they would.

There were about 30 people in total, and he had defeated nearly 15. So, including the ones that were out of the stairs, there would only be about 10 more left downstairs.

Then, it was the 4 guards and finally David himself.

Stanley dashed forward, crashing through the group of people that did not expect him to be this quick at all.

While the others fell, he stood straight and quickly dealt with them before walking downstairs.

’There will be more security downstairs, not just humans,’ he remembered Reena’s lessons. He needed to be careful.

As he walked down, he saw something flash in his future sight and a bullet struck him in the head, killing him at once.

Stanley moved his head to the side as the bullet passed by the side of his head. He took out his gun and tapped something to the side that changed it from simple plasma shots to one with nearly triple the power.

He pointed it in the direction where the bullet had come from and shot it.

He was sure that he hit it when he saw no other bullet come from there in his future sight. That was an anti-artillery bullet designed to destroy guns and other metal weapons that a normal plasma shot would only toss away.

Stanley pressed his gun again, putting it back to the normal setting. He hadn’t done it for any reason other than the fact that he was used to doing so after every shot.

That was his teaching in the association and he followed it through completely.

The moment Stanley arrived down the stairs, he was welcomed in a large hallway with 5 guns mounted in the ceiling, and the remaining 10 people were barricaded behind a shield that allowed for one-way passing.

Stanley looked at them and sighed. The magnet on his back deactivated for a moment and the sword detached itself.

The moment it was off, Stanley slowed down time once again. He felt himself grow light with the absence of the sword. With the lightness, he moved forward at an incredible speed, stopping only when he arrived outside of the shield.

The shield flicked slowly in this state. At most, it flicked on and off twice which to him felt like a single second.

He pulled a plasma grenade out and activated it before tossing it into the barricade when the shield turned off for a moment.

As the grenade flew in, Stanley brought out his gun and put it on Anti-artillery mode again.

He pointed it at the guns mounted in the ceiling, none of which had realized that he wasn’t where they were pointing anymore.

Stanley shot when the Shield was down, shooting all 5 guns in less than three-tenths of a second.

He turned around and ran back, grabbed the sword that was barely halfway to the ground, and rushed back up the stairs.

Time flowed back normally, and he heard the sound of the explosion as well as the people crying in pain. He did his best to not have to kill people, but he wasn’t going to risk being in harm’s way for that.

He tapped the side of the sun, putting it back into normal mode before taking out the magazine. "It doesn’t last very long, does it?" he asked himself, before switching it with another one.

Then, he went back in.

* * * * *

"How’s he doing?" Reena asked Gray.

"You can see if you want," Gray said, walking through the hallway with knocked-out people.

"Just tell me. I barely have 10 meters of vision. That would be useless," Reena said.

Gray chuckled a bit before speaking. "He’s doing well," he said. "He’s knocked out over half of the grunts alread— actually no. He just took out all of them."

"He did?" Reena sounded surprised. "Are you behind him?"

"No, I’m quite far from him. But I am keeping an eye on him," he said.

"Good," she said. "If he’s taken care of the grunts, then it will be the four others. Look after him properly."

"Don’t worry so much," Gray said. "He’ll do perfectly fine. Just watch."

* * * * *

A man with thick beard walked out with a gun when he hear the commotion. "Who dares attack us?" he shouted and looked through the smoke to see someone.

Stanley walked through the dust arriving a few distance away from the man and looked at him.

This was the man that killed his own parents.

Stanley’s eyes narrowed when he remembered about him.

"Die, bitch!" the man shot is gun, spraying bullets at Stanley.

Stanley, however, was no longer there at all. He had moved to once corner of the room and waited for the man to finish attacking.

The man stopped before looking perplexed. Stanley walked out from the corner and stared at him again.

The man hesitated to attack this time around. "What..." he questioned for a second before pulling the trigger once more.

The barrage of bullets flew in a perfectly straight line with not a single deviation at all. The man realized Stanley was gone and walked out as he started attacking around the corner as well.

He felt a rush of wind behind him while he still had his finger on his trigger and a voice drifted into his ears.

"I cannot imagine what sort of son would kill his own parents just because they didn’t give him the money to feed his gambling addiction," Stanley said. "What sort of evil he must be to even do such a thing."

The man realized Stanley was behind him and quickly turned while continuing to shoot. However, no one stood behind him.

"You are the sort of person that doesn’t deserve to live," Stanley said.

A look of surprise flashed through his eyes and he quickly reached for the man’s hair before pulling him back.

A spray of bullets riddled the man with holes that completely filled him in a matter of seconds.

Stanley was already gone from the cramped hallway and was outside in the main hall waiting for the attacks to end.

Then only he walked back next to the hallway and looked at the dead man with his eyes wide open.

It would be a lie to say Stanley felt nothing right now. That was because he did feel something alright.

He felt a bit of joy that he shouldn’t have, but he did. He looked at himself with confusion and realized what was happening.

"Is this me absorbing a soul?" he wondered. He had been overwhelmed with all sorts of feelings the last time to understand what it felt like to absorb a soul.

However, now that he was mostly calm, he could understand that joy that came from absorbing a soul, the ecstasy. He could lose himself in it if he was allowed to.

’I see,’ he thought. ’No wonder they think a Nova is so bad. It’s hard to avoid giving in to the temptation if you don’t have a powerful will.’

The feeling was genuinely something he wanted to experience once again, and for that, he needed to kill another person.

But that wasn’t the reason why Stanley would be doing this.

He walked straight into the hallway and looked at the second person that had just killed his own friend by accident.

Then, a bullet was shot.