Chapter 517: Blockades

Coach Owen's expression solidified.

"Of all of them, why did it have to be him..."

The words the Warden spoke were hardly audible. In fact, in his panic, the guard across from him didn't seem to pick up on the oddity either.

Seeing the sorry performance of the person that was supposed to be his right hand man, Escobar snorted, his thick mustache rustling.

"Get yourself together!"

The low shout snapped the lead guard into attention, his heels slamming together as his back arched as though a string had been pulled from the top of his head.

"Gather the men." Escobar said coldly. "We're going hunting."

"Yessir!"

The lead guard spun and jetted off, his speed beyond normal human limits.

Escobar watched this with narrowed eyes, inwardly lamenting the state the Metamorphosis had put his best man in. Though the ability awakened by his lead guard, Garwin, was especially powerful, it left his personality somewhat warped.

Garwin was able to control the balance of hormones and neurotransmitters in his body. The good news was that much like Aina, he could very easily train his body to surpass its limits even without outside influences. In fact, he was better than even Aina in some ways because while Aina was limited in simply making her body stronger, Garwin could strengthen his mind and thinking speed as well.

However, there were major downsides to Garwin's ability as well. Often times, the more powerful an ability, the more complex it was and the more difficult it was to control. On top of this, in order to maximize his ability, Garwin had to come up with many unique use cases for it much like Leonel had to or like Simeon with his gene manipulation ability.

The more difficult an ability was to control, the more potential pitfalls there were. Though Leonel had yet to run into any on his own, Garwin hadn't been so lucky. Because of how sensitive his abilities were, his hormones could easily be set out of wack, causing him to react inappropriately to many situations.

In the past, he had been a man no less stoic than Governor Duke Owen. But, after the Metamorphosis, his emotions were more varied and unpredictable.

However, he was simply too important to Dark Cloud Prison. His fighting capabilities were even beyond Governor Duke Owen's now. This was something the Warden had no choice but to admit. If they wanted to place these criminals back where they belonged, Garwin would have to be a key cog...

The Warden walked back into his office, finding a particular cabinet of files and opening it. His expression became more somber the more he flipped, but his pace didn't accelerate, only remaining even from start to finish.

Finally, he landed on a particular file by the title of #D1109.

The first picture he saw in the file was of a baby with large pale green eyes. The small boy had a small button nose and messy dirty blond hair. All in all, he was an adorable child. But, there was something off about the photo.

The longer one stared at it, the more uncomfortable you would feel. The longer one looked, the less this baby boy appeared to be a baby boy at all.

The Warden had lost count of how many times he had stared at this photo, but it wasn't until recently that he realized what was so off about it all.

It was the eyes. This baby's eyes didn't have the innocent light of a child nor the curious nature of a newborn... Rather, its gaze was vacant, continuously staring back at you as though it already had everything figured out.

Coach Owen sighed.

The rest of the document was filled with redactions. Place of birth, parenthood, even the date of birth was crossed. There was nothing but this picture and the prisoner's code. Nothing more, nothing else.

"... So similar..."

The Warden couldn't help but feel that his life's work was nothing but garbage. Only he and a few select people knew the truth of these matters, but what he did know left him feeling cold.

'Your resentment, I understand it. However, I cannot allow you to do as you please. It seems that I will need to kill you with my own hands.'

The Warden put the file away, locking the cabinet as Dark Cloud Prison continued to tremble.

Then, he turned and walked out of his office, his mustache bristling.

**

"Scouting units, move out." Leonel commanded.

The speed types jetted out in eight different directions, each of them leaving blazing trails of wind in their wake.

To the back of the troop, there was a large, lingering mountain range. Since Earth had long since mastered terraforming technology, allowing the continents to come together to form a single super continent, it also took advantage of this technology to make Dark Cloud Province as inaccessible as possible.

As a result, there were only two paths to enter this province that didn't include the sky. The Northern Passage and the Southern Passage.

Noah and Leonel had split into two groups, each manning one of the passages. Leonel was tasked with bringing support from the South.

According to what Leonel understood, Dark Cloud Province already had its own forces, obviously. They were simply bringing support. In addition, it would be their job to capture any escapees once the situation was settled. Aside from this, they would have to worry about the forces of Terrain that had been sent to this location, which should include the forces of Hargrove City.

Leonel took the vanguard of the army with Aina by his side. She held onto her great sword, a serious light hidden behind the slits of her mask.

The forest was quite dense. Moving in such a large group would make things difficult, so Leonel took advantage of the ten-man squads he had formed and had them fan out. It would be difficult to fight any large scale battles in this place, but that also went for the enemy as well. With the makeup of the squads, it would be much easier for them to deal with issues.

At that moment, Leonel's gaze suddenly sharpened.

'As expected.'

Just a few seconds after Leonel had the thought, a communication talisman lit up by his side and entered his ears silently.

"Captain, Squad North West has detected the movement of enemy scouts. They number seven. Standing by for orders."

It was impossible for Terrain to not also be aware that there were only two entry paths to Dark Cloud Province. In that case, how could they not erect their own blockades to stop incoming reinforcements?