PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

In the last few weeks, Desmond had not only spent his time training with Claire but also turned his attention to this new ability by finding new ways to use it. In Desmond’s current understanding, his law of contradiction was both rare and valuable as long as one had the necessary imagination.

In theory, Desmond just had to think of the desired effect and create a chain of contradictions in the form of a verse. As long as Desmond had a relatively deep understanding of the desired effect and a strong will, almost anything was possible. With time and practice, Desmond developed a couple of simple skills that didn’t put too much strain on his body, one of which was memory reading.

Contrary to what one might think, reading an individual’s memory with the law of contradiction was not only possible but not even too complicated, as long as one did not care about the safety of the person whose mind was being read.

Of course, theory and practice were still two different things; this was the first time Desmond had read someone’s mind in this way. In all honesty, Desmond would rather not have to do this again. To put it in his own words: it felt like having a hundred needles penetrating his brain.

As expected, reading an individual’s memory was not easy; Desmond had to live days of remembrances in just a couple of seconds, and his headache originated from his brain having problems processing information.

Kneeling with her head still held by Desmond, Paulett, the commander known as the gray pillar, now looked like a dead person; only her eyes remained open, although they had changed color, one was totally black with no iris or pupil, and the other it was white.

Desmond was the same as Paulett, with the only difference being that black and white feathers occasionally slipped from the inside of Desmond’s right sleeve, where his tattoo is.

Inside Desmond’s mind was a vast gallery of images moving at high speed; these were Paulett’s memories. Desmond ignored most of the photos, concentrating on what he was looking for.

.....

What were seconds in the real world were hours inside Desmond’s mind, it was an exhausting process, but it was worth it because Desmond found what he was looking for.

It was a scene that occurred inside Paulett’s office two weeks ago. It was the moment Paulett gave the assassination order along with the hit list. That memory was precisely what Desmond was looking for, he had to be sure that the person involved would not escape due to carelessness, but it seemed that he had the right person.

As Desmond was about to log out of Paulett’s mind, a more recent memory caught his attention. Desmond only noticed this memory because the first image of it was pretty alarming. The cover of a folder said it was classified as top secret.

This was just a memory fragment of that particular event, a few minutes that stand out as crucial over the rest of Paulett’s memories of that day. Immediately after viewing that memory, Desmond severed his connection to Paulett’s broken mind.

Breaking out of the strange state that allowed him to access the commander’s memory, Desmond resisted the slight numbness in his right wrist and wordlessly snapped the commander’s neck before running from the spot.

As he sprinted out of the military base, Desmond couldn’t stop cursing out loud as he tried to radio the rest of his team.

“Damn bastards, did they really have to invite that person? This country is full of idiots; paying that guy is definitely not worth it. Shit, Silvia answers the damn radio.”

Fortunately for Desmond, his worst nightmare had not come true, and Silvia answered the radio after waiting a few seconds. “Desmond, did something happen on your side?”

Not even bothering to explain, Desmond immediately gave a simple command. “Abort, abort the mission. Everyone has to immediately withdraw from the city; this is a bloody order. Everyone get the hell out of this city as soon as possible.”

On the other side of the radio, Silvia had to erect a wall of ice to stop the barrage of bullets coming in her direction. Keeping her calm countenance, Silvia extended her hand and muttered a few words. “White and limitless, frozen and eternal. ”

From Silvia’s hand, the purest essence of frost shot out in a cone of freezing that encompassed the entire street in front of her. When the steam cleared, the only thing left in front of Silvia was a white landscape like the world she saw in her trance.

Silvia’s eyes weren’t necessarily indifferent like Desmond’s, but their coldness was still to be feared. The dozen people turned into shards of scattered ice didn’t seem to weigh her mind.

Near Silvia, facing another squad of reinforcements, Claire finished her fight almost as quickly as Silvia. Entirely surrounded by a fortress of telekinetic energy, Claire could stand in front of a torrent of bullets without concern, at least for a moment long enough for her to strike back. Clasping her hands in front of her ample bosom, Claire gathered her arcana into a translucent purple dagger and, with a gesture, hurled the dagger at her attackers.

“” In the same youthful voice as always, Claire called out her ability. In mid-flight, the purple dagger shattered into hundreds of purple crystal shards that soon formed new blades identical to the original.

Claire’s daggers were not only numerous but also fast, and their destructive power was even more remarkable. Every time one of the daggers hit something, it exploded in a mighty micro shock wave, and the corpses left behind were barely identifiable.

Having more trouble than his teammates dealing with his enemies, Morales was involved in an extended firefight, but Morales’ victory was only a matter of time with his crystal revolver.

Finally having some time to respond, Silvia picked up the radio. “Desmond, at the moment, reinforcements on the way have been dealt with; there are no other threats.”

Desmond’s angry screams came from the radio. “I don’t give a fuck. Everybody needs to get out of the fucking city. Listen to me, Silvia; you must get Morales and Claire out of here.”

Silvia called Claire and Morales to her without saying a single word or showing a change in her calm expression and began the retreat. From the tone of Desmond’s voice, Silvia deduced that things had become much more dangerous than expected, so much so that Desmond ordered a final retreat.

Silvia and her group ran at full speed, taking down as many of her pursuers as possible; at some point, Silvia picked up the radio again and tried to ask for an explanation. Silvia was smart enough to let Desmond know that they were already in the process of backing out, which saved her from getting another round of yelling from her boss.

Although Desmond was also speeding away from the military base, the word discreet was inappropriate for his actions. Desmond was like a wrecking ball that kept firing his big, noisy guns.

Dropping a weapon, Desmond threw a punch, and with a burst of blue shockwaves, an armored car flew into the air. Catching his pistol back, Desmond began to explain as he ran.

“Don’t ask me how I know, but you have to trust that what I tell you is true. I’m not sure why, but Country C is more desperate to win this war than we thought. This goes beyond just resources; otherwise, the amount of effort and resources they mobilize would not make sense. Still, that is a problem for our superiors to worry about.”

Turning into an alley, Silvia bumped into a couple of soldiers at an uncomfortably close distance, but her reaction was quick. Placing her open hand in front of her lips, Silvia blew almost seductively; the soldiers would have enjoyed the sight of her if it weren’t for the deadly icy wind that came from Silvia’s lips.

Although Silvia’s cold blow wasn’t enough to kill both soldiers, it still pinned them down until Silvia was able to shoot both of them. Quickly, Silvia made sure that Claire and Morales were well behind her before answering the radio.

“I bet this information will be invaluable to our superiors, but that was not why you ordered the retreat; what’s going on?.”

With his ridiculous speed, Desmond had already made his way to the top level of one of the city walls and was about to leave, which he delayed while he answered over the radio.

“As I said, these idiots are much more hell-bent on taking us down than we think. So much so that they even hired that damn psycho mercenary.”

Out of nowhere, the smell of ozone surrounded Desmond, who merely instinctively used both and to run as fast as possible. Not even a split second later, a gigantic thunderclap fell right where Desmond used to stand.

Following the roar of thunder, a thick, burlesque voice echoed through the area. “Hey, isn’t it rude to call me a psycho?”

Now below the city wall, Desmond was pale-faced, and without a second thought, he used every last ounce of mana available to run in the opposite direction Silvia and her group were moving.