Adopted Soldier

. . .

While Alex and the others were trying to catch up to Rachel, Oliver saw something in one of the rooms . He stopped running, which made everyone except for Alex to stop running as well .

"Oliver, what’s wrong?" Sayaka asked .

"You guys go ahead, I want to check something out . "

"Are you going to be okay?" Niel who also noticed what was inside those rooms had a few guesses as to why Oliver wanted to look . Knowing how extremely perceptive Niel was, Oliver, nodded his head and answered, "Yeah, I’m going to be okay . "

"I see . . . " After saying that Niel and the others left, except for Sayaka who stood beside him .

"You can go ahead, I’ll catch up in a bit . " Sayaka shook her head and answered, "I’m staying with you Oly . The whole reason I even went here was for you . Of course, I also came for Alex and the others, but my main reason is you and always will be you . Now that I can finally touch you and see you, I’m never letting you out of my sight ever again!"

Oliver looked at Sayaka surprised by her sudden outburst . After the shock passed Oliver smiled at Sayaka and said, "sure, then we’ll be together forever from this point onward . "

Hearing Oliver’s answer Sayaka hugged Oliver and almost cried . This was close enough that you could even call it a proposal .

. . .

While Oliver and Sayaka were having their lovey-dovey moment, Rachel was finally able to destroy the shutter door . As she was about to enter, Alex was finally able to catch up and stood in front of Rachel blocking her path .

"What are you doing Alex?" Rachel spoke with a bit of annoyance in her tone .

"Please, allow me to look at it first . "

"Why?!"

"Please, just allow me to do this . I just want to check the surrounding area, and see that there’s no traps or monsters . "

"You do know, right now I’m currently as strong or even stronger than you . "

"You might have gained an [Ability] that enhances your destructive power, but my overall stats are still higher than yours . "

Hearing Alex’s answer, and knowing that it was true made Rachel grind her teeth . After a minute as everyone else was finally able to catch up and gathered around Rachel, she sighed .

"Fine, you can go in first . . . " Rachel reluctantly agreed as she clenched her fist . She understood what Alex was trying to do, but she still felt a bit frustrated .

"Thank you, Rachel . " Alex smiled gently at Rachel as he entered the hole she made through the shutter doors . The first thing Alex noticed was the body of his other grandfather, Leon Greyhound .

The body of one of the most talented Greyhound was laying on the ground his head squashed into meat paste . Unlike Richter, Alex actually felt a lot of pity for Leon . This man’s whole life was a tragedy, and even in his second try, it still ended in tragedy .

Alex decided to burn Leon’s body later . After he was done checking Leon’s dead body he tried looking around for Dan’s . Of course, he wanted Dan to be alive but based on all the information he gathered from the others the chances of him being alive were unlikely .

He noticed that beside Leon’s body was a big pool of blood, based on Leon’s wounds it was impossible that all this blood came from him . Upon closer inspection, Alex noticed traces of a trail of blood splattered on the ground and the walls .

He followed the trail of blood and as he walked onward he saw Leon’s broken scythe and pieces of something that looked like they came from daggers . Even though Alex wasn’t able to witness the battle, he could pretty much guess a bit of what happened after Rachel and the others were cut off from viewing the battle .

Dan was really injured after the battle, his injuries were so severe it was a miracle that he survived, much less move .

’This might be the effect of using that skill called TRANSCEND . ’ Even though Alex had little to no information about TRANSCEND he could guess that it must be a stronger version of RELEASE, with even more side effects .

’So that would mean after TRANSCEND wore off, Instructor Dan should have fainted somewhere here . ’ Alex looked around the area where the trail of blood disappeared, yet there was no dead or unconscious body to be found . There was nothing here, that indicated where Dan’s body could’ve gone .

Alex had a few theories of what happened to Dan after walking to this area of the base, each theory being bleaker than the last . After scouring the area . he still couldn’t find the body . So Alex couldn’t decide if it was alright for Rachel to see this . As he was thinking about what to do next, he heard the footsteps of people coming near his location .

"Where is he?" Alex turned around and as expected Rachel was there, asking that question .

"He’s not here . "

"I see . . . " Hearing Alex’s answer made Rachel smile . In truth, she like Alex also came to the same gruesome conclusion about her father’s death . Now that she knew that his body was no longer here, means that there is a possibility of his survival . Especially now that they had special abilities, Dan might have survived .

Of course, Alex and Rachel also had other theories of what happened, but Rachel decided to look at this situation in a positive light . Even though there were more reasons that point to Dan’s death, Rachel chose to believe otherwise .

It’s not like this was the first time everyone thought he was dead . Rachel felt that not seeing his body was better than finding him .

"I’ll be waiting . . . Dad . "