Chapter 314: We Didn’t Sign Up For This
"What do you want from me?"
Katarina spoke in a low, miserable voice that made it seem like she had completely given up on life. Jason could understand why she would sound like that. She had gone from the leader of one of the strongest guilds in the country to a prisoner used by the government whenever they wanted, so it would be difficult for her to come to terms with her new life. But Jason didn’t care about any of that bullshit. Jason came here to give her a simple warning.
"I still don’t trust you, so if you try anything stupid, I’ll kill you."
Katarina glanced up at Jason with a pitiful look on her face.
"You’re enjoying this, aren’t you? You spared my life so you could see me suffer, and now you’re here to gloat."
Jason scoffed.
"You overestimate how much I care about you. Think what you want, Katarina, but remember my warning. Don’t do anything stupid."
Jason turned around to leave, but Katarina suddenly spoke up.
"I won’t, you know... I won’t do anything to hurt anyone anymore. You were right about me. I was just a coward who didn’t want to face reality, and I hurt a lot of people because of my cowardice. I’ll do my best to help whenever you need me to. It’s the least I can do to pay you back for what I’ve done. Just... please don’t lose. We need you if we’re ever to stand a chance against that monster.’
Jason glanced back at Katarina, and he saw that she was looking up at him with tears in her eyes. Jason didn’t bother to say anything as he simply walked away. Jason had a feeling that Katarina was actually being genuine about how sorry she was, but Jason didn’t care about her remorse. Jason walked over to Liam, and he spoke up calmly.
"Did you tell the superhumans here that what we’re going into isn’t a regular Gate?"
Liam nodded. He had been surprised when he spoke to Luthor earlier, and Luthor told him that they were actually going into a parallel world that had been taken over by a tyrant. Liam didn’t really know how to explain something like that to the people who were willing to join them, so he had just told them that they would be fighting humanoid creatures on the other side. Jason frowned once he heard this, and he shook his head and turned to the crowd of superhumans.
"Listen up."
Jason’s voice was as calm as always, but the moment he spoke, every single person in the room turned to give him their full attention. Jason looked over the gathered crowd. There were about twenty superhumans in total, and from what Jason could feel, they were all in the high-level A rank to high-level S rank region, so Jason was sure that he didn’t have to worry about any of them not handling themselves inside the Gate. But it would still be bad if they went inside the Gate without knowing the truth about what they were going to face. This wasn’t some battle against a few humanoid creatures; it was a revolution against a tyrannical government.
Jason spoke up once he was sure everyone had gone silent.
"I know many of you have heard the rumors going around on the news about dragons and humanoid dragonriders, and I can tell you with full confidence that it’s all true. The other side of that Yellow Gate doesn’t contain mindless monsters like what you’re used to. It’s a passage to another world with a civilization, a military, and a ruling body, just like Earth. But that world just went through a coup that took the life of their king, and their new Sovereign was the one who sent the dragons to destroy our city. Now, I need you all to think very well about what you are about to get yourselves into. This is not a regular Gate dive. It is a war. You will be required to kill people who look just like you, and there is a very high chance that you will die as well. But it is not your battle to fight. You will not gain anything from fighting a war that doesn’t concern you, and you do not need to put your life on the line if you aren’t ready to lose it. No one here will hold anything against you if you wish to turn around and leave."
Jason looked around at all the shocked faces in front of him. The things that Jason had said were a shock to many of the superhumans since they hadn’t been properly briefed on what they would be facing in there. They knew that they would be fighting against other humanoid creatures, but they didn’t think that it was this serious. Jason’s words sounded like the setup to some sick joke that was being played on them! The superhumans began to murmur amongst themselves, and some of them even glanced towards the exit as they thought about leaving, but all of a sudden, one man stepped forward. It was a young man with green hair and brown eyes that were set into a permanent glare. He wore black combat trousers and a black shirt, and there were five metallic bands on each of his wrists that Jason could feel were filled with mana. Jason wondered if those bands were part of the boy’s gift, but Jason didn’t have time to think on that as the boy spoke in a clear voice.
"Do you have a plan for attacking this Sovereign?"
Jason glanced at the boy curiously, and the boy met his eyes with as much courage as he could muster. There was a fire burning in the boy’s gaze, and Jason couldn’t stop his lips from curling up as he answered.
"Of course I do."
That was all the boy needed to hear at that moment as he spoke even louder!
"Then I will go with you and fight! Those bastards took our city from us! They came here unprovoked and killed us without a second thought! If that isn’t enough reason for us to want to eradicate every single last one of them, then I don’t know what is! I’ll stand with you every step of the way! If I die, then I die!"
Murmurs rang out from the crowd once again at the boy’s declaration. This was something that Jason didn’t expect. The sheer hatred that Jason could see in the boy’s eyes told him that this wasn’t just an ordinary mission for this boy; it was something personal!
Another man stepped forward and stood beside the boy!
"I’ll go as well! If they think they can come to Earth and do whatever they want without any retaliation, then they had another thing coming for them! Whatever your plan is, please include me in it as well!"
"I’ll go as well!"
"Me too! Count me in!"
"I’ll go!"
More and more people started to step forward after the first two, and at the end, Jason saw that only ten out of the twenty superhumans had stepped forward to join the battle. The other ten had skeptical looks on their faces as they murmured between themselves.
"Hey, this whole thing sounds crazy. I don’t think I can go."
"I didn’t sign up for a war, man. I thought this was just a Gate raid."
Jason looked over at the other superhumans that hadn’t stepped forward, and they all looked away from Jason’s eyes as he glanced over them. Jason turned to Liam and gave him a nod, and Liam sighed as he moved forward and began to usher the superhumans who hadn’t agreed to join out of the room. Jason wouldn’t hold anything against those superhumans since he knew that this wasn’t what they had signed up for, and Jason was glad that he managed to get rid of the excess weight before the mission even began. At least now he knew that the superhumans in front of him were ready to put everything on the line for this mission.
’That was very inspirational stuff! You’re a natural-born leader, boy! You should accept my offer for training! I can make you into the leader of your own Sect by the time I’m done with you!’
Esdath suddenly yelled with pride in his voice, and he laughed loudly at his own words! But Jason just deadpanned at the idiot before he sent a message to Ragnar!
’Get him.’
Roarrr!
’Wait! No! Get away from me!’
Ragnar immediately pounced on Esdath again, and the old man cried out as he quickly flew away from Ragnar! Jason shook his head in exasperation while focusing back on the ten superhumans that had remained behind. Jason spread out his senses to see how powerful they were, and he saw that there were four S Ranks and six high-level A Ranks.