132 Goody Goody
The days waned, and the scars of an enormous battle playing out in the city square remained. It was hard to tell what had happened or who had come out on top, but what was clear was that the number of Turned didn't seem to have changed at all—but the kinds and types of Turned, however...
That was a different matter entirely.
Exactly three days later, calm and rested, Zarek and his small team approached the city square.
Reaching this point hadn't been easy by any means. The concentration of Turned here was simply outrageous. It was precisely reflective of the sort of population density one would expect from one of the—well, most populated cities in the country.
When most of them couldn't hack it, becoming Turned, it was only natural that it became especially difficult to maneuver.
But Zarek was quite used to such things. Ironically enough, he felt that it would be far more annoying if most of them were still F Classes.
But at E Class—and D Class especially—the Turned started to have hierarchy, organization, territory. This made them far easier to deal with because they wouldn't easily spill from one territory into another, and the kills of some wouldn't necessarily alert others.
This wasn't to say the Turned were building a society of their own. They were still mostly just animals. But they had more predictable patterns now, habits that could be taken advantage of when you knew what you were doing.
So long as they didn't alert too many of them at once, were patient in dealing with them systematically, and didn't overreach, they could move forward steadily and in control.
In these three days alone, they had learned quite a lot about what it meant to deal with the Turned, and they almost forgot that they were approaching quite a dangerous area—until they actually got there.
"No rush," Zarek said lightly. "I want to check something first."
…
Zarek began to slowly lead everyone around the square. He didn't seem to have a particular aim. He gazed toward the damage from time to time, noting how things were aligned.
"Decisive."
This was already the fourth time Zarek had said this, and the others were still just as confused. Well, they were as confused as they could be while occupied with making sure the Turned didn't take Zarek's head off.
Zarek seemed to have forgotten that he was in the middle of a battlefield—but they certainly hadn't. Priya was still picking out targets, while Zade had been left to be the vanguard all on his own.
One would have thought that Zarek was a femme fatale they were all risking their lives to protect.
"Here," Zarek suddenly said, his eyes flickering.
Zarek's words had hardly left his lips when he entered the Vault of Hell high-end jewelry store.
Zade cut down an E Class Strength Type, and Mitch quickly sparked its blood into a pyro flame that burned bright white. They unfortunately didn't have the senses Zarek did, so there was no opportunity to easily sever Godsfall Droplets for an insta-kill. They had gotten used to making sure the Turned were completely destroyed before moving on, lest they be attacked from the back.
They slammed the doors shut behind them, hurrying to hide before more turned the corner.
"What are you looking for?" Priya finally asked Zarek as he walked around the glass cases.
"Nothing up here, apparently," Zarek muttered to himself before looking toward an inconspicuous panel in the wall.
He kicked out, but it felt like he had come across a thick steel plate, his ankle rattling on impact.
"Jackpot."
He walked forward, feeling at the panel for a moment. Then, he used Harmonic Recall on it.
Closing his eyes, he rewound time.
'...Too far, not specific enough.'
Zarek was limited in how far back in time he could go. It had already been three days since they had been here, and he, despite the improvement, could still only go back a few hours at best.
He could go back further the more specific the target was, which was why when he focused on material, he could even see their birthing process. So he believed that if he found something specific enough this time, he could see what he wanted to.
'I'll have to find a way through this door. If I'm correct and they were here, they felt it important enough to hide what was happening here. No—at the very least, they felt it was important enough to put things back to the state they were in before they arrived.'
"Mitch."
"Yes?" The big man jogged over, trying not to drool in front of the items that would have been worth millions just months ago.
"You're up. There's a lock here, and I'm going to need you to combust it from the inside out."
"Roger that."
Mitch pressed a hand to the door, feeling around for what Zarek was looking for. He had been growing more used to the extra sensory perception Atom Link gave him too, and the more he did, the more he felt controlling the chemical reactions of his Pyro Talent had become easier.
It made him feel a bit embarrassed that he had doubted Zarek earlier, but in his opinion, a real man apologized with his actions, not his words.
'Found it...'
Combusting metals was impossible. Zarek was just speaking colloquially. What he actually wanted was for Mitch to supercharge the metals on the hidden latch, exciting the chemical bonds just enough that—
Mitch suddenly moved to the side, and Zarek reacted instantly, kicking out again with even more force than the first time.
Kre.
The door bent inward.
Zarek stomped a foot onto the ground, his eyes flashing as he unleashed another kick.
BOOM!
It flung open, nearly soaring off its hinges. A steaming heat filled the air as molten metal dripped to the ground.
"You're getting better at that. You actually melted the steel this time, not bad. If I had been more patient, you could have opened it on your own."
Mitch grinned and gave Zarek a wink. "Just leave it to me."
"Oh god, you sound like an over-eager goody-goody."
Mitch was stunned for a moment before Snooz's burst of laughter woke him up.
He was the one who made fun of people—when'd he become the butt of the joke? Ridiculous.