Moonlight sat on his seat, unfazed by the death aura.
"You're no ordinary person, you reek of death. Fortunately, I have been surrounded by that stench all my life," Moonlight said.
"My mistake, I meant no ill intent," I said to him.
"It makes no difference; I will kill you regardless. Show me this strength you speak of," Moonlight said to me in a way that made his intent to kill me almost feel physical.
"Sure, follow me," I said, then got up and left the café.
Moonlight followed closely behind. I hid my presence, attempting to sneak into a hangar. I noticed Moonlight was capable of the same feat, and this brought a smile to my face as we passed through the crowds completely unnoticed. I used the dark cloud's power to hide my presence. So, I wondered how Moonlight was able to hide his presence.
We finally arrived at an empty hangar, standing 10m across each other.
"Come at me whenever you're ready," I said as I loosened my tie in preparation for the fight.
Moonlight did the same, then revealed two pitch black daggers that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.
"You seem quite confident with yourself…I'll change that!" he said to me, then dashed forward with tremendous speed that wasn't natural for the average human.
With the daggers in hand, he attempted to stab forward, going for a quick kill. I easily dodged to the left, thinking I was in the clear, but right after I moved to the side, I was met with a follow-up attack of a dagger already being swung straight for my throat.
I crouched, easily dodging the swing, but then noticed a foot already sweeping towards me. I then jumped up to avoid the incoming strike, leaping backwards to keep some distance. However, the barrage of attacks never stopped.
Each time I dodged an attack, another was lying in wait for me, never giving me time to rest or counter.
'If I were a normal person, I would have been dead by now. His attacks are relentless,' I thought to myself.
In the end, Moonlight was just a human, and his attacks were far too slow for me. He kept slashing at me without rest, each attack always aiming for a fatal blow. He then leaped backwards and threw two kunai towards my eyes, but I casually caught them right before they made contact.
'Wow, he actually threw kunai at me!' I thought unable to contain a smirk. Moonlight then suddenly stopped his chain of attacks.
"Are you mocking me?" he asked, then raised a dagger towards me.
"Stop taking me lightly. Show me your strength!" he commanded, then charged at me once more.
"If you insist-," I said out loud. Immediately after, a dark, suffocating aura descended over the entire airport. The atmosphere became extremely cold as all signs of life were silenced.
People all around the airport suddenly stood still in fear. They didn't know why, but their backsgoogle dive quickly became drenched in sweat. Everyone within the airport was affected this same way, except the tailed Lilith.
Most people collapsed from the receding pressure. The 12 Liberators could somewhat hold their own against the remnants of this pressure, which was only directed towards Moonlight.
In that moment, I no longer held back my death aura. To Moonlight, who was the closest, it was like hell itself descended on him. He was completely frozen in his tracks. Sweat could be seen all over his body. His face was as white as a ghost. As his hair turned white, he remained frozen in place, looking forward in fear and horror.
He immediately dropped the two pitch black daggers he held in his hands and knelt on the floor, feeling defeated. I then withdrew my death aura, which lasted only a breath or two. I walked up to him and stood before him as he was still kneeling on the floor. However, his eyes still managed to look up at me.
Suddenly, a loud crash came from behind me. A plane that was about to take off mysteriously had its pilots and passengers knocked out. That same plane came rolling towards the very hangar we were in.
At the speed it was coming at us, the crash would instantly kill Moonlight. He was still in his stupor and couldn't react fast enough.
(Tsk)
I then reluctantly flew towards the nose of the plane and held out my hand. The plane then came to an immediate halt as if it had hit an immovable wall.
"Are you satisfied?" I asked Moonlight, looking down at him.
Seeing that he was still too shocked to speak, I retrieved a paper and a pen from my pocket and wrote down the address of the hotel room Elaine was staying in. I had yet to get a place of my own.
"When you're ready to talk, look for me here," I said to him, then slipped the paper into his coat and took my leave.
I then met up with the tailed Lilith and found her still messing around with the 12. They were scattered all around, each of them seemed to be searching for something.
"Come on, you guys getting really close now. Maybe they are under that plant there," tailed Lilith said innocently, but her face betrayed her. She was enjoying their struggle.
"Tailed Lilith, let's go, we're done here," I said to her. The tailed Lilith then innocently skipped towards me. "
Umm-," one of the 12 wanted to speak up.
Tailed Lilith then swiftly turned around and said, "Oh, right!"
As soon as she said this, all the weapons she had taken had shockingly been returned to their respective owners. All 12 looked relieved after getting their weapons back, as if they had been reunited with their long-lost loved ones.
"Wait, where is the Boss?" A young, short Asian female asked me with an intimidating look.
"He's fine. He should be with you shortly. All depends on how long he will take to recover," I said to her. Hearing this, the 12 then immediately surrounded and faced us with their weapons drawn.
"What did you do with the Boss?" She asked as all 12 of them directed their weapons towards me.
They all felt the pressure from before and knew it didn't come from Moonlight. They could each feel a similar pressure from me, despite my efforts to suppress it. Even though I could hear their hearts racing, they still stood their ground, despite their fear.
'These guys are pretty loyal!' I thought to myself.
"Nobody-Touch-Him!" A sore, worn-out voice came from behind me.
I looked back and saw Moonlight walking towards us, looking like he could barely stand. His face was sunken and seemed drained of life. Although he had no injuries to his body, he looked like he had just come from a beating.
"You're already up! I'm impressed," I said to Moonlight. He then walked past me, unable to look me in the eyes.
"Let's go, I need to rest," he said to the 12, leading them away from me.
"We should go as well," I said to the tailed Lilith.
I then disappeared from the airport with the tailed Lilith. The tailed Lilith had big plans for her day, which kicked off in the hotel room. She was currently preparing to have a field day with my credit cards.
I, on the other hand, went back to the farm to continue practicing my control with the dark cloud and figure out new applications for it as well. After I met with Elaine, I came to realize there is much more to the dark cloud than I had originally thought. The questions she raised also had me thinking.
'Why does the cloud seem to have a mind of its own?' I thought.
Before I could delve deeper into the cloud's mysteries, I quickly looked at the situation around the world and noticed the death rates linked to my book had dropped by 5%.
'At this rate, it will only decrease faster with time,' I thought to myself.
I then took a peek at Elaine to check on her progress and saw her doing various tests to see how the dark cloud reacted to different environments.
"I shouldn't forget to interfere with her tests," I said to myself, then changed the properties of the dark cloud as she ran bolts of electricity through it. I made it seem as though it just got a boost, as if it were on steroids. She immediately gasped in amazement, looking like she had made a breakthrough.
Following that, I checked on Azrael, communicating with him telepathically. "Azrael, how goes the search?" I asked him.
"Nothing yet, master," he said disappointedly.
"We have just finished scanning through the borders of the Milky Way and have sensed no life thus far. So, we are now on our way to search another galaxy. I may not have results now, but I, Azrael, will not fail you!" he said with a determined tone, increasing his speed and expanding his senses. If there was even a hint of life within the range of Azrael's senses, he would detect it.
'Wow, he's a bit obsessive, but I suppose it's a good thing,' I thought to myself.
I then stopped talking to Azrael and began practicing my control with the dark cloud. Since I didn't need to rest, I went on like this for months. Studying and doing different tests with the dark cloud. Figuring out new ways of maintaining my human form and using the dark cloud.
To do this, I had to understand the cloud itself. I could sense an unconscious lifeforce within the cloud. Although it was not sentient, I learned that it could respond to my will. Whatever I willed the dark cloud to be, it would become. Given that I had an in-depth understanding of what I wanted.
If it were my will for the cloud to become a knife made of jade, I wouldn't be able to conjure it without knowing the components that make up jade.
As far as I knew, the dark cloud was a supernatural gas filled with all kinds of viruses, bacteria, and elements that somehow coexisted. There were numerous elements within the cloud that went beyond humanity's knowledge thus far. I wanted to study these new elements and see what applications they may have.
The more I synchronized the lifeforce within the dark cloud, the more I understood it, and the easier it became to impart my will. However, synchronizing with the dark cloud took a lot of focus. It was as if the lifeforce was somewhere beyond my reach, and I could just barely feel it.
'With time, perhaps I might find a permanent solution to my time limit for my human form,' I thought to myself.
Slowly, but surely, I could sense slight changes to my body. I didn't know what these changes entailed, but I could feel myself becoming one with the dark cloud. Within this time, the tailed Lilith continued to learn more about what humanity had to offer. She seemed happy, as if this was the most excitement she had had in a long time.
Anna would occasionally call me to attend some meetings or sign a few documents. Which became a nuisance, as she would always manage to call during the most critical of times.
Each time we met, she would always make an effort to meet outside of working hours, but I would always turn her down. Each time I was with her, I just wanted to go back to comprehending the dark cloud.
Elaine continued to believe that she was making progress with the dark cloud, as I would occasionally change its properties each time she tested something new. She believed that different environments changed the properties of the dark cloud.
For example, heat would eliminate some of the harmful bacteria within, but most of the harmless ones as well. Adding water after would restore some of the harmless bacteria and mutate them, causing them to eat away at the harmful bacteria. After many "experiments", she was cracking her head trying to figure out how to make the changes remain fixed. This was the breakthrough she needed.
Despite my tampering, I was able to learn even more about the dark cloud through these experiments. I was happy to learn that electricity was really like a stimulant to my dark cloud. Although I changed the properties to suit Elaine's results, l figured out that the environment did affect my dark cloud to some extent.
It was a simple concept to manipulate, and she bought it all. Due to my practice, controlling the dark cloud, I was now able to change its properties to a molecular level. One microorganism at a time.
With enough concentration, I could even tweak it to the atomic level. I felt as though I was only scratching the surface of the potential this dark cloud had.
Within 4 months, Elaine was able to "discover" a binding solution that allowed the changes to remain fixed. After sacrificing many sleepless nights, she eventually succeeded in creating a permanent cure for malaria. This new vaccine could adapt to different infected mosquitoes and eliminate any dormant liver-stage parasites.
As a pharmaceutical scientist, creating such a drug was a lifetime achievement. Through numerous tests with the dark cloud and trying it against various diseases, she was again able to come to another breakthrough. Within another 2 months, she created a drug to cure the common flu. One that could adjust to the mutations, just like the cloud did.