Chapter 206 We Are On Our Own
"I…" Hark's voice suddenly trailed of as he realized that Zack knew the truth. Hark was conflicted on the inside as he tried to find a suitable answer but failed miserably.
"Hark, mind telling me what Jason is saying?" Jonathan asked while slightly coughing as Hark contacted his other half.
'Do you think its safe to talk to them? What if father goes on a rampage again…'
[ Don't worry. I think it won't happen this time. ] His other half replied in a confident tone.
Hark took a deep breath before deciding to launch in the version of the truth.
"I am a half human, half god. My mother belonged to the light faction while my father, Sun Wukong, belongs to the neutral faction. This made things a bit unique and I ended up belonging to both sides instead of being neutral.
That is also why I can do things like this," Hark paused as his hair suddenly shifted into half black and half white followed by his eyes.
Just to test whether it was the same as belonging to two sides, Zack brought out Eirias and pointed the sword in his direction.
[ The opponent has been identified to be from the dark side ]
[ Conflict detected! ]
[ The opponent has been identified to be from the light side ]
[ All effects have been canceled. ]
After confirming it, Zack nodded as he turned out and started to walk out of the throne room.
"You don't want to ask anymore questions?" Hark asked in a confused tone as Zack replied without turning back.
"I got to know what I wanted. As for anything else that you might be hiding, everyone is entitled to having secrets." Zack replied without turning back as he walked out of the throne room.
He knew that Jonathan was going to ask Hark a lot of questions but his job had been done. He had managed to know why Hark had belonged to both the sides and had guessed that it was due to Sun Wukong.
'I wonder if everything in the real world is going fine. Only Mia is left there…' Zack thought as he decided to log out for some time.
As much he wanted to stay inside Hikari, he knew that Earth was of equal importance especially after he had realized who the Golden Dusk was.
He immediately jumped into one of the rooms in the place and laid down on the bed. Zack then summoned Chastiefol around him and set the spear on auto mod.
Just like Eva's bow, Zack's spear had also activated auto mode which would make it attack anyone that moved inside the room unless and until they were someone Zack classified as an ally.
'You are coming with too right?' Zack asked Lance at the last moment as the Phoenix nodded mentally.
The two of them then logged out of the game at the same time as Zack woke up in the gaming pod while Lance woke up on the floor.
"To think I would fall on the floor after going inside Hikari…" The Phoenix grumbled as Zack slid off the gaming pods and stood up.
His eyes then traveled towards Emma as he saw her body inside the gaming pod. He released a sigh before moving out of the basement and making his way to Mia's location.
[ Mia, where are you… ] Five minutes later, Zack had no idea where he was as he had gotten lost in the mansion.
He had no idea how that could happen if he had the entire map in his phone watch, that was unless something had changed after the entire place had been rebuilt.
"Hello, Zack." While he was still trying to figure things out, Mia's voice suddenly rose from behind as Zack whirled around to see her standing in the hallway.
"Its going to take some time for me to get used to that speed." He muttered as Mia grinned. Her expression than calmed down as she decided to ask him about everything that had happened inside Hikari.
Zack told her everything from the top to the bottom without skipping anything as he had a feeling that Mia's powers were going to be useful soon enough.
The two of them had reached the top of the mansion while Zack had been telling the details.
"So that means that you are will soon be getting your powers. But for the time and condition…" Mia's voice suddenly trailed off as she stared in the distance and released a sigh.
"Are you just gonna leave me hanging there?" Zack asked in a curious tone as he followed Mia's gaze to see that she was looking at the players that lived at Doogle mansions.
Zack felt angry as he realized that not a single one of them had come to fight the battle in the capital or the one at the borders of the kingdom.
"They can't do it," Mia suddenly spoke up as she looked at Zack's face. "None of them can login into Hikari for some reason and they are not the only ones. More than ninety percent of the remaining population can't play Hikari."
"Huh? What the hell…" Zack suddenly felt that something wrong was going in the world. If people couldn't login, how were they supposed to keep up with the events going in the real world?
His gaze fell on certain players as he noticed what they were actually doing. Those who were able to use light magic were actually healing those that had been wounded severely.
Then there were those who were practicing their mana in a tensed way as though they expected to be attacked at any moment.
"Mia, are you forgetting to tell me something?" Zack asked with narrowed eyes as he felt the behavior too weird.
The injuries caused by the fight with Gajeel would have healed long ago thanks to healers as well as potions that could be brought to Earth from the game.
However, some of the injuries looked real fresh to him.
"Well, its just that many players decided to rebel and left the place in favor of other organizations and guilds or more specifically, the golden dusk guild is influencing a lot of people which is bad considering who they really are.
The ones who rebelled actually tried to force others to come with them which led to a major fight. I arrived at the right time and kicked their asses but somehow, they managed to escape me by vanishing inside portals."
Zack clenched his hand fingers into a fist as he looked around the players gathered a few hundred meters away from the mansion.
The total number of people remaining was less than two hundred.
"Did they promise anything like those who will join them will be able to log inside Hikari again?" He asked in a neutral tone as Mia looked surprised.
"I was just about to tell that. How did you know?"
"Just a lucky guess." Zack replied as he flew above the mansion before appearing directly above the gathered players.
"I will ask you this here and now, how many of you actually want to stay here?" He asked in a loud and clear voice as total silence followed his words.
For a few seconds, no one moved as they were still calculating what they should say or do. Then one by one, numerous hands rose in the air.
In less than a minute, more than eighty percent of them had raised their hands and after seeing such a huge majority of the people raising their hands, others raised theirs too and the every single remaining resident of the Doogle mansions was ready to leave.
Zack looked all of them with a dejected look before he raised his palm in their directions and a silk rope shot out from his hands.
The silk rope wrapped around the players below as Zack suddenly rose in the air. The rope grouped all of them close to each other.
The next second, all opf them rose in the air as Zack stared at Mia. The latter understood what he was doing as she nodded while sighing.
Zack's wings burst out from his back as he rose higher in the air and shot towards the edges of the continent with the less then two hundred players moving along with him.
They didn't even get the chance to scream as Zack traveled the distance in less than a minute. He had decided to let his lightning movement skill stay permanently on and used it to the fullest.
After all, that was one of the biggest benefits that he had due to his infinite mana.
"Don't try to return as I will kill you the next time I see your faces." Zack spoke in a cold voice as he dropped the players down on a large piece of rock and looked at each and everyone of their faces before appearing back Doogle mansions the next minute.
"We could have just kept them locked you know." Mia muttered as Zack shook his head and landed right beside her.
"There is no point in keeping those who can backstab you at any moment. I would have thought about something if I knew them or they had been useful but till now, they had jsut played the role of forgettable people that I didn't remember about in the first place."
Mia could only sigh at Zack's behavior but she had no words that could tell him that he was wrong. They knew firsthand how it felt to be betrayed and such so Zack's decision to kick all of them out was right.
"So from now, we are on our own. Just me, you, Lance, Emma, Eva, Hayden, Lisa, Ken and Jules."