A silence fell across the meeting room at Paul's words, with the occupants who already knew of the failure of the mission having mixed reactions. Shizuka had an uncaring look on her face. Faye had a serious look. Paul had a somewhat grim expression on his face. Nathan was slumped in his seat and trying to look away.
The only three members among the group who didn't know about this beforehand were Sergeant Leo, Sergeant Dillion, and General Duke.
Leo's eyes were narrowed, and Dillion's eyebrows rose above his sunglasses in surprise.
Meanwhile, Duke had a look of shock on his face. Then, it quickly morphed into anger.
Instantly, he jumped to his feet and slammed his palms flat on the table, making the whole table shake.
"The fuck you mean 'failure'?!" he roared. "How hard is it to scavenge some fucking materials?!"
Faye's face hardened into a look of frustration.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," she replied in a passive-aggressive tone. "Does the fact that we lost eight men in a Beast Horde and had to retreat INCONVENIENCE YOU?"
Hearing Faye's words, Leo's eyes widened.
"'Eight men'?!" he repeated in a low tone, as his hand tightened into fists. His hands were clenched so tightly that his skin was starting to turn white.
Faye then turned to Nathan.
"Blame it on our genius leader," she replied, her passive-aggressive tone now having a deep layer of sarcasm. "Who, in his infinite wisdom, decided to send a squadron of Level 2s to a Red Portal Planet."
Nathan gulped.
Duke snapped his head towards him.
"You're a really fucking idiot, you know that?!" he snarled.
"It was supposed to be a simple mission!" Nathan retorted, trying to justify his decision.
Duke then turned to Head General Paul.
"So, what, we're just abandoning all those precious materials, and letting them rot on a Beast Planet?!" he retorted.
Shizuka's eyes narrowed.
"Remember your place, General," she replied in a steely tone. "As far as I'm concerned, you're on thin ice as it is."
Duke's hands tightened into fists so tight that his nails were cutting into his skin.
Paul let out a sigh.
"We're going to have student Hikiko Tsukuru simply recreate everything we would have retrieved from the Beast Planet," Paul replied, causing them all to turn to him.
He then glanced over at Nathan with a hard expression.
"Additionally, we're also going to need to do some reassigning of roles among our ranks," he replied. "Due to someone's negligence, we now have eight empty spots that need to be filled."
Duke glanced away.
"You mean 'incompetence',' he muttered.
Nathan's head snapped towards Duke.
"Hey, Duke," he shot back. "Had any more Second-Years pushing kids into Portals under your watch lately?"
Duke whirled on Nathan.
"FUCK YOU!" he roared.
Paul pinched the bridge of his nose. It seemed that General Duke had become increasingly more aggressive and agitated since being informed about his punishment for the 'Incident' with the Red Portal.
***
Back with Starrk, he was beginning to wonder how he was even going to open the colossal door of the castle. There weren't any handles or anything. And even if there were, this door must weigh like several tons.
However, his musings were cut short as he heard a noise coming from the door. Slowly, he saw the two sides of the doorway begin to pan out.
Starrk slowly took a few steps back, just to make sure he didn't get hit by the massive doors as they opened.
The gate only opened partially, but it created a gap large enough for Starrk to walk through.
As Starrk walked through the opening, the doors slowly began to shut behind him.
***
Back in the meeting room on Military Base 2, Paul let out a sigh.
"Enough," he said in a stern voice. The others all turned to him. "We're not done."
Paul glanced over at Shizuka, whose face tightened.
"I also had new information about student Hikiko Tsukuru," he replied.
Duke gritted his teeth, hearing that boy's name.
He had quickly become his most hated student after that stunt he had pulled. Of course, Duke was conveniently ignoring the fact that said stuntwas the only reason why he was still breathing.
"It seems that he can no longer just create Beasts," he replied.
His words made the eyebrows of everyone except Shizuka raise in confusion.
"He can also bring fictional characters to life."
***
Back with Starrk, he took a look around him, scanning the castle's interior. He saw a long, winding hallway with doors lining the walls. The doors were quite sparsely placed, giving an idea of just how large the rooms inside were.
At the end of the hall, there were two sets of curved staircases on either side, leading to the upper level. Additionally, there was a large set of double doors behind the staircase, positioned at the back of the hall.
Starrk raised an eyebrow. Seeing as how the door at the back of the hall seemed to be significantly bigger than the others, he decided to check that room first.
Starrk began his path down the long hallway.
***
Back in the meeting room, there was a long silence as they all took in Paul's words.
The people at the table began to look amongst themselves, checking to make sure that they all had heard him correctly.
Eventually, Sergeant Dillon pulled his sunglasses down.
"I'm sorry, Head General," he replied, giving Paul a sceptical look. "But can you repeat that? Cause it kinda sounded like you just said that a student can bring fictional characters to life."
Paul's face hardened.
"That's because I did," he replied.
Dillon seemed unconvinced.
"Sir, Abilities can do a lot," he replied. "But that's a little…far-fetched, isn't it?"
Paul let out a sigh.
"Sergeant Faye, if you would," he replied, sliding a thumb drive across the table towards her.
Sergeant Faye nodded andgrabbed the drive when it reached her.
Like before, she retrieved the room's projector from the room's storage cabinet, and placed it at the end of the table facing the blank wall.
She then inserted the thumb drive into the port and turned the projector on. It whirred to life, and soon, an image was projected on the blank wall.
***
As Starrk walked down the winding hallway of the enormous castle, he could hear his footsteps echoing as if he were in a vast cave. It just added credence to the immense size of this place.
He passed door after door on the sides of the hall. They all seemed to be virtually identical, possessing no form of label.
Eventually, he passed the large, curved staircases and approached the large door. Unlike the door outside, this one actually had handles.
Starrk let out a deep breath.
'Here goes nothing,' he thought.
He grabbed the handle on both doors and began to slowly pull the doors open.
***
Back in the meeting room on Military Base 2, the occupants of the room turned their attention to the projected image. It showed an empty conference room. The room had a long, rectangular table lined with chairs, not unlike the one that they were currently sitting at, as well as a large TV mounted to the wall with a frame of black metal.
A moment later, Shizuka and Hikiko Tsukuruentered the room.
"This is a security feed from earlier today," Paul explained to the others. "Student Hikiko Tsukuru requested use of an unoccupied 'room with a TV screen'to test out one of his new Skills."
On the screen, they all watched as Tsukuru walked towards the back of the room where the TV was.
However, a moment later, he turned back to Shizuka.
The group then heard the same conversation Paul had heard when he had seen this recording. In which Tsukuru had asked Shizuka to lower the screen. As well as Shizuka's quick jab at his height.
They then watched as Shizuka walked to the back and lowered the frame holding the TV by pressing the bottom button.
Tsukuru then pressed his hand against the screen.
Faye's eyes narrowed.
"Someone's going to need to clean that before that conference room is used again," she replied.
Paul let out a sigh.
"Yeah," he replied. "I know."
Tsukuru stood in front of the TV for a moment, his hand pressed against the screen. Then, the TV miraculously turned on by itself.
The eyes of all those watching the security feed, with the exception of Paul and Shizuka, widened upon seeing this.
A moment later, the magic circle appeared on the screen.