Chapter 181 - A Miserable Victory
Chapter 181: A Miserable Victory
Moby suddenly closed his eyes and took in a deep breath.
'It seems like my sin-mode is about to run out, it's almost been 5 minutes,'
He was not sure if when he lost his sin-mode in mid-air, he would fall down and get injured and he was not willing to take his chances because he indeed did think it would have been the case.
As he looked at Nags's unconscious body, squirming around and transforming in his right hand, Moby's face could not help but smile even more.
According to the information he had gotten prior, the top 3 seats of the gang were the only people allowed to see the boss. Nags being the 3rd seat meant that he also knew such information. So, if he had met up with their boss in the last 2 weeks he would be able to both spy on their home of operations and their boss's face using his memory manipulation. And even if that was not the case, the amount he could extract from simple questioning would be immense.
At this point, he had pretty much declared war on the entire Zexis gang so he needed to really prepare himself for anything that could happen and to gather as much information as possible.
Also, with both Nags and Jason under his control for at least 1 week, if he made up a good enough excuse he could still use them as good spies, and if not then he could just continue with the premise that they were traitors who joined him and begged for mercy after they lost or something else along those lines.
Part of him really wanted to check up on Ray and turn him into a demon to help out the rest of his friends with an extra member and another part of him really wanted to just drop Nags off at some random tree while he transformed to just rush over to his friends immediately.
If he just left Ray alone, that would definitely put him in great danger in the case that he was found by someone from the gang and taken hostage. Especially now since Nags's yellow barrier shattered and was no longer in use. That probably sent a message to everyone in the area that Nags and Jason, their 3rd and 4th seats have fallen and prompt them to escape and maybe stumble upon Ray in the process.
Or, the gang might have just been smart enough to kidnap him again while they knew that Moby was distracted.
There was only one thing he could do to help make up his mind and make the right choice, ask one of his friends for a status update.
However, before he even got the chance to do anything, he heard a low voice echo inside his head… It sounded like Alex, but his voice sounded broken, like nothing he had ever heard of him before so he had a hard time coming to terms that it was his voice speaking.
'Moby I have an update on the situation… After you defeated their main force and shattered their protective barrier, the enemy retreated…'
'Shit! That's going to be a problem if they saw your demon powers and want to expose you in front of the school! How many escaped!?'
'Don't worry about that, there were around 30 people in total and only 1 person escaped. We used our demon powers smart enough that it didn't look like we were even using them…'
'Oh, if that's the case then there should be nothing to worry about right? What's with the sad attitude? Ray is completely safe and I even got control of the 3rd and 4th seats of the gang. Things are looking great!'
'W-well… They took… They took…'
'Did they take something important like a piece of armour? Don't worry, they won't be able to get much out of it since only demons can benefit from them,'
'No! Th-they took Abby! They kidnapped her!'
Moby's eyes grew wide, as soon as he heard Alex's words he couldn't believe his own ears. No, it was just that he didn't want to believe them. He was in such a good, optimistic mood after he had somehow managed to win both of his fights and now arrived one of the worst news imaginable coming in to ruin his entire way of thinking.
'I was the one who dragged her into this… is it my fault? Did I bite more than I could chew?'
A feeling of discomfort bigger than almost any other welled up in his heart that began to immensely hurt with each pump, making him clench it tightly.
A dark, black aura began to well up from all around him, his anger clearly flowing right through it almost like it was going to eat and devour everything in his path.
A wide yet mellow grin that could only be described as pure madness sprouted on his face, making him look like a ticking time bomb that was ready to explode and unleash havoc at any instance.
He instinctively clenched both of his fists, Nags's head being in his right, almost smashing his skull into a million pieces before Moby found a little restraint to hold himself back from crushing him like a grape.
When he thought of Abby's bright, smiling, hard-working face and the fact that he might never see her again made his heart swell even more, it was like he had lost his daughter or some part of him that he didn't even realize that he had or needed.
He suppressed some tears from falling down his purple eyes that were shifting and turning into a slightly more complex pattern.
'WHERE ARE THEY!? Which way did he go!? Why the fuck are you not following them! How could you let this happen!?' Moby's voice resounded in the mind-link, his unbridled, unfiltered rage on full display.
'Do you think if I could tell you all of that I wouldn't have told you already!? And if I could follow them I would have done so already!? I'm too fucking injured and weak to do shit! Do you think I don't already know that it's my fault! Of course I do! If only I was stronger! If only I had trained even harder all of this could have been averted! Even with all this new power, I'm a fucking failure! I've learned nothing from back then! It's all the same!' Alex's voice resounded back, nearly matching Moby's vigour, tears running down his face like a waterfall making Moby calm himself down just a little.
'Okay, I get it… I'm sorry, it's not your fault, I know you did your best, I just had to take my anger out somewhere and decided to take it out on you without thinking. I'll go get Ray and come to you to get you healed. We only have 1 hour or so before the watches ring so we need to get out of the forest immediately. I'll try my best to find and locate them using my bond. Don't worry, mark my words, if I find out that they even laid a single finger on her, I'll fucking tear them to shreds, annihilate every last one of them, I'll make them wish that they were never even born,' Moby replied, his anger nowhere near being quenched or suppressed.
Moby closed his eyes and tried to focus on the energy signature of his kidnapped teammate. He had some sort of special bond with every single one of his family members and it allowed him to among other things, track down their exact location. It was exactly what he used so that he and Jayden's team could meet up during their exams.
He knew that she wasn't dead. However, right now, for some unknown, inexplicable reason, no matter how hard he tried, no matter how much he focused, he was unable to find a single trace of her.
A bad feeling crept up in his heart once more, it was another reminder that his powers were not absolute, just like when his mind-link did not work when he was stuck in the cave with Travis and Jay and when Jayden was being interrogated in the general's office while he was on the roof.
This meant that his opponent was either cautious about tracking and used some magic crystals or that they now somehow knew about his powers. The first option seemed to be the most plausible, or it was just the option that Moby wanted to believe.
He inwardly cursed, not being able to contact or track her ruined most of his plans.
The kidnapper was definitely far away from the forest by now. If he was able to escape and defeat all of his friends it meant that he must have been at least the second or even first seat of the gang.
He still had a lot of questions to ask, Both to Alex and Jason and Nags who could definitely help him.
Right now, the most useless, idiotic thing he could do was search aimlessly for her location with no lead to go on. It would have just been a waste of time and his chances of actually finding them would be almost none.
He took a deep breath. He couldn't let his anger take over, making him do ridiculous things that he would no doubt regret later on. To find them, he needed to think rationally. And that meant to for now tend to his injured teammates, and get out of the forest and interrogate everyone for as much information as possible.
'Fuck! I can't locate or contact Abby! Where's Jayden? Why am I not able to contact her either?' Moby asked Alex who was still sobbing in anger.
'She's unconscious, she was knocked out. The guy could have taken her too, but he didn't for some reason. When he looked at Jayden, he shuddered and flinched before forgetting about it and leaving.'
'Hmmm… I see… for now, let's just focus on recovering and gathering intel, we can't really do anything else in our situation. We can't be acting recklessly at times like these. I still have no idea what happened on your end so I'm going to be needing you and Jayden to explain everything. And, my 2 new pets will also be more than willing to help us too…' Moby said, his voice now calmer but his mind still in anguish, trying his best to play the part of a calm and collected leader.
'Y-yes of course…' Alex mumbled back, still unable to accept his reality.
"As for you Harpie, I need you to do some explaining… Wouldn't that be just great helping out your new master?" Moby said in a low ominous voice, crouching down to Jason's eye level with a smile.
Jason was on the ground still in a bowing position. He had just witnessed Moby's display of power and anger and was now even more frightened of him than before. But for some reason, despite all that he had gone through, part of him was still completely loyal to his gang.
"Ha! From the looks of it, it seems like HikariYami had already fucked up all of your reinforcements and now He's going to-" Jason nervously said, trying to sound tough before he was promptly cut of by Moby's whose smile grew wider and friendlier.
"How brain dead are you? How have you not yet learned your lesson? Did they brainwash you or something? I don't think you understand that your own gang now sees you and your friend as nothing more than traitors, they won't be coming back for you. And, even if they did, I'll just force you to shut up and fight them. So, here's another lesson... You don't really need your eyes to tell me what happened do you? Gouge them out," Moby ordered in a friendly yet ominous tone that sent shivers down his spine.
Jason gulped,
Before he knew it, his hands had been moving by themselves with nothing he could do to stop them. It was a feeling he thought he could never get used to, the feeling of seeing your body do something on its own while you're still conscious. In his case now, he was staring at his open fists that were slowly drawing closer to his vision that he knew would eventually rip them out as he began to scream and cry to no avail, his eyeballs now both in his open palm.
"Don't worry, they will regenerate soon enough. Now, let's go meet up with the others and then you could explain your story again, but in a better way. How does that sound? I'm very low on time and patience so I would comply quietly if I were you,"