Chapter 342: Making a list, checking it twice

With Brent and the Wind Esper at his side, Kellen moved forward once more. With the masks and the goggles to protect their mouths and eyes, going forward would be much easier. It would also mean that the Wind Esper wouldn’t have to use his powers as much until necessary.

With three people down, and potentially one death under their belts, Kellen and the others moved back towards the stairwell.

"Be careful. Watch yourselves, and don’t shoot each other." Kellen warned. Brent chuckled.

"It’s not shoot to kill, remember? You’ll live if I shoot you." Brent joked. Even the Wind Esper chuckled. Kellen rolled his eyes, the trio breezing past the stairwell door that had caused them issues only moments before.

Kellen looked to the side, staring at the wall where the Wind Esper had slammed the two others against the wall and sighed. The cement was cracked slightly. Someone was going to have to repair that and for some reason, Kellen’s mind went to Rhys. After all, if a bomb went off, it was him who would have to keep everything together.

He hoped that they were okay.

He knew that they were okay. Hell, the place was crawling with S Class Espers, but with contact cut off, he just hoped that they weren’t worrying themselves into an early grave. That was not something he wanted.

They cleared the stairwell rather quickly, no one else seemingly around and Kellen pinpointed a window that would be good to break to clear out this area. The problem? Kellen could tell as they moved up the stairs from one floor to the next as they cleared the stairwell that there had to be a bomb or something on each floor.

"We’re going to have to find the source and toss it out the fucking window." Kellen muttered. Brent grunted, clearly having the same thought.

"But the glass is hardy, isn’t it?" The Wind Esper commented.

"Hardy for a gun, not hardy for an S Class. Not really. It’s the ’S Class proof’ glass that is supposed to let you get a few hits in or hide someone before they get in." Brent said, then shrugged when both Kellen and the Wind Esper looked at him. "I was there when they were discussing it. They had to replace a few panels. Apparently Aunt Dina went a little wild." Brent muttered.

Well, at least they had some extra information. That meant that either Kellen or the Wind Esper would be able to break it.

"We’ve got knives." Kellen said, glancing at the Wind Esper. He couldn’t read his face well because of the mask and goggles, but he nodded.

"We do. You point me in the right direction. I’m your weapon to command." Kellen hated when they called themselves that, but he couldn’t exactly argue right now. If that was how he was viewing himself, sure, fine. They could bicker about it once they were out of this situation.

The only person Kellen truly had to convince they weren’t a monster was Rhys, and he was about half-way with that right now.

"We’ll have to go from floor to floor to clear the area. The next floor up is supposed to be where the safe room is, but we need to clear all three levels before I’d feel comfortable bringing anyone to the safe room, Or to even check it." Kellen told them. Brent nodded in agreement, and so did the Wind Esper. "So we’re in agreement? Start on the first floor and work our way up?" Kellen confirmed and got nods in return.

Kellen led the way to the first door. He trusted his senses and his gut as he opened the door. Unlike when he’d opened the door before, no one was waiting for him or shooting at him. Instead it was eerily quiet. Kellen didn’t like that.

The hallway was quiet, ominous as a thick haze filled the air. Thankfully it was being filtered through the mask that they were wearing but Kellen and Brent made sure to clear every room that they could gain access to. Why?

Well, it was good practise, and it made sure that they knew if there were any casualties. It was a morbid thought, but Kellen didn’t think that they were using knock out gas given how the two people who he’d seen interact with the gas had convulsed and gasped for air.

That was not any knock out gas that Kellen had ever seen. This was also, probably, the E.A.G. Not even the Chronos Guild would be this ballsy to attack Aunt Dina, even if they were ’under control’ of Brent’s brother.

Kellen had heard about the guild and the conversation that Brent had with them. They wouldn’t have done this while knowing that Brent was here. If they did, well, they were already on the list so it didn’t matter. They just might get moved up the list.

Clearing each room took time, which Kellen knew they didn’t have a lot of, but this floor didn’t have a lot of rooms either. Most were large rooms, probably used for meetings, and thankfully, there weren’t any dead bodies.

That they could find.

They did pinpoint the safe room and Kellen just prayed that if anyone was in there, they weren’t dead and that they had a filtration system built into the room. They did find the item that was producing the poison and Kellen picked it up and carried it to the stairwell.

Better to have it here than stinking up the rest of the floor.

Thankfully, there appeared to be windows that could open on that floor and so Brent and the Wind Esper had been opening them as they cleared the rooms, leaving each door open for ventilation where it mattered.

Then they moved to the next floor.

They weren’t as lucky on that floor.

Kellen felt ill to his stomach as he found two bodies. They looked like civilians but Kellen wasn’t sure. Bodies looked like bodies without identification, and Kellen didn’t have time to find out who they were. All they had time to do was cover their faces and put them in more respectable positions.

Brent didn’t seem to recognise them but that meant nothing. Aunt Dina was going to be beside herself that someone, anyone from her Guild had died. Kellen would be too.

This floor had windows as well, and the poison-emitting item was found, secured, and brought to the stairwell again.

Then, it was time for the last floor before the stairwells rotated sides. Kellen knew that this was going to be the floor that they ran into someone. There was no way that it wasn’t. It was a pinch-point and Kellen went into opening the door expecting someone to shoot.

It was a good thing that he did.

Brent shot first, asked questions later as shots went off as the door opened. Thankfully, they had a Wind Esper on their side so as soon as Kellen cracked the door he pulled the door open to reveal...nothing.

But Brent’s gun pointing into the room and firing.

Shouts rang out, the Wind Esper rushed in, and soon people were flung against walls, hung there like paintings while Brent and Kellen stripped them of their weapons and knocked them out. Kellen didn’t need to play by the same games that they were, and honestly he wanted them to find out the purpose of this event.

Even if he only found out what their role was in this scheme, that was information that they didn’t have before. Once more they began scanning this floor and this time they seemed to find an item that cleared an area of poison. An item that was...familiar.

Even Brent recognised it, and a sneaking, dangerous suspicion filled him.

This was an item designed by the Peach Guild. An item that Carlos, a former E.A.G. member had designed to filter out poison. If Kellen didn’t know the man personally, and knew Sakura personally, this would have had him spiraling.

The fools thought to bring his people onto a suspicion list.

"Oh, they’re fucking dead." Kellen muttered. Brent chuckled, prodding the tool with his foot. It was just as well that they had created this space in one of the offices since they had captured members of the Phoenix Guild and had held them captive here. They were unconscious, there were three of them, and blood painted one of the walls.

Brent’s chuckle was just as dark as Kellen felt.

"We’ll have to fight over it." Brent told him mildly, while the Wind Esper dealt with the remaining intruders.

"Put them in here for now." Kellen called, stepping back into the hall. He now needed to find the last of the bombs and toss them out the fucking window, then grab Sergei and the others and escort them to the safe room and then continue climbing the tower. "These bastards." Kellen muttered.

"Agreed. We’ll deal with this, Kellen." Brent sounded just as calm as Kellen. That meant that the two of them were barely hanging on by a thread.

"I’ve got them packed up in a bundle. Tied them together, tightened. They won’t be able to escape easily." The Wind Esper said, bringing said bundle into the room. Kellen nodded, leaving him with Brent while he did one last scan on the floor before stopping to stare at the door on the other side of the hall.

They had no idea what they had come into contact with.

"I’m going to go break the window and toss the gas bombs outside." Kellen said, spinning on his toes. "I trust you two have this?" Kellen asked and Brent gave him a thumbs up.

"We’ll be following after you shortly." Brent confirmed and Kellen nodded. He was grateful that his friend was on it since he needed to do something to deal with this anger. Punching a hole in a protected glass window was going to help that rage.