Chapter 270

After a few dozen shots from Van, the last beast crashed into the ground with a low thud.

Looking at the weapon in his hand in amazement, Van spun around and unleashed a final shot toward the leg of Berg’s beast.

The energy beam went right through the limb, while the small status bar to the side of the gun turned gray instantly.

Berg turned around to glare at the Aspirant for a second with a deep scowl on his face.

"What did you just do, Van?!" Kai shouted as he stomped angrily toward the boy.

Tossing the lifeless gun away, Van rose to his full height.

"I was doing the right thing."

"How is that right? You just ruined my flawless plan!"

"Flawless? Ha! You think the other Legacies are fools? I may not know them as well as you do, but you should think, Kai, think! You think they will simply accept the explanation that a beast killed him?

Oh, please. You said it yourself; the Legacies are trained to fight ever since they can walk. And you honestly believe that they will fall for the excuse that an Advanced-rank beast... mind you, not a King-rank but an Advanced-rank, managed to kill him? Come on!"

Luckily, Berg wasn’t close enough to overhear what they were saying, as his attention was immediately snatched back by the monsters in front of his position.

Kai squeezed his fists while gritting his teeth repeatedly.

"Yeah? Then I should just sit back and watch him scheme another plan to take my friend out?"

Van shook his head. "I’m not saying that..."

"... So what are you saying? And you claim to care for Ray? When you can’t even support me in my decision to eliminate his biggest problem?"

"And then get hunted for the rest of your life by his family?" Van retorted.

"Who cares? I also have the backing of my family."

"And you think they are greater than the Big Four? Regardless of how strong your household is, they are nothing compared to the Big Four."

"They are. They are stronger than the Big Four."

"Oh, please. Stop being delusional. Who do you think your family is? Huh?"

"I had everything in the bag because my family would back me up! Nobody would have even been able to lay a finger on me, not even the Big Four, and that’s because my family is..." Kai paused.

His eyes widened at the sudden realization of what he had been about to spew.

He quickly clenched his hands and then took a step back, turning away from Van.

"Your family is what?"

"Forget it," Kai mouthed, and then began walking away to help the others fighting within the barricade.

Chloe rushed to Van’s side. "Great. We actually stopped him."

Van didn’t give a reply, as he was currently trying to process why Kai had just halted his words so abruptly.

’Oh no. You are going nowhere until you say what’s on your mind.’ Without saying anything else, Van rushed off to catch up with Kai to question him further.

Chloe was left standing in the exact same spot with a flustered look on her face as she scanned the area, noting that the number of beasts left was incredibly small and the Aspirants were finally beginning to catch a break.

"Wait up!" she shouted as she dashed forward.

Within moments, the seven were all inside the barricade, which wasn’t large enough to easily contain them all since the spiders had already taken up a massive chunk of the space with their hulking bodies.

Throughout the verbal clash with Kai, the small group had luckily taken out the rest of the monsters.

Only Ray was left dealing with the last one.

Van quickly pulled at Kai, making sure the blonde faced him directly.

"Continue what you were saying."

"I said, drop it."

"No, I won’t."

"Haaaa.... haaaa... haaa. Here is not the place for your love spat," Caster chimed in amidst heavy panting.

He had long run out of meta-force and was just fighting on low fuel.

Felix turned to look at the duo, most especially at Kai.

"Did you do it?"

Kai clenched his jaw tightly.

"What do you think? The most righteous amongst us completely ruined my plan!"

Trisha turned to glance at Ray struggling with the last beast for a moment, her cold face illuminated by the eerie blue light radiating from the swirling gate a meter away.

Berg, who was battling the creatures nearby, was beyond furious.

Earlier, he had been holding his own against two monsters, but now, he found himself completely cornered by four.

The extra two had rushed him from the group Kai had been engaging before abruptly abandoning the position.

’Damn them all! Damn that squad! I swear, if I get the chance, I will kill them all. Especially Ray and that pauper friend of his. I will eliminate every single one of them.’

"Aaaaaah!" he roared in defiance as he swung his leg toward one of the beasts.

At the very last second, intense flames erupted from the heel of his boot, amplifying the force of the kick and sending the creature’s heavy body flying with tremendous velocity.

Unfortunately, the trajectory wasn’t random at all.

The beast’s body crashed straight through the heavy barricade surrounding the portal.

The squad standing near the structure all turned just in time to see the spiked carcass flying their way with blazing momentum.

Reacting simultaneously, they all dove aside, allowing the projectile to pass through the space they occupied.

Ray had just pinned the other beast’s scythes into the ground when the flung monster smashed into his target with immense force.

With double the momentum, Ray was suddenly lifted off his feet for a second while the launched creature whooshed past him and crashed directly into the portal.

Half of the spider’s long limbs passed through the threshold, and immediately, violent sparks of lightning began crackling across the gate’s surface, running up and down with deadly speed.

The very next second, the gate churned violently and spun like a rapidly turning wheel.

Instantly, the beast’s body was sucked into the void with tremendous force.

That wasn’t all.

It felt as though a localized wormhole had just been torn open in the midst of the barricade, and Ray’s body was instantly yanked toward the anomaly.

"Wha—?!"

One by one, the others were pulled toward the portal by an irresistible gravitational force.

Lincoln, who was watching the Aspirants through his tablet device, had a look of pure horror on his face.

"No, no, no, no! What is the meaning of this?"

Tapping on his communication bud, he quickly shouted down the line,

"EVERYBODY! Get away from the gate right now!"

Unfortunately, the frantic warning came far too late for Ray’s squad.

After Ray was pulled inside, Kai was next, followed closely by Trisha, Chloe, Van, Caster, and Felix.

The moment they passed through the threshold along with some of the dead carcasses scattered in the area, the vortex whirled erratically for several seconds.

Captain Jake, who was watching the entire event unfold from the control room, suddenly looked down as blazing alarms echoed through the facility, while technicians rushed around the space with panic written all over their faces.

"The—the energy signatures emitting from the portal... it’s just like that previous incident,"

the woman operating the control panels uttered, dread creeping into her voice.

"You mean....?"

Looking back at the primary monitor, the coloration of the portal began changing at lightning speed until it switched completely from a calm blue to a bright, menacing crimson.

"A red gate. LINCOLN!"

Before the Sergeant could even take a step forward to retrieve the teenagers sucked into the void, the crimson portal twirled around for a few final seconds before vanishing entirely out of view, as if it had never existed in the first place.

The gate was completely gone.

And with it, squad Ray was gone too.

___

End of part 1 of vol 3.

Part 2: Vol 3 of the "Red Gate Arc: The Forgotten Lands" begins....