Silence took over the room after Ciara’s demise.

No one uttered a word. There were just various expressions all given in varying degrees.

As they all stared at her bleeding corpse, multiple emotions went through them, and several thoughts flowed through their minds.

None of them uttered them, though.

Instead, the room took a tone of deference to her death. The silence was palpable, and the dead calm was scary just as it was beautiful

However, the lull was shortlived

“Hehe… hehehehe… hahahahaha… HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA!!!”

The one who laughed, breaking the wall of silence, was none other than Neron himself.

“Hahahahaha! What an idiot! To think she confessed to Phoenix XY-001!” He burst out laughing even further.

His latest and most sophisticated project, Pheonix XY was meant to serve as an attempt at the creation of a perfect, undying soldier.

By brainwashing an individual and infusing several weapons, all powered by Isotope XY, into them, it would make them into the perfect loving weapon.

No emotions. No weaknesses. All that mattered was the mission.

“I never killed Jerry to begin with, you fool! He was a very good specimen, and the perfect scapegoat! You loved your whole life thinking he was dead, but he wasn’t!”

And the best part?

The best part was the way she died at his hands after trying to avenge him.

“What a fool! Truly! Hahahahaha!!!”

Neron, who had been scared out of his mind a few moments earlier, was now reveling in his victory.

‘Fortunately, he was able to get here quickly enough. I would have had to resort to ‘that’ if he didn’t come on time.’ His grin intensified.

Now that his Phoenix XY-001 was here, he was invincible.

“You really are a monster in every universe.” A feminine voice echoed in the room, and Neron noticed it came from the blond woman in the group.

Aloe Vida.

“How disgusting.” She whispered.

“Hahaha! So you’re all still here? I totally forgot about that.” Neron ignored her comments, considering the fact that he didn’t care for the opinions of dead men.

“They are my enemies.” He smiled, turning towards his perfect project. “Kill them for me.”

“Understood.” Jerry’s mechanical voice sounded once more, and he swiftly moved to eliminate his master’s opponents.

However, before he could do anything, his body froze—as if locked in the confines of time.

“Huh? What’s going on?” Neron murmured, seeing as his ultimate creation wasn’t budging despite receiving an order.

“Kill them for me! Do it now!”

“U-under—”

“Shut up.” This time, the voice that emerged came from none other than the golden-haired boy.

“This entire thing has been quite irritating to watch.” He stepped forward, his tone matching the expression he had.

A frown was planted on his face, and his eyes narrowed on Kuzon.

“We promised her we wouldn’t interfere, which is why we did nothing despite everything that went down…” He sighed, eyes glowing golden.

“But now that she’s dead, do you really think this piece of junk can actually do anything to me? To us?” Kuzon growled.

Neron didn’t understand. No, perhaps he just wouldn’t understand.

‘He’s calling it a piece of junk? No way! It’s the ultimate tool! It’s Isotope XY counteracts the effects of abilities or dampeners. It has immense firepower. It has no emotions or limits. It requires no fuel, as long as the isotope serves as its power source!’

The list went on and on.

In the end, the being called Phoenix XY-001 was a masterpiece.

How dare this boy treat it as less??

“Y-you dare to—”

“Kneel.”

>VWUUUUMM!!!<

An immense pressure accompanied his tone, and Neron found his body—his real body—falling to the ground in obedience to the words of a mere boy.

“I didn’t want to damage it too much since our ally was fond of it, but now… might as well destroy your ultimate creation in front of you.”

Neron’s eyes widened as he noticed something around Phoenix XY.

‘T-threads??’

There were strings all over his masterpiece’s body, preventing it from moving even if tried.

But how could such tiny, insignificant strings hold something so strong?

Neron had no idea!

He was currently at his wit’s end.

“Stop there, Kuzon. You shouldn’t destroy that body.” The voice of yet another Ciara echoed across the room, sending shivers down Neron’s spine.

It took him a second or two to remember there were two Ciaras in the room, and the one who wanted to kill him was already dead.

“Urgh! What now, Ciara? You want to spare it because it looks like Jerry? It’s a mindless tool now.” The one called Kuzon sighed in exasperation.

It seemed he was very eager to end things quickly.

“No, you idiot. He still has a mind.” Ciara responded sharply, moving closer.

“I-idiot…?”

“Its just been altered to suit that bastard’s needs. That’s the basics of brainwashing.”

“You just… called me an idiot?”

Completely ignoring Kuzon’s objections to her earlier statement, she touched the stiff Jerry’s body and smiled softly.

“He’s still in there.”

“Haa… you… are you serious right now? So what if he is? You want him to recover his mind and find out he killed his dear friend?” Kuzon groaned, now rolling his eyes at this point.

“Well, I can revive Ciara. Isn’t that going to solve the issue?” Jared suddenly spoke up, uttering something so crazy that Neron’s mind twitched for a moment.

‘Resurrect Ciara? What nonsense is he spouting?’

“Do you even have enough capacity for that? You’ve used a huge chunk of energy for a lot things already, and I can tell that your body is already at its limits.”

“Well, you have a point. The issue isn’t even energy at this point. It’s my body’s constitution. But…” Jared suddenly smiled widely.

“… I never said ‘I’ would be doing it alone.”

‘What in the world is he even talking about?!’

>VWUUUUUUUUSSSHHHHH<

Suddenly a portal manifested within the room, swirling and turning to reveal the occupant that slowly emerged from within it.

… It was yet another Jared!𝒪𝓥𝔩xt.𝗇𝓔t

‘W-what in the world is this? What is happening here?!’ Neron’s thoughts echoed as his eyes nearly brought forth tears in response to the absurdity

The new Jared that appeared had a wide, confident smile plastered on his face. His eyes gleamed with such energy, and his presence contained so much power that it made the room around to tremble.

“I’m finally back, everyone.” He declared, hands folded in a confident pose.

“Is this a bad time?”

*

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A

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