The sight before Cyrus was truly a grotesque one. It was the kind of thing that no one should ever have to see in their lifetime. Nor was it something that he would ever forget.
Seeing Hannah's lifeless body perforated from all angles by a myriad of redwood branches as blood spilled out of every newly created hole would normally elicit some kind of dramatic response from the person looking at it. But for Cyrus, it was different. He didn't know why, but the sight brought him a level of joy that he couldn't properly place into words. It was a feeling that he himself had no clue how to properly understand.
'I did it....' The young man thought while still staring at the corpse of the woman who had violated him. 'I really did it. She's really gone.'
All of the hard work and grueling training he had subjected himself to over the last month had finally paid off. The fruits of his labor were actually in his grasp. He had succeeded. His greatest enemy was now dead and gone. And the once proud Iznana operative was now reduced to nothing more than a horrific lawn ornament by his own hand.
No longer would Hannah be able to cause harm to anyone who would've been unfortunate enough to end up on her exam bed. Her reign of terror was over. And as far as the 'tree magic' user was concerned, he would be the last toy that the woman ever got to play with.
Cyrus then took a second to let out a breath that he didn't realize he was holding in.
'It's finally over. Freddy, I did it!'
Of course, Cyrus was well aware of the fact that his current mental state wasn't exactly the kind that someone should strive to possess. After all, he had just brutally killed another human being for no other purpose than his own revenge. However, it was impossible for him not to feel happy at the fact that he had finally achieved a goal of his that had plagued him for such a long time.
The young man then dropped to his knees as the weight of his actions finally seemed to set in. The green antlers on his head suddenly began to dissipate, and his body started to feel a lot heavier than it had a second ago. He couldn't maintain his overdrive any longer, but he didn't care. And the pain that he was now feeling all over his body felt oddly satisfying in a way that few would be able to understand.
As the young man gazed upon Hannah's lifeless form one more time, a stream of tears began to fall from his eyes.
"It's finally over…." He said with a whisper, knowing that he had finally avenged the death of his dearly departed friend.
-(o)-
"Shit!" Skylar cursed as he made his way through the carnage that Cyrus had created during his fight. "What a damn mess."
The garage was almost completely destroyed, and the fact that there was now a giant redwood tree in the middle of the wreckage was a whole other problem that he really didn't want to think about at the moment. Fortunately, the 'earth magic' user was able to use his powers to keep the entire building from crumbling on top of his head. But he already knew that the cleanup for this operation was going to be one massive headache.
"I guess that's where they are." The brunette then said after laying eyes on the wooden dome on the other side of the tree. Even from where he was standing, Skylar knew that he'd have a hard time breaking through the thing, considering how thick the branches looked. But it was easy for him to tell that this was where Cyrus currently was due to the faint mana signature that he could feel coming from inside of it.
Just one mana signature, though, not two.
That alone was enough to let him know how this little excursion of theirs had ended.
This was the outcome that Skylar had expected, but a small part of him doubted that Cyrus was actually capable of following through on his decision. Evidently, he was wrong. But either way, the deed was now done. And there was no point in dwelling on it now. Besides, it wasn't like he himself hadn't ended the life of another sorcerer before.
As the 'earth magic' user approached the wooden dome, the magical creation suddenly began to unravel. For the next few seconds, he watched the thing slowly undo itself from the top down. And once it was finally done, he couldn't do anything else but pause at the sight before him.
"Jesus Christ!" Skylar reflexively cringed at the image of what was once Hannah Donavan, who now looked like some sort of fucked up lawn ornament with the way that all of those branches were sticking out of her body. "Fuck man, did you have to do her like that?!"
"Oh, hey…" Was all that Cyrus said in response after standing back up on his feet and looking at his partner. "You good?"
"Me? What about you?"
"Y-yeah…" The young man replied as he wiped the last tear from his eye. "Yeah, I'm fine."
"You sure?"
"Yeah."
Skylar knew that he was lying; anyone with a working set of eyes would've been able to see it. Especially with how disheveled the freckle-faced teen looked. But now wasn't the time for any unnecessary questions. They were still technically in the middle of an operation, so all of the drama could be saved for another time.
"You could've told me that you were planning on making that!" The senor agent then pointed at the massive tree in the middle of the building. "I mean, don't get me wrong, it's cool that you actually have an overdrive skill and all, but a little warning would've been nice!"
"Sorry about that." Cyrus replied with a weak attempt at a grin. "But I made sure that you didn't get caught up in my attacks."
Skylar then let out an exasperated sigh before deciding to just let it go for now. Annoyance aside, he was still thoroughly impressed with what he had seen from the young agent during this fight. The guy really had potential when it came to this sort of thing. Hell, this showcase alone was enough for the 'earth magic' user to consider recommending to his Captain that Cyrus join their squad.
Being able to control all of the mana in a given area was a total game-changer. It was the kind of outrageous power that anyone would love to have under their thumb. And the fact that a guy who's only had his powers for a little under a year possessed such a skill spoke wonders about how much potential he had. This was the kind of talent that needed to be properly fostered.
With everything finally over and done with, the two quickly got to work cleaning up the area as best they could. One of the clean-up crews from the station would be sent out later to handle the aftermath, but for now, they needed to do what they could to erase their presence.
As Skylar did his best to stabilize the area and keep the rest of the walls from falling down, Cyrus used his powers to destroy his tree by reducing its size and using a mana burst to turn the rest into a pile of splinters.
In the middle of all that, the 'earth magic' user used this as an opportunity to ask the freckle-faced teen a question that had been plaguing him ever since he first activated his skill.
"Hey, what is this?" Skylar looked to the 'tree magic' user while holding up the golden fruit that had appeared during the fight. The thing was roughly the size of a softball and had a slight glow to it.
"Oh, yeah, I forgot about that." Cyrus replied while looking at the thing.
"I thought you said that you couldn't create trees that bore fruit?"
"Normally, I can't. But when I use my overdrive, I can funnel all of the excess mana that I can't control into my tree to create that."
"What is it, though? It kinda looks like an apple."
Cyrus paused for a moment as he considered his response. Then, a funny idea popped into his head. He knew exactly how valuable that fruit was. And according to Elaine, it was worth more than anyone could reasonably imagine. But he personally didn't want to hold on to it since he had no interest in eating it. However, there was no use in letting it go to waste.
"Why don't you eat it and find out?" The young man said with a slight grin.
"Are you sure?" Skylar looked back down at the fruit.
"It's fine with me." Cyrus shrugged.
Skylar hesitated for a moment before giving the guy a casual shrug and deciding that there wasn't a reason for him to say no. Besides, who was he turn down a free snack? So, the 'earth magic' user cleared his throat before opening his mouth and taking a bite out of the mystery fruit.
The moment his teeth clamped down on it, the 'earth magic' user felt a jolt of electricity shoot throughout his entire body. Almost as if someone had activated all of his cells at once and energized them with a surge of mana. However, that wasn't the only thing that got his attention.
For starters, the fruit was delicious. Actually, it was more than that. In his opinion, it might've actually been the best thing he had ever tasted in his life. It was as if someone had mixed a pack of Starburst and Skittles together into a ball and let it marinate in sweet tea. It was the kind of flavor that seemed to activate all of the neurons in his brain.
However, that wasn't even the crazy part.
Skylar then felt a surge of mana work its way down to his mana core. For a brief moment, the 'earth magic' user's body felt incredibly unstable, but that sensation quickly subsided and was replaced by a pleasant warmth that washed over all of his muscles. And for some reason, he felt significantly more powerful than he did before. In fact, he felt stronger than he ever had in his entire life. The senior agent was now practically radiating power in all directions, and he could feel mana flowing through his veins at a rapid pace.
"W-what is this?!" Skylar looked up at the young man as a brown aura suddenly began to envelope his body. "What the hell did you just do to me?"
Cyrus gave his partner a slick smile before giving him an explanation. "That fruit can permanently increase the capacity of your mana core. I don't know why, but whenever someone eats it, they get a significant boost in power. Enough to bring you up by one rank. It even works on cryptids. And based on how much mana you're now pushing out, I'd say that you're comfortably in S-rank territory now."
"That's…that's not possible."
"It is." Cyrus smiled. "Congratulations! It's only a one-time deal, though. It won't work if you eat another one."
Skylar looked down at his hands in pure amazement after the reality of the man's words finally set in. In all his years, he had never heard of something so ridiculous. Even in a world filled with magic and monsters, this kind of revelation bordered on nothing but pure fantasy.
There had been numerous experiments done by sorcerer scientists in the past to see if one could artificially increase their mana core's capacity in some way, shape, or form. But all of them had resulted in either failures or straight-up death. Yet here he was, getting firsthand experience of something that had stumped even the brightest of their kind for the better part of seventy years.
Cyrus's overdrive skill was one thing, but this was something else entirely. It went against everything that they knew about magic and sorcerer physiology. Hell, it might've even been the biggest breakthrough in the history of magic.
'Okay, calm down Skylar.' The senior agent told himself in an attempt to calm himself down. Well, as calm as he could get with all of this newly acquired power coursing through his veins like a raging river. 'We can deal with this later. Shit, I wish he had told me about this before I ate it. I'm gonna need to find a way to explain this to the others. And I'm gonna need to ask the Chief if she has any mana suppressors lying around the station.'
With the hard part now over, the two agents radioed the Chief to let them know that their job was done. The woman then told them to sit tight and wait for further instructions. They couldn't leave the area, especially with Hannah's body still in plain view for all to see. So for now, they just had to wait to see how the rest of the operation played out. And hopefully, they would be getting some good news in the not-too-distant future regarding how everyone else was doing.
'Man…what a night.' Cyrus thought to himself as he took a second to look up at the stars. His emotions were still all over the palace at the moment, but he was still satisfied that he was able to accomplish his goal. He had gotten his revenge, and that was more than he could've asked for.
A wave of pain then washed over his body before the freckle-faced teen lurched forward and threw up all over the ground in front of him. Spilling his guts onto cracked pieces of concrete before dropping to his knees and passing out right there on the spot.
Evidently, Cyrus Moore's troubles were far from over. But at least he no longer had to worry about dealing with the woman who had ruined his life.
-(o)-
[DPA Mobile Command Center]
"You should really look into getting Cyrus a therapist." The Chief's assistant said to the woman as he watched Skylar try to wake the young man up. "I know that I'm not one to talk, but I don't think that he's doing alright."
"I know…" Chief Chandler simply nodded her head in response. "I already have someone lined up for him. But I didn't want to force him to do it to avoid him getting upset."
"Good point." The assistant agreed. "Anyways, all of the security camera footage from the warehouse area has been scrubbed. No one will know what happened here."
"What about the other locations?"
"I already killed the cameras where Robin and the rest of her group are at. As far as anyone is concerned, there was a convenient power outage in the area. Or at least, that's what I made it look like. Everything'll be back up and running before the sun is up."
The brunette woman smiled. "I knew bringing you out here with me was a good idea! You were always good at this hacking stuff."
"Just remember to have my money in my account by Friday morning. I like you and all, but you know that I don't enjoy working for free."
"Man, you MacNamaras are always so damn greedy. Don't you ever just do things out of the kindness of your heart?"
Evan looked back at the woman and gave her what could only be described as a look of pure indignation. "Hell no! What do I look like, a slave? Besides, my father already told me that you'd be the one paying me."
Chief Chandler rolled her eyes at the young 'wind magic' user. She was grateful that Eugene let her borrow his son to help out with the clean-up for this operation. God knows she was going to need it. But she was honestly hoping that she wasn't going to have to come out of pocket for his services. It wasn't like the kid didn't already make as much money as her.
In any case, with their three main targets now out of the way, all that was left was for Robin and the others to finish rounding up the rest of the Iznana cell. And judging by what she was looking at on the fourth monitor, the 'beast magic' user and her crew were just about finished. As of right now, it appeared as though the operation was going to be a success. Which meant that they would soon be able to put this mess behind them once and for all.
'Man…what a night…' The Chief said to herself as she sat back in her chair and popped open a bottle of water. There was still a lot of work that was going to need to be done. But for now, Zoe Chandler was perfectly fine with just letting her subordinates close out the night.
And with any luck, she might actually be able to get some sleep before the sun came up.
Hopefully…probably not, though….