"Katherine! Are you done here? I need to go with them to find Bala."

"What? But we’re already packing up!"

Adam rushed outside, checking on Katherine and the vaccination site to see if there was anything amiss. But considering they were casually packing up their things as she said, he breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Bala is sabotaging them. There’s... politics involved. I don’t really know the full details, but these people are in danger, and I can’t really leave them alone—you should take the doctors and go."

Katherine stared Adam in the eyes, holding the medical tools in her hands tightly. She didn’t really know what to do, but that didn’t matter.

"Okay..." she whispered, nodding her head. "I’ll come back as soon as I get all of them out. Are you sure you’ll be fine here alone?"

"Don’t." Adam didn’t hesitate. "I don’t think this involves us anymore. It’s best if you and the others just wait for me outside."

"Then why are you staying?! You should just come with us. We’ll barricade the Leak!"

"That’s a good idea."

"Then let’s go and—"

"No. I mean, you should tell them to start barricading the Leak."

"But... you’re still inside?" Katherine’s eyebrows lowered.

Adam looked down for a moment, seemingly deep in thought, before he sucked in a deep breath and shook his head.

"I won’t be for long," he whispered. Katherine was quiet for a second, but quickly understood what Adam meant by those words.

"You... are going to kill Bala?"

Adam didn’t answer, only closing his eyes as he let out another deep breath. He looked up at Katherine, forcing out a smile as he stepped back.

"Someone has to," he muttered, not letting the smile on his face fade. "I’ll see you outside. I need to wait for Harvey, too. He’s... peeing somewhere."

Katherine stared at him for a few seconds before nodding. "I’ll wait for an hour until I tell them to start barricading the Leak. Come back, okay?"

"Hm..."

Katherine watched as Adam turned around, disappearing deeper out into the small city. She stared at the empty space for a while, sighing as she ordered the vaccination team to hurry it up, all of them stepping out of the portal promptly.

As for Adam, he leaped onto one of the roofs, trying to find where Harvey could’ve gone to pee. He looked in the direction of the tavern, and when he saw the small forest bordering the perimeter of the city, he quickly shook his head, a small hint of a laugh escaping his lips.

He gently kicked off the roof, making sure he was using just enough strength so as not to destroy the people’s houses. Before he could get to the edges of the city, however, he heard a loud scream echo in the air.

He paused, quickly focusing his senses on where the noise came from... only for his head to snap back to where he was already previously looking. He was confused for a moment, then his eyes widened as he continued leaping toward the forest—this time, however, half of the roof was completely blown away.

"Batala!" The person inside the house, who was packing his things so he could evacuate with the others, quickly looked out the window as he felt the entire house shake. The only thing he saw was parts of his roof falling—not even a single hint of Adam’s shadow.

And not even one second after, Adam landed right in front of the screaming people. He glanced at them first and then saw all of them looking toward the direction of the trees and bushes at the end of the street..

Adam didn’t know what they were looking at at first, confused as there was nothing there. He glanced back at the people, and they also glanced at him saying,

"Ul! Ul!"

"Ul...?" Adam’s brows furrowed. The only thing he could really do was look back to the forest, and that was when his earpiece finally managed to translate the word they were repeatedly saying.

<Head!>

"Head...?" Adam squinted, and when he stepped forward to try and see more clearly, his entire body froze as he finally saw what everyone was looking at.

A head. A severed head.

Harvey’s head.

It didn’t even take a second, however, for the head to disappear from Adam’s eyes as his vision blurred and darkened—no. It wasn’t that his vision darkened; it didn’t even blur at all. He just refused to look at it, his head lowered, and was now just staring at the cobblestone ground.

"What..." he whispered, his breath turning heavier by the second. "What the..."

How...? We were just together moments ago. We... were just casually chatting. Why? What? Who? When... Why did this happen?

Because you’re too weak, Adam. Too merciful. Too kind. Too... forgiving. You know who did this—there’s only one person who would do this. The very same person who hurt Beatrice. If only you dealt with him. This wouldn’t have to—

And then, to Adam’s surprise, the voice in his head just... faded away.

No. It didn’t fade. From the reaction of the crowd behind him, the voice inside his head was alive and well. But... it was now outside.

"This shouldn’t have happened. You could’ve stopped it..." Adam was whispering to himself without him knowing. The people behind him all took a step back as they heard him muttering words by the millisecond. His lips moved nonstop, but they couldn’t really hear what he was saying, and even if he was speaking their language, they were sure they also wouldn’t be able to understand because of how fast he was talking.

But as sudden as he whispered to himself, he also stopped. He glanced up again, staring at Harvey’s severed head in the distance.

His expression... wasn’t peaceful at all. Unlike Grace, unlike Samantha... his face didn’t show that he expected to die at all.

His mouth was hanging wide open, and a sword was pierced through his eye to pin him to the tree.

"Harvey..." Adam whispered, subconsciously stepping toward Harvey’s severed head. "No..."

Adam’s breath trembled, his teeth chattering violently as he made his way to his friend.

"What have you done, Adam... what have you done? You should’ve come with him. You should’ve come with him even if you didn’t need to pee... ha... hahaha...?" Adam covered his mouth, not knowing why a laugh just escaped him. But he couldn’t stop it, however...

...he couldn’t stop laughing at all.

"Ha... Hahahahaha!" He gripped his mouth so incredibly tight, to the point that the sound of cheeks being torn apart by his own fingers squelched in the air along with his laughter. "Bwahahaha!"

His legs grew weak, and he fell to his knees before he could even make it close to Harvey’s head. He was trying his best not to laugh, but his shoulder started to move wildly.

He closed his mouth shut, even making sure his teeth wouldn’t part open to the point his gums started to bleed. But even then... the sound of laughter escaped him.

"Ha... ha... ha..."

And since he was trying to stop himself, the sound that everyone else there heard was... horrifying. But it wasn’t only his disturbing laughter that caused all of them to back away.

It was also the fact that the ground beneath their feet was trembling from Adam’s grip.

Yes—Adam’s fingers were digging through the ground, cracking them as his entire body trembled from laughter.

The crowd looked at each other, but then their eyes soon turned wide as they saw a shadow moving from the houses. They all looked up toward the source of the shadow, only to see a familiar figure walking on the roof.

"Ila!"

"Bala!"

Adam couldn’t hear them, however. He couldn’t even see anything—he didn’t see the shadow of a sword floating in the air... and shooting straight down toward him.

"Hul!"

Bala roared. And he leaped down from the roof as soon as he saw the sword go deep into Adam’s back.

He landed right behind him, carrying a wide smirk on his face.

<I got you,> he muttered. He stepped closer, but then gasped as he realized the sword didn’t really go all the way through at all—Adam’s skin was too tough. That only fazed him for a moment, however, as he raised his arm in the air before swinging it down, commanding the sword to go deeper.

And with a little resistance, it did.

<Did you really think you were invincible?> Bala chuckled and then sighed as he walked in front of Adam, staring down at him. <I know you know by now that I have done all of this on purpose. To provoke you. No, not you—your world. I can not risk you staying here and breaking all my plans. Good thing for me, you value your friends.>

Bala crouched, grabbing Adam by the hair to lift his head up.

<But you—huh?>

To his shock, however, Adam’s eyes didn’t look like they were inches away from death at all, no. His eyes were staring right at him, and what he saw being reflected in them...

...was that it was he who was inches away from death.