213 West Eternity

Allen was sleeping soundly when he felt a sudden urge to call Jeremy. He knocked on the latter's door but heard no answer.

"If you're looking for Jeremy, he's in the kitchen," Gwen said and smiled. "None of us can sleep. Gary is there too."

Allen smiled back. "Alright. Let's go."

It was already midnight. The four of them were drinking coffee and eating snacks in the kitchen while talking about how far they have reached.

"You are a big-time person now," Gary teased. "From the Wandering Trader, to the man above the food chain."

"I couldn't have done any of these without you though," Allen said. "My success is also your success since we've helped each other out from the start."

"How will you weed Roger Huntsman out?" Jeremy asked. "Or could we even do that?"

"That's why we recruited all of the Bearers except for one, Claire," Allen said. "By far, she has been the most suspicious of them all."

"You know, it could also be Lin," Gwen said. "If we could find a motive as to why she killed both of her friends, then we can put the target above her head."

"Lin is quite peaceful," Allen hummed. "But she seemed to be too peaceful. We had to have a long conversation and convincing with Sun and the rest of the Bearers but for Lin, she was even the one who approached us."

"We can still keep an eye on her while we try to seek the true person behind this," Gina said. "But for now, we really have to drink our coffee."

The four of them ended up talking all night. They were recalling all of the journeys they've been through for the past months, from beginning up to now.

The morning came and the skies burst their brightness upon them. None of the four got a wink of sleep, so they decided to rest for the day.

"Hello?" Sebastian entered the house that they stayed on. "Where is everyone?"

"All asleep," Allen said from the kitchen. "Where have you been?"

"I rehabilitated the Hunters of West Eternity," Sebastian said. "Haven't you heard the news?"

The man brought a tablet which he gave to Allen. "What happened to your face? Did you cry all night? Your eyes are red."

"I didn't get to sleep," Allen said with a yawn. "I was too excited about the Serpent Conference and the next meeting that my body wouldn't want me to rest."

The boy watched the news clip that Sebastian put on the tablet and his eyes widened. "This is West Eternity?"

Camps from higher worlds needed to be massively fortified with protection. The higher the world, the stronger the beasts were. This also means that the more danger the Hunters in that world could face.

The strength of the walls would be about twenty times the strength of the wall found in Paradise, but there was a massive hole in one of the walls.

The sight was unbelievable. The entire camp was also filled with ruins after a huge battle between beasts and Hunters waged. It was so bloody that it took the lives of a large portion of all the Hunters in West Paradise.

"We took out all the beasts, but we can't consider this as a victory," Sebastian said. "An eighth of the Hunters perished and half are heavily injured."

"What caused all of these?" Allen asked. "What beast could pierce through that wall?"

"That's the problem," Sebastian sighed. "What we are facing here are not just beasts."

"Roger Huntsman's men," Allen whispered. "They pierced this wall and led all of the beasts inside."

"There were so many beasts," Sebastian swiped the screen to show another clip. It was a clip taken by one of the Hunters. "In Eternity, we have cameras that could film but then again, only a handful of people could have those. This person was one of them."

Allen could not believe his eyes after he saw the clip. There were so many beasts that went inside the hole. It literally flooded the camp with beasts.

For the first few seconds, the Hunters were confused. If it wasn't for one of them that stood up against the beast, they would've panicked and all of them would be killed.

"Sebastian, this is horrifying," Allen said. "How will the camp bounce back from that?"

"That's the thing," Sebastian said. "We don't. West Eternity is done for. The Hunters will be assigned to the other camps."

"Do we have to do that?" Allen asked. "I thought you said you're rehabilitating the camp."

"I did," Sebastian said. He then showed another video and in this one, Sebastian was wearing a hard hat. He was in a grass field but this wasn't where the camp was at. "We will destroy West Eternity in three, two, one."

He pressed a button and from afar, there was a giant explosion. He looked at the explosion and sighed. "I will miss that camp. But we have to do that. The place is filled with miasma that is impossible to remove. If we let it stay, the miasma will spread to the rest of Eternity."

"Miasma?" Allen asked. "The beasts contained miasma in them? Then–"

"They are lab beasts," Sebastian said. "These beasts were sent to labs and are modified so that when they die, their corpse would produce a potent miasma that will kill anyone who inhales it."

"Roger Huntsman really outdid himself," Allen said. "How could they do this and why?"

"Those are the questions that we want answers to too," Sebastian said. "But unfortunately we can't have all the answers to all of our questions so sometimes we just have to be silent and wait for things to unfold on its own."

Allen was silent for a couple of seconds. He didn't want to admit it, but Sebastian was right. They had no clue where he is or whatever it is that's going on in Roger Huntsman's mind, so trying to look for him would be useless.

"So," Sebastian smirked. "How was the conference?"