Strongest Nova: Path of Vengeance

Chapter 308: Forget

Stanley struggled through the confinement, seeing partly through the interlocking roots. He saw no one where the sound came from at first, but as they got closer, the two suddenly revealed themselves.

A man in his late 20s or early 30s stood next to a woman around the same age as him. They both wore the suits provided to them at the start of this whole thing.

The woman held a knife in her hand, dripping with red blood. She had been the one who had stabbed Red through the chest.

"Huh?" the woman said in surprise. "Why are we visible? Did that bastard drop his powers?"

"Maybe," the man next to her said. "Or maybe he died."

Stanley struggled harder to get out of the roots, but the roots bent instead of breaking, so it was harder to get out of it.

"Whatever. Let me kill the older bitch first," the woman said as she walked toward the pile of roots on the ground where the old woman had been trapped.

"She is dead already," the man said. "You were late. Go kill that guy next. He keeps struggling still."

"Tsk!" the woman reacted, walking away from the man and approaching Stanley.

Stanley was horrified to think what had happened in such a little time frame. Not only had he been captured, but Red had been captured, Rey had gone back to becoming a Gorilla, and now even the old woman had died.

He was all alone again. Everyone that he worked with eventually died. He started panicking, unsure what he could do here. He needed to do something, but being constricted like this and with anxiety building up within him, he couldn’t think of anything at all.

The woman approached him, with no emotions in her eyes as she thoughtlessly started stabbing him with the knife. The knife hit Stanley, but it could not stab through his strong skin. The woman was simply too weak to wound him physically.

"I... I can’t do it," she said with a frown. "Is it this root? I can’t cut through him."

"He might be strong," the man said. "Do it from the back so he isn’t ready for you."

Stanley breathed in and out, a little safer now that he knew the woman couldn’t kill him. He still needed to do something soon. The carrier was on its way and he would soon—

A hollow feeling filled Stanley suddenly.

’Huh? What was I thinking just now?’ he wondered. There was the man in front of him and the carrier that was coming toward him. What else?

’Why isn’t the man attacking me?’ Stanley wondered. He had trapped him, so he should be attacking him soon. He searched for the knife the man had likely used to kill Red, but it wasn’t there at all.

’How did he kill her? Did he throw away the knife?’ Stanley thought. His own knife was gone. ’What do I do?’ he thought.

Suddenly he felt something hit him from the back, pricking him. It didn’t hurt but there was definitely something behind him.

’Another person. This man isn’t alone,’ Stanley thought, horrified. He should have realized he wouldn’t be working alone. There had to be someone else there too.

"It’s not working!"

Stanley heard a woman’s voice come from behind him. ’There is a woman here?’ he thought.

He heard the rustling of the metal on the ground and the woman moved within his vision once again.

Stanley felt his spine grow cold when he saw her again.

’How... how did I forget about her?’ he thought, horrified. He remembered now that she was the one who had stabbed Red. She was the one who had stabbed him from the front. How could he just forget?

The woman continued walking and was blocked by the roots for Stanley. As soon as she was gone from his vision, he forgot about her once again. He couldn’t remember why he was still being hung and not attacked.

The woman appeared in his vision once again, and Stanley once again remembered her. He was once again realizing the frightening power of the woman. The moment she was out of sight, all memory of her would vanish from his mind.

Only when she returned to view did he remember her once again.

Stanley knew he needed to do something, and now that his emotions had been through whiplash thanks to the woman, he had unnaturally calmed down enough to know what he needed to do.

"You!" he called out with gritted teeth. "We... we can work together."

The man turned toward Stanley. "Work together?" he asked before snickering a little. "Do you think you are in the condition to make such an offer? Why would I need to work with you when I can just kill you?"

"We can work together," Stanley said. "And we can force the people watching this to consider making us all the winner. You are here to improve your powers too, right? I can let you have it. I won’t say anything."

The man couldn’t hide his giggles. "Improve my powers?" he asked. "I’m afraid even Zern cannot make that happen twice."

Who was Zern?

Stanley didn’t know, so he ignored that part of the statement, but the other part... "You already improved your powers?" he asked.

"Of course," the man said. "And I must say, it is incredible."

Stanley was confused. "Then... why are you here?" he asked.

The man grinned. "Because it is just that fun," he said. "Killing without repercussions. No police. No idiots running around with guns. This is incredible, isn’t it?"

Stanley didn’t answer. He simply glared at the man.

"What’s wrong? Don’t you want to ask me to work together?" the man asked, mocking.

"Stark!" the woman next to him shouted suddenly.

"What?" the man asked absentmindedly.

"STARK!" she shouted again. "Look!"

She pointed at the roots around Stanley. The man looked at the vines and saw them wriggling for some reason. They shouldn’t have been wriggling though. He wasn’t controlling them.

As he thought that, the roots suddenly began leaving Stanley’s body, going back into the ground.