Ability Wielders 26 First Cognizan

"He left…" Kim Eun-ha noticed Hayden's departure and muttered under her breath. "Interesting…"

After approximately 30 minutes, the twelve of them similarly finished eating their dinner and Kim Taehyung paid. Chatting for a few more minutes, they similarly left Nanlo.

Outside, the members of CHORUS bade goodbye to Kim Taehyung and started boarding their limousine. As Eun-ha was waiting for her turn to board the limousine, she inadvertently looked up and saw a black figure, zooming into the direction of the Han River.

With bewilderment, she entered the limousine and kept her mouth shut of what she witnessed the way to their dormitory.

…..

The second Hayden stepped foot in his hotel room, he ran to his bed and collapsed. "That is the first time I am taxed by trying to keep my emotions at bay while using Divine Perception…"

Hayden became incredibly mentally exhausted on simply trying to control his emotions during his eye contacts with Kim Eun-ha. This was a first for him as his Divine Perception usually gave him the tranquility he needed.

"I guess there's just something with her…" Hayden shook his head, in disbelief that he would encounter CHORUS of all people. He didn't expect to meet her at all in this trip, in truth, he didn't even think of it.

"G.o.dd.a.m.n, her beauty is just… on a whole another level," recalling her facial features, Hayden was put in a daze. "That porcelain skin, that otherworldly smile, the aura surrounding her, her f.u.c.king laugh, everything… What the h.e.l.l, how can such a perfect woman exist in this world?"

Hayden has never been one to believe in the phrase of 'love at first sight.' Nevertheless, what was this was he feeling? No? That's impossible, right?

"Well, let's not be harsh to ourselves," Hayden muttered, his lips creeping upwards, his eyes closing. "Let's be honest, I did like her ever since I've watched that first music video. This is simply infatuation, Hayden, don't let her get to your head."

With that, he calmed down Regardless, this was definitely going to be a night he would not forget, even without his Divine Perception.

"I'm truly lucky these days…" The next second, Hayden's att.i.tude changed, his eyes abruptly opening. "I'm never this lucky in life, gaining Divine Perception and Indestructible Devil was, without a doubt, a one-time thing, so what the h.e.l.l is this?"

Shaking his head, Hayden opted that there was no use in dwelling on this matter, and dealing with things to come would have to be dealt with when it comes. n.o.body could predict the future, so why would he have to worry about such things?

"For now, one day at a time," Hayden took a deep breath prior to throwing the matter out of the window. "Let's see…"

Taking out his phone, Hayden checked his bank account, which grew to have a little over 10 million credits in the past few days alone, and that was with the 15% credit tax from the Philippine government! The cause of this was his previous videos getting into the spotlight of new viewers, and his budding popularity that provided him more and more supporters on his Streamlink account.

"This should be enough to buy a house and a car here, right?" Hayden muttered, closing the account. "Well, not like I actually want that big of a house. A decent house in a relatively safe and quiet neighborhood should be enough."

Following that, Hayden browsed his social media accounts, which was steadily acc.u.mulating more and more followers. Another matter popped up in his mind.

"Should I start making vlogs, or not?" Hayden considered the ups and downs of both. "No, it's too early for that, I need something to fall back on once I win the Pro a.s.sembly."

Naturally, there was a next step to his plan of making money, and that was to use his popularity to dabble in other games, like first-person shooters and perhaps mmorpgs, as well as other genres of Streamlink, such as cooking videos, or vlogs.

When he finished consolidating his plan further, he checked the clock and saw that it was merely 10:00 PM. He wasn't really sleepy, thus, he informed his parents that he was going out to walk around, put on a coat, and ran towards the Han River Park near him, which he discovered during his roaming around Seoul.

Arriving on the riverside, Hayden noticed the park was empty. Activating his Divine Perception, there was no human life in his immediate vicinity.

"Well, more s.p.a.ce to me," Hayden disregarded this as it was pretty late anyways, it wasn't that strange that the park would be desolate. "Let's go there."

Seeing the cemented pavement with guardrails along the river, Hayden walked on it. Leisurely walking along the riverside, Hayden enjoyed the feeling of the winter air hitting his face. It was a nice change of pace for someone who was born in a tropical country.

A few seconds later, he stopped, leaned on the guardrails, and rested his forearms on it. Inclining his head upwards, he looked at the moon and smiled. The serene atmosphere, along with the picturesque scenery of the combination of the distant cityscape, moon, the stars, and the Han River, provided him a bubbling sense of peace.

Sighing, Hayden longed for the calm life he had prior to awakening. Needless to say, that only lasted for a moment as Hayden felt it was silly. Would he be the tyc.o.o.n he was if he didn't awaken? No, he would simply be another drop in the ocean, one that doesn't even make a single ripple in this large body of water.

Smiling, he embraced this moment as this was the first break he had from all those fights and killing he partic.i.p.ated in. However, this moment didn't last as he heard an ear-piercing shrill originating from above him.

Without delaying, he activated Divine Perception and opened his eyes. In front of him was an icy projectile, flying towards him. Activating Indestructible Devil's toughness augmentation, his skin color turned crimson. Hayden caught the projectile right before it hit his right eye.

Meanwhile, on his left hand, the white fox mask appeared. Dropping the ice spike, Hayden stepped backwards, put on his mask, and stored his winter clothing and shirt in his s.p.a.ce Ring. Although his wings wouldn't need him to remove his clothing, it wasn't worth it to waste a perfectly good piece of clothing, that was expensive, in a fight.

His upper body was exposed to the frigid air, it was a good thing that Level 2 wielders weren't affected by environmental factors anymore, otherwise, he'd freeze to death right this instant.

Using his Divine Perception, he searched for the source of this attack that disturbed his momentary sense of tranquility. He was a little annoyed, which quickly turned into astonishment when he noticed a black bird flying atop the River Han, a pitch black raven the size of a fighter jet!

"Holy s.h.i.t, a cognizant!" Hayden never antic.i.p.ated that he will b.u.mp into a cognizant this early in his wielder life. "Well, I guess I was looking for something to test my powers on, this is my chance!"

Underneath the mask, an excited smile appeared on Hayden's face, his former rage wiped away. Horns sprouted out of his forehead, his claws retracted, and his wings unfurled itself. Flapping the wings, Hayden soared in the sky.

As this was the first time he was using his wings, Hayden had to adjust himself. Despite that, the bird screeched and approached him at an intense velocity. Clearly, it wouldn't allow Hayden to adjust to using his wings peacefully.

"f.u.c.king raven, so impatient!" Seeing this, Hayden's face darkened. From this att.i.tude of the bird, it was obvious that it possessed intelligence and wanted to take advantage of Hayden's clumsy manner of flight.

Of course, long before the raven could touch him, he was able to adjust to the usage of his wings with the help of his instincts, combined with Divine Perception. Snorting, Hayden enhanced his body with essence energy, granting him boundless strength.

Clenching his fists, he launched a punch towards the beak of the raven. This punch of his was definitely powerful, with the mini sonic boom behind it evident of its speed. The two clashed, producing the sounds of the clangs of metal, as if the two objects were made of metal.

Due to the enormous momentum that the bird ama.s.sed, this clash made the both of them retreat. The two were actually equal in power!

'Typically, cognizants have a single use of their Abilities as their physical bodies were their main weapons, on top of their innate Abilities.' Hayden a.n.a.lyzed the strength of the raven. 'From what I know, this one is definitely at least as strong as the dragon-like cognizant I've seen earlier, if not, stronger because of its cunning nature!'

Although that dragon was more prominent in terms of size, power, and domineeringness, it solely had the instinct to kill, backed by its instinct to charge towards Engkanto instead of retreating, leading to its death. This raven, however, clearly had sentience and did not rely on its instincts as much as the dragon, evident by its clear eyes that surveys its surroundings.

"Fascinating…" Hayden mumbled, invigorated at the thought of fighting a formidable opponent. "Play time is over, birdie."

Bursting with speed, a sonic boom ensued when Hayden moved in the direction of the bird. Seeing this, the bird screeched, countless ice spikes formed behind it and shot towards Hayden.

With a smirk, Hayden skillfully dodge every single projectile. His control of his wings was not like it was the first time he was using the wings at all. h.e.l.l, he was even able to cover himself up with the wings and spin forward, narrowly evading three spikes.

Continuing his charge, Hayden brandished his claws and slashed towards the raven's throat. Unfortunately, his claws were blocked by a miniature ice wall, with the bird tactically receding so that Hayden's claws wouldn't reach.

"Crafty," Hayden was amused. What an intelligent bird! His conjecture was affirmed that it indeed possessed a form of intelligence.

Subsequently, Hayden similarly withdrew. Then, he noticed the bird's expression of mockery as it opened its beak and started to gather essence energy.

Inside the beak, Hayden perceived immense cold energy that was growing stronger by the second. A sense of impending doom washed over him, his invigoration disappearing.

"Holy s.h.i.t!" Cursing, he moved forward with his all, generating a sonic boom louder than when he threw a fist and when he first moved towards the bird, though still not as loud as an aircraft.

The very second that Hayden arrived in front of the bird, he saw the look of worry in its eyes. The acc.u.mulation slowed down a little. Disregarding this, Hayden threw his most powerful punch, creating another sonic boom behind the fist.

Suddenly, a small wall of ice appeared in front of his fist, which shattered the second it made contact with Hayden's fist. Even then, Hayden knew the intent behind this fist, and that was to reduce the power of it!

When the attack connected to the torso of the bird, it was sent flying rearward. That punch was not powerful enough to drastically injure the bird, though Hayden was able to calculate that it would be enough to cause a disturbance in the bird's internal organs

Contrary to his expectations, the bird didn't stop its collection of essence energy in the surroundings and continued. Thereupon, the mocking look imprinted on the bird's stupid face grew wider, with the blue sphere-like acc.u.mulation of energy inside the bird's beak seemingly reaching its maximum coldness.

Keeping his calm, Hayden stretched his left arm forward. The instant the frost beam shot out, Hayden collected all the information he got, time stopping in his perception as his mind worked at full power.

Calculating the radius of the beam, and the maximum force behind it, his brain issued lines of commands to his muscles, Origin Crystal, and wings.

First, a semi-transparent white barrier started to stretch outwards from his hands, aligning accordingly to the blue beam. The essence energy barrier was perfectly calculated to be the same radius as the beam. In actuality, the barrier didn't resemble a barrier at all, but a semi-transparent white thick stick.

Soon, the ten-cubic-meter limit of his essence energy shaping power was. .h.i.t. Precipitously, he moved sideways a little bit as there was no time to fully dodge, but at least it was merely aligned to the tip of his left wing the second it would hit him.

With this adjustment, Hayden kept his left hand stationary, with the thick essence energy pole remaining flawlessly aligned with the beam. The next second, a huge force can be felt crashing into the barrier, with it came the reduction of its power as it slowly melted away the barrier with its power.

A second later, the barrier completely disintegrated, and Hayden's hands retreated from its position. In spite of its swift retreat, the tip of Hayden's left middle finger made contact with the frost beam due to the speed of the beam.

His left wing suffered the brunt of the damage however, with it completely receiving the remnant of the beam of frost energy. Despite its damage, it could still support Hayden's flight, with the frostbite on the area the beam damaged healing at a staggering speed.

Similarly, the tip of Hayden's middle finger regenerated the minor damage it suffered in a fraction of a second. Turning his attention to the bird, the mocking look it had was removed from its face, and in place, was shock, expressed by its eyes turning wide.

'What the h.e.l.l is this human!?' The raven couldn't believe its eyes. What the h.e.l.l kind of calculations did the human make to achieve this feat?

This time around, Hayden was the one who was sneering. A few seconds later, the bird recovered from its shock and attempted to run away, knowing that it wasn't a match for this human, or rather, it wouldn't be able to defeat him.

Perceiving that his wings was already back to its fully functional state, he waved it, giving chase towards the bird. Two sonic booms simultaneously resounded, one originating from Hayden, and one from the bird.

"This bird can fly faster than the speed of sound?" A little dumbfounded, Hayden accelerated, shortly, he reached his maximum speed of 2100 kilometers per hour. With that amount of speed, he was able to intercept the bird before it can even leave the Han River, with Hayden beheading it.

"That was fun," catching the corpse and the head of the bird, Hayden sighed. Digging out its Origin Crystal, Hayden noticed that it was red instead of the usual white of humans. "Huh, intriguing…"

In that instance, the sound of four speedboats crashing against the waves of the Han River entered his ears. Turning his head, he dropped the corpse of the raven and soared into the sky to escape.

He escaped as it didn't matter whether if those four were wielders or not, he cannot be seen. After all, he had no knowledge of the state of the world of wielders in South Korea, it was unwise to be caught.

With him ensuring that he was above the clouds, about 15 kilometers in the air, he turned around and saw eleven figures in a distant high-rise building, being illuminated by the moon. Those eleven figures were wearing animal masks.

Hurriedly, Hayden moved to the other end of the Han River, away from the district he was in. Checking behind him, he was relieved that the eleven figures didn't tail him.

"Strange, were they observing me?" Hayden squinted his eyes. "Mhm, I wonder who are those people?"

…..

Simultaneous to Hayden's first fight with a cognizant. In the underground base of Kamay ng Lagim, somewhere in Panay, Visayas.

"Old friend," Black Devil talked to a person in a ninja suit. "Long time no see. How have you been, Kidlat (1)?"

"What do you need?" The man bearing the moniker 'Kidlat,' talked in an exasperated manner. "I was literally preparing to sleep, what's your problem?"

"If you don't shut up, I'll make a hole up there," Black Devil pointed to the ceiling then to the ground. "And down there, until you stop speaking."

"Psh, whatever," Kidlat rolled his eyes and sat down on a chair. "So, what is your request? You do know that I'm being paid credits for my missions now, so, you will pay me, right?"

"Yeah, yeah," Black Devil laughed as he took out a picture of Hayden. "I want you to kill this kid. He has killed the best Level 2 a.s.sa.s.sination squad, and can shape essence energy like a Level 3 wielder. I trust you are okay with that, right?"

"Consider it done if you pay me 2,000,000 credits, pay a million upfront," Kidlat nonchalantly said as he put his feet on the table. "I ain't exactly down on killing this guy right now."

"Deal," Black Devil said. 1,000,000 credits was not exactly a huge price to kill that maggot. "Okay, here's the transfer. I've already bought you a ticket to South Korea, you leave tomorrow."

"The kid's in South Korea?" Kidlat was stupefied. "How much do you want to kill this kid? Sending me right away even though he's in South Korea?"

"He's too dangerous to be left to his own devices," Black Devil a.s.severated. "Okay, you go back first. You leave at 10:00 tomorrow, get ready. I'll send you the ticket through Chatbox."

"Okay, okay," Kidlat yawned and went through the black portal. "Consider the deal done, the kid won't see Philippines anymore."

"That's rea.s.suring." Black Devil cackled once Kidlat pa.s.sed through the portal. "You kill my best squad, and leave the last one alive to interrogate in your base? What a kid… If you were only an ally, sadly, you're not, tsk."

Black Devil sat on a chair and ma.s.saged his temples. His head was aching from this matter regarding Hayden. He never would've thought that the kid would evolve within six months, and from the looks of it, the kid was more skilled than what he initially antic.i.p.ated. Based on that alone, Hayden must be killed.

"I just hope that Kidlat would be able to accomplish this…" Black Devil muttered as he removed his mask, revealing a handsome face that had a square shape.

There was a scar on his eye, and his lips were thickly attractive. His looks were comparable to the most famous movie stars in the world.

"I sincerely hope so…" Black Devil sighed, anxiety filling up his heart. "Why do I have a dreadful premonition that the kid will kill Kidlat instead?"

…..

1 Kidlat - Kidlat is, in Filipino Mythology, the G.o.d of Lightning. He's the son of Bathala, the supreme G.o.d in Filipino Mythology, and the brother of Hangin, the G.o.d of Wind. Kidlat is also the Filipino term for lightning, while Hangin translates to wind.