Maine walked forward and sat on a chair that was in front of general Maxwell.
"So, Maine. Did you find what I asked you to? Is Lucifer really alive or not?" General Maxwell asked without delaying for even a second.
"Is he alive?" General Maxwell asked Maine, carelessly.
Maine stayed still for a few seconds before he opened his lips and said with a tinge of uncertainty, "I don't know."
"How can you not know? I gave you the permission to use all the resources and the authority needed. You still couldn't find out if they were telling the truth or not?" General Maxwell asked, looking unimpressed.
"I did find a few things, but none of them were enough to ascertain the validity of those claims. That's why I can't say for sure if they were lying or telling the truth," Maine lamented.
He also wanted to be of service to the General and help him by providing the information that he needed, but he couldn't give unverified news as that defeated the whole purpose of it.
"Oho? Even you weren't able to verify it fully?" General Maxwell asked in amazement.
Maine nodded his head as he sighed.
"The APF database is almost impossible to break in for us. As for their words, that's something we can't trust," he said. "What I found did make it seem like their words were the truth, but I found no convincing evidence to prove that they weren't lying. It's entirely possible that they used an ongoing situation to make up the whole thing."
"What ongoing situation? Tell me everything that you found," General Maxwell commanded in his heavy voice.
"There have been a few strings of murders. Not little murders but full-on slaughters. Apparently, an ability user is involved. That's why APF has the jurisdiction."
" They haven't released the pics of the culprit or any videos of the murder sites. I am not sure if they themselves have the videos since the places where this happened didn't have cameras," Maine started explaining.
"Anyway, from what I heard, it was done by a ten-eleven-year-old kid, which matches the description of the boy, so there can be some truth to it, but with no video evidence, I can't verify this piece of information," he continued.
"True. If it is really a scheme by APF, they could have just planted the witnesses to make it seem like it was done by a kid. It is not something hard for them. I also wouldn't put it beyond them if their aim is to investigate me," General Maxwell muttered as he fell into deep thought.
"Without damning evidence, it can't be ascertained if it is the truth. My men are entirely sure that it is a lie since they watched the kid die. I am more prone to believe that as well, but I still put you to investigate the claims for my satisfaction," he continued. "Who knew it would only raise more questions."
"Should I keep searching?" Maine asked.
General Maxwell shook his head as he answered, "There's no need anymore. If you weren't able to find anything, I'm sure you can't find it later either. Let's put it to rest."
"The kid is certainly dead. On the off chance that he is alive, as they said, APF can deal with him. There is no need for me to concern myself so much," he continued.
"As you say," Maine said as he stood up. "I'll take my leave."
He turned back and walked out the door.
After Maine left, General Maxwell threw his head back as he looked at the roof.
He softly muttered, "APF guys, huh. It's fine if it's only their Delta Squad trying to snoop. I can even handle it if the Beta Squad joins. However, Varant is another deal altogether. If he jumps in the mix and tries to dig in deep, things could get messy."
There was a complicated look on his face.
...
Back on the battlefield, it was a mess. The Variants that were jumping out of the falling helicopters were being killed by Lucifer. They weren't even getting a chance to position themselves in the air to counter before they were killed.
Noticing the screams of the ones that had jumped out, the ones inside realized something was happening outside. They looked out only to see dead bodies lying on the ground.
"Don't jump outside! That grim reaper is killing everyone one after another. If you jump out, he will kill you as well."
"You expect us to stay inside and die after the crash? We have no chance of survival if we don't jump outside!"
"Yeah! We need to go out, or we can just wait inside to die!"
"All of you, stop wasting time!" Flourance shouted, ending the discussion of his teammates. "All of you jump out at once! He can't kill everyone at once. The long-range attackers can position themselves and fire on him to keep him busy!"
"Doesn't that mean a few of us that jump out would die?" One of the Variants asked.
"There is no other option. We can either take the risk and sacrifice a few, or we can all die! I see no other option," Flourance answered, objectively.
Even he didn't wish to have people sacrifice themselves, but this was the only option. If all of them jumped out at once, it was evident that some of them would be killed by Lucifer, but that would give others the chance to position themselves to counterattack.
This was better than dying one by one after jumping outside or dying in the crash.
"Do it now! Don't think too much!" he thundered in a commanding tone.
The others also realized that there was no other option left. After gathering their courage and stoning their hearts, they jumped outside.
Lucifer was wondering why no one was jumping out as the helicopter kept going down, twisting and turning uncontrollably. He was even thinking about going closer to see, but that's when he saw people jump out.
Surprisingly, it wasn't one or two that jumped out but everyone else as well. They all jumped out together.
Lucifer tried to find Flourance amongst them to target him first, but he wasn't there. Even though everyone had jumped out, Flourance was not amongst them.
Everyone jumped out with a parachute except Flourance.
Flourance wanted to go out last since he was sure that he would be the first person Lucifer would kill if he went out first.
Even though he was someone who had the Spatial Displacement ability to survive even the most dangerous of attacks, that ability has a limitation.