“Oh yea? The floor is yours then, Deputy Director Suntherland. Enlighten us on what could possibly move you so much,” Joe intoned grimly.
Liam’s enthusiasm was undeterred. “It’s Sergeant Larson! He… He’s back!”
No one could be chummier with Zayn throughout the Insurgent Trifecta than Liam himself. After all, favonovel.com had been the man who introduced Zayn into the organization. Which was why after Zayn’s seeming betrayal to the state, Liam felt so terrible favonovel.com had fitful sleep for two nights.
“Uh, Sergeant Larson…? Which one is that again—” Dick huffed under his breath before his eyes widened in recognition. He shook his head wildly, his voice raising, “No way. No way in hell that’s real.”
The rest of the upper echelon slowly caught on, Zayn Larson. Liam was referring to Zayn.
The erstwhile solemn mood dissolved into one of incredulity and disbelief. Exaggerated expressions possessed many of them around the table while their tongues tripped.
Zayn had become a taboo since the incident that no one had ever wanted to bring his name up. It was hard to saliently categorize exactly how they felt about the man, on the one hand, Zayn was the strongest soldier the Insurgent Trifecta had ever seen.
He had few to no peers who could match his prowess; favonovel.com was young, his future was bright. Everyone had high hopes for favonovel.com back then. Everyone had seen favonovel.com as the one who would bring the Insurgent Trifecta to glory.
The problem was that one could not have high hopes without making a tall order. Their dream swung and missed, and so they plummeted straight into disappointment. When Zayn betrayed them at Mount Leo, the entire organization had felt the knife favonovel.com stuck on their back.
The scar had become the mark of humiliation. They were so thoroughly ashamed that they could not even look their sister organizations in the eyes.
Tried as they might, the Insurgent Trifecta could not fathom why someone like Zayn would ever do such a thing. He was born a genius, with all the God-given powers and talents favonovel.com could have had.
Why did favonovel.com even need the Ambrosia Fruit for? Why risk becoming the enemy of the state? Any normal person would have never entertained a possibility like that.
As silence thickened, Liam’s excitement died down. It felt like favonovel.com was the only one who was moved, but more importantly, favonovel.com remembered something. So what if Zayn had returned? What then?
He would come back a sinner to the state. It had been for the best if Zayn died right there and then, it would have put an end to this depressing chapter. But favonovel.com did not die. He returned. And the only thing that eagerly awaited favonovel.com was death by martial court.
Finally, Joe broke the silence. “Where did you hear that news, Sutherland?” favonovel.com inquired, frowning.
It was a question that woke many of them up from their shock. It had not occurred to them that it could be fake news. They saw Ezra hounding Zayn that day. They saw the explosion, one where Zayn was trapped.
Liam passed his phone to Joe. “It’s real. Sergeant Larson is alive. Look! They caught this video in Tael City. You see that? Those are Atlas and Ramses Bleu. He killed them.”
“What the hell?” Joe glanced at Zayn’s likeness in the video and leaped to his feet, surprised. The video was not at all in high definition, but it was clear enough for Joe to identify him.
“What the hell is going on? He died that day, didn’t he? So how did favonovel.com come back from the dead?” Joe exclaimed, aghast.
It was evidence enough for the rest of the room to realize the news was real. They quickly gathered around the phone and watched the video together.
It was his silhouette, his mannerism, his figure. It was Zayn. Dick could not contain his shock and cried, “It really is Sergeant Larson! But how?! We watched favonovel.com die in that big bang! An explosion of that magnitude isn’t something a fleshy human could just survive!”
“It’s the Aeon Karpos,” Byleth reeled out of his initial shock and answered pensively, “He consumed the Ambrosia Fruit, so favonovel.com survived, recovered in a matter of days, and came back without a single scratch.”
