Several people in cheap suits were sitting in an abandoned restaurant, around a big square table made of several small tables and a big green tablecloth that covered the gap of each small table. A triangular trapezoid polyhedron at the middle of the table got everyone’s attention. The polyhedron had a copper shell covering the whole polyhedron but the top side. A triangular blue cameo was inlaid at the center, and three tiny yellow gemstones were embedded at the three corners of the top.

The only one who wore an expansive suit threw an apple above the polyhedron. The apple fell and stopped falling. It was levitated in the air and wavered up and down. The blue gem under it was illuminating, and the yellow stones around it were glowing. The royal blue light shined on the red skin of the fluttering apple, like the ocean waving a boat. People’s eyes were all on the polyhedron, except Brody. He took only a glance at that gadget. He then moved his sight to Xilix. He leered at his visage. A small joy roared under that deadpan face, but Brody would never know.

Some people were more surprised than others, but none had ever seen this before. “This one looks much more gentle than the previous one, but how can it help?” a man wearing a cheap suit uttered.

“It’s just a prototype. I can do this just with my hands, and it’s much stronger,” Xilix said as he laid his hand on the table and his middle finger pointing at the polyhedron. The trapezoid immediately soared high and dropped about 10 meters away from the table.

“Oh! My…….” “Uh!” “What the fuck!” People who sat across from Xilix were all startled, while Brody giggled next to Xilix.

“Oh! I’m sorry,” Xilix made an embarrassed expression by pulling down his lower lip and showing his tight teeth as he sipped the air.

“Anything else?” a stout old man asked as he tidied his suit blazer by pulling his lapels. A small inpatient was shown at the corners of his mouth.

“Nope, that’s all,” Xilix avouched while having his hands flitting over his blazer. “So, your time’s over. Leave fast,” the old man demanded. “Wait. What?” Xilix turned his head toward Brody, “I thought I’m in the conference.” His words came out fast, and his brows barely frowned.

Brody’s eyes avoided Glanexeem’s sight. He kept seconds of silence, then he declared, “The original plan before you showed up was to talk about our resource usage, and then you showed up. Also, we need some time to fully understand your tricks.”

“Alright,” Glanexeem stood up from the restaurant chair with a slight disappointment and strode quickly toward the doorway. “Your parents will be proud of you,” that stout man shouted as Glanexeem left the restaurant. His voice shut as the door shut.

The stream in the ditch was as rapid as its odor. Those perforated hollow cement cubes were mostly empty. Most of the residents were in the factory far away there. The slovenly wind blew on the shabby graffiti. Dust covered the pigment and painted it scruffy. That big blue “HOPE” on the wall was half-erased by the dust from the ground and the factory. All the buildings here were low. Excluding that immense factory, the highest building in the city must be one of those three-floor iron sheet houses. Glanexeem contemplated the iron sheet area far away as he walked through the avenue. A shining black jacket was fuzzily descried behind the glassless window. He stopped and squinted his eyes, but the only thing he espied was a meteoric bullet.

The bullet fell from the sky, and cut straight through his sight. The pellet was already in Glanexeem’s belly when he realized it. That shot didn’t come straight from the direction of that shiny black coat but dropped from the sky.

Xilix kneeled his right knee down with his whole face pressed into a hideous and ferocious appearance. His right fingers pushed the ground, and his left hand was half clenched in front of his wound. His hands shook as he entirely held his left hand into a fist and released at the next moment when his palm was facing that black dot. A rhombus jewelry was hanging at the center of his palm. It was made of a rhombus red cameo with a coppery frame around it and five copper legs grasping on his finger gaps.

A section of radiance emitted from the red gem and darted toward that man with the jacket. The shot pierced a hole in the iron sheet wall. Xilix’s shot missed but the pellets didn’t. Another bullet fell from the sky. It was aimed at Glanexeem’s arm. Yet, missed when it shouldn’t. The pellet fell next to his right hand. A blue paused ripple was revealed half feet higher than his arm. Another and another light ripple were manifested after the other two bullets fell to the ground. The three ripples quickly vanished. The energy shield was intangible again.

Though the beam didn’t pierce that man in black, it did cause his disappearance. “The council,” the man kneeling with one knee groaned and lay down on the ground. His sweats were dribbling down from his unripe face. His whole body was at the limit, so the eyes closed without that previous ferociousness.

His blazer undulated like a wind had blown on it. Like a coat covering a clump of dandelions, innumerable purple particles glowed and flurried out of the suit from every aperture. They whirled and kindled like fireflies dancing in a swirl. With a smooth path, they left the eddy and shrouded Xilix’s whole body. His body flickered a few times and disappeared in a blink with only an afterimage fading at the spot.

“So magic is real, hum?” Detective Chricy goggled at the spot where Glanexeem teleported away. “But not as tough I thought,” Chricy uttered to himself while leaning the left half of his body out of the iron sheet building with his right hand hooking at the window’s edge.

“Wonder if he can do it continuously,” by a short titter, he beholden at the building that Xilix punctured. Justice and laughter, his forever credo.