“So, that’s the super doper bad guy’s base?” Leyton asked casually as he eyed the large settlement that was situated a few kilometres in front of them.

“It’s big,” commented Skye as casually as her partner. “Way bigger than that base we destroyed.”

“T-That was just a checkpoint,” explained Veva nervously.

“T-This is their main base a-after all,” responded Lexi nervously.

Upon hearing their nervous voices, the couple turned and looked at them with concern. They were amazed to see that both the Angels were sweating profusely and were fidgeting with their fingers in an uncontrollable fashion. It was like they were close to having a nervous breakdown due to the sheer stress of being so close to their enemy’s base.

“My goodness! Are you alright?!” Skye exclaimed, looking shocked and walking over to check on them.

“W-We’re… um…” began Lexi only to hesitate and glance nervously at the enemy base.

“Seriously? You’re that nervous?” Leyton asked, looking disbelievingly at the two girls that stood unsteadily in front of him.

“Why are you so scared?” Skye asked worriedly.

Lexi and Veva turned to look at each other before turning back to face them with confused looks on their faces.

“You… You don’t sense it?” Lexi asked nervously.

“Sense what?” The couple asked in unison.

“Him,” said Veva in an ominous voice before dramatically announcing, “The leader of the Embassy of Chaos, Everett Scrivenor.”

There was a moment of silence, in which both Leyton and Skye gave the Angels a blank look. It was obvious that those two had no clue about who that was, but they did get the impression that the person must be very powerful indeed for these girls to fear him from this distance.

Leyton, however, found the name of the enemy bizzare and commented, “The heck? Everett? It rhymes with carrot!”

Skye coughed in surprise and stared at her husband in wonder before saying, “I don’t think now is the time to make jokes about people’s names, Leyley.”

“Oh really? In that case, I’ll just make plenty of jokes once I beat them good!” He replied and punched his hands together with a big grin on his face.

“W-Wait!” Lexi said quickly, her face full of worry. “Y-You’re not… sensing it?”

“That’s the thing,” he said, turning and looking quizzically at them. “I don’t know what you’re sensing that’s got you so scared.”

“Me neither,” added Skye with a shake of her head.

When the Angels heard that, the two girls sighed weakly and said, “You aren’t able to sense him then.”

“Excuse me?” Skye asked curiously. “What is this ‘sensing’ stuff that you’ve been saying till now? Is it like a sixth sense or the like?”

Before the Angels could answer her, Leyton said, “No, Skye. They’re talking about sensing the life force of an entity, their power level and so on.”

“Oh!” Skye said, looking surprised. “Like those RPG games that we play in that console of yours?”

Her husband shook his head in denial and said, “No. Those are games. This is real life. That and this are not the same.”

“Eh? Not the same?” She asked, looking puzzled while the Angels watched from the background in confusion. “How so?”

“For starters, it’s complete and utter nonsense to think that you could sense the upper and lower limit of someone’s energy, strength, or power. This isn’t a game where you have a health bar, experience points, and a level up system. This is real life, and it just doesn’t make sense that a mortal could be able to sense someone else’s power level simply based on the notion that they could sense them.”

“So…” she asked, not understanding any of it.

“Power levels are bulls*t,” he said simply in a firm voice, which made her eyes widen in alarm.

“Ah! You swore!” Skye said in complaint.

“But it’s the truth!” He insisted.

“Even so, you didn’t near to swear!” She complained profusely.

Skye gave him a reproachful look that made him realise his fault and apologise with, “Sorry. I guess I slipped up.”

She nodded in acceptance and replied with a smile, “That’s okay. We all make mistakes, but the import thing is to learn from them and not repeat them again.”

“I know,” he said simply and smiled at her.

As the two of them smiled at one another, the Angels continued the watch them from the background in complete silence. Then Lexi broke it by muttering to her friend about the relationship of their heroes.

“I-Is this how the couples these days interact?” She asked Veva curiously.

“I… I don’t know,” replied Veva while shaking her head. “I think most households I know of have the men in charge while the women are mostly pushed to the side.”

“Oh. But that doesn’t appear to be the same for them,” said Lexi, glancing at the heroes in wonder.

“Hey, I can hear you quite clearly,” said Leyton, causing them to jump in surprise.

“W-We’re sorry!” They quickly apologised, fearing they had angered them.

Seeing that the girls were scared, Leyton smiled and said coolly, “Ah. It’s okay. I didn’t take any offense. I just couldn’t help overhearing what you thought about our relationship and it saddens me that such forced relationships exist in this world.”

He appeared a little sad, but the mood was brightened when Skye said, “I guess that does make our relationship appear strange and for that, all I can say is… we’re just different,” and she winked cheekily at them.

The two Angels blinked in surprise while Leyton said, “Skye, they’ll start thinking we’re weird or something. Not a good way to leave a lasting impression, you know?”

“It’ll be fine,” she replied coolly and patted him on the back. “Now, let focus on the enemies ahead?”

“Right!” He agreed with a nod of his head.

“We’ve got to announce our arrival,” said Skye as a reminder.

“I know. I won’t launch a sneak attack. I’m not them!” He retorted indignantly. Then he held his hand out and said, “Summon megaphone.” Nodding in satisfaction that it worked, he said, “Enchant: Amplify volume to maximum.”

“You sure that’s okay?” Skye asked with concern.

“It’ll be fine!” He said reassuringly with a bright smile. “It’s a simple Switch On command and—!”

In the next second, an ear-splitting shrieking sound began resonating from the megaphone that almost made Leyton drop it. The Angels and Skye shut their ears with their hands and closed their eyes tightly by how immensely loud the sound was. Leyton, being the closest to it, closed one eye and covered his right ear with his free hand before shouting the command to decrease the volume.

“Enchant: Shrink volume 30%!”

In an instant, the shrieking sound quickly lessened and disappeared. The three girls uncovered their eyes and stared at the megaphone with bewildered looks on their faces. Then Skye turned to look crossly at her husband, who was eying his latest instrument in amazement.

“Oopsy-daisy. That was loud.”

“Be careful, Leyton. You could’ve destroyed our eardrums with it,” she complained, looking irritated.

“Yeah. Sorry about that, Skye,” he apologised to her in a low voice with an embarrassed smile on his face.

A moment later, he placed the megaphone in front of his mouth and spoke into it as he directed his words at the Embassy of Chaos.

“Ahem! Greetings, people! We’re the people that came from another world that you tried to recently destroy and failed at miserably.”

He paused for a moment and turned to look at his wife, who nodded with a smile.

At that moment, he suddenly had an idea of, “Oh, wait! Since most of the magic that I just happened to use from the thought of my head worked, why don’t I try this one out? It’s a cheat code after all and if my powers extend so far as to turn a simple cheat code into reality, then I’m truly invincible! So, might as well take this chance to try it out. I’ll at least figure out what works and what doesn’t work.”

Then, as an afterthought, he muttered, “But I feel a little stupid since this isn’t a game.

He sighed to himself, but was determined to go through with it.

So, he cleared his throat and said, “By the way, I want to make sure of something, so here goes.” They heard him take a deep breath before exclaiming, “All your base are belong to us!”

 

==== + ==== + ==== + ====

 

Closing the Book

 

“Huh?” The boy asked, blinking in surprise as he tore his eyes off the page and stared at the older man. “The chapter ended exactly where chapter 6 ended! What?!”

“It’s not surprising to end it there since it’s a good chance to create a good cliff-hanger,” the older man replied smoothly.

“Yes, but it doesn’t have the same effect as when it was used the first time around.”

“I think you’re missing the point,” the older man said, and the boy looked puzzled. “The author had clearly and deliberately ended the chapter in the same cliff-hanger as a previous chapter, which means that there was something he wanted us, the readers, to take focus on.”

The boy blinked in surprise before he asked, “So, is it the part where Leyton, realising that everything he had used till now worked and decided to try it out.” Then he looked sceptic as he add, “But, if we remind ourselves what he told Skye about the games and reality being different, it feels like a plot hole or a contradiction to what he said previously.”

“You’re right,” the older man agreed much to the surprise of the younger boy. “Leyton is contradicting himself here, and he himself knows it as he states how silly he feels about trying it out despite what he told Skye.”

“How can he do something that they know they would not normally do?”

“He can because he is human,” the older man said coolly. “Take for instance; you.”

“W-What about me?” The boy asked, feeling agitated.

“You know that ice-creams are fatty food, and eating them makes you grow fat and bring health issues. Yet, you ate a litre of ice-cream without any reserve this morning.”

“What?!” The boy exclaimed at unexpected being found out. “How?! Wait! I mean…!”

As he faltered by realising what he just did, the older man smiled smoothly and said, “When you went out with your friends and used your pocket money to eat it. Pretty obvious actually considering you share your father’s appetite towards fatty food.”

The boy looked disgruntled as he admitted, “Fine. I did eat a litre with my friends.” Then he sighed and said, “Dang it. You don’t miss anything, do you?”

“You know me,” the man smiled pleasantly.

For a moment, there was silence between them before the boy asked, “You certainly go to extra lengths to defend the author and his characters. Do you know him or something?”

He was eying the man sitting opposite him expectantly, who appeared as though he was thinking about something. Then he looked back at the kid and smiled serenely as he gave his answer.

“Find out as the story continues,” and he winked at him.

“Hey!” The boy complained indignantly, and the older man let out a light laughter filled with humour.