Bloodline Evolution: I Can Choose Opposing Paths-Chapter 88: A Plan Deduced

The street was still quiet when they finished helping Alyssa down from the truck.

Daniel glanced once more at the mess before grimacing. "Yeah... let’s not explain that one to the city police."

Aren had already pulled out his phone. A few quick taps later, the screen flashed confirmation.

"A cab’s on the way," he said.

Alyssa crossed her arms immediately. "I’m not going home."

"You are," Aren replied calmly.

Her eyes narrowed. "My daughter is in that stadium right now."

"And right now," Aren said, slipping the phone back into his pocket, "someone just kidnapped you to keep you quiet."

That was enough to make her hesitate to some extent. Eventually, she gave in as the driver arrived quickly.

He looked around at the strange battle scene, but decided it was best to keep quiet.

Aren turned back to Alyssa.

"Go somewhere safe," he said. "We’ll contact you later."

She stopped for a moment, her expression conflicted, before finally climbing into the back seat. The car zoomed away as the door closed, just in time for Emily’s dragonflies to swoop down from the dusky skies.

Daniel hopped onto one without hesitation.

"Alright," he said, rolling his shoulders. "Hope we’re not too late."

With rapid beats of their wings, the creatures lifted off the ground and surged back toward the city. The wind rushed past them as the skyline grew closer.

For several seconds, neither of them spoke. Aren’s mind was already racing.

Sirens...annoying creatures.

Aren stared ahead at the glowing stadium in the distance, something tugging at the back of his mind. Then he glanced sideways.

"Hey, Daniel."

"Yeah?"

"A Siren," Aren said. "Remember what their unique ability was?"

Daniel frowned for a moment as the wind rushed past them.

"The song? They lure people—"

He stopped mid-sentence. The realization hit both of them at the same time.

"The song..." Daniel muttered slowly. "It drains ether."

Aren nodded once.

Below them, thousands of people were already flooding into the stadium.

"And if Miu really did have a Siren Bloodline..." Daniel let out a slow breath. "...That’s a lot of ether."

"But why would someone need so much—?" he started again, but Aren was barely listening. He was thinking the exact same thing.

There was only one reason why a Mystic would need so much ether, let alone somebody else’s...

They were a demonic cultivator.

Shit...Now I get what’s happening. But are the Defiler’s hands truly in this? Or just a rogue group of demonic cultivators...

And how would they even collect it—

But his mind stopped immediately. Aren automatically reached up to his earbuds before speaking loudly.

"Emily."

"Yeah?" the line crackled as her voice came through.

"I need to ask you something," Aren said. "Is there a machine capable of collecting ether from a large area... and storing it?"

There was a short pause before she finally answered.

"...Actually, yes," she said slowly. "There was a prototype unveiled a few months ago. An ether resonance collector."

Daniel glanced over.

"A what?"

"It gathers ambient ether from multiple sources and condenses it into storage cells," Emily continued. "It’s mostly experimental though."

Aren’s gaze hardened.

"Who funded it?"

"Let me check."

Emily didn’t answer immediately as Aren heard keyboard clacking on the other side of the line. Then she finally said it.

"...Aetherion Research."

"Shit..." Daniel exclaimed. "Are you thinking what I’m thinking?"

"...Yeah," Aren said quietly. "They’re harvesting it."

Aren gave a small nod.

"Sirens drain ether through their song," he said. "If someone built a collector to capture that..."

Daniel finished the thought.

"...the whole stadium becomes a battery."

"But there’s no way they think they could get away with that!" Emily’s voice cracked.

"No...they can," Aren muttered, his mind going back to the wiretapped conversation.

"The cleaners..." Daniel realized. "So they’re planning to make it a terrorist incident."

The pieces were falling into place too cleanly now. Argent Shield was the main grunts doing the labor work to collect ether for Aetherion Research, who Aren believed was spearheaded by a Demonic Cultivator.

Their plan now was to collect whatever they could from the crowd, then have a third party wipe their footsteps clean.

"Emily," Aren said sharply. "How long until the main performance starts?"

There was a pause as she checked.

"...It already did."

Aren’s gaze snapped toward the stadium. It was still a distance away. Even from this distance, the roar of the crowd was beginning to rise.

"...We’re late," Daniel muttered.

Aren’s hand immediately went to his pocket.

He pulled out his phone and opened Miu’s contact, his thumb hovering over the call button for only a fraction of a second before pressing it.

The line rang over and over again but nobody picked up. Aren frowned slightly and glanced down at the screen again—

Then his eyes narrowed.

Several missed calls.

All from Miu.

The timestamps were from earlier... right when they had been chasing the truck down the highway.

"...Damn it," Aren muttered under his breath. Daniel leaned over slightly from his dragonfly.

"What?"

Aren held up the screen briefly.

"She was trying to call me."

Daniel grimaced.

"Bad timing."

Aren slipped the phone back into his pocket as the stadium lights grew larger ahead of them. For a moment, the wind was the only sound between them.

"Alright. We don’t have time to stop everything," Aren finally announced. "But here’s the plan."

Aren’s eyes stayed fixed on the stadium.

"Two objectives," he said.

"First, the cleaners. If they start causing chaos, the entire concert turns into the cover story they want."

Daniel nodded slowly.

"And the second?"

"The machine," Aren replied. "If we don’t destroy it, they’ll drain the entire stadium dry."

Daniel didn’t hesitate. "I’ll handle the cleaners by myself then."

"You sure?" Aren looked over immediately. "We don’t know how many there are, there could be hundreds—"

"Hey," Daniel flaunted. "Let your Senior show off for once, okay?"

Aren studied him for a moment as the dragonflies cut through the night air. Below them, the streets were a lot emptier now that everyone else was in the stadium.

Aren exhaled slowly.

"...Alright."

He looked toward the stadium again.

"I’ll go backstage and destroy the machine."

The roar of the crowd grew louder as they approached the stadium’s outer perimeter. And faintly, carried by the night air—

The first notes of Miu Harmonia’s voice began to echo from inside the arena. Both of them felt it immediately.

A subtle pull. Like something brushing against their senses.

Daniel grimaced.

"...Yeah," he muttered. "That’s definitely a Siren."

Aren nodded once.

Daniel returned it with a quick grin before tilting his dragonfly sharply toward the outer streets surrounding the stadium.

"Don’t take too long," he called over the wind.

"You too."

The two dragonflies split apart in the night sky—one diving toward the crowded perimeter, and the other racing straight for the backstage entrance.