"Brother-in-law? What are you talking about?" Takatora demanded.
The others present were equally confused.
"Release Kouta Kazuraba." Raven turned and addressed them.
"I don't care what your relationship is with him, but for his own safety, I advise you to let him remain here for a period of observation. The reaction of ordinary people after using the Drivers and Lockseeds is still an unknown," Takatora stated, giving no ground.
"That's a nice way to put it—'for their own safety.' In reality, you're just using them as lab rats, aren't you?" Raven replied calmly.
Woo-woo-woo—!
Just then, the alarm on the Yggdrasill Tower floors blared loudly.
"What's going on?" Takatora and the others were perplexed.
The Chief immediately touched the communicator in his ear and questioned the control room staff.
"Chief, someone has disabled the cell restrictions!"
"Both of those 'lab rats' have escaped!"
"They stole a Driver and broke into the underground fissure!" the person on the other end answered frantically.
"Damn it… Sid, get over there and stop them immediately!" Takatora shouted to Sid beside him.
Then, he turned his gaze back to Raven and said, "Is this your doing?"
"It looks like they've managed to escape already," Raven said unhurriedly.
With a powerful leap, he flipped in the air and stomped straight down onto Sid, who was about to rush off to capture Kouta and the others. The kick sent Sid sprawling onto the floor.
"Damn you!"
Sid scrambled to get up.
Before he could react, he was kicked down again, his head pinned to the floor, rendering him completely unable to move.
Boom!
Everything happened too fast; everyone was stunned and unable to react.
"Trying to catch him right in front of his brother-in-law? Do you really think I don't exist?" Raven spoke in a mocking tone, treating Sid like a doormat.
At this moment, Takatora and the others were on high alert. They hadn't expected Raven's strength to be so astonishing even without a Driver.
Ryoma, however, wasn't surprised. In his view, a person capable of mastering that Lockseed wouldn't be simple.
"Let him go now."
Despite his deep apprehension toward Raven, they were in the Yggdrasill Tower, and Takatora couldn't tolerate the other party arbitrarily trampling on Yggdrasill's reputation.
"Let him go? Fine."
Raven lifted his foot, and just as Sid tried to scramble away, he kicked him again.
Bang!
Sid was sent flying like a soccer ball towards Takatora and the others.
They naturally dodged out of the way.
Sid, however, suffered terribly, crashing into a glass round table. The glass shattered, leaving him covered in small cuts—not fatal, but extremely painful.
"Bastard!"
Sid gnashed his teeth, staring furiously at Raven. Rage had completely flooded his mind.
He quickly pulled out his Cherry Energy Lockseed and placed it onto the Genesis Driver on his waist.
"Sid, stop right there!" Takatora shouted, seeing what was about to happen.
If Sid transformed, the conflict would escalate to the level of their last encounter.
However, Sid wasn't listening at all.
He instantly completed his transformation.
Wielding the Sonic Arrow, which served as both a bow and a blade, he charged at Raven.
"Die! Just die!"
Sid's attacks were like those of a mad dog.
Raven effortlessly kept dodging.
Sid then became like a havoc-wreaking husky, destroying the facilities and glass doors along the way.
Yet, he still failed to land a single hit on Raven.
"Damn it, if you've got the guts, stop running!" Sid cursed loudly.
He drew the bowstring, attempting to take aim at Raven in the distance. A powerful destructive force began to accumulate!
"Stop it! Are you trying to destroy this place, Sid!" Takatora couldn't bear to watch any longer and shouted.
The nearby Ryoma also lost his composure. He hadn't expected that his Genesis Driver couldn't even force Raven to transform. At this rate, Sid was surely going to be toyed with until his death.
Hearing Takatora's warning, Sid finally lowered the bowstring, glaring at Raven in defeat.
"Hey, hey, what's with the sudden stop? I was looking forward to seeing how much more you'd destroy here; that sight would have been quite interesting," Raven said, utterly at ease the whole time.
He had managed to run circles around Sid with mere flesh-and-blood speed.
"You… since you've achieved your objective, why don't you get out of here right now." Takatora stared deeply at Raven.
It was a shame that such a powerful person was an enemy of Yggdrasill.
He thought that they would simply have to find another way to recover the Driver from Kouta Kazuraba next time.
Seeing that these people genuinely seemed intimidated, Raven found it dull.
He walked towards the elevator entrance. His plan was to head straight to the underground fissure and enter Helheim.
"Oh no, it looks like he's heading for the underground fissure too!" someone realized.
"Damn it, what is he planning? Everyone, stop the elevator at Zone D Exit 3, and send people to block him off! Also, seal off all entrances leading underground!" Takatora had no choice but to issue these orders.
Unsure of Raven's intentions, he couldn't risk anything happening to the experimental facilities below.
Thus, in the area of the Yggdrasill Tower nearest to the very bottom, Raven stepped out of the elevator.
Soon, numerous Kurokage Troopers surrounded him from the various exits nearby.
They were all determined to stop Raven from advancing, planning to use a wave of bodies to stall him.
However, Raven had no intention of playing with them.
He took out his Driver and completed his transformation fluidly.
He then immediately unleashed the Super Acceleration ability, which his un-transformed body couldn't withstand.
With a flash, he smashed the Kurokage Troopers directly in front of him, sending them flying.
He had forcibly carved a path for himself.
"H-he disappeared?"
Everyone was dumbfounded.
....
Helheim.
The freed Kouta and the others broke into the lowest level of the Yggdrasill Tower and entered Helheim through the fissure. Learning from the previous lesson, Yggdrasill had arranged a large number of personnel to guard the outpost outside, including over a dozen Watermelon Lockseed Armor-equipped Suits.
Meanwhile, Kouta and Kaito were speeding through the forest on their motorcycles, evading the pursuing Yggdrasill forces.
The two of them were completely outmatched and could only flee in panic.
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