Dungeon Raider System
Chapter 680 - 680: Extra 3

After the powerful explosion that wiped out the lost city of San Antonio, Hollywood's governor was unable to return home for several days.

Even after Uriel explained him the events that took place inside the dungeon and reassured him the creature that caused the explosion had been dealt with, Lister remained in his office trying to gather as much data as possible which resulted in him passing out in his chair.

"You should take better care of your health." Halstead heaved a sigh as he put on a blanket on Lister's back and dimmed the lights.

"This isn't the time for selfish worries. It's not over yet." Lister startled his bearded assistant by speaking with his eyes closed.

"What do you mean it's not over yet? Now that the lost city was wiped out cryptids can't hide there anymore. The city is safe, people are safe and even the media are silent. That's as good as it will ever get." Halstead replied pouring a cup of coffee for the half asleep governor, though he kept the lights dim hoping for the governor to doze off once more.

"Have I ever told you what is my profession? Apart from being a small time politician, that is." Lister asked taking a sip of the bitter coffee.

"You're a field medic, like me." Halstead replied without giving it much thought.

"That's my specialization, but I wouldn't call myself a hunter and I have little practice in said specialization. No, I studied a different career and I suspect that's the reason why I was chosen for this job, I studied Angelology."

"Angelology?" Halstead chuckled as he knew Lister had a particular interest on angels.

"I'm being serious. It's the study of the creatures known as angels. I wouldn't call it a scientific study, but it's actually a pretty rigorous field. Interpreting ancient documents that are vague to begin with is pretty difficult, but I've always been interested in them due to personal reasons." Lister explained.

"I'm sorry, but I've heard you say multiple times than their existence is yet to be proven and you always complain that you have yet to see one with your own eyes. You even said yourself you doubted they actually existed and it was just a lie made up by the government to cover up the real source of the serum." Halstead rebuked.

"Let me show you something," Lister said while rummaging in his drawer and then placed three items on top of his desk. A photographic album, a vial of serum and a strange feather. "Tell me exactly what you see in this picture."

"It's a really old family picture taken in England. There's the father, the mother, two sons and a daughter. Also, that man is their servant." Lister remained silent while Halstead studied the picture.

"What about this one? See something odd?" Lister pointed at the next picture.

"It's the same servant, but the family is different. They're cowboys? I'm sorry, but there's nothing unusual in this picture and I fail to see what does this have to do with anything." The bearded man shrugged his shoulders.

"You would be correct by saying there's nothing unusual, but you missed the most important part. Look at the back of the picture."

Halstead grudgingly did as Lister said. His expression quickly shifted once he noticed what Lister wanted him to see, then hurriedly checked more of the pictures becoming more shocked with each one he examined.

"This isn't possible! All these pictures were taken over a hundred years apart but that man looks the same! It's as if he didn't age a single day." Halstead didn't bother to hide his perplexity as he skimmed the rest of the pages finding many other similar cases where people appeared on different pictures taken years apart.

"This man's name was Atsa and he wasn't a servant but a doctor," Lister spoke at the same time a thunderous rain broke through the sky and pounded on the window. "he was a native American or at least he looked like one. I, however, suspect he was actually an angel."

"Is it possible that these people are just blood related and look similar to each other? Also, aren't angels supposed to have wings?"

"You're missing the point, Halstead. It's not just about the time frame those pictures were taken, there are several things that don't add up. Take these two pictures as an example, they were taken only days from each other, but in different continents.

The fastest a person could have traveled in those days was by train, which means going from Europe to America in such little time should have been impossible yet this man appears in both pictures."

"But the wings..." Hasltead attempted to speak, but Lister shook his head and pointed at the feather. It looked similar to that of an eagle, only it was way longer that it should have been. Halstead missed this fact as he had never even seen an eagle in his life, though what he didn't miss was that the same feather appeared in some of the pictures adorning Atsa's attire.

"This man allegedly performed several miracles, one of which was to save the life of my most renowned ancestor named Joseph Lister who would later become a pioneer of antiseptic surgery and preventive healthcare, though that's not the reason why Atsa was famous. He would approach beautiful women at random and give them priceless gifts, then expected them to marry him.

Some of the women refused, but others did agree to marry him as the gifts he gave them were nothing short of national treasures, but the man would never show to the ceremony and would instead return a century or so complaining that he was lied to."

"What a weird old old man," Halstead chuckled. "Was this feather one of those gifts? Is this the proof that he was an angel?"

"This feather was found in the dungeon along with several others in the exact same spot where Sage claimed a powerful creature appeared. This isn't confirmed yet, but Miss Alioth informed me that apparently Atsa faced the creature alone and perished, but not without putting up a good fight as he likely left the creature debilitated enough for other hunters to finish the job."

"I see, so that's proof he's an angel." Halstead nodded.

"That's precisely what's troubling me, you see, I ran a DNA test on this feather just to confirm it wasn't just an eagle feather, but the results only left me more confused. The results did came negative which meant it didn't belong to an animal at all but to a human and a really old one at that."

"Now that's just not possible, humans don't have feathers!"

"Humans don't, but what about hunters? What about hyrbrids? There's just too much we don't understand yet." Lister let out a sigh.

"What about the vial of serum?" Halstead's curiosity was piqued despite him being barely able to follow Lister's reasoning.

Instead of replying, the governor grabbed the feather and drew it near the bottle of serum causing a reaction that made the liquid inside the vial boil and emit a slight shimmer that faded as soon as Lister removed the feather.

"And you still doubt angels exist!?" Halstead's opinion had made a U turn and now he was a firm believer.

"That's the thing, if the DNA test is correct then it means Atsa was actually a human. I think it would be safe to assume he was a hunter, but how could there be hunters before cryptids even appeared?" Lister didn't wait for an answer and continued. "There's something else bothering me. According to what little information I was able to gather about Atsa, he was very senile."

"Senile?" Halstead echoed.

"Yes, he acted confused at times, got lost easily and even had issues holding his bladder. He also showed signs of alzheimer's disease..." The conversation went on for a few minutes where both of them lamented the fact that the creature consumed Atsa's body.

Studying the old man's remains would have likely answered many of their questions and them some more, now all they could do was to make unfounded theories.

Unbeknownst to them they had already breached one of the questions that kept Uriel from finding the truth himself.

Atsa's senility explained his strange behavior and him forgetting everything about Crockett's legacy, the dungeon and even his origin. His long life had left him with very few memories of his glorious past and even the wisdom of his years was diminished and he only kept on performing his duty out of habit.

The old man, or angel for that matter, couldn't provide any answers to anyone because he didn't have them anymore. Like any elderly man he just wanted to talk and let time pass until death came to knock on his door.

"There's something else that's been bothering me all this time." Lister blurted out once the rain had settled.

"What is it?" Halstead asked despite fearing the answer.

"It's that guy's name." Lister finished and a last thunder echoed in the distance.