Having no idea of what's happening in the Rainbow Islands, Michael was lying on Gaya's lap in the captain's cabin as she ran her fingers through his hair. The Hydra was peacefully sleeping on his chest after a hearty meal.
The Captain's cabin now looked completely different than before. His crew scrubbed every inch of the cabin spotless before placing the new sofas, chairs, beds, and beautiful candle stands made of pure silver around the room. Not only the captain's cabin but the entire ship was scrubbed spotless. They placed the rum barrels in the storage room rather than keeping them wherever they pleased. Still, Michael needed to buy them new beds, repair the cannons and the hull as well as buy them new weapons. He was planning to do them before leaving back to Elon. In addition to the time limit he gave to the scumbags, the championship tournaments were about to start in five days.
Thanks to his runic teleportation function, he could travel between the two continents instantly rather than spending months traveling.
"I've been wanting to ask you something," Michael asked.
"What is it?"
"You know when I said I'm going to reveal myself at the arena, I'm reconsidering it" At first, Michael wanted to reveal his Lucifer persona to the world. The fact that he could use Arch energy would have made him earn a load of badass points without a doubt. However, after giving it a deep thought, he started to have second thoughts.
"I assume you have a good reason for having second thoughts'' She didn't look surprised. On the contrary, she seemed like she was expecting this.
"If we were to reveal ourselves, we might become the number one target of the whole world. If they waged war on Gisel to capture us, we cannot fight them all with the little time we have to use the Arch Energy. Besides, we don't have an army as we planned yet"
"And Gisal would automatically become the target of others and everyone will know that Caius is our man" As Michael paused, Gaya went on.
"Why didn't you say anything before?" She spoke his mind yet he wondered why she didn't advise him against revealing themselves before.
"Because I trust you. I learned that no matter what you do, you always have a reason behind it"
[Not to mention you will end up getting your ass kicked if you reveal yourself too soon]
Suddenly he heard the system mock him inside his mind. He was surprised to the point he entered the system interface to talk to the system.
"Well well well look who's showing up to the party"
[Don't worry. I'll talk when I want to stop you from doing reckless things. Revealing your power to the Southerners for an instance]
"And here I'm thinking you want me to show off, earn badass points, and spend buying something from the store"
[You're no good to me dead host. Revealing yourself at the arena would put a target on you, a target every godlike existence in this world would hunt you down]
"Why didn't you say so before?"
The system became more and more intelligent and less and less robotic after he upgraded the system to version 3. Michael had a feeling that it would become more talkative. Also, the system now mostly addressed itself using the word I and Me instead of 'The system'.
[I was looking to know your decision. Face it host, you were an assassin who had one simple job, kill people. Now you're on a path to conquer this world and rule it from the shadows. It's not your domain, you'll make mistakes. Besides, ruling the world from the shadows is more badass than becoming an emperor. Upgrade me so I can be more help]
"There it is. For a moment, I thought you genuinely want to help me, not rob me" Michael laughed as the system went silent. He exited the system's interface after a few moments.
"So let's change our plan. Instead of showing up to burn those fuckers, we'll let the rebels finish their job safely. Then we'll make sure they reach our ship unseen and get the hell out of Gisal '' Gaya suggested a new plan. Initially, they planned to personally go to the arena, kill Viridius's men and save the rebels. Now the plan had changed. Michael decided to let Tiberius, Heinberg, and Maxine deal with Viridius's men.
"Has Heinberg placed the Spyders around the arena yet?" Michael asked Gaya. It was Heinberg's task to survey the arena and place the Spyders around as well as below the arena so Michael could watch everything happening at the arena without being there. According to Herius, the rebels were planning to place explosives beneath the arena where the explosives would do maximum damage.
"Yeah, the Spyders are in the place. But he couldn't find where Viridius was staying. His daughter's wedding is in two days yet that asshole is playing hide and seek"
"He's definitely planning something. Tell him to keep searching. I want all the senators on the same stage or our plan won't work" Michael looked serious. Getting all the senators in one place was a crucial part of his master plan to conquer Gisal. If everything went according to his plan, the kingdom of Gisal would be his when returns to Elon.
*********************************************
Meanwhile, in the sewers of Lanercost, a group of men wearing dark robes and hoods was walking through the muddy water. Four of the men were carrying a large crate while two men walked forward, carrying torches to light their path. Their faces could not be seen through the dark hoods they were wearing. Regardless of their robes, one could tell that these men had sturdy muscular bodies looking at their broad shoulders and big biceps.
"Are we near Doctorus?" One of the men carrying the crate asked. They were the chosen gladiators who came to Lanercost to destroy the arena along with slave traders, nobles as well as lanistas.
"Yes," Doctorus said with his thick accent.
"This place stinks to high heaven" the gladiators twitched their noses because of the overwhelming stink coming from the drainage water running on the ground. In addition to the stink, the rats stared at them from the dark corners with their glowing eyes. Most of them would be glad not to hear the rats squeak as they move forward.
"If I'm right, we're very close to the arena" Mark, the gladiator who knocked down Tiberius said while carrying the torch. The arena above them resembled the colosseum on earth. It could hold at least 45,000 spectators. Where people sat in the arena was determined by the senate. The best seats were reserved for the Senators. Behind them were the nobles, scholars, and ranking army officers respectively. A bit higher up sat the ordinary citizens and the soldiers. Since Viridius didn't want peasants to attend the wedding ceremony, he raised the ticket price to enter the arena by several folds. Although none of the commoners could afford to buy the ticket, it was not a big deal for the nobles. Hence, Viridius earned a hefty sum in ticket sales while preventing the commoners from attending the wedding, two birds in one stone.
"Not that I'm complaining or anything but I wonder why didn't the senators put a single guard in this place?" Another gladiator who was carrying the crate asked in a husky voice.
"Because the nobles or the senators don't know about the passage running under the arena. The scholars lost the blueprints and the maps in a fire several decades ago" Mark explained,
"When I was a little child, the soldiers managed to close many entrances to the sewage system but not all of them. My grandfather was one of the few people who knew about these passages" Doctorus said.
"Then you knew about this passage all these years. So why didn't you try to escape?"
All the gladiators looked at Doctorus after that question.
"Perhaps I didn't want to escape or perhaps I liked kicking your sorry asses"
"Look at that, Doctorus is being funny" the other gladiators laughed, forgetting the pressure of this mission for a few moments. Although everyone knew that this is a suicide mission, none of them admitted out loudly. After detonating the explosives, they knew they would die in the blast along with the senators and the nobles above them.
They were doing this to light the fire of freedom in all the slaves, including the gladiators. If everything went according to their plan, this day would be a huge blow to all the senators who encourage slavery.
After a few minutes of walking, the narrow sewage tunnel expanded in front of them. They were standing at the entrance of a huge space. In the light of the torches, they could see numerous beams in front of them supporting the arena above them. The gladiators were directly under the arena.
Doctours could see several entrances with doors made of rusty iron bars. They led to the various places in the arena as if they wanted to get to the spectators' area, they could use the ladders to climb up. But Doctorus really doubted that the ladders would be still there in one piece after all these years without maintenance.
"Let's get to work gladiators"