"Where is Heinberg and Tiberius now?" Michael asked. His voice was serious yet he remained calm. There was no expression except calmness on his face.
"Here" Gaya pointed at the far south side of Gisal where the city border meets the ocean.
"It's where the sewage opens and I'm not coming in" She firmly said. The last thing she would do was rummage through their sewage.
"I'm not planning to take you with me. You make sure the senators are in their places as we are planned. If I didn't give you the signal by the time, save Caius and Maxine from the explosion first. And if you can, I can't believe im saying this. Save the nobles" Michael let out a peal of tired laughter. The nobles were indeed important but not as important as Caius or Maxine.
Of course, he planned to subdue the gladiators before they could blow up the arena using their own explosives. Nonetheless, he always liked to have multiple plans.
"Go, Heinberg and Tiberius will meet you at the entrance"
Michael nodded,
"And try not to stink more when you return," She laughed.
"I'll bring a bucket of sewage water for you to bath"
"Eww, go fuck yourself you gross bastard" Before she could throw something at him, a bright light enveloped him. In a blink of an eye, he disappeared from the room.
***********************
Michael appeared in a dark alley behind a three-story building. The alley was located near the docks. He marked this place when he was staying in the city. Instead of walking towards the place where Heinberg and Tiberius were waiting for him, Michael cast the lightning dash to take off from the ground. In a few seconds, he was in the air above everyone and everything else.
He could see the ships coming in and out of the docks. The sun was halfway above the horizon. The sparkling blue ocean had golden light decorating it as a gem on a crown. Calming ocean wind brushed past Michael while his raven black hair fluttered in the wind, making his hair look messier and messier.
Michael willed the system to equip his Lucifer armor with a mask. In a flash, he completely transformed himself into Lucifer except for the black cloud and the red eyes.
Meanwhile, at the sewage entrance, Heinberg and Tiberius were waiting for Michael. The sewage entrance was a large circular hole with a few iron bars. Most of the iron bars were corroded leaving plenty of space for someone to enter the sewage. The entrance was located under a bridge which gave enough darkness for the two of them to avoid detection by soldiers.
"So how long have you been working for them?" Tiberius asked, leaning on the brick wall. Heinberg was watching around to see if anyone's coming when he heard Tiberius's question.
"Couple of weeks" Tiberius arched his brows as he was surprised.
"For a guy who has been doing this for a couple of weeks, you seem pretty loyal to them"
"Fear" Instead of giving Tiberius a long answer, Heinberg uttered only a word.
"Fear? Well, if I saw someone fly like a bird and use magic inside the void line, it'd freak me out too" Tiberius shrugged.
"You've only seen a glimpse of what they can do Tiberius"
Tiberius wasn't interested in what they had done. He was more interested in what they could do to this god-forsaken continent.
"Do you think they could do what the rebels are trying to do?"
"I don't think, I know. They will change the fate of this continent for better or worse"
"Whoa!" as they were speaking, Tiberius saw a dark figure suddenly land before the sewage entrance. He recognized the armor yet this was the first time Tiberius saw Michael with his skull mask on.
"Let's go find your friends" Without wasting a second, Michael leaped from the ground to enter the sewage tunnel. Like an obedient servant, Heineberg climbed up the sewage entrance following Michael. Tiberius entered lastly.
"grhhh"
Heineberg thought the stink outside was overwhelming but compared to the inside, the outside stink was nothing. He had to cover his nose while following Michael.
When Michael entered the dark forest with Gaya, he was poisoned with fear toxin. This lesson taught Michael to design his mask to filter toxins, poisons, and any particles that could harm him. With the inventor trait, his knowledge in Alchemy, and a few parts from the system, he was able to build a mini filtration device inside his mask. Fortunately, the mask filtered most of the stink but not completely.
The further they walked into the tunnel, the less they saw what's in front of them. There was no torcher or holes in the ceiling for the sunlight to come through. Hence, Michael had to conjure an orb of light to lighten the path.
The red orb of light soon made everything clear for Tiberius and Heinberg. While moving forward, Michael was searching for footprints yet he couldn't see one because the sewage water cleared any footpaths or evidence of the gladiators who walked the path before.
After walking for a few minutes, Michael finally saw a crumbled wall. The brick wall had a hole large enough for a few men to walk side by side.
"They used some kind of explosion to blow this hole" Heinberg told Michael.
"A mini version of it anyways. We are still below the streets if the explosion wasn't a small one, the soldiers would have felt the shake and come to check"
"That means there's someone with knowledge in explosions was with them" Tiberius seemed like he has just realized something,
"That son of a bitch Mark. Before he was a gladiator, he worked as a bodyguard for a scholar who specialized in explosives. He bragged about this when he was drunk"
Thinking about Mark made Tiberius's blood boil in anger. Ever since his limbs started to shake due to the wound he suffered in the hands of Herius, Mark tried to undermine him every chance he got. After Titus, Optimus and Tiberius, Mark wiggled himself onto Doctorus's side. Tiberius always felt a bad vibe from Mark.
"We have to stop them from blowing shit up if you want your plan to work" Michael let in Tiberius with his plan because he wanted everyone to be up to speed for the plan to work.
Michael pointed his finger towards the hole as the orb of light flew into the hole, lighting the path. Michael could see there are numerous paths branching out at the end of the tunnel.
"Shit" Tiberius cursed.
Michael was prepared for this, that was why he brought some friends. Tiberius and Heinberg expected Michael to enter the hole searching for the gladiators. However, instead of stepping into the hole, Michael willed the system as several tiny drones appeared in front of him.
The drones produced a faint humming sound as they moved into the hole. Neither of them had ever seen such things before in their lives. They just stared at the drones disappearing into the darkness with their mouths slightly open. Michael closed his eyes for a second when the drones reached the junction where there were seven branching out tunnels ahead of the drones. He had a total of fourteen drones. He sent two drones in each tunnel. The drones traveled extremely fast. Controlling all of them at once took a toll on his brain as he began to feel a slight headache.
Ignoring the headache, he completely focused on controlling the drones. Each tunnel was long, dark, and inhibited by nothing but rats and spiders. The drones flew cutting through the spiderwebs like a hot knife through butter.
Michael abruptly opened his eyes when he saw a dead body through the drone he sent into the fifth tunnel.
"Follow me" Michael stopped controlling a few drones to free his mind. He then walked into the tunnel towards the fifth tunnel where he found the dead body.
"Did you find something?" After seeing Michael choose this particular tunnel from the seven tunnels, Tiberius wondered why.
"Yes, a dead body"
Tiberius felt a chill running through his spine. Despite his disagreements with the gladiators, he respected all the gladiators and people who had the guts to rebel against their masters. Furthermore, he knew the gladiators who came here to blow up the arena would be the core group including Doctorus. He wouldn't call the core group his friends yet the thought of one of them might be dead created a bad feeling in his gut.
After a few minutes of walking, the three of them began to vaguely see the dead body in the distance. The orb of light illuminated the body as well as the bloodstains on the wall.
Michael looked around for any booby traps left by the killer. They couldn't see the face but only the stab wound on the back as the face was facing the ground. The dead one was tall, numerous paths are branchingat least six feet five inches. He had a muscular body with old burn marks on his body. In addition to the scars, under the orb of light, Michael could see that the man was black.
"No no no no, it can't be" Tiberius rushed at the body splashing sewage water all around him. He immediately knelt beside the body ignoring the sewage water before turning the body,
"Doctorus"