Jezar City—one of the smallest cities in the southwest of the globe, situated beside a desert and an ocean on two sides.
It had barely 100,000 people in it.
“Good, this city is indeed small enough for us to properly start the formation.”
Larke and 25 other figures in hoods and cloaks arrived at the city’s central plaza.
The number of total rats increased by a few.
“How long before the auction starts?” Lerke asked as he turned to rats, his arms crossed.
“One hour, sir.”
Nearby, the two city enforcers saw the hooded figures and frowned as they approached them.
“Who are you?”
“Show your faces and ID, please.”
Lerke turned to the duo and removed his hood before grinning at them.
His eyes glowed, and a bronze-black neo-beam unleashed.
Both GAA enforcers were equipped with magic shield devices and reinforced uniforms that could block a few attacks from Gold-rank Adventurers.
However, the beams struck them in a moment, entirely vaporizing their upper bodies, leaving only legs that fell.
People screamed, and soon, everyone was running away, the plaza in chaos.
“Go and plant the formation crystals,” Lerke didn’t heed the public and said to the rats.
“Yes, sir.”
Twenty out of twenty-five rats vanished.
‘Damn, are we really doing this?’
‘No other choice. But this idea isn’t bad.’
‘True, he said he was going to be a menace, and this idea aligns.’
‘What if we die?!’
‘We can escape with this cloak the moment we sense danger. Captain Lerke also said that.’
‘We’ll be fine. Let’s trust Captain Lerke and his ability.’
Lerke finished looking around and turned to the remaining five rats as he nodded. “One of you, go get me something that can let me talk to the authorities of this world, and the rest of you prepare the Hollowstar Bomb here.”
…
Admiral Rudra was at the auction in Firefly City with the auction items in his storage rings—the safest place on Earth.
In the room backstage, he was talking with others via wristwatch as the VIP public was entering and sitting in their booths.
The auction stadium was huge, with 5000 normal seats and 100 VIP booths. It was also going to be broadcast live for the general public for hype and entertainment due to the nature of the items.
After all, the items weren’t going to be fully disclosed as only their detail panel and appearance would be shown. With Admiral Rudra’s power, he could deny everyone’s inspection by creating a simple magic field around the items to block them.
*Beep*
[Emergency Alert, Admiral. There is an anomaly occurring in the Jezar city. I just found two people dead and the city in chaos as the people you call rats and another powerful non-human humanoid entered there.]
“What?” Amidral Rudra frowned. “Why are they there?”
[Ten strange energy sources are surrounding the city.]
“Don’t tell me,” Admiral Rudra stood up, his expression turning grave. ‘If they are pulling that kind of stunt, then…’
“Astra, jam all types of signals around the city. Don’t let them contact the outside world. Isolate the entire city.”
[Understood.]
“Damn it,” Admiral Rudra cursed under his breath as he vanished from the room and sent an emergency message to other old monsters and top guild leaders right away.
All of their wristwatches beeped with a red envelope that indicated the highest level of emergency.
…
Ten minutes passed by, and Lerke irritately said, “What do you mean you can’t connect to anything?!”
“Leave it,” Lerke snorted with a cold glint in his eyes and flew up, passing through the barrier.
Looking above, he narrowed his eyes and boomed, his magically enchanted voice ringing far and wide to tens of kilometers.
“I know you can see me, perhaps even hear my words! Your language was easy, after all. It took me one second to learn it.”
“So listen, and listen very carefully, you insects!”
At the same time, the old monsters and other top leaders who were gathered in the makeshift hall at the Auction’s underground were watching Lerke and listening to his words as Astra AI aired it.
“It looks like our plan to delay stops here,” James Smith said as his eyes sharply glinted.
“Our prototype weapon is ready to launch as well,” Aarav Patel grunted as he slammed his hand on the table, his voice cold, “We should use it on him right now while he is out of the barrier with maximum power. I don’t care if it’s destroyed. We’ll rebuild it.”
James’ eyes twitched.
“We can use more esoteric and discreet methods, too.”
“The best thing to do is to let me snipe him and send my Shadow Cards there.”
“No, that object floating at the center reeks of danger. It looks like a bomb, and it may be more powerful than we can estimate.”
“Indeed. They’ve already shown strange means to escape and a unique energy. We have to proceed cautiously.”
“Keeping that city hostage means he wants something.”
“I have a bad feeling regarding that.”
Enjoy new adventures from empire
“Silence!” Rudra said, his voice stern. “Listen to him. He activated that bomb.”
Everyone had their eyes on the screen, so they knew as well, their focus shifting as they heard grave news.
In the screen, Lerke’s demonic grin widened as a palpitating black orb with sparkling violet and purple energy stream spiraled around it.
“That’s right! In just one second, this entire city will vanish. It will disappear along with every living being in it!”
“If you think I am joking, then here’s a teaser!”
Lerke suddenly pointed his arm in a random direction, unleashing a molten bronze orb from his palm towards a big building 50 floors high.
GAA branch!
*BOOM!*
A devastating blast occurred, covering a 2-kilometer radius area in a thick, murky, pulsing bronze with a red hue.
“This bastard!”
“Damn it!”
Some at the table became furious, while some turned utterly cold.
The blast’s phenomenon subsided, and all that remained in the area was a crater.
“This was just a teaser!”
Astra Ai shifted the focus back to Lerke.
“So talk to me right now, or this city will vanish! You have 10 seconds!”
Everyone looked at Rudra, as only he could command Astra AI.
But the table was silent because everyone knew that the most furious person in the hall was none other than him.
An incident like this happened only once, five years ago, and everyone saw a demon at that time because a few hundred people were murdered.
Since then, every criminal became a rat, moving only in sewers and not daring to make any big waves lest the asura, the demon, catch them. Because then, only hell awaited.
But now, a threat that no one could foresee arrived and caused a big loss.
Who knew how many people died in that 2-kilometer radius of area?
“Astra, project me there.”
One of the many satellites orbiting the Earth, one of which was positioned right above Jezar city, pulsed slightly and moved.
The city’s magic waves pulsed before an object embedded itself on the ground several meters away from Larke.
It expanded from a cube to a plate before a few colorful dots pulsed along with Mana before a hologram expanded on it, showing Admiral Rudra on a screen with a different background from the one in the hall.
Everyone knew he was hiding their faces to prevent Lerke from seeing them so that they could move about with their best means.
“I can hear you,” Admiral Rudra said as his voice rang out from the device.
Lerke loudly laughed, hearing his voice, and nodded, “Good. Now, listen. If you want to save this city and its tens of thousands of population from getting erased, give me all the items you are going to auction today and the people on this list.”
When everyone saw the list created with Mana that vividly showed photos of the top 10 Super Rookies, everyone’s expression changed.
“It looks like this is going to be a long fucking day,” Proximax Guild leader grunted with a grave expression, his words resonating with everyone.
Admiral Rudra’s expression was flat as he replied to Lerke, “Give us some realistic demands. We want our people safe, so you will not get any kids on that list.”
Many tensed up, but the old monsters knew Rudra was doing it correctly.
This was a negotiation and it had to be carried with a backbone and a strong tone.
The enemy had a demand and a hostage of big magnitude concerning tens of thousands of lives, and only Rudra could talk with enough backbone and words infused with his aura to level the enemy.
Lerke grinned, “You have half an hour. Full the demands and save this city.”
“No, that will not happen.”
A quick and deadpan reply followed as soon as Lerke finished, Rudra’s words made many in the hall sweaty.
“I will not sacrifice my own to save another one of my own,” Admiral Rudra flatly said, his eyes icy as they bore onto Lerke’s eyes through the screen, “I want everyone safe.”
“If anything happens to anyone else in that city, I will hunt you down and scatter you into molecules. This is a promise to myself.”
“You will only get items or my undying grudge.”
Despite not being physically in front of him, Lerke could feel the indomitable spirit that crossed that carried from Rudra’s words and eyes, infused with his ego.
“Hahahahah! I like you, human! A very good specimen!”
Lerke laughed in gusto.
“You will live! You will live to serve the Hollowstar, but that is a thing of another day. For now,” Lerke licked his rocky lips as sparks flew and the vein cracks on his body pulsed with dark gold, “Give me one person on that list and the auction items in ten minutes.”
“Otherwise, this city is going to vanish. This is a promise to myself.”