After a tiring battle against the undead, everyone deserved a break. However, fate had planned something different. It all happened so fast that barely anyone had time to react.
Within moments the jolly mood of the party was soured as hundreds of capsules rained upon them. Massive dust clouds shot up in the air, covering Livan.
Those proficient in magic immediately erected mana shields to minimise the damage. Still, a few unfortunate souls were squashed beneath the drop pods.
"What the hell is going on..." Nora snarled loudly.
Apart from her voice, the hall was filled with groans of pain and coughing sounds. Only a few managed to keep calm, while most were startled and confused.
As the dust began to settle down, the pods opened one after another, revealing an army of undead and outworlders. An invasion army had descended upon them.
Had it been undead, the werewolves might have had a chance against them. But the alien mercenaries were a different story altogether. One look was enough to know what was going on there.
"As I suspected," Jadyn's voice echoed through the hall, "These dogs organised a party and didn't bother inviting us? Is that any way to treat your soon-to-be ruler-"
A gust of wind swiftly passed through the invaders, slicing Jadyn's head in half. The smiling undead and their alien counterparts were suddenly stunned into silence.
Jadyn was the president's right-hand man and thus was leading the operation. For him to be lost in a second dealt quite a blow to their morale.
However, for the aliens, Jadyn's death didn't matter much. After all, they barely knew the guy to care about his death. It was the way he got killed that surprised them. Unfortunately, they were in for a series of surprises ahead.
"Fucking annoying sack of shit," Ashton mumbled, "Maybe I should thank you for saving me the trouble of travelling to Nirvana. Or should I kill you, morons, for ruining the party? Decisions, decisions..."
As Ashton walked out of the shroud of dust, the eyes of most mercenaries popped out of their sockets. Although he hadn't been in the business for long, any decent mercenary knew who he was. Well, at least they were aware of the kind of mask he wore.
Those who realised they were facing Reaper felt a sense of despair wash over them. How could they not react that way? Reaper was the only one who exchanged blows with Phantom and lived to tell the tale.
In the mercenary business, there was a new sheriff in town, and it was Reaper. Unfortunately, the mercenaries were on the opposite side as him.
Deciding to rectify their mistake immediately, the intelligent ones immediately dropped their weapons and surrendered. Their behaviour both enraged and confused the undead around.
They were paid soldiers who were expected to do their job perfectly, or else they would lose credibility amongst the community. Then why the hell were they behaving like a bunch of scaredy cats?
Till now, the undead had no information on Ashton's background. They only struck Livan to teach them a lesson for taking back Contingency.
Dressed in advanced battle gear and backed up by outworlders, they were confident in their win. Unfortunately, their intel about Livan was outdated.
Not only were they unaware of Ashton's secret identity, but they were also oblivious to Giholos. After the initial reaction shock faded, the undead knew they had messed with the hornet's nest.
"I didn't think you braindead fuckers would fall for the trap so hard." Ashton smiled as the undead stood in their place, frozen in shock.
The undead might have thought they'd catch Ashton by surprise. But it was far from true.
Celebrating his victory wasn't the only reason Ashton agreed to host the party. Otiga had already informed him about Nirvana's job request. So he had one of the intelligence association guys answer their call and reveal all of their plans.
As for the 'people' who died from the initial strike, all of them were undead who had accompanied Ashton from Contingency.
But that wasn't all. There was a special guest among the crowd. Someone Ashton detested from the core of his being. He had no interest in the undead or the mercenaries accompanying them. His bloodshot eyes were scanning the crowd for the man who was more dangerous than anything found on earth.
"Where are you hiding now, bastard?" Ashton snarled, popping out his claws.
"Ho... to think you'll find me so soon. Tsk, you know how to take the fun out of everything, don't you?" A mercenary stepped out of the crowd flexing his shoulders.
"Oi! Nemo! Back down right now- argh..."
The leader of the mercenaries instructed the man to stop. Sadly, the man he was stopping was no longer the man he knew. Before anyone could understand what was going on, the leader fell to his knees, choking on his blood after being stabbed in the neck.
"Not in the mood for talking?" Phantom egged Ashton on, "Come on, is this any way for you to treat a friend? How rude can you be, fucker?"
Without responding to Phantom's provocations, Ashton called out his summons. It was a welcoming sight for Phantom; the more people fought him, the stronger he would get.
Phantom's overpowered passive ability was why he agreed to be part of an army, as he knew he'd be unstoppable.
"Protect the people," Ashton mumbled, grabbing the scythe in his hand, "I'll take care of the rest."
"The kid grew-"
Phantom was in the middle of talking, when Ashton grabbed his face and threw him out of the broken building. No one had ever manhandled him like this since he became 'Phantom'.
Hell, even that Dwarf couldn't have possibly done anything like that to him. Yet this bastard earthling dared to treat him like a ragdoll?
"The precursor you killed, who was he?" Ashton coldly asked Phantom.
"Why? You want to pick up the pieces?" Phantom laughed before throwing a punch at him.
However, his punch phased straight through Ashton. But Balmond's blade did not.
"FUCK!"
Phantom cursed in pain, but Ashton planted his knee to his face before he could get do anything else. This was a different scale of power Phantom hadn't expected from Ashton.
After all, it had only been a few months since their last bout! How did the bastard get so strong in such a short period? It didn't make any sense!
"I'll ask you for the last time," Ashton repeated, "Who was the Precursor you killed?"
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