Micheal's hand rested on his sword's hilt as he looked at the scene before him, his eyes imperious . The air around him s.h.i.+vered as he took a single step forward . The energy in his veins from his Earth Tier Ki Cultivation ran rampant, his power consolidating . Intermediate Tier Sword Energy began to coat his blade, sharpening it .

Abruptly, his blade struck forward at an incredibly fast speed . It was a jarringly fast upward slash that caused the air to ripple . The attack was merely a blur, even in his eyes, due to its extremely fast speed .

"Not bad . " Micheal smiled as he gauged the power of the attack .

Sitting in front of him was a small, metal chair . A visible gash was present on the chair, spanning its front side . While he hadn't managed to cut through it, he had left a sizable mark on it . Previously, he'd only been able to seriously damage the furniture of the First Layer using Advanced Tier Sword Energy . His breakthrough had seriously boosted his raw physical power .

He was currently standing in a private room situated very close to the headquarters of the G.o.dfather Organization . A large bed, a dresser, a few windows, and an attached bathroom spread out around him .

'Something is definitely up . ' His thoughts turned back towards why he was here in the first place, a small frown appearing on his face .

There was no reason for Head Cameron to not have spread out the Golden Morenkai hunting method and the Dragon Building Liquid methods . The man was a very well-known altruist, it was very unlike him to act so slowly . Spreading this information as quickly as possible would serve as a huge boon to humanity as a whole and doubtlessly save many lives .

With that thought in mind, he'd decided to rush here as quickly as possible . Tomorrow, he would drop by and visit the G.o.dfather Organization Headquarters . Boss s.h.i.+gun's report about him should prove more than enough for him to get his foot in the door . He would handle everything that cropped up after, moment to moment .

He yawned, glancing out the window . The evening sky had fully faded to night . His body was exhausted from both the rapid travel and the Ki Tier breakthrough . It was time to rest .

He put his stuff up and prepared to bed . In no time at all, he was resting comfortably, tucked under the sheets .

'They should be making solid progress . They might already be done . ' As he was drifting off to rest, Micheal's thoughts turned drowsy .

s.h.i.+n and Sophia should have at least made contact with General Pedro by this point . With the medicine he gave her, it should be quite easy to win over the General . He couldn't foresee any possible issues cropping up . He had waited a month and a half to see s.h.i.+n again, he could wait one or two more days .

Micheal's reasoning was mostly correct . He had left behind very few trails . The ones most d.a.m.ning would take weeks to fully trace and track down . By that point, they would already be fully prepared .

Unfortunately, even with his years of experience, some things simply could not be accounted for .

Director Prime was a freakish, obsessive genius, similar to the Vile King in some ways .

Sophia had travelled with him on the Great Bridge, but made practically no impact . Any report on his travels there would only contain her as a sidenote . Even then, there would be so little information to work with, it was practically an impossibility to do anything despite knowing she existed .

Indeed, as Prime found, it was impossible to find her, or him, at first .

The only thing he had was a hunch, after reading over thousands of reports using his time-stopping powers .

One thing led to another, and Prime developed a plan to scan the territory of the G.o.dfather Organization, purely based off that hunch .

The complete lack of knowledge and trails that Prime found had also led him to form one conclusion .

Advertis.e.m.e.nt'Heron' knew Prime was looking for him, and had known Prime would come looking for him well beforehand . As a result of that, 'Heron' had made countermeasures against the Director .

Once he recognized that fact, the Director planned, and planned, and planned some more .

And that was how he ended up with his plan to search for 'Emissary Crane . ' He believed that Heron would somehow find a way to throw off his efforts once more . But his comrade, Crane? That was an untested field .

In the end, Prime had been incredibly dissatisfied with the setup . The plan wasn't perfect, nor was there a guaranteed chance of success . It relied a good deal upon luck . But it was the best he could come up with . A vaunted genius who could stop time to think things over a thousand times, reduced to gambling with fate .

But as things would have it… life in the 7 Layers was never fair . The single, minor clue Micheal left behind, one he'd donned a new ident.i.ty and battle style for, hidden away amid thousands of reports…

His actions that couldn't even really be called a mistake started a chain that ended in an unfortunate roll of fate .

Regardless, Micheal slipped into the embrace of night, his consciousness slipping into blissfully unaware sleep .

. . . . . . . . . . . .

The powerful aura wasn't from Micheal .

Instead, it originated from General Pedro .

The man had woken up, his eyes blazing with delirium as he tried to get to his feet . Blood seeped out of his chest from the injury he'd sustained, but the man stood all the same, refusing to back down . His outraged yell arose from when he saw the savior of his wife and daughter being brutally attacked .

After a few seconds, however, his injuries overwhelmed him once more . Number 6's surprise strike had been brutally accurate, injuring him just enough to keep him useless . His powerful yell had exhausted his consciousness and he collapsed back down to the rooftop, his aura vanis.h.i.+ng as he hit the ground with a thud .

The small bud of hope that had formed in Sophia's heart died .

"Oho? Did you think that was your boyfriend, sweetie? I'll admit that surprised me . " Number 10 turned her focus back to Sophia . She had been startled by General Pedro's abrupt revival, going so far as to prepare for a second attack .

s.h.i.+n was still kneeling on the ground, clutching at his arm . He was just now starting to get over his horror, coming back to his senses . The injury was horrifying in scope and the first time he had ever been seriously injured . Going into total shock as a result was only natural .

The energy on Number 6's spear had scattered and helped seal the injury off, acting like a burn . Blood was starting to stop flowing from it, thankfully before s.h.i.+n fainted from blood loss .

'No…' As that last bud of hope died, Sophia looked back at Number 10 .

"You hate this, don't you? I can see it in your eyes . " Number 10's face wasn't visible, yet Sophia could practically hear the sneer she wore . She was even giving Sophia the cla.s.sic villain's speech, as if the woman had walked out of a fairy tale . Number 10's body s.h.i.+vered as she reached out again, this time clutching onto Sophia's throat .

"You will die for what your boyfriend did to my little man . " Her voice was a quiet whisper .

Slowly, her hand began to close in on Sophia's throat, choking her .

'I must save my sister! I cannot die here!' Sophia struggled against Number 10, but was unable to free her hands or loosen the woman's grip . She tried to activate her Fairy Eyes but failed, her mental state broken .

'Micheal! Micheal, please! Micheal help!' Her scream was silent, heard only in her head as she begged for help . This was the part where the hero should come to the rescue, if this really was a fairy tale .

By this point, she was desperately trying to gasp for air as oxygen in her blood began to run out . Off to the side and out of sight, Number 6 watched all of this dispa.s.sionately, a hand raised as if he was deciding whether to act or not .

'I… cannot die… here…' Her vision began to grow blurry as her lungs burned .

"Goodbye . " Number 10's voice was cold as she clenched down hard .

Blood pounded in Sophia's ears . She could hear s.h.i.+n's agonized moans, Number 10's sneering laugh . A small breeze brushed onto the roof, rustling the vines that extruded off of Number 10's body .

As she tasted the scent of blood in the air and her consciousness began to waver, Sophia realized something .

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Micheal wasn't coming .

She was alone .

"…"

"…"

"…"

Something in Sophia's mind snapped .

All of a sudden, Sophia felt as if her entire body had been electrified . Every cell she possessed seem to tingle, her senses expanding . She felt as if her mind was operating faster, as if her body was more responsive .

In that moment, several things seemed to fall into place and come clear to Sophia .

Sophia opened her eyes, staring back into what she could see of Number 10's glaring visage .

Sophia then bit down hard on her own tongue .

"Hmm?" Number 10 blinked in surprise .

Blood gushed from the wound, filling Sophia's mouth in a matter of seconds . It had a raw, tangy scent that was unpleasant but filled Sophia with a sense of confidence .

A split second later, Sophia welled up the blood and then spat it out, right into Number 10's eyes .

"Aggh!" Instinctively, Number 10 let go of Sophia's throat and jerked her hand up to her face . For a split second, the woman raised up her mask, revealing a gorgeous, brown-skinned face with features that looked as if they had been carved by a greek artist . A delicate looking nose, high cheekbones, dainty lips . The only things staining it were the two splotches of blood that were spattered on her eyes .

Despite her shock, Number 10 didn't lessen her vines' grip on Sophia's arms and legs .

However, removing her mask and letting go of Sophia's throat was more than enough .

Sophia used that instant of freedom to viciously headb.u.t.t the woman in the face .

Number 10's delicate nose broke, spattering blood on Sophia's face as she fell back . The woman let out a shriek of agony as she fell, covering her face in a defensive posture . The coc.o.o.n of vines that had wrapped around Sophia flailed about, sending her flying backwards .

Sophia winced slightly, feeling pain sweep over her forehead as she tumbled in the air . Despite attacking Number 10's vulnerable nose, it felt almost as if she was trying to headb.u.t.t a brick wall . She succeeded, but it was extremely painful . All of the A Rankers had extremely tough physical bodies, built up by high Endurance stats .

"Kill her, Spear Tiger!" Number 10 screamed out loud as she quickly recovered, the vines around her expanding in the air as she jumped back up . The last Sophia saw of her face was her gus.h.i.+ng blood as the A Ranker donned her mask, covering up the b.l.o.o.d.y injury .

"Interesting . " Number 6 muttered slowly as he lifted up his spear and pointed it at Sophia .

Before he could act, however, and as Sophia was breathing in air with a vengeance, she jerked her head up and stared at Number 6 .

Her eyes began to glow .

Sophia's eyes didn't glow pink this time, or any color that she consciously controlled .

Instead, they glowed a deep, blood-colored red .

The air around her dropped in temperature drastically . Small particles of frozen water tinkled as they fell from the air, iced over in mid-air .

Number 6 grunted as the Aura Nullification Necklace he wore activated, light fluttering from it . Despite that, the man froze, still affected by her powers .

When Number 10 saw this, she yelled out loud and charged over at Sophia without hesitation . The various vines around her twisted, shooting forward .

Before she got far, however, Sophia's eyes flicked onto Number 10 . She then began to consciously split her attention, most of it centered on Number 6, but a portion of it focused on Number 10 .

She wasn't aware that she could do this, but in the heat of the moment, she forced her body and mind to cooperate .

Blood began to drip down her cheeks, trickling out of her eyeb.a.l.l.s .

Number 10 froze in her tracks, stuttering to a halt as she stopped moving .

A sudden, tense silence swept over the rooftop as Sophia's Fairy Eyes Ability managed to restrain both Number 6 and Number 10, despite Number 6's Defensive Artifact . Sophia's Ability and raw determination were just enough to overwhelm the Artifact's defenses, though not enough to give her free reign .

Several seconds pa.s.sed . These seconds pa.s.sed into a minute, and then into a couple of minutes . Blood continued to trickle down from her eyes .

Sophia's body began to s.h.i.+ver and her chest heaved . She was still recovering from all of her injuries, and yet she was now forcing herself to go beyond its limits . Her body felt incredibly alive, she was able to sense every single part of her with startling clarity, but certain things could not be changed .

"D-d, she's a demon!" Number 10 was the first of the duo to s.h.i.+ver free from Sophia's Fairy Eyes . Most of Sophia's focus was on the more dangerous of the two, Number 6 . With the Defensive Artifact he wore, the best Sophia could do was force him into a stalemate where neither of them could move .

Number 10's heart was currently running aflux with fear as she stared at Sophia .

Sophia had gained a horrifying visage . Her eyes were flas.h.i.+ng with red light while trails of tears dripped down them . Her body was trembling and her face had donned a twisted frown .

"I-I-I…" Number 10 stuttered as she took a few steps forward . Sophia's eyes flickered to glance at her, but was unable to stir up any effort to stop her . Number 6 was demanding her full attention .

"I'll kill…" Before Number 10 could finish her sentence…

s.h.i.+n ran up and punched her in the face .

"You won't harm a hair on her body!" s.h.i.+n's breathing was haggard as he moved, his face pale with blood loss . He had recovered from his shock, just barely, but enough to see Sophia was in trouble and lash out as soon as he could .

Sophia could have kissed the man when she saw this, a wave of relief sweeping through her . She pushed that aside as she continued to focus on Number 6, feeling her concentration start to wane . Slowly, the warrior was breaking free from her control .

Her Soul stat was simply far too low in comparison to theirs .

"s.h.i.+n… Get… help…" She managed as she felt herself about to lose control .

And, with an almost audible crack, Sophia's body swayed as Number 6 broke free from her control . She was left gasping and wheezing as her mind fluttered, the mental backlash barely containable .

s.h.i.+n looked as if he wanted to say something . Before he could do anything at all, however…

"General Pedro!" A slew of voices broke out over the rooftop as several of the armed guards from down below rushed out through the entry shed . More than a dozen of them quickly filed out, pulling out guns and various other weapons as they saw the scene of battle .

"Sub-Executive s.h.i.+n!" Almost at the same time, a loud yell echoed in the air as a blond haired man dressed in a long white overcoat appeared on a neighboring skysc.r.a.per . The man held a large, electric sword in his hand that glowed with energy and gave off the appearance of a powerful fighter .

s.h.i.+n recognized him instantly . Electricor, one of the 6 powerful Executives that helped lead the G.o.dfather Organization .

"10 . We need to leave, now . " Number 6 made a waving motion with his hand as he stored his spear . His other hand clutched at his head, as if Sophia's Fairy Eyes had left him with a blinding headache .

Immediately, several gla.s.s doors appeared on the rooftop .

One sp.a.w.ned next to Number 9's dead body . Number 6's arm reached through this one and then stored Number 9's corpse, s.n.a.t.c.hing up his Storage Ring in the process . He then jumped backwards through one that appeared right behind him .

Number 10 took one last glare at Sophia, her eyes spitting hatred so venomous it could practically be felt as she jumped through a gla.s.s door that had sp.a.w.ned next to her .

"Count your days, wh.o.r.e . " Number 10 left Sophia with one last, hate-fueled message as the Numbers members vanished from the rooftop .

Sophia smiled softly . She blinked as she looked around the roof .

The world around her turned black as she then collapsed, falling into the sweet embrace of darkness . The last thing she remembered was s.h.i.+n's worried yell and then dive to catch her .

.