Michael sat in a dark corner of a room, his eyes closed, hands at his knees.
He observed the entire battlefield through the different eyes of Mini Drone scattered around the Stronghold.
With one thousand and six hundred total eyes in the skies, he practically had full control over the entire area. Nothing could hide from him.
And just as he thought, one particular Mini Drone caught sight of a secluded tunnel smack dab in the middle of one of the basements.
He turned on his Drone Vision, the world turning into a hue of orange and violet.
"Finally," he muttered to himself.
Beyond this tunnel was someone who emanated a pretty strong Aubility Power. A 9th stage cultivation realm.
The Platinum leader. The strongest defender of this entire Stronghold.
Once he defeated him, there would be no one else left to stop them from completely invading this Ersatz hideout.
And as he observed the battlefield, he noticed a discrepancy.
"Wait..."
He moved his Mini Drone further, taking a different perspective than before.
And just as he suspected...
"There’s two of them."
He now saw two different orange flames flickering inside the room. Two Maugnetics. Two cultivators at the very peak of the 9th stage realm, just a half-step away from the Nascent Spirit realm.
This was an anomaly. According to Katarina, an Ersatz Stronghold of this level should only contain one Platinum leader.
It was very unlikely for there to be two of them stationed in this single Stronghold.
This shouldn’t be too much of a problem, he thought. It’s good that I abstained from using this.
He looked at his own cultivation realm. 7th sage.
With hundreds of GodForge kilograms in his possession, he could have easily advanced to the 9th stage of the Body Formation realm, thereby evening the gap between him and the Platinum leader.
But he didn’t. As much as that would have been the safer option, it would also be a gigantic waste.
Advancing to the next realm created a euphoric reaction within his own heart. An adrenaline-filled advancement, if you will.
This was the slightest edge he needed going against two Platinum-level leaders.
Finally finding himself ready, Michael stood up and let himself be engulfed in his own shadow.
A second later, he emerged behind his Mini Drone, just a few meters away from the mouth of the tunnel.
He walked forward, entering the throne room.
...
...
...
Michael’s footfalls echoed into the throne room, alerting the two people inside.
They turned towards him, wide-eyed.
"Who goes there?!"
Michael showed himself to the two Platinum leaders.
The one on the left, a man, wore a grungy, unkempt pony tail and had two katana sheaths at his waist.
On the right was a woman, with straight long hair, and wore a tied-up ribbon on her forehead.
They both had the distinct black attire of Ersatz members. Restrictive and gave away no distinct features.
The two Platinum-level leaders looked alarmed when they first saw Michael. Clearly, they’d heard the commotion around the Stronghold and were sure they were getting invaded.
However, when they saw Michael appear by himself, their guards lowered by the slightest bit.
"The Consortium sent someone like you here?" the man asked with disdain.
"Do not be deceived. There must be a trap hidden within that youthful stature," said the woman.
Michael walked forward, letting the lambent light of the surrounding oil lamps finally illuminate his entire body.
He was there for them to see, to scrutinize.
"My eyes must be deceiving me. It’s just a kid."
The woman rubbed her eyes, yet nothing changed.
"Who are you?"
Michael shrugged. "I’m Michael. From the Reborn Company."
The two Platinum leaders looked at each other, confused. They would have never expected such an obscure company to come up this deep in their Stronghold.
But one thing was finally clear for the Ersatz leaders. The Consortium wasn’t here.
"And I thought they finally caught on to our scheme," said the man, taking a deep breath. "As it turns out, we did a pretty good job stealing the Key without the Consortium knowing."
"But not good enough apparently. Some chump company was able to find your Stronghold," laughed the woman.
"You’re right, this is embarrassing. I’m gonna have to discipline my guards for sleeping on the job. Sorry you have to see this. I’ll give you the Key after this. And please keep your mouth shut to our superiors, the man said.
"Don’t worry. I know just how hard it is to manage a Stronghold," she replied.
As it turned out, the woman was only here to retrieve the Key from the man after his Stronghold stole it from the Thunderfoot company.
It seemed that this Key was important enough for them to send a Platinum-level Maugnetic just for a delivery.
Then, the man turned to Michael. "Listen kid, you just stumbled into your own death—"
But Michael interrupted him. "So the Key isn’t here," he said out loud.
Finally, the two leaders looked at him with surprise and suspicion. It seemed his appearance here wasn’t as accidental as they thought.
He was here for the Key!
"You just signed your own death warrant," said the man, his face darkening.
The woman turned serious as well. They treated the Key with absolute importance. It was a responsibility thrust upon them by the highest power. They couldn’t mess this up.
"You and your group of invaders will experience a fate worse than death—"
Michael raised his hand and mimicked his mouth. "Yada, yada, yada. Come on. Let’s just fight."
The two Ersatz leaders couldn’t believe it. Such pompousness, yet so young!
They didn’t know where he got the gall. From the looks of it, the boy seemed to only be in the 7th stage of the Body Formation realm!
Michael sighed. "Urgh. This is frustrating. I’ll lose the bet because of you guys."
Before this fight, he made a bet with the Dragonborns about who would get the Key first.
After seeing Jaku and Umisu find nothing within their assigned treasure room, he had a really bad feeling that Zion and Fudge would end up finding it themselves. Them winning would be a recipe for disaster.