"You are the bandit sent to make the trade, aren’t you? Where is the package? If you came here without it, then don’t expect to leave here alive."
The creature’s threat was straightforward and powerful, and it glared up at the taller lizardman without any fear. It was obvious the creature fully believed it was capable of killing the lizardman without any effort. But the hooded creature was shocked when it saw something moving through the shadows behind the lizardman, and it took a step back as two of Jason’s Phantom subordinates emerged from the shadows and began to walk towards it! The creature growled in annoyance once it saw that the lizardman hadn’t come alone, and it called out while pointing its sharp finger at the lizardman.
"Kill this fool!"
The order rang through the alleyway, and the creature expected to hear movement from the men it had also come with, but it was shocked when there was nothing at all. The creature blinked in surprise and turned around to see what was going on, and it felt a sudden chill travel down its spine when it saw that all of its men were bleeding out on the ground! There were three figures in black standing in the shadows, and they were holding short daggers that dripped with blood! How in the world did they kill all the men so quickly!? These men are soldiers from the Ascendant Army! They are some of the strongest men in the world!
Step! Step! Step!
The sound of footsteps came from the other side of the alleyway, and the creature sharply turned back around when it heard them! A figure was walking out from the dark shadow in front of it, and the creature reached its hand into its coat and quickly brought out a dangerous-looking dagger! It pointed the dagger towards the figure with shaky hands and spoke in a squeaky voice.
"Stay away! All of you, stay away! You think you can touch me!? I am the Prince’s aide! I am the direct servant to the son of his majesty, our god! If you touch me, then it’ll be your head!"
The creature’s squeaky voice echoed through the alleyway, and it felt its heart beating at a mile a minute when the figure in the shadows finally walked forward and revealed itself. It was a tall man wearing a long black robe that covered most of his body. His eyes were a dangerous blue, and the creature felt like this man was not just looking at him. He was looking right through him!
Jason looked down at the rat-like creature beneath him and hummed. So this is the fool who wanted to buy his brother? Jason was a little disappointed. Even with the [Mana Sense] activated, Jason couldn’t see anything special about this creature. It was only strong enough to be an A-Rank, and the artefact it was holding was barely SS-Rank. But even though the creature wasn’t that impressive, it had said something that really caught Jason’s attention, and Jason walked towards it with calm strides. The creature backpedalled once it noticed Jason coming closer! Its entire body was shaking from fear as it realised that it was completely alone in this alleyway, and it eventually tripped and fell on its ass! The dagger it was holding clattered to the ground, and it quickly scrambled to try and grab it again, but Jason stepped on the dagger to keep it down, and the creature swallowed as it slowly looked up into Jason’s dangerous gaze.
"If I were you, I would choose my next words very carefully. Why did your Prince want to buy Prince Kai?"
The creature immediately bit its tongue hard! An intense ’squelch’ travelled through the alleyway as the creature’s tongue was cut off from the force, and Jason watched with a raised brow as the creature slowly began to choke on its own blood. Wow, this was definitely a first. Jason had seen people who would rather die than reveal information before, but he had never seen anyone who was willing to go this far. The creature literally bit off its own tongue to make sure it couldn’t talk. Is this how much they revere their king?
Jason reached to the side and pulled out a Dragonsteel sword from his Alternate Dimension, and he saw the creature’s face gain a smug look when it saw the sword. It was almost like the creature was feeling proud of the fact that Jason wasn’t going to be getting any information out of him, and he was trying to mock Jason for wasting his effort. But Jason didn’t feel the need to explain anything to the fool. What was the point in revealing the pointlessness of this action to someone who was already at death’s door!
SLASH!
The sword slashed across the air quickly, and Jason took off the creature’s head! Jason then released a surge of mana into the air and grabbed hold of all the dead bodies in the alleyway before he spoke authoritatively.
"Resurrect."
Doon!
The bodies of the rat-like creature, as well as the other dead soldiers, jolted, and Jason watched as their souls slowly crawled out from their bodies and into the real world. They all went to a knee in front of Jason, and Jason ignored their greeting and asked the creature to tell him what he needed to know.
’The Prince of Yortsed desired to gain a soldier who would help him secure his position as the next King of Yortsed. There is a succession battle for the throne between the three sons of the King, and each of them is currently gathering as many soldiers as possible and waiting for the moment when their father, the king, will ascend to the immortal plane. The Prince has heard great stories about the power held by the Avarans and how they are capable of growing at a faster pace than other warriors. He believed that brainwashing and indoctrinating Prince Kai would give him a significant lead over his brothers in the succession race.’
Jason’s eyes narrowed once he heard all this, and he felt an intense surge of anger rising from deep inside him! So the bastard only wanted to kidnap his brother so he could forge him into a weapon!? Jason had only known about his brother for a few hours now, but Jason couldn’t help but feel an intense anger at the mere thought of seeing his brother be used like this! In Jason’s mind, Kai was in the same position as his two sisters, and the mere thought that someone would try to take his sister and forge her into a weapon made his blood boil.
’I’m going to kill him.’
Jason suddenly made a simple declaration with absolute certainty, and he looked up past the alleyway and towards the large castle in the distance. That was where the Prince stayed, and Jason was going to make sure the bastard didn’t wake up tomorrow.
’Hey, babe. Are you in another world right now? I can’t sense your magic anywhere.’
Gina’s voice suddenly echoed through Jason’s mind, and Jason blinked back to reality as he hummed and told Gina where he was. Jason asked Gina if there was any problem, and Gina shook her head while saying there wasn’t. On the other side of the call, Gina was sitting on the edge of the castle roof and looking down at the half-dead body of General Zod as the Vanta soldiers came to carry him away. The battle between the two of them hadn’t caused too much damage to the city since they fought in the air, but there were hundreds of people looking out from their windows and on the street as they tried to figure out what had happened. In truth, the fight had taken longer than it should because Gina was trying hard not to kill Zod, but in the end, she finally managed to take him down.