"Vexa. I’m done. I’ve killed Lucien Mercer."
"Mission accomplished."
There was no response for a few seconds, and Simon could not help but furrow his brows.
Three seconds later...
Vexa spoke.
"We were beginning to get worried. Are you sure he’s dead?"
Simon glanced at the ice puppet.
"Yes. His corpse is with me right now."
There was silence for a moment, then Vexa replied.
"Alright. We’ll be there any moment from now."
The connection between his Grave Mark and Vexa’s Grave Mark ended, and Simon exhaled deeply as the chaos flames on the chaos blade died down.
The moment the chaos flames died down, he suddenly felt like nearly all the energy in his body had been sapped away.
And he knew the reason for this.
’I tried to control it as much as possible, but I ended up using a lot of my soul energy to summon the chaos flames.’
’I need to rest to fully recover my soul energy.’
Simon closed his eyes and exhaled deeply once again.
He increased the absorption rate of the demonic energy in the air, then he opened his eyes and looked at the ice puppet.
The ice puppet seemed to be in a dilemma, and this was what Simon wanted.
The ice puppet was just a puppet and in a situation like this, it was not creative enough to know what to do.
All it knew was that Lucien’s life was in his hands.
It tried taking a step, but Simon’s hand suddenly appeared round Lucien’s neck and his claws lengthened.
"No. No. No. Don’t move at all unless you want me to kill him."
Simon used one of his nails to make a tiny cut on Lucien’s neck, and the ice puppet stopped.
Simon could feel the killing intent around it thickening, but he didn’t care and he wasn’t afraid.
"Where are those-"
His words were cut off when he felt a disturbance in the space to his right.
He turned to his right with narrowed eyes, and the ice puppet did the same.
One second later, space began to twist and two seconds later, a swirling black portal formed in the air.
Vexa, Noctis, Silith, Gorr, and Morrow stepped out of the portal.
When Simon saw them, he could not help but narrow his eyes.
Their conditions were not exactly the great.
Blood and minor injuries were all over their bodies, and he could see that they also had their own fair share of troubles.
Unfortunately for them, they were moving from a frying pan straight into the fire.
As the Grey Pact stepped out of the portal, they all had expressions of relief, but that changed in less than two seconds.
Their expressions stiffened, they froze, then they all looked at the ice puppet at the same time.
And the moment their gazes landed on the ice puppet, they all had the same feeling.
Terror.
"What the fuck?! Why is there a Superior Greater Demon here?!"
Silith was the first to curse out loud, and she brought out her pair of daggers as she got into a defensive stance.
"What the hell is going on here Broken Halo?! You said the mission was accomplished!"
Vexa looked at Simon with fury in her eyes.
The others followed, and if looks could kill, he would have died a thousand times over.
Simon calmly and indifferently looked at every one of them.
"I have Lucien with me, but I can’t defeat that. And don’t tell me that you actually expect me to defeat that puppet on my own?"
He tilted his head and looked at the five Initiates with a cold gaze.
Vexa gritted her teeth.
"If there was such a problem, then you should have fucking told us! We would have been better prepared!"
To everybody’s surprise, Simon shook his head.
"If I told you, you would most likely abandon me and the mission since this comes with a lot of risk."
The fury in the hearts of every single member of the Grey Pact increased, but they could not refute his words because they were true.
A Greater Demon was a massive threat even to them, and the ice puppet was a Superior Greater Demon, not even a Minor Greater Demon.
Instead of risking their lives, they would rather escape and abandon Simon.
Simon knew this, and it was one of the reasons why he lied.
During his battle with the ice puppet, he suddenly realized something and he asked himself this question... Why was he fighting the ice puppet with his life on the line?
This was not his mission.
Why was he risking his life all because of a mission that the clan and Caesar forced upon him?
To obtain information on what Caesar wanted from Lucien?
Absolutely not.
That was not worth him risking his life.
Besides, he had teammates... teammates that would most likely try to kill him if they were successful in escaping Gondor City.
If he exhausted himself against the ice puppet, how would he protect himself from the Grey Pact and any other future danger?
They were not weaklings that he could brush aside.
Killing Elder Mulon was definitely beyond what was expected of him.
But destroying the ice puppet would be too difficult for him to do.
And even if he was able to destroy it, he would be too exhausted after.
So... why not allow his precious and wonderful teammates fight for him?
His lips could not help but curl into a smile as he looked at the expressions of Vexa and the rest.
"Don’t worry. I have Lucien as a hostage and he’s not going anywhere soon. So, you should be able to fight it easily."
"I also want it dead. After all, we have to leave this place as soon as possible."
"This guy’s father might come anytime soon."
The expressions of Vexa, Noctis, Silith, Gorr, and Morrow changed drastically the moment they heard Simon’s words.
Simon chuckled softly.
"Don’t worry. We’re a team after all. A very precious and wonderful team who always have each other’s backs." He said with a tone filled compassion but his words were like the lies of the devil.