ACCR Chapter 12 The Crazy and The Fearful
FAY 437, 2nd Month, Day 17, 8:01 AM
The length of time, since I had last stepped foot outside the state was measured in decades. The difference within this Federation and my state was a chasm. In terms of technology, we were the winners, hands down.
But it was all kept within the hands of the Gods, plus us, their subordinates. Yet, in merely decades, these people were barely trailing behind!
Could this have been because the sects... My sect, had gotten lazy? Yes. Though I was merely a subordinate, not entitled to voicing my opinions, I could still see the situation subjectively. Decadence had replaced passion.
Actually, if I was to be pretty honest, only the first generation Zeus had cared about advancement. Pantheon had degenerated. If it hadn't been for those miraculous formations capable of birthing Nascent Souls, no matter how limited they were, then we wouldn't have even been capable of maintaining our spot as the greatest of the three.
"Come on, man. You standing in place like some idiot isn't doing us any favors."
I swatted the hand about to encircle my shoulders.
"Remember this, Aethon. I am in charge this time. Don't cross bounds."
"Heh! Do I look like I give a shit? This is the Federation. A place where I can have the greatest of entertainment! Look at that baby, radiating the aura of one in the 3rd level of Spirit Gathering! I wasn't allowed to play around with those so-called 'gods'. But here! Opponents will surely be abound! Hehehehehehhe..."
" Let's go." I ordered, wondering why my lord had decided to pair me with this crazy woman. Though, she was right about the abundance of cultivators and various shades of spiritual energy in the air. This was pollution at the highest levels. Atleast in Greece I could capture some unattuned spiritual energy.
I shook away the thoughts while merging within the crowd, heading to our booked accommodations.
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"So, what is our mission in this tiny state, dear leader?"
Aethon asked the moment we settled down into our hotel room, one with a single living area, but two rooms attached to the unit.
I had already anticipated her question. She was a volatile entity that could cause the mission to fail if she knew it beforehand. The only reason she had even been recruited had been because the others had been too busy to be dislodged from their duties.
"Our target this time is a woman at the peak of Core Formation. And the mission details entail that we capture her alive." This stipulation had brought a frown on my face the moment the Underworld lord had pushed this mission on to me.
This was the Federation. Assassination would have been simple. But, capturing the woman alive was going to be a very hard task. No additional manpower had been redirected towards this task, meaning, that we were going to have to be resourceful if we didn't want to be captured by the Federation.
"A certain Lily Toba. Wanted alive? Haha hahahaha... Has our dear Lord Hades finally embraced the thrill of craziness?" The woman grinned at me, with her light green pupils alight with spiritual flames.
"This assignment is very important to Lord Hades. If anything goes wrong, you wouldn't be able to handle the consequences. Right now, what we need are some external elements that could be used to make our jobs easier... Like clan Toba's competitors."
"Can't we just ambush her right now? I would really love to test myself against a Federal cultivator. Are they as powerful as us, who have gone through grueling selections? It would be even more entertaining if she isn't too weak."
"You will get your chance. We only have 48 hours to accomplish this mission. Surely you can wait that long, right?" I stared her down until she relented.
'Why was I assigned this lunatic?'
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"What happened here?" I asked, clenching my hands into fists until the knuckles turned white and I felt the pain of hurting myself. Someone, some idiotic imbecile had done this.
A whole room, a 10 cubic meter area, previously composed of vibrant green stalks of rice had had all of them mutate, taking on this watery blue shade. The spiritual energy ratios had been tempered with!
"The delivery company, supplying the spiritual liquid. That's where the problem originated from." Mawar revealed.
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"Madam Toba, we have sent the relevant data pertaining to your delivery. The ratios had been precisely calculated by our AI before the liquid left the factory..."
The man behind the brown desk, whose face was a serious mask spoke to me. He was the one in charge of all inquiries related to their company's products.
"That means that there was some mishap on the way. We have already contacted the relevant Federation authorities of the matter, and are requesting cooperation."
"What about the person in charge of the delivery?"
2 hours had passed since the delivery, meaning that the person had already reported back to that particular branch.
"We are also searching for him. He hasn't reported back yet."
With that, I broke communication, bringing about the collapse of the holographic screen right before me. I massaged my temple and stood up, walking towards the window of the office.
In this city-no, the entire Federation, there were crimes happening every single day. And suspicions could fall upon anyone. Yet, my instincts were screaming at me that this wasn't the end of it. That this was a targeted attack towards me.
My competitors didn't have the guts to act in such a blatant way against me. But there was a possibility that they must have aided the one who had caused this.
I already had an inkling as to who had attacked, but it was better to wait until all the evidence had been collected.
"Sister! This has to be, Zeus? Right?" Mawar asked upon bursting into my office.
"I don't know. This was goo high profile to be the work of someone who needs me alive."
"But it has a 50% chance of being their work. After all, they must be working on a scheme to get to you. I am going to stay with you at all times, sister."
"Can you really defend me if someone even I can't handle, truly attacks?"
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Patience is a virtue of the few. Even those that truly believe that they are patient, are simply under that delusion, as the mind, can never truly be patient. The reason, curiosity and the fact that all sentient life is programmed to always be doing something no matter how pointless it could be.
The room was dark, but I could see everything within it so well, that it might as well have been day to me. Even divine sense wouldn't be capable of getting as much clarity as me because of one simple fact. I was someone who had embraced the abyss of darkness as my core.
My fingers were tapping my thighs as I awaited my guest, someone who had gone against my orders. The reason the entire room was shrouded in darkness was simply because of the fact that I had my domain spread around the entire room, waiting for the inevitable confrontation.
I might be calmly sitting here, yet my mind was a different matter altogether. I was seething. I was steeped in rage. Chaos was outside this room. I could feel the net woven around, and within this whole city, simply waiting to capture us. Why? Because Aethon had failed to obey.
Fluctuations in the spiritual energy freely floating in the atmosphere alerted me before the door even opened, and my eyes, which had been closed as if resting, opened abruptly.
"Aethon... I was going to ask a pointless question, but I have given up."
After those words, my form merged with the darkness, with I appearing right before the woman, with my palm clasped around her neck. A smattering of surprise appeared within my rage at the ease at which I had managed to capture her but, it was smothered a few micro-seconds later.
If the room hadn't been coated with my darkness, then the moment I had smashed her into the wall would have caused tremors within the building.
I squeezed her neck, while gazing into those light green eyes that were calmly gazing back at me.
"Do you have a belief that I can't kill you, or could it be that you became foolish?" I asked while feeling the bone structure within her neck starting to gain some minute fractures. I had pinned her to the wall, which was only surviving my wrath because of my dark spiritual energy ward coating.
"Heh! This is why you have failed to improve in your cultivation. Thinking outside the box is also a skill, my dear mission leader. Why do you think I was brought on to aid you? Hehe hehe hehe..."
"... Or did you delude yourself into thinking that the mighty lord Hades, believed that you could curb my desire. I am freedom incarnate! Not constrained by the small plans in your brain! The Lord knows this! So... Dear Mission Leader, why do you think I was chosen to come with you?!"
The grin unnerved me, but ultimately, I let her go, even withdrawing my domain which had been preventing any photons from naturally existing in the room, returning it to brightness. No matter how much I didn't want what she had said to be right. There was some truth to it.
So, I started contemplating our mission once again. If what she had been saying was right, then our mission might not be related to capturing the woman. Instead, it might be something else. What was it? Causing chaos?
"Chaos. That's what the Lord wants. He wants the Federation to focus on this place! It has been long time since any serious battle of Core Formations took place. What do you believe would be the best way to kick off ours!?"
This woman was crazy! But I wasn't one to fight in the light. Maybe I should let her wreck havoc while I stay in the shadows... Yet, if our mission isn't to capture the woman, then it means that her death, if it's to come, should also be a highly public affair.
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During my childhood, I used to envy cultivators. They were powerful. The could do whatever they wanted. And most of all, they could fly.
Yet now that I am older, and a cultivator, just like the people I had admired, yet I feel that maybe, I should have been content during those times when even a Spirit Gathering could crush me like an ant.
I had tried to calm myself multiple times, such that I could think calmly and logically, yet, my heartrate would spike erratically with every movement of a shadow, a waft of a breeze, and even the mere fluctuations in the spiritual energy particles within the room.
Someone was coming for me. The sun had set with the knowledge that the truck driver had been found, yet, the scene that had greeted me was something that was being replayed over and over within my mind.
I shuddered, shivering at the thought of myself being turned into that. The person after me had intentionally done that. How could a human have been murdered that gruesomely?
I had been regaled in tales from before the Federation. Murdering someone on the streets had been a common occurrence, with every cultivator capable of turning enemy at the slightest slight.
I had fought within the arenas during those days when I had been in the first and second great realms. But I had never truly been in danger of death like right now. I knew that this fear was irrational and would affect my combat power, but there was nothing I could do about it at this moment. Maybe it would go away if I managed to win against my assailant...
I hadn't thought that Zeus would directly jump to such an action, not to mention the fact that he had chosen a psychopath to torment me.
"Sister... I should be telling you to calm down, but after seeing that, even I feel terror." spoke a Mawar whose eyes were dilated, with her divine sense sweeping the room every single second without missing a beat.