Early morning, Saturday, the day before the grand opening of their shop which was going to be called Oak Sage Store, Anton was woken up by frantic knocking on his door. When he opened it he saw that it was his father.
“What happened, Father?” Anton asked.
“Follow me to my office. The others are already there,” Anders said.
When they entered Anders’s office, Lucas, Nemina, Ignomus, and the three vampires, Zenoxus, Ecturne, and Luminetta were already there.
“Somebody kidnapped Frederick. We received a note saying that they would release him in exchange for the spell that produced the movie,” Anders told his son.
“That’s ridiculous! There’s no spell that could produce those movies since it’s only a gateway to another world!” Anton thoughtlessly exclaimed.
That statement shocked the whole group and the vampires' eyes gleamed. Everyone ignored what Anton had said.
“Three of the mercenaries that were guarding the Frederick were killed,” Lucas said and Anton could see that their head guard was truly angry.
“Do we know who kidnapped Frederick?” Anton asked.
“According to my information sources, it’s a very powerful underworld gang here in Zalnothel called the Blood War gang,” Nemina said.
“They weren’t wary of targeting an archmage?” Anton asked.
“Apparently, almost everyone in the city who thought themselves powerful considers you a weak archmage, and the head of the gang had two powerful high wizards and an archmage on their side as well,” Anders said.
“Then we need to show them my power. Do we know where their headquarters or where they were keeping Frederick?” Anton asked.
“I’ve tracked Frederick and he’s inside their headquarters south of the city. It’s a series of warehouses.” Zenoxus said.
“Can you rescue him silently and can you message us in a distance once you have rescued Frederick?” Anton asked the elder vampire.
“I can rescue him without anyone noticing even the archmage amongst them and I can message Ecturne and Luminetta once we’re safe,” Zenoxus replied.
“Okay, this is my plan. Ecturne, Lucas, and the other mercenaries will stay here to guard the family. Me and Luminetta will fly over to where the gang’s headquarters are located and Zenoxus will silently rescue Frederick. Once they’re safe, Zenoxus would message Luminetta and then I will destroy the gang’s headquarters. Anyone want to add anything?” Anton asked everyone.
“Are you really going to kill all of those gang members?” Anders asked his son.
Anton could understand his father’s concern. He was still very young and his father didn’t want him to bloodied his hands with common street thugs. The only enemies that he had destroyed so far were monsters and undead and this would be the first time that Anton would kill humans. Unfortunately, this world wasn’t peaceful, and the fact that Anton was powerful meant that sooner or later, he would not be able to avoid killing even humans to make himself and his family safe.
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“Yes, Father. Not only that, I will raze their headquarters to the ground. We need to let everyone know that we are powerful and ruthless enough to destroy our enemies so no one would lightly attempt the same thing.”
Anton then commanded Zenoxus to go ahead and rescue Frederick. After a few minutes, Anton flew from his mansion and made sure that he was high enough but not too high that no one would be able to see him. He wanted everyone in the city to see what he was doing so he activated all of his buffs with the visual effects on and even though it was morning, the light coming from his auras was so bright that the people on the ground should see him.
Luminetta was following him but the vampire wasn’t a bit translucent so she wasn’t visible. She was there to guide him to where the gang’s headquarters were and to inform him once Zenoxus and Frederick were safe.
Anton was flying slow enough that he could hear the shouts of people below and when he looked at them, a lot of the people were pointing at him. After around twenty minutes of flying, Luminetta pointed at the series of warehouses and suddenly she said that Frederick was safe. Before Luminetta left, she explicitly told Anton all of the gang member’s warehouses she clearly marked the border where the gang’s member asset ended.
When he was near the headquarters of the Blood War gang he saw three mages flying up to meet him.
“Archmage Sunders, to what do we owe the pleasure?” The mage at the front said and based on that, Anton knew that he was the archmage leader of the gang.
Anton didn’t answer and immediately cast Frozen Orb one after another. He also cast Meteor towards the warehouses. The three enemy wizards cast some sort of shield and weren’t given any chance to cast any other spell but after the second Frozen Orb, their shield was destroyed.
The two high wizards were immediately frozen and then after the third Frozen Orb, they shattered. The archmage who Anton didn’t even know the name of attempted to flee but he relentlessly followed without stopping casting Frozen Orb and Ice Blast. The enemy archmage attempted to cast an offensive spell towards Anton but his defenses were powerful enough to shrug off the attack. With a combination of Ice Blast and Frozen Orb, soon the archmage was destroyed. Anton wondered why the three wizards were so weak. The liches that he fought before were more powerful than they were.
Anton stored the storage items that the two high wizards and the archmage were keeping on their bodies then he went towards the warehouses and razed everything to the ground. He let go of the people who escaped and only killed those people who foolishly attacked him. He found the gang's treasures stored in one of the warehouse's underground basement. He kept all of the things that he found there in his inventory then he flew up again and made sure that everything turned to ash by casting Meteor at the place non-stop.
Soon he saw a few powerful mages nearby but they let him destroy the gang’s headquarters without interrupting him. When everything in the vicinity was turned into ash, he saw the Archmage Voduria flying towards him.
“Archmage Sunders, have you quenched your anger?” Archmage Voduria asked.
“Yes, thank you for allowing me to vent my frustration to those who thought that I was weak.”
“Your power is indeed very impressive and your magical stamina is incomparable!” Voduria said.
“Thank you. I was informed that I needed to show my power so the denizens of the city’s underground wouldn’t keep bothering me and my family.”
“Well, you did just that. What truly is startling is the way you cast your powerful spells nonstop. I’m sure that no one would attempt to take what is yours again, at least for now,” The old lady archmage told him then said her goodbye.
Anton flew home slowly displaying himself to the city while his body was glowing with his three auras. He was a bit embarrassed since he was clearly showing off but it was also a form deterrent.
When he arrived at the manor, he was led to Frederick’s room and saw that the mage had undergone torture. He immediately added Frederick to his party and since his auras were still active, the mage’s wounds healed at a rapid pace and soon he was fully healed but Anton knew that it wasn’t simple to heal the mental trauma of torture the mage experienced.
“I’m sorry this happened to you, Frederick,” Anton apologized to the mage.