Mission Success...
As soon as the layer of darkness began descending upon the dark night sky. Esteban, Fengli, and Sakura looked on curiously and alarmingly at the instantaneous pure dark before them. But they didn't hesitate as they worked together with the rest of the CO team to create a pincer attack! Right before Heian Ciemnosc's strange ability was activated, the enemy ancestors noticed an incoming new part from the rear. But before they could investigate, darkness overwhelmed everywhere, and all they could do was look at it.
The trio floated forth to attack, targeting the places where Heian Ciemnosc’s Spirit Sense blatantly guided them. They couldn’t use their Spirit Sense, but Heian Ciemnosc could let his blatantly appear before them and urge them where to go. It wasn’t just this trio. The trio at the enemy’s rear, Violet, Oleg, and Victor, were the same. Meanwhile, Aleksander was guided by his Spirit Sense to directly assassinate helpless, confused, and startled Crabstynian realm 3rd stage Retired Ancestors.
Heian Ciemnosc didn’t participate in the mass killing. His head was already at maximum capacity, and his headache got worse. Still, he led them with his Spirit Sense towards each 3rd stage for a minute. The result was as expected as the targeted Retired Ancestors were annihilated by one move from his team members, especially from Aleksander’s sneak attacks.
Yet, the Retired Ancestors at the 3rd stage weren’t just panicky and dying. After the initial minute and several seconds, they started fighting back whenever they felt danger. Power Energy wasn’t limited here in any way. But the enemy could do nothing to detect and prevent the enemy’s movements or guide their attacks towards them. All the Retired Ancestors could do was react, placing the CO team in a tough spot.
But now that there were 3rd stage Retired Ancestors fighting back, Heian Ciemnosc guided them towards 2nd stage Retired Ancestors, his head splitting more and more as his Soul was overtaxed and received the brunt from such effort. And when the 2nd stage Retired Ancestors began going all-out not to defend their lives but to kill his team members, Heian Ciemnosc guided them to the Ancestors.
It was a simple procedure, but it reaped the lives of most Crabstynian realm cultivators remaining within the School of Dancing Flowers. Because after the Ancestors were murdered. Their all-out attacks couldn’t be any less deadly, and all were massacred without leaving one alive. It was the mightiest 3 of the team grouping against one sole 2nd or 3rd stage Retired Ancestor as Violet went on her way to pulverize with her kicks and punches the enemy.
Oleg and Victor formed another little group to gang up one Retired Ancestor at the time as Aleksander continued to assassinate his targets with utmost precision. The Director started moving, but within Heian Ciemnosc’s strange dark sphere covering thousands of meters, he toured the place quite a lot yet couldn’t even reach the ground no matter how long and fast he floated in only one direction.
… … … -splish- splash…
“?!” At last, the darkness disappeared, and the Direction, who thought he had gone blind, mad, and this was just his way of ‘accepting’ it, became unduly relieved upon seeing the lighter and blindingly bright dark night sky!
However, as he turned around, he heard the sound he was so familiar with, especially when dealing with weaker cultivators. That was the sound of their bodies exploding in the air before the marvelous sounds of their remains falling on the ground. As the Director turned around, he also saw the bottom-ground, which he had never felt so content upon seeing. But the few thin streams of blood mixed with flesh and bones from 3 different spots in midair made him lose all excitement.
There was the trio he had been fighting for over an hour and the kid he desired to rob of whatever he could give him. But now, there were 4 others, and the Director didn’t need to ponder to know that… everywhere in his School’s territory… was over. He closed his eyes, pained, and lowered his head as his fists cracked bones and his nails buried in his skin to draw out blood and express his turmoil.
“You don’t understand… The Academy, you, everyone but us are the devils! You must be the ones rooted out of this place! How could you simply kill others for no reason?! We haven’t even targeted you!” The Director lashed out at them with words, as they kept silent and looked at the Director. Heian Ciemnosc’s eyes narrowed at the last part of the foul-smelly Director.
“It is only our dream, our purpose! We wanted to live here and bask in glory, not steal or take it away! We deserve a better life, better treatment, and the power that should have belonged to us!!” The Director said, his hands opening his clothes to reveal his collarbone. His fingers dug into his skin and seemingly hand-grappled at each side of his torso. Then, looking below, the Director had a desperate look in his eyes as he pleaded.
“Mighty lord, please grant me this power, or it will be gone and taken by this Academy!! I will kill more students, but I need the strength. Please grant it to me!!!”
Crrrkkkkk… grnnnnnwrooaaaalll~... The Director had spoken. Thus, the ground shook and broke open, revealing dozens of thousands of corpses, almost wholly turned into maggot shells and lying below the School’s territory. The buildings, destroyed or not, and the land were thrown away. The sight of more than 100 kilometers filled with corpses and maggot shells below the ground assaulted the CO team’s eyes.
Pshiiiift, pshift, PSHIFT. From each maggot shell and corpse, a pale white bout of energy came from their bodies or covers, converging at the territory’s center, rose into the air, and became several tens of meters wide and thousands of meters long. Heian Ciemnosc and his team could only watch as, in a frenzy, the strange pale white energy collided against the Director’s opened chest and filled him with the strength he implored for!
From the Crabstynian realm 3rd stage, his cultivation base soared to the 5th stage!! It wasn’t a simple one-time boost. It was an authentic increase in cultivation base. Though it was shaky and needed some harsh work to even start stabilizing, he could now present a threat to the CO team! However, at that time, just as the Directo laughed his ass off. So contently. Heian Ciemnosc spoke before turning around, giving his back to a greedy Director, and floating to the ground.
“Take them off. Whichever kills the Director will get the most merit points, but I will get the body.”
Slssh, slssh, slssh, slssh. Whoosh, whoosh… The team looked at each other, startled. But then, shrugging shoulders and nodding to each other, they placed their hands under their upper body, pulling something that had been so far limiting their prowess all this long. Exposing the used talisman paper to the Director’s eyes, his face fell, and his voice became soft and weak.
“Are those… Grayfaced talismans? Ho- why wo-... why…?” The Director was hopeless as he witnessed the mightiest trio rise to the 8th stage of the Crabstynian realm. Then, he looked at Violet, whose cultivation base rose to the 7th stage, followed by Oleg and Victor at the 6th stage. Lastly, the Director helplessly looked at Aleksander. But even as they now shared the same cultivation base, he felt Aleksander didn’t even need to try assassinating him. A simple confrontation would end with his body mauled by the wind as it would be blasted away…
On the other hand, Heian Ciemnosc went to a little spot where one of the only decently built buildings’ pillars remained intact even after falling on the ground and resisted the earthquake’s shaking. He placed his back against the pillar, his bum on the dusty gray cement, and his head looking at the sky as his Universal Conveyance showed up, a glowing light forming a hologram in his left wrist. Once he was over with sending a message, he threw a sigh of relief. “Aaahh~.”
“Why so, ugh, tired, team leader? Um, are you alright?” Esteban and the rest of the team floated down and sat their bums around the ground. Some even directly lay on it with their backs supporting heavy and long breathing body motions. As Esteban asked, he rested his back on the pillar, understanding the team leader’s satisfaction after the mission. Fengli, Sakura, and Violet also felt it, but they were ladies, so they hid it well.
“Mn, here,” Heian Ciemnosc took a censer with a dark blue-platinum color and a pink in the middle of its body from up to below. Placing an orange skin at the base and sending a wisp of dark Power Energy, a flame sparkled, and an aroma engulfed everyone’s senses. This time, even the ladies bemoaned as Heian Ciemnosc rested his back on the pillar and looked at Violet.
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“Dead, right? Where’s the body?” Heian Ciemnosc’s calm voice didn’t help Violet’s face become any less awkward as she took out a case with a thick volume. Heian Ciemnosc blinked several times before gazing at Oleg, one of his team members, lying on the ground. Heian Ciemnosc asked the blond, bloodlust guy, “Are you a cook?”
“No, my family used to. Sister was the best,” Oleg side-glanced at Heian Ciemnosc and responded. Heian Ciemnosc tilted his head to the right and looked down before returning his darkest eyes to the blond. “Was it consequences?”
It wasn’t the name of one of the many laws and regulations in the Disciplinary Laws of all that exists and there is. But it did refer to a few of them, like an organizational territory at war and a city or City with its civilians not leaving their homes, in which case, their deaths in the midst of the war could only be testified as a self-brought calamity. But it was quite a harsh law, as most of the time, the city governors would force civilians to stay.
“We’ll return with the Supervisor after they come to clean this up,” Heian Ciemnosc said, surprising everyone as they looked at him. With a cheeky, unbecoming grin, he only spoke a few more words. “My Master asked for that to happen personally. Oh. Mm, I think she knew I would try something like this? In any case, this organization’s extermination is a success. We can celebrate later… in my club, if anyone’s interested…”
“Really?!” - “Woah, can we actually?” - “Yeah, sure.”
The Concealed Ornament Team responded strongly, some more excited than others. Heian Ciemnosc nodded with his eyes closed, tired, before hearing Esteban’s excited, unsure, and shy words. “Team leader, err… Heian Ciemnosc. Is it possible to join the Saberbone Diabolical Club now? I mean, it’s not that we joined you to take advantage of you. But we’d like to take advantage of you to try our luck.”
“Were you rejected before?” Heian Ciemnosc opened his eyes tiringly and asked everyone. They shook their heads, and Violet spoke, “Most of us don’t dare. We don’t even know what difficulty we would face the higher our cultivation base is.”
‘Oh, right. The club does have a silly thing like that. No wonder it is one of the strongest clubs but has the least members…’ Heian Ciemnosc thought as he placed his hands behind his back and looked at the sky. He then looked back down and said. “You are powerful, capable, and courageous enough. If the club doesn’t know of you, they will still accept you after knowing what you can do.”
Heian Ciemnosc didn’t know if perhaps the club had their eye on his team members. For his Master to select them as his team, they had to be something. But after seeing them fight and the condition of what they were capable of doing, he was sure the Saberbone Diabolical Club must have taken a liking to these 7. But the club never looks for new members. They look for the club. Heian Ciemnosc is an exception, of course. Otherwise, who knew which club would’ve taken him away first.
“Aaahh, that’s a good thing.” - “Hmm, I’ve heard that in celebrations…” - “Hehehe…” - “Why am I liking the fact I became part of this team?” - “And co-founders at that!” - “Oi, don’t forget that, in the future, we will be spoken of in stories like some Teachers and Supervisors are right now. And that since our twenties, our team grew with each co-founder becoming a general. By then, we would lead our forces to expand the Wrath Nihility Academy far and beyond!” - “Fuck yeah!” - “If we don’t die.” - “Fuck no!” - “I’ll protect everyone, keep you safe.” - “Awww, Violy…”
‘Hmm, expand the Academy… yyyup.’ Heian Ciemnosc thought inside his head, contently, as he looked at the stars. It was as if looking into the sky. He was staring through the sky and witnessing each memorable moment he has had since the Sinvonnia Kingdom. Ambitions… his ambition… it started to rumble in the direction his stomach does. Of course, that was his thoughts, not in the name of the Academy’s future.
“Oleg, Aleksander, go to the central building and pick some of the bodies there. There are a few hundred intact. Keep them safe.” Heian Ciemnosc suddenly said before accommodating himself more comfortably on the ground and putting his nape against the pillar. Everyone looked with confused gazes that slowly became apprehensive, and whatever little guilt they had over mass murder and bombarding someone else’s home was gone.
Even Heian Ciemnosc felt attacked when his Spirit Sense saw hundreds and hundreds of Sub Students and Students’ bodies. And if it wasn’t because he set a couple array formations in case someone tried to use them, the earthquake from before might’ve eaten them and gave the Director some extra force. Just thinking about that made Heian Ciemnosc dissatisfied, borderline angering him, and that was something this Middle Kingdom surely didn’t want to see…
. . .
The next night, close to midnight. On the way to Heian Ciemnosc’s Master’s abode.
When the Supervisor came, he quickly checked Heian Ciemnosc like Heian Ciemnosc had scanned his team members when resting under the aromatic effect of an Orangebreeding Fruit. They didn’t say anything even though they felt weird about it. Heian Ciemnosc showed concern, capabilities, and determination in this first mission.
After ensuring his target priority was safe and sound, the Supervisor visibly coldly sweated and took a tour around the School of Dancing Flowers. The Supervisor then conjured a flame that spread from the skies to the ground, which had gone down a couple of meters after the Director consumed the ceremony’s power. As the fire screen was lowered onto the corpses and maggot shells, they incinerated everything, even the students’ bodies belonging to the School.
As for the hundreds of corpses of students from the Academy, the Supervisor took care of them, though with a grim face and pensive countenance, as if ‘something’ was really going on these days…
The Supervisor then brought them back to the Academy. His flight still wasn’t as functional and practical as taking portals. Hence, the team and Supervisor went from City to City. When teleporting to a nearby City, Heian Ciemnosc opted to go to the Count City, even though that delayed their return. In it, he had a little talk with a particular workshop boss and bought many materials to craft tools. They were exponentially helpful and practical for the mission, after all.
Once back at the Academy’s territory, Heian Ciemnosc brought his team to the club. Having his Universal Conveyance was like communicating with the world. He couldn’t think how obsolete and lacking any messaging system the Sinvonnia Kingdom had. They were too damn tragically sad.
Nevertheless, it was something that was created and existed for endless Changes. The amount of time put into simply having this kind of system could only be imagined. He brought his team to the club’s headquarters, and were cleanly welcomed in. Frank and Arla were just waiting to make a little celebration for his first mission success. Of course, if Heian Ciemnosc didn’t return and perished, it would have been for nothing, and Elena would’ve cried her heart out.
But, of course, Heian Ciemnosc would never allow himself to die without making someone proud.
Heian Ciemnosc presented his Concealed Ornament Team to Elena, like a puppy showing its owner how many bones he stole from other dogs and how many times it chewed them. Elena was Elena as the introductions went through. But when it was Violet’s turn, the Elder Sister within her came out. Only after Elena acquiesced and called her Senior Sister did Violet become satisfied with her new hug toy and let go.
After the last 2 missions and his first mission as a team leader, Heian Ciemnosc now had 360,000 silver coins. Both 2 missions were 30,000 silver coins each, and his first team leader mission was a whopping 130,000 silver coins payment. Other than silver coins, he received 20 merit points, 2 and 3 for the 2 missions and 15 for his team’s first mission.
It wasn’t too many merit points, but with his 1,000 merit points, unused from before, Heian Ciemnosc now experienced what every other Student goes through at first. Thirsting for much more merit points and exchanging them for precious things in the Academy’s exclusive stores, Heian Ciemnosc bowed to slave the shit out of his team so he could bathe in merit points at the end of the year. However, he was a special team leader. He could only go on a mission each week…
When the celebration finished, Heian Ciemnosc chatted with Frank and Arla about integrating his team members into the club. It was, and not, a simple matter at the same time, but who was Frank, if not someone who could very well decide the significant affairs of the club? However, even with Heian Ciemnosc’s words as a club member, Frank still had to verify it with a 2-tier club member. Thus, Elena’s team was to follow him on a conjoint mission to exterminate another criminal organization.
Since it was confirmed, and Elena was glad to fight alongside him for the first time, his Concealed Ornament Team’s next mission would be one with less powerful enemies but with many more enemies that could possibly run away. Frank and Arla had it all planned. They had been pondering about this mission and to whom to relay it. Elena was a great example, as there were 50 merit points in the bag of whoever completed this mission, and it should be given to at least 2 teams.
Thus, the Saberbone Diabolical Club now resolved it, and Heian Ciemnosc had work to do. Now that his CO Team has won with complete success, its first mission despite Heian Ciemnosc’s quirky method, what best than to announce a much more rewarding and exciting mission, slightly different from their first as a team?
… But now, Heian Ciemnosc walked to his Master’s abode. He was still going to learn Artifact crafting and needed to cultivate before that to stabilize his cultivation base and slightly solidify his foundation with Craftsmaking, his preferred method.
Besides, the Director’s body as a Crabstynian realm 5th stage cultivator was no joke. It would help him grow and solidify quite a lot.
…