The Werebear named Jonna lost his cool and looked at Acheron incredulously.

“My father always said you were way older than him, how are you still alive, Acheron-dono?! No one has heard from you in almost 80 years! I thought you were long dead!”

Acheron shook his head while he chuckle at what the bear said.

“I don’t have ‘that’ nickname for nothing; besides, I had a run with the Arachne, and set themselves into a frenzy and were hunting me down. I had to lay low for a while…”

On the side, Rose looked confused as she heard the conversation between Acheron and the demihuman. Acheron noticing this, gave her a head pat and introduce her to Jonna.

“Jonna, meet Rose. Rose, this is Jonna,”

Jonna nodded towards her.

“A pleasure to meet you, Human Rose,”

“The pleasure is mine,” Rose responded,

Jonna gave Acheron a look and Acheron explained,

“Jonna, Rose wants to be a candidate,”

“What?!” Jonna exclaimed,

‘To think this human is a potential candidate to become an ‘Empress’…’

“Acheron-sama? I have questions…” Rose asked timidly, not wanting to upset Acheron.

“I know what you want to ask, Rose, and the answer is simple. Unlike with humans, due to demihumans having long lifespans, my name is actually very famous in this community. Only a handful of clans actually know my face though,”

Jonna nodded,

“That’s right, Acheron-dono’s name is like a legend to us, to some his name is akin to a gods’. In fact, according to my father, Acheron-dono had a big hand in building our cities. But since no one has heard from Acheron-dono in almost 100 years, the newer generation probably has yet to hear of him…”

‘Cities?’ Rose thought,

Acheron’s tail swayed for a bit before he remembered his purpose for being here.

“Rose, the suitcase,” Acheron said,

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Remembering the suitcase she had been holding on to the entire day, Rose quickly lifted it and put it on the countertop in front of Acheron.

*Click*

The suitcase unlatched, revealing the contents inside that even Rose had no idea of, until now.

Five rows of 50 gold coins took half of the space inside the suitcase. Each coin had an omega symbol on one side and a giant tree on the flip side, both were beautifully crafted on every coin. On the other half of the suitcase, three orange and black discs were perfectly nuzzled in foam cutouts.

Rose had never seen such craftsmanship on a coin before, hell, she never even seen that kind of coin before. Although she did have an idea of what the discs were, Hela said it was some kind of prototype for a new and fun weapon.

“How much will it cost to send a message to every city in the world?” Acheron asked,

Jonna gulped seeing the stack of gold coins in the suitcase. The only time one would use gold coins would be for large transactions. There are also those that only trade in gold coins but those are generally from the oldest generations.

“A-A-Acheron-dono, there is n-” Jonna started to say but was quickly interrupted by Acheron.

“I need my message delivered as fast as possible, name a price,”

“Uhm, in that case, I can get it all done by tomorrow for 35 coins,” Jonna said nervously,

“Perfect, that’s a deal,” Acheron stated,

*Clatter*

35 gold coins were dropped on the counter in front of Jonna, catching the attention of all the other patrons in the café, especially the group of Lycans that were already looking at Rose with hungry eyes.

“Anyways, I need passage to the city…” Acheron said,

The werebear quickly put the coins away, walked towards the picture behind him, and lifted it, revealing a red button underneath.

“It was great seeing you, Acheron-dono,” Jonna said as he pressed the button.

Next to the bar, a bookcase slid to the side and revealed a pair of elevator doors.

“Wow,” Exclaimed Rose, she never expected there was more to see here.

“It was nice seeing you too, cub, I’ll be sure to get a drink next time,” Acheron said with a chuckle.

Just as Acheron stood up from the barstool and Rose was about to close the suitcase, someone interrupted them.

“How about you leave that case and that girl here, bug?”

The group of rowdy Lycans that were seating in the corner, were now blocking their way.

“How about you get out of my way and I won’t eat your heads, Pup?” Acheron clapped back,

“Hey-” Jonna started to say but was stopped with a raise of Acheron’s hand.

“Do you know who I am?!” said the leader of the pups,

Behind Acheron, Jonna slapped his forehead as he already foresees bad things happening to the Lycans. Clicking noises were already coming from Acheron.

“I do,…. You are Ḏ̴̘͛i̶͎̜͘n̵̻̹͆n̵̖̒͌è̶̹r̵̹͑!”

Acheron’s voice suddenly changed; slits slowly spread from the edge of his lips all the way to his ears. His mouth split open and his jaw unhinged as he opened wide and two giant mandibles rose from inside his throat, revealing the source of Acheron’s clicking as they snapped together in a razor-sharp shine.

The Lycans weren’t ready to face such a fear-inducing monster to appear, two of the four Lycans involuntarily turned back into wolves while another fell on his butt whimpering along with the other two. The last, the leader, was frozen in fear, an image of those mandibles crushing his skull ran amok through his mind.

*Clack*

Acheron snapped his mandibles one more time before retracting them into his body, while his face healed itself. Rose and Jonna hugged each other for comfort behind him. Acheron was without a doubt a terrifying being.

“Let’s go, Rose,” Acheron said as he reached inside the suitcase and grabbed one of the discs.

“Y-yes, Acheron-sama!” Rose exclaimed as she let go of Jonna, who was trying to get his composure back.

Rose quickly closed the suitcase and followed Acheron towards the elevator doors.

“Hey, Pups! Catch!” Acheron exclaimed,

Acheron pressed a button in the middle of the disc, neon green lights turned on and it transformed into a sphere just before throwing it towards the group of four Lycans.

The young pup leader hastily caught the ball and inspected it with the other three. The once disc had turned into a small metallic and spherical jack o’ lantern that glowed a neon green. The lights flashed and the little lantern began to laugh creepily.

[Ha!Ha!Ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!]

The hairs on their bodies rose as they sense incredible danger from it. In panic, they dropped it, but it was too late. The jack o’ Lantern stopped flashing green before it burst into a white light.

Everyone turned away from the bright light that shined like the sun. Once it subsided, all that was left of the Lycans were small piles of ash. Silence permeated the air, as everyone looked at the small piles of ash.

“Hmm, it's more powerful than I thought… Let’s decrease the output by 10 percent, I won’t stop until I get the same result as the one seen in the movie. I want the skeletons to be the only thing left!” Acheron broke the silence,

His words made everyone’s blood run cold, and a shiver of fear run down their spine. This man just murdered four younglings in the name of an experiment.