Help! I Do Not Want to Guide a Disaster

"There are so many of them," Xinyuan muttered, narrowing his eyes as another swarm of mutated Dovos tore through the sky, their heavy wings clipping the upper floors of a skyscraper and sending a rain of concrete debris crashing onto the monsters below.

Having briefly entered the rift moments ago, Xinyuan recognized that it carried the exact same suffocating pressure as the Red Zone Rift he had faced back in Guanguan City in Sector Two.

For the most part, the Sovereign and Bureau forces were holding the line effectively. Xinyuan twisted mid-air, effortlessly evading the snapping jaws of a colossal Rift Serpent, but before he could retaliate, a massive blast of dark energy slammed into his side.

The force propelled him a mile across the district, sending him crashing into the asphalt which cracked under the pressure of his landing.

Gritting his teeth against a sharp grunt of pain, Xinyuan pushed himself up. His dark mist swirled aggressively, masking his silhouette as he opened his eyes.

Three Disaster-class Espers had completely surrounded him. One was perched on the edge of a half-broken building right beside him, while the other two stood blocking the street ahead, staring down at him. Their eyes glowed with distinct, unnatural colors, and their respective dark mists curled around their bodies like wisps.

"Hello, Shao Xinyuan. We heard a Rift appeared here," the Esper standing on the concrete ledge said, offering a small, mocking wave.

Xinyuan stared back, his eyes slowly bleeding into a deep, predatory red. He recognized her instantly. She was the disaster class esper who had fled the moment he killed Wu Youran and the ambush squad that had attacked him and Wenzhi.

The other two, however, didn’t look like they had come for a conversation. They kept their eyes tracked on the bleeding sky where the Rift was still vomiting monsters.

Suddenly, one of them lunged forward, a deep greyish-blue mist exploding from his frame as he collided with an enormous Rift Serpent, slashing the beast into bloody ribbons before immediately moving on to the next wave of beasts.

Xinyuan brushed the dust from his jacket. "You aren’t here to try and drag me back to the Old Blood?"

"Uh, no. We don’t have a death wish," the Esper said, jumping down from the shattered building to approach him.

Meanwhile, the large Esper still standing kept his gaze locked onto Xinyuan, his eyes scanning him from head to toe.

"We received word that this is a confirmed Red Zone Rift and that all the top sectors will be officially swallowed within days," she explained, raising her hands in a faux gesture of surrender. "I am Liye. We’re here to help."

"Stop talking to him," the other Esper rumbled in a stern, warning tone, drawing a sharp frown from Liye. He stepped forward, his imposing frame casting a shadow as he looked Xinyuan dead in the eye.

"We are here on behalf of your father, Shao Guying," the man stated bluntly, not bothering to introduce himself at all. "He deployed us to locate you and initiate a quiet negotiation. He wants to help Sovereign and still accomplish exactly what everyone wants. The Rifts gone for good."

"Sovereign does not need any help. You can go back to my father right now, or your bodies won’t even make it out of this city," Xinyuan’s dark mist flared around him, thick with pure killing intent.

Liye swallowed hard, nervously slapping the massive Esper’s shoulder. "Stop it, Kuan. You didn’t see the way he fights. He slaughtered Wu Youran. He killed all of them."

Kuan glared down at her, his jaw clenching. "What the hell are you doing? If you’re so terrified, fuck off. I’m doing exactly what we came here to do."

"Go back," Xinyuan frowned as Kuan’s arrogant posture was testing the limits of his patience.

Kuan ignored the warning, looking Xinyuan dead in the eye. "We are only relaying a message. The High Families have been facing a lot of sudden losses, and there are heavy suspicions that Sovereign is behind the assassinations. Your father is offering peace. You can stop this. You can stop everything. He isn’t even requesting your Guide anymore. Nothing will happen to Lin Wenzhi."

Lies. Xinyuan knew it was all complete bullshit. Why would his father send three Disaster-class Espers to negotiate so clumsily in the middle of a warzone?

Was Shao Guying actively expecting Xinyuan to kill them in a fit of rage? Because he absolutely wanted to rip Kuan to shreds right now, especially since the man looked desperate to prove he was more capable.

"Either help kill these monsters and evacuate the civilians, or get the fuck out of my sight," Xinyuan snarled.

Before they could answer, the dark mist imploded around him, and he vanished from their sight entirely. When he reappeared a second later, he was high in the sky. His mist expanded into massive wings as a terrifying scythe materialized in his grip.

He moved like a hurricane, slashing through waves of mutated beasts both in the air and on the cracked streets below.

Down on the pavement, Kuan clenched his hands into tight, trembling fists. Liye shot him a deeply cynical look. "You know, we could just jump ship and join Sovereign. They actually seem way less dictatorial than Guying. All he does is scream at us and lock us back up in those suffocating sleeping pods the second a mission is over. I don’t want to go back to sleep, Kuan."

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Kuan snapped, turning on her. "He can fix all of this. Guying sent us here to get him, and we are going to get him."

"He explicitly said without force," Liye reminded him, her voice tightening.

Kuan’s face darkened, a sinister expression twisting his features. "He said we are just distractions."

Without another word, he stormed past her, unleashing his energy to savagely slaughter the surrounding monsters.

Liye blinked, his words hitting her like a physical blow. "What?"

Panic seizing her chest, she immediately tapped her earpiece, backing away from the hot zone. She maneuvered through the debris, dodging the crawling beasts and killing anything that got too close. As she scanned the area, her eyes locked onto a figure in the distance.

Wenzhi was standing near the outskirts, using a massive concrete wall as a shield. Despite the chaos, his posture was dead steady, and he already had a gun drawn and pointed directly at her head.

Before she could even react, a sharp, harsh, and deeply familiar voice cracked through her earpiece.

’The data shows the filter dome is about to seal off the Sovereign faction city. Blow it up. Now!’

’Yes, Mr. Shao.’

Liye froze entirely, blood draining from her face. "Shao..."

Realization tore through her mind as the pieces of the trap clicked together.

"No..." she breathed, her voice trembling with shock. "We are all going to die."