Chapter 78: Ch 78: Destruction
Naida stared in complete disbelief at the dark assassin kneeling on the glass covered floor of her ruined shop. She had known Raidan was powerful. She knew he fought terrifying battles in his own world. But seeing a deadly, high level void assassin bowing to him with such absolute reverence made her realize just how deep his authority truly ran.
Raidan kept his eyes locked on Leo. The emerald glow illuminating his pupils grew brighter by the second, casting eerie, shifting shadows across the shattered walls of the apothecary.
"Listen to me carefully, Leo. You will summon Chloe, Aaron, and Sarah. You will bring two dozen of our most elite, heavily armored guards from the Detroit camp through the cross realm portal. I want a complete defensive perimeter established around this building. Nobody enters or leaves this street without your explicit permission."
"It will be done immediately, Master Verde," Leo promised, bowing his head lower.
"Furthermore, Have the men bring their system inventories. I want this entire shop cleaned, repaired, and restored by the time the sun rises. Spare absolutely no expense. Use the faction treasury if you must."
Leo nodded sharply and stood up, his form already beginning to dissolve back into the swirling shadows.
"By your will, Master. We shall protect the Lady Naida with our lives."
With a soft rush of displaced air, the assassin vanished.
Raidan turned back to Naida. He gently cupped her pale cheeks, his thumbs brushing away the final, stubborn tears that clung to her eyelashes.
"Do not fear the men I am bringing here," Raidan told her gently. "They are entirely bound to my will through the system. They will treat you with the exact same respect they give to me. You are completely safe now."
Naida reached up and covered his hands with her own.
"Raidan, please be careful. The lower districts are a maze of traps and dark magic. The guild leaders are ruthless."
"They are about to discover what true ruthlessness looks like," Raidan promised quietly.
He leaned down and kissed her softly on the lips. It was a promise of return, a silent vow that nothing in this universe could ever keep him from her side. When he pulled away, he took a step back toward the shattered front door of the shop.
As Raidan stepped out into the cool night air, he stopped suppressing his power. He needed absolute dominance for what he was about to do.
He accessed his system interface and activated his administrative override.
[ System Action: Fave Shift Initiated. ]
[ Engaging Master Verde. ]
The suffocating pressure of Master Verde spilled out into the street. The nearby magical streetlamps shattered instantly, unable to handle the ambient magical interference.
Raidan did not walk to District 9. He simply commanded the space around him to fold.
[ Skill Activated: Spatial Displacement. ]
With a blinding flash of green light, he vanished from the quiet commercial district.
He reappeared a mile and a half away, dropping directly out of the sky and landing heavily on the cracked, filthy pavement of the lower slums.
District 9 was a wretched, festering wound on the beautiful face of the celestial city. The air here smelled of sulfur, rotting garbage, and cheap, synthetic potions. The pristine white marble of the upper tiers was replaced by crumbling gray stone and rusted iron shanties. Crooked neon signs flickered violently in the perpetual gloom, advertising illegal gambling dens and black market auction houses.
At the very center of this sprawling nightmare stood the Serpent Guild headquarters. It was a massive, fortified compound surrounded by fifty foot high walls made of magically reinforced obsidian. Heavy arcane ballistae were mounted on the ramparts, glowing with volatile crimson energy.
Master Verde stood at the end of the main thoroughfare leading to the fortress gates. He did not attempt to hide his presence. He simply began walking forward.
His footsteps echoed like thunderclaps in the silent, tense air of the slums. The local scavengers, thieves, and beggars took one look at the towering figure radiating absolute emerald death and immediately fled into the alleyways, screaming in sheer terror.
By the time Master Verde reached the heavy iron gates of the compound, the perimeter guards had already sounded the alarm. Blaring horns echoed across the district. Over a hundred heavily armed enforcers poured out onto the ramparts, aiming their crossbows and magical staffs directly at him.
"Halt right there!" screamed the captain of the guard, a hulking orc with a face covered in jagged tattoos. "You are trespassing on sovereign guild territory! Identify yourself or we will turn you into ash!"
Master Verde did not stop walking. He did not even look up at the guards. He simply raised his right hand and snapped his fingers.
[ Skill Activated: Spatial Severance. ]
A massive, invisible blade of pure spatial energy sliced horizontally through the air. The fifty foot high obsidian wall, the heavy iron gates, and the hundred enforcers standing on the ramparts were cleanly cut completely in half.
The upper half of the massive wall slid backward with a deafening groan before crashing down into the courtyard below, crushing dozens of tents and supply crates. Screams of agony and terror erupted from the survivors as they scrambled away from the sheer destruction.
Master Verde stepped gracefully over the massive pile of rubble and entered the courtyard.
The entire guild was now in a state of complete panic. Hundreds of thugs, assassins, and dark alchemists flooded out of the main keep. They were led by the Guild Master himself, a tall, gaunt elf wearing robes woven from human skin. He carried a staff topped with a glowing, corrupted green gemstone.
"Kill him!" the Guild Master shrieked, "Tear him to pieces!"
Over three hundred spells and projectiles launched into the air simultaneously. Fireballs, jagged ice lances, and bolts of corrupt shadow magic rained down upon Master Verde in a concentrated, deadly barrage.
Master Verde did not flinch. He did not dodge. He simply expanded his personal aura.
[ System Defense: Absolute Emerald Aegis. ]
Instantly. The hundreds of lethal spells slammed against the barrier and instantly dissolved into harmless static. The sheer kinetic backlash of the deflected magic sent dozens of guild members flying backward across the courtyard.
"Is this the extent of your power? You crawl through the shadows like vermin, breaking what you cannot build. You dared to touch something that belongs to me."
The Guild Master fell to his knees, clutching his bleeding ears as the divine voice threatened to shatter his very skull. "Who are you?! What do you want from us?!"
"I want absolute erasure," Master Verde replied coldly.
He slowly raised both of his hands toward the dark, polluted sky of the slums. The ambient mana in the entire district suddenly went completely dead. Every magical torch, every enchanted weapon, and every protective ward within a three mile radius instantly deactivated. The system itself was bending entirely to his will.
The sky above District 9 twisted violently, shifting from a bruised purple to a blinding, incandescent emerald green. The clouds parted as a massive, intricate runic array formed in the heavens above the fortress, spanning over a mile in diameter.
[ Ultimate Skill Activated: Absolute Spatial Compression. ]
The gravity inside the guild compound suddenly increased tenfold.
The thugs and enforcers were instantly slammed face first into the dirt, their bones cracking loudly under the terrifying pressure. The Guild Master desperately tried to cast a teleportation spell, but the space around the compound had been completely locked. They were trapped inside a cage of pure, inescapable magic.
"Please!" the Guild Master begged, spitting blood onto the cracked pavement. "We will pay you! We will give you everything in our vaults!"
"Your gold is worthless to me. Your existence is an insult to my territory."
Master Verde closed his hands into tight fists.
The massive runic array in the sky flashed brilliantly. The very fabric of reality around the fortress began to fold inward. The high obsidian walls, the towering central keep, the underground potion laboratories, and every single living soul trapped inside the perimeter were abruptly crushed together by an unstoppable, invisible vice.
The screams of the guild members were instantly silenced as the space collapsed entirely.
The massive compound, which had spanned over three acres of land, shrank rapidly. It folded again and again, condensing millions of tons of stone, metal, and corrupted mana into a smaller and smaller point of intense light.
With one final, thunderous implosion that shook the very foundations of the celestial city, the entire fortress vanished completely.
In its place hovered a perfectly smooth, solid marble the size of a golf ball. It was pitch black, swirling with a galaxy of trapped, condensed energy.
Master Verde reached out and caught the heavy marble as it fell from the sky. He dropped it casually into his spatial inventory.
He looked around. Where the Serpent Guild headquarters had stood for centuries, there was now only a massive, perfectly smooth crater of empty dirt.
The surrounding buildings of the slums were completely untouched, proving the absolute, terrifying precision of his spatial control.
Master Verde raised his hand one final time. A towering obelisk of green crystal erupted from the center of the crater. It cast a warm, purifying light over the dark slums.
Master Verde turned his back on the crater and activated his displacement skill once more, vanishing from the slums as quickly as he had arrived.
When Raidan reappeared in the commercial district, he immediately dropped his persona. The heavy trench coat and featureless mask melted away, leaving him standing in his simple indigo tunic once more. The overwhelming pressure vanished, replaced by the cool, gentle night breeze.
He walked the final few steps toward Naida’s apothecary.
The scene outside the shop was entirely different now.
A dozen heavily armored soldiers from the Detroit camp stood in a perfect defensive perimeter on the street, their advanced plasma rifles held at the ready.
They saluted sharply as Raidan approached, their eyes filled with absolute, fanatical devotion.
Inside the shop, a miracle was taking place.
Chloe and Sarah were utilizing high tier mending magic and system restoration skills. The shattered glass on the floor was literally reversing its own destruction, flying backward through the air and reforming perfectly into pristine display shelves.
Aaron was carefully repairing the massive brass cauldron, using his plasma heat to seamlessly weld the dents away. Leo was organizing fresh, incredibly rare herbs from his own high level inventory, placing them carefully onto the newly restored counters.
Naida stood near the center of the room, her hands clasped over her heart, watching the impossible restoration with wide, wondrous eyes.
Raidan stepped through the doorway.
Naida turned around and ran directly into his arms, burying her face into his chest. She squeezed him tightly, silently checking him for any injuries. Finding none, she let out a massive sigh of relief.
"It is done. The Serpent Guild will never bother anyone in this city ever again. Their fortress is gone, and their territory is ours."
Naida looked up at him, her eyes shining with absolute love and gratitude.
"You are truly terrifying sometimes, Raidan. But you are my terrifying champion."
Raidan smiled softly, holding her close as his loyal subordinates finished restoring the apothecary to a state far more beautiful than it had been before.
The night had started in disaster, but it was ending in absolute victory.