Reborn- Apocalypse 2

by L. M. Kerr

Shin also had no confidence he could kill Number 6, and Number 10 was a woman and well… Number 9 was the best choice, regardless.

  Shin felt as if he was about to throw up as he saw the blood and brain matter spatter out from the now headless Number 9. Throughout all of his time in the First Layer, this was the first time he had ever killed someone in cold blood. Even more so, he was killing someone that was lauded as a hero.

  He'd been attacked before, but with his versatile teleportation powers, it was very easy to retreat. He had never gone out of his way to kill someone intentionally.

  He jumped backwards in the air and beat a fast retreat after he fired the bullet. As he leapt, he noticed an oddity.

  He hadn't received a Points notification.

  In mid-air, he rapidly aimed his Soul Pistol again. His training kicked in, letting him rapidly adjust and prepare to launch a successive attack.

  Number 6 and Number 10 were completely shocked by the surprise attack. It had arrived almost instantaneously, leaving neither of them time to react. By the time they began to act, Number 9's head was already blown to bits.

  Number 9 had a Defensive Artifact, but it was one focused on dealing with long-range attacks, similar to Sophia's. Using multiple Defensive Artifacts at once was extremely burdensome for the mind and Soul, leading almost everyone to typically only use one.

  Number 9's Golden Wolves twitched as their owner's body fell to the floor. One by one, they slowly tumbled over, their bodies shriveling up as they died.

  Golden energy sparkled around their corpses as they collapsed, moving through the air and flowing over towards Number 9's mangled body. His corpse rapidly began to reconstruct itself, blood and flesh merging together as the Supreme A Ranker began to regenerate.

  'Expand! Expand!'

  Shin shot Number 9's body twice more, just to be safe.

  The powerful warrior corpse exploded once more, bones blasted to paste as two essentially-cannon balls slammed into it. The golden energy that had just started reforming the man's body was scattered to dust. The man's Defensive Artifact never activated, his ruined body leaving him in a state where he could do naught.

  He might be a powerful Supreme A Ranker, with a slew of unique Abilities and a tough body, but even he wasn't immune to a complete surprise attack. Life in the 7 Layers was never fair. A powerful and renowned warrior could die in a fraction of a second.

  A split second later, a notification appeared.

  .

  —- Points Obtained —-

  Points: 38,261

  .

  Just like that, Number 9 was dead.

  "What have you done…" Number 10's body shook as she struck out at Shin, her voice wavering with fury.

  Dozens of green vines burst from her arms and shot out into the air, cutting through the air towards Shin. Each one was covered in a cocoon of green energy, shimmering as they blasted across the roof. They were roughly half as thick as her palm, moving in an almost life-like pattern.

  Number 6 stayed still, watching both Shin and Sophia dispassionately, as if Number 9's death hadn't affected him in the slightest.

  Sophia was still recovering from her wounds and shock, unable to help Shin.

  The vines rushed at Shin, digging towards his head. His relative nearness meant escaping out of range of Number 10's attack was impossible.

  Fortunately for Shin, by the time the vines reached him, his Warping Phaser Ability had recharged.

  A series of thuds rang out as a dozen vines slammed into the ground, piercing through the air right where Shin had been standing in, just moments prior.

  Shin reappeared standing behind Sophia, his chest heaving as he breathed in and out. His body was shaking as he kept his eyes on the two other Numbers, shivering from head to toe.

  "A teleporter, huh?" Number 6's words were a quiet whisper to himself, heard by no one else. A flash of interest appeared in his eyes as he studied Shin.

  "You monsters!" Number 10's voice transformed into a shriek as a heavy green aura swallowed her body. Her skin took on a green tint as her Limited Forest Fairy Ability activated. This power gave her, among other things, the ability to create and manipulate versatile vines that were both tough and tensile. She also possessed the expensive Earth Strength Ability, one that allowed her to infuse natural energy into her body, and by extension, her vines, granting them steady strength.

  "You all… you kill, and you kill, and you kill. What have we ever done to you?!" As Number 10's eyes glowed with green light, she turned her rage towards Sophia.

  Sophia's eye flashed back as she immediately activated her Fairy Eyes Ability.

  Number 10 grunted, her body shivering as she came to an abrupt halt. She had become locked in a mental battle with Sophia, unable to take even a single step forward. While her stats, including her Soul stat, were far higher than Sophia's, she did not possess an Artifact geared towards blocking mental attacks like Number 6.

  "What have you done to us? You tried to murder both me and General Pedro as soon as you all arrived!" Sophia barked out loud, her voice carrying as she tried to distract Number 10 and gain full control over her mind. She also couldn't help but be annoyed at Number 10's hypocrisy. They attacked her and the General first, after all.

  Sophia split her attention between focusing on Number 10 and on Number 6. The man was waiting quietly, his spear in his hand as he looked at Shin with interest. For now, he seemed disinclined to take action.

  "Kill you two? Hah!" Number 10 spat out a trembling response,

  "Fool, do you think that man would still be alive if the Spear Tiger had wanted him dead? And you!" Her voice sputtered with rage as she continued,

  "Do you think you would hold your life if he went all out?!" Her rebuttal was full of venom.

  Sophia hesitated slightly but kept up her guard. It was true that, while she was injured, she wasn't fatally wounded. She didn't take her eyes off Number 10, but could vaguely tell that General Pedro was still alive. Still, that didn't really change anything. Number 10's original claims were irrational and appeared to be referencing some other, past incident that Sophia was unaware of.

  As Shin heard all of this, his worst fears fluttered in his heart for a split second.

  'Are we the bad guys? Did I just kill an innocent person?' The thought was nonsensical but nevertheless tinged with horror and very real. It only affected him for a split second before he was able to push it off, recognizing that they had been seriously attacked and were acting in self-defense.

  But in that second, Shin hesitated, and unlike Sophia, he became distracted.

  That second cost him dearly.

  Throughout the past few moments, Number 6 had remained perfectly calm, watching everything. He had remained motionless, keeping his movements and breathing still as Sophia and Number 10 exchanged words.

  In the minute moment that Shin's concentration lapsed, Number 6 struck.

  A small glass doorway formed in the air right in front of his cross spear. With an almost lazy movement, the metal head of his weapon cut through the air, bursting through the doorway, and out of one that had appeared right behind Shin's back.

  Shin didn't notice this. Number 10 didn't notice this.

  Only Sophia, who had enhanced vision and a constant guard, saw the attack coming.

  'No!' By the time she realized, she knew it was too late to block the blow. She tried, nonetheless, her hands twitching as she activated one of her Abilities.

  'Wind Sweeper! Go!' A burst of wind exploded into the air, sweeping over and slamming into Shin's frozen form.

  As she forcibly activated her Wind Sweeper Ability, her mental focus broke. A backlash slammed into her mind as Number 10 broke free from her Fairy Eyes, causing Sophia to fall to her knees.

  "Arrgh!" Shin screamed out loud, his body tumbling several meters to the side. A faint clash of energy shook the air as he fell down, crashing onto his knees.

  Right after that, a quiet thud echoed out loud, accompanied by a spatt
ering sound. Sophia's eyes widened when she saw where the noises came from.

  Lying on the floor, right where Shin had just been standing, was a tanned, bleeding appendage.

  Shin's left arm.

  'No!'

  The surprise attack from Number 6 had been aimed at Shin's heart. Sophia's instant reaction managed to divert the final attack, but only enough to prevent a fatal wound.

  Shin collapsed to the ground, shock overwhelming him as he clutched at the stub of his left arm. His Soul Pistol fell from his grip, sliding down to the floor as his body yelled out loud in searing pain. Faint sparkles of grey energy could be seen, agonizingly cindering in the wound. This was the most serious injury he had ever experienced, one that stunned him to his core.

  "Shin, get away and heal yourself now!" Sophia's urgent yell went unheeded as Shin moaned, clearly in shock.

  "That wasn't half bad. I meant to kill him there, as an equal exchange for killing Little Wolfy." Number 6's voice echoed out as he pulled back his spear, the glass doorways vanishing.

  "It's good that he has survived, you disgusting, vile vermin." Number 10 had recovered from Sophia's Fairy Eyes and regained her furious arrogance as she began to walk forward, her fury barely contained. Dozens of green vines began to grow from her body as she stalked forward, right towards Sophia.

  "We only need one of you." Her voice was fueled with hatred. Despite Shin being the one to kill Number 9, it seemed as if she was personally blaming Sophia for something even worse.

  'No… no… no!' Sophia looked up at the advancing warrior, her heart trembling as she realized how outmatched she was. Her body was still leaking blood, the dozens of injuries on it weakening her. Her mind was clouded with pain and emotion, unable to form a coherent strategy.

  'My little sister… no…' As she realized she might die right here, her heart plunged,

  'Micheal… please help me! PLEASE!' For the first time in her life, she begged for help, tears dripping down her face.

  Number 10 walked up to Sophia. A half dozen vines shot forward and curled around Sophia's arms and legs, lifting her up into the air. Her sword fell from her hand as the green energy on the vines caused her to grow numb and listless.

  "I will rip you apart for what your boyfriend did to my precious boy." Number 10's voice fell to a ragged whisper as she reached up, her hand caressing Sophia's face.

  As Number 6 saw this, he frowned slightly. His hand twitched as if he was about to take action.

  '…please…' One last, despairing thought flooded through Sophia's mind.

  Suddenly, everyone on the rooftop froze.

  A sweeping, powerful aura burst into existence, one of raw fury and anger as a man's voice echoed out loud,

  "What exactly do you think you're doing?!"

  .

  Chapter 47

  Micheal's hand rested on his sword's hilt as he looked at the scene before him, his eyes imperious. The air around him shivered as he took a single step forward. The energy in his veins from his Earth Tier Ki Cultivation ran rampant, his power consolidating. Intermediate Tier Sword Energy began to coat his blade, sharpening it.

  Abruptly, his blade struck forward at an incredibly fast speed. It was a jarringly fast upward slash that caused the air to ripple. The attack was merely a blur, even in his eyes, due to its extremely fast speed.

  "Not bad." Micheal smiled as he gauged the power of the attack.

  Sitting in front of him was a small, metal chair. A visible gash was present on the chair, spanning its front side. While he hadn't managed to cut through it, he had left a sizable mark on it. Previously, he'd only been able to seriously damage the furniture of the First Layer using Advanced Tier Sword Energy. His breakthrough had seriously boosted his raw physical power.

  He was currently standing in a private room situated very close to the headquarters of the Godfather Organization. A large bed, a dresser, a few windows, and an attached bathroom spread out around him.

  'Something is definitely up.' His thoughts turned back towards why he was here in the first place, a small frown appearing on his face.

  There was no reason for Head Cameron to not have spread out the Golden Morenkai hunting method and the Dragon Building Liquid methods. The man was a very well-known altruist, it was very unlike him to act so slowly. Spreading this information as quickly as possible would serve as a huge boon to humanity as a whole and doubtlessly save many lives.

  With that thought in mind, he'd decided to rush here as quickly as possible. Tomorrow, he would drop by and visit the Godfather Organization Headquarters. Boss Shigun's report about him should prove more than enough for him to get his foot in the door. He would handle everything that cropped up after, moment to moment.

  He yawned, glancing out the window. The evening sky had fully faded to night. His body was exhausted from both the rapid travel and the Ki Tier breakthrough. It was time to rest.

  He put his stuff up and prepared to bed. In no time at all, he was resting comfortably, tucked under the sheets.

  'They should be making solid progress. They might already be done.' As he was drifting off to rest, Micheal's thoughts turned drowsy.

  Shin and Sophia should have at least made contact with General Pedro by this point. With the medicine he gave her, it should be quite easy to win over the General. He couldn't foresee any possible issues cropping up. He had waited a month and a half to see Shin again, he could wait one or two more days.

  Micheal's reasoning was mostly correct. He had left behind very few trails. The ones most damning would take weeks to fully trace and track down. By that point, they would already be fully prepared.

  Unfortunately, even with his years of experience, some things simply could not be accounted for.

  Director Prime was a freakish, obsessive genius, similar to the Vile King in some ways.

  Sophia had travelled with him on the Great Bridge, but made practically no impact. Any report on his travels there would only contain her as a sidenote. Even then, there would be so little information to work with, it was practically an impossibility to do anything despite knowing she existed.

  Indeed, as Prime found, it was impossible to find her, or him, at first.

  The only thing he had was a hunch, after reading over thousands of reports using his time-stopping powers.

  One thing led to another, and Prime developed a plan to scan the territory of the Godfather Organization, purely based off that hunch.

  The complete lack of knowledge and trails that Prime found had also led him to form one conclusion.

  'Heron' knew Prime was looking for him, and had known Prime would come looking for him well beforehand. As a result of that, 'Heron' had made countermeasures against the Director.

  Once he recognized that fact, the Director planned, and planned, and planned some more.

  And that was how he ended up with his plan to search for 'Emissary Crane.' He believed that Heron would somehow find a way to throw off his efforts once more. But his comrade, Crane? That was an untested field.

  In the end, Prime had been incredibly dissatisfied with the setup. The plan wasn't perfect, nor was there a guaranteed chance of success. It relied a good deal upon luck. But it was the best he could come up with. A vaunted genius who could stop time to think things over a thousand times, reduced to gambling with fate.

  But as things would have it… life in the 7 Layers was never fair. The single, minor clue Micheal left behind, one he'd donned a new identity and battle style for, hidden away amid thousands of reports…

  His actions that couldn't even really be called a mistake started a chain that ended in an unfortunate roll of fate.

  Regardless, Micheal slipped into the embrace of night, his consciousness slipping into blissfully unaware sleep.

  .. .. .. .. .. ..

  The powerful aura wasn't from Micheal.

  Instead, it originated from General Pedro.

  The man had woken up, his eyes blazing with delirium as he tried to get to his
feet. Blood seeped out of his chest from the injury he'd sustained, but the man stood all the same, refusing to back down. His outraged yell arose from when he saw the savior of his wife and daughter being brutally attacked.

  After a few seconds, however, his injuries overwhelmed him once more. Number 6's surprise strike had been brutally accurate, injuring him just enough to keep him useless. His powerful yell had exhausted his consciousness and he collapsed back down to the rooftop, his aura vanishing as he hit the ground with a thud.

  The small bud of hope that had formed in Sophia's heart died.

  "Oho? Did you think that was your boyfriend, sweetie? I'll admit that surprised me." Number 10 turned her focus back to Sophia. She had been startled by General Pedro's abrupt revival, going so far as to prepare for a second attack.

  Shin was still kneeling on the ground, clutching at his arm. He was just now starting to get over his horror, coming back to his senses. The injury was horrifying in scope and the first time he had ever been seriously injured. Going into total shock as a result was only natural.

  The energy on Number 6's spear had scattered and helped seal the injury off, acting like a burn. Blood was starting to stop flowing from it, thankfully before Shin fainted from blood loss.

  'No…' As that last bud of hope died, Sophia looked back at Number 10.

  "You hate this, don't you? I can see it in your eyes." Number 10's face wasn't visible, yet Sophia could practically hear the sneer she wore. She was even giving Sophia the classic villain's speech, as if the woman had walked out of a fairy tale. Number 10's body shivered as she reached out again, this time clutching onto Sophia's throat.

  "You will die for what your boyfriend did to my little man." Her voice was a quiet whisper.

  Slowly, her hand began to close in on Sophia's throat, choking her.

  'I must save my sister! I cannot die here!' Sophia struggled against Number 10, but was unable to free her hands or loosen the woman's grip. She tried to activate her Fairy Eyes but failed, her mental state broken.

  'Micheal! Micheal, please! Micheal help!' Her scream was silent, heard only in her head as she begged for help. This was the part where the hero should come to the rescue, if this really was a fairy tale.