"Kneel."
Lilim's body betrayed her. Her knees hit the concrete floor with a bone-jarring thud. Her hands trembled as she released the blade, her head forced down by an invisible weight. She gasped, clutching her chest as if her heart was being squeezed.
"How..." Lilim choked out, staring at the floor. "How… are you doing… this?"
Rudy leaned forward, resting his chin on his palm. He looked past the kneeling demon to the terrified Maria.
"I know a lot of things, Princess," Rudy said. "I know your father's safe codes. I know the shipnt of Mana stones arriving at the docks tonight is rigged to explode. And I know the true na of the pet demon you keep on a leash."
He picked up the glass of wine Maria had been drinking, swirled it, and took a sip.
"Now," Rudy said, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "The Scarred guy over there annoyed . Lilim, kill him and his n. Then we talk business."
Lilim didn't look at Maria for permission, or rather, she couldn't. The hierarchy had been rewritten in a split second.
"As you wish," the demon hissed.
She vanished into the shadows.
Screams erupted from the other side of the room as limbs were severed from bodies in a spray of crimson.
Rudy watched the slaughter with a bored expression, then winked at a pale, trembling Maria.
"So, about that sixty percent cut... I think we can negotiate a better deal. Don't you?"
The silence in the VIP room was absolute, broken only by the wet thud of the last body hitting the floor.
Lilim flicked her wrist, shaking the blood off her shadow claws before they dissipated into smoke. She remained kneeling, her head bowed toward Rudy, though her crimson eyes darted to Maria, seeking a cue that never ca.
Maria sat frozen. Her wine glass trembled in her hand. In less than two minutes, the balance of power in the room had shifted violently. The "Scarred Man"—a rival syndicate lieutenant known for skinning his enemies alive—was now a pile of at in the corner.
"You..." Maria swallowed hard, finding her voice. "You killed a lieutenant of the Iron Blood Clan. Do you have any idea what you've just started?"
"I finished it," Rudy corrected. He finished the wine and set the glass down. "They were going to kill you tonight anyway. I just expedited the paperwork."
He looked at Lilim. "You can stand up now. But don't try to stab again. It's rude, you know?"
Lilim rose slowly, her movents stiff. The absolute command of the Overlord still echoed in her soul, binding her. She looked at Rudy with a mix of terror and awe. Demons respected power above all else, and this human... he reeked of it.
"Who are you?" Lilim asked, her voice raspy. "You speak the Abyssal Tongue. You are not a human."
"I'm the Lord," Rudy said, standing up. He walked over to Maria and placed a hand on the back of her chair. She flinched. "And right now, your boss has a problem. Killing these guys was the easy part. But the Iron Blood Clan isn't going to let this slide. They'll challenge you for control of the Sector."
Maria looked up at him. "They already have. The 'Apex Tournant' is tonight. My champion was... indisposed. I was going to forfeit the Eastern District to buy ti."
"Indisposed?" Rudy raised a brow. " let guess. Poisoned? Bribed?"
"Dead," Maria said flatly. "They sent his head in a box this morning."
Rudy smirked. "Classic."
He walked toward the exit, stepping casually over a severed arm.
"Where are you going?" Maria stood up, panic rising again. "You can't just leave! You caused this ss!"
"I'm not leaving," Rudy called back over his shoulder. "I'm driving. We're going to the Tournant."
"What? Why?"
Rudy paused at the door and looked back, his eyes glowing faintly in the dim light.
"Because I'm your new Champion. And I hate long etings. It's faster if I just kill everyone who wants your job in one go."
The "Apex Tournant" wasn't held in a stadium. It was held in the hollowed-out carcass of a subway station, buried deep beneath the city's ruins. The tracks had been ripped out, replaced by a massive, blood-stained sandpit surrounded by reinforced magic barriers.
Hundreds of the underworld's elite such as Awakened warlords, drug kingpins, and black market dealers—watched from the upper platforms. Below, in the Pit, monsters roared.
Maria walked into her private box, her face a mask of cold indifference. Inside, her heart was hamring against her ribs. She was betting everything—her life, her empire, her father's legacy—on a man she had t twenty minutes ago.
Lilim stood silently behind her, her gaze fixed on Rudy, who was currently down in the preparation area.
"Do you trust him?" Maria whispered.
"I have no choice," Lilim replied quietly. "His command binds . But… I have never felt a soul like his. It is not human. It is... vast."
Down in the Pit, the announcer—a man with a gaphone amplifed by sound magic—stepped into the spotlight.
"LADIES AND GENTLEN! SCUM AND VILLAINY! WELCO TO THE MAIN EVENT!"
The crowd roared, shaking dust from the cracked ceiling.
"Tonight, the Iron Blood Clan challenges the Obsidian Ross Syndicate for total control of the Eastern Sector! The Iron Bloods have brought their champion... THE BUTCHER OF BRONX!"
A massive gate ground opened. Out walked a giant. He was seven feet tall, clad in armor made from the exoskeletons of Dungeon Bosses. He dragged a hamr that looked like it weighed a ton. He was an A-Rank Tank, famous for crushing skulls like grapes.
"And representing the Obsidian Ross Syndicate..." The announcer paused, looking at his notes with confusion. "Uhh... so guy nad Rudy?"
Silence rippled through the crowd. Then, laughter.
Rudy walked out of the tunnel. He wasn't wearing a shiny armor or holding a fancy weapon. He was wearing the sa casual shirt and jeans, hands stuffed in his pockets, looking like he had taken a wrong turn on the way to a convenience store.
"Is this a joke?" The Butcher bood, his voice amplified by his helt. "Maria sends a civilian to die?"
Rudy stopped in the center of the ring. He looked up at the private box where Maria sat, then scanned the jeering crowd.
"Hey!" Rudy shouted, his voice cutting through the noise without a microphone. "I have a flight to catch, so let's change the rules."
He turned to the Iron Blood Clan's VIP box. The Clan Leader, a fat man smoking a cigar, looked down with amusent.
"Send them all," Rudy said.
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