It couldn’t be said that the chaos was truly over.
Even after the last of the monsters fell, their bodies littering the streets and staining the city in dark streaks of blood, the barrier surrounding Brightgate remained intact.
To Michael, that alone ant the threat had not been completely removed.
"There are probably still so demonic supernaturals in the city."
From his perspective, the reason the barrier was still up was because remnants of the demonic faction were likely maintaining it from sowhere within. He imdiately commanded his now idle undead to start searching the city for traces of demonic cultivators.
With two hundred Rank 3 undead it likely would not take long. The mont the barrier ca down, Michael would go and retrieve his family.
Even now he could still sense the location of his undead and the storage ring bound to him.
His undead spread out even further, no longer just eliminating visible threats but sweeping through the city with their senses extended, which at tis made the people they passed shiver in a mix of fear and awe.
Michael joined in as well, his senses stretched to their limit as he scanned for anything abnormal. Compared to his previous ceiling of ten thousand tres, he could now reach as far as fifty thousand. The load of information flooding his mind was enormous, but thanks to his high intelligence, which directly boosted his thinking capacity, it did not bother him.
The search on his end did not last long.
One of his undead had just entered a partially collapsed district when it was suddenly stopped by a cultivator from the Supers Association. The man stood in the middle of the street, his aura still unstable from the recent battle. Both sides stopped. The undead did not move and the cultivator did not attack, but the tension between them rose instantly.
Reading the ssage relayed to him, Michael teleported in that direction without hesitation.
Mike’s ti in Brightgate City, serving as one of the higher-ranking figures within the Supers Association branch, had been relatively uneventful.
And truthfully, he preferred it that way.
Compared to others who chased danger, conflict, and breakthroughs through life-and-death battles, Mike had always leaned toward stability. A life where things could be controlled, where disasters were rare and peace was maintained.
Perhaps it was as they say. As one grows older, the realities of life wear down the burning fire they had in their youth. Perhaps it was exactly this mindset that had caused his progress to stagnate. Even after years, he remained at the peak of Rank 2.
There had been monts when he tried to justify it. At tis he blad the environnt, being stationed in a cultivation academy instead of an awakeners’ academy, being surrounded by people who followed a different path, a different system, a different pace.
But deep down he knew that was not the truth.
If anything, that environnt had benefited him. Within the cultivation academy, he stood out. An awakener among cultivators. His position, his authority, even his reputation were things he would not have had if he had been placed in an awakeners’ academy instead. He knew his limits. Not that he was worse than other awakeners, he was certainly not below average, but Mike understood this clearly.
Which was why he never truly resented his situation.
With his connections, Mike had been able to secure a stable position working for the Federation within Brightgate. The pay was good, the responsibilities were manageable, and while the city was not considered high-tier, among mid-tier cities it was decent enough to build a comfortable life.
At least, that had been the case until about a month ago, when everything began to change.
Traces of both the Federation and the demonic faction started appearing more frequently within the city. The workload that had once been steady quickly grew overwhelming.
And Mike knew exactly why.
Michael Norman.
A certain talented awakener.
After looking into the youth more carefully, Mike could not help feeling a trace of unease. The kind of growth that boy displayed was not normal. Soone like that would not remain below him for long. If anything, it was only a matter of ti before their positions reversed entirely. He had probably never been truly below him from the start either.
And that was where the unease lay.
A few months ago, Mike had personally introduced Michael to what he privately called the tax-paying society, a system where logic did not always matter but money certainly did. It had been routine for him at the ti. Just another task, another na on a list.
But now, thinking back on it, he felt a faint headache forming. For soone who would likely surpass him in the future, that was not exactly the kind of first impression he wanted to leave behind.
He had even considered approaching the family, building a better relationship under the reasonable guise of appreciating their talented mber.
Unfortunately, before he could take even a first step in that direction, the demonic faction struck and everything spiraled out of control.
Fortunately, so mysterious individuals appeared just in ti to support the city’s defenses. What should have turned into a complete disaster instead beca sothing unexpectedly manageable. The destruction was still severe and lives were lost, but it was far from the total collapse he had feared.
However, for Mike, that fortunate developnt only deepened his unease. When hundreds of unknown figures suddenly appeared within a sealed city and displayed strength far beyond his own, fear naturally followed. As one of the leaders within the Supers Association branch, he had no choice but to investigate. No matter how dangerous it seed, understanding their purpose was now part of his responsibility.
That investigation had led to the current situation, where he stood face to face with sothing he could not easily explain.
The first thing Mike noticed about the figure standing before him was not her appearance but the feeling she gave off.
She looked human. There was nothing outwardly wrong. Her features were normal. But the longer he stood there, the more that faint sense of wrongness grew. Her skin carried a pale tone that sohow looked both healthy and unwell at the sa ti.
And then there were her eyes.
Green.
Mike kept his expression calm even as his guard rose internally. "Who are you?"
No response. She only looked at him.
He frowned slightly and continued, his tone asured. "Are you part of the group that entered the city? Federation support? Another branch? I would appreciate it if you could clear up my confusion."
What he got in return was still silence.
Mike asked more questions, one after another. Each ti the result was the sa. No reply.
His unease deepened considerably. Just as he was about to pull back and reconsider his approach, the space beside the woman distorted. A tear opened silently and soone stepped through it.
The mont Mike saw him, his expression changed.
Everything suddenly made sense. The sa pale tone. The sa strange quality of looking both healthy and wrong at the sa ti. The sa glowing green eyes. They were identical in nature. But unlike the woman, this one carried a presence Mike imdiately recognized.
His throat felt slightly dry. "Michael Norman."
Michael paused slightly when he saw the man in front of him. "Mr. Mike."
There was a trace of surprise in his voice. Out of all the people he expected to et in this situation, Mike was not one of them. Still, their past interaction had left enough of an impression for Michael to recognize him imdiately.
Mike hesitated. Then he asked the question that had been forming since he first noticed the woman. "Who is she to you?"
Michael glanced at the woman beside him, then answered calmly. "She’s my undead."
The words landed like quiet thunder.
Mike’s pupils shrank. For a mont his mind went completely blank. His gaze shifted back to the woman, then to Michael, then back again.
Everything clicked into place after seeing Michael properly. He had caught glimpses of similar figures moving through the city during the chaos, and now the connection was obvious.
At the sa ti a thought surfaced that he could not suppress. Why did they look like this?
He had seen necromancers before. Their undead were grotesque. Rotting flesh, exposed bone, twisted forms that clearly no longer belonged among the living. But these looked human. Too human. If Michael had not said it himself, Mike would never have guessed.
The mystery only deepened, but Mike did not voice any of it. So questions were better left unasked.
But if what Michael said was true, with his current power, was he not already equivalent to a formidable supernatural organisation on his own? At the sa ti, Michael’s use of spatial movent had also revealed his Rank 3 status to Mike clearly enough.
Mike felt a chill run down his spine.
He took a slow breath and lowered his head slightly. "...Thank you."
No matter what Michael was, no matter how strange his power had beco, one thing was undeniable.
Without him, Brightgate would not have survived this.
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