Huntrax still rembered that beam. That prismatic light that could pierce through even the toughest material in the world.
As a Heavenly Knight from the Way of the Shooter, he imdiately understood the potentials of the Unity Gun.
Just its speed alone was sothing interesting in and of itself. Not to ntion its strange power that could pierce through even the most 'indestructible' materials.
Huntrax could see a good future in Michael with the Order.
Michael was about to say sothing, when Huntrax raised his hand.
"You don't have to say anything now. I'll wait for your answer once we survive this."
Then after leaving those words, Huntrax opened the door and disappeared.
This left Michael all alone to ponder about the man's invitation. Was he really just offered to beco the personal student of a Heavenly Knight?
He saw how hard the swordsn fought to be in the Exhibition Tournant. Yet, Huntrax was just going to give him that invitation?
Explosions and Aubility Power reverberations echoed out from the surface. Huntrax was now probably sowing chaos around the fortress.
He couldn't even bring out his Mini Drones to watch the spectacle. They would surely get caught in the crossfire.
There were four Nascent Spirit cultivators spewing their Nascent Influences at Huntrax, regardless of anyone who ca their way.
The Ersatz soldiers, the grunts, would beco fodder to the fight. They would act as more bodies just to serve as a distraction for Huntrax.
It wouldn't work. A Heavenly Knight like him could kill these Ersatz zombies without even looking at them. At most, he'd have to spend a few seconds thinking about them.
That's what hundreds of lives would amount to. That's what they traded their humanity for. Just those few seconds.
Those were the very sa Ersatz soldiers who had been bantering, those sa ones that Fudge had given beer to. They would die, surely.
Michael just hoped that they were able to experience just a little bit of humanity before they died. Made them rember what they were before they turned their heart into sothing even more unnatural than tal.
Just then, he heard sothing.
"Oh… I never expected to see you here."
Leaning on the door was a man with a haggard-looking face. Bags under his eyes. Gaunt. Sickly.
It was none other than the Patriarch of the Tri-star company.
"Michael, Michael, Michael," the Patriarch said, almost laughing as he repeated his na.
Michael's body tensed. His hands secretly massaged the Unity Saber in his pants. He commanded his Mini Drones to converge to his location at once.
"Michael Vanderbilt," the Patriarch muttered disappointedly. "Who would have thought that the youngest son of the Lion would be a man such as you?"
This surprised Michael. Not a lot of people knew his true identity. How did he find out?
"If you had just shown your true lineage, then I wouldn't have fought you. I would have even supported you. Yet now my hard work has been destroyed. The carcass, being eaten by vultures I once called my friends."
Michael eyed the Patriarch. "How did you know?"
He was ignored.
"You know, the Ersatz may be one strange cult. But they are obscenely rich. And with that money, I was able to hire my own investigation squad.
You covered your tracks well. They had to go all the way to the Kings region just to find out about your real na."
The Patriarch started to laugh. "Imagine my surprise when I found out. I thought I was going to find out your secret. Your weak spot. But instead, I found your most guarded shield. HAHAHAHA! The irony. If I were to tell everyone about your true na, then you would just gather more supporters under your banner!"
There was a sense of craziness in the Patriarch's eyes. One of bloodlust.
"You know I had to pay with my own humanity to learn that secret? And I can't even use it against you!"
Michael noticed it only now. Inside the Patriarch's heart was a black, glassy, iceberg-like object.
He had an Artifice! He had truly beco one of them!
Aubility Power started to gather around the Patriarch's body. It started to coalesce into sothing solid, sothing durable. An armor.
His armor was one that looked like a bear's pelt. Brown fur covered his shoulders. A large wolf hung over his head, in a permanent snarl.
The other parts of his Nascent Armor consisted of more animal hides, all coming from the Beasts and animals that he had used to create his empire in the Upper Echelons.
"You are going to die," he said.
Then, he raised his arms, a wolf's claws over his own hand, and swiped at Michael.
The attack ca too fast. Too fast for Michael to react.
But he didn't even posture to defend himself. He knew he wouldn't be able to dodge. So instead, he looked for the offensive.
The claw crashed onto his body.
But before it touched his body, a green boundary suddenly manifested out of nowhere, blocking the attack completely.
It was the talisman!
The Patriarch's eyes widened as he saw his full-force attack do nothing to Michael. He was baffled. And in his shock, he didn't notice Michael pulling a gun on him.
A real gun. Not one using his fingers.
It was the [Breathtaking Magnum Revolver], one that was bought straight from the Emporium. Made to kill Nascent Spirit cultivators.
Michael aid and pulled the trigger.
Blood splattered as a hole appeared on the Patriarch's forehead. He was dead, just like that.
The Nascent Armor on his body dissipated as the warmth of his life soon turned cold.
Michael felt a breeze. It was never easy taking a life. But he had to. The man would have killed him if he didn't.
But it was the ease in which he killed that unnerved him. With the [Unity Gun], at least it ca from his own body. But this gun was tal. It was cold. It was too effective.
…
…
…
Above the fortress, chaos reigned as Huntrax fought against the four Nascent Spirit cultivators.
He stood above everyone else, his dirtied coat fluttering in the air. This was his Nascent Armor.
It looked unassuming, but that was because it was on purpose. Made to make him seem vulnerable.
His opponents glimred gold, silver, and bravado.
Just then, Huntrax noticed sothing. He looked back down on the giant hole he made on the floor. Back in prison.
"We know you have soone there. We've already dispatched soone there to deal with him," one of the Diamond Ersatz leaders. A 6th stage Nascent Spirit cultivator.
Their postures warned Huntrax not to move. But he was faster than them. He disappeared back into the hole to try and save the boy who had saved him.
But as soon as he arrived, he saw an unbelievable sight.
Michael stood in front of a corpse. A Nascent Spirit cultivator.
He couldn't believe it. Neither could the Diamond Ersatz leader who followed him behind.
"WHAT?!"
"HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?!"
The Ersatz leaders lunged at Michael. Huntrax threw kunais at all four of them, stopping them in their place.
Three felt themselves frozen. The last one was able to break free and attack Michael.
A sword lunged, then a gold liquid coalesced against it, stopping it in place.
Once it had done its job, the gold liquid swirled around Michael, bearing it as his own.
Huntrax and the other Ersatz leaders all exclaid at the sa ti. "Nascent Spirit!"
That was a Nascent Armor. They knew it instinctively. Huntrax should have known that Michael wasn't normal from the beginning.
After all, the boy was able to follow him! He wouldn't have been normal if he was able to track the Ersatz and follow without him being found out.
And then there was that strange prismatic beam.
Huntrax should have known that Michael was stronger than he let on. But he just couldn't reconcile it with the truth. After all, Michael was barely in his teens. How was he a Nascent Spirit cultivator already?!
"He cannot be left alive!" scread the Ersatz leaders. "We are all permitted to do whatever it takes to eliminate this kid!"
Huntrax imdiately appeared in front of Michael, shielding him from the four Nascent cultivators around him.
"This is going to be a hard one," he said to Michael. "I'm a hunter, not a protector."
He could fight these Ersatz leaders. But fight while protecting Michael? That was a foreign concept to Huntrax.
Which ant, Michael would have to defend himself.
The problem was… his talisman had been used up. And even if it hadn't, it wouldn't have worked with opponents of this caliber.
He had to rely on his own power. He had to use his Nascent Armor.
But he only had a small sliver of armor. Just enough to cover his fist.
Should I just teleport to safety?
And just as he was pondering a retreat, he suddenly heard sothing inside his head.
[You have gained 1 Spirit]
[You have gained 1 Spirit]
[You have gained 1 Spirit]
[You have gained 1 Spirit]
…
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