It was snowing.
The smooth and soft snow fell slowly. Instead of pure white, it was red and purple, carrying a heavy scent of blood.
The capital fell into absolute darkness except for the periodic blinding lights from the explosions in the palace.
The ground shook violently, and a fierce aura storm swept the entire city-planet.
People stayed in their homes and clung for dear life. Even celestial rankers didn't dare to come out as even the controlled shockwaves proved to be catastrophic.
Only a few men and women in hoods rushed to the palace. Their breaths were heavy and their steps unsteady. But strangely, their aura continued to rise and they grew faster and faster.
Worse, all of them carried a thick killing intent and fierceness that wouldn't appear without stepping on mountains of corpses.
"These bastards destroyed our livelihood, hunted us down like street rats. For what? For those filthy commoners? We're not the same breed as them. We're the kings, the lords who oversaw the drug trade. We can't live like gutter rats! The Duchy must end!" The man leading the group raised his arm and roared.
His speech garnered passionate battle cries.
Almost at the same time, an elite army of a hundred thousand on spaceships reached the entrance of the palace. All of them were Sovereigns.
They rushed here after learning something was off with the capital. Even though they're all weak by themselves, if paired with the special artifacts, this army could suppress even several rank 3 celestials.
Even for a Duchy, a hundred thousand sovereigns were no joke. Even more, all of them were geniuses. There'd at least be a thousand celestial rankers from this army in the coming years.
When this elite army came to control the situation, they were blocked by a couple of men and women in ragged clothing and haggard faces.
Their faces were instantly recognized. They were all high up in the bounties and were also the targets their army had to hunt.
But instead of fighting them right away as they would've usually, the commander of the army stepped forward and said.
"I don't know what they promised you, but if you assist the Duchy in this critical moment, your crimes will be written off. The victory of our Duchy is only a matter of time. The Duke is just letting the fight brew so he can clean up the traitors at once. This is your golden opportunity to bury the past and start a new life."
What followed his words was an unexpected silence.
The commander made up a lot of what he said. He had no power to decide the fate of these drug lords even if they helped the Duchy now. But he at least hoped to turn several of them to their side so that they could hurry into the palace.
But to his unease, the drug lords merely looked at each other and chuckled.
"Bury the past? A new life? Forgive?"
"We did nothing wrong."
"The Duchy wasn't even brave enough to attack Havocs. You cowardly hypocrites couldn't touch us when we still had their backing."
"But you want us to be your dogs now? Impossible!"
"We lived like kings, we'd never be your dogs!"
Beams of tremendous auras shot into the sky and lit up the entire planet for a second.
The commander gritted his teeth and unsheathed his sword. "So be it."
The hundred thousand army split into five formations and a token on their armor lit up.
There was a deep hum in the silent night and five fierce sword lights slashed at the drug lords.
"Petty tricks." The drug lords attacked back and a fierce battle began.
Unlike in the Palace, this battle wasn't much restrained by the formations.
Even though the capital planet itself was blessed through several artifacts and wouldn't break because of celestials fighting, it suffered a lot of damage.
Everything in the vicinity of a thousand miles was wiped out in an instant.
The once bustling streets, the luxurious commercial blocks, and the celebratory grounds, all turned into ruins in a blink.
The loss of life in that one second was more than a hundred million.
"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk."
Clicking his tongue as if pitying the sight in front of him, a man in red robes walked into the palace calmly.
As early as the first battle began, the protection formations in the palace kicked in.
Any unidentified entity was targeted severely and had little chance of surviving unless they had the strength of a rank 3 celestial.
That's why the powerhouse of Barix first helped destroy the formations in some areas through which the weaker celestials fought their enemies.
Crimson Specter didn't even try. With each step he took, a ripple spread on the glowing formations and they exploded.
The soldiers and officers that saw him couldn't even utter a word before their heads and bodies separated.
The only person he had to watch out for in the Duchy was the Duke himself. If the Duke wasn't engaged, he could use the special defense formations and make his mission difficult.
But even more dangerously, the Duke could activate the teleportation formation in the treasury and send away the treasures, rendering his mission impossible.
So, Crimson Specter waited until the Duke was pulled into a fight he couldn't get out of and entered the palace complex.
"Hm?" He stopped in front of the palace's main entrance and frowned deeply.
At that exact moment, at the back entrance of the palace stood a woman.
The two powerhouses could feel each other's presence clearly even though the palace was as big as a city.
Their eyes shifted and seemed to lock for a moment before they both moved their fingers.
The main palace, the place with one of the highest defense formations, was hit by two unassuming lights.
The palace split apart and the two lights reached the floor of the treasury underground.
The two light rays struck the unicorn-statued door and it blew into ashes.
But Varian, who was never expecting this, was hit by the Crimson Spector's attack.
He was pondering about entering the treasury at one moment. Then, his senses screamed.
But before he could even react, a thin line of space passed right through his heart.
"I…" Varian tried to raise his hand to touch his chest. But his hand limped down like a puppet whose strings were cut.
The small hole in his chest began to crack open and Varian collapsed onto his back.
His disguise wore off and his heart began to crack apart like it was made of glass.
But it wasn't just his heart, his lungs, stomach, even blood…
Cracks appeared on Varian's body. It was as if he was a doll of glass. He slowly broke down into small crystals.
"W…" Varian's mind felt heavy and everything was slowly growing dark. The comforting embrace of endless sleep reached out to him with irresistible allure.
Light footsteps sounded and a red boot stepped on the crystals that were once a man and walked into the treasury.
A woman flew down from the opposite direction and looked at him with a look of pity. But she too entered the treasury without a word.
Varian's body had long since broken down. The only reason he still survived was his Spirit power.
If he reached rank 4, he could survive as a soul even if his body was destroyed. But he's just a rank 2 Spirit. Surviving a few extra seconds was already the greatest gift.
Varian didn't have the power to fight back against the unexpected death. His body had already broken down. His soul was also slowly going blank.
No powers of his could change this situation.
'I…don't want to die.' Varian's hazy mind sharpened for a brief moment and a thought flashed in his mind.
This injury was something even his monstrous regeneration couldn't reverse. The tyrannical power of space was still in his body and pushing him to death.
If it's calm, he'd still have a chance to deal with it using the sliver powers.
Just like…
'The life strand!'
Varian's consciousness quickly found the parts of life strand sealed in his body. Using the power of the slivers, he sealed the power inside his body and escaped control of Akira.
As his mind was about to go blank, Varian used the last bit of his willpower to remove the seal.
And then he fell into an endless darkness.
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