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Chapter 044: Dragona's Secret

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A slashing sound echoes. The Gunslinger's victim was cleaved horizontally in half from behind by a sneaky bladed lance. Tai Long didn't linger.

The first [Tai Long BM-Puppet] dashed forward in momentum to its next victim without looking back at the last as the Gunslinger followed right behind it with its two hands firing bullets endlessly.

It was a bloody scene, especially for the civilians, but going easy and knocking these bastards out of their heads was the last of the options available to Siva at this very moment —at least not when these guys are also out for his own head.

That spear mastery was truly scary —the Lancet Imperious moved like a windmill on Tai Long's back as the staff-body of the sword-spear rolled and danced like nunchakus in its fluidity when moving like a slithering snake across his shoulders and his back.

And to deliver even more attacks with precision and deadliness, the succeeding victims of their unrelenting aggressiveness couldn't even breathe until their last moment.

In the modern times, perhaps only an AI could pull off this kind of precise movement in Martial Arts. It was practically impossible without a lifelong time of practice and although it lacked essence and that obscured sense of 'intent' that Martial Artist see on an expert, it was still something that is beyond what is categorically recognized as 'skill' —this one, and all of the future Maxima and Tai Long BM-Puppets, will have to be fitted with these same sets of skills and abilities and thus is only apt for it to be called something close to a 'feature' rather than a skill.

But the devastation it brought was nonetheless the same to every enemy Tai Long passed by.

The struggle was short upon contact.

"Argh!!"

"Gagh.....!!!"

Within three seconds, agonized cries were heard.

Four were immediately crushed or sliced into two, and at the next second, the rest began to react and retreat to regroup, shields were deployed or were being deployed... as some charged forth to attack Siva's team with a piercing lunge with their spears.

WHOOSH!!

Siva didn't have a weapon and his appearance was his B-Ranked Equipment "casual-formal wear" with only a flimsy exoskeleton made up of tiny-parts of the BMA for enhancing movements supporting his high-speed maneuvers.

When it comes to defense, he virtually had none.

But he wasn't afraid.

Siva watched the one attacking him. While this guy had his shield up, Siva at least still have five bullets of Bloody Mary artillery, and a nigh-unlimited ammo stock of Longhorn left in his arsenal. After all, the [Longhorn Cannon] was an energy-type weapon.

With Electra, Energy was the least of his concerns.

The 30m distance between him and the attacker is quickly breached but Siva only stretched an arm as the space behind him rippled, a 20m-long tri-barrel large cannon appeared and shocked the attacker.

BOOM!!

The [Killing Zone] was active. His shield shuddered but didn't collapse. But the attacker was shocked in that short contact as he staggered on the impact.

Siva pressed on with an attack and took a step. At the next instant, he already blinked right beside the stunned attacker.

"Teleport?!!" His first reaction.

A shadow of a large weapon falling down towards his face covered his entire vision.

BANG!

The War God Axe at full backhanded swing parted the winds and further destroyed his balance while Siva flickered past again and appeared right above his head. He didn't even have enough time to react and catch his breathing.

—BANG!!

——BANG!!!

Within two seconds, Siva blinked three times and delivered his attacks to the Acolyte; three loud and sonorous explosive impacts echoed in the entire scope of that scene.

The rest of the Acolytes only now recovered and began to charge and support their colleague who was suffering Siva's Omni Slashes.

"Kill him!"

"Block his path!"

"Freeze!"

An [Ice Path Spell] was quickly cast but not even a shadow of Siva was seen enclosed in its domain.

"Where'd he g—ARGH!!!"

"Gugh!"

Through the after-mist of the Ice Path Spell, Siva's silhouette vanished but what replaced him in there were fifty blades that flew past their unprotected heads, chopping them, before a thought of despair could even form a little sprout in their minds.

When he saw how they were defenseless against him, Siva couldn't help but realize something...

"Not every Acolyte can insta-cast their spells!"

Siva was delighted by this piece of news but he didn't wallow in it. This entire city is a battlefield!

Before the sixth second fell, only two were left but these two were already stunned by nine random spark grenades that fell out of nowhere.

As a result, they were finished by the blades and by Tai Long just as they started to blink their eyes and cast whatever spells they were preparing.

Siva didn't restrict the blades as he sent the fifty of them roaming in the entire 10km area of the BMA's Absolute Domain, ambushing the Followers of the Blood Dragon God Church before they could even think and realize that he was there to get them.

'Against these high-stats NPCs, my blades couldn't be as effective as they are against weak players.'

[Our current weapons in production will be finished within 23 hours, sir. The NEO-BMA will prove its worth will be according to your needs.]

'Mn. Just keep gathering information on the level of performance of the [Tai Long] so we can adjust or maybe add more features, if necessary, to the Mini Realms currently in use.'

Siva lamented his facts heavily and deployed the BM-Puppets to control the situation in Maria.

Tai Long went into a different direction while Siva's two Personas, the [Sword Master] and [Gunslinger] summoned their High Class Minions to go on two different directions away from Tai Long.

With their appearance and movements, even these Acolytes' Blood Prison wouldn't give them chances to fight against an army of deceptive BM-Puppets.

Of course, before they went out, he put another three Mini Realms to serve as conduit, attached to Tai Long, Gunslinger, and Sword Master, so as to make him teleport on them when the situation turns grim on their area of activity.

'How's the information load to the Puppets?'

[Within parameters, sir. The [Tai Long] BM-Puppet is serving its purpose as a relay point. As long as it has enough energy to work and the Mini Realms to maintain contact, information transmission between us will have no problem.]

'—and the other ones?'

[They're serving as intended, sir. All of their orders are all given by and disseminated like tentacles by Tai Long... saving my processing load by an entire three folds of integrity from their factors. Tai Long is performing with 40% capacity at the moment.]

Although Tai Long can't think for itself and was still on reflexive reactionary output based on the tasks encoded in it, it was still a boon that the other units were acting like its arms extended in a wide area.

In short, Cortana only had to monitor and give out the commands thru Tai Long, and the rest of the lower units will act according to their programming.

—the benefit of the ranking echelon system of the Mechromancer Project.

And the best part of it all is that all of his Puppets were now equipped with their own SS-Generators.

One SS-Generator powered by Electra's Lightning Bolt can give a 10km Absolute Domain —extended scanning range for him and Cortana.

Siva now had all eyes and ears in a wider scale.

With the BM-Puppets gone, Siva looked over the still shocked and surprised civilians. The Sacrificial Magic Circle beneath their feet were also gone by this point in time.

"Get into safety!" Siva yelled to the civilians and the other still 'trapped' prisoners were jolted t their feet as they began to run out to the city's evac-ones.

Siva didn't have time to guide them as there were still places he must go to and stabilize the situation.

"Damn these wretches!"

Siva released all of his Liberty Drones to establish his domain, and then flashed off to the distance, vanishing to somewhere else.

"Where is Maria's Hunters and Warriors?!!" he did notice that there are very few people defending against the Acolytes of the Bloody Church.

It was as if Maria had become an abandoned city where not even the Knight Orders of the local powers or any guild members from the local guilds could be seen fighting off this attack.

—only a very scant few brave men and women are fighting off against the wretches.

"Where the heck are they?!"

Why are there only a few of them active just at this important moment?!

What the heck is The Union doing?

"Cortana, please ask for their help. Hurry!"

[I'm on it.]

*****

"How many hours do we still have until we arrive in the airport?" asked Amanda, anxious and fidgeting.

The Gregories behind Alice became curious. What happened that she became anxious like this?

One of the two female flight attendants walked in and answered, "We have just made half the flight, miss, so we still have at least 10 more hours in this flight."

"Too long!" Amanda slumped and told Alice, "I'll go back and help out."

"I'm going too." said Matt.

"Me too." "I'm also helping."

Of course, if he's coming, so are Rio and the rest of his team —although Agatha was already asleep from reading her book earlier, she would follow up as soon as she wakes up.

"Mandy! We're in the middle of the flight."

Alice was giving her an eye signal.

Amanda seemed to be confused with her point and so she stared at Alice, shaking her head a little and narrowing her eyes in inquiry.

Alice made a sigh and eyed for behind her and it was only then did she notice what Alice was trying to tell her. If all of them go and help suppress the rebellions on Rex's location, there might be things that they would regret during this flight.

They don't trust the Gregory Nephew and Uncle.

Amanda could only bit her lip and frown but even with this, she still looked beautiful.

"I'll go." Alice said helplessly. "I'm going straight for Dakar since that's what he told us in the email."

"Mn." Amanda could only nod and acquiesce.

Rex's email said that he needed help suppressing and also knowing the situation in Dakar. Of all of them here, only Alice and Matt's team had been to Dakar while Amanda hasn't so she's also useless if she insisted to go online.

At most, she could only stay in Asgard and tell Gaia about the possibility of there might still be spies in the Terran Alliance; and that, as per his email, this entire façade might just still be a small part of an even bigger plan that's already in motion.

But even then, Amanda understood what Alice was telling her. As long as there were these Gregory Family members close to her, she will not risk being visually-defiled —not when she already had her bad lesson with Kladis.

Thinking about that experience was still making her shiver in both anger and trepidation.

*****

"Huh?"

This weird situation made Angus more curious with a slight dubiousness to their actions.

What happened that they're so agitated?

"Is there something wrong?" he can't help standing and glancing over Amanda before asking Matt.

Matt hesitated, then changed his face and stared at Angus, "Didn't you say that you were from one of the Guardian Knights of a King Candidate?"

Angus was taken aback and nodded, "Yeah. Why?"

"You don't know?" said Rio.

Angus shook his head in confusion.

Rio cast him a microscopic look of disdain before it transformed into a look of pity.

"It would seem that your friends don't want you into the scene of glory. They didn't even inform you of this event happening in Terroa right now."

Angus realized the point and went back to his seat, pulled up his panel window, and then made a few general keyword searches online. The result made him glare at the holo-screen in front of him.

There was an event happening in Terroa yet none of the other Guardian Knights online even told him of this news —not even Zelga. Are they purposely leaving the members outside so that they can hog all credits?

Seeing that the rest of the people in the cabin are preparing to go online, he followed suit. Yet before he did, he stood up and checked for Amanda, only to meet her sharp eyes burning with surprise and hate at him.

—shit.

——was I found out?

He thought Amanda was going to go online, but to his dismay, she wasn't. He wanted to check her out, that's why he stood up, but it would seem that his aim have been found out —or probably not.

Angus feigned cordiality, "You're not joining in on the fun? This might be another grand event..."

"No. I'm not." Amanda said dismissively. She wasn't used being angry.

Alice only hinted at her but she didn't expect that Angus would actually show signs of it. She only felt disgust and inwardly decided to never associate with Angus any longer.

She suddenly missed Rex and became worried.

Amanda gave a command to Lily who was floating aimlessly around her. "Lily, can you please ask your mom to inform me about him every now and then?"

[I can. Don't worry. Boss will make a way.]

That cute little voice startled Angus. Battle-AI! This woman actually has a Battle-AI of her own! Just how long has she been playing in Terroa?!!

Angus even forgot to question the contents of the conversation. If he was only smart enough, he would have been able to find a few weird things about this [Lily] and Amanda's instruction for her.

Most especially to the word "mother" and "boss".

Seeing that Amanda doesn't have any intention to talk to him, Angus put his NLD on his head and then went online.

Matt only watched him and made eye-contact with his own team, especially Rio. They don't have any issues with this event affecting Jeremiah but what Rex said was actually true.

Maria needs help.

That city has more Hunters than it has Guardian Police and Knight Orders from The Union.

But given all Hunters' and Warriors' self-employed temperaments, they'd first save their families and their selves before helping out the rest of the city.

Alice was going for the Illuminati Office in Dakar so they chose to help Rex suppress the insurgents in the Walled City Maria.

The anxious Amanda met Matt's group's gaze and she nodded with them. Howard was still awake and don't want their relationship with each other being found out this early. Since the Gregory Family was aiming bad things for Rex, Amanda wouldn't try to sabotage this useful cover for him.

She was left there silently waiting as Matt's team put their NLDs on and went online.

[Master, I can create an active video call for you.]

Lily's cute voice rung beside her and Amanda was startled, "You can do that?!"

[Mn.] Lily's little figure nodded adorably.

"Then I'll have to trouble you, Lily."

[You're Master. It's my job.]

Lily's (||_||) face tried to smile but it was only for a little bit, forced even, because her face was still as indifferently stiff as per her programming. But for Amanda, this only made Lily look more adorable that she smiled warmly at her and even went so far as to tickle the little thing.

[Wuuuuu.... Master is bullying Lily...]

"You're so cute!"

[Let me establish the link now.]

"Okay."

Everything happening inside Terroa is three times faster than in the real world and although video link calls are available, it had to be made on secure and tightly closed rooms in order to invert the hastened speed back to normal to connect the two realities.

But Cortana is a little bit special. She was an Ai but at the same time, she also serves like a real player that can compose "emails" according to Rex's will, and even access his player-only [Player Panel].

Amanda knew this peculiarity about Cortana but she treated it as something all Battle-AIs like Lily are capable of so it didn't become a special topic.

It wasn't a video call where Siva could actively talk with her. In fact it was a one-way video link.

Amanda can only see and hear what is happening in Terroa but Siva couldn't hear or see what was on the other side.

—and seeing the situation made Amanda clinch her fists as she silently watched and prayed for him.

*****

The large cannon; said to have been an antique of an old civilization and is also said to never fire one single shot ever again.

And yet, during the attack of Mefisto, of Siva, back then, it fired a shot directly the Warship Archangel without any warning.

Back then, the members of the Blue Card Legion did not fully and truly believe the contents of their [Quest], but after that, things went on a huge turn and they progressed with their tasks and missions in a very fast pace, quickly completing objectives, even learning of some extra things —information— that is both helpful and intriguing at the same time.

The [Knights of the Round Table Quest] was their main quest while the [Legacy of Emperor Quest] is their supporting quest that should give them all the means to be able to accomplish their goals.

But ultimately, the [Knights of the Round Table] is stuck on a quagmire of troubles while the [Legacy of the Emperor] was the first to be accomplished.

—much to Gats' disappointment.

It happened too fast that even Gats were swept on the coattails of the resulting situation.

The Legion was supposed to obtain the leash that could control the supposedly [Enemy Boss] of the [Legacy of the Emperor Quest]; he was supposed to use this 'monster' as a weapon to establish his own empire inside the game. But now, things were happening on a scale away from projected factors.

Gats is now becoming a doll of a Heavenly Father that Kira suddenly spoke of to be giving away true power; both in and outside of the game.

But although he was dissatisfied with this person, it was still a fact that he wasn't stupid to not realize a person of this capability NOT being part of the people responsible in developing the game.

To know so much into this extent, Gats could only imagine a few people who could pull it off. One of the names he thought of was Pegasus.

All these time, Gats had always assumed it to be him and no one else, and Kira's stoic silence, not denying nor confirming it, made Gats' assumption even more solid.

Adding now the existence of these Riddler's Guise Guild —upstarts equipped with real-world skills and in-game Unique Abilities— who declared themselves to be His underlings, all the more did Gats feel that this heavenly Father's goal wasn't just purely lording over Terroa... there was a lot more serious goals behind the scenes.