================================

Chapter 051: Watch Closely

================================

"—Ghrrm...!! I don't have time......" Siva groaned painfully as he staggered a step.

The headache was excruciating.

He had just used all and everything in his arsenal to win that last fight. It included the simultaneous exertion of his mental strength in using the IPU along with [Focus].

Then, the fact that he has been fighting two ultra-high ranked Demon King-level dangerous Final Bosses for the last eight hours has been another reason for the excruciating headache.

Even if Cortana translates 3% of all of his mental fatigue into physical pain thru his unique bodily constitution in the real world —it is nevertheless still only just 3%.

These past few hours was a test of everything that was currently him; everything that is currently "Siva".

From the defense of Horbe to fighting a Cardinal Hossain and a Priestess Sandra; to escaping the flames of the Fire Dragons, to suppressing these Acolytes in Maria and fighting against Kyle with all his might...

He had been pushing not only the very limits of his arsenal, he had also been pushing the limits of his current strength, proving his mettle, going past his boundaries, surpassing even his own expectations of himself.

To correct a wrong; to ease his guilt; to pay one debt; to revive his glory; to return to his origins; to remember forgotten memories.....

..........and to renew the reason he had to fight.

He did it all. And he succeeded.

Now, he was bordering on his limits.

Siva's vision was darkening and he could even feel that his exhaustion creeping over him. If he loses consciousness here, his real-world self will fall into a long sleep.

At least that was sure to happen given how he'd just exerted himself to his limits.

In this world, although it may seem like sleep, the fact remains that you use your brain to function your Player Avatar.

—that needs energy.

Mental Energy...

And Siva had been fighting the impossible that's bordering the edges of his avatar's capability. He had to make do and win with the arsenal he had, with the given situation... and because it needed desperate measures, the stress and fatigue was now creeping over and threatening to take over the lingering bits of awareness he had left.

Not only was he mentally tired, 3% of those long hours of continues fighting was also translated as physical fatigue in the real world.

Normally, a [Player's] awareness of his avatar and real body shouldn't be this distinct but because of Cortana, Siva's situation became unique that he was aware of his real world body now being covered in sweat that his blanket was actually wet with perspiration up to the sheets.

As such, right now, Siva was uncomfortable with the cold feel sticking on his skin. He can't even switch with his [Dual Mode] which enables him to move his real body while still being online.

—because it needed him to be on running on his peak condition since it exhausts too much mental energy to use.

And even then, he couldn't go into deep thinking or the link will destabilize and he'd either get back fully online or get ejected by the system itself for being recognized as 'not being present'.

The pain in his mind was something he'd almost long forgotten, a pain on the same level as the one he'd recall that had happened to him when he first had an attack and feared the exertion of his mental strength back in Anazon Forest.

—back when he was ambushed by Garin and that dutiful girl in his current team, Cassiopeia.

It was this unfamiliar pain.

But Siva gritted and his teeth and knew that he still can't lose it here. He needed to finish the job and only then could he allow himself to finally lose consciousness.

WHOOSH!!

Siva appeared in front of a Mage Follower, one of the nine that followed behind Kyle earlier.

He grabbed his neck and stunned him with spark grenades, then spread Plasma Smoke Screens all around them before deploying the parts of BMA to maintain the smoke screen nearby.

Seeing how Siva used this 'technique' over and over, as soon as the blue smoke appeared, those players and NPCs wanting to join the fray began to run away in panic, leaving only those confused Acolytes who can't even see who's who under the blanket of the swirling blue fog.

They can't cast spells in fear of hitting allies but it didn't mean it was the same with Siva's puppets.

Visuals are nothing when inside Siva's Absolute Domain. Siva's puppets routed them one by one within minutes, and within the next ten minutes more, Siva had already captured them all.

Yet these nine aren't pushovers either. Being the official 'followers' of Kyle, they were strong.

To capture them alive, two more casualties to his puppet army was paid but in exchange, all nine Acolytes were beaten black and blue with one of them losing an arm, and another a broken leg.

With what he planned for these guys, even losing another limb or two wouldn't be a problem at all.

After all, there are [Healers] in the city.

Siva regarded his prisoners and then departed.

His mind was on the last matter he had at hand.

'Now that the big boss was gone, with the chaos of that big battle, it will give me enough time to question them with their objectives.'

[I can't help but notice that you've began to have this habit having a monologue to yourself.]

'Don't make me want to reprogram you, lady.'

[Updating systems... reactionary algorithms being updated....]

'Seriously, Cortana, I'm not mad about you trying to incite brain activity on me all the time, but there should be perfect timing on it, right? Can you map out where I want to head with this thought based on the data that we have?'

[Yes sir. I can also use Maki as reference.]

'Good! But just don't be a dick like him. Now, we should bring them back to the mansion for the questioning. Maintain the perimeter. Send a message to the Asgardians, maintain order to this city until I finish with the task.'

[Message sent.]

'Now then...'

What were they searching for in Maria?

A 100m wide blue smoke tornado began to form in the surroundings and although Siva was now at the edge of a backlash of his mental exhaustion, there were still work to be done so he persisted and went on. He didn't let up, taking his 'tornado' into the City Lord's Mansion's territory.

10,000 Plasma Smoke Screen Grenades were in it, with the BMA spreading it even wider until the tornado enveloped the territory and all the areas close to it.

[Perimeter secured, boss. The AI systems of the Warships are all weaklings and I now have some control over their video feeds and scanners.]

'Maximize control. I don't want people disturbing me during the investigation.'

[Aye, sir.]

The battleships' radars and scanners are hacked and tapped into. Cortana's reach had enveloped all of them into the Absolute Domain and there're all kinds of data given to their screens confusing their analysts and commanders even further.

All High Class Minions —the surviving members of the BM-puppets— were deployed to guard the tornado, their 'eyes' focused on the twelve third party warships that had their cannons ready to fire at the City Lord's Mansion any time.

—all except for a pure white Warship that sent its representatives, accompanied by a familiar ally...

It was the Warship Michael, the vessel belonging to an unknown organization of elites, that called themselves as [Atropos].

*****

Ten minutes more had passed.

Every Bloody Church Acolytes that invaded Maria had already been routed and-or captured, killed, or driven away into the forest adjacent to the city.

Siva didn't dare to neglect and directly locked the space in Maria as soon as he retreated. He didn't want these Acolytes to further propagate in these cities and repeat this same event again.

Although he now knew with 50% certainty where Baron is being held, he wasn't stupid enough to act brazenly and storm The Union Headquarters the way he usually does because their army will definitely tore him apart as soon as he gets his foot into their front doors.

Besides, knowing that The Church had already infiltrated their territory, who knows if they will use Baron as a bargaining chip against him?

Siva could only imagine the horror.

As such, he thought of only one possible way to ascertain the probability of the greatest degree of safety of pulling out of that place.

Strength...

Overwhelming, horrifying, frightening strength...

The type of strength that could scare enemies at the simplest mention; the kind that can send them falling on their knees at the mere glance of force.

As such, Siva even more polished the details of his planned projects and even more engraved his wrath upon these people upon his heart.

*****

In all these time, a name resounded in all the ears and eyes of the cyber junkies back in Jeremiah.

Many videos of "Volt" —King Candidate— were spread, leading the charge to exterminate all the insurgents, saving and rescuing civilians, and he even tried to sacrifice (scripted) himself to save the people from the clutches of the Acolytes' evil hands.

Everything was Cortana-approved, of course, so it was all okay —even the few fights with the two of the nine followers had his face.

Naturally, it was also a Cortana-approved edition.

Volt earned the respect and admiration of those in Jeremiah. They immediately learned that there was someone named "Voltaire" who went into the other Terran Territories in order to save people, not just in the area of Jeremiah where saturation with the King Candidates were wide spread.

In the rankings, Volt immediately jumped into the second rank... a surprising development.

But the first, to everyone's surprise, was actually Zelga who commanded an army of very unique and yet also very strong Knight Legion to route an entire city in Southern Jeremiah that had been overrun by the Acolytes' global act of terrorism.

There were also videos of real civilians depicting Zelga crying as he lamented not being able to save a child in time before an Acolyte pierced the boy with his sword.

In the videos, Zelga was hugging the body while he cried heart-wrenching tears before leading his own Knight Legion to take back the city.

It captured the hearts of the Kingdom's citizens.

Still, almost 60% of the places the Bloody Church Acolytes had attacked were... destroyed.

Resources were taken away, people killed, but to everyone's wonder, those cities were left with not a single person living. All of them either died or had disappeared into thin air.

Every single one of them was... gone, down from the elderly to the infants. Not one soul remains in the city after the event settled down.

Only those from the surviving 40% cities knew of what the horror they have almost been put into.

Those Acolytes of the Blood Dragon God Church were all cruel bastards. They sacrificed all people who didn't convert to their religion, and they call it cleansing; they called them pagans... infidels that didn't recognize the name of the one true god!

To the leader of these Acolytes, their Priests and Elders, their actions were a Grand Crusade. The fact they had to die by the blade blessed by their Blood Dragon God should have been an honor, not a curse or calamity —or so they say.

This incident with the Church shocked Terroa. A new threat blossoms in their midst and they don't know who were enemies or not for the Church's members had perfectly and seamlessly hidden themselves in plain sight. Many even believe that a religious war was about to unfold. Because of this new breed of fear starting to germinate at the hearts of the people, there were a lot of expectations put on the shoulders of the arriving New King of Jeremiah.

It can even be said that Zelga's shiningly brilliant contribution for the sake of order was a direct affront to the Bloody Church...and that was what earned the respect and admiration of the masses, not only the citizens of Jeremiah.

Vanquishing an entire city full of enemies with just his group of elites is actually a nice feat that even Thorn had to nod his head at the boldness and strength of this tiny group following Zelga.

Still, the fact that Volt was put second was also a feat on itself. Who was he, anyways? He was not even a 'nobody' in the eyes of the public but in a single event, his name resounded like thunder in surging storm.

Although it was a cheated progress, it was still progress nonetheless.

When they get the crown, only then will they are allowed to ponder on their secret.

The ends justify the means.

Yet the Asgardians are not out of the woods yet.

These Warships... they can route the Asgardians without an issue if they so choose to do so. The only thing that's stopping them were those very vague scanning images of a huge creature hiding within the covers of the now 1km large tornado.

It was the product of Cortana's tweaking on their imaging scans.

Siva choosing to isolate himself in the City Lord's Mansion was also a nice move.

He was the one who fought the leader of the cult that occupied the city and the glory and honor of "The City's Hero" was inscribed upon his back.

For those who witnessed it, Siva's black smoked figure wearing formal casual clothes and that very distinctive black-red mask was the immaculation of a champion. The people of Maria saw his fight and knew that it was "Siva" who saved them.

They didn't care about his reputation and image outside the walls of their city.

What's important is to them, he was their hero.

Nothing else matters.

If these organizations were to raise their guns at him, then they would have to deal with the wrath of the city's citizens.

Although around 30% of their population had been lost during this attack, there are still at least around a million people remaining in the city.

Unless they were prepared to incur the ire of the citizens and kill them all just to proceed with their objectives, their best choice to not get a record of the entire event for all of Terroa to see was to send emissaries and talk to Siva about yielding to their demands——

—which, by the way, have always been proven to have a 99% failure rate given Siva's ill-tempered, violent reputation.

One can only imagine the consequences of such events happening if the saviour of the entire city were to receive unmitigated aggression from all these foreign organizations.

As such, the entire area around the mansion was peaceful —aside from the fact that there was that massive blue-coloured tornado that rotated with a diameter of not smaller than 1km around it.

Yes, it was getting bigger.

Moreover, it's happening at a rate visible even to the naked eye.

*****

Siva sat on a (modified) chair; 30+ empty vials on the floor, [Lich Exalt] Tai Long at attention like a Court Guardian on his right, and his two Lich-level (Persona) BM-Puppets behind an audience.

—the audience being the nine followers of Kyle.

For the last twenty minutes, Siva has been trying to suppress the urge to close his eyes and sleep so as to ease the headache.

But because he needed to finish the jobs as fast as he can, he used the soothing effect of the Red Potion to help alleviate some of the pain.

It was somehow working... only somehow.

As such, the silence has been sustained for the last twenty minutes.

None of the nine followers dared to breathe out loud but it didn't mean they were scared. It's just that they were afraid of all the unnecessary pain.

Their masks have already been removed, with a pair of them shattered on their faces when they received a punch from Tai Long for being a loud mouth when, cursing at Siva.

All of them were Terrans of different tribes.

Two of them have green hair, possibly from the Treants, Enveno, Sylphs, or Amia Tribes; three with blue hairs, a girl with violet hair, and three men with black —their tribal alignment wouldn't be known just by their features unless explicitly specified by definitive characteristics like blood types and other manner of distinction.

Still, they're all hardboiled. The girl included. And all of them were glaring hatefully at Siva but still quiet and almost submissive.

But none of them ever dared to utter another word in fear of that 'masked guy' beside him punching their teeth in just like what happened with the girl who still got a bleeding nose and all her front teeth broken by the punch.

Siva, who has been silent ever since they came in the mansion, did nothing but occasionally drink a vial of Red Potion every now and then.

He's been like that all these time.

Then, after a few minutes more of an unbearable silence in the City Lord's study, Siva finally took a look at them... addressing first the girl with the violet hair, one of the three mages.

"What tribe are you from?" his voice was hoarse, full of the exhaustion he suffered from the fight earlier. Even through the black-red mask that he wore, one can still feel that his eyes were heavy with fatigue and weariness from his voice.

Siva had already scanned the entire mansion and with Cortana's [Investigation Mode], every nook and cranny was recorded and simulated, every scratch and tumbled objects, all kinds of evidences and signs of forced tampering from the invaders, were all documented and then catalogued —examined up to the very roots and reasons as to how and why they were destroyed.

This happened while he was fighting Kyle earlier.

And with all these proofs and data documented, the result of the investigation led to the fact that that Elder Kyle whom he had defeated is actually looking for something in the mansion.

The City Lord is dead, his corpse in many pieces at the basement. Every other supposedly living soul in this mansion is presumed to have already been sacrificed, which explains why there was only that one corpse in this entire household and no traces left of the others.

Similarly, on the basement, there was the remains of a [Magic Circle] —a gift from Kyle— it was the materials in contrasting that Tier-7 Barrier Spell Magic that blocked Siva earlier.

There was a Mana Crystal in the middle of the formation but contrary to the normal bluish white hue it had on its center, the crystal in the midst of the formation had already been reduced to chalk.

Without a Mana Source, the spell formation could not be used again so Siva kept it as his spoils.

After all, the other parts of the formation can still be used as materials for other Spell Formations.

Siva had gathered the nine Acolytes into a single room, held securely by tiny parts of the BMA and his two Persona and Tai Long in front of them, in case they were looking for more pain.

"Can't you answer my simple question?" he said when the girl remained silent..

"I'd rather die." the girl spat and laughed after an entire moment passed.

"That's fine by me." Siva said.