The Villain Reborn as Game's Final Boss

Chapter 242: Madness [9]

"Isn’t this too much?"

The captain listened to the soldier under his command as the troops moved through the city.

All the troops were under the Frost Dukedom, though some officers from the authorities were present too.

Duchess Alia had sent them to eliminate all the attackers that had terrorized the businesses in the city for quite some time now.

Though the majority of the troops were still stationed at the mansion, in order to protect Alia from possible attacks.

The people nearby observed the soldiers with curiosity.

Not all of them knew of the attacks that were happening across the duchy and the world as a whole.

Seeing so many troops marching through the city was enough to create rumours with no logic behind them.

"It’s still better than the entire force being sent out."

The captain replied with a chuckle, which caused the nearby soldiers to join in the laughter.

Alia had at first thought of sending out all the troops that were available at the mansion.

Neither the soldiers nor the authorities could understand how to stop the duchess from relaying such an order.

But surprisingly, on the butler’s advice, Alia changed her order, and only a small part of the soldiers were sent for this mission.

Well, calling it a cleaning operation would have been an accurate word, as the duchess had informed the soldiers to kill everyone who had tried to destabilize the region.

The killing of innocents on the soil of the Frosts could never be forgiven... and the criminals would get a taste of their own medicine very soon.

All the soldiers had worn their armours, making the citizens believe that a war was about to come.

Maybe it really was.

As they moved through the streets, the captain suddenly narrowed his eyes, seeing a man standing before them.

Dressed in black from head to toe, he looked quite similar to how the attackers had been described in the reports.

"Stop!"

Raising his closed fist, the captain ordered the troops to stand at their positions without moving further.

The moment the order was relayed, all the soldiers had their eyes focused on the man, who stood about fifty feet away from them.

Though the man was a fair distance away, there was something about him that made everyone wary.

An instinctive reaction of sorts.

Even after seeing the soldiers stop in their tracks, the man made no effort to communicate.

"Should I check on him?"

A soldier beside the captain asked, as he tightened the grip on his sword, ready for his first battle after being dispatched on an official mission.

The captain’s brows were furrowed as he didn’t reply, with his entire attention on the man in black, trying to see through his cultivation level.

But no matter what, the captain couldn’t see through him.

The fact that despite being a Diamond 1, the captain couldn’t sense the enemy’s rank, meant that the enemy was stronger than him.

"Can you sense his rank?"

The captain turned to look at the authorities who had been sent to help them out.

The officer in charge of the group too had a frown on his face as he tried his best to sense the man’s rank.

"No."

A long silence ensued between the two, as the gravity of the situation hit them.

The officer too was a Diamond 1, and even if two individuals of the same rank couldn’t sense the cultivation of someone, then that meant that the situation was out of their control.

The captain, as well as the officer, were both elites in their line of work, so sensing an enemy’s rank, even if it was some tiers above them, shouldn’t have been difficult, yet—

The reality was before them.

"Send a request for more Diamond cores."

At the captain’s words, the officer from the authorities raised his brows, but didn’t object to the decision.

Diamond cores were the elites that any major power had.

They were the ones who acted as the real pillars of any strong force out there.

Immortals and Sovereigns were like gods, who weren’t seen under normal circumstances.

People only knew about them, and had a chance to talk to them from time to time.

But leaving aside those few times, the Immortals never directly participated in battles on small scales.

They were dispatched only during times of war, or when the security of the empire was under a direct threat.

So that left the Diamond cores to act as the real powerhouses in any major force, be it a dukedom or the royalty.

That also meant that the Diamond cores were always scattered across the empire, and couldn’t be summoned at will.

Proper planning had to be done to dispatch the stronger cultivators among the Diamond cores.

That was why only the ones at Diamond 1 were sent for this operation, as both of them were newly evolved.

It was far more difficult to increase tiers in the Diamond rank, which limited the number of cultivators at the higher tiers of the rank.

The ones in Diamond 1 were present in relatively greater numbers than the rest.

Though the captain knew that such a request could go unanswered... still he had to do his part.

It wasn’t like they would be defeated here, but it was better to have more reinforcements when an unknown variable popped up from time to time.

And the man before them was clearly one of them.

"It’s done—"

The soldier paused as the man in black took his first step.

The moment he moved, the captain as well as the officer in charge of the authorities took out their respective weapons, ready for battle.

Following their leaders, the rest of the troops did the same.

"Stop right there!"

The captain shouted at the man, who kept moving in their direction.

Looking closely, he had no weapon in his hand, and just walked casually like he was on some sort of vacation.

"Any step further would lead to the use of force against you. Stop right there, and introduce yourself."

The officer spoke while taking a step to stand in front of their group.

Being a member of the authorities, it was his duty to ensure peace in the city.

If things could be solved through negotiation, then it was the better outcome, instead of fighting in the middle of the city, with civilians around them.

The officer moved his gaze across the street, and then motioned one of his officers to evacuate the people for the time being.

The people, though reluctant at first, obliged after some persuasion on the part of the officers as well as the soldiers serving the Frosts.

The man in black disregarded all the orders, as he continued closing the distance between them.

He didn’t look in a hurry, as his pace remained the same.

"Are you among those who have attacked the guilds in the duchy?"

The captain wanted to confirm it, but the man once again made no effort to reply.

It was as if he was unable to hear anything that they had said.

"What’s the reply?"

Turning to look at the soldier responsible for communication, the captain moved closer to him.

"Uh... Sir, that—"

"Tell me?"

Seeing the hesitation on the soldier’s face, the captain eased the tone of his voice before glancing at the device in the soldier’s hand.

"Actually, I thought the message was sent at first, but—"

"But?"

"Something seems to have interfered with our communication lines. I don’t think we can communicate with the—"

"Alright."

Interrupting the soldier, the captain patted his shoulder, before walking towards the group of authorities.

"We are on our own."

The statement earned a simple nod from the officer, as if he had predicted this outcome before.

"The guy has clearly been sent to intercept us. I don’t know how these criminals had such a strong one among them, and if they had, why didn’t they use him before?"

"..."

"From the reports, every business that had been attacked in the empire... the peak strength of the attackers was only around Platinum core, and even those were rare, as the majority were Gold and Silver cores."

"Were they testing us?"

The captain asked with his brows furrowed.

There were too many abnormalities in this situation.

"Maybe. We might be the only ones who have truly tried to eliminate them by sending reinforcements. Every other power is just observing from the side lines, without intervening much. If not for Duchess Alia—"

"Let’s not think about it. I had been sent to eliminate them, and I would do the same, no matter what. You may retreat, if you wish to."

Speaking his part, the captain moved away, standing right in front of their troops to be the first one to fight the man before them.

But he wasn’t alone, as the officer in charge of the authorities joined him right after with a small smirk on his face.

"I ain’t a coward."

Everyone took a light stance to be able to fight at a moment’s notice.