Lars let out a breath of relief when he saw the waters begin to recede as the Laughing Man"s bisected body began to drift in the currents, not resisting the weight of gravity nor the flow of the gus.h.i.+ng waters as the corpse floated to the floor."...In the end, even his undoubtedly immense riches, wealth of battle experiences and his years of scheming could not save him from death... That proves that of all the resources available to a person, information and the element of surprise is the most important of all..."
"Yuppers...! Of course, that"s if both parties aren"t too far apart in power. Heh... If you were really just a peak-Expert or even a peak World-cla.s.s combatant, that attack would have 0% chance of working! Be grateful that you have the power to back up your sneak attack! Never, ever forget; absolute power trumps everything! Remember that!" Kizoirik chimed in with his 2 cents, eliciting a mindful nod from Lars as he acknowledged the truth in that statement.
Even if a Legendary monster forgot to activate his defensive abilities and just took a peak-Expert"s blow to his face, at worst it would merely faze him and leave him bruised; it wouldn"t be sufficient to bring about a decisive outcome such as this...! And after failing to capitalise on that once in a lifetime opportunity, the peak-Expert would then have to give up his life for nothing!
Lars rushed over to the body, sending a sidelong glance to check on Duke Silvan who was still safe though dazed and dejected. He set a mental note to not let the man out of his sights; this was the chance to consolidate some important aspects of his power-base in this planet while Duke Silvan was still in a fragile and vulnerable state of mind.
Regardless of how big a blow it was to lose in the battle of wits against a junior and fall victim to a reversal, ending up bound by the contract to both protect and keep Lars safe from harm as well as to reunite him with Princess Moira, the seasoned negotiator, diplomat, schemer and Duke would quickly recover and find a way to squirm out of his predicament.
Before that could happen, Lars would have to to make sure he struck the final nail into the coffin - immediately!
Lars swooped over against the mad currents of draining waters and scooped up Joker"s cold body, depositing it and all his possessions immediately into his spatial storage ring. He didn"t have time to sort through the man"s items and could only leave that for later. Additionally, he was not sure whether the stash of the entire Underworld would be on one man"s body - there was an ~80-90% chance that there would be another treasure trove hidden away somewhere else; whether within this hideout, somewhere else in the city or in the vicinity of Gorun City.
Having settled that, Lars cast his spirit sense about to check on the whereabouts of the other 3 sub-leaders of the Underworld. Though they tried to hide their mana signatures, he quickly sensed the speedy movement of the three as they scattered to the four (three) winds in escape. He calculated, making use of his far greater mental alacrity from his soul imprint of Insight and realised that he likely would only be able to capture two at most by himself.
In light that, he immediately made a decision as he sneered slyly.
As the water had subsided to roughly chest-height, Lars could now yell over to Duke Silvan and make use of the semi-enslaved man!
"Duke Silvan!"
The dazed man"s eyes slowly regained their focus as he grit his teeth at the hateful voice of the person he abhorred the most in the world right now. He did not answer nor respond but quickly leapt to his feet and made as if to flee the scene without delay, but Lars" words cut him off and rooted him to the spot.
"STOP! Your contract states you have to ensure you don"t take any actions that bring me harm! If any of the three Lords of the Underworld escape, I"ll definitely be constantly exposed to the threat of ambushes, backstabs or a.s.sa.s.sination! If you don"t take any action, you"ll surely cause me harm!"
He gave no answer, but the flaring of his nostrils and the puffs of hot air visibly released from his lungs were an indicator that he had heard Lars - and was maddened in rage!
However, he could not refute what the boy said - and due to that, the soul bonds of the contract also bounded him in his place, unable to leave without hearing Lars out and helping him!
Lars smirked as he quickly gave the final punch to his knock-out combo, "So why don"t we do this - I"ll take the ones on the south and east while you capture the one on the north side! After that, let"s meet back up at Duke Leanne"s palace discreetly!"
And though his eyes flared up with not-at-all-concealed rage, Duke Silvan wordlessly turned around and shot off towards the north, once more triggering his Red-Earth Locust Transformation to boost his speed and destructive power as he broke through the walls in a beeline headed for the escaping Lord of the Underworld.
Lars shot off towards the south, his spirit senses forming a map in his mind as his mind that would put to shame a supercomputer running Waze and Google Maps instantly traced the optimum path to catch up to this target.
"Level 9: G.o.dly Haste! Level 8: Greater Flight!" Lars quickly casted spells to improve his ability to pursue his prey and shot off into the distance, flas.h.i.+ng through the pa.s.sageways at an impossible break-neck speed, one that was only made possible due to his incredibly quick mind observing all the obstacles, computing all the variables and making the split-second changes in trajectory all within a mere instant.
Lars did not not know which of the remaining 3 Lords of the Underworld he was pursuing, but he knew it did not matter - he just needed to keep his guard up and be wary of any deadly traps remaining and the threat of a counter-attack. However, he felt confident since the Laughing Man would be unlikely to entrust the full control of his personal base to anyone else; thus it was nigh-impossible that the three sub-leaders under him could have any ultimate traps that could prove deadly to a Legendary being.
The gallant mage-knight soared through the hallways and past countless doors, at times flicking his hand to blow apart a wall to create a shortcut while at others he would swing his Mana Sabre to chop down a door or the errant barrier.
When a poisonous dart was triggered, Lars merely adjusted his flight path by the minimum to let the projectile harmlessly fly past him. When the ceiling began to collapse, he brandished his blade and triggered the fusion laws of s.p.a.ce and Earth to smash apart a gaping fissure to pa.s.s through unhindered.
And when he finally caught sight of a fleeing purple-haired woman, he saw as the floor beneath him suddenly fell away for 50 metres in either direction and the walls turn into spikes that slammes inwards from either side!
Peering downwards, he saw that beneath was a pool of viscous green liquid, undiluted by the waters from earlier - probably the highest level of caustic acids that could wound and injure even a World-cla.s.s combatant!
Shrugging, Lars merely sped up and changed into a twinkle of light and slipped right past the area where the walls closed in!
Before the fleeing woman could even blink her eyes, Lars had caught up to her and begun swinging his blade down onto her neck!
"Wait, I--" She tried to call out to him and speak, but Lars ignored her and instantly lopped off her head, leaving the unspoken words forever unknown, frozen on her now-lifeless lips.
"Hmmph! Like I would even give you a moment to speak, Lumera of the Veil...! The poisoner, a.s.sa.s.sin, master of seduction, blackmail and coercion! Also the head of the prost.i.tution rings that enslave countless young girls and boys! A sc.u.m of the earth, a plague that walks the streets openly; the head of the group that kidnaps teenagers and forcefully make them dependent on drugs and other harmful substances to become slaves to the s.e.x trade! You deserve far worse than death, but let death suffice... I"m in a bit of a hurry... I still have another vermin to exterminate..."
Lars flew through the winding maze-like corridors and quickly made haste to hunt down his next target!