Reborn: Apocalypse - Volume 2

"People like you that kill wantonly… you are the worst type of human trash . " Asim"s voice was harsh, his tone cutting as he took a step forward . His hand rested on the hilt of his saber, his entire body tensed as he prepared to attack in the drop of a pin .

Behind him, the rest of his men and women stayed back and watched . General Asim"s fighting style prevented allies from getting close . If he needed to defend himself, they would only get in the way .

Several of them had hands on their guns or blades, readying themselves to act just in case .

"Some of you Arabian b.a.s.t.a.r.ds are a breed of vermin in your own right . " Vladimir"s voice was equally harsh . The man"s eyes had a red l.u.s.ter to them that matched the red plate armor he wore . His team stood back as well, letting the two leaders confront each other .

A couple of his men had looks of hesitation on their face, as if they wanted to say something, but Vlad"s incredibly fierce aura was preventing them from cutting into the moment .

How exactly this encounter had fallen to this level, neither side was quite sure .

Their encounter had been random, two teams that were crossing routes . Asim had greeted the other team, introducing themselves and asking for directions to the G.o.dfather Organization .

They had already encountered a large number of people in the outer regions of the Main Cl.u.s.ter . Sizable numbers of people could be seen traveling atop the rooftops, hunting Morenkai or talking with other groups . The Fourth Wave had brought a huge number of people to the First Layer . Many of them, even from Asim"s own Cl.u.s.ter, had left when the various Great Bridges opened up, off to explore or try to find a way out of this nightmare .

Asim was a member of the Fourth Wave that had only been here a month and some change, just like Micheal . After learning about what all happened here, Asim absolutely could not bear to wait before searching for his little brother and had left as soon as the Great Bridge opened .

In the time that he waited, he put his all into training his strength and Abilities, forming a powerful team that had his back .

When he"d arrived, he was greeted with news from the G.o.dfather Organization about his little brother"s demise, but there was nothing he could"ve done about that .

Alas… all of his training and preparation for the past month had ended up in vain, at least when it concerned his brother .

After Asim introduced himself and his team to the Dragon Slayer Guild, as they called themselves, their encounter with the other group had quickly turned sour .

The leader of the other team had done a complete about-face when he heard Asim"s introduction and where he was going, becoming incredibly hostile . He had questioned what Asim wanted there .

Asim wasn"t really that sure himself . After learning of his little brother"s fate, Asim had decided he wanted to make the First Layer a safe place . He wanted to eradicate the Morenkai, obliterating their existence .

That wasn"t something he could do with just his own small team . Thus, he decided to travel to the G.o.dfather Organization and… talk to someone . He hadn"t planned it beyond that point, he was still in his grieving process .

He didn"t explain this all to the man named Vladimir . He simply told him he was looking for someone within their organization .

His response hadn"t exactly been polite, but Asim was an emotional mess at the current moment and felt no need to guard his words . The hearing aids he wore were functioning, but seemed to have trouble clearly picking up Vladimir"s words, making it hard for him to hear clearly .

When Vladimir heard his response, the man nearly went ballistic . Words exploded between both powerful leaders and the tension of the moment rose to an extreme .

And… here they were now .

"If you have a problem with me, my men, or my race, you are welcome to let me know . " Asim smiled gently while his eyes stared daggers at the huge mountain of a man before him . He took another step forward, holding his hands out to the side casually .

"I"m right here . " As he spoke, he tapped on his hearing aid, making sure it was functioning correctly .
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Vlad"s hand slowly reached back to the spear that was perched on his back, not saying a word as he kept his eyes trained on Asim .

When Asim saw this, his lips tugged his smile to a cruel smirk . It wasn"t one of mockery, but rather, the expression his face gave when he was intensely concentrating .

Everyone began to s.h.i.+ft, the members of the Dragon Slayer Guild and the Arabian Knights both stepping back and readying themselves .

It was a picture of a scene that was about to break out into combat .

Vlad grabbed ahold of his spear .

Asim grabbed his saber .

They both took one last step forward, till they were only two meters apart .

And then…

" . . . thud . "

Both warriors froze as the sound of someone landing down caught their attention, audible to either leader . They both glanced off to the side, where a figure had just touched down .

It was a man in a set of ornate robes, wearing a blank, mildly creepy mask on his face, with a large, scoped rifle slung over his back . The robes the man wore gave him the image of an important figure, while the mask added to that and made him look imperious .

For a tense moment, there was silence as all sides stared at each other . The subordinates of either side didn"t move, staring at the masked figure in confusion .

"Huh?!"

"What the…?"

BOOM

The two leaders were in the midst of stuttering out a response when a deafening explosion shook the air overhead . This explosion was then subsequently followed by two more explosions .

BOOM

BOOM

Waves of fire, heat, and pressure slammed down onto the skysc.r.a.per rooftop, blasting into everyone present . The raw impact knocked everyone except for the masked man to the ground . Swords and guns were knocked from hands, men and women fell unconscious, and general chaos broke out .

Throughout all of this, the masked man had stayed remarkably still . The sniper rifle had remained attached to his back and he made no noticeable movements . He didn"t try to say anything out loud .

Internally, however…

"They"re still pretty inexperienced, huh?" Micheal observed as he saw both leaders go down, wincing slightly as the pressure waves from the explosion washed over him . He was prepared for it and able to resist it, and the explosions didn"t happen directly over him, but they were still annoying .

The two leaders had seen him appear, yet his abrupt attack still managed to take them both by surprise .

An instant later, three small orbs flashed through the air and slid into his skin, emerging from the cloud of smoke that had formed overhead .

The three round objects Micheal had pulled from his Spatial Ring were none other than a set of Repulser Grenades he"d picked up and kept just for a moment like this . Each one was able to detonate and send out a powerful shockwave . For people that weren"t expecting it at close range, the blow was bound to stun and knock them down .

It had been a simple matter of pulling the pins from the grenades and then sending his Life Orbs up in the air with a grenade pinned to each one .

No one was paying attention to the side of the skysc.r.a.per . There were a few other groups visible on nearby skysc.r.a.pers, but this part of the Main Cl.u.s.ter was fairly dead at this time . The huge torrent of people flooding in from the Great Arrival hadn"t reached this far yet .

Only a comparatively small trickle of people had arrived over the past couple of days . The Great Arrival should be fully kicking into gear right now, as far as Micheal was aware, but that wasn"t something to worry about . If anything, it would make his life easier .

Micheal"s Life Orbs could fly a bit more than 20 meters away from him, giving him a huge area of control . With the grenades attached to each Orb, all Micheal did was come up onto the roof and wait patiently for them to be close to detonation, out of sight .

The moment he knew they were about to explode, he had his Life Orbs toss them up into the air and then start to return back to him .

By the time his Life Orbs made it halfway back, the Repulser Grenades began to explode, one after another, knocking everyone to the floor .

Micheal"s eyes flicked to the left and right as he took in all the downed and stunned members of each team . None of the people here were ones Micheal recognized, meaning they likely weren"t nearly on par with the two leaders out in front of him . Just because someone joined an organization early didn"t mean they were bound to be extremely talented or destined for strength .

"W-what the h-h.e.l.l . " A stuttered, enraged response echoed in the air as a bedraggled, armored figure stood up .

Vladimir"s face was pale as he breathed haggardly, wielding his spear out in front of him as he glared at Micheal . The air around Vladimir took on a faint, sparkling glow, a unique Aura appearing around his body .

Vladimir had a powerful body and was a talented warrior . Micheal recalled him having a variety of Abilities, including the Martial Body Type, a power that boosted his speed, endurance, and physical power, upping his physique across the board .

His other main Ability was the Limited Wonder Touch Ability, for 55,000 Points . The Ability allowed him to imbue his attacks with mysterious Wonder Energy .

This Wonder Energy transformed every attack he did, giving them special effects or attributes . It was an Ability that was extremely difficult to guard against, even more so considering his combat experience and powerful body .

While the man could shrug off the explosive pressure that had slammed into him, he wasn"t the almighty warrior that he would become in the future . Such an impact still stunned the him of now, though it couldn"t hold him long .

And, despite going down, he rose extremely quickly, preventing any direct follow-up attacks from occurring .

"How dare you!" General Asim"s irate voice echoed out as he got to his feet as well, looking considerably better off when compared to Vladimir . The man was covered in dust from the explosive blast, but otherwise appeared mostly unaffected .

"Ah . He"s got a general long-range Defensive Artifact . " Micheal instantly made the snap judgement call . The man"s Artifact was able to protect him, but not nullify the effects of the explosion entirely .

An aura of light began to burst out around Asim as he stalked forward, wielding his saber in his hand . The air around him fluttered, a rectangle of light spreading .

Micheal instantly recognized the man"s signature Limited Type Ability, the Limited Forsaken Matrix Type .

This power boosted the power of his Soul and did little else for his other stats . What it did do was give him the Ability to emit a "Forsaken Aura . "

This Aura was a magically generated energy field that did something rather incredible, something that couldn"t be blocked or stopped by any means .

It inverted a target"s senses .

Down became up, left became right . One"s vision became flipped as their perception of the world abruptly changed . Hearing something coming from the left actually meant it was coming from the right . Smelling something from below meant the scent originated from above .

All senses that could be inverted was, though there seemed to be a few magical rules or exceptions to this mysterious power . Using it put a great deal of strain on one"s Soul as they drew upon the latent energy of reality, and the power of their Soul, to let it function .

"What exactly do you think you"re doing?!" General Asim took the lead as he rushed towards Micheal, his entire body trembling with purpose .

Behind him, Vladimir had recovered, moving forward cautiously on his own . He seemed to be on guard against both Micheal and Asim .

Everyone else was still down and groaning .

"The Church does not allow for those that murder and sin . " Micheal shrugged shamelessly as he blamed everything on the Purgatory Church, an organization that, in his opinion, caused humanity nothing but grief as they developed, continuing,

"You two have brought this upon yourselves with your evil intentions . " Only the fanatics of the church would talk like this .

Micheal didn"t particularly want to become mortal enemies with either man . Both figures were destined to become very powerful in the First Layer in the future . Even with his ident.i.ty newly hidden and obscured, unrelated to any of his previous ones, there was a very small chance he might be discovered .

On the other hand, by the time either man became extremely strong, Micheal planned on being long gone . Their future potential was significant, but in history, it was limited to the First Layer . As a result, the aid they provided humanity was quite limited . The harm they did was far more damaging .

Other ways to stop the two from fighting existed . Perhaps he could talk to them after showing off his powers or explain his old memories . He might even be able to stop them from fighting by pretending to be an irate Emissary .

However, none of those methods were guaranteed to prevent either side from holding a grudge or forming a seed of hatred that would go on to develop horrifying consequences . His memories of the future were already diverging and the strength he held wasn"t as powerful as he led people to believe . He couldn"t be absolutely certain .

As a result… Micheal was not willing to take risks when it came to the stability of the First Layer, something that would be extremely important for humanity"s development .

By becoming a "villain" in their eyes and forcing them to work together… Micheal was confident he could change that . Maybe the two would become close allies and move up in the Layers, becoming pillars of humanity .

All of that depended on if he could actually survive and hold off two future S Rankers that both possessed natural combat prowess and extremely deadly Abilities, however .

Micheal"s hands flickered as he abruptly reached for the sniper rifle that was tucked on his back .

Then, in one smooth and well-practiced motion, he whipped the gun around .

BANG

BANG

BANG

Micheal fired 3 shots in quick succession . His rifle condensed energy from the air in less than a 10th of a second, allowing him to fire off the bullets with ease .

Each bullet slammed into a glowing blue s.h.i.+eld that floated in front of General Asim"s person . The first bullet stopped him in his tracks, the second one sent him sliding backwards, and the third one knocked him off his feet, forcing him to stamp his foot on the ground after flipping back, forcibly halting his progress .

Vladimir watched all of this, his eyes cold as he took a few tentative steps forward . He held his spear out carefully in front of him, his full attention on Micheal, though he didn"t make any big movements or attacks .

Micheal frowned when he saw this,

"No, no, no . If I"m going to be the villain, you better work just as hard to be the hero . "

Micheal"s body jerked to the side as he sidestepped, jumping 6 meters forward and to his right in one abrupt motion . He used his Cloud Stepping Shoes to help guide the movement, moving unnervingly quickly to any onlookers .

In a split second, he arrived right next to one of the downed members of the Dragon Slayer Guild .

"What do you-"

BANG

"Arrrrgh!"

"Sorry!"

Micheal sent the downed warrior a silent apology as he shot the man in the leg .

He carefully guided the shot, making it look casual and random, while avoiding any major arteries, veins, or bones .

Blood spurted out of the man"s leg . The warrior had been wearing a set of black leather armor, with a large sword wielded in his hands . Micheal"s special bullet had pierced through that in a heartbeat, rocketing into the man .

WHOOSH

Vladimir leapt at Micheal, his eyes flas.h.i.+ng with red light as he jumped to his teammate"s rescue . Colorful energy fluttered around the man as he charged, his spear piercing forward mercilessly .

"Die!" The Wonder King"s yell was terse as he raced forward to attack, holding back nothing .

In that same moment, General Asim had recovered from being knocked backwards by Micheal"s bullets . The warrior was sprinting towards Micheal as well, this time with his saber out and forward, ready to try and deflect any stray shots .

As Micheal saw the two powerful, future S Rankers charging at him angrily, his heart jumped off beat slightly .

He was facing up against two foes that had been legends in his past life . He had a ton of experience, but these two didn"t become S Rankers for no reason .

The sniper rifle he wore vanished from his hands as he stored it in is Spatial Ring .

A moment later, two plain, but gleaming black axes, appeared in his hands, rippling with near-invisible Sword Energy .

Obsidian Axes, a weapon that cost 4,000 Points each in the shop . Sword Energy could be used on other weapons, albeit with a somewhat lessened efficiency . Each one of these axes was st.u.r.dy enough to last for a single extended fight, even if he used Advanced Tier Sword Energy .

He smacked the two axes together, his eyes gleaming with energy .

"Let"s finish this . "

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