Chapter 169: Attack 10

No one had anticipated it'd come to this. The different fights were scattered across the whole first layer. As Noel, Mika and Susa went down to meet the captains followed by the few men left of Xavi and Mika, things quickly escalated.

"No!"

Just when they met face to face with captains, Nana let out a shout as Timo flung her away, then with his dead eyes and blank stare he gave a provoking look at the three before he dashed off to Nana taking the fight somewhere else.

"I'll leave them to you," the wind Timo left behind fiddled with Eri's hair as she stepped towards Susa. A rose gold veil surrounded Eri's arms like a beautiful scarf dancing around her, "You are my opponent."

"What?" Susa couldn't help but blurt out. Instead of having everyone attack each other together, the captains preferred to do things alone. One on one.

Susa gave Noel and Mika a glance but then her body was pressed together by something.

"Watch out!" Noel shouted and reached his hand out to grab Susa yet the rose gold veil had already wrapped around Susa and threw her in the air before crashing her into a house.

The impact was so great, Susa's body smashed through several other houses before laying on the ground several streets away. Coughing blood and panting, with her broken bones, Susa barely evaded Eri who jumped at her.

Seeing the hole, Eri's jump created goosebumps covering Susa's body. There was no way she could win. Eri was too powerful, her ability was still unknown but from what Susa saw of her clairvoyance, a mere support type couldn't stand a chance against Eri.

There was only one way left. Susa had to touch Eri to figure out her weakness. Her 0% hopefully would increase to 1%.

As Susa crashed and landed somewhere far away like Nana, Mika was ready to sprint after her but several ghosts surrounded him from behind. Zayn pushed up his glasses and nodded, "The Ghost King is just, you trying to harm him won't be left unpunished. I'm your opponent."

For someone as timid as Zayn it was a wonder he spoke so much but his admiration and respect for the Ghost King was so great, he couldn't help but blabber.

Mika guessed that Zayn was able to control these ghosts. Did he summon him? Did Zayn also have summoning powers like him? But that was impossible. No two identical powers should exist. Then what was Zayn's real power?

Meanwhile, Noel stared at Leo. The way they behaved was more civilised. The soldiers around them didn't move. Now that the other captains were occupied, Leo didn't need to keep his guard up. He said to the soldiers, "Go back to the palace. You're not needed here."

A bit confused, the soldiers withdrew, then Leo looked at Noel and told him," Follow me."

As equally confused as the soldiers, Noel thought Leo also wanted to take the fight somewhere else. He was reluctant to let Mika alone but Leo wouldn't agree to fight him here.

Leo walked towards the centre, his eyes fixated on the palace with a dark stare. Now that the other captains were all lured away, Leo could go through with his plan- to have Noel help him get rid of all the soldiers.

***

Meanwhile, Lia was getting closer to headquarter. She could see the outline of the roof, aspiring to reach the sky.

Her way to there was delayed considering she had to get rid of all the sensors she came across. She hoped that at least it'd be useful for the others. Also, it wasn't ideal to announce to Min that someone was heading for the headquarter.

The path got narrower as corpses crowded the streets again at the border between the first and second layer. Lia wondered how so many immortals have died. She was sure that her allies wouldn't recklessly endanger innocent people.

The way Min and his army did things was too brutal, they slaughtered anyone they came across, possibly assuming they could get anyone from the hidden families this way.

"What the hell?" Lia's whisper quickly faded.

She reached the back of the headquarter but it was wishful thinking that no one would guard the building. But if Min wasn't inside and the captains were all out, what was in the headquarter for soldiers to waste their time guarding an empty building?

It might be worth to check the insides. What if there was a passage connecting the headquarter and the palace just like the underground in the academy. Perhaps Zero could be imprisoned in the headquarter instead of the palace, Timo didn't let anything slip, so it was unclear where exactly he had taken Zero to.

The number of soldiers in front of the headquarters were too much for Lia to handle alone. She needed help.

"Stand up," Lia poured her life force over the corpses and decided to see how many she could control. The captains weren't present. They were only low exorcists who would be killed anyways. No dead man left to tell the tale.

Lia didn't overcomplicate her order, with a simple, "Kill them," her corpses raced towards the soldiers and a fight erupted.

"What the fuck are these creatures?" she heard the soldiers cursing and shouting.

As her corpses couldn't be killed, Lia didn't have to worry about them, not completing her command. Her word was absolute. The copses wouldn't lay to rest until they've carried out her order.

Thanks to Yano, Lia was able to overcome the time limit on her corpses. Her life force would swirl inside the corpses until the end.

However, even though Lia has improved tremendously, she still could only control 10 corpses at once. 10 corpses against at least 30 soldiers who were trained exorcists was a bit of a stretch. But Lia had faith in her corpses.

"Fuck! Why don't they die?"

"Screw this! Corpses! They're- argh!"

Lia used her corpses as bait as she managed to slip into the headquarter without the soldiers' knowledge.

The insides of the headquarters looked exactly like the outside, sleek black tiles and walls. Modern yet alien, a stark contrast to the rest of the Immortal World.

As Lia anticipated, there wasn't a single soul except for her yet there was loud ticking noise. Tick Tick. Tick.

Like a clock arm. Relentlessly present, forced to make everyone aware of it.

Daunting and uncomfortable were two feelings Lia held onto right now. Apart from that ticking noise, everything was quiet.

After quickly exploring the ground floor, Lia found the stairs leading up and down. Curiosity pulled Lia underground first but there was nothing but training grounds. Yet a nice surprise also waited for her.

Weapons of all sorts. Not only knives, bows but also guns and grenades. Lia has never used a gun before. She's heard they were loud but they might come in handy. If it was filled with life force, it could be sprayed at a large distance. Lia found bandages, she used to wrap around her thigh and secure the gun plus a knife.

Grenades might also be useful. She took two of them. This was literally a treasure box for exorcists but Lia had no space to take more. Finally, she decided to take another knife.

Adjusting the weapons on her thighs, she rushed upstairs again, passed the ground floor but on the first floor, she came across a locked door.

The second, third, fourth and all other floors were all locked, what loomed in those floors that they needed to lock it? Lia checked every single floor but apart from the ground floor and the underground, they all were locked.

A bad premonition overcame Lia. Her heart thumped as she placed her hand on the doorknob. She didn't know why but her intuition told her that something bad was behind the door.

Lia retracted her hand, took a few steps back before with a spin kicked open the door. The lock broke and the door opened sideways.

Lia slowly got closer but from the gap, she saw nothing out of the ordinary. Her fingers trembled as she pushed the doors open.

For a second, the bright light stunned her but then-

"Fuck!" Lia instantly poured her life force out, "Come to me, quick!"

On the first floor, a bit further away from the door, at least hundreds of ghosts hovered over the ground, their bloody mouths tearing innocent people apart. This was the secret the headquarter was hiding.

Min, that damned Min!

He was feeding his ghosts by letting them feast on immortals.