Ascenders Rift 182 A Foregone Conclusion

Within the meeting room, the battle between Alia, Mark, against Leo, Julie, Razel, and the others was already reaching its turning point. With the sounds of gus.h.i.+ng water colliding with something, Mark stood a few meters apart from Leo, gazing at him cruelly as he repeatedly waved his hands.

As he did this, more and more water would form out of nothingness, trying to sweep Leo away. However, against these attacks, Leo countered with his fire powers, cras.h.i.+ng against the stream of water.

With the sound of steam forming, the waters instantly vaporized as most of Leo's flames died down. Mark looked at this with a frown as he cursed inwardly, 'd.a.m.n! Why is it that he can so easily deter my elemental advantage? s.h.i.+t! I can't let this continue; we're already beginning to fall at a disadvantage.'

When Mark thought this, he slightly glanced to the other side, noticing that Alia and the others were struggling against Julie, Oron, Razel, and Irene.

"Haha! Take my Iron Charge!" Oron yelled as he charged into a group of men smas.h.i.+ng into them like a tank, hurling some of them into the air due to his fierce charge.

The men scattered about and tried to counter, but sadly, they were picked off Razel, who blasted their heads apart using two similar kinds of pistols that Vernisa had used.

A few others fired shots at Razel, causing rapid gunfire to sound about the meeting room. However, as if Razel didn't mind them, he smirked as his eagle-like eyes zoned in on each bullet, doing the unthinkable his body strafed from side to side, using the pistols corners to parry each shot fired at him.

He then jumped and did a flip before firing multiple times at different areas, these bullets then bounced across other sh.e.l.ls that s.h.i.+fted their positions, smas.h.i.+ng into the bodies of a few of the other shooters.

Alia and Julie were now clas.h.i.+ng; they both controlled objects and smashed them towards each other as if using telekinesis. However, based on the level of battle experience, Alia was a few tiers better than Julie, causing a few of them to slip by towards her. 

Each time this happened, Irene would act using her [Superior Cancel] Skill, forcing the objects to fall to the ground. At this time, Irene had simultaneously conjured her Magic Ray, prepared to fire it at Alia from her blindside. 

Mark frowned as he saw this, it was only less than two seconds, but things had fallen to this state. He prepared to help out, but he soon realized that Leo had vanished. Suddenly, he felt a gush of heat from behind him, causing his expression to sink as he exclaimed, "Oh no! Water Barrier!"

Mark shouted, placing his palms together a water barrier formed around his entire body, following this, Leo, who had struck towards him with his burning palm had smashed into the barrier.

Blaze! Instantly, Mark's entirety was set ablaze; the flames were so strong that the water bubble that surrounded his entirety began to sizzle as if it were boiling, sending steam everywhere.

"Ahhhhh!" Mark cried in h.e.l.lish pain, as the boiling water simmered his skin, covering his entire body with wounds, the water soon fully evaporated but Leo's Blazing Palm attack hadn't ended yet.

"Die!" Leo shouted cruelly, his eyes flickering with fire as his palm that had clumps of flames pressed onto Mark's chest.

"LEOOOO!" Mark shouted in a painful wail, but sadly, it would be his last as Leo's blazing fire consumed his entire body.

Alia, who focused on Julie, turned to look at Mark, her face sunk as she shouted, "Leo, how dare you?"

She was planning to help, but a bright ray of magical lights beamed towards her from an angle. 

"Oh no! Force..." Alia said in alarm; she hurried to try and conjure her Force Counter Skill. However, before she could invoke it, Julie had already beaten her.

"Force Cage..." As Julie said this, Alia felt as if her body had stopped moving, as if she was in a cage that had countless chains binding her entirety.

The magic ray swept towards her growing closer by the second, but Alia gritted her teeth and shouted while glaring at Julie, "Julieeee!"

Bang! Instantly, the ray smashed into her body, creating an explosive effect. Alia, now severely injured, collapsed onto the ground with her eyes open, glaring at Julie before the lights faded away.

Julie looked at Alia with a complicated look in her eyes; she gripped her fists while muttering, "Mother, Father... I didn't want for this to happen, but it was what had to be done."

Irene stared at Julie and sighed while thinking, 'Look's like she didn't want to kill her, maybe I should hold back a bit in that last attack...'

As the two were contemplating their actions, Razel and Oran had already finished up. They noticed that Leo was walking over with a slightly relieved look, behind him was the charred body of Mark, who had perished from his a.s.sault.

"Well, haha, it seems we all made it out in one piece," Oron said with a laugh.

"Indeed so," Leo said with a smirk, trying to hide the slight amount of discomfort in his eyes.

Razel had a faint smile but didn't say anything as he glanced at the girls, he saw that they were both speaking with each other, but they each had forced smiles.

"Leo... you'll have to..." Razel was about to say something, but Leo, who was looking at Julie, spoke with firm eyes, "I know, I'll speak with her later..."

Razel glanced at him and nodded, he thought to himself, 'It seems with the arrival of these new friends, he's finally starting to act more mature, speaking of which, I wonder if they're alright?'

When Razel pondered about Evan's crew, he hurriedly turned to look at the meeting room's scene. Suddenly though, his eyes widened with shock as he saw the corpses on the ground, the fearful looking officials, and Evan, who was calmly seated and speaking with his mother.

Not only Razel, even Leo, who had looked over by this time, glanced at the scene in shock as they both exclaimed, "What the h.e.l.l?"

As if Evan heard their shouts, he looked at them and gave them a thumbs up. However, Joe walked over from nowhere and spoke, "Brother Leo, what took you so long? We've been watching you guys duke it out for a while now... man; you sure are slow."

'This b.a.s.t.a.r.d!' Both Leo and Razel cursed inwardly.

Oron looked at this from the side and shook his head, while Julie and Irene, who had now calmed down, looked forward with helpless looks.

Leo, who cleared his mood, spoke, "Hey, it's not like everyone here are freaks like you guys!"

Joe, hearing this lifted his head and laughed as he spoke, "Haha, I guess you're right, come on, there's one more fight that's yet to finish."

When Leo heard his face changed, he recalled that his father was now fighting a life and death battle against his most hated foe.

"We can't sit around, we have a hurry and help..." Leo turned and prepared to hurry over to the ice dome, but right at this time, his eyes widened as he saw that the cracks on its surface were expanding at a rapid rate.

"This..." Leo was a bit surprised, but at this time, Evan, who had only now risen from his seat, walked over and spoke.

"Yup, he should have already finished, this battle of yours and your father, should be considered as your victories," Evan said with a smile.

Leo looked forward with hopeful eyes, as not long after the ice dome exploded as one person flew backward, before doing a flip and landing on the ground.

Blarg! This person lowered his head and spat out a chunk of blood onto the floor, his breath unsteady as most of his body was charred black.

'd.a.m.n! Where the h.e.l.l were those sons of b.i.t.c.hes? Did they not recall the plan?' Kelvin thought in his mind while trying to catch his breath as he stared at the region of the destroyed dome.

The icy mist faded, as both Milon and Wilma walked out of it, their bodies had a slight number of wounds, but it wasn't as serious as Kevlin's injuries.

'This isn't good, I have to leave...' Kelvin was about to retreat, but as he looked behind him, he saw that Evan was standing by his side with a calm look.

"You... how did you?" Kelvin confused prepared to say something, but before he knew it, he felt a sharp blow on his neck, causing his head to turn dizzy, the world spun around him before his consciousness faded.

Looking at his fallen rival, Milon shook his head before he stared at Evan, he had noticed that the scene outside was peaceful and even saw the cloaked individuals on the ground.

From this fact alone, he picked up a few things, he made a slight bow to Evan and spoke, "Mr. Evan, I thank you with my deepest sincerity, if it weren't for you and your friends, then I'm afraid that we might have had a troublesome time."

Evan chuckled at this and spoke, "It's nothing, this isn't the time for thanks, I'll leave you guys to finish your business, the other suspects are already captured for you to inspect. You are free to call another meeting after you've reorganized this mess."

Milon gave Evan a deep look as his gaze noticed Vawn, Paulson and a few others tied up by Vernisa's and a few other officials sides, he had a hint of respect when he spoke, "That would be perfect,"

"Father," Leo said as he hurried over.

Milon looked at his son and smiled as he spoke, "Leo, you did well; your mother would be proud."

Leo, hearing this felt warm; he smiled, not saying anything. Evan seeing this felt a little distant, he hadn't seen his parents in such a long time, they died far too long ago, when counting his time spend in that life, he was even having trouble remembering their faces.

He shook his head turning around and leaving, as he spoke to Layla and the others, "Let's go, we should rest up a bit,"

Layla, Joe, and the others nodded as they followed along, the officials made way for them as if they were giving pa.s.sage to heroes. Soon, they arrived at the entrance, but Evan turned his head and stared at the three cloaked men who fought the officials before leaving.

"Breya, did you do that thing I asked for those previous Anti Human individuals?" Evan spoke to Breya.

Breya's eyes flashed before she smiled and spoke, "Hehe, of course."

Evan smirked as he spoke in a voice that trailed off with the winds, "Ha, well then, let's see what fish we can pull out from the bait."

Layla and the others knew what Evan was talking about, but no one said anything, they left the Hall of Governance in a relaxed manner, jumping from the roof as if taking flight as they faded into the jungle of buildings.

When Evan's party left, they didn't notice, but in an extremely remote building, a party was standing on the roof. Looking at them closely, one would notice that they were a familiar bunch that wore dark robes with odd helmets covering their faces. 

A slender one that seemed like a female looked at the individual at their center and spoke, "Master, should we begin?"

The Master remained silent, curiously eyeing Evan as he spoke cooly, "We've seen enough of their power, as for those Upper Elders and their objectives, huhu... from now on, we'll be doing things our way."

The slender female and the silent one glanced at the one called Master, their helmets flas.h.i.+ng in red lights before returning to normal. Soon, they vanished from the room, as the scene here continued like the norm. 

***

Author's note:

I am going to spend some time refining the earlier chapters of the book, I'll let everyone know when they are done. Don't worry, it won't affect the normal chapter posting routine.