Chapter 81: Tell me, now that I’m here… Do you regret killing my father?

Kaelen’s consciousness was suddenly pulled back to reality, and he opened his eyes to over a hundred blade tips and rifle lasers pointing at his chest as masked figures with the emblem of the stronghold surrounded him.

"Kaelen Cross, you are under arrest by the order of the Emperor, and resisting arrest will make us use necessary force on you." One of them commanded.

Kaelen was surprised, but mostly unfazed.

He slowly raised his hand like he was surrendering, when he suddenly grabbed the lid and closed the pod shut faster than the men could react.

They hesitated to immediately open fire at the closed lid, riddling the pod with bullet holes, emptying an entire clip into the game set, before they quickly reloaded as one dug the tip of his blade into the gap in the lid to pry it open.

The moment it was wide enough for them to see, their eyes widened and their pupils constricted. Because there was no one inside, and they’d only been shooting an empty pod.

When suddenly, like a smoke bomb had been tossed inside the room, a white mist quickly began covering the entire room, and when the men saw this, their eyes were instantly filled with terror, and they were well aware of what came next.

"Get down!"

...

Outside the hotel, and surrounding the entire building, were armoured vehicles with more military officials than one could count.

The commander grabbed a transmitter to directly update the Emperor himself, who was on the other end of the line, on the mission.

"Sir, we’ve evacuated everyone inside the hotel, swept the entire floors, and apprehended the target still inside his gaming pod. Everything’s going as planned. What could possibly go wrong—"

Boom—!!!

The entire 37th floor of the building was suddenly blown off, making everyone on the ground floor instinctively duck. But before they could react, several more explosions rang out in a chain, floor after floor, shaking the entire building to its core and making it tip towards the troops waiting downstairs.

"Take Cover!"

The commander screamed as he turned tail and ran in the opposite direction, his men following his actions as they ran in the opposite direction as well. Those who had a speed-oriented Talent ran out of the area just as the building collapsed, swallowing those who were a step too slow to the gravity of the falling building.

The commander was one of those lucky enough to dive out at the last minute. But he couldn’t escape the shockwave and burns, which momentarily disoriented him, until he found his bearings from the Emperor’s voice roaring through the transmitter, and he quickly scrambled to grab it and report.

"S-Sir, there’s been major casualties..." He trailed off as something caught his peripheral vision, and he looked up to see a figure flash across the sky towards the heart of the stronghold.

"What is it, Commander? Tell me what you see."

"T-The boy... I think he’s heading towards you as we speak. I’ll send troops your way immediately..." The commander trailed off once more when he looked around him and saw he had no more troops to rely on. "I-I..."

"I see. You and your men have fought a noble war, Commander. It’s time for me to end this once and for all." The Emperor said as he cut the line and put down his phone.

At that moment, the breeze from the open window kissed his back, and he flinched and stiffened for a moment, before he relaxed and calmly turned around to face the silhouette standing behind the curtain.

The wind lifted the white curtain just enough to reveal Kaelen standing there motionlessly as he locked eyes with the Emperor like a hardened killer.

"You’ve grown up so much to be like your father. I can’t believe I didn’t recognize you all these years." The Emperor said with a warm smile, like a father reminiscing about his lost son.

Kaelen slowly stepped out from behind the curtains. "Tell me, now that I’m here... do you regret killing my father?" Kaelen calmly asked as he slowly approached like a predator circling its prey.

The Emperor lowered his head for a moment, before he let out a soft chuckle. He snapped his head upwards as his eyes flared in anger. "The only regret I have is not killing that selfish man!" The Emperor roared, and at the same time, several figures materialized out of thin air, surrounding Kaelen, who was now standing in the middle of the room.

Standing between him and the Emperor was another familiar face.

The Governor of Stronghold 3.

It looked like he’d walked into their trap.

But Kaelen was more interested in what the Emperor had just said. He immediately frowned. "You think you can lie your way out of this?"

"I was there. Ten years ago, when your dog drove a knife into my father’s chest." Kaelen snapped back.

"And that’s the only mistake I made." The Emperor immediately shot back. "Entrusting such glorious work to this bastard’s hands." He said as he glared at the Stronghold 3 Governor, who clenched his jaw but didn’t say a word.

"I should’ve been the one who drove the blade into that bastard’s chest and made sure that he died that night. You’re no different from your father. Selfish and greedy. An item powerful enough to completely tip the scale of the planetary war in favour of humanity." The Emperor said with seething rage, flying spittle everywhere. "But instead... he chose to use that item on that witch you call your mother—"

Slash—

Kaelen’s hand moved so fast and suddenly that, before anyone could react, he’d swiped his index and middle fingernails across the Stronghold 3 Governor’s throat, lacerating it.

The man grabbed his bleeding throat with eyes filled with terror as he went down, choking on his own blood.

Everyone watched in terror as the man slumped to the floor in a pool of blood, when his body flickered and disappeared from the spot, along with the blood, like it never happened.

[You have killed the Demonic Fox in Wolf’s Clothing]

[10,000× Reward Multiplier Triggered...]

[You have received 120,000,000 Evolution Points]