Chapter 406: TMC General Manager

"Sorry, boys. He’s our problem. Step back please."

A man with jet-black hair and a dark beard flecked with silver stepped forward. His presence gave him a mature aura. At his side stood a massive Black man whose muscular build demanded respect.

The Major halted, dampening the blue flames shrouding his body as he eyed the pair.

"So TMC management has arrived," said the Major, clicking his tongue. "I see you weren’t lying, kid... It’s just me here, and taking on both the leader and the vice-leader of TMC isn’t something I can pull off alone... I’d love to say that, but you know how stubborn I get. Get the hell out of here before I lose my temper."

The man with silver streaks in his beard took a step forward, adjusting his cuffs.

"Come on, Major Dwayne, don’t make this difficult," said the TMC leader in a tone dripping with threat. "The last time you made me mad, the Grand General had to step in, and I wiped the floor with your face. Are you trying to start a war? Trying to murder a TMC member isn’t something I’m going to watch."

"You talk about war, but I don’t give a fuck," said Dwayne with a grin, reigniting the blue flames across his body. "Whether the world ends or not doesn’t affect me. I want to test my power, and a pair of Platinum-ranks sound like great opponents."

The TMC leader sighed, unbuttoning his collar.

"Stephen, kill him," said the leader without looking back. "The brat is your protege, not mine."

Stephen, the massive man standing beside him, cracked his knuckles with a pop.

"Alexander, follow the leader to headquarters," said Stephen, locking his eyes on Dwayne. "We have things to talk about. And as for you... I want to see what gives you the right to act arrogant."

The Major let out a laugh and glanced at Alexander.

"You tell him he can leave, but I don’t recall giving him permission," said Dwayne, locking his aura onto the vampire. "If you move a muscle, kid, there won’t be anything left of you."

"Kill him," said the leader in an icy tone.

The [Shadow Vampire Summon Lvl 1] surged in a tide of darkness.

"Insolent!" roared Dwayne, diving down to sweep through the shadows and crush Alexander.

However, Stephen materialized in his trajectory. The giant’s fist turned a grayish hue; upon clashing with the Major’s blue flames, the combustion extinguished as if the fire had never existed.

"Is that all you’got?" said Stephen, seeing him pushed back.

Jhonson, seeing his boss repelled, leaped into the fray to make it a two-on-one against TMC’s vice-leader. He vanished in a flicker, unleashing his skill from a distance.

BOOM!

A spatial detonation exploded thin air against Stephen’s ribs. However, the giant’s grayish skin didn’t budge; the force capable of shredding Alexander’s organs bounced off Stephen’s body like a breeze. Without wasting a second, Stephen threw a right straight into the open air. The fist bridged meters of distance and smashed into Jhonson’s face before he could rematerialize, slamming him through the concrete and reducing everything around them to rubble.

Stephen brushed the dust off his knuckle, glancing at Jhonson embedded in the crater and the Major holding his guard.

"Out of respect for the Grand General, I won’t finish you both," said Stephen in a booming voice. "But if you act insolent again, don’t blame me for tearing your heads off."

Dwayne let out a laugh, spitting a blue spark onto the asphalt.

"Don’t get insolent with me!" shouted Dwayne. "I was just warming up."

The Major threw his arms wide and roared with everything he had.

"[Nova]!" screamed Dwayne.

His entire body collapsed into the center of a sphere of blue flames. The temperature spiked in a fraction of a second: surrounding concrete turned to lava, steel structures evaporated, and the coastline hundreds of meters away began to boil, sending plumes of steam into the sky.

The heat was brutal, capable of incinerating any ordinary Awakened in seconds.

Yet Stephen’s body reacted. The metallic grayish hue on his skin expanded across his torso and face, while a current of blue aura erupted from his pores, chilling and neutralizing the thermal wave.

Dwayne, from the center of the dome, narrowed his eyes as he took in the giant’s barrier.

"Just as I thought..." muttered Dwayne, gritting his teeth. "The brat had that skill too."

"Yeah, he’s my disciple, so I taught him a few things," said Stephen, taking a step through the flames without a scratch.

"If the Government finds out skills can be shared..." said Dwayne with a twisted grin, "then the whole world will be coming after you. That would be quite something to see."

Stephen let out a chuckle that rattled the surrounding rubble.

"Yeah. The whole world will come after me. It won’t be the first time they’ve tried; however, this time I’m ready. Before becoming a guinea pig again, I’d rather extinguish humanity."

Dwayne stared at him in silence, a cold shiver running down his spine as the blue flames of his [Nova] began to die out. He knew that Stephen wasn’t someone to mess with. Toxic Calamity, Abomination, Plague—those were common designations in classified archives used to describe him: an entity with the biological capability to wipe out an entire race if he chose to.

In the higher circles of the Government, detailed reports documented past attempts to seize his technology and the catastrophic outcomes that followed. The executive order regarding Stephen was absolute: never corner him unless they were one hundred percent certain they could execute him instantly before he triggered the end of the world.

Dwayne extinguished his aura completely. With a grim expression, he turned on his heel and strode into the smoke, calling Jhonson with a whistle. He hadn’t expected Stephen to be so determined to protect that brat, let alone at the cost of his own life and the planet’s stability.