Chapter 289: They Swapped Really Fast

Khar gasped as I held him in my floating arm, preventing him from moving while he gaped at the fact that I was able to block his fire.

I tilted my head at him, "So... I’m in charge around here right now, aren’t I?"

Before he could answer, the lift doors opened, allowing the rest of our group to walk into the penthouse.

Obviously the first thing they saw was me holding the guy up with my floating arm while Olivia stood behind me acting like everything was normal.

Diana smirked at me, "Oh? Couldn’t take it anymore eh? Does that mean we’re free to do whatever we want too?"

I grimaced behind my mask, realising what might happen if I were to set these two Mortal Goddesses loose on the city.

Thankfully, I didn’t need to answer her since the Khar guy was letting out a choked gasp to get my attention.

"Wait... Argh... I... I give! I give!! I surrender!"

Oh? That’s surprising... I actually thought he would struggle more and try and fight back.

Of course, I’m also assuming that he was just bluffing and merely saying that just to make me lower my guard so I wasn’t so quick to just take his word for it.

Nevertheless, I still let him go, since this was a chance to see if he would really surrender or continue fighting.

I’m pretty sure if he still continued to fight, Olivia would happily step in and beat him down for me.

She had been holding back to allow me to show off my strength so that there was no doubt to Khar who the stronger one was. Now that I have shown him, she would very happily enforce her will over that guy if he stepped out of line again.

Khar sank to his knees, holding his neck and letting out a few ragged gasps and coughing to clear his throat.

He slowly raised his head to look up at me with wide eyes, "You... You are... A true Awakened..."

I have no idea if being a ’true’ awakened is any different from being a normal awakened so I just shrugged.

He remained on his knees and he even placed his palms on the floor, clearly putting himself in a submissive position.

"A... All that is mine... Is yours to use... Please... Please guide us..." He pleaded.

I managed to keep my face neutral, though the mask would have hid my reaction anyway, as I looked at the guy who just completely changed his attitude in an instant.

"You swapped really quickly, huh?" I pointed out.

He lowered his head, "I meant everything that I have said... The strong are who will lead in this world... The weak are always at the mercy of the strong... After all... It is only with this strength that allows the weak to live in peace or they would merely be fodder for those monsters roaming around outside the safety of our cities..."

I looked back at Olivia and she was just standing there with a smug look on her face like what he had said was perfectly normal.

That was when I remembered her people valued strength as well so... In actual fact, she might actually agree with a lot of what this guy was saying, just that she believed I should be in the top position instead of him.

Now that he has recognised me as above him, she had no problems with him anymore.

I then shifted my gaze to the rest of my group and... While those girls with the burned marks were looking at Khar with surprised faces, the others also seemed to be quite accepting of what was happening as a matter of course.

Screw it, since we’re already going down this path...

I nodded at him, "Do the other Dukes also share your thinking?"

He nodded immediately, "Of course! All of us are aware of how the world works! Power means everything here! Since we know you are the strongest here, then of course you stand at the top of ever--"

"Ahem, excuse me? Strongest?" Rahayu interrupted.

Oh no... Here we go...

She stepped towards us and huffed before gesturing towards Diana, "If anyone is the strongest, my Goddess is the strongest here."

Liyana furrowed her brows and stepped beside her, "Excuse me? I believe that position belongs to my Goddess."

Olivia, not to be outdone, also stepped up and cracked her knuckles, "I believe my Lord is the strongest here. If I might remind you, my Lord is yet to awaken fully at this moment."

Both Rahayu and Liyana scowled at my red skinned Oni.

"That just means he’s not the strongest."

"He might be strong but he’s not stronger than my Goddess."

The three of them looked like they were going to start arguing again so Siti and Diana came over to my side, ignoring the three girls that were butting heads with one another.

Khar was smart enough to read between the lines from that argument to understand what it meant about the two girls beside me.

"Are... Are the two of you also True Awakened?" He asked.

"I don’t know what that means but if it means that I can do this..." Diana shrugged before lifting up her hand, causing a ball of water to appear above her palm. "Then yes."

Siti chose not to show off her powers and merely stood there while staring down at Khar like she was looking at some interesting specimen.

I decided to change the topic, "So what happens now? Can you call a meeting with the other Dukes and then... What? Just have all of you name us as the new people in charge or something?"

He nodded, "I can do that. I can call them over and let them know that there will now be new people in charge of this city. Just... Give me a moment..."

He quickly climbed back up to his feet and I thought he was going to grab a phone or something until I remembered we were underground.

He went up to the balcony where I realised the towers were formed in a triangular shape and the balconies were facing each other so they were all in sight of one another.

All of us watched him stand near the railing of the balcony where he then let loose a plume of flames up into the air, which was quite attention catching and no doubt something people around the area would notice if they even looked in this direction for a moment.

Soon enough, we could see the doors on one of the other towers open up and some woman stepped out to the balcony of the other tower as well.

The woman looked like one of those models you might see in fashion magazines as she was wearing a dress that had the top cut low enough to see her cleavage and the dress was sparkling to the point of being quite gaudy if you asked me.

She stared in Khar’s direction for a moment before she raised her hand to shoot it out towards our tower.

A bridge of ice was formed in between our balconies and she gingerly stepped up on to the bridge, walking over towards us like the bridge wasn’t suspended high up in the air.

While she was walking over, the other tower also had a man step out, this one looking like the drunk and overweight uncle you might see at family reunions that nobody likes.

He didn’t look very pleased about the sight of the flames but he still climbed up the edge of the railing and leapt over it.

I was expecting him to fall down to the ground seeing that he did not make a bridge like the woman but... He started walking on air like there was an invisible bridge there.

It was then I realised there was wind blowing around him which probably meant he had formed a bridge of air or something that allowed him to cross the space towards us while looking like he was walking on nothing.

Alright... So if I’m not wrong here... You have this guy who is fire, the fat uncle who is air, and that woman who is ice... Or water.

I wonder where the earth guy is? Guess’ it’s not the four Dukes living together in harmony.

The two got to our balcony and hopped off, both of them scowling at Khar while the rest of us watched from inside the penthouse.

"There better be a good reason for you to call us over, Khar," The woman whined.

He nodded, "There is... I have found... A True Awakened... No... Not just one... I found three of them..."

The other two Dukes seemed to change their attitudes the moment they heard his words, their bodies straightening up and looking more serious.

"Where?" The older guy asked.

Khar gestured towards his penthouse, prompting them to rush in.

The moment they ran in and saw Diana, Siti and myself standing there, they immediately fell to their knees.

""We greet the True Awakened!!""

...

Ok... This was definitely not something I expected...