Crimson Overlord

While Katherina and the others arrived at the Vermillion gang's headquarters, Orpheus, watching Amber trying hard to control her urge to drink blood after he didn't feed her for a few days, felt someone calling him. He could have ignored it if he didn't know this person's identity.

Orpheus sighed before appearing a thousand meters above the capital.

''Kratos, what do you want?" Orpheus said the moment he appeared before the old man disguising as the twins' goddesses butler.

Kratos chuckled, seeing Orpheus still unfriendly as always.

''Relax, I was passing and sensed you. Like an old friend, I must say Hi before continuing.'' Kratos decided to tease Orpheus; the way he smiled with that eye patch, he looked like an old man bullying his grandchild.

''Don't waste my time. My time is precious, and I'm not feeling good recently, so you better not anger me.'' Orpheus said before releasing his strength; the surrounding origin danced wildly around him as if he was some kind of monarch; it was as if the surrounding was under his control.

Kratos marveled at how easily Orpheus could synchronize with the origin as if he was born from the chaos and was loved by the origin.

Shaking his head, Kratos decided to remind the boy of something, he might be a monster after what happened, but there was still a limit.

''I say, boy, stop threatening me; I may not be able to kill you, but I can inj-" Kratos couldn't finish his words before a red sword, red as the blood itself, cut through the air like a comet and arrived before him, he teleported away feeling cold sweat dripping from his back, he almost died just now.

''Calm down, I was just joking, a joke, you know. You don't have to take out that sword. Geez! Calm down; I came here because I've something to ask you.'' Kratos said while looking fearfully at that blood-red sword emitting chilling energy. This weapon was too dangerous, the most dangerous and certainly a high-level soul weapon; only a few weapons in their hometown could compete with this weapon. This weapon killed two of her comrades, and he lost one eye; he wouldn't certainly want to have any to do with this weapon.

Kratos was trying to make Orpheus less hostile and less arrogant when they talked, but he failed. He thought because he was injured, he would not be able to use that weapon but seeing how easily Orpheus took out his soul weapon. This meant despite his injuries, he was really pissed off and didn't care about his injuries as long he killed him.

Orpheus sighed before canceling his summon. He was really sensible recently because he was unable to have a word with Ella since their date ended chaotically.

''Do you want to know if I killed members from your world as they got closer to this world, the world you seven shamelessly declared as a world you created?" He asked, not forgetting to mock Kratos.

''Ugh! Although we didn't create this world, we were the ones that made it habitable again by creating you, the races that live on it.''

''Yeah! Yeah! Even recently, one of you began crossbreeding origin beast and human to finally create the demi-humans. How grand of you.'' Orpheus sarcastically said.

''Just answer my question. As you said, I want to know the answer. To prepare before they arrive.'' Kratos said, his face wasn't looking good; the reason why he was trying to know if Orpheus had killed members from his homeworld, it was because he felt a trace of their activity; the dragon prince even sent someone. He was behind the creation of the demi-humans; well, his brother was. He was doing this to survive his brother's wrath. It was also to make up for the blunder he had committed.

''Yes! I think they will probably be here in one or two years. I know someone from your world has infiltrated it, but it doesn't matter. I will kill whoever will stand in my way. As for your world , I will eventually go there. You better not stand in my way if you wish to live a bit longer.'' Leaving those words behind, Orpheus left.

The conversation now with Kratos had made him aware of something, they were coming, and if he wished to protect what he loves, he would need to recover his strength and ultimately heal from his injuries. He must also progress; Level 2 wasn't enough; he would need to go beyond that level.

''I need to find out about who I really am. Hopefully, the answers will be inside the ruins scattered worldwide.''

He would need to find the answer to his past shrouded in mystery. There was no way what happened to him, how he became so powerful to be coincidence; he was not so foolish to believe such unrealistic thoughts.

Kratos stood floating after Orpheus as if he was contemplating something before finally saying.

''I guess I don't have too much choice. You were searching for me, I heard; I'll go to you, and maybe I'll be able to stop things before they escalated.'' He said before his appearance changed to that of a middle-aged with long black hair.

Immediately, somewhere, someone sensed his presence, and this person chuckled.

''Finally, Kratos, you're willing to see me.''

''Send someone to the Wratharis Empire to welcome our guest.'' The man ordered, dressed in his lab coat.

•••••

"Romanoff! Are you going to hide inside your shell forever!? Come out and fight like a man!" Katherina bellowed as they arrived at the headquarter of the Vermillion gang.

"Or you will wait until I kill all of your men!?" She added to provoke them further.

No response came from inside.

Katherina wrinkled her brows. The fact that the Vermillion Gang's leaders had not appeared yet worried her.

Although she could understand their plans, she could not believe they were so ruthless. Even now, when half of their battle strength had been killed, they had not made a move.

"… Sister, what do we do?" He asked with a frown.

Katherina fell silent. She looked at the silent building and put on a grave expression.

After a moment of hesitation, she said.

"We are entering."

Cline's expression turned pensive. "Sister, I think it's a trap."

"I know." Katherina nodded. "But we can only bite the bullet and enter. We need to finish the Blood Night Gang tonight. After tonight, they will be prepared against our true strength, and they will probably get reinforcements."

Lucien fell silent and nodded. Seeing that, Katherina called out to Aileen.

"Choose a team and enter first. Be careful and retreat once you find anything wrong." Katherina ordered.

Aileen nodded. "Don't worry, sister. I'll be careful."

Akilah then turned around and walked toward her unit. "Men, I need a hand here! Who is going with me!?"

Instantly, more than twenty men and women stepped forward. They put on determined expressions and nodded.

"Perfect!" Aileen unsheathed her rapier and smiled savagely. She couldn't wait for tonight's bloody battle to end, and the end was just in front of them.

"Let's go! We will get the turtle out of its shell!"

"OHHH!!!"

Aileen then walked towards the door fearlessly and used her rapier to cut it into two.

When the door fell to the ground, she realized nobody was behind it.

Everything inside was utterly dark, but darkness was not much of a problem to Aileen, much less now that she could be considered a proper level 4.

Furrowing her brows, she thought for a moment before putting on a firm expression.

"Let's go!" She said and led the group inside.

The Vermillion Gang's headquarters was different than their headquarters. While their headquarters was a normal building equipped with some special facilities, the Vermillion gang's headquarters was different, it was more complex than it looked. Although it seemed like a normal building from the outside, its inside was connected to an underground structure that extended until five floors below. It was a small maze.

Katherina knew that the underground structure had more than one escape route; unfortunately, she did not know where the escape routes led as her spy couldn't find the answer; the escape route was a tightly guarded secret, so she could do nothing but hope that Vermillion's leaders decide to face them at least once.

Once they decided to face them, she would join forces with Lilith, whom she had a few words with a few seconds ago, to kill all of them without allowing them to escape. Stella and Amber would take care of the runaways.

The group led by Aileen advanced through the building smoothly. Nobody appeared to stop them even when they located the first underground floor.

But when they descended to the second underground floor, a rain of arrows surged towards them.

"Careful!" Aileen shouted and brandished her rapier quickly. She had been wary of ambushes, so she easily deflected the first wave of arrows.

But before she could sigh in relief, tens of enemies surged out from the surroundings and charged toward them.

The trap set up by the Vermillion gang had been activated.