Hitman with a Badass System

"I can't think of anyone who might want to hurt Harry. No one even knows he exists except for you two and Noah," Lailah mumbled.

"And Edith," said Michael. The last time Michael saw Edith was at Itholan before he slaughtered Victoria and her family. After that, Edtih practically disappeared from Michael's radar. He always thought she was with Noah or Lailah. But judging by the bewildered look on Edtih's face, it was apparent Lailah had no idea about Edith's location.

"Where is she?" asked Gaya.

"I don't know. Why are we even talking about Edith? It must be someone who sent Eratos after me. We should have questioned him," Lailah panicked. Her usually calm and cold demeanor completely disappeared when her child was in danger. At that moment, Lailah was not the wielder of Angel's veena but a mother who lost her child.

"Well, I am good at interrogating. But even I cannot make the dead speak," Gaya sighed.

"This might help us figure out who sent him," Michael opened his arm and showed them the shark head medallion.

"It contains a powerful rune that saved him from your veena all those years ago. If we could find its origin, we have a chance to locate Harry,"

"What if they did something to him?" Lailah trembled as Michael slowly shook his head.

"Whoever took Harry is not a killer. Otherwise, they would have killed your useless disciples and the guardians instead of knocking them out," said Michael.

When Gaya heard that someone had knocked out Lailah's disciples again, she couldn't help rolling her eyes.

"What are you teaching those girls? How many times did they get knocked out by now? For fuck sake, teach those girls to fight. You can't kill people playing music. My dogs would do a better job than those useless bitches," Gaya wasn't just ridiculing them but was seriously pissed at Lailah's disciples.

'I am not training them to be killers, Gaya," Lailah creased her brows.

Gaya was about to reply to Lailah with a snarky comment when Michael raised his hand, ending their conversation. A few seconds later, Gaya flicked her wrist as the long bow materialized in her hand. Since Lailah lacked the perception of Gaya and Michael, who were far stronger than Lailah, it took her some time to sense a group of powerful entities flying toward them.

Michael focused on the horizon to see a group led by an Immortal flying toward them. Other than the Immortal, the group had four more Half Immortals. Simply put, this group could decimate several kingdoms in Elon and Ozer within a few hours. Looking at the group, one thing became certain to Michael; Eratos had a pretty powerful backing behind him.

"I will take care of them," Michael moved in front of Lailah and Gaya.

"I can take one or two," said Gaya, but Michael shook his head.

"Keep her safe," Michael looked at Lailah over his shoulder and ordered Gaya. Once the group came close enough to see Michael, he drew his dark swords and cracked his neck.

The sky above him rumbled as lightning streaks struck across the dark sky like dark spider webs on a black canvas. Then, the clusters of dark clouds obliged, letting heavy rain descend in little gleaming drops of silver. It added an alien glamor to the eerie red world of the fire realm. A huffing wind rose up then, stirring the red sand on the ground. A tinkling sound came to their ears as the first pearls of rain dropped onto their heads. The sound was like the glassy clinking of a champagne flute, lilting and clear. A sheet of rain passed over them as the sound intensified. The smell of rain in the Fire realm rose like a miasma.

"Let's go," Gaya said to Lailah. Although Lailha was reluctant to leave, she ultimately followed behind Gaya because she knew she wasn't strong enough to face them.  Meanwhile, the sky grew darker and more vengeful as though it had a score to settle with the fire realm. Steaming shrouds of cloud coil and writhe as the unearthly caterwauling sound filled the air. The wind whipped everything into a frenzy. The dark clouds raced across the sky, thrumming with the charged energy they were desperate to release.

Then there was an explosion like a sonic boom that shook the entire realm. Doom-black clouds, filled with malice, churned and roiled to the rhythm of the wind.

Branched lightning lit up the dark sky, following the rumbling thunder. Buzzing and hissing, several lightning bolts struck across the Fire realm, turning some poor trees into charcoal within a second.

Under the raging storm, Michael hovered in the sky alone, waiting to welcome the group of Immortals. Finally, the man who led the group, an elf, halted in the sky and signaled his lackeys to wait for his orders wordlessly. The elf scanned Michael from top to bottom until he realized who they were against. To Michael's surprise, the others behind the elf had no signs of fear or shock in their eyes. They seemed like humans, but something about them irked Michael in the wrong way.

"Are you looking for Eratos?" Michael asked the group. His voice became demonic as the cloud of darkness slowly shrouded Michael. Michael controlled the death range around him. The group wasn't enveloped by complete darkness. Instead, they had just enough light to see Michael's figure barely. The elf was at Immortal stage level 5. Still, the elf had no fear in his eyes. Even after seeing the darkness surrounding him and hearing the terrifying voice of the Dark Lord, the elf remained calm.

"I am afraid he is no longer here," said Michael after the elf and his group remained silent.

"This does not concern you, Dark Lord. You are meddling in things you cannot possibly fathom," the elf snarled.

"Let us take the human with us, and we can forgive you for killing Eratos," said the elf, only to see Michael burst into laughter.

"Forgive me? Hahahaha," Michael's laughter echoed through the dark skies.

After Michael's laughter faded away, his eyes turned completely black and lit up with dark flames.

"Riddle me this, where do you intend to take her?" Michael asked the elf.

"It doesn't concern you, Dark Lord. Why don't you go play villain, where you came from, and let the grownups deal with this?" the elf snickered. Despite facing the Dark Lord, he looked just as arrogant as facing a typical cultivator. In Michael's eyes, the elf seemed really stupid. But again, he had a feeling the reason for the elf's haughtiness might be some legendary spells in his arsenal. The poor elf had no idea Michael could raise his power to Half Celestial stage in a blink of an eye.

"I don't enjoy killing, but it would be hard not to when I  am killing you," Michael calmly said.

"You narrow-minded fool. You only think about killing, not the consequences. Consequences of killing Immortals. Kill me, and five others will take my place. We are legion, and no one can stop us," the elf growled at Michael.

"Watch me," said Michael as the crimson-red lightning bolts dancing around the dark swords intensified. They crackled violently as though they were desperate to take the elf and his group's life. The Half Immortals standing behind the elf suddenly raised their hands as several lightning bolts from the sky above struck Michael simultaneously. Even from far away, Gaya and Lailah could feel the electricity in the air and their hair standing up. Without giving Michael a time to retaliate, they bombarded him with lightning bolts. While the Half Immortals were striking him with lightning bolts, the elf clapped, sending a powerful sonic wave in Michael's direction. The sonic wave pushed away the darkness around Michael for a moment, revealing him being struck down by the bolts of lightning.

To Gaya's surprise, the ground beneath her cracked open after the elf clapped his hands together. Soon, more cracks branched out from the big crack and formed a web of cracks in the ground. She and Lailah had to fly away and look for stable ground. Luckily for Hell city residents, the battle between them happened far away. Otherwise, several buildings would have collapsed and taken many lives.

When the elf thought about casting another spell, everything around him turned pitch black. He couldn't even see his own hands before his eyes. Once the darkness blinded them completely, the elf felt a chill running down his spine. His instincts screamed at him to move away, and so he did. The moment he dashed to the right, he felt a strong breeze of wind across his face. He was unable to see what was happening around him, except he heard one of his lackeys groan in pain for a quick second.

The elf immediately cast a spell to summon a bright sword that lit up inside the darkness and revealed a headless body hovering in the air beside him. Blood streamed out of his neck, adding red to the rain. As the elf was staring at the headless body, a strong wave of wind flew past him, snuffing out the light.

"Hide as much as you want, coward," The elf started to growl.

"I am going to show you the true meaning of power," said the elf. Then, the elf flew out of the darkness and prepared to cast a powerful spell.

He closed his eyes for a moment as a golden shield around him appeared to protect him while he cast the spell. From the ground, Gaya sensed the sudden surge in energy around her. In a blink of an eye, an ethereal cage appeared right above the dome of darkness. Thick chains glistening in the light grew out of the cage and shot straight into the darkness.

"Got you," The elf snickered as the darkness enveloping his lackeys faded away, revealing the Dark Lord and two other headless bodies. The golden chains coiled around Michael like sentient beings. They squeezed him, restricting his movements. The elf couldn't care less about the death of three of his lackeys. He forgot about everything when he saw the chains coiling around the Dark Lord.

"He…" Lailah's heart skipped a beat as she tried to ascend into the air. But Gaya simply stopped her and shook her head.

"Let the elf be happy for a moment," Gaya smirked.