Hitman with a Badass System

The elf raised his hands, clenching his fist as the chains coiling around Michael tightened. Since Michael still hadn't cast the death range, he remained at the Immortal stage. He wanted the elf to think he had the upper hand for a moment. Looking at the chains tightening around his body, the elf grinned arrogantly. The ethereal cage slowly floated above Michael to cage him within.

"Finish him," the elf ordered the two half-immortals who survived Michael's attack. They didn't need the elf to order them twice as they cast lightning spells to weaken him. In a blink of an eye, several lightning bolts struck Michael from above. But the responsive shield appeared around Michael, absorbing most of the lightning energy. Nonetheless, the Half-immortals continued to bombard Michael with lightning bolts. Countless lightning bolts struck Michael in the sky, causing Lailah's heart to ache.

"It's my turn," The elf creased his brows when he saw the Dark Lord smiling. He remained unharmed except for a single drop of blood trickling from his lips. Hearing the Dark Lord's words, the elf willed the cage to drop on him, caging him within. However, the moment the golden cage trembled, the Dark Lord grabbed the chains and started to twist them with his hands. The chains let out a shrieking noise as the elf noticed cracks appearing in the chain. Suddenly, everything around them turned pitch black as before. The golden cage glimmered in the darkness for a few moments before getting shrouded by the darkness. Stuck inside the darkness, the elf and his lackeys tried to escape the domain of the death range. When they finally managed to fly through the darkness, they heard a thundering shatter in the air. They turned around and looked at the darkness slowly fading away. Once the darkness completely disappeared, they witnessed countless specks of light spots around the Dark Lord.

The cage and chains the elf used to trap Michael were nowhere to be seen. Instead, they saw the Dark Lord devilishly smiling at them.

"Playtime is over," Michael's demonic voice swept through the area. After they heard his words, the cloud of darkness around him darkened. To their complete shock, the power level increased with the darkness until the elf sensed the power radiation of a Half Celestial.  The elf couldn't believe it. If the Dark Lord was an Immortal, he still had some spells that could take him down. But no spell in his arsenal had the power to take down a Half Celestial. Only then did the elf realize that he pretended to be weak to make them cast all their spells and exhaust their energies. Now that the Half Immortals spend almost half of their energy casting lightning spells, and he spent a chunk of his energy casting a legendary spell, the Dark Lord gained the upper hand in the battle.

Without giving them any time to retaliate, the Dark Lord fired dark beams out of his eyes and burned two holes through one of the Half Immortal's chest. Blood splattered out from his chest as he groaned in pain. Before anyone could react, the Dark Lord vanished into thin air and appeared right behind the groaning half immortal.

Pulch!

The elf felt a splash of hot blood on his face. He turned around to see the head of his minion flying in the air. While the head was still in the air, a ring of dark flames shot out of the Dark Lord, burning everyone within. The elf's silver robes were on fire in a blink of an eye. He felt the scorching heat burning through his porcelain skin. Fighting the pain, he managed to fly through the ring of fire and escape its range. However, the same couldn't be said for his lackeys. When he turned around, he only saw headless bodies burning to ashes before falling down from the sky. With all his lackeys dead, he was the last man standing against the Dark Lord.

Despite facing an overwhelmingly powerful opponent, the elf managed to react in time and cast a spell. In a blink of an eye, crescent-shaped fire blades appeared out of nowhere and shot toward Michael. They flew in all directions to cut the enemy into pieces and burn the pieces to ashes. Facing the countless fire blades, Michael simply raised his hand, casting his own wind blades.

The wind blades sniffed out the fire in the fire blades, voiding its effects. Some wind blades flew through the fire blades and hit the elf. The lucky bastard managed to cast a quick defense spell that formed a sparkling chakra in front of him and absorbed most of the wind blades' power. Suppose he hadn't cast the defense spell, the wind blades would have cut him in several places. Truth be told, Michael held back when casting the wind blades. His aim was not to kill the elf but to take him alive. The elf might have some answers about Harry's location. Even if the elf didn't know the exact location, if he could tell him where they intended to take Lailah, he would be able to track down the one who ordered Harry's kidnapping.

Boom!

After surviving the wind blades, the elf clapped his hands together. This time, he created several sonic waves to disorient Michael and attack him with another spell. The sonic waves overshadow the thunderclaps and split the ground beneath them. Fortunately, Lailah and Gaya were standing on barren lands without any buildings or living beings. Countless cracks spread through the land like spider webs as they flew away from the ground before falling into the holes. In the air, Michael heard his ears ringing due to the sonic waves. In case his power level didn't reach the Half Celestial stage, his eardrums would have exploded. He was certain of it. The sonic waves disturbed the cloud of darkness, revealing Michael's body to the elf.

For a moment, Michael's power level dropped from Half Celestial stage level 4 to level 3. When the elf sensed the drop in his power radiation, he dashed at the Dark Lord to take advantage of the situation. On the midway, a trident made of emerald stone materialized in the elf's hands. He clenched the trident tight and stabbed Michael. But when the trident was a few inches away from his chest, the Dark Lord's figure disappeared from his sight. The elf felt a chill as his instincts screamed at him to turn around.

As he was about to turn around, he felt a sharp pain in his back. He looked down to see a sword sticking through his gut. Blood trickles down from the tip of the black sword. He tried to move, yet his body refused.

"Grrgh," The elf growled as he tried to push the sword back, only to feel a sharp sting in his neck. He slowly turned to the side and saw the Dark Lord injecting something into his neck. Lailah witnessed the battle with awe and shock. This was the first time she had seen two Immortals go head to head. And the effects of the battle were devastating to the land around them. When she looked around, the barren land had countless cracks, craters, and bodies. If they battled above a city or a town, it would have turned into a ruin by the end of their battle. Once the injection of paralyzing poison was empty, Michael drew the needle out of the elf's neck.

"What…did…you do…" The elf could barely move his lips and question the Dark Lord.

Michael grabbed the elf by his neck, descended from the sky, and landed beside Gaya and Lailah.

"It is not safe for you here," Michael told Lailah.

"I am not moving without any information about Harry," Lailah shook her head.

"And we will get it when we interrogate the elf. We cannot do that here," Michael's voice turned grave. Lailah clenched her fist, thinking about leaving the fire realm. Eventually, she agreed to leave the place and follow Michael. After Lailah nodded, Michael willed the system to teleport them all to the castle, where they had everything to break down the elf.

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Lailah closed her eyes when she felt the space around her distort, and by the time she opened her eyes, she was standing in a brightly lit hall with a large round stone table in the center. Seeing Gaya walking away with the elf, Lailah tried to follow her behind.

"You don't want to see it. Trust me," Michael stopped Lailah.

"Give me ten minutes with him, and I will be back with a lead on your son," Gaya reassured Lailah before leaving the hall. Lailah seemed reluctant but ultimately decided not to follow her behind. After Gaya left the room, she was alone with Ghost in the room. As one would expect, Lailah's eyes were filled with concern and fear for her son's life. Poor Lailah felt so helpless and weak to do anything. Her inner emotions slowly turned into anger. Michael noticed her eyes blazing with fury as he sat on his throne. Unlike Lailah, Michael remained calm and didn't direct his anger toward her because he knew there was nothing Lailah could have done.

"Why does this keep happening to him? He is only a little child," Lailah stuttered.

"He is going to be harm's way no matter how far we live from you. A son has to pay for his father's sins," Lailah said, gritting her teeth.

"So you are blaming me?" asked Michael.

"We both know Harry will always end up in the middle of your war against the entire world,"

"Tell me, what should I do?" Michael calmly asked Lailah.

"Should I drop everything and surrender myself to the guardians? Or should I leave everything behind and live in the Cold mountains? What should I do?" Michael slowly spoke these words.

"I don't want to blame you. But it was you who prematurely absorbed the first energy. It was you who decided to give Harry a physical body. It was you who failed to kill Eratos. And who made me promise not to watch over Harry? It was you. In case you didn't know, I didn't wage war against any of them. They created the Dark Lord and vilified me so they could be heroes," Michael's cold words echoed through the hall. Lailah was speechless as the entire hall grew darker and darker.