Chapter 111. The Crimson Sky
Southern Continent
Eldorath Empire.
Edge of Hessington State.
Burning Sands City.
Western District.
It had been 11 months since a rank 2 gate appeared in an alleyway. During this period, a team of rank 2 warriors, led by high ranking members of the Habakuk syndicate had entered the pocket world to close the gate. It had been several months since they entered the pocket world. But they had not returned. Environmental phenomena had spilled into not just the western district, but the city. Ocean waters had suddenly spilled from the pocket world into the city. The whole city was currently flooded. Also, terrifying sea creatures from the pocket world had spilled into the city alongside the ocean waters.
What started as a controllable situation has escalated into a disaster unlike anything Burning Sands City had ever faced.
Warriors could be seen engaged in brutal battles with chaotic beasts from the pocket world. Some fought above the waters and others fought in the waters.
Affinities and screams tore through the place.
By now, the criminal business run by the four major Syndicates had all collapsed. The human trafficking business had collapsed. The humans being trafficked had all been killed by chaotic beasts from the pocket world. Either that, or they had drowned completely in the waters filling up the city.
The drug trafficking businesses had collapsed and the real estate and restaurant businesses in the city had also collapsed because the gate incident had destroyed everything.
Currently the four crime lords were floating before the gate.
Trailing behind them were the elite from their crime organisations, totalling about thousand people. It went a long way to state how serious they were about closing the gate.
Crime Lord Habakuk of the western district had flames flickering beneath his feet.
Crime Lord Winston of the Eastern District was standing on a floating light construct.
Crime Lord Arabella of the Southern district had lightning streaks beneath her feet.
Crime Lord Sokolovia of the northern district was in a whirlwind of water.
For the first time in a long time, they were getting involved in a gate incident. They didn’t have any other choice. If things continued this way, everything they had built would crumble. They could not afford to send another team into the pocket world. Time was not on their side. So, they had to intervene.
"It’s time," Sokolovia said as she looked at the others.
They were about to enter the pocket world when the gate shimmered and started shrinking.
"Did they manage to close it?" Winston said.
"From the look of things, they did," Habakuk said.
"Lets wait for them to come out and ask them why they took so long to close the gate. Thanks to them, we almost lost everything. If they do not have anything reasonable to say, we will kill them all," Habakuk said. He was very displeased. The people he had sent into the gate, in his opinion, had taken too long to close the gate. Because of that, it had cost not just him, but the other three crime lords their business and almost their whole fortune. There was no way he’d let them off the hook if they didn’t have anything reasonable to say when they came.
Sokolovia, Arabella and Winston had similar thoughts.
Soon, a figure stepped out of the gate.
The gate kept shrinking after the figure stepped out of it. Soon, it turned into a small dot and disappeared as if it had never been there.
Everyone, from the crime lords to the team trailing behind them, looked at the figure.
Who the hell was this fellow?
His brown hair was all over his face.
So, they didn’t recognize him.
Everyone looked at Habakuk. It was his subordinates that had entered the gate. If anyone had a chance of recognizing the person who came out of the gate, it was him.
However, Habakuk shook his head.
He didn’t know who this person was.
If so, what happened to his subordinates?
Did this person kill them in the pocket world?
Also, when did this person enter the gate?
It was known that only his subordinates entered the gate into the pocket world. So how come someone he didn’t know or someone who was not his subordinate came out of the pocket world?
Could it be that this strange person closed the gate by himself?
How is that even possible?
How can one person close a rank 2 gate all by themself. It was not just a matter of strength.
Pocket worlds had environmental hazards that were very difficult to deal with. This was why entering a pocket world as a team was the ideal way of surviving.
Habakuk was not the only person thinking along these lines. The other crime Lords, and the team trailing behind them, had similar thoughts and questions. Everyone was confused about what was happening.
"Who are you?" Habakuk spoke carefully, not daring to offend this person. He didn’t know who the guy was or how strong he was. It was better to exercise caution.
Instead of replying, Aiden muttered underneath his breath.
"This saves me the trouble of going to their districts to look for them. But I should seriously do something about this hair. It’s all over my face. Quite annoying."
Everyone heard him. They were confused. Who the hell was this lunatic? The crime Lords were questioning him about who he was and he was muttering nonsense that left them more confused. He also ignored them?
Under the confused gazes of the crowd, blobs of blood appeared before him and transformed into a crimson blade. The crimson blade trimmed his hair, making his face visible.
"That’s better."
Suddenly, glints of realisation flashed through the eyes of the four crime Lords.
The crimson blade..
Could it be...
"Are you the Red Death?" Arabella asked a question on the minds of all the crime Lords.
The group trailing behind them was also shocked.
Realization flashed through their eyes.
But...
Was he not considered dead? No one had seen him or heard from him in the city for the past eleven months.
Everyone assumed he had either left the city, something may have happened to him or someone may have killed him.
Everyone looked at Aiden again.
Brown hair. Crimson eyes. Not too tall. About 1.85 meters.
It was the Red Death.
He cleared the gate solo???
How was this possible?
Even if he had become a legendary rank 2 warrior, which they deemed could not be possible, there was no way he could have closed the gate alone. Even the crime lords themselves had to band together, and carry a team of thousand expert and advanced rank 2 warriors with them here, about to enter the pocket world to close this troublesome gate. This went a long way to show how impossible what the Red Death had done was?
The four crime Lords knew that this person was someone they could not afford to offend. They didn’t know how powerful he was now. But they knew they could not offend him.
However, they also deemed him a threat to their power in the city. The city had only four districts.
Each one of them ruled a district. There could only be four crime Lords, not five.
The only way to get rid of him was to band together to kill him.
But even that would be difficult. They had to gather every criminal in the city against him. Some of the criminals in the city did not belong to their organizations and belonged to small gangs. Others also preferred to live solo. But, at the end of the day, the four crime lords ruled the city. No one could say no to them if they decided to ask everyone in the city to act on their behalf. They just didn’t resort to such methods because they wanted to rule the city with balance. However, the current situation required that everyone in the city acted alongside them and the thousand elites trailing behind them to kill The Red Death.
The four crime Lords nodded.
"How’s the situation on the battlefield?" One of them asked someone behind them.
"All the chaotic beasts from the pocket world have been dealt with. Because the gate closed, creatures were no longer spilling out so the numbers were easy to handle. As for the flooding waters, the warriors with the water affinity are controlling them to sweep them out of the city."
"Alright." The four crime Lords nodded.
"Sound the horn."
Everyone widened their eyes.
The horn could only be sounded when the four crime lords wanted to utilize every warrior in the city to deal with a particular threat. It had never been used before.
Someone nodded and flew towards the horizon.
Soon, the horn sounded across the city. Warriors crowded the place in a swift moment.
Aiden knew what was going on.
He was not stupid.
After assessing the current situation, the four crime lords wanted to deal with him because they deemed him a threat to their power. They were not confident they could all take him on alone. So, they were resorting to using everyone in their city to their advantage.
"More blood essence for me then," He said. More blobs of blood appeared before him and merged with the crimson blade that trimmed his hair.
Then, the crimson blade started expanding.
Some of the blobs of blood transformed into crimson wings and attached themselves to his back.
Aiden flapped the crimson wings and floated in the air.
His gaze met the four crime Lords and all the warriors in the city headed in his direction.
Various attacks were already flying his way.
The crimson sword levitated in the air and kept expanding. It covered the sky completely, painting it crimson.