CHAPTER 309: MARVAS

Rhett felt a chill like no other wash over him.

’Huh?’ He turned away from the countless screens in front of him and looked toward the thick metal wall.

His gaze seemed to pierce through it, seeing the ensuing chaos.

"Captain? You okay?" Riven asked without turning away from the screen.

His fingers blurred across the keyboard, entering numerous codes by the second. He couldn’t afford to let his focus slip.

They, Rhett, Riven, and Malakai’s maid, Kiana, who Riven hadn’t even known existed, had occupied an abandoned pulse station on the outskirts of the Kaer Thorn district.

With the transmitter Riven had placed at the main pulse station, all he had to do was feed false information through the system continuously to mask their location.

Right now, Malakai and the entire squad were invisible in the eyes of the city.

When no answer came, he spared Rhett a glance. The man was just silently staring at the side wall.

"Don’t tell me you’ve never seen a metal alloy before?" he joked.

"There’s trouble."

Riven swallowed his next joke. Captain Rhett, as he had always known the man, was a joker.

But anytime his voice sounded like that, it had never failed to make his heart pound.

"H-how bad?"

"City wide extinction bad. You’ll have to keep doing this by yourself. I need to leave."

"Wh-what—Wait! What are you talking about? Who will protect me..." he glanced at Kiana and cleared his throat, "...I mean us."

"You’re going to have to do without me."

"Wait—!"

Rhett vanished from the station before Riven could speak. Riven stared, eyes widened at where Rhett had been, unable to believe his current situation.

Survive? He could barely scale a fence! He glanced to the side, a bit hopeful that Malakai’s maid would at least be capable.

"What evolution stage are you in?"

"N-node formation." The way she fidgeted under his stare made him even more nervous.

’Don’t tell me she’s even more useless than me!?’

Riven swallowed.

"How many nodes?"

"O-one."

Riven felt like he was having a heart attack. ’We’re dead.’ What the hell were they supposed to do if an assassin attacked now!?

The beeping from the monitor snapped him out of his panic and he cursed under his breath, focusing on the screen.

"Listen... what’s your name again?"

"K-Kiana."

"...Kiana. You have to be brave now, okay? Or we’re truly screwed. Go keep a lookout outside. Inform me if anything approaches."

"Ok-okay."

Kiana swallowed hard as she moved to the entrance. She couldn’t help but wish Karla, her sister, was present.

...

Rhett had turned into a streak of crimson light tearing through the skies. He and Laila had been communicating through an old device they once used when Valerian was alive.

It was different from a lifeguard and had a masking signal so others couldn’t listen in. While Laila had informed Rhett about the mission to the Sutrex estate, he couldn’t leave Riven alone.

He knew they had gone to the Sutrex estate, which was why his heart pounded as he caught sight of the current scene from a distance.

The bustling city had vanished, replaced by a suffocating feeling of death. A vita veil spanning kilometers had encased a large part of the city, right where the Sutrex estate was located!

’Please be okay.’

Rhett clenched his fists, eyes blazing. He exploded forward with even more speed. His squad was in there. Laila... Rhett’s heart throbbed. He couldn’t imagine his life if anything ever happened to her.

He reached the veil. Its glow illuminated the city in a bright green hue, like an apocalypse had descended.

"Halt!"

A frown soon replaced the panic on Rhett’s face.

The area around the veil had been evacuated. Streets and buildings were deserted, and blood guardians flooded the space, guarding the veil with focus.

Rhett stopped a distance away, cold eyes fixed on the wall of blood guardians blocking his path.

The one leading them was a broad man with orange, flame like hair and intense eyes.

Marvas Aldrenari, the Arbiter of the Kaer Thone district.

"Captain Rhett," he said with a small frown. "It’s quite rare to see you anywhere other than a bar. What are you do—"

"Move."

Marvas’s words froze in his throat. He’d just felt a chill wash over him. As he focused on Rhett, his gaze constricted.

’What...’

Rhett’s eyes had flushed red, crimson veins crawling up his face like snakes. A chill seemed to radiate from him, and it took Marvas a moment to realize what it was, killing intent.

Was this really Rhett? The useless drunk Rhett?

"I won’t repeat myself again."

As a crimson spear made of blood slowly appeared on Rhett’s outstretched arm, the bloodlust spiked.

The eyes of the blood guardians snapped toward him. Those on the ground shot into the sky, and in moments, an army stood between Rhett and the vita veil.

Marvas hovered forward, gripping his weapon. Though his expression was serious, only he knew how hard he tried to maintain composure.

As an Arbiter, he too was a bloom, but against a Sanguine, waste or not, he wasn’t sure he stood a chance.

’But we have more blooms.’ He glanced to the side; other guardian blooms had come to support. Though they weren’t Sanguine, a bloom was a bloom.

"This is a restricted area," Marvas said coldly, tightening his grip. "Turn back and leave now, and I’ll consider this a mist—"

Rhett had already erased the distance between them before he could finish, crimson spear tearing toward Marvas’ neck.

The expressions of Marvas and the other blooms shifted violently. Such speed!

Marvas felt an aura like no other slam against him. The sheer bloodlust penetrated so deeply that he froze for a moment, and that moment was everything.

As Rhett’s spear reached inches from his neck, Marvas knew he couldn’t react.

A flash of crimson suddenly appeared between them, clashing against the spear.

It was akin to a nuclear explosion. A cataclysmic boom echoed, followed by a force so intense it felt like a mountain slamming into the guardians.

They were blasted away, shooting in different directions. As the haze began to clear, Marvas forced his fear ridden eyes open.

A man hovered before him, wielding a broad sword that blocked Rhett’s spear.