Only three days had passed since the 'one-hour war', yet so much had changed.
The impact wasn't felt by normal people, yet all major powers had no doubt about it.
The sources of these changes was an old power whose roots dated back to an elitist nation.
Shadow Order.
The obvious difference could be seen from Black Markets. They were the hub of all illegal trading and servicing.
Their clients ranged from the vilest of criminals to upright families that were in urgent need of rare materials.
As the host of the platform, Shadow Order held an unshakable position.
Not aymore.
Shortly after the war, all black markets were shut down for an indeterminate period.
This took everyone by surprise as black markets generated almost 70% of the Order's revenue.
Even though the Order was powerful, it had many expenses. Due to their aggressive and extremist activites, they needed money for a lot of things—weapons, bribery, properties, transport and so on.
Of course, black markets were the major funding sources of these activites.
Out of the nine black markets—one for each planet and one for Uranus cluster, Earth's was destroyed not too long ago.
It wiped out nearly 15% of black markets' revenue.
Now, the richest and most profitable black market—the cluster cities branch was destroyed.
Even by modest estimates, Shadow Order lost 50% of their bussiness compared to a few months ago.
That's why, it made even less sense to close down the existing markets.
But to the Shadow Lords, it made perfect sesne.
As their holograms gathered across a round table, the leaders of the seven existing Shadow Order branches started their crucial meeting.
"It's really a pity." Blake, Lord of Uranus tapped the table and looked at the six holograms.
"Yeah, Draven was at peak of level 9. Losing him is jus—" Kim, Lord of Jupiter was abruptly cut off at the end.
"No one's crying for that idiot. Blake is said for the loss of black market." Caroline, Lord of Neptune crossed her arms and scoffed.
"Can't we at least pretend to care?" Kim urged, to no avail. Then he waved his hand. "Fine. I couldn't do it anymore anyway. Fuck Draven. He is really the most incompetent person."
The majority nodded. Draven should've at least escaped if he couldn't defeat the army.
That way, he won't die and they won't find the secret realm keys on him. The black markets would ultimately be safe.
But now…
Just thinking about it made the Shadow Lords furious.
With one exception.
"It's not that he doesn't want to escape." Blake propped his head on his chin as he eyed his peers.
Despite being peak level 9 like them, he knew he was better.
"What do you mean?" Caroline raised a brow, her beautiful face rippling with an innocent beauty.
'Stupid bitch.' Blake sneered inwardly and tapped on his comm. Three holograms appeared.
The first hologram showed the battle between the Order, Chaos families and the army.
While the level 7s lost due to their injuries, the level 8s and level 9s lost due to a man each in their respective level.
A bald man in level 8 and a man with long white hair in level 9…
The Shadow Lords that were about to speak closed their mouth shut and watched the entire battle sequence.
Their focus shifted from the bald man to the white haired man.
Among the dozens of level 9s, he was like a tank crushing motor cycles, unstoppable and dangerous.
The highlight of the battle was naturally him and Shadow Lord Draven.
With a snap, Draven's body changed into a large tree and dozens of small trees, reaching low level 9 came out of his body.
These trees, whilest smaller than their parent, were four meters tall and radiated a dangerous red color.
All of these children trees were connected among themselves and with the parent tree.
Boom!
As the white haired man rushed at Draven with a speed far surpassing the sonic limit, these children trees stood in a star shaped formation and stretched their branches.
Shua! Shua! Shua!
The branches first overlapped and then intermixed, forming a huge net filled with glowing red spikes.
Right when the white haired man was about to reach Draven, the net was twisted into a large whip and was lashed at the man.
Kaaa!
Space itself nearly cracked as the whip wrapped around the man in an instant and broke his chest bone, causing him to cough out blood.
"Hmph!" With a snort, the man broke free of the whip and grabbed it, intending to break it apart.
Kaa!
Before he could do anything, a large red-brown whip slashed at him from behind. The attacker was Draven himself.
However, as a Commander type Plantae, his individual strength wasn't on par with a typical body awakener.
Even then, it was capable of serious injuries if taken in a defenseless state.
Which was exactly what the white haired man did. He gribbed the net turned whip with both hands and gripped it tighter.
Veins popped up on his hands and forehead as he violently tried to pull it apart.
Ka! Kacha!
Right when the branch whip of Draven slashed at the white haired man, his body shook and then the whip connected.
Still gripping the net whip, he flew into the distance coughing out blood. His back bones were broken badly and he was seriously injured…
But contrary to expectations, he didn't die.
All the Shadow Lords understood. That man is an Extreme Awakener. Much like Controller, they could improve a single stat at a time, but their increases were higher than Controllers.
The man increased his defense at the last moment.
Then despite the injuries, he increased his strength and pulled the net whip apart, breaking the connections between every single tree.
Ka! Ka! Ka!
The children trees trembled violently as if they were about to collapse. The formation connected them all. If one or two trees were cut off, they'd still be fine.
But as all seperated at once, they faced a backlash.
Since they were connected to him, Draven also faced a backlash.
Seizing this opportunity, the white haired man made a quick work of the children trees.
Individually, they were no match for him, despite his injuries.
This only put more backlash and pressure over Draven. Unlike physical injuries which plantae awakeners could quickly recover, this one was more linked to mental damage and loss of prana.
Despite his disadvantage, Draven recovered at the same time as his enemy.
But losing his children tree advantage, Draven was continously pushed back and soon, he was taken out by a single punch to his roots.
As the battle ended, so did the video.
The Shadow Lords looked at each other in silence until Lina, Lord of Mercury spoke up. "Just who is this guy?"
No answer came out. That was the thing they were thinking the whole while.
As Lords of their respective Shadow Order branches, they were at the peak of level 9.
Even peak level 9s had their differences, for instance, Bali and Evander belonged to the highest power of a peak level 9. They were in the lower or middle spectrum.
Through abyssals, they learnt of the peak level 9s in the federation. But this guy…he seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.
If they were being honest, he'd be able to beat five out of the seven Shadow Lords present.
Too dangerous to exist. So, everyone scanned their database for him.
Of course, they were checking the fighting style and divine path. The face must be fake.
Until eventually, one man coughed and drew attention.
