Rusher did as Rudy asked him to do and closed his eyes. He could hear the twitching noise coming from the zapping sound of the lightning. And he noticed it was becoming louder and louder with every passing second.
Out of overwhelming fear, Rusher opened his eyes and saw pure white lightning that was brighter than even a sun seen on a sunny day from the surface.
Rusher's fear grew drastically as the lightning became brighter and brighter as it increased in size. Then, he did what one would do out of fear; he closed his eyes.
Pssh!
All the noises stopped, and Rusher felt cold air touching him. When he opened his eyes, he found himself outside the ball. However, instead of relief, he was met with even more despair.
He was surrounded by hundreds of thousands of masked assassins wearing black suits, and it didn't even take a second for Rusher to realize who they were.
"Under Blades?" he muttered.
'Wait… why are there so many of them? I thought there were only one hundred Under Blades at a time. But here there are…. thousands if not, even more.'
He glanced around and saw he was in a massive hall room that was almost ten times bigger than the Ross estate, painted in white marble with golden patterns.
'Where are the others?!'
He glanced to his sides and sighed in relief after confirming his wife and parents were with him.
"Do you recognize this place, Rusher?" Rudy asked.
"No…"
"Do you see Maria?"
"No."
"Do you see their boss or someone who seems like a leader?"
"No…"
"Is there any clue around? Where do the Under Blades live?"
"They… I have no idea, actually. No one knows that."
SIGH!
"Alright, I will find you guys. Just buy me as much time as you can. Do anything, but don't let the enemy make their next move. I will be there soon," Rudy stated in a solemn voice.
"But how? You don't even know where we are, and you haven't seen much of the underworld."
"I will search the entire underworld."
"What?! It will take you months to—"
"I already started searching even before I made contact with you. Now, do what I told you and keep them busy."
"What have you been muttering all this time, hmm?" a loud female voice asked.
Rusher glanced around to locate the person, but all of them wearing the same masks and suits, and it was impossible to figure out who was speaking.
Even the voice was echoing, and as they were wearing masks, their lips movement couldn't be seen.
"I asked you a question, Rusher Ross. What have you been muttering all this time?"
Rusher took a deep breath and said, "Show yourself first."
"Oh? So you still have some will left to live. Everyone, stand aside. Let this man see the face of the person who is going to end their syndicate, but well… I am wearing a mask, so you wouldn't see me anyway."
With loud, symmetrical, and synchronized footsteps, the Under Blades moved aside and made a way in between. One side had male Under Blades, and the other had female Under Blades. Slowly but steadily, everyone moved aside and revealed a woman sitting on a red throne on a pedestal.
"Now, your turn, Rusher Ross. Answer my question."
"I have a habit of talking to myself when I am nervous. It helps me calm down and find solutions," Rusher responded while looking straight at the woman's mask.
"Hmm? Is that so? Then what are the results?" The woman moved from right to left and sat on the throne in a comfortable position.
"...."
"Did it help you calm down? What solution did you find, hmm? Come to think of it, the ball had begun to beep for some reason as if it had used up all the power. However, it did receive an electric surge before it."
"...." Rusher gulped down anxiously as nothing else was coming to mind. Rudy had asked him to buy time, but he couldn't even do that.
"How did you produce electricity in a completely sealed fourth-dimensional space?"
"It was… my phone."
"Hmm?"
"My phone had a mechanism that it would explode if the wrong pin was entered more than five times. I tried to unlock my phone, but I kept failing, and thus…"
"If that's true, then…" The woman pointed her finger at Rusher's hands and asked, "How are your hands and legs untied? I would understand that removing the tape from the mouth doesn't require much effort, but hands and legs are not possible in such a short amount of time."
"You underestimate me. I am Rusher Ross, and I have been trained for situations like this. Getting out of it is a child's play!" Rusher asserted in a loud voice.
"It seems so. Well, it doesn't matter. Even if you manage to free your hands and get out of the ball, it doesn't matter. You can't escape from the Under Blades. You are well aware of their prowesses, right?"
"Why are you doing this?! Isn't Under Blades supposed to protect the syndicates and ensure peace?!"
"Oh, that's what I am doing. I am doing all this to maintain peace."
"What… do you mean?"
"Don't play dumb, Rusher Ross. You can't hide anything from the Under Blades. I am well aware of all your crimes and sins, including your incestuous relationship with Ria— your twin sister."
"....!" Rusher glanced at his right to check whether his wife or parents heard it or not.
"There has been peace in the underworld for the past twenty years, and you were slowly, slowly, destroying it. If you keep doing what you have been doing, your syndicate will perish by your own hands, and the underworld will be at war.
Do you understand, Rusher Ross? We Under Blades are tasked to ensure peace and to do that, we will take any measures possible. Even if it meant sacrificing an innocent."
The woman raised her hand in the air, and all the Under Blades pointed their guns at Rusher and his family.
"It is time… to die, Rusher Ross."
