"Well, well, well, quite the power up you got there, homeboy." Misery joked as he took in the phenomena occurring around Hades.
Hades himself breathed out lightly and retracted the elemental aura, before he let out a smile. "A power up indeed. The Guildmaster told me that I should be able to achieve this in theory, but I never really thought it possible before."
The others nodded and then turned to Sublime and Akainu. Draco's Avatar had appointed them as the leaders for this mission, so everyone had to report to them.
Akainu was lazily puffing a cigar while Sublime spoke in a cold harrumph. "We've been given two objectives. One is to maintain some level of secrecy about Umbra's true power, and two is to show them absolute domination through the little we do show. As such, we'll dispatch a small squad to decimate the entire base of the Elemental Group to make our statement."
The core members shared strange looks. Hide their true power yet display absolute power with that little they showed? Decimate an entire base just to make a statement?
Jeez, this lolitician was truly tyrannical!
Seeing the core members finally understand the depths of Sublime's cruelty, Kiran nodded his head in satisfaction. Now you fellows know what I go through every day dealing with this female tyrannosaurus.
"Then who are we sending out?" Boyd asked while he massaged his bad eye gently.
Sublime gazed at Akainu for his input, and he pointed out eight people. They were Hades, Krona, Warm Spring, Ghostpro, Nightwalker, Shadowheart, Elle Leone and The Showman.
Seeing the lineup, the eyes of the core members couldn't help but widen as their expressions changed greatly. Wasn't this the legendary God Serpent group that had been recently established in Umbra? Was Akainu trying to say something by sending them out?
Even the 8 fellows were surprised that they were specifically picked, especially Warm Spring. She almost wanted to raise her hand and point out that her abilities were not suited for decimating or killing her foes.
However, before she could Akainu tipped the ash from his cigar neatly into a tray and spoke calmly. "Right now, we need a small squad with absolute power given the Guildmaster's specifications. In truth, we do not need to hide our power, nor do we necessarily need to show it off."
"Despite seeming like we are pressured, there are actually many ways in which we could deal with the Elemental Group. However, Draco specifically insisted on a frontal attack."
Akainu made a 'this is how it is' gesture. "So with that in mind, it is easy enough to infer that the he wants his newly appointed generals to have a test run."
In truth, Draco's Avatar did have this idea. After all, these God Serpent fellows had 50% of the origin of the 9 God Serpents. This caused the real Draco to be weaker by half when using any other God Serpent other than the Black Dragon, so as his Avatar, he wanted to assess whether these fellows deserved such power.
Otherwise, the real Draco could just come and reclaim the power for himself.
The God Serpent group heard this and felt that this might be the case, and so too did the other core members. Even if it wasn't, everyone was curious as to how potent their line up would be in the real world and how much power they could display.
"Sure, we'll be able to complete the task." Nightwalker assented with a smile.
"For this task, Shadowheart will be the squad leader and Ghostpro will act as his assistant. You can begin now." Akainu instructed while puffing his cigar calmly.
.........
"Something is wrong." A middle-aged man wearing a mixture of red, green and white said as he suddenly stopped meditating.
He was seated on a raised cushion in a large chamber where multiple older men and women were arranged. From late adulthood to early old age, everything was represented. Most of them wore robes with either a single or two colors, yet those with three colors could be counted on one hand.
In fact, if one assessed the location sharply, they would notice that the positions of the various members here were separated by the amount of colors on their robe. Those with a single color were at the outer area, while those with two colors were in the inner area and those with three colors were at the core area.
The groups also separated themselves socially, those with lower colors hardly speaking or nearing those with higher colors. The hierarchy here seemed to be strict.
The middle-aged man who spoke attracted the attention of two others near him, a similarly middle-aged woman and a late-adult man, the former having the three colors of blue, green and purple while the latter had the three colors of red, silver and black.
The middle-aged woman reacted first. "Hanson, what's the problem?"
Hanson, the first speaker, shook his head and had a tough expression on his face. "I can feel the uncertainty in the waves of the Spirit Realm. Something terrible is about to happen to us, and it's imminent to the point where its impossible to run away."
The faces of the two changed greatly. They knew that Hanson was one of the leaders of their organization not because of his wisdom alone, but because he had developed an affinity for the ethereal element of spirit. This gave him a strange divination and foresight ability that had benefited the Elemental Group severely.
They had used it to conquer the other special organizations that wished to serve under the Fifth Councilor, eventually taking this spot.
Yes, the Elemental Group were born and raised by the Fifth Councilor. They were a special group of powered humans who usually hid under the radar and wanted to seek safety in the hands of a higher power, but could never find one through the ages.
It was only in this era where the Would Council had such absolute power that they dared reveal themselves and fight for 'Providence'.
In truth, if the Purgatory Group had decided to come out and fight to gain one of the Councilors' favor, almost all 12 would definitely accept them without the need for much convincing. The exact problem leading to this situation was precisely that this damned Purgatory Group didn't know what was good for them and come to beg for their favor.
As such, the order sent down had been simple. Pressure them into submission. This was what the higher ups like Hanson had been told to do.
As such, when they sent out their youngsters, they had ordered them to find some fault with the Purgatory Group and to put pressure on them. Their mission had never been to attack and fight them directly. The Fifth Councilor wanted the group for their ties to the AI and their power in the game.
If he unleashed his militaristic hidden force upon them, not even ashes would be left.
How could the poor Fifth Councilor and his Elemental Group know that they had kicked an iron plate this time? Instead of provoking a tiny little worm, they had trampled over a dragon's reverse scale.
When doing things, the Councilors of the World Council were already arrogant and despotic. However, they had finally met a party who were far more tyrannical and unrestrained than they were!
BOOM!
Immediately, the entrance to the large room blew open, sending rubble flying like bullets through the bodies of a many of the single colored robbed fellows near that place. Some were directly exploded into bloodmist, other turning into the equivalent of luncheon meat.
The sudden change shocked everyone silent and stupid, making them wonder what the hell was going on. Then, the dust cleared as eight people walked into the hall stately.
In the lead was Shadowheart who wore a black colored three-piece suit that had a gray cloak billowing behind him.
Beside him was Ghostpro with a slightly bored frown and droopy eyes, looking uninterested as usual. He was still wearing the straitjacket and pants that he had on while in the asylum belonging to Superhuman. While he had temporarily escaped, it was only for the mission, and he would have to return in due time.
After them was Elle, who wore a loose shirt and black joggers pants, looking less like her usual elegant self and more like a tired NEET forced to come out.
On the left was Nightwalker who also wore a three-piece suit, but without a cloak. However, he had donned a sleek tie that looked suave.
Hades' attire, consisting of his biker jacket, inner shirt, and leather pants, was far less impressive. He also had a detachable black hood that covered his face, even though the blackish miasma roiling around him was ominous enough.
Krona folded his arms as he wore a tight tank top that showed his buff body, as well as loose shorts that looked extremely comfortable.
The Showman was dressed in his usual livery, looking like a stage magician about to perform a trick. It didn't help that among the group, he was the one smiling the widest.
Finally, there was Warm Spring who was dressed in a clean t-shirt and a pair of jeans. Her innocent eyes made her look out of place in this group of mostly trouble makers.
Seeing the eight intruders who were young enough to be their sons and daughters, the surviving members of the Elemental Group were rendered speechless at first. Soon, they were filled with rage that they had been attacked like this, and they began to retaliate cruelly!
In a moment, a brutal fight began!
A fire user shot out a gout of flames towards Ghostpro who was beside Shadowheart. Ghostpro gazed at the attack calmly and also released a gout of flame from his left hand, nullifying the incoming attack and even hurtling towards the single element caster.
"No, wait!" The person screamed in shock as they watched the flames they had thought they had mastered be devoured easily, then hurtling towards with menacing intent.
However, they could only scream after as they lit up in flames and burned slowly, thrashing about as they tried to put it off in vain. This chilled the hearts of a few, but they still attacked with all their might.
Ghostpro did not bother to block anymore as he received the attacks head-on. Seeing him engulfed by fire, earth, wind and water, the various single colored Elementalists were overjoyed.
However, their faces changed when the attacks seemed to rebound off Ghostpro at twice the speed and potency, striking their own casters and killing them with various levels of intensity.
"Meh." Ghostpro crowned his awesome scene of slaughtering enemies effortlessly with a legendary punchline for the ages.
Elle was also bombarded with attacks, but she, like Ghostpro, did not bother to dodge. A domain of Chaos Energy formed around her imperceptibly, causing the attacks that landed on her to warp into various other... things.
Huge fireballs became strawberries that she picked up to chew, while sharp spikes pf earth became teddie bears she could hug.
Elle's power of chaos worked using randomness, but within that randomness were rules she herself could set. For example, this domain had the rule of turning lethal attacks into non-lethal and harmless things. However, she couldn't put what exactly would come out, which was why things could be fruit, stuffed dolls, or whatnot.
That was the element of randomness in it.
Naturally, this also worked offensively. Elle took out a toy gun that shouldn't even be able to shoot, but warped with Chaos Energy, it turned into a laser rifle. She began beaming the enemies in the room casually, missing three out of every five shots since she lacked training.
However, the shots that did land were fatal, some even disintegrating their targets into ash. Since it did not require ammunition, but only overheated when overused, Elle managed her shots carefully. She didn't want to burn her hands for no reason.
