"What do you need to tell us?" Aldred asked.
Naley hesitated. "You know what, never mind. It's nothing important."
Aldred raised an eyebrow, and he detected her heart thumping with fear. There was something she wanted to say but her fear got ahead of her.
Aldred did not think too much about it. "So what's our next step? How can we track Victor?"
"Maybe he's in the capital city," Stella said.
"Trying to track him is close to impossible. He might be even out of Duria since he could control the robots from any corner of the continent," Naley replied.
That was true. Since the robots were mostly automated, and could function without his direct instruction. It was very difficult to track him down.
"I just wish I can get his blood or something," Aldred said.
"Why would you need his blood?"
"I think I can track someone using their blood."
"Oh, seriously?" Stella asked.
"I haven't unlocked all of my new abilities as Diamond Rank, but I feel like I can do it."
Stella nodded. "Your rise to Diamond Rank is too abrupt so that is normal. You will learn more of your abilities in the future."
"I don't mind waiting. But how do we proceed from here?"
"Maybe I should cast a divination spell," Stella said. "It's not very accurate, but it should give us something."
Stella closed her eyes, and mysterious power radiated out of her body. She began to float as star particles circled around her. Suddenly, all the mana nearby got sucked in, and then Stella abruptly opened her eyes. They were shining like a golden star.
A few seconds later, Stella landed on the ground. "He's at the north most part of the nation. It's a city near the mountain of ice."
"Vorozelsk," Naley said. "That is the name of the city you described. It's one of the most vital city in Duria."
Aldred looked at her. "Why?"
...
Vorozelsk
Thousands of mining robots raised their drills and hammers then pounded on the mountains of ice. The hardened ice cracked under the pressure, and revealed some sort of tunnel.
The ground shook, and then the roar of a creature came from the tunnel. Suddenly, something leaped out of the tunnel. It was a huge creature with 6 legs, and a stinger as a tail, and a pair of two sharp pincers. It jolted forward, two pincers closed in on dozens of robots at once and cut them in half.
Suddenly, a group of robots in the rear moved forward. Their eyes leaked blue energy as they leaped in the sky, and slammed their hammers at the creature.
The creature roared and fought back, slamming them to the ground. But the robots managed to stand back up and smashed one of its leg.
The pincers were Archanite's strongest parts, so the robots didn't even try to attack those. It's legs, however, especially the tibia, were one of its weakness.
Aldred watched in the sky with Stella and Naley with invisibility spell.
"Those creatures are called Archanite. These robots are luring them out to kill them and collect the crystals inside their body. The crystals are called archnite."
"I have heard of it before. These crystals allows for the creation of a more powerful weapons, right? Even those robots earlier had some fragments of archnite in it to fight those scorpion thing."
"How did you know?"
"I have good pair of eyes."
"Victor might be here to collect these crystals and experimented with his research," Stella said.
Nodding, Aldred agreed with that speculation. "Let's scan the city."
Just like every other city in Duria, Vorozelsk was a metropolis with thousands of high-rise buildings seemingly built out of glass. Most of the buildings were in box-shape, but there were some with artistic shape. Aldred was glad Victor did not hinder the citizen's creativity.
Victor actually did not want to put a blockade on people's creativity. He, in fact, wanted to harness it. If a lot of people tried to make a weapon together, Victor was sure he could get something powerful. But he did not want someone else to have it, which was one of the reason why he wanted to control the nation first.
Stella casted a spell that sent invisible particles to every part of the city. They swirled in every buildings, and every holes under the ground.
"I detected an underground secret lab."
"Good. That must be it," Aldred said.
"I think I found him!"
"Let's go there, right now."
Stella teleported the three of them inside the underground secret lab. Unlike Naley's secret room, this one was brightly lit with a lot more heavy equipments all over the place.
"Who's there?"
A 3 meter tall robot aimed its two heavy rifle towards them.
"How did you get in here?!"
"There's no place for you to run away, Victor. We got you now."
"First of all, I am not Victor. Second of all, this place is a secret, and I will have to kill you three to keep it that way."
The robots began firing its large caliber weapons. The bullet was as big as Aldred's fist, and it shot towards them at such a high speed.
Stella casted a barrier in front of them, redirecting the projectile to the other direction. But she found something weird. Her barrier actually began to crack, and then it shattered.
Aldred quickly rushed forward and created another barrier. "The robots have archnite with them. The energy is almost the same as normal mana, but with the quality of a Diamond Rank."
Something told Aldred that the quality could be higher than this.
Aldred stomped the ground, and an earth pillar came out then slammed towards the robot's head, disorienting it.
Aldred then threw his Phantom Doomblade towards the robot's chest. It penetrated deep, and then exploding it from within with a powerful burst of flame.
The Phantom Doomblade returned to his hand right after.
Scanning the room with his godly eyes, he quickly found his target. His feet flashed, and his fist slammed through a steel wall before pulling out a small man with white beard and white hair.
"You're not victor." Aldred frowned.
"Didn't I tell you that I am not?"
"Where is he? Tell me or I will give you hell."
The small old man slapped Aldred in the face. "You think I would know?"
Aldred was quite surprised by this reaction. Usually, someone would feel fear when they threatened him because of his aura and terrifying eyes.
Naley approached the old man. "You are Barne?"
"You know this guy?" Aldred asked.
"Hmmm, that's right young lad. How do you know my name?"
"I have hacked into Duria''s security system and read their most wanted list. Your name is on the top five."
"Oh, really? No wonder they tried so hard to find me. It's really hard to go out. I have been stuck inside this place for years."
"So, he's one of Revolutionary Fighter?" Aldred asked.
Naley shook her head. "There is no Revolutionary Fighter. He simply don't want his work to be taken by someone else."
"That's right! My creation should only be used for myself. I don't want their money or anything, I only want my robots to be used for me."
"Is his robots better than what Victor make?"
Naley nodded. "Far better. The only downside was that his robot couldn't be mass produced. Barne is one of the best weapon engineer I know."
