The Kalivera Lord died way too quickly.
Michael thought that he was mistaken for a moment. It shouldn't have been that easy.
'Did I kill the wrong one? Is that not the Lord?' He wondered, his eyes lingering on the headless body.
The energy influx that entered his War Rune was quite potent. It was from a Low Tier-4 powerhouse, a Lord, to be precise. The energy influx ought to be more than enough evidence to tell that he had just killed the Kalivera Lord, but Michael couldn't help himself. He doubted that a Higher Lifeform, a Lord with more than one decade of experience, would die so easily.
'Well. I took him by surprise.' He shrugged.
The Kalivera Lord welcomed him half-naked after enjoying the presence of a dozen women. He had been struggling to pull up his underwear as Michael arrived in the room.
The women in the room were screaming at the top of their lungs. However, it was not only fear of Michael that made them scream. The death of the Kalivera Lord destroyed the Links of Loyalty connected to them, freeing them at last.
Losing contact with the Link of Loyalty suddenly was uncomfortable. It was a weird feeling of emptiness. The Kaliveras felt like something had been torn out of their souls.
Two women, Tier-3 Awakened, manifested their Artifacts and charged at Michael suddenly. He raised his hand and pointed at the Awakened with his index finger. An electricity current cracked at the fingertip and two bolts of lightning were discharged in quick succession. The Awakened twisted their bodies to evade the electricity currents, but they didn't see the follow-up attack coming.
Michael unleashed Spiritual Domination to strike the two Awakened heavily. They collapsed to the ground with a pained groan and struggled to stand up once again.
Michael sighed and sliced their throats with the Aethyr blade.
Now was not the time to show mercy.
He glanced at the remaining women and scanned them to figure out if there were more Awakened or combat Summons among them. That was not the case. The women shuddered and screamed helplessly under Michael's scrutiny, fearing to die just like the Kalivera Lord and the two female Awakened.
'No. I don't want to turn into a mindless monster.'
Michael shook his head and stored the corpses of the deceased away. While combat Summons and Awakened were dangerous, Michael couldn't see any value in killing the civilians. Of course, it couldn't be avoided sometimes. Some civilians would inevitably die in the crossfire. However, he felt like he would lose the last bits of his humanity the moment he started slaughtering innocent civilians for energy influxes and the loot generated by the Will.
Michael would be lying if he said that the gains weren't enticing, but this was a matter of honor and integrity. If he couldn't even keep hold of his principles and idealism…what or who would Michael turn out to be in the future? Would he be better than the Kitsun, whom he despised, or would he be just like them?
Michael didn't want to find out.
Despite that train of thought, Michael felt like a hypocrite. He knew that he was lying to himself, but he didn't want to acknowledge the lie. It made him feel like he would lose something very important if he revealed the truth.
He spread his energy through the surroundings to ransack all valuable goods in the room and used Cosmic Stride to teleport everyone outside.
They appeared on a rooftop near the center of the mid-sized settlement.
The settlement, like the other settlements of the Kalivera Lord, was in chaos. Various Kalivera, ordinary citizens, rushed through the settlement, trying to find a secure place. However, they didn't even know what was going on, in the first place. All they could tell was that their Lord died and that the Links of Loyalty had been terminated.
The Summons regained freedom and the Awakened could act more freely as well. But with freedom came uncertainty.
Losing their Leader, whether he was tyrannical or not, created chaos.
That was exactly what Michael was hoping for. Killing the Lord of a territory was the easiest way to get rid of an enemy.
The armies of the Kalivera Lord would split up, internal conflicts would erupt, and many Awakened would run away now that they didn't have a Lord to rely on anymore.
Most Awakened had only a few choices. They could either escape the Regional War by leaving the Origin Expanse, raid their Lord's treasure trove, and run away within the Origin Expanse to find a secure place to set their anchor and become Rogues, or hope that other Lords were willing to take them in.
The former was problematic because leaving the Origin Expanse in the middle of a Regional War increased the potential of never being able to return to the Origin Expanse – safely that is. The probability that someone would claim the Kalivera Lord's territory in their absence was high, and it was uncertain what the new ruler of the Kalivera Lord's land would do to the Awakened, who appeared in their territory.
None of the options were great, but the latter was the most efficient if they desired to grow stronger in the Savannah Region. They would receive resources from their Lord to grow stronger. However, at the same time, they would be sent to far more dangerous missions as Subordinates of a Lord from another race. The chances of dying were much higher in the hands of another race's Lord.
Abandoning their Lord's territory and becoming Rogues was the best answer given the circumstances.
That was what most Awakened concluded once they realized that their Lord was dead and what that entailed.
None of them thought about battling their Lord's murderer or doing something to protect the Kalivera Summons. The Awakened didn't even know who or what killed their Lord. They didn't care.
Michael and his people observed the chaos with interest.
"What now? Do you want to move from one Lord to the next like that?" Tiara asked, tilting her head to get a better view of Michael's side profile.
"No. We're going to spend the next few hours raiding the Kalivera Lord's treasures and killing all Awakened," Michael shook his head, "We'll kill all combatants who obstruct us as well. But that's it."
Michael considered obliterating the Kalivera's army before doing anything else, but he was in a race against time. It would be best if a few dozen Lords perished before they found a countermeasure against him and his people. However, Michael didn't want to leave behind the treasure troves. He couldn't permit the Awakened and other materialistic treasures to fall into the hands of other Lords.
There was no way that he would allow anyone to escape with his walking SoulStar Fragments – the Awakened –, or his fortune.
The Forest Elves readied their bows and arrows, whereas Tiara and the Berserkers jumped to the ground. They break up and began slaughtering the combat Summons and the Awakened that entered their sight.
Meanwhile, Michael had an easy time finding the strongest Summons and Awakened using Spirit Eyes. He located their power fluctuations and teleported near them using Cosmic Stride. A single compressed Extraction Qi Sword was enough to slaughter most Awakened and combat Summons in the mid-sized settlement. The Kalivera Lord had been the only Higher Lifeform in the settlement. There was no way that anyone else could block Michael's attacks.
He killed a few enemies, stored their corpses, and moved ahead using Spirit Eyes to locate the warehouses and treasures within the settlement. Unfortunately, there was not much to plunder. The settlement wasn't that big, and it wasn't anywhere near a mineral deposit, or the like.
They had to move to the main settlement for the big gains.
It didn't even take half an hour to conquer the mid-sized settlement. The civilians were going crazy, but neither Michael nor his people cared about them. They attacked everyone wielding weapons indiscriminately while leaving everyone else alone. That ought to be enough to warn everyone to drop their weapons if they didn't want to be poked by a razor-sharp blade.
Tiara and the others returned to Michae and transferred their gains to one of his spatial rings.
"Ready?" Michael asked lightly.
The others nodded just before the golden light of Cosmic Stride shrouded them.
They traveled through the Kalivera's territory, crossing dozens of kilometers in no time to reach the Kalivera's main settlement at once.
Michael replenished his power by extracting the energy within an Inferior Energy Stone while paying attention to the surroundings. They couldn't enter the main settlement with Cosmic Stride because of a spatial lock, but it was no problem to barge into the main settlement. The chaos of the Lord's death covered their intrusion.
They jumped across the walls and killed some of the guards who continued guarding the settlement walls even though their Lord was dead and the Links of Loyalty had been terminated. Michael ignored the people around him and charged straight to the wooden manor where he set everything on fire without a second thought.
He charged through the hallway and reached the office where a bunch of expensive devices were located. One of the devices created the spatial lock. Michael was ready to destroy it when he saw an Awakened deactivating it and ransacking it. The Awakened pocketed a few more devices and was ready to leave when he saw Michael.
Michael smiled at the Awakened, kicked the ground, cracked the wooden planks underfoot, and shot forth. Aethyr conjured a dagger in his hands as he appeared before the Awakened, who tried to block his approach with a desperate flying kick. Michael stabbed the Awakened in the leg and twisted the blade in his calf. He tore the blade out of the Awakened's calf and pushed ahead.
The Aethyr Dagger flashed across the Awakened's chest, leaving a gaping wound behind. Blood gushed out of the Awakened like a fountain, whose body glowed faintly. The wound recuperated rapidly, but it was not fast enough to grant the Awakened an opportunity to take Michael by surprise.
"Interesting Soultrait," Michael mumbled, bending down while unleashing one Cursed Seal. The Cursed Seal spread across his face instantaneously, enhancing Extraction's power drastically as he unleashed it with a burst of energy.
A huge tendril of Extraction emerged from Michael's palm and shot straight into the Awakened's chest. It entered the Awakened's body through the healing wound and spread rapidly, draining the young Awakened.
A horrifying shriek escaped the wounded Awakened's lips, but it lasted only for a second. The scream perished down as the Awakened collapsed lifelessly to the ground.
Michael retracted the Extraction tendril in dissatisfaction and was about to leave silently when he noticed something.
A Soultrait Symbol emerged from the Awakened's body.
