The huge boulder of rock exploded in the sky. Vandal splits the rock into hundreds of pieces using his destructive attack.
Destroying this rock was hard since the runes around it were still active.
'Tch! I couldn't destroy everything!'
Vandal turned in mid-air. He stared at the fragments of the boulder. Although it was only fragmented, each has a size of five to ten meters in diameter.
A smile formed on his face as he saw the warriors of Athena destroy the fragments of boulders one by one before they fall on the city.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A series of explosions occurred across the city. The warriors didn't manage to destroy every rock. Instead, they only manage to minimize the damage it would cause to the city.
It was a good outcome.
"What happened?!"
The President of the Aekr Republic was confused. As to why or how this happened, no one had any idea. It was too sudden that everyone was caught off guard.
"I'm sorry, President..."
A voice sounded behind the President.
The President opened his eyes widely and was about to turn around when a sharp blade came through his chest.
Ugh!!
Everyone was shocked at this scene. The other higher-ups of the Aekr Republic were stunned. They couldn't believe what they were seeing.
"What are you doing, Couger?!!"
Narkus, the Chief of West Gate, shouted. His aura burst out of his body and it made the air boil.
"Couger!! You fucking!!"
The General of the Army of Aekr shouted as he pounced at Couger with madness in his eyes.
Swoosh!
Couger pulled out his blade and quickly slashed it towards the General's direction.
The General's gauntlet shone brightly as it collided with the blade.
Boom!
The air vibrated wildly and a shockwave surge out from the center of the impact that blow the President's body away.
"President!!"
The Vice-President shouted as he jumped and caught the injured body of the President. He stared at the two people that started fighting.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
In just a minute, the General of the Army was thrown away. His body was covered in blood.
"You! You hid your strength!"
The General wiped the blood on his mouth. He was shocked when he realized that he couldn't keep up with Couger.
Couger looked at the General with mocking eyes.
"Yes, I'm sorry for doing this but this nation will fall along with the foreign warriors."
He said plainly. He was the secretary of the President. He was one of the loyal people to the President and he served this nation for decades.
"So you are from Red Matter?"
Vandal's voice sounded as he landed on the ground and observed this guy called Couger.
Couger glanced at Vandal and narrowed his eyes.
"Foreign warrior, I'll admit that I'm indeed a member of Red Matter. This nation will become your graveyard."
"Oh? And how are you going to achieve that?" Vandal asked as he raised his eyebrows.
Although the person in front of him was strong, it was still nothing compared to him. This man Couger was only at Three Shackles Realm.
Before Couger could reply, Vandal appeared in front of him. He brandished his short sword and swiftly chopped Couger's arms.
"Argh!!"
A pair of arms rolled in mid-air as blood scattered everywhere.
"I don't need to hear your answer."
Vandal said coldly as he stabbed Couger in the chest.
"Ugh!"
Blood poured out of Couger's mouth. Intense pain assaulted his body. His strength couldn't do anything to the man before his eyes.
The disparity was simply huge.
The General and the other higher-ups of Aekr Republic couldn't even follow Vandal's movement. They were surprised by how he easily subdued Cougar.
"Cougar, why?"
The President said with great effort. He wanted to know why Cougar betrayed him.
"I don't have anything to say to you, President." Cougar laughed madly as blood continued to flow out of his mouth. "I'll die today and the mechanism will be activated once my heart stops beating."
This revelation shocked everyone. What mechanism? A trap prepared by the Red Matter Association? So that's the reason why Cougar didn't fear death. He accepted his death before trying to assassinate the President.
"The Red Matter Association is really full of insane people!"
Vandal said with a grave expression. He already pierced Cougar's heart so he knew that this man wouldn't live for too long.
"Mwahahaha!! Just die for me!!"
Cougar laughed with a mad expression. His laugh echoed throughout the surrounding area.
"My death is just the start! Let the plan begin!"
His eyes lost their luster as he slowly fell to the ground. He drew his last breath with a wide grin on his twisted face.
Vandal stared at Cougar's body coldly.
"So what's going to happen next?"
As soon as he said those words, the ground shook heavily. A powerful earthquake shook the entire nation.
Every structure started to tremble uncontrollably. Nothing could stop what's going to happen next. They could only watch the scene unfold before their eyes and see if they could prevent it or not.
"Sir, what happened here?"
Vandal turned his head and saw his secretary approaching from a distance.
"The Red Matter Association is creeping into this nation... We need to eliminate them as soon as possible." Vandal said.
Shirley looked at the corpse and quickly understand what happened. The dead person must be from Red Matter Association.
"I'll command the warriors, Sir!"
"Another one is coming... And it seems larger than the last time." Vandal lifted his head as he stared at the trembling ceiling.
The runes were glistening and energy could be seen flowing from them. The effects were unknown but it seems that another boulder of rock would fall towards the nation once again.
The boulder last time already had a size of five hundred meters yet the incoming one seems several times larger. It would be a problem if a giant boulder full of runes fell on this nation.
Millions of people would die in an instant.
No matter what he couldn't let that happen.
Vandal turned to the injured President and said, "I think you should evacuate all the people of your nation. What will happen will be outside of my control. Your nation is in danger."
"I..." The President was about to answer when something interrupted them.
Vandal, Shirley, the President, and the other higher-ups of the Aekr Republic turned their heads.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Hundreds of explosions rose across the entire nation at the same time. Mana fluctuations surged simultaneously in every direction.
"What is happening to our land?!" Narkus muttered in shock.
"This can't be...!" The General couldn't believe what was happening to their nation.
They felt they were just seeing things. Cries and shouts of people echoed in every direction as chaos engulfed the entire country.
"The Red Matter Association must be behind this. This must be the plan that the Cougar guy said before he died."
Vandal mumbled. He took a deep breath before he shouted,
"WARRIORS OF ATHENA!! THE RED MATTER ASSOCIATION IS MOVING!! STOP THEM AT ALL COST!!"
His voice resounded throughout the entire nation. His words contained mana that could travel several miles away.
Souta looked at the direction where the voice came from.
"So the Red Matter still attacks us in the end."
He muttered before turning his head at the huge nation before him. He was on top of the wall observing the happenings around.
He jumped down as he saw the other warriors fly deep inside the nation.
They just help in destroying the fragments of rock and now another trouble had appeared.
But something was missing...
"The executives of the Red Matter Association... The leader isn't even here so where are they hiding."
Souta muttered and he swept his eyes around. He moved his body swiftly as ten black spheres emerged on his back.
Swoosh!
He swiftly defeated the members of the Red Matter Association that he saw. Most of them were just S-rank but they had great numbers.
In just a minute, he became a meat grinder as the power of gravity crushed every S-rank member of Red Matter. As long as he could see one of them, he would turn them into meat paste using intense gravity.
He was unstoppable. With his current power level, people below Shackled Realm were insects that he could easily crush.
More than fifty S-rank experts had died in his hands in just a minute.
"Ah~"
Souta stood at the top of a building with his eyes closed. He slowly absorbed the souls of the people from Red Matter. He wasn't the only one killing in this area. There were other warriors too.
"These poor souls... Let me harvest you..."
Hmm...?
Souta opened his eyes as he stared at the east. He sensed several Shackled Realm experts. These Shackled Realm experts weren't warriors of Athena.
There was only one answer. They were people of Red Matter that were tasked to deal with Shackled Realm warriors.
"So the real battle will only begin..."
A grin formed in his place as gallons of blood swirled above his head. His eyes gleamed as killing intent slowly seeped out.
