Chapter 610: A deal with the devil
Chapter 610: A deal with the devil
"Your kind has persisted so much. Famine, wars, and even the test of time," The Hydra calmly spoke in its growling voice. However, this voice seemed slightly different than the voice before. Since Michael knew Vedora and how each head had its own voice and personality, Michael could tell the voice changed because of the different heads. There were eight crimson red eyes which meant unlike Vedora who had three heads, Mugashuku had four heads.
"Do you know why human?" Mugashuku asked Michael and Hunter. They both felt like the Hydra's been looking at them.
"No," Hunter doubtfully said.
"Because your kind adapts. You know where to bow your heads and where to raise your hand," another slightly soft voice compared to the first two voices.
"What do you want?" Ayag raised her voice despite standing in front of a being like Mugashuku. Unlike the rest, Ayag wasn't afraid of the Hydra. But as soon as she raised her voice, Michael and Hunter wanted to grab her and shut her mouth close.
"Hahaha," To their surprise, the Hydra burst into laughter which gave Michael and Hunter a heart attack. They dropped to the ground, curled into a ball, and twitched. Hunter and Michael desperately called out their systems to teleport away or a way to escape the abyss.
"STOP!" Ayag suddenly shouted, destroying the laugh's power completely. Finally, Hunter and Michael were able to breathe. Breathing heavily, Michael and Hunter picked themselves to their feet.
"This is the reason my kind was wiped out from our universe. We are not adaptive. We raise our claws at the wrong being," Mugashuko said to Vedora.
"Wiped out?" Ayag's heart skipped a beat. Although she had never said a word, Ayag missed being with her own king. Not that Ayag didn't like the life she had with Nightmare, Gaya, and Ghost, but she wanted to meet other Hydras and visit her homeworld at least once. However, after hearing the painful voice of Mugashuku, her hope trembled.
"You and I are the last ones of our kind. And if your human doesn't do what I ask him to do, I will be the last one of my kind," Mugashuku's voice completely took a dark turn. The threatening voice of the hydra literally made their bodies tense. Following the sinister words, a hot stream of breath brushed past Michael and Hunter.
"What do you want?" Ayag asked yet again. But instead of answering her question, the hydra slightly moved its claw as a bright light shot out from above and landed on Vedora. As soon as Michael saw the light, he tried to move away yet he failed because the light was too fast.
When the bright white light disappeared, Michael and Hunter noticed a glowing rune on each head.
"What did you do?"
"So many questions," Another hot air brushed past Michael and Hunter, almost burning their clothes. Thankfully, Hunter's robes were made of a special metal that protected his skin. So it could protect Hunter from a certain level
of radiation and heat.
"We'll do anything you ask of us," Hunter quickly said to Mugashuku before the hydra decides to dispose of them.
"You have something I want human," Michael saw a dim red spotlight falling on Michael. The light came from one of the Hydra's eyes. Since they couldn't look at the hydra's head because it was too tall, Michael could only guess.
Hunter felt his body being lifted up into the air. Suddenly, a strong force sucked out a silver ring on Hunter's finger.
Thud!
After the ring left Hunter's finger, he hit the ground with a small thud. While Hunter was standing up, Michael noticed the silver ring radiating a bright silver light. The next moment, a ball of dark energy emerged from the silver ring.
"What the hell is that?" Hunter's eyes went wide as he felt a tremendous amount of energy from the ball of energy.
"There are thirty energy orbs in this universe. And this tricky thing managed to squeeze into another universe," Mugashuku sounded amused. Hunter got the ring by killing a mage and ripping off his finger. He expected the mage to have some powerful spells but all he had was this ball of energy inside. Unfortunately, his system's level was too low to find the energy ball's origin.
"I found twelve including this one. It's up to you to find the rest. If you don't bring me atleast one of these every year from now on, I'll come out of my slumber and destroy this world," Mugashuku said.
After hearing the hydra, Hunter sighed in relief. Finding the energy balls had become Ghost's task now. The only thing he worried about at the moment was to get out of the abyss alive.
"The strange power in you will help you find them," Hunter furrowed his brows, looking at the dim red light falling on Ghost. He wondered what might be this strange power within Ghost. After all, Ghost and Hunter both were oblivious to the fact they each possess a badass system. Although the two systems functioned similarly, they were not the same and Hunter's ring was the only thing that connected Hunter to Ghost's universe. Now that he lost the ring, the shadow realm wouldn't be able to summon Hunter to Ghost's universe anymore.
"I will find you these Lord Mugashuku," Michael bowed his head,
"We know you will. After all, you each love the world you are in right now. It'd be a shame for you to lose them. The queen's generals are everywhere humans, we reside in every universe there is," Mugashuku said. Then, the red light falls yet again on Hunter.
"Even if you had killed one, there is always another one,"
Hunter felt a chill after hearing Mugashuku. He couldn't help to wonder if there was another general in his world. Even if that was the case, Hunter would hunt it down just like before. After all, he could always get stronger with the system. One day, he might return to this world and rip the hydra's heads off one by one just because he felt like it. But for now, Hunter remained silent without provoking the Hydra, just like Michael.
"Tell us about our homeworld?" Sarba mustered his courage to question the Hydra,
"Leave!"
Instead of an answer, all they got was a thunderous roar from the Hydra. This voice sounded more demonic, evil, and terrifying than all the voices before.
"The fourth head," Michael muttered.
As the roar reverberated in the abyss, they were sucked upwards by an invisible force. Michael held onto Vedora tight, flinging higher and higher. When they reached the top, they regained their cultivation power.
"Phew, that's terrifying," Hunter let out a heavy breath of a sigh. In his whole life, he had never seen such terrifying creature and he had seen a whole lot of scary creatures and killed most of them back on his world.
"Now that it took my ring, I think the shadow realm will suck me out of here soon," Hunter said, almost sounding a bit disappointed. To be honest, Hunter would have liked to stay in this whole new world for a few more days. He wanted to see if he could get something valuable from this world and bring it to his.
"Before you leave, can you do me a favor, Hunter?" Michael asked. A few moments ago when Mugashuku took Hunter's ring, Michael had thought. Since Hunter belonged to a whole new universe and the chances of him returning to this universe were pretty slim, Michael wanted to do something that could help him against the Sea Folks who were apparently hunting him now with the Guardians. To this moment, Michael had no idea that Mutrad marked him as the Dark Lord and started to hunt him in the shadows.
However, if Michael's plan with Hunter worked, Not only it would ensure his safety, but it would also prevent anyone from suspecting him of being the Dark Lord
"What's in it for me?" Hunter asked. Although Ghost and he was from the same place, it wasn't Hunter's style to do something for free. After all, if Michael's universe was bad, Hunter's was the worst.
"How about this?" With a flick of his wrist, Michael took out the black metal card with a golden lion head engraved on it that Hunter gave him when he traveled to Hunter's universe first. According to the HUnter Michael met, the card would enable Hunter to visit Michael's world if a general of the queen broke out to destroy their world and vice versa.
"My calling card," Hunter remembered he gave this card to Ghost a couple of years ago.
"What about it?" Hunter asked, looking at his calling card.
"I will find the hydra asked of me so I am not in an imminent threat. But you are. So if you do me this favor I will travel to your world and help you kill that son of a bitch instead of breaking this card right now,"
Hunter gave it a thought for a couple of moments before finally agreeing to help Ghost. It wasn't because of what Ghost said, rather, it was because Hunter felt curious to see what Ghost need his help with. As a criminal empire's head, Hunter followed his guts and curiosity to strengthen himself. He felt this might be such an opportunity,
"What do you need?" asked Hunter while walking towards the crack in the wall. As much as he liked to hear what Ghost has to stay, he didn't want to stay near the Hydra. So he quickly squeezed through the crack to leave the abyss.
Michael followed Hunter behind till they reached outside. Even then, Michale waited until they were far away from the crack. Now that he had made a deal with the hydra, Michael somewhat felt relieved. He had to find atleast one energy ball a year so he had a maximum of eighteen years of time. Instead of finding them as soon as possible, Michael would do the opposite. He would use that time to get strong enough to kill the Hydra once and for all.
But for now, he needed Hunter's help to deal with the Guardians and Sea Folks.
They walked out of the stormville mountain as Vedora stayed silent the whole way. After hearing what the Hydra said about them being the last of their kind, Michael understood their concern.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Michael and Hunter shot out to the sky as fast as they could. Only after the stormville mountain disappeared from their sight did they stop to talk.
In the mid air, Michael looked at Hunter,
"I need you to kill me," said Michael.