Chapter 350 Dire Times, Desperate Measures (1)
Chapter 350 Dire Times, Desperate Measures (1)
After Ashton was done chatting with the monarchs, they went their separate ways. The trial wasn't over, but most of the participants left Euphoria in fear of another terrorist attack. While it wasn't good for the planet's economy, Ashton was a bit pleased with this outcome.
It was times like these where the courageous people got their chance to shine. In his eyes, anyone who left the planet just because of a mishap was weak and did not deserve to attempt the trials in the first place.
'No wonder those people only got to attempt the basic trials.' Ashton shook his head as soon as he noticed a hint of arrogance in his thoughts, 'I got carried away... I'm not that strong to start calling out the rest. Not yet anyways.'
[It is important to keep oneself in check. You're growing up quite nicely. I'm proud of you.]
'Thanks for the compliment.' Ashton had a sarcastic smile as he thought, 'In order to express my gratitude for your words, I will not troll you for an entire minute.'
[...]
'Ignore all that, just tell me you found a way to purify that scythe... If only I could use it, taking care of the gryphons would be a piece of cake.'
For the last month, while Ashton solely focused on clearing as many trials as he could, Astaroth had a task of his own. Firstly, he had to come up with a way to make the monster egg they had to grow out of its shell as soon as possible and secondly, find a way to get rid of the scythe's corruption.
While the Xyran had some idea about taking care of the mysterious egg, he had no idea how to make the scythe usable. This was primarily because the Scythe wasn't a weapon created by the Xyrans. Had it been, Astaroth would have certainly taken care of the issue by now.
But the weapon was something that predated them. Although, he did not know it for sure, but his guess was... the scythe was one of the rare weapons created by the precursors. After all, as far as he knew, the precursors were the only ones capable of making weapons that could predate the Xyrans entirely.
A few days back, on Astaroth's request, Ashton bathed the scythe with hellfire. The logic behind such a request was a simple one. Since scythe was corrupted with death, and hellfire could burn anything, including undead, they were hoping it would be able to get rid of the corruption as well.
Unfortunately, even hellfire wasn't enough to make the scythe usable. Since then, the weapon had been gathering dust in Ashton's inventory along with the rest of his unused weapons.
[Ever since we tried using hellfire and failed, I could not come up with anything else. Well, not anything we can get our hands on for now.]
Ashton was a bit taken aback but nodded his head. Hellfire was one of the Xyran's most renowned treasures because it once belonged to Seraph. If even those flames couldn't do a thing to the scythe, then it was obvious anything else in Ashton's present arsenal wouldn't be effective.
'Then I guess I'll have to depend on the <Irreverance> skill for now.'
At that moment there was a knock on the door. Anna got up to check, but Ashton gestured for her to stop. Although Anna didn't know why Ashton told her to stop, she obeyed him. Seconds turned into minutes but no one knocked on the door again.
Something was off... very off.
'Where are the guards?' Ashton thought.
Ever since Ashton expressed his worries that someone on the inside might have helped the radicals in planning and executing the attack, Otiga decided to send some of her guards to protect him. If someone from the inside was involved in the attack, then they were surely going to target him next as he was the reason they failed in achieving their goal, whatever it was.
The reason was pretty simple. He was the only one who forced the gryphons to retreat while others desperately clung on to their lives. Thus, by taking him out, they would manage to make sure he won't be a hurdle to their plans again.
However, since the guards were not responding and the door wasn't knocked on again, Ashton was more or less sure something strange was going on.
Suddenly the night sky turned white as the door was blown apart. Ashton was standing right behind the door, therefore when the door blew away, he got hurled backwards. The explosion wasn't a normal one either.
For a moment, all of Ashton's heightened senses were compromised. He could feel a handful of men enter the room and moments later marched out. It took them merely thirty seconds to get in and out of the hotel room.
It took a couple more seconds for Ashton to regain his senses back and as soon as he did, he realised... Anna was missing.
"Anna? ANNA?" Ashton yelled while looking all over the room, but she was nowhere to be found.
By now, people had begun gathering around the room. Only to see the corridor littered with unconscious guards. Ashton immediately rushed out of the room to give the bastards a chase. But the assailants were nowhere to be found.
Ashton had never cursed the lack of [Perception] more than he was now. If only [Perception] was active, he would have sensed the incoming attack and prevented all of this from happening. If not that, at least he would have been able to look for Anna using it.
But why would someone attack Anna? Was he the reason she got caught in this mess, or could it be something else entirely? Hundreds of questions were running rampant inside his head. But in the end, there was only one answer to it all... it didn't matter.
It didn't matter who or why they did what they did. The only thing that mattered was they had signed their death certificate the moment those bastards laid their hands on her.
"Otiga!" Ashton immediately called her, "Someone-"
"Unfortunately... Lady Otiga isn't here anymore. You can leave a message if you want." A male voice giddily replied.
"Leon, is that you?"
"It's commander Leon to you, fucking brat." Leon boldly replied before smiling, "By the way, how's that little succubus of yours? I hope everything is alright there."
Ashton remained silent... too silent for Leon's comfort. The latter immediately disconnected the call, before sitting right next to an unconscious Otiga. They were in some kind of a mansion, but Leon wasn't alone... Jacklin was there with him along with someone else... someone much stronger than anyone present in the room... The Monarch of the Second Seat.