The Mark

Chapter 34

Chapter 34

"Flourance?" Xander muttered with a frown as he saw the name of the caller. "Did Lucifer enter the city?"

He picked up the call.

"Did Lucifer come?" he asked straight away without waiting for the other side to speak first.

"He came. Not only did he came, but he also found out that we are here. He asked about you, and that i***t, Markel, blurted out that you just left the city. He obviously knows about the Delta squad being here," Flourance replied to Xander. The urgency was evident in his tone. It was also clear that he was running.

"Sigh, Markel made a mistake."

Usually, Xander would have been furious in this situation as his squad messed up such an important plan, but he was a warlock whose second ability was his emotion control. He could control his emotions and think clearly, even in difficult situations. That helped him stay calm even now.

"How far is he from the designated spot?" Xander inquired.

"He’s just a hundred steps away. We will be trying to get him to spot ," Flourance answered. He didn’t stop running for even a second.

"Stay alert. His lightning should be able to target people in the long range as well. Try not to lose anyone if you can. I’ll be leaving this city soon after making sure that no Dungeon Dwellers are alive, so I’ll be late. You should be done until then. Keep me updated on how the situation develops," Xander let out.

Roar!

As Xander was talking, he heard a mighty roar coming from behind him.

"I’ll call you later. Some bugs need to be squashed here as well. Stay alert and make this mission successful for us even when I’m not there," Xander asserted before he disconnected the call.

He glanced back and saw an Armored Gorilla and two Silver Tigers standing there.

He started running towards the beasts, but he had only taken two steps when he saw the beasts blowing up to smithereens.

Xander stopped in his tracks as a frown appeared on his face at the sights of dead beasts. He hadn’t attacked, but the beasts were killed. Someone else was here. He understood that.

As he looked around, he saw a group of people coming from behind the beasts. All of them held an umbrella in their left hand to protect themselves from the rain.

All of them were wearing a golden robe over their black clothes. Their robes had an insignia near the chest portion, which seemed like a bow that had a sword in the middle, being used as the bow’s arrow.

"The Hunter Guild is here," Xander muttered as he saw the golden robe and the insignia on the chest of those people. He realized who they were.

The fire that burned around his fists stopped as he walked towards the people.

"Xander, from the APF Delta squad. You must be from the Hunters Guild," Xander let out as he reached out his hand to handshake with the person in the middle, but the other side didn’t respond.

"We will handle the rest. You guys aren’t needed anymore. You can leave," the leader of the small squad, Fracker, said arrogantly. There was no gratitude in their tone.

’As arrogant as I heard them to be. The Hunter Guild members really have an arrogance problem. Whatever. I don’t have time to play around either,’ Xander thought as he turned back to leave.

"You guys should do your job better next time. The Dungeon dwellers are your responsibility. If you can’t even keep them in control and stop them from being able to leave the dungeons, despite finding out so much about them. Then something is really lacking," he mentioned once without looking back.

"You!" One of the Hunter Union members got angry at the condescending tone of Xander.

"Don’t bother, Ray. We have more important things to do now," another member advised, calming his friend.

"Wait a minute. Xander... I heard that name. Oh right. He is an S-Rank Warlock and the leader of Delta Squad!" A red-haired Variant of the Hunter guild suddenly called out.

When he heard Xander’s name, he felt like he had heard it before. Only now did he remember who Xander was.

"What? APF sent the leader of their third squad here? I thought they would send normal members for such a minor thing. Are you sure, Sunny?" Fracker inquired in confusion.

"Maybe he was nearby when the news of this attack came, and he came to help? Sigh, we offended a big-shot," Sunny replied with a deep sigh.

"So what? Our Hunter Guild isn’t something they can offend either. He won’t do anything," Fracker commented ignorantly.

"You can’t underestimate APF. They are on the same level as our Hunter Union in terms of importance, even if they lack the strength and numbers to match us."

"Also, the leader of their Alpha Squad, Varant, is a terrifying entity. He is an S-rank Warlock who isn’t scared of anything. All the powers fail in front of his power. I heard that even our Hunter Union leaders are wary of him. So we really shouldn’t create unnecessary conflict with APF," Sunny reminded Fracker.

"Hah, I didn’t do anything. I just told him to leave the rest to us. Even if he is the leader of the Delta Squad, he shouldn’t be offended with just that," Fracker let out, shaking his head.

"Anyway, he already left. Stop talking about him and hunt some monsters," he continued as he changed the topic.

....

"There are still some monsters left."

"Don’t worry. Hunters Union is here. They will deal with it. We need to get back to Erygas. Lucifer is already there."

Xander and his men conversed as they entered the helicopter.

The rotor of the helicopter started swinging as the helicopter began rising in the air.

....

"Lucifer... Just a little more. I’ll have you in my grasp. I know you suffered a lot, and you want revenge, but I can’t let you kill people."

"You might hate humanity, but you’re wrong. There is the good side of humanity as well. I’ll handle everything. Just don’t create any more trouble now."

Xander seemed as if he was talking to himself as he sat in the helicopter.

- : Suspicions

- : Suspicions

- : Suspicions

"You might be imprisoned, but I won’t let you suffer. That’s the least the son of Zale Azarel deserves," Xander muttered before he dialed the number of Flourance to get an update on the situation.

....

Flourance ran through the swampy streets that had a hard time handling the heavy influx of water from the heavy rain.

His clothes were already drenched however he didn’t care. After updating Xander on the situation, he soon reached the location where Lucifer was standing.

As he reached there, he saw two people dead, lying near Lucifer. The rest of the members were standing far away from him, keeping their distance. In fact, they stood more than a hundred steps away from him.

"Good. Get them there. To get to you, he would have to go there," Flourance mumbled as he saw the situation.

Lucifer was glaring at the variants standing far away from him. Tapping his foot on the group, he soon started flying towards them.

Looking at Lucifer flying away, Flourance smiled. "Right! Get there. It will all be over. Just a little more."

Ring! Ring!

Just as he finished his words, his phone started ringing.

His face turned pale as he heard the ring. The ring’s sound was not too high, but it wasn’t low enough to be drowned by the noise of rain either.

Flourance saw Lucifer stopping. He realized it was bad. Lucifer had heard.

....

"Where is Xander?" Lucifer asked in a casual tone.

"He left the city, yes-" Markel blurted out without thinking, but it was too late by the time he realized it.

His face turned pale as he realized what he had done, but it was too late. Even though Flourance was commanding him what to do next, he couldn’t as his collar was grabbed by Lucifer, who dragged him out from the other side of the counter, smashing him on the street.

"You set a trap for me here?" Lucifer said grimly as he raised his foot and smashed it on the head of the middle-aged man, crushing it.

The blonde man who was in the nearest shop screamed as he watched his friend die, "Markel!"

He came out of the shop and ran towards Lucifer to kill him in his anger, ignoring the commands of Flourance.

"I don’t care who you all are! Anyone who comes in my way will suffer the same fate," Lucifer declared, ignoring the screams of the man who came running towards him.

"Die!" the man thundered as he disappeared, turning into a shadow.

Watching the man disappear, Lucifer was stunned however he soon noticed the shadow moving on the ground.

’He turned to a shadow? Or is he invisible but unable to control shadow? No, there is no sun in the sky. It can’t be a normal shadow. He definitely turned into a shadow!’

Hurriedly analyzing the situation, he instantly realized what the power of the man was.

The blonde man was called Treston, a Warrior-Grade Variant who had a Physical Power of transformation. His power of transformation was different from Caen, though.

While the first level leader of Variant Uprising Caen was able to transform into any humanoid shape, which helped him impersonate anyone, Treston could only transform into a shadow.

His transformation ability was more limited as well since he could only stay in his shadow form for twenty seconds at a time before he returned to normal unwillingly.

Despite this limitation, Treston used this ability as he believed that twenty seconds were enough for him to kill Lucifer for what he did to his friend.

"Come," Lucifer mumbled as he watched the shadow getting closer.

He raised his foot slightly and smashed it on the ground as he flew towards the shadow instead, leaving a crater in his wake.

Treston was stunned to see Lucifer moving towards him as he wondered if he had realized his powers.

"No! He couldn’t have known," Treston convinced himself as he prepared his knife, ready to attack Lucifer.

As soon as Lucifer reached near Treston, the man jumped out of the shadow, thrusting his knife towards him.

"Too slow," Lucifer replied as if he was already expecting it.