The Villain's Story

Chapter 961: Grand Canyon

Amanda remained quiet, her gaze was still stuck towards the decimated monster horde. She did not respond for a long time, and Alan patiently waited, taking in the awed expressions of everyone with glee.

In the end, with a pained expression, one with a tinge of confusion, and awe, she asked.

“What do you want?”

Alan remained quiet for a while, slowly thinking his options. What could she ever offer him? Alan thought about it for a while, as he finally said.

“Just don’t be annoying through the remainder of this expedition, back me up, and just listen, I guess? I don’t like it when people are too full of themselves, so just tone it down? What I really want is for this mission to proceed smoothly, I have issues I need to take care of as well, you know?”

Alan honestly wanted the entire mission to go without any hiccups, he knew such a thing was impossible, but he would prefer if nothing awry was going on from his side. Enemies, monsters, and other things he could deal with. But a few people reaching out of their league? He would not like that.

If someone like Amanda, who they actually respected was there to calm them down, without Alan having to force some respect into them, it would be preferred. She could honestly do whatever she wanted, but she just had to take control of the teams of Titan and Behemoth, so another incident like the one in the helicopter would not happen.

Amanda nodded, her gaze never leaving the battlefield, if it could even be called that. Alan, happy with the answer turned around to leave, until Amanda finally turned to him, and asked.

“Why?”

A confused Alan turned his head, prompting her to elaborate further.

“Why? Why what?”

“Why don’t you… socialize? Present yourself to others? All this power, and hardly anyone knew it was real before today… Why hide? Why not form connections with people? Surely you see the benefits in that. Or is the issue your dealing with simply that massive?

Alan remained silent for a while, until he burst into laughter. Amanda looked confused, had she said something that stupid.

“What the hell do I gain from talking with you all? I hate parties, and honestly, no one on this small planet can actually give me something I need? For connections… I have a lot more than you, trust me. Each one probably worth more than this entire planet!

Humans really do have a tendency to think themselves superior, don’t they? Wait, that was pride at work, got to tone that down…”

She didn’t understand his words, and to be honest, she never could. If connections were the topic, Alan had more than anyone on Earth, his ‘connections’ were better than anything they could even think of.

Lanesha, The Supreme Dragon of Frost, was his guardian dragon. The youngest of the House of Death. Suleras, The Supreme Dragon of Chaos, was also his guardian, and the leader of House Chatan.

Alan was the heir to both houses, technically, even if House Chatan’s current state was… questionable, the House of Death? Insane. It had it’s Primordial, his grandmother, and Valus and Kulak, his uncles, so to say.

As the heir of the house, Alan was sure anyone related to the House Of Death would do whatever favor he asked of them, whatever he would need, would be given. Now, he couldn’t abuse this, lest Ariel ‘scold’ him, but he was well off than anyone on Earth could even imagine.

This was not even factoring his Bloodline, as the one who was accepted by Liorathen, a Primordial, Alan had a lot of sway in the area of the God Beasts as well, though he was unsure how that would play out. The Voidspawn were an enigma, though he should still have sway there as well, being the youngest voidspawn, even if partially.

He hated to admit it, but James had set him upon the golden, no, the diamond road. He was the definition of a diamond spoon, one that was also capable of it. Why would he ever go to parties on Earth? He hated the noise, hated the smell, and hated the demeanor of some humans.

And Alan wasn’t the best at keeping himself in control. He was sure he would lash out if someone said something they should not say. Keeping the pride of his genetics in control was a hard task, and Alan knew someone would say something that would cause him to flip out.

“And as for the issue… It’s big.”

Amanda’s eyes widened, eager to know what ‘issue’ it would be. What was Alan dealing with that he considered a big issue? What monumental problem could it be? She had just seen him deal with forty thousand monsters in an instant, so what calamity was occupying his mind.

“My girlfriend has been ghosting me for a while. I don’t know if I did something bad… probably did, but I need to make up for it, you know.”

He crossed his arms, and lifted his head towards the sky, as if in deep thought. Oblivious to the fact that everyone around him had their eyes and mouths dropped to the ground, even Amanda.

“…”

Speechless, she thought.

‘…His biggest issue is that his girlfriend is ignoring him?’

Indeed it was, Alan was pissed, if not worried. Sabrina had avoided his calls for a long time, and he was stressed, firmly believing he had done something wrong and had to make up for it. After all, why else would she avoid his calls for so long? Refusing to answer the Astral bond was something that worried Alan.

Unknown to him, he was simply catching her at a bad time in the abyss, leading her to ignore the call, dealing with a more troublesome issue. Alan was still unaware she was in the abyss, and would have likely flipped out if he ever found she was in there, bombarding her with questions. She was ignoring him until she found a safe place to rest, and then deal with his questions.

Alan, unaware of it all, could only grow restless as he thought of many possible outcomes, and reasons. It was on his mind for the longest time, and as he teleported out of the area, the people on the walls were glued to his former location.

“… He annihilated all those monsters, and is struggling to keep a relationship afloat?”

A soldier commented from the side, in a hushed voice, but every awakened had heard him, but none commented, simply thinking about it. After a while, a few shrugged their shoulders and walked away, while Amanda was stuck rooted to the ground, her face one of genuine confusion, and awe.

After the monster horde was swiftly dealt with, the city began to process the monster corpses, the facilities for such a task took up seven entire sectors of the city, and even then, it was not enough, as the quantity of the monsters exceeded any preparations. Far more monsters had attacked the city this time, and if not for Alan, the walls may have been breached and some sectors would have suffered heavy casualties, so even if some Guilds were against him, the public opinion was with him.

Especially from the neglected sectors, those on the outer edge of the city. Every invasion a few monsters always broke in, and slaughtered many. The invasion this time was the only one that ended in an instant, and without a single casualty.

A pleasant surprise to Alan was a cut of the profits, millions of credits had been deposited to his bank account after a few days. The city had at least paid him for the corpses, even if they earned far more from this invasion, Alan welcomed it.

Although the money in his medallion still surpassed his wealth on Earth by a great margin, he liked the extra cash, perhaps a quality of James that still stuck with him. After they had rested a day or two, the convoy finally left the city, escorted by the military as they made their way towards the state of Arizona, they passed through Boulder city quickly, although it was just a wasteland.

There was an underground facility mainly used by the army, and they rested a bit more there, much to Alan’s dismay. Afterwards, with a few convoys from the military handled by the association, the expedition made it’s way towards the Grand Canyon.

The Grand Canyon would be the first major stop of the expedition, where the recruits would gain combat experience against a special type of monster closely related to spirits. It was one Alan was intrigued by, and had been a thorn in the side of the world for a long while.

Previously, the grand Canyon was a famous spot, even after the invasions, where it became a special mine of precious materials and natural treasures, that is, until the mana within the canyon gave birth to something else, something hostile.

Elementals.