The Villain's Story

Chapter 969: Phoenix City (2).

There it lay in front of the convoy, an absolutely massive wreck of a city, once one of the greatest in human civilization. Once it was home to over a million human beings; now? Hundreds of thousands of monsters, each that could eat an average human being whole effortlessly.

Even from miles away, they could see the carnage being dealt within, hordes and hordes of monsters fighting one another, vying for dominance. Even the cursed giant of flesh, metal, cement, glass, and a lot of other things roamed the city, however, few chose to fight it.

The convoy, filled with the mightiest talents of the world, gazed upon it with both apprehension and a tinge of fear. They were supposed to clear this? Unknowingly, the grip on their weapons tightened, and some even called their parents or managers for advice. The older ones awakened; the more experienced ones were the same, although only in regard to their weapons.

It was never expected of them to clear the entire city, just to push the recruits to utter despair and kill as many as they could. Though their superiors insisted they take care of the giant at the very least. Nevertheless, even that was a mighty task.

Everyone was somewhat afraid, a few of them, the really talented ones, were ambitious to make their names known, or at the very least, grow to a new level of power.

One of them, however, was grumbling, or rather, making the pains of his heart well known to the world.

“WHY MUST THEY SEND ME TO A FUCKING DESERT?! IT’S TOO HOT, GODDAMNIT!”

—-

The convoy quickly set up camp, and as the military and youths from the guilds silently ate their food in peace and discussed plans, a particular dragon was furious.

“I’M A FROST DRAGON, NOT A DESERT DRAGON. FROST! FROST.”

The state was already hot, even in the Grand Canyon; however, approaching the city itself was another kind of ‘hot.’ The temperature had increased significantly, and why was this the case?

Mana concentration. The unholy beasts and other spawns of the dungeon were attuned to the element of fire, so much so that the heat of the city reached all the way here, and with the blazing sun above empowering the mana… a certain dragon was very grumpy.

Twilight’s camp area had already been surrounded by a thick barrier, creating a ‘refreshing’ environment for the dragon within. To the rest of the recruits? It was as if they suddenly went from a desert to a tundra.

While still uncomfortable, many chose it over the heat. Therefore, the leaders of the expedition made their way to Twilight’s tent, where Alan was forced to deal with their smelly sweat using magical means. He berated many of them and even took out containers of air freshener from his inventory, blasting it all over the place.

Was he infected with Sabrina’s OCD? Perhaps he was; he was already missing her. Nevertheless, most of the officers didn’t complain and were actually grateful that the heat wasn’t an issue within the tent. Some of them were going to ask Alan to expand the barrier as much as he could.

They’d rather sleep under a bundle of blankets over waking up in a puddle of their own sweat. The mana was messing with their devices, rendering air-conditioning compliances useless.

Slowly, they gathered in the tent and took their own seats, silently waiting for everyone to arrive. Alan quieted down after a while as well, getting used to the temperature.

He really missed Lanekia, the Realm of Shadows, and even the darn Black Sea. Each of them was perfect for him, and he enjoyed the temperature there. Eventually, everyone finally arrived, and the meeting before the assault was commenced.

Ryan coughed, drawing everyone’s attention. He slicked back his hair and spoke.

“Well, now that we have everyone here, let’s discuss the plan of action. Currently, the beasts occupy the west and northwest sides of the city, with the automatons firmly in the east and northeast. The Termites occupy the south and expand outside the city as well. We are unaware of how deep their nest is, nor the exact number of individuals, estimates say they are in firmly between the 800 thousand and million range. The beasts are firmly in the 100-130 thousand range, while the automatons outside their fortress dungeon are exactly three hundred thousand.

All of them are fairly low ranked, but their numbers are a problem. It’ll be more a battle of endurance than a quick fight like with a higher class of monsters. The only strong monster within the city is the Cursed Giant, assumed to be in the special tiers of S-SS ranked stage, along with the leaders of the three factions; however, their exact strength is unknown.

Does anyone wish to say something?”

He looked around the room, and when no one raised any questions, he continued.

“Command has decided to let us choose which teams will attack which. After careful consideration, we have decided that Twilight will deal with the Beast Horde, Behemoth will deal with the Automaton legion, and Titan will be dealing with the Termite Threat. Each team will be supported by members of the Association and World Government, along with two battalions of fifteen hundred soldiers each from the army. Are there any objections.

Immediately, a hand was raised; however, it didn’t belong to someone who people expected to object. Someone who had less of a presence to the top brass. Alexander raised his hand, and everyone but Alan turned to him.

“I would like to deal with the Cursed Giant alone. I believe I can take it down.”

Incredulous looks were directed at him, and he simply shrugged. Howard warned.

“It is a special tier of S-SS grade monster, created by a ritual gone wrong. I’m sorry, but we simply can’t take the risk.”

He spoke for the people in the room,” Alexander sighed and kicked Alan in the foot underneath the table. An action everyone noticed.

Alan rolled his eyes and declared.

“Let him handle it; he can kill the thing with ease. I’ll take responsibility if anything goes wrong. I reckon a good meteor can bring that thing down in an instan-ow!”

Olivia was the one to kick him this time, staring daggers at him, and Alan cursed.

“Ok, ok, fine, no meteors… Though I still reckon a glacial collapse will bring the giant down. Anyway, Alexander can handle that. Even I have to be serious fighting him. If he somehow dies while fighting him, I’ll bring him from the dead for you all to laugh at him.”

Olivia and even Alexander shivered at the mention of a giant, something that everyone noticed once again, but Alan didn’t elaborate further, despite the questions. Though they were more curious at his claims of bringing someone back from the dead, since they had an inkling of his identity… some reached bold conclusions.

Could Alan bring people back from the dead, being the prince of death and all? No, no, he could not.

Not yet, at the very least.