Kapitel 554: Branding Torture.

But that was a matter for later...

While he would be sure to seek out the base and retrieve all that was kept there, which should by right being to him as he brought about the demise of the previous owners, he had more pressing matters to attend to. Matters that could not simply be solved by beating up those two idiots.

...

Present time...

Artyom had now retrieved his sword Artifact with the blue gem glowing with the cosmic energy that had been stored inside it for a destructive release.

Ivan was clearly on guard even though he had a much more relaxed take on the whole situation.

Merely eyeing Hal with a look of annoyance and suspicion.

After all, why would someone who had just survived an assassination planned by a faction appear seemingly out of nowhere just to talk?

An assassination by a trio of Cosmic Pagoda experts.