Capítulo 9: Mafia

A few minutes earlier while Mark was still in the tank.

Near the government's base situated on the northwest side of the city.

An army composed of 700 armed Abandoned and 500 Divine were slowly advancing towards a deserted location.

The northwest side of the city was once a prosperous place filled with people vibrantly

lived their lives to the fullest.

...That was until a Corrupted stampede happened which the cause was a Fallen creature that was near its descent to Forsaken rank and destroyed a part of the metallic walls.

The government had tried to rebuild this part of the city, but due to the low amount of Nero and resources, it was never succeeded.

As the army progressed steadily toward the location, a middle-aged man dressed in light grey armor who had a big scar across his lips was walking in front of the entire army calmly.

His eyes remained glued to the direction of the base, no one could tell what he was thinking.

Suddenly one of the troops who had been walking behind him quickened his pace as he arrived next to him, and asked in a slightly perplexed tone:

"Boss, why do you want this place so badly? I understand that it may have good resources and equipments for our gang, but it doesn't explain why you mobilized this many troops just to claim it."

The existence of mafias and gangs in the city, despite not being well known to common folks, was actually abundant like weeds on the field.

The reason for this was that, in a world where one could gain tremendous power and abilities just with a little bravery and intellect, that person would thirst for authority and control over others.

So mafias were basically forces that wanted to gain control of the city for themselves.

The only thing that made the current government still stand was the loyalty of common folks for them.

Otherwise, this city would have had mutiple factions controlling each part of the city.

But of course, this didn't mean that the government had full control over the city and the mafias and gangs weren't constantly trying to overthrow them.

A prime example was this army of mafias that was attempting to attack a government's base and steal their resources to strengthen their faction and weaken the government.

The middle-aged man was silent for a long time before saying, his voice sounded oddly excited:

"...I do not know why myself, It's just that when I heard about this base, something inside me just keeps telling me to control this base at all costs."

The soldier heard this and couldn't help but flashed a weird look at his boss.

'What's wrong with boss today?'

The soldier knew that his boss was a rational man, rarely decides things by emotions, and always was cautious about everything.

So seeing his boss act so impulsive like this made the soldier feel weirdly nervous for some reason.

While the soldier was still in deep thought, the middle-aged man raised his left hand to halt the troops. Immediately everyone stop moving and the soldier snapped out of his thoughts.

Just as the soldier was wondering why they stopped, the middle-aged man's voice rang out:

"We're here."

In front of them was a large bunker made from essences enhanced titanium, which increased normal titanium's weight and hardness by 7 times its original weight and hardness.

The Divine had a way to enhance materials, and weapons to surpass its original capabilities. Of course, this was not permanent, but there were soul artifacts that were able to assist the enhancement to make it sustain for a longer period of time.

The middle-aged man silently stared at the bunker for a few seconds, then turned around to order his troops in a stern voice:

"Abandoned carries equipment and Divine that have the abilities to deal a large area of effect damages step forward. Remember to adjust the firepower so that the defense will be weakened, but the base remains intact."

The army moved swiftly in an orderly manner as those who had the said abilities stood up at the front.

The middle-aged man swept a look at his army, then said loudly:

"On my command!"

"....FIRE!!"

After that, everything was complete chaos.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It had only been a few minutes since the battle began, but the mafia had completely overwhelmed their enemy.

The reason for this was that the government's base didn't suspect their position would get discovered since this was a deserted area that few ever came by.

Another reason was that the mafia launched the attack first and had better preparations, their manpower, and firepower completely outnumbered their enemies.

As the troops slowly pushed the enemies back, a middle-aged man stood silently folding his arms in front of his chest.

He maintained a calm look but the gleam in his eyes betrayed him and displayed his real thoughts.

The man excitedly thought to himself about all the goods he would get his hands on once all of this was over. Suddenly a soldier with an average build arrived in front of him.

The soldier put one hand on his chest as he said respectfully:

"Boss, the enemies are fleeing. It looks like they have given up on the fight."

The middle-aged nodded slightly to the soldier and turned his head to the front before shouting:

"Soldiers! Chase the enemy out of their territory and prepare to advance to the base."

All the troops that were fighting heard this as they continued to push forward even harder than before.

After a while when most enemies were dead and the rest minority had escaped, the troops quickly gathered back to their leader's position.

Just as the middle-aged man was about to say something, a huge explosion went off in the distance.

The army unconsciously looked in the direction of the explosion and their eyes widened.

...The bunker had exploded.

After a moment of silence, they heard the sound of gritted teeth as they turned back to look at their leader to see he was clenching his hand so tightly that it bled.

The soldiers were surprised by the leader's reaction because he was usually a composed man in almost every situation.

It was unnatural for him to be this angry.

After a while when the middle-aged man seemed to have calmed down, he ordered his men in a slightly trembling voice:

"Get over there and see if there are anything valuables remaining."

The troops followed his order as those who had the abilities related to water arrived first to put down the fire.

10 minutes later, the fire was finally gone and the men started their search.

But to their disappointment, there was nothing worth remaining there as all they could see were dead bodies and other broken equipments.

After hearing the troops' report, the leader let out a growl of anger before quickly calming down and he ordered his troops to retreat.

The army people quickly got away as sighs of regret could be heard amongst them until they could no longer be seen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A long time after the army left and the dark sky was starting to get brighter and brighter.

An illusory silhouette gradually appeared in the distance, on top of a dead body that was burned and disfigured beyond recognition

What was weird about this black silhouette was that it looked like 2 people were sown together.

The "person" on the left side of the silhouette was constantly wriggling, it looked like it was trying to escape from the other person.

As for the "person" on the right side, it was trying its best to stop the other from escaping, as if it didn't want to let the other go.

After a long time, when the first light of dawn hit the deserted ground, the left person finally relented as it started merging with the right person who seemed to have let out a sigh of relief.

After the 2 people were merged together, the silhouette slowly disappeared, as if it had never existed.