When the raid began, Thanatos first encountered Adel. They talked about the plan. Adel would run away as Hades, the leader of Underworld and Thanatos would stay to fight and let everyone else escape.
Soldiers kept coming from all directions, but they were weak. Thanatos dealt with them easily and reached the main training room. He saw Eric about to die, and thanks to his zombie buying time, Eric's life was saved. It didn't matter to him if they discovered his necromantic powers if it meant he could save his people.
After listening to Reggie, he didn't have any reason to hold back. They found the bodies in the aftermath of the battle with Toss the Red Executioner. It was a dumb idea to just hope they wouldn't find the bodies in the pit. This was the price of his negligence.
"I'm still an idiot. I should have done better. Now I'll deal with you for daring to raise your hand against my subordinates." He vanished in an instant.
Reggie could follow him with his eyes, and the undead warrior was attacking from behind. He was too busy dealing with the assault that he didn't have time to reach for the claws aimed at his head.
"[Mirage]!" As soon as the claws touched him, he used his special ability, and he faded into the air like an illusion. The blurry image took form again and attacked Thanatos's neck.
Reggie's sword was blocked with one hand. The demon attacked again and ripped Reggie's ear with a slash. The pain was secondary in the face of the monster he was fighting. He jumped away, gasping for air as the blood covered his face.
"AH… AH… AH… you really are a devil." He wiped the sweat from his forehead and thought about the situation.
We need to kill now. Our reports concluded he was stronger than a sergeant at the minimum, but even I'm having problems keeping up with his speed. I thought he had used undead to overpower the Red Executioner. If he grows stronger, then in a few years we will have to deal with a fourth great syndicate…
Arresting him would probably be impossible, so the only option was... "I'll kill you and end your blasphemous experiments here!"
Thanatos only looked at him with contemp. He took out a potion of strength from his pockets and drank it. "I don't have time to lose."
Once again, he disappeared, and Reggie was left dumbfounded. Reggie was defending against the undead again when, from above, a mighty kick almost shattered his skull. His arm broke under the force of the kick.
"AHHHH! [Mirage]!" His body fazed the kick and he got as close as he could to Thanatos. He attacked his chest where the heart would be. "[Golden-"
"[Necrotic wave]" Reggie's body stopped, the energy left his body, and he couldn't move the sword to pierce his opponent. Thanatos moved to the side and prepared his claws.
"Oh, so even if you're intangible, an attack that causes an area effect works against you."
Reggie's weakness was exposed; his special ability [Mirage] only allowed him to temporally faze through objects. He was still vulnerable to non-physical attacks like necrotic energy. He got impatient and let the demon turn the tables on him. [Mirage] stopped working and the claws pounced on his face…
CCLLLLAAAANKKK... An enormous blade blocked the attack, saving Reggie's life. The clash againts the metal made sparks fly everywhere. The corpulent man lifted his blade and pushed Thanatos away.
"Captain Vince!" Reggie called his name, asking for an explanation. "You were supposed to be on the outside to arrest underlings that managed to escape from the building. What are you doing here?"
Vince Kasius Monroe, the only other captain in the city, was old and powerful. He gave an annoyed look to his colleague.
"Reggie, you expect me to leave you alone after feeling that murderous intent. One or two runaways we can catch later. The big fish is this guy. If he escapes, then this whole operation was a waste. You made me wait months for this, so don't go dying on me."
Reggie and Vince were the only ones here who could fight against a monster like Thanatos.
"Now!" Vince led the charge, with Reggie following right behind. He raised his blade and attacked Thanatos, who was half his size, but he dodged the blade and counterattacked with a kick.
The kick broke a couple of ribs. How can such a small body be this strong?
Thanatos was surprised that the effects of the potion were still active, but this old guy tanked his hit that was meant to split him in half. without any special ability or magic. He sent the undead to attack, but Reggie moved between them and sliced one of his hands in half.
This is bad, he can't do much against two captains. I could try to summon a Death Knight, but the risks and mana cost are too high. Damn it, why are there so few summons in this stupid book? Weren't you supposed to be a necromancer, Zek!
The revival of people with [Raise the dead] meant they lost their intelligence and only kept their physical power. Toss was a shadow of his former self. The only summons of low-level creatures in the black book are zombies and skeletons. The middle tier creatures were mostly under the glyphs that still remain hidden. Only a Death Knight and a Banshee were his options.
Vince kept attacking and Reggie ended up splitting the undead executioner in half.
"You like to go two against one, demon? Now it is the two of us against you! [Overpower]" Vince's muscles grew and almost tore his clothes. The blade moved like lightning, and it packed enough force to slice a house.
"[Strengthening]" he reinforced his arms and blocked the giant blade. Reggie moved behind him and attacked his neck. There wasn't any other option to deal with two strong opponents alone. "[Summon Banshee]"
"AAAAAAAAAAHYYYYYYYYYYYY" a terrible wailing came from a ghostly woman. the cry was so painful that Reggie and Vince's ears bled from the pitch. Leaving them at the border of deafness.
Even under that excruciating pain, neither of them dropped their weapons to cover their ears. Thanatos was hoping for a chance to kill them, but they defended well. He deflected the blade and backed away from the captains with the Banshee floating at his side.
The terrible cry ended, and the captains quickly took handkerchiefs from their pockets and put a piece inside their ears to help with the crying.
"You guys didn't talk to each other but look at you so in synch." He was out of mana. The healing of Eric's hands, the banshee, and multiple spells left him dry. Normally he would feel cornered, but that wasn't the case anymore.
"Thank you for remembering that I also have this now." He smiled.
Reggie kept his eyes on Thanatos, but the moment a yellow handkerchief appeared at his side, the devil teleported on top of him.
"[Mira-" the claws cut his face from side to side. He moved away in time to save his life, but his eye was blinded. The scars on his face would be with him for the rest of his life.
"Captain Reggie!" Vince ran to his partner's side and attacked.
Thanatos didn't look back as the handkerchief changed color from yellow to blue and a shield manifested in the air, blocking Vince's attack. He didn't let go, and with a punch, he sent Reggie vomiting blood to the other side of the room.
CRASH… Reggie's body dropped into a puddle of his own blood. He was done for.
"AAAAAHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYY" the cry came again and made Vince's head tremble from the inside. He was covering his ears, but blood came out of them anyway. The handkerchief turned red and fire clouded his vision.
Thanatos stabbed him in the chest. He didn't reach the heart; the muscles were in the way. If he couldn't crush his heart, then he slashed all the insides while taking his hand out. The blood poured out, covering the blue uniform.
Vince backed away, his proud and confident attitude taking a back seat as he drank a potion of healing to stop the bleeding.
"This is what you get when you get in my way." Death sentence by the lord of the Underworld.
***
"T-This is?" Eric couldn't believe his eyes. After running away from the captain of the army, he encountered Adel and told him about the situation. He mentioned how Thanatos used the undead to save his life.
"If he exposed himself, then there is no point in me acting as bait. They probably already knew. I'm going to support him. Make sure to clean the escape route."
It was his job to defeat the soldiers on the outside, but he only saw dead bodies.
On the outside, the corpses of soldiers and his own underlings lay on the ground. They were from the other hideouts in the city; they came as backup when the fight started.
"E-Eric..." CRACK... The man's neck cracked like a twig under the hands of a bald man dressed in black.
The underlings of the men had come, and while the soldiers and Underworld members were fighting, they took out both sides.
"Who are you, bastard?" Eric screamed as he prepared to kill him.
"Those who indulge in the Dragon rage always pay the price. The bosses ordered us to destroy Underworld today. I didn't expect to start the day with a raid. You guys are very unlucky."
"Attack! Don't let a single one of them escape!" Eric ran toward the bald guy and urged his men to fight. They weren't going to die.
***
On the inside of the building, while members and soldiers still fought, Adel stood in front of a familiar face.
"I told you I'd be the one to punish you, Adel. I bet you thought you had gotten away from me, didn't you?"
The red on the tip of the dark hair made Adel boil with anger and frustration.
"What the fuck are you doing here, Kain?" They hadn't seen each other since the fight in the Capital after Adel quit the Red Dragon. "Are you that stupid to come all the way here for revenge?"
"Yes, revenge is a factor. Letting a rat like you live for so long after abandoning us makes me sick. But this wasn't my idea. I'm following the will of our bosses. You see, Adel, the kindness of the bosses went on for far too long. Until last week, when they called a bunch of people in charge of cities and villages and told us to purge this city of those cocky idiots that call themselves Underworld."
"What? That's impossible. Why would the bosses do that? Did one of the bosses come along?"
"No, they only send about a dozen city leaders like me and their groups. I thought it was probably a test to see who to promote to Red Executioner. What better chance to prove my worth than by killing you. It is like a dream come true, hehehe." Kain smiled like a lunatic. He believed his own fantasies with pride, but Adel noticed the true intention.
The Red Dragon attacked at the same time as the army. The fact that they sent some grunts like Kain instead of more Red Executioners or there wasn't a single boss leading the operation.
"Cleaning house. They sent you guys here to die so then the real force can take back the city with less trouble. The fact that it happened today meant someone in the army tipped off one of the bosses."
A sacrifice to get rid of the useless followers.