"Okay!! Okay!!! I'll tell you everything! Please spare me!", his eyes bulged out with streams of tears, out of true fear. He had no information on the masked man and didn't know how dangerous he could truly be.
He could've been worse than his own boss and that was a risk he didn't want to take!
"T-The hideout consists of two layers as it's set underground.. in the heart of the slums. If you aren't aware, our leaders name is Bsal and he is in coercion with the Eights. As the name implies, they are the eighth strongest villain organization in the world."
"I'm well aware.", the joker yawned, placing his hand in the air over his mask, as if he had been taught this information too many times.
"S-so, getting back on point, the first layer of the hideout contains a number of rooms:
- The Armory
- The Throne Room
- The Meeting Room
- Security
- CCTV."
"A-And the rest of the first floor is just filled with guards and hallways. Then, getting onto the second floor. That is just a whole layer dedicated to our leader, and many entertainment rooms, like a Cinem-"
"I don't care about that. Just tell me where the leader stays."
"Ah, yes. E-Each room has a number on it, and I only managed to sneak a glance at Lord Bsaldy's bedroom number. It is 2G and the door is painted red so it should stand out."
"Which time does he usually go to sleep?"
"11pm."
"11pm? He seems to be an early bird.", Archehon had his smirk hidden by his false face.
The disguised guy jumped off the boxes to the floor and patted the underlings shoulder.
"You're reliable. How about you become my underling?", Archehon glistered as he shines through the mask, too much to the point where the crook had his eyes blinded..
Blinded from absolutely gibberish!
'What a load of rubbish! First, he knocked me out. Then, threatens me to release information that if anyone else finds out about, could put me on danger to become tortured and killed! And lastly, offers me to become his underling?', the small time crook was flabbergasted at how the jokers mind even functioned.
"Or you can just.. lie in the graves if you don't want to?", the conceal didn't hide the wings that were appearing on his back. It shined even greater.
"O-Of course, boss! I, Jav, will be under your care!", the young man who was supposed to be intimidating, appeared as a deer succumbing to a lion, unlike an hour ago.
A maniac grinned despicably beneath the mask, and if the crook saw his face, he would've had exceeded his decision in regret.
"Then, I have my first task for you, honey badger number two."
"Honey.. badger..?", Jav barely contained his anger, and knowing the danger of the situation, he was frozen in place.
"Yes, go evacuate the boy and his mom that you were demanding money from.. I think his name was Chris?"
"Okay."
Jav immediately left his sight and it had been a couple minutes.
Archehon turned his back away after standing still for that portion of time. His footsteps treaded down towards the heart of the slums. After he arrived at the centres radius, it was surprising to the naked eye to see that there was nothing special here. There were no clues of the hideout, but a couple of guards and many different houses all of different sizes. Even the heart didn't look any great and only just a little wealthier than the rest.
But to the one who was revered as Lucifer in his previous life, he was already well versed for these types of situations. It was already clear to him where exactly the hideout was.
As he walked to one of the few houses which had two guards guarding the door, he went past the guards.
The guards noticed him, and they weren't dressed too indifferently in comparison to most the people under the leaders wing. The only difference that could be spotted was their bulkier frame.
"Hey. Noboby is permitted entry through this door unless you are ranked at least two levels below the leader himself and I don't recognize you.", they both pointed their swords at the masked joker, with a bit more of a dignified expression. The guards looked far stronger than the rest of the opponents he had faced so far, however,
Svoosh!—
Archehon suddenly performed a leg sweep at one of the men, impacting the shin with the tip of his shoe.
"Aughh! You bastard!", he fell to the floor, with his back thighs.
Archehon immediately imbued his spear with mana and pierced through the shoulder joint, creating a spraying of blood.
"You shit!", the other guard screamed as he tried kicking Archehon's nose. Using the flexible fighting style, the boy ducked, did a handstand and,
Smash!—
Kicked his nose back, knocking the second guard unconscious. All that was left was the next guard and he was still on the floor, struggling to lift his sword to the air.
"I purposely fractured your shoulder joint and tackled you to that position so it would be difficult to pick your weapon up."
The maniac stomped on top of the wrist while grabbing hold of the sword and cracking it till it shattered into metal fragments.
"Now,"
Archehon harshly delivered a flick to the chin with his foot.
The security was now wiped out and he opened the door. Inside, there wasn't anything special. All that was left was a basic room with simple decorations.
The decorations consisted of chairs, couches and tables. The rest of the decorations were pretty plain and regular if compared to the average living room of a house.
However, no guard would be guarding such a place for no reason and that could only mean one possible thing.
"There's a hidden entrance to the hideout."
Archehon spoke already knowing where it was. He confidently reached a table and pulled it to the left.
Click—
The mechanism activated as the wall slid alongside the table, revealing the dark stairs leading down to the void. Once the entrance fully opened, he smirked after entering it and clicking on another button. The button caused the plain peach wall to react and return to Archehon's back no longer being exposed.
After the footsteps echoed down the stairs, they eventually became quieter and more lulled. The light had also allowed him to see a door which when opened revealed a white hallway with the same color of LEDs. The corridor was luckily empty with the two different directions to go through.
He decided to turn left and walk down until he again turned right.
'According to honey badger number two, the CCTV room should be on this floor. I need to search for it while being as stealthy as possible since this isn't ideal. My divine power is very reliant on shadows currently, and still weak.', Archehon continued sneaking through the first floor but he then widened his smirk as a means of celebrating after winning the jackpot.
The CCTV room was right in front of him, although, next to it was a masked guard wearing a black gas mask, who he could see whilst peeking behind a corner.
"I have an idea."
He took out his dagger and launched them at the throat of the guard who immediately reacted by parrying the dagger. But contrary to his expectations, that was a faint.
Swish!—
The wind resounded and was created by the swift movement of the other dagger that penetrated his throat as he gasped for air. The dagger came off the dead man as he re-equipped it.
'An eighth.. I'll worry about that later because first...'
He opened the door to see an unsuspecting target who was also an eighth judging by their attire.
"Hey, Klon! Check this out, someone has infiltrated our- wait a minute. You're not Klo- K-huekk!! Ugh...", Archehon choked him until he passed out.
"Great. Now, let's check the CCTV."
He cracked his neck before looking at the eight different digital screens. One of them which was the important one.
The entrance to the second floor.
"It's heavily guarded. How many are there? Eleven. That's not going to be possible right now since this body doesn't have enough stamina for that. Hmm-"
"What's this?"
' Mission: Defeat Bsal, the leader of the slums. Reward: [Fifteen points] + [New possible subordinates] Time limit: 00:23:59:58 Penalty - Failure of mission will result in the leader being more wary of intruders and decrease chances of a second infiltration. >' "Oh? This isn't too bad. I guess, there's no harm in defeating some more guards, right?", Archehon grinned devilishly as he stretched and slowly stood up. "Shop." The words acted like a trigger which led the dark-blue screen to show up in front of his blue eyes. 'Shop - Artifacts- Weapons- Armor- Buy&Sell- Clothes- Roulette- Please choose a column out of the six to go further. ' His index-finger tapped the Buy&Sell column which led to a number of lists. "Hmm..", the scrolling took some time before he found what he required. 'Items "Hmm.. not bad. System, how much UP do I currently have?" ' "Tch, let's see if I can sell any of my items and raise my stats." 'Items ...' "Yes." "Now, purchase one flame grenade." "Now.." The preparations were all set. "Let's begin." * * * Eleven guards, who wore the same uniform as the previous Eighth's who Archehon defeated, were all guarding the elevator. There were six guarding the elevator, and the other six who were split between the right and left red walls. The room was very compact and the corner, from which he peeked through, was the only way in. 'This could only mean one thing.', Archehon grinned as he let the grenade's shell be opened and let it roll near the elevators entrance where the six guards stood. "Wait, that's... A grenade! Ru-" Boom!ー The flames erupted, causing the radius to take damage as well, The bodies of the men was all that was left and the other six with slight injuries from the pieces, ran towards the exit. "Hey, I'm the one who did that~", the joker waved as he began to escape. "Get him!" The other six, three who were injured, were on his tail. But that was also a huge mistake on their part. Fizzz!ー "Keke..", Archehon began to crackle as he watched the grenade slowly go off while the rest struggled escaping. Boom!ー "Like mouses searching for the cheese, all of you just ran into my mousetrap." Everyone was now defeated and that's all it took. "Just two flame grenades. Wow, I have to admit that I'm disappointed. I thought the Eight's would get stronger, and smarter, but all that's been done was the expanding of their influence." He cracked his neck before entering the elevator door which was mostly burnt but still endured the grenade. The half burnt button was clicked and footsteps echoed the dark second floor which looked completely different. Horn!ーHorn!ー The alarms sounded as it flashed the red button above the elevators exit, on the ceiling. Footsteps stomped through the floor and the ground shook where Archehon stood. Eventually, someone arrived. "What's with the ruckus?? I'm trying to get some sleep here!", a 6'5 man charged down the corridor towards the elevator which there was no sign of Archehon standing there. The bulky man was wearing his pyjamas with his huge dark-orange pair of shorts and top with buttons. He was massive with long dark-brown hair standing till his shoulders and the stomps alone were enough to alert anyone of his dangerous presence. When he reached the dead end with the elevator, there was nobody there. "Nobody, here? I need to search through the rest of the floor." Eventually, after a few more minutes of searching, Bsal stopped and heard the sound of classical music playing. The sound of Erlkönig by Franz Schubert being played in the piano. (Play for a better reading experience.) "Which bastard is playing music?" The stomps continued until Bsal opened the door to see someone wearing a joker mask, a dark cloak and pants. They played the music with the dramatic tension that was heart-quenching to the listener, and it symbolized nothing but terror. "Fuck! I need to get some sleep-" Bsal stomped and was about to grab the person but they disappeared into dark clouds which eventually filled the room. The music eventually turned to a major tone as the huge man shook his eyes at the sight of the music still continuing through the old fashioned music box, which had accumulated so much dust. "Come out, bastard!", Bsal frantically searched around the dark, abandoned room. "I don't understand. How could someone possibly treat such delicacies like trash?" The leader quickly turned around and saw nobody from where he heard the voice. "Fuck! Stop being a little rat and show yourself, assassin!" "How revolting. Such creatures truly exist." He turned around again to see the joker resting against the wall after coming out of the shadows. "You bastard!!" He punched the wall after the attack didn't reach hi- Stab!ー He felt the back of his stomach be penetrated by the dagger and then his heart. Blood erupted out the body and he fell to the floor. "Kekekeke..." Archehon stood next to the body of the leader. The piece was now three-quarters of the way through and the dramatic tone had gotten louder. Louder to the point where the footsteps began walking down the hallway... Down the second floor... Down the throne room... Until. Finally. "KAHAHAHAHAHAHA...!" Archehon laughed in the throne room where others who were under the leader, widened their eyes as they saw him sitting on the throne. A crowd was formed as they saw the head of their leader in his hands as he sat down peacefully on the throne with a nonchalance look on his face, listening to the ending of the piece, that ended on a perfect cadence. "Ah, how delightful.