Boom!
Just a split second after Alex had sent him flying, a bomb seemed to go off inside Tobias' body, and he exploded!
Although less destructive than Lilia's punch, the explosion caused by Tobias' detonating was enough to uproot the few trees in the surroundings and leave a deep crater on the ground.
Alex, who had been observing the explosion from afar, sighed. "I had expected that there would be something to stop him from speaking, but I didn't think it would actually cause him to explode. The ones who drew those tattoos are total psychos!"
Killing them would be enough; there was no need to cause their bodies to explode. Although, if you think about it, it's a good way to both prevent someone from selling informations about you and also kill the one trying to obtain information from you. And apparently, the one who would explode didn't even know about this fact; otherwise, Tobias wouldn't try to reveal information about the Night group, no matter how much time Alex slapped him.
"Well, what to do now?" Alex glanced at the entrance to the mountain and then in the direction of where Lilia's fight happened.
"Let's go see how my lovely wife is doing on her own," Alex decided. But before going, he walked to the unconscious Todd, whose body was still leaning against a tree.
Not wanting to waste more time than he should, Alex raised his foot and stepped on Todd's leg until he felt the sound of his leg breaking, then did the same for the other leg. Even after what happened with Tobias, Alex still wanted to have more information on the Night group.
With everything he had witnessed, those guys could be a huge variable in his plans of rebellion against the empire, and Todd could very well be the one to give him informations about them. So, he needed to make sure the chubby man didn't run away, or worse, enter the mountain before Alex came back and attack Amelia, Anna or the pair of father and daughter.
"Well, this is dealt with, let's go."
Leaping on the branch of a tree, Alex made his way towards Lilia. With his speed, it didn't take more than a few minutes for him to arrive at the scene of the fight.
"What the...." Alex nearly tumbled off the branch he was on when he was greeted with the sight of a large trench of at least 3 Km. Just as he was wondering what was going on here, Alex spotted the unconscious body of Lilia.
"Lilia!" Leaping from his branch, he swiftly approached the body of his wife with a face filled with horror.
Fortunately, when he took her in his arms, he noticed her chest rising up and down.
Sighing in relief, Alex took out a bottle of healing smoke and introduced the healing gas inside her body through her mouth, watching as her wounds got healed.
However, even after all her wounds were healed, Lilia remained unconscious.
'She must be tired from her fight,' he sighed. 'Now that I'm thinking about it, where's her opponent?' Alex wondered, his gaze landing on the three-kilometer trench before him.
He observed the trench, then turned to stare at Lilia, then back at the trench again.
"Don't tell me she is the one that caused this," Alex murmured in a shocked tone, but after a moment, he closed his eyes and sighed.
'She is the only one present here, and all the hints point at her, so it can only be her, obviously' Alex opened his eyes and stared at the destruction once more, 'how did she manage to do that?'
Even the current Alex wasn't confident in causing so much destruction with a single attack, yet Lilia had done so when she wasn't even at level 1!
'What a monster,' Alex thought with a wry smile.
Since the days she was training him, Alex felt that there was something special about Lilia that went above just physical capabilities; maybe that was it.
'Wait, if she can cause this much destruction while I can't, then it means that her strength is above mine, right?' Alex felt a cold shiver running down his spine.
'She was already undefeatable even when I was stronger than her, now though..' Alex sighed.
'Hey, show me Lilia's status' Alex addressed the system.
A second later, a blue translucent screen appeared before him.
[Name: Lilia Eswald
Age: 64
Strength (sealed): 150
Agility (sealed): 150
Stamina (sealed): 150
Defense (sealed): 150
Mana points (sealed): 0
Abilities: Space (sealed), Fire (sealed), Earth (sealed), Water (sealed), Lightning (sealed)...
Nicknames: Battlefield Queen, Blessed by the Gods, Incredible Talent, Harbinger of Death....]
"....!"
The instant he saw Lilia's stats, Alex's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets due to shock.
'Each of her stats is 150, how is that possible?'
The last time Alex had checked, all of Lilia's stats were at 50 each, but now, all of them have tripled, just like that?!
'Now her stats are almost double of Amelia's,' Alex remarked.
Even though Amelia wasn't someone whose fighting style was close range, thus her physical attributes were low, it was still surprising, shocking even, to see that Lilia's stats were almost double of Amelia's.
'But, there is still a problem.' Alex glanced at the trench with a confused expression. 'Even with her strength at 150, she shouldn't be able to cause such destruction. After all, I have 300 in strength, yet I'm not confident in pulling it off.'
Lilia had never spoken of Zid with Alex, and even if she had done so, he wouldn't link the current scene before him with it.
Alex spent a few minutes pondering before finally giving up. 'I will ask her about it later.'
Standing up, he took Lilia in a princess carry. But as he was about to turn around to leave, he had a thought and turned back, following the trench left by Lilia's attack.
A few minutes later, Alex stood upon the unconscious body of Niya. Surprisingly, the woman was still alive. Well, she was still breathing, but judging by her current battered state, she didn't have much time to live.
Niya's serpentine tail was cut in half, the scales on her body shattered, and her face smeared with blood. Yet, despite all of those deadly wounds, she was still clinging to life.
'Her resolve to live is quite strong,' Alex remarked, 'however, she wouldn't survive if left like that.'
His smoke potions couldn't mend such grievous wounds. For that, something like Amelia's ability was required, but he could at least slow down the process of dying.
Taking out a healing smoke bottle, Alex tossed it towards Niya, witnessing as it mended some of her wounds. However, the most severe injuries persisted.
Much like Todd, he had plans to obtain information from Niya. Even in the case he couldn't extract information from her, he would still heal her because he could always transform her into a slave, much like he had done with Bogre.
Even though a part of him originated from Earth where enslavement had been abolished for a long time, Alex had no qualms about transforming someone else into his slave. Furthermore, the individuals he was turning into slaves were criminals in the first place, so he considered it a service to society while simultaneously gaining level 5 slaves—a win-win for everyone, except for those two, that is.
'If she is still alive after we are done in the mountain, I will ask Amelia to heal her,' Alex decided before turning away to leave.
****
At the same time Alex made his way to the mountain, inside of it, in the chamber where the heiress of the Drazen family had been taken.
"Why?"
A voice filled with curiosity, disbelief, and a hint of madness resonated in the partially destroyed chamber.
Amelia and Anna glanced at each other, then at the person who had just spoken, confusion in their gazes.
"How come, why?" The owner of the voice, Rangyl, asked again while pulling at his hair like a demented person.
Although the ones he was speaking to were just before him, Rangyl wasn't sparing them a glance, lost in his own thoughts.
Just as the girls had enough of the madman and were about to attack him, he said something that made them stop in their tracks.
"You have a formidable power, the most potent of them, so why, why, why, WHY ARE YOU SO WEAK?"