Michael grabbed Reidar by his neck and lifted himself in the air. He was the strongest among the four. So Michael focused on Reidar. As Michael lifted Reidar in the air, his legs twitched. Reidar gasped for air, reaching out for Michael's neck. Reidar wanted to squeeze Michael's neck, yet he simply couldn't reach his neck. Still, Reidar tried until the lack of oxygen to his brain made his hands lose strength.

Boom!

Michael slammed Reidar on the wooden table. Wooden splinters flew in all directions.

"Argh," Reidar coughed more blood. Michael ignored Reidar's pain because inflicting as much pain as possible was his intention.

"Are you a loyal and reasonable person?" Michael asked Reidar. Slowly, Michael placed his boot on Reidar's feet.

"Are you a loyal and reasonable person?" Michael repeated his words with a more deep voice than before.

"Yes" Reidar felt an excruciating pain in his feet as Michael applied a little bit more pressure. Reidar could hardly breathe.

"YES!" Reidar shouted as loud as he could. He hoped answering yes would make the Dark Lord stop crushing his feet. Luckily, Michael did stop crushing Reidar's feet.

"Loyal to Thusia. Hmm," Michael snickered,

For a moment, Michael just looked around the hall. He then raised his hand upwards, sending a powerful blast of wind. It destroyed the roof, putting a large hole directly above Michael. As a result, Michael felt more powerful under the dark sky.

"Get up," Michael walked towards Freddy, who hated Ghost.

"Leavehimalone" Reidar stammered.

"Freddy, Freddy, Freddy," Michael devilishly chuckled before picking Freddy off the ground by his neck.

"I can literally smell the racism in you," Michael gently squeezed Freddy's neck until his face lost all color. While Michael was squeezing, a small needle extended from Michael's wrist, injecting the antidote to molten plague into Freddy's body. Why? Michael wanted Freddy and everyone to feel the pain.

A few seconds later, Freddy slowly opened his eyes. His brain didn't even process what was in front of him when Michael slammed Freddy to the ground. Before even Freddy could scream, Michael kicked Freddy in the chest. His kick produced a cracking noise as though Michael had broken several ribs in Freddy's chest.

Freddy coughed and groaned in pain. Meanwhile, Michael turned his gaze towards Baldy, who dealt with an underground criminal empire in Thusia. Just like he did to Freddy, Michael injected Freddy with the antidote before torturing him. To be honest, Michael hated torturing and wasting time with his enemies. However, he had some exceptions when it came to Thusia.

"Wherewhathappened" Baldy mumbled. This time, Michael waited till Baldy to clearly see his face. He was curious to see how Baldy would react.

"ARGHHHH!" Baldy groaned in utter fear. His eyes went wide as his face completely lost any color. The man shuddered. To Michael's surprise, Baldy's body twitched frantically. A few seconds later, his body stopped twitching as well as his breathing.

Baldy surprised Michael by dying of a heart attack. The sight of Michael gave Baldy a heart attack.

"So they had heard about me in Thusia" Michael thought. He threw the lifeless body of Baldy with a sigh. He wanted to inflict more pain on the man, but he was lucky to get a heart attack.

"Baldy" Freddy and Reidar groaned. Among the three, Michael turned his gaze to the man who remained silent the whole time. Lightning bolts cracked around Michael's fist. Once again, the lightning bolt shot out from his finger, penetrating the man's calf. After hitting the man on the calf, Michael slowly walked towards him. Blood spurted out from the wound. Still, the man remained unconscious until Michael lifted him off the ground and injected him with the antidote.

Silence fell inside the tavern for a moment. The anger in Michael's eyes made Freddy and Reidar shiver in fear.

Since Michael had injected the antidote into everyone, they managed to regain some of their strength. Furthermore, they slowly felt their connection to the energies once again.

"You," Reidar gornaed. His eyes turned predatory.

"Ill-'' before Reidar could finish his sentence, the Dark Lord appeared in front of him in a blink of an eye and slapped him so hard that Reidar's wisdom tooth jumped out of his mouth. The tooth didn't even hit the ground when Michael pinched Freddy's nose. He put enough pressure to crush Freddy's nostrils.

"STOP!" All of a sudden, a thunderous voice resonated in the room. Shockingly, he didn't sense a living being around him. That changed when a door several meters behind Freddy and Reidar opened. To Michael's astonishment, the young woman standing on the other side of the door was none other than Lailah Alden. Michael's muscles went rigid as he felt what to do next.

Michael then noticed Edith stepping aside from Lailah's shadows.

"The Dark Lord," Edith mumbled under her breath. A tinge of fear in her voice. The two ladies stared at Michael without blinking an eye. Looking at the groaning men, Laila furrowed her brows.

"Take them and leave this place," Lailah ordered Edith.

"No," Just as Edith was about to take a step forward, Michael raised his voice. His shout had enough power to push Edith a step back. Although Lailah was at Fusion Stage level 10, Michael did not fear her. In his full Dark Lord form, he could fight toe to toe with any Fusion Stage cultivators. If Michael wanted, he could make them powerless with molten plague and then kill them as easily as killing ants.

Michael hesitated to use the molten plague on Lailah. After all, he had a soft spot for Lailah in the corner of his heart. Suddenly, a dread of a feeling hit Michael's core. He immediately summoned the system.

"System, am I still immune to Lailah's attacks?"

[Yes] the system answered nonchalantly.

Several months ago when Michael and Lailah Alden visited the treacherous ocean, Michael had to spirit walk Lailah due to her sudden impulse to harness the first energy. As a result of the spirit walk and absorbing the first energy, the system put a rune in both Michael and Lailah's souls, preventing Lailah from hurting Michael. At that time, it saved Michael. However, that invulnerability would cause his identity to be exposed if Michael didn't do something.

"Disable that," Michael ordered the system.

[No can do host. You should have upgraded the system before asking this] The system almost sounded as though it had enough of Michael's hesitation to upgrade it.

Not that Michael didn't want to upgrade the system but other things such as saving badass points to find the cure and legendary skill took higher priority. As soon as the auction ends, Michael would upgrade the system. That was his first thing to do next. He just needed 200,000 badass points for the upgrade.

"Time for plan B then," Michael took a deep breath.

"Lailah Alden," Michael uttered Lailah's name in his demonic voice. He never expected to meet Lailah here. When Micahel first met Lailah, the power gap between them was tremendous. But now, Michael could kill Lailah in several ways if he wanted to.

"Leave," Michael warned Lailah. Edith on the other hand hesitated to take a step forward. She shivered from head to toe, looking at Michael.

"Funny, I was about to say the same," Lailah calmly spoke. Her melodious voice soothed Reidar, Freddy, and the other guy. After seeing her cultivation stage, they sighed in relief.

Michael noticed Lailah focusing her gaze on him, trying to gauge his power level, only to fail. Before he started to attack the Thusians, Michael paid the system to hide his cultivation stage. Otherwise, people like Mutrad could come up with the theory that the Dark Lord they fought near the Holy Church was an imposter.

"This does not concern you, Lailah Alden. If you turn back and leave, I won't hurt you or your family," Michael threatened Lailah. He wasn't making a false promise either. His anger toward the Thusians outweighed Lailah's well-being. In case Lailah stood between him and his revenge on Thusia, Michael would cut her down without a second thought.

"Edith, take this," Michael noticed Lailah flicking her wrist. Soon, a golden scroll appeared in her hand. She handed over the scroll to Edith,

"When you reach them, teleport away," Lailah ordered Edith.

"But big sister,"

"Big sister?" Michael was yet again taken aback by surprise. It was a good thing Michael covered his face with a mask. Otherwise, Lailah would have seen through his shock.

After hearing Edith, Michael's brain connected all the dots. He creased his brows. Considering Edith was Victoria's best friend, she would obviously stand between him and the destruction of Thusia. Especially when he was about to kill Victoria. At that moment, Lailah might intervene to save her little sister. This complicated things for Michael. Not only Edith had Noah but also Lailah to save her.

"I don't have time for these squabbles. If you don't get out of here in three seconds," Michael raised three fingers. Each step Michael took forward made Edith's heart shudder in fear.

Freddy and Reidar slowly picked themselves up. They tried to leave the place, leaving Lailah and the Dark Lord to battle it out. Simply put, they wanted to save their butts. Despite their cultivation level, they did not even think of helping Lailah.

"One,"

Michale began the count,

"Two,"

Before even Michael could count to three, a bright light in the shape of a veena appeared in Lailah's hand. Soon, the light faded, revealing the angel's veena.

Ding!

A powerful wave of energy shot out of the veena when she played the strings with her soft fingers. To Michael's shock, the energy wave blasted him onto the wall behind.

If it wasn't for the invisible responsive shield that absorbed half of the energy wave's power, he couldn't have landed on his feet. Surprisingly, the energy wave only hit Michael as everything else in the room remained untouched by the energy wave.

"I thought she couldn't hurt me," Michael questioned the system.

[She must have found a new way to harm you host]

Michael wanted to strangle the system. It said Lailah couldn't harm him anymore back on the treacherous ocean. Now the system had gone back on its way. However, it worked to Michael's advantage.

"So you've chosen violence," Michael brushed off the dust on his shoulder. The very next moment, Edith saw dark clouds shrouding the Dark Lord. The room grew darker and darker.