"Cinder, cover for us!" Rat ordered and the cigar smoker breathed in the air. It was weird to see a middle-aged man take in nothing but still have his stomach bloated.

Cinder deflated his ballooned stomach afterward by breathing out cigarette smoke that filled their surrounding. It was too much that Aster guessed that his lungs would be destroyed like how people would feel with being exposed to much of second-hand smoke.

He could not stop the process due to the smoker's speed of executing his attack but he can still counter by flooding it out with the blood that was recently gushed in the conference table.

It was futile but it had at least stopped the sudden spread of blinding smoke. Aster used the best skill that could counter the smokescreen and that was Kamryn's Red Mist skill.

His mana was slowly spread outwards and transformed into blood via Blood Creation while he likened it to mist with Red Mist. Thus, the small room became a mix of smoke and blood mist.

The combatant's senses perked up and they each had their domain. Rat and the gay man was getting stifled because they were not suited to stay long in Cinder's smokey outburst. It worked on every other situation, where they hara.s.sed their targets under such conditions with hastened attacks and just have it disperse afterward. Never had there been a time where the smoke strategy became rendered to nil.

Cinder touched them to disperse the smoke that encapsulated them but only in limited s.p.a.ce to render their enemy's vision of them to be obsolete. "Boss, the kid has us on equal grounds. What next?!"

Rat was about to issue another order but he could only utter. "s.h.i.+T!!!"

The white smoke turned red from being exposed to red blood. The mist had semi-liquid properties after all and the dry and relatively weak discharge of cigarettes is slowly being overtaken.

The experience criminal boss conjured up a new plan and sounded out. "Plan B! Cinder, open a path to our backs. Ganda, you know what to do next."

Cinder willed his hand and a tunnel led them from being encapsulated by the growing red while letting them have a path to go to.

What they reached on the end was the wall separating the room to their exit point. The gay man or Ganda used his expertise and gave out a demolitioning kick that blasted the wall apart.

"Tsk!" Aster naturally heard it dye to their close proximity and materialized sharpened bullets that followed straight trajectory towards the smoke and blood collusion.

Holes were being formed as the bullets dispersed the cloudy property of what wad ahead. Its force and speed deformed the mixture and gradually restored the room to clarity. Clarity in his senses because of the Red Mist had dominated the entire room.

No sign of thugs being littered with holes could be observed and only a giant hole that led to the adjacent room. The mist eventually followed the property of diffusion and filled the room as well.

He did not want to take the chance and be ambushed when he pa.s.sed through it. Unfortunately for him and luckily for them, another loud sound could be heard.

Aster's red dominion was not fast enough to catch up and the trio was out of the Dren establishment in no time. They just followed the strategy of not touching the red mist and breaking through walls as they escape to their hideout.

The trio ran out in the streets in a hurry. Ganda voiced out whilst running. "Boss, what do we... do now?"

Rat would have resorted to his 'find out on your own' speech but circ.u.mstances were not aligned with that set-up. "Regroup the whole Unkillable Rats! Tighten up the defense on the base because we might just be facing the grimmest individual that can threaten our whole gang's continued existence."

"Why don't we head for the girls now? It seems to me that the devil brat is connected to them. We could use them as leverage." Cinder advised his plans while his bent cigar was miraculously still in his mouth while speeding through the high-cla.s.s streets. He was too apprehensive of Aster that his instincts were telling him to go full throttle on crippling the enemy youth.

"That would even be dumb! You saw how fearful that brat is. What if the relative of those girls was the one who sent him? If not, you could also take into account the possibility of whatever power could train such a freak." Rat reprimanded while scampering at full speed like the animal he is. It was hard to not form an image that contradicts his intelligence and feral looks.

His logic was reasonable while his face makes one think that he is barbaric in thought. Frankly, it was the opposite and the very reason why the Unkillable Rats managed to survive in a city that was pretty much against their existence at first. His cunning made their group stand out and survive as it currently did.

"Good considerations, boss!" Cinder had belief in his idol boss while his insecurities were acting up all the time that he was always frequently looking back to see if the black-clothed youth is catching up to them. They were using their go-to escape skill and their speed was fast enough in their opinion.

Onlookers could see three people scamper like rats on the streets and the simile was pretty much the idea behind the escape art. The skill called Rat's Scamper was not to be underestimated and draining in mana but they were too panicked to take into mind that they were never being pursued at all.

Aster was still back in the office and standing on the table while he recalled the blood mist to patch up the broken wall of the room and clog up the official entrance with hardened blood.

The reason for him using Blood Creation and Red Mist was to recreate his blood that was fitting for an Initiate 6 cultivator, which was courtesy of another skill called Blood Enhance. Its hardened state would not be broken by petty attacks that were coming from those whose cultivation level was weaker than him.

Servants and guards had pretty much reacted to the commotion and would come swarming in the room anytime soon. The rats can be felled later while he still had questions to ask towards the only other living person in the room.

The mature woman was still in her seat and devastated by what had been played out in her view.

Her young son dying when he was about to seek motherly healing in her arms. Her eldest born getting killed by his own father by accident. Her powerful husband being pierced in the heart just after having his b.a.l.l.s crushed.

She had not much care for all the other senior members in the room but she saw them squirm in red blindness while dying from having their throat sliced up by the very blood that had just killed her husband

It was too quick and easy that none of them could react much to what was going on. What was worst was that the very reason for all of those nightmarish events has currently locked her in the room.

There is no more red mist on the way but pure devastation and havoc in the room. In the center of the table and also consider as the center of the whole prismal area was that very spot, Aster stood there while looking at her with a smile.

Anyone else would interpret it as friendly but the whole death and blood in his surrounding just made the mature woman think of it as a smile given by a killing devil.

"Why... why so ruthless?" She asked in a worn-out tone. There was frankly no point in being scared and being hysterical because she lost almost everything in her life. Nothing can change that fact and she can only try to know the facts with her lifeless eyes and expression.

"Well, I read about the dividing line between normal death and murder. To me, it all ends the same. Perhaps my methods are a bit harsh but I never had anyone to tell me to turn the killings a notch." He replied while kept sensitive reasons like having no dependable parents and seniors to himself. "This is killing to me and heartlessness is pretty much the driving point in doing all of that in my point of view."

Aster is getting p.i.s.sed by remembering everything regarding his lack of parenthood but he can't help it due to the motherly concern that the woman has shown towards her sons that was just killed on this earlier minutes. Maybe he was also jealous of the anger that compelled Alioth to rage and frenzy. His swings of att.i.tude we're getting frequent to the point that he could not find a true definition of himself.

He could have chased the trio to end some loose ends but trauma and regrets just somewhat influenced him to stay here and asked questions first. "Anyway, madame. Since I have answered your question, please answer mine."

The lady dryly laughed and replied. "Why should I do that?"

"Because I will let you live if you give me the information I want to hear." Aster got no reply from the lady, so he decided to change the conditions. "How about answering me to have your youngest child be untouched by my ruthless ways?"

This time, the woman had her expression change as she remembered that she still had her young daughter with her. Tears fell and traced her cheeks as she vaguely felt giving up on life while forgetting her current and only living child's safety.

Aster found his perfect bargaining chip as his heightened hearing could let him hear through his walls of blood. On the other side, was a young girl that was roughly the same age as Jade. She was crying and weeping as she knocked on the hardened wall of blood that blocked her way. "Mommy, are you there? I am getting... scared. Please answer."

He could not see the girl's face due to the wall but he can tell that she is panicking from her tone of speaking. It made him understand the consequence of his actions and made him look around to spot the little girl's family members that he killed. 'Hay... I need to turn things down a notch.'

From this very session of killing, Aster felt a new side of himself getting out. 'I just could not get over with taking revenge on my father and I guess I have mood fluctuations whenever I see good parenting. Maybe I am slowly receding my asura potential as I interact with my women and I interact with the people affected by my intervention.'

The woman's motherly instinct kicked in and had a change in att.i.tude. She still had tears in her eyes but a determination was laced in between them. "I hope you would better keep your end of the bargain. My life and the safety of my daughter in exchange for whatever d.a.m.n questions you would ask."

"Okay. You have got yourself a deal. I just hope you don't pull out some contract or something to make it official." Aster agreed and changed his mind. He really thought of killing her after getting answers but the situation did not have to call for such treachery. 'Maybe this would all come biting me up when I least expect it in the future. I will just buy a memory altering spell to make this lady forget the incident. By that logic, she would not relate anything such vengeance plots against me. Most of Dren's main family died in their own household while onlookers never saw me follow Alcor.'

The whole set-up was not bad and he proceeded with the standard questioning. The woman knew of the dark secrets her husband was doing and pretty much a confidant with his every plan.