Hitman with a Badass System

Everything went dark around Michael for a moment. When the light returned to his sight, he was standing inside a glass room. Fabia stood a few meters before him, leaning against the glass. Her gut had a fist-sized hole, and blood oozed down from Michael's hand. But not a single drop of blood trickled down from Fabia's wound. Her skin around the wound was burnt. Death was nearing her. No healing potion in the world could heal her within a few moments to save her life.  Michael watched the light of life fade away from Fabia's eyes. He waited for someone to come to her rescue. As far as Michael's eyes could see, there was nothing but smoky air with specks of ember outside. He vaguely saw a fuming volcano in the distance.

"Fire realm?" Michael asked himself. He tried to contact Gaya through the earpiece, but strangely, the earpiece didn't work. In fact, he didn't feel any energy around him at all.

While Michael was looking around the cage, Fabia collapsed down. She tried to say something to Michael, yet no words escaped her mouth. However, looking at Michael, she smirked. She looked at peace as though she had avenged her father.

Michael touched the thick glass between him and the outside. Judging by how sturdy the glass was, Michael knew he wouldn't be able to break it. He couldn't even access his space ring. It felt like he was teleported right beside Mugashuku, where he would feel powerless and weak.

Despite everything, Michael remained calm. Finally, Michael heard footsteps. He slowly turned around. To his surprise, Alicia and a young man with a face like a monkey stood outside the cage. Norvin looked a bit flustered, almost wanting to save Fabia. On the contrary, Alicia didn't even bother to take a look at Fabia's dead body. Her piercing gaze was on Michael.

Michael rolled his eyes,

"It's you,"

Michael almost hated himself for falling into Alicia's trap.

"Welcome to your worst nightmare," Alicia said coldly. Both of them walked toward each other. Unlike Alicia, Michael had a smile on his face.

"Every time we play this game, you guardians end up with nothing but blood on your hands," said Michael. If he remembered correctly, this was the third time the guardians trapped him. The only difference this time was Michael did not expect or plan his capture.

It became clear to Michael that he had to plan his escape on the go. But seeing Alicia calmed his mind. If she planned this, he knew there would definitely be holes he could exploit to escape. Good thing he didn't see Noah. For some reason, Michael didn't think Noah was involved in this plan. Otherwise, he would have tried to save Fabia.

"How is your brother, by the way?" Michael asked with a ridiculing smirk.

"Good. Doing better than you at the moment," Alicia remained calm, which surprised Michael.

"Someone's doing better in anger management," Michael smiled.

"I can't wait to wipe that smirk off your face," Alicia threatened Michael.

Norvin saw Ghost lifting Fabia's dead body by her head. He showed Fabia's dead face like a puppet to Alicia. They didn't know what he was hoping to do with Fabia's dead body. Suddenly, Michael bashed her head against the glass. Alicia's body jerked as she took a step back. Her subconscious mind dictated her movement. He bashed Fabia's head again and again on the glass until the head became a puppy mess. Blood trickled down the glass as Michael drew a smiley face on the blood.

"Fucking bastard," Alicia growled.

"I promise you, this will end in more bloodshed," said Michael. Norvin's heart skipped a beat. No one freaked him out as the Dark Lord did. In Norvin's mind Ghost was the exact opposite of Noah in every way. In simple words, Ghost was evil Noah. It made sense to Norvin since Ghost was the God of Darkness and Noah was the God of Light. Norvin hoped this cage would hold him. He would have been more confident in this plan if Noah knew about this.

"And I promise you, it will be your blood," Alicia banged the glass. When she locked her gaze with his eyes, images of what her family had gone through since the battle tournament flashed across her eyes. Until now, Peter remained supervised and locked in his own home. Noah chose not to meddle in Peter's case as Noah believed Peter was in the wrong and deserved punishment for his vigilante actions.

Alicia slowly stepped back. A slow grin emerged on her cold face. Soon, she flicked her wrist as golden chains materialized inside the cage out of thin air. They flew at Michael, coiling around his wrists. It stretched out Michael's arms. He felt the chains tightening. The glass between them slowly slid open as Alicia stepped inside the cage.

To Michael's surprise, her Soul Refining stage cultivation didn't waver.  Apparently, the cage only affected his cultivation somehow. Without a doubt, he was at a disadvantage. Alicia clenched her fist and punched him in the face as fast as she could.

"Alicia," Norvin tried to stop, but Alicia sent Norvin out of the cage with a blast of energy wave. Before Norving could come to his senses, the cage slid closed.

"Is that the best you could do?" Michael spat down the little bit of blood in his mouth.

Alicia's eyes glistened with uncontrollable rage. She swung her fist left and right. Michael's vision became blurry after receiving almost the sixtieth punch from Alicia. Despite everything, Michael still had a smile on his face. With blood covering his teeth, he looked like a grinning devil.

"Alicia, stop!"

Norvin shouted from outside. However, Alicia did not heed his words. Instead, she kept punching Michael until her hands went numb.

"Are you tired?" Michael snickered.

"You should work on your stamina," Michael moved his neck left and right as it made cracking noises. His face was almost covered in blood and swollen. Michael avoided using the APD so she wouldn't notice anything strange. Because of that, her punches did a number on his face. His nose was cracked, eyes were swollen, lips were cut, and a wisdom tooth began to shake inside his mouth.

"What the hell are you doing?" Michael heard a voice. He looked over Alicia's shoulders to see Mutrad and a few others descending from the sky. Mutrad's eyes widened seeing Michael inside the cage. Alicia wiped Michael's blood off her pearl-white robes.

"Just testing if the cage works," Alicia replied to Mutrad in her usual cold tone. Seeing the Sea folks, Michael realized the plan of Alicia might be theirs, not the Guardian Guild's.

"Tsk tsk tsk tsk," Michael tutted.

Michael chuckled as they all locked their gazes with Michael.

"If you have something to do with this, I strongly recommend you undo this. I have no quarrel with the Sea Folks, don't create one," Michael said. If he had spoken these words before the black day, Mutrad would have laughed it off. However, after witnessing the entire island, along with hundreds of Guardians, getting destroyed by the Dark Lord, Mutrad couldn't help shivering deep down.

The last thing Mutrad wanted was a massacre in his homeland. Obviously, this wasn't Mutrad's plan. Instead, he was just sent here to oversee the Dark Lord's capture by his elders. Mutrad preferred planning with Noah more than his elders. For some reason, they didn't realize what the Dark Lord was capable of.

"Shut up," Alicia punched Michael in the face to shut him up. Every punch made Michael want to kill her more. Until now, Michael never wanted to kill Alicia, but she managed to change that successfully. Norvin saw the glimmering killing intent in his eyes. He really started to fear for Alicia's life.

"I did say don't approach him until we are here, didn't I?" asked Mutrad. He knew the history between Alicia and Ghost. Hence, Mutrad recommended the elders against bringing her into this mission. However, the elders did not listen to him. For some reason, they were adamant about putting Alicia on this mission. The elders felt she would do necessary things, such as sacrificing Fabia.

"Step outside the cage," Mutrad gestured at Alicia to leave the cage.

"Don't worry. We will have a long chat later," Alicia snickered.

"I hope so," Michael answered her calmly. He didn't give her the satisfaction of showing his anger.

"So what's the plan here, Mutrad?" Michael asked Mutrad.

"I think you mistook your position here, Ghost if that's your real name. Only I ask the questions here, and you do the answering,"

"What if I don't? Are you going to kill me? Believe me, you can't," said Michael.

"Who said anything about killing?"

Michael saw a strange smile on Mutrad's face. If they didn't want to kill him, what were they after? Michael asked himself. It seemed like the only way for him to find out was to go along with Mutrad.

Suddenly, something rattled the cage. Mutrad lost his balance for a while. Michael noticed the cage ascending to the sky. Outside the cage, Norvin was pushing the cage upward all by himself.

"This is not going to end well for you, Mutrad," said Michael. Despite the fear in Mutrad's heart, he remained calm. Thanks to the Skyhall for giving them this special cage, Mutrad didn't need to worry about the Dark Lord escaping. As long as the Dark Lord stayed within the cage, he couldn't use any of his powers. According to the Skyhall ambassador, this cage was specially made for the Dark Lord. Mutrad just hoped it would contain him as long as they wanted.

"I will escape," as though Michael had read his mind, he said to Mutrad. Michael's words completely caught Mutrad off guard. Eventually, the cage stopped moving. Mutrad left the cage, leaving Michael behind. Inside the cage, Michael tried to establish contact with Gaya but failed.

"How long are you planning to stay offline system?"

[Three weeks]

Michael's eyes widened. He heard the system's voice for the first time since eleven months ago. It immediately put a smile on Michael's face.

"Three more weeks. Then we'll be back," Michael mumbled under his breath.