"You think this world doesn't need saving? Open your eyes, What do you think would have happened if Ross gave the artifact to the Gisel senate? They will control the undead army outside, wage war against the other kingdoms, and thousands of people will die, lose their families, and end up being slaves to the rich. If you by any chance thought of any of them as innocent, you're the most naive person in the world"
These words played again and again in Logan's mind.
"And look around you man, if this world needs saving, it's from you. You killed a father, a daughter, and a good friend, for what? refusing to serve you? Do you really think you're the good guy?"
Michael heard everything without uttering a word as Logan continued,
"I might be a mercenary but I have no innocent blood on my hand. If I agree to serve you, I'll end up just like you. So go ahead, kill me"
"You're so full of it, big guy" Finally Michael couldn't take any more of this bullshit Logan spouting,
"You think this world doesn't need saving? Open your eyes, What do you think would have happened if Ross gave the artifact to the Gisel senate? They will control the undead army outside, wage war against the other kingdoms, and thousands of people will die, lose their families, and end up being slaves to the rich. If you by any chance thought of any of them as innocent, you're the most naive person in the world" Logan stared at the dead bodies around them. Deep down, he knew no one here is innocent.
"One day you'll realize that the good guys aren't enough to save the world "
Michael activated the Lightning Dash, appearing in front of Logan within a snap of time. Logan felt like he was hit by a big log in the face before everything turned dark.
He could have easily killed Logan like the others but his instincts told him not to. Somehow Michael believed Logan would be a loyal subordinate in the future. After knocking Logan down, his gaze turned to H who was staring at him with a pale face. Jonah was still unconscious.
"What about you H? Do you wanna serve me or die?"
Sparks of lightning danced around his fingers. Looking at the lightning sparks, H shivered.
"I… I'll serve you, my lord" This was the first time Michael saw overwhelming fear in H's face. Even when they were facing deadly odds, he never lost the courage yet the fear toxin and the power he displayed broke H's courage completely. Michael was glad of H's choice because people like him are easier to keep on the leash rather than people like Ross who chose death rather than bending his knees.
"What's your real name?" Michael floated slowly towards H,
"Hei...Heinberg, my...lord" He stuttered without looking him in the eyes.
"Are you willing to be my subordinate Heinberg?" Michael doubted the system would accept him as a subordinate because Heinberg was basically forced to swear his loyalty. It was either bending his knees or death and Heinberg chose to bend the knee.
"Yes...Yes, my lord" He quickly sat in front of him on one knee swearing his loyalty.
[Warning. The target cannot be forced to be the host's subordinate]
[The system recommends a different way to make the target swears his loyalty towards the host]
Just as he expected, the system threw him a couple of warning messages. Previously when he was recruiting someone to be his subordinate, he used a stick and carrot method except now where he only gave them the stick, not the carrot.
"He doesn't need to be registered with you system" He ignored the system's messages. In the Southern Continent, he was like a god. He doubted Heinberg would be stupid enough to betray him. If Michael wanted, he could destroy the Gisel kingdom or any kingdom in the Southern Continent in a couple of days. If he brought Nightmare with him and he was able to use his dragon breath, it'd only take a day to destroy any kingdom.
"Rise, Heinberg" Somehow Michael felt like movie villains, speaking these words through the voice modulator.
Heinberg swallowed a mouthful of saliva before slowly standing up. He was loyal to the senate leader Caius but not enough to die for him. Caius always used him to do his dirty works, the only reason Heinberg world for him was Caius paid him handsomely. It was under Caius's order he came here to retrieve the artifact, Ross knew this. However, what Ross didn't know was his secondary objective. Heinberg was to capture one of the alpha undeads. After what happened to Ross's wife, the Senate dropped the idea of experimenting with the undeads. They felt like it was a far greater risk than they were initially thinking. Besides, except for Ross, no one was willing to venture into this island and capture an alpha undead.
"Tell me Heinberg, why did you bring Jonah with you?"
This was a question Michael wanted to know the answer for.
"He...he's here to help me capture one of the alpha undeads, my lord" Heinberg didn't dare to hide the truth from him.
"Capture an alpha undead? Under whose orders?" Michael had a hard time believing that an entire senate would be utterly stupid enough to experiment on an alpha undead that possessed the intelligence of a human and abilities of a superhuman.
"Senator Caius's orders, he's one of the senate leaders and Jonah is his son"
Michael frowned, staring at the unconscious Jonah. No loving father would send their child to this hell unless that father didn't give a damn about his child.
"Senator Caius huh? I'll meet him soon" Caius seemed like an interesting person who would either prove useful to Michael or die.
"Dark Queen, have you finished the task?" Heinberg had no idea who he was talking to. While he was staring at David, he felt the hall tremble. Heinberg looked over his shoulder to see another figure in the dark appear. In a blink of an eye, the figure appeared beside David. Heinberg felt a chill running through his spine when he saw the figure who just appeared and what she brought with her.
Looking at the armor itself, Heinberg could tell it was a girl. She was also wearing the exact same armor as David but she didn't radiate black smoke around her or had crimson red eyes rather she looked normal compared to him.
The girl didn't freak him out but it was the three figures who were standing behind the girl that made him shiver. Although the girl covered their faces with black cloth, Heinberg could tell looking at their skinless body that stinks to high heaven, alpha undeads. She was controlling them through the chain attached to their collars like dogs. The alpha undead rattled the chains violently yet they could never escape. Heinberg took several steps back when one of the alpha undead reached its hand out to scratch him.
"Dular will have a time of his life with them," Michael said while Gaya stared at Heinberg and the dead bodies around them. Because of the mask, she was wearing, Michael couldn't tell the shock and surprise in her eyes. It was obvious the reason for her shock was his sudden transformation yet Heinberg's existence before they prevented her from questioning him about his new powers.
"No alpha undeads in the forest, if anymore of them is here, they would be among the army outside"
Michael nodded. The three alpha undeads would be enough for Dular or him to experiment. He knew the artifact is the reason for alpha undeads yet he wanted to know more about this new kind of undead. However, unlike Caius, he was not going to bring the undeads to the dark forest but planning to bring Dular to the Southern Continent.
"Did you get it?" her curiosity got the better of her as she asked him about the artifact. She gawked around to see it but she couldn't find anything except dead bodies and weapons.
Heinberg too wanted to see what kind of artifact they sent them to get. Michael tapped his chest,
"It's here, we'll talk about it on the ship"
Gaya nodded, controlling her curiosity.
"Heinberg wake tie him up with this"
Michael threw ropes at Heinberk looking at Jonah. He still hasn't found out what to do with Jonha but it was unnecessary to kill Jonah until he knew more about Jonah's ability. Heinberg stared at Logan, asking what to do with them wordlessly.
"Tie him up too"
Heinberg wondered why he didn't kill Logan. The person in front of him obviously wasn't much of a kind-hearted guy. Otherwise, he wouldn't have killed Ross and everyone in cold blood. Heinberg couldn't help but question why he spared Logan. One thing was sure for Heinberg, he was planning something with the big guy. After Heinberg stepped back to tie Jonah and Logan up, Gaya began to stare at Michael from top to bottom. The black smoke kinda looked scary to her. Plus, the crimson eyes made him look like some kind of an evil god.
"Awesome, teach me the tricks too" She whispered. Her eyes sparkled behind the mask.
[Artifact is ready to open]
[The system recommends the host send Heinberg away before opening the artifact]
A smile emerged on his face as the time to see the artifact had finally come.