Mystical Journey

In the largest city of England, Pruyn.

Between the streams of countless traffic, a group of masked men dressed in black carried their bulging backpacks and rushed into the headquarters of a bank by the street.

"On the ground! On the ground! All of you, on the ground!!" Bang bang!

The gunshots instantly triggered everyone’s nerves, the screams rang out immediately, but they were forced down again quickly, a few guards surrounded from the sides, and were just about to raise their guns, when they were instantly taken down with two more gunshots.

This scene triggered some more soft screams.

In the bank, there were still people withdrawing money for their work matters, as well as the staff at the counters, behind the thick bulletproof glass, the staff quickly and calmly rang the police alarm.

Wooo~~

A piercing siren wailed abruptly, and the whole bank’s shutters fell down quickly and automatically.

"Get rid of ‘em." The leader in the black mask did not panic in the slightest, saying to his partners in a low voice.

One of his partners sniggered, pulled something from his waist, and tossed it at the door.

That black thing instantly began to spin rapidly, emitting a faint red light, this red light somehow stopped the shutters from descending, and they began to go upwards instead.

The black-masked leader walked up to the counter, and faced down the staff inside.

Bam!

His hand instantly shattered the glass, the bulletproof was more than ten centimeters thick, but he still reached straight through it and grabbed the head of the staff member inside.

With a smack, the head exploded into a bloody mist in his hands.

"Aaaahhh!!" A female staff member beside them began screaming loudly, and in that instant, the terror spread.

Even bulletproof glass could not stop that person.

The smile could clearly be seen on the leader’s masked face.

"Come on… Come on… Hehehe, Cadytius… What should you do?"

The dozen or so black-masked people behind him began to install something in the bank, in a very disciplined manner.

After about a dozen minutes, the group rushed out of the bank, dashing into a dead-end alley off the street, and then seemed to vanish into thin air, never showing up again.

Barroom!!

With a deafening explosion, the headquarters of Pruyn’s largest British Billion Bank became a sea of flames just like that, and the whole bank building began to snap, starting from the first floor, tilting and falling down with a crash.

The bank building, several tens of meters tall, was like a dying giant, its enormous shadow falling down, and crashing heavily onto the streets beneath it.

Boom!

The shattered glass and walls sprayed everywhere, concrete meeting concrete, cars squashed flat, some people could not make it out in time, and were buried underneath the buildings, while others were just grazed, crawling and escaping while covered in blood, there were people around them yelling, others taking out their phones to call the emergency hotline, there were some who hid behind strong walls, and even more who scuttled around everywhere, madly.

***************

"On the 21st July, 2411, at noon, there was an earthshaking terror bomb attack at the crossroads of Lotus Street, in England’s largest city, Pruyn. The British Billion Bank’s headquarters collapsed due to an explosion, resulting in several dozen dead, and nearly a hundred injured. The incident is still under investigation, according to witness testimony, the terrorists all wore black masks and seemed to be very experienced, they seem to be extremely similar to the masterminds behind the Gatling gun incident last time…"

The news reporter on the television was reporting the latest developments in the case.

In a dim yellow luxurious suite of a hotel somewhere.

A shirtless blonde man with a black dragon tattoo on his arm was watching the news quietly, his golden hair fell over his shoulders, and he wore a white towel, his legs propped up on the coffee table in front of the sofa, his whole person handsome and lazy.

"Looks like they did well." A woman’s voice came from the bathroom nearby, gentle and magnetic.

"Looks like it." The blonde man nodded. "It’s about time the other side makes a move as well."

"How did you plan it?"

"Wasn’t it settled a long time ago?" The blonde man’s expression stiffened somewhat. "Even if he is my uncle, once he’s chosen a stand, he needs to pay for it."

There was instantly some laughter from the bathroom, the woman seemed to be very satisfied with it.

"This is just a little prologue." The man said softly.

The battle between the light party and the secret party was just beginning.

***********************

In the Calm Forest

A secret area that the light party had yet to discover.

This was the most high-tech underground base, black walls, black floors, black ceiling, it was all hard and smooth rock and stone, bright red lines carved onto the surfaces, monotonous and repetitive.

In a conference room in the very heart of the base, there were many men and women dressed in suits, sitting in their high-backed black chairs, they whispered among each other, discussing something in low voices, some had their brows knitted tensely, others were staring at the host, and yet others were listening to their phones, nodding their heads slightly.

The one sitting in the very center and the very front of the long table was a white-haired man in a black-striped suit, he was like an artist, his long white hair tied into a ponytail, his fingers laced and placed on the table in front of him, his expression stern and calm.

The low voices in discussion continued unbidden, but he seemed to be wholly unaware of them.

"A lot of things have happened recently, some of the secret party members have been acting strangely over there in America, and the witches are appearing more often now, I’ve already taken certain preventive measures." A bespectacled lady on the right spoke.

"The missing persons cases over here in Asia have not been settled yet, in fact, they seem to be escalating over the years, we don’t have enough upper-level people, so we hope that the headquarters can send us some special agents to help." A yellow-skinned middle-aged man said deeply.

"Hand in a proposal letter later." The white-haired man nodded, "Don’t be too extreme with the American preventive measures, try to be gentler, your priority is to ensure that the regular citizens are not disturbed or frightened."

"Understood."

"The Space Agency needs extra funds, we’ve had the newest, biggest breakthrough!" A fat white man hammered his fist onto the table and yelled loudly.

"Over the years, when have you not made a breakthrough?" Someone jeered.

"This year is different!" The fatty argued. "Funds! We need funds! As long as we have enough funds, we can immediately carry out our plan to modify the planets! It’s a matter of time before we get a second Earth!"

"How many years have you said that? Ten? Twenty? Or a hundred?" The icy lady sitting directly opposite him said contemptuously.

"You!!" The fatty raged.

"When it comes to space exploration, it does take a lot of funds, we can’t interfere too much with that, you can try to make deals with the representatives from different governments." The white-haired man shook his head and smiled.

"On England’s side… Did they cause that explosion?" The white-haired man looked at the last black-haired man of few words at the table.

"Yes, they were the subordinates of one of the secret party’s Three Moros, this was my oversight." The black-haired man lowered his head and apologized.

"The Three Moros…" The white-haired man tapped the table with his fingers, and in that moment, that tapping seemed to have some kind of magic, instantly silencing the whole conference room.

"Leave this matter to me." The black-haired man said in a low voice, "As for Lord Scarlet Moon’s side, may I request backup from him if necessary?"

"You may, if he’s willing." The white-haired man nodded. "We need to suppress this matter as soon as possible, to prevent creating even more panic."

"Understood."

"The standards of this year’s National Educational Selection are a little too high, it might be somewhat harder for us here to…" A new person spoke up, following the order of their seats.

"Regarding the selection test, this year’s standards were carefully calculated, we don’t need people who can’t meet the standards, and it just so happens that we need to be very selective with the evolutionaries for our neo-humans." The white-haired man raised his hand and gestured for the next one.

"Some of the island countries in the Atlantic Ocean discovered some supernatural phenomena that require investigation, it might trigger a volcano eruption or even a tsunami."

"Didn’t we send a special agent over for this last time?"

"Unfortunately, that secret agent is currently missing in action."

"Send Bartons, he’s bored with nothing to do right now. Tell him I told him to."

The proposals, suggestions, questions and cases were all raised one by one.

The secret party’s bomb incident was actually only a very small part of this.

But no one noticed that the glint of red light flashing through the lidded eyes of the black-haired man who was previously in charge of the secret party’s bomb case.

"The secret party has indeed not made any ‘drastic’ moves… They were just lightly sweeping away some of the bugs in England."

As for Lord Scarlet Moon, as the strongest fighter under the leader of the light party, Scarlet Moon was the number two Dearg Apostle, and should be treated properly…

What if the other two Lord Death Apostles joined forces?

The black-haired man’s lips curved slightly.

************************

‘There are four Death Apostles in total, it had always been that unchanging number. The light party has two, the secret party has one, and the last one is very mysterious, making it very hard to track this person down, so they’re considered neutral.’

Sitting in the plane on the way back, Garen quietly read that yellowed ancient scroll that AG had given him.

He sat in the Economy class, there was a bald geezer sitting next to him, who was in the middle of taking off his glasses to wipe them carefully. The young couple in front of him was laughing softly, and the two young girl behind him seemed to be flying international for the first time, they were chatting about it excitedly.

In such a normal and peaceful environment, Garen felt as though the ancient scroll in his hand was like a script from a fantasy movie, it did not feel real at all.

He seemed to be just a normal American university student, holding an imaginative movie script novel, and reading it carefully, as though the world inside it had absolutely nothing to do with him.

Garen tilted his head to glance at the geezer beside him, that guy gave him a friendly smile. Then he lowered his head, put on his glasses, picked up the airplane’s newspapers and began to read in his own time.

Garen returned to his senses, and continued to read the newly updated contents on the scroll.

Every so often, AG would update part of the contents of the scroll.

‘My ally told me, that the most mysterious Death Apostle might be making an appearance soon, this will destroy the balance between the light party and the secret party.’

‘But the light party has the number one Death Apostle, known as the strongest Death Apostle, Ashen Castine, and the number two Death Apostle, Scarlet Moon, is also there, their advantage won’t broken just like that.’

Garen flipped to the next page. Taking a ballpoint pen out of his pocket, he wrote on the pages slowly.

‘What is your ally?’

There was no reply from the other side, perhaps AG had not opened the book yet.

Garen was not particularly bothered, he continued reading the new information below.

‘Your first step is to remember or be aware that you’re dreaming, when you’re dreaming.’ AG seemed to be teaching him the first point of their power system.

‘For most people, the biggest problem is that they can’t tell that they’re dreaming while in their dreams, they will be completely defenseless and prone to spilling their greatest secrets under the influence of their environment. It’s like a place that seems completely quiet and empty, or a room that seems safe and secure, there are too many scams just like that.’

‘And the key for you right now, is with that Death Apostle who marked you, he is watching you at all times, so you must first be aware that you are being watched. He will exist in your dreams, once you enter your dreams, he will notice you. So you must take advantage of the moment when he is dragged into the Blood Breeds’ internal conflict, find the primer he left behind, and destroy it, only then can you escape his surveillance.’

Garen put down the book, deep in thought.

The Blood Breeds in this world were completely different from those in the previous world, these were evidently masters at manipulating wills, they swam the currents between reality and dreams, their lifespans almost endlessly long, they were an extremely strange yet powerful existence.

This power might yet bring him an unexpected reward.