Child of Destiny

…

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Hearing the series of explosions on the surface, Black Cat looked at the digital countdown projected by her advanced watch, patiently waiting for it to hit zero.

Lawrence looked at the timer, feeling a bit nervous.

Not long after, Black Cat suddenly waved her hand and released a hint of her Martial Aura, which quickly engulfed Lawrence and herself, turning into a transparent barrier.

BOOM!

Right after, along with another series of bombardment on the surface, the sturdy wall that seemed to be made of extremely hard material behind them exploded.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The impact was so strong that it blasted the entire wall along with the surroundings. It seemed to have shaken the entire underground base as well, which was quite extreme.

Fortunately, the intense bombardment on the surface was already strong enough, creating a series of strong tremors throughout the island. This also made the explosion extremely hard to notice.

Lawrence was startled by the explosion. Fortunately, the aura barrier that was protecting them caused the explosion and the flying debris to hit them.

Swoosh!

Not long after, Lawrence saw a huge tunnel right behind them, which seemed to be leading somewhere.

He was still lost in thought when Black Cat swiftly grabbed him by the collar and suddenly tossed him into the air.

“Ah!?”

He was caught off guard, unable to fight back. He then found himself being carried by Black Cat like a sack of grain before she suddenly kicked the ground and swiftly ran through the tunnel.

Boom!

Immediately after, still in sync with the explosions on the surface, the walls of the tunnel exploded, causing them to collapse and sealing the tunnel.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The series of explosions was extremely fast, seemingly trying to bury Black Cat and Lawrence alive, along with the rapid collapse of its walls and ceiling.

Swoosh!

Fortunately, Black Cat was extremely fast, outrunning the collapse by an extreme margin. She was like a wind that was blowing at an unimaginable speed.

Lawrence watched all these with extreme shock washing over his face. From his perspective, the collapsing tunnel was rapidly zooming out of his vision, signifying how fast they were running.

It did not take that long before he saw nothing but absolute darkness.

***

In the meantime, the forces that were either residing at the Coralara Archipelago immediately responded in response to the sudden attack.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

They immediately organized their forces, particularly the pirates that were based in this place. They swiftly boarded their ships and started racing straight to the source of bombardment.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

They were all in rage, wanting to rip the ones who dared to attack them into pieces.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

However, they immediately realized that the opposing party was not someone that they could easily repel, unlike the previous invaders who tried to occupy the country.

“Those warships-…!”

“Golden Dragon-…. Emblem?”

“The-… Spring-… Springfield Family!?”

“Why did the Springfield Family attack Coralara?”

“How are they able to appear here without us noticing?”

“We are controlling all the watch points in the area! Even if they can hide from our satellite system, our scouts should have noticed their approach long before they reached us.”

After their initial shock, anger immediately followed suit, especially after recalling what was happening.

“Have they gone mad!? They are still at war with the Black Serpent Mafia, yet here they are provoking us!?”

“So what if they are the strongest military family!? This is Coralara! Even the Shadow Alliance and World Government will not dare to invade us this openly!”

“Go! Teach these bastards a lesson! In a battle on the sea, we are only second to the Deep Blue Continent!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Immediately after, they started fighting back, utilizing their rich experience when it came to naval battles.

Their experts had also started jumping into the prey, diving into the sea, and started swimming their way toward the warships of the Springfield Family.

Splash! Splash!

Some of them even directly flew through the air, particularly the Void Manifestation Experts, who were already at their peak.

Unfortunately, the forces of the Springfield Family were already prepared for this. Their respective experts had also started jumping off the ships one after another to meet the incoming force.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A chaotic battle immediately erupted right after the two sides met.

However, that was just the start, since the forces of the Springfield Family had also started releasing their fighter jets from their aircraft carriers and started bombarding the Coralara Archipelago with even stronger attacks.

Zoom! Zoom!

BOOM!

***

Within the main base of the Coalition Force of the Coralara Archipelago, the highest command of each force residing within the country was currently gathered, thinking of a way to deal with their current situation.

“What are these lunatics thinking!? Provoking us this openly? Are they not afraid that we will join hands with the Black Serpent Mafia to fight them with this?”

“Heh! Go and tell them that. Given the current situation of those black snakes, I am sure that everyone is very aware of the current situation.”

“No one will openly team up with the Black Serpent Mafia after the information about them teaming up with the Voidwalker Tribes has surfaced. Everyone is fully aware of that.”

Everyone was arguing with each other, pointing fingers about which force would be responsible for their current situation.

After all, these guys were just a bunch of powerful people gathered under the banner of the Black-Market Organization. They were no different from being regular employees competing with each other to be the ‘best employee’ among the group.

They still had their respective agendas, which could conflict with one another. If not for the organization holding a tight rein on them, then they would have most likely devoured each other right now.

Of course, they were still united when it came to external forces that were trying to get a slice of the Coralara Archipelago.

However, if they could grow their respective forces by devouring the others, then they would have welcomed it with open arms.

After a while, the man sitting at the head of the table had finally lost his patience and slammed the table.

“That is enough, all of you!”

BOOM!

The entire room finally turned quiet after remembering the status of this person.

“Let’s forget about the useless stuff for now and focus on what we have at hand,” said this person after seeing that everyone calmed down.

“It is useless to point fingers at each other, fully knowing that we are currently under intense bombardment from the Springfield Family,” he added while sweeping his eyes at everyone. “We do not know why they are attacking us right now, so we first have to find the reason behind their actions before doing anything else.”

“Don’t tell me they have realized that we are coming in contact with the Black Serpent Mafia,” said one of the leaders after hearing this.

This person was the leader of the biggest pirate group within the archipelago, the Armado Pirates, which was also among the strongest forces of the Black-Market Organization when it came to naval battles.

As for what he just said, it was true that the Black-Market Organization had been dealing with the Black Serpent Mafia these last few days due to some secret cooperation.

They were not too sure about the details of the deal, but they were at least aware that the negotiations were still underway.

Thinking about this, everyone immediately realized that it might be the case.

“Regardless! They still can’t just attack the Coralara Archipelago without enough evidence!” said another leader, who was the captain of the second strongest pirate group, the Shark Pirates.

“Hmph! Do you think that a force like the Springfield Family will make a move against us without any evidence?” said a person who had a long scar on his left eye, which was running from his forehead all the way to his chin.

This was the leading figure of one of the notorious mercenary groups throughout the world, the Tarantula Mercenaries.

They were quite well-known within the circle for their notorious way of dealing with their jobs. They mostly accepted jobs that were related to escorting or assassination, which were two sides of the same coin.

Everyone continued to discuss how they would deal with their current situation for quite a while until they suddenly received a call from the main culprits of their current predicament.

“Manager Hong! We are receiving a request from Springfield’s direct line!” said one of the subordinates, who was keeping an eye on their communication line.

Manager Hong, the man who was leading this meeting, knitted his brows quite deeply when he heard this.

He was having a bad feeling about this, but it was impossible to ignore the other party, given the current situation.

“Grant it,” he said, signaling his subordinate to answer.

Whoosh!

Immediately after, a virtual projection suddenly appeared right at the center of the table, projecting the main caller and showing them to everyone.

“Manager Hong. It has been a while,” said the person, who was wearing a general’s outfit and flashing a bunch of badges right on his chest.

Seeing this person, the ominous feeling that Manager Hong had became worse.

“General Howard,” he greeted with an extremely grave tone.

General Howard smirked when he heard this and said. “Don’t blame us for this. It is your group that has refused to heed our warnings.”

“We have already warned you not to get involved with the Black Serpent Mafia, yet you still refuse to cut your ties with them,” he added, along with a mocking look on his face.

Hearing this, the expression on Manager Hong’s face suddenly turned even graver, especially when those words were directly telling everyone within the room that the Springfield Family indeed had evidence about the connection between the Black-Market Organization and the Black Serpent Mafia.

It might not be enough to break the trust of their people, but it was more than enough to plant a seed of doubt in them.

……