Hitman with a Badass System

Chapter 582: Barren Floating Mountain

After Eve, Gaya and Nightmare left the castle, Michael sat in a middle of a room filled with racks. Each rack contained several rows, and each row had various herbs and ingredients. The whole room contained atleast a ton of ingredient one needed to refine thousands of pills and potions.          

    

At that moment, Michael had an oak table before him with a bunch of ingredients and empty vials.      

“My lord, here’s the glass of water you asked,” Azazel brought Michael a glass of hot water and placed it on the table beside the herbs.     

Michael’s dark flames dimly lit the already dark room. Since Azazel had a physical body, he was helping Michael by bringing the herbs needed to brew the healing potion.     

“My lord, you’ve been brewing the healing potion for hours now. You should take a break,” Azazel suggested to Michael, only to see Michael shaking his head,     

“I don’t need rest. But what I need is the tissue sample of patient zero. Did you get the blood from the deceased?”     

“Yes my lord,” Azazel flicked his wrist, taking out free vials of dark grayish blood.     

“I also took the liberty to place Spyders inside and around the castle, my lord. Someone may have disrupted the security arrays because I found no resistance. The main warehouse is empty. I assume someone cleaned the place out before the plague broke out,”     

“That someone is Eve’s father. Apparently, he transported their treasury to the Immortal council’s vault,”     

“Immortal council?” this was the first time Azazel had heard about Immortal Council. Michael wasn’t familiar with them either until Eve brought it up.     

“Yeah, after someone reaches the Half Immortal stage, they would be invited to join the Immortal Council. Eve’s ancestor is a member of the council,”     

“Still, they got attacked?” Azazel questioned Michael. He could t understand how a family of someone powerful enough to be the Immortal Council’s member could be attacked and almost wiped out from the map.     

To be honest, Michael asked Eve the same question.     

“First, the council won’t meddle in mortal affairs,” Michael emphasized the word mortal like he was air quoting the word.     

“That means, if you’re a council member and your family gets into trouble, you can’t pitch in and rescue them. Unless the council members agree upon it. Secondly, those old bastards have lived long enough away from their families to not give a damn about their descendants. How could they do it? I don’t know. But I guess, living three hundred four hundred years in seclusion away from friends and family will do that to you,” Michael explained to Azazel while throwing the herbs into the dark flames dancing atop his palm.     

“So they have rules against saving their families?” Azazel asked, knitting his brows together.     

“I am afraid so. As far as I heard from Eve and Gaya, they are like a bunch of crooked politicians who have nothing but time on their hands. They play politics and cultivate to get higher stages,”     

“But what if a member intervenes in mortal affairs?”     

“They just debate over the issue and pass their judgment on you. Which in most cases is kicking you out of the council or smite you to hell,”     

“Seems like joining the council has nothing but disadvantages,” Azazel frowned as Michael chuckled.     

“Apparently, after reaching the Half Immortal stage, climbing each level would take decades. That is, if the cultivator is a genius. So the council gives you unlimited resources to cultivate; in return, you don’t meddle in mortal affairs. It makes sense. Just imagine Immortals and Half Immortals running around the world. They will be absolute superpowers. They could enslave a kingdom if they felt like it. Having a council to put a leash on them is not a bad idea. Atleast it works great for me. When I wipe out some of the noble families, no one would be there to stop me. I just need to find a way to deal with the Fusion stage cultivators, ”     

Michael explained his thoughts to Azazel while brewing the potions.      

“So the council is one of the Great Eight Clans?”     

“No, they are like an independent group. As I said, they don’t give a shit about anyone. A most one member could do for their descendants is doing small things like providing access to a vault,”     

Azazel nodded as Michael waved his hand, putting out the dark flames. Then, Michael took the blood vials on the table and kept them before his eyes.     

“Now I just need to find a cure before weaponizing the plague. The last thing I need is to bring down a plague upon my subordinates. One wrong move and everything will come back to bite me in my ass,”         

    

Michael waved his hand as the vials disappeared from sight. When Michael finally rose from his chair, there were thousands of healing potions glistening in the darkness. The radiant blue light emitted by the healing potions brightened the room.     

“We shall go meet Eve and Gaya,”     

“What about this castle, my lord?”     

“Just let the Rottgards have it. When I am done, there won’t be anyone standing against the Voldigards,”     

Although Michael decided to help Voldigards because of Eve, his main goal was to make Voldigards his allies. In addition, having a powerful family by his side would make establishing a name for himself in Awor much easier.      

“What would you have me do, my lord?”     

“Just stay here and monitor the situation. I am pretty sure the Rottgards would return soon. Do not make any moves. Just observe and report. Got it?”     

“Yes my lord,”     

After ordering Azazel to stay in the castle, Michael put the healing potion in his system storage and exited the storage through the dark door.      

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

(A few hours ago)     

The dark clouds shrouded the sky, preventing the golden sunrays from reaching the plague-ridden Kingdom Thera.  Under the rambling thunderclouds, Nightmare soared through the clouds like an arrow carrying a giant carriage on his back. The carriage was large enough to contain a hundred and twenty people inside, including Eve and Gaya.      

The Voldogards used the giant carriage to transport massive pillars to build castles and bridges. A rare race called giants pulled these carriages from one end to another. Fortunately, Nightmare grew almost eighteen meters long to carry the carriage upon his back.     

Inside the carriage, Eve leaned against the carriage holding Gaya’s hand.     

“I don’t think I have much longer. Are we there yet?”     

“You tell us. Where are we going?” asked Gaya after hearing Eve’s weak voice.     

“You will see,”     

Eve gently brushed Jennifer’s head which lay on Eve’s lap. Her face had almost turned to stone-like color. In simple words, Jennifer seemed like a statue.      

“How did you meet Ghost?” Eve turned her gaze towards Gaya,     

“Just like you, I was in a helpless situation. I thought I was done for. But he changed my life. I have lost count of how many times he pulled some shit no one would imagine,”     

“You really think he could find the cure huh?”     

“I know he would. Trust me, you will recollect all these events and laugh soon,”     

“I wish,” Eve let out a deep breath as Gaya felt Nightmare slowing down.     

“Hey, I think we reached the place. Aelia, you should come out,” Gaya sensed a tinge of shock in Nightmare’s voice. Therefore, Gaya squeezed Eve’s hand, reassuring her before dashing out of the carriage.     

As soon as she exited the carriage, her eyes went so wide to the point her eyes looked like they could pop out any moment. The reason for her shock was the barren floating mountain on the horizon. The floating mountain looked like a sword. The base was the blade, and the tall pillar resembled the hilt from which an elegant streamy waterfall flowed. However, unlike the floating mountains she had seen in the Akilan realm, the sword-like floating mountain was barren and void of any man-made buildings.         

    

Other than the waterfall, there was nothing in the floating mountain.      

After starting at the barren floating mountain for a few minutes, the duo resumed flying and approached the island. The closer they got, the bigger the floating mountain looked. Yet, it was far from exceeding the floating mountains in the Akilan realm by far.      

It took Nightmare and Gaya a few minutes to land on the barren land and put down the carriage on the ground.     

Considering the ground had no trees, and the clouds above them looked dark and gloomy, Gaya decided to keep them inside the carriage instead of taking them out. She didn’t want the sick people to get drenched in heavy rain.     

“This place looks good,”      

Nightmare creased his brows,     

“This place looks barren and deserted. There is nothing in the place that would make anyone say its good,”     

“You lack imagination lizard,” Nightmare rolled his eyes,     

“I don’t lack imagination, but I just don’t see the point of imagining anything in the place. It’s not ours,”     

“Hmm,” Gaya grinned without telling what was going on inside her dead to Nightmare.     

“I’ll go take a look around the place. You stay here and make sure they stay safe,”     

Gaya didn’t even wait for Nightmare’s agreement as she took off from the ground to fly around the floating mountain. A few minutes later, Nightmare shrunk his size to enter the carriage. However, when he came to Eve, he noticed her skin color had slightly changed to gray.     

At that moment, Eve was sleeping peacefully while holding Jennifer’s hand in one hand and her hammer in the other.     

Now that he had brought Eve and the Voldigards to a safe place, all he could do was wait for Ghost to find a cure for the plague.     

But something told Nightmare, Gaya and Ghost would take full advantage of the plague before curing it.      

After flying around the barren mountain for an hour, Gaya finally returned to the carriage. This time, she wasn’t alone but brought Ghost with her.      

“Ghost,” Nightmare welcomed Ghost with a wide grin as usual.  He slowly hovered above the sick people to reach Eve. Instead of pouring the potion into Eve’s mouth, Michael placed his hand on Eve’s neck, which was burning hot, injecting the APD filled with ninety percent pure healing potion.