Chapter 1519: Meeting Again

Under a moon smothered by clouds, three jeeps sliced through the darkness, their engines growling low as they descended a remote, unlit road. The world around them was nothing but silhouettes and stillness, abandoned fields, crooked fence posts, and the distant whisper of wind scraping through dead grass.

At the far end of the road loomed an old warehouse, half-collapsed and seemed to have been long forgotten, except for those who needed a place where screams would go unheard.

Sean rode in the lead jeep, his expression set in a perpetual scowl. The dim glow of the dashboard only sharpened the tension in his features.

He couldn’t believe it. It had only been a few days, just a few days—since he had taken a short absence. He didn’t think it was a big deal; it was just keeping an eye on a gambling addict at some high-end gambling arena that was already known for its tight security. So, what could have happened?

But then the news came. Igor Renovich had been taken away, or snatched away to be exact, by mysterious individuals, or a group. They didn’t even know who was responsible, let alone their motives.

Well... he could guess why, but still, how could they be so stupid as to let their asset get taken right from under their noses? Since when has Paladin become so useless?

Sean had almost flipped the table when the news reached him. He had only just recovered a few days earlier, and now he was already dealing with another disaster, one he needed to fix before his brother’s fury broke loose.

He didn’t even have the luxury of staying angry; priority one was getting Igor back alive, and getting him back fast. The Mana Deterrent device was nearly complete. The Blackridged project was also approaching its final stages.

They couldn’t afford to lose Igor now. Useless as he was in his addiction, every calculation, every test result, every classified detail lived inside Igor’s head. Losing him now would cripple months, if not years, of progress.

Finding a replacement for Igor was nearly impossible. There weren’t many people who could take over the work Ethan Hamilton had left behind.

They had scoured old archives, digging through forgotten files in search of anyone even remotely qualified, and that was how they eventually found Igor.

Even if another candidate existed somewhere out there, they no longer had the time to search for them, not now that King Lucas had awakened and the Harland Kingdom was slowly rising to its feet.

Luckily, they already put the implant tracker beneath Igor’s skin. A silent safeguard for moments exactly like this. Except, for reasons unknown, the signal had flickered and stalled. Instead of a clean, immediate trace, they had spent the late-night hours wrestling with static bursts and half-coordinates. That’s why it took two hours to locate Igor’s whereabouts.

Alas, two hours too da*n long.

Two hours would give the perpetrators more than enough time to pry the truth from Igor, and ironically, Igor was not someone who could stand pain. Sean doesn’t think he could endure too long, and that thought make his stomach churn.

The jeep rolled to a stop in front of the dilapidated warehouse, its rusted frame looming like a carcass gnawed hollow by time. Sean stepped out, boots crunching on gravel, his eyes sweeping the darkness for movement.

The air felt unnervingly still and quiet... too quiet. Sean raised his hand and motioned for everyone to take their positions. But the order had barely left his lips when a sharp whistle cut through the night.

Sean’s head snapped up.

A small, dark object arced through the air and then rolled straight toward them. He paused for a second, then his eyes widened. The next thing happened, Sean screamed in urgency, "TAKE COVER!"

Chaos detonated before the words even finished leaving his mouth. The Paladin shot their hands forward in reflex, and thick vines erupted from the ground like awakened serpents, weaving together at unnatural speed to form a living barricade.

At the same time, the Dragxtarn also activated their shield devices, and immediately a translucent barriers flared to life with a low hum, covering them up.

Then came the explosion that reverberated in the air. A blinding flash split the night open, followed by a thunderous roar that rattled their bones.

The explosion slammed into the improvised defenses of ine and energy shield alike, sending a violent shockwave across the clearing. Heat and fire exploded outward in a scorching burst, the force striking Sean like a giant’s open palm.

Wind howled. Embers spiraled. The night itself seemed to tear apart. For a heartbeat, everything was swallowed in white noise and flame, light so bright it dissolved the world, heat so fierce it felt like a hand trying to peel the skin from bone.

Then, slowly, the explosion thinned, ebbing into a choking haze. Smoke curled thick in the air, bitter and stinging, while the ground still trembled from the force of the blast. The night smelled of burnt earth and ruptured metal.

Sean and his group barely had time to drag in a breath. Before he could even shout a warning, something slammed against their defenses, fast, violent, merciless. It hit like a hurricane, given shape, cracking through the Paladins’ vine wall and shredding the Dragxtarns’ shields as if they were made of paper.

The protective barrier fractured with a deafening snap, shards of energy scattering like broken glass.

Then the shadows moved at a rapid speed. Three figures burst forth from the smoke, nothing more than silhouettes at first, dark streaks cutting through the night with inhuman speed. They lunged toward them in a blur, closing the distance in less than a second.

"Weapons!" someone barked, but most were already moving.

Steel hissed free of sheaths. Arcblades ignited. The air sang with the sharp, metallic clash as the first impact rang out as a brutal collision of force meeting force.

Sparks flew. Bodies stumbled back. The attackers moved with frightening precision, their strikes heavy enough to rattle bones and fast enough to blur the edges of reality.

No one knew who these people were.

No insignias. No hesitation. No wasted motion. But one thing was immediately, terrifyingly clear: They were strong. Far stronger than they were expected.

It felt almost absurd, like a cruel joke, that a full force of Paladins and Dragxtarn operators could be repelled by just three men. Whether absurd or not, that was the reality unfolding before them. Every attack from the three shadows carried a crushing weight; every movement was too precise, too fast, too deadly.

One Dragxtarn soldier, wielding a reinforced broadsword built from alloyed mana-steel, braced himself as his attacker closed in. Their weapons collided with a sharp, ringing crack.

His eyes widened.

That blade, with its shape, eerie glow, and segmented spine that pulsed with light, has a design that looks a bit different - more sleek. However, it’s no mistake; it is a Dragna. A high-tech hybrid weapon unique to Dragxtarn’s elite division. A weapon that shouldn’t exist outside their own ranks, how could this man have it?

Samuel’s true identity was completely hidden, so only a few of Dragxtarn’s senior ranks knew about it. Moreover, Samuel was still in disguise, so it was no surprise they didn’t recognize him.

"Dragxtarn...?" his breath hitched; he still couldn’t believe what he had seen.

"Who knows," Samuel scoffed.

Before the Dragxtarn soldier could process that, Samuel landed a heavy kick on the enemy’s chest. The man staggered backward, and in the same motion, Samuel’s blade shifted. The metal folded in on itself, panels rotating, chambers sliding into place. In the blink of an eye, the sword elongated into a sleek, angular firearm humming with energy.

A pulse of light burst from the barrel.

The transformation came smoothly and quickly; he had no time to dodge. The shot seared through the air and struck the Dragxtarn soldier’s shoulder with a crack of burning force. He cried out, dropping his weapon as the impact numbed his arm.

Samuel didn’t waste a heartbeat.

The weapon twisted again, handles rotating, emitters folding, blades snapping out with a metallic snarl. In less than a second, it returned to sword form, and Samuel surged forward, swinging with deadly precision.

What confused the other Dragxtarn operatives was how smoothly and lightly Samuel wielded the Dragna. Dragxtarn energy was notoriously volatile; it boosted the user’s physical power but often overwhelmed their body in return.

That was why operatives were advised not to use the Dragna excessively. Yet Samuel showed no signs of fatigue or strain. On the contrary, there was a strange harmony in the way his energy flowed with the weapon.

What happened here? 𝚏𝗋ℯⅇ

If they had known, the major problem of Dragna’s use had been casually solved by Zhao Li Xin. Lory had conveyed this to N.I.M.S. and Bellerophone. She suggested fixing the weaknesses of Dragna’s weapon based on Zhao Li Xin’s advice. Lory also tells Samuel the benefits of internal energy and the simple methods of cultivating internal energy based on Zhao Li Xin’s instructions.

Since then, Samuel has occasionally contacted Zhao Li Xin for guidance on cultivating internal energy. Since Samuel was recommended by Lory for guidance, Zhao Li Xin didn’t hesitate to share his knowledge. After all, this was a trivial matter that everyone in his world understood, even those who weren’t practitioners.

From that day on, Samuel’s progress had been significant. He no longer felt extreme fatigue or excessive pressure in his chest when he used Dragna too much. He hadn’t expected that after decades of using Dragna, it would become so comfortable to wield it.

The shock was not only from Samuel, but also the scientists, the gifted, and the Creators at N.I.M.S. and Bellerophone were also surprised by this discovery.

The Dragxtarn gang surrounded Samuel in a loose circle, but their confidence was laughably misplaced. They were all new recruits with few experienced in battle powerful opponent.

They charged Samuel with the arrogance of the young, blades raised and loud voice, but Samuel barely needed to exert himself. Their footwork was sloppy, their timing predictable, their strength inconsistent, and they depend on the power of Dragna too much.

Against any other opponent, they might have been dangerous. But against Samuel, who had survived countless battles, carried years of experience, wielded an improved and more efficient Dragna, don’t forget, he had just received enlightenment from Zhao Li Xin; they were no match at all for Samuel.

He parried one blow with the flick of a wrist, dodged another without even looking, then kicked one attacker to the ground before turning to disarm another.

The clang of metal rang through the air, followed by startled gasps as the recruits realized, far too late, that they were hopelessly outmatched.

At the same time, another battle raged just a short distance away. One of the mysterious attackers moved with a kind of speed Timothy and Sean had never seen, speed that wasn’t simply fast, but wrong, unnatural. He didn’t dash or step or sprint.

He slipped between shadows.

Darkness pooled beneath his feet like liquid ink, and in the next instant, he emerged behind them or beside them or directly in front of their faces, blade already mid-swing.

It was as if the night itself opened doorways for him, letting him step through reality without ever truly crossing the space between.

Sean’s instincts screamed a warning a second too late.

The attacker burst from the shadow cast by a broken crate, his dagger slashing upward toward Sean’s ribs. Sean twisted, sparks flying as metal scraped against metal, but the force still numbed his arm.

Before he could counter, the man dissolved back into the darkness, his silhouette stretching like smoke, only to reappear behind Timothy.

"Tim, watch out!" Sean shouted.

Timothy spun just in time to catch the blade on his gauntlet, the impact jolting his entire arm. The attacker vanished again, swallowed by Timothy’s own shadow.

Sean gritted his teeth. "This basta*d is a shadow user!" But knowing didn’t help.

Every shadow around them, every corner, every broken wall, every flicker of darkness cast by the burning vines, became a potential attack point. The gifted man stepped out of all of them with the same effortless grace, his movements a blur, his strikes aimed with surgical precision.

Timothy raised his sword to defend. He summoned many vines and thick roots to protect himself, but it was in vain because the other talented people suddenly jumped into the air, then stuck their palms into the ground and an electric current spread and burned all the vines and roots to a crisp.

"Electro user," Timothy murmured.

"Where are the others?" Sean looked around for his subordinates—only to find several of them sprawled on the ground, unmoving. He couldn’t tell whether they were alive or dead.

Sean clenched his jaw, his expression tightening. Who were they up against? These weren’t just any gifted people. He had faced many gifted people before, but none had ever crushed him this effortlessly.

Both enemies stood there calmly, almost leisurely, as if they were merely playing with them. Who would have imagined that two members of Constellation could be toyed with so easily, like children? It was a devastating blow to their confidence.

"Who are you?" Sean growled.

Clift tilted his head. "You always asked that?"

Sean froze, stunned. He knew that voice. He had heard it once before.

Back in that abandoned town, when he, Andreas, and Lucia were ambushed while searching for Ethan Hamilton. The man had worn a mask then, and even now Sean couldn’t be certain if this was his true face.

"It’s you again..." Sean muttered under his breath.

Clift arched a brow. "Nice to meet you again."