Coden arrival

Coden arrived and stared silently at Dante's limp body. While he knew this was bound to happen eventually, he never imagined it would actually come to this… It appeared that even the strongest person has their limits. Even though he knew that Dante would survive, the sight of it still shocked him slightly. Nevertheless, he quickly regained his composure and scanned the surroundings.

He could tell that something major was going on. There were definitely people who wanted Dante dead, and those who wanted to get rid of him would most likely try to use him as a distraction and lure Charon away. Unfortunately, he still wasn't quite sure exactly where Charon was located, nor did he know exactly how much information there was about him to begin with. If Dante had told him the whole truth, he would probably have been able to deduce everything on his own, but he had chosen to conceal the truth from Coden so that he could make his way toward him alone. The fact that he had been successful in doing such a simple task was proof enough for him that they had a great deal of knowledge regarding the demon lord. However, he couldn't assume it would be enough for him to find any clues to where Charon was currently hiding either.

Without wasting anymore time, Coden immediately snapped out of his thoughts when he noticed the other person inside the building. "Hm?" he muttered confusedly.

From the moment Coden had walked in, he could see at least six men in various stages of injury standing within the building. Their injuries appeared to be severe enough to kill someone, and none of them were moving. Most noticeably, however, were three men that were slumped over at each corner of the large room with obvious wounds inflicted on them by sharp objects. They must be the ones who had tried to ambush Dante and Charon earlier. The last two men seemed to be having trouble breathing as well, prompting Coden to assume that they were the ones who caused these injuries. As for Charon, he was nowhere to be seen, which prompted Coden to wonder why.

Suddenly, something caught Coden' attention and he quickly turned his head to the side. The man with the rifle stood on one end of the room while the other two gunmen flanked the front entrance; one of them had a shotgun and the other a pistol. Upon noticing Coden looking at him, one of the gunmen grinned mischievously at him, making his blood run cold upon seeing his grim expression.

"Well, look we have here." The gunman chuckled darkly. "Somebody's finally decided to join us."

"You know who I am." Coden spoke calmly, ignoring his threat.

"What are you gonna do about it?" the gunman laughed. He raised his shotgun and pointed it at Coden's stomach. "You've pissed off my boss by not showing up. So let'ee say goodbye to your life now and then die like some kind of pathetic hero!"

Without warning, the man fired.

Instantly after he saw the bullet whizz towards him, Coden took a quick step aside, narrowly avoiding it by ducking underneath it. Before the gunman could react. Coden quickly use his magic and teleported beside him. Once the gunman looked back in shock, Coden used another spell which forced his arms together before slamming them against the gunman's face brutally.

The man fell to the ground as his face contorted painfully with pain, dropping the gun that he was holding.

"Sorry about that, sir," Coden apologized, not feeling the slightest bit sorry at all, "but this is just business." With that, he swiftly summoned his sword and lunged forward, stabbing the gun and piercing it through the man's torso. Once it was stabbed cleanly, Coden quickly pushed the gun far away from himself and watched as the gunman died on his feet and fell lifelessly. The others was afraid that they might get in trouble by trying to stop Coden, so they quickly retreated as well. Within a mere second, Coden managed to disarm all of them using his magical abilities.

With his enemies defeated, Coden sighed softly. He then turned around and glanced at the corpse of the one he just killed, his expression turning blank. After a brief silence, Coden then asked himself: Should I leave them alive or should I kill them now? He thought for a moment and decided that killing them would be unnecessary since they weren't going anywhere soon. Besides, they didn't know anything about Charon or Dante. The safest option would be to capture them alive and ask them questions later.