Doomed

"Vice leader, there is still no appearance of those people." A person reported with a nervous tone while facing the vice leader of the Picky Fifty gang.

The vice leader, who goes by the name Fred, shivered at the mere fact of mentioning the word 'those people'

He, who had just been promoted recently, felt everything went so smoothly on his side but not until he received a report that one of their men, Fuego, had captured the infamous leader of the underworld.

That was the start of their damnation as if they were digging into a hole.

Since then, Fuego has been missing in action. That baldy, who had a reputation on one of the branches of the gang, a bit powerful at that, was suddenly gone.

Of course, Fred had shrugged it off, thinking this was just a mistake and didn't care less what was happening at all.

Then after a few days, surprisingly, he received devastating news. The news of their leader's corpse at now in one of the Administration's morgues, currently being autopsied by the administration.

It was enough to take a blow on their gang. With that situation, Fred realizes a certain power struggle will happen in their gang, if not, in the already chaotic underworld itself.

If he thought about it in a situation, they might get caught by the hands of the other gangs that are currently at war with each other. Worse of all is that their affiliated gangs have started to disregard their request for help after their leader died which is currently happening to them.

And as if this wasn't enough insult, 'those people' attacked their branches, leaving a sigil of an intertwined fallen wing, clearly demonstrating that they were part of a group.

A gigantic one at that.

The thing is, he kept searching for information and there was absolutely no gang that had the sigil of fallen intertwined wings on their archives.

And he couldn't see the specifics of 'those people' attack, leaving him in the blind.

Everything was a mystery. And with that, Fred had concluded.

'We're doomed. We're so doomed.'

Alas, he wouldn't be a vice leader of a mid-size gang if it weren't for his experiences. Seeing that everything was in disarray, he immediately came to a plan that involved one thing.

Flee.

He had accumulated the gold and riches inside their treasury and transferred them all into one specific place that he only knew about.

All that was left was to leave the wretched, entrapped place he was in. The thing is, people always required his presence since this was the last stronghold of their defense.

Everyone was tense by this mere fact.

Even coos from crickets were enough to make them flinch in fright, leaving them nervous all the time which affected them physically and mentally.

'Soon'

Fred was delighted that he wouldn't experience these horror feelings anymore. This day, he will make sure to escape.

Their men were already stationed throughout the place. There's no way 'those people' would blatantly walk to them, knowing they have a thousand men in their arsenal.

And even if they do, Fred will use this as a chance to escape.

It's a win-win on his end...

Boooom—!

...Not until he heard a deafening crash from his back which halved the building in two. The place was sliced vertically and everything that it managed to hit was obliterated into pieces.

"Vice leader!"

The member shouted in fright as he watched the halved building in horror.

They were lucky the point of impact was slightly far away from them, or else, they would get the same fate as those people who were currently screaming with their lungs out due to the damage.

"What the..."

Whoosh—!

In the span of a few seconds that Fred had been distracted, shadows roamed around the room, mists started emerging from the air as weird objects started materializing on their own, forming a human figure.

Both Fred and the member were too late to realize what happening until it already happened.

"Was it you?"

Krave coldly drew his dagger at Fred's neck while asking the question with a callous tone, indicating that whatever he was supposed to answer would determine his life.

The only problem was that Fred didn't know what he was talking about!

Clink—!

A revolver was pointed at the back of Fred's head, followed up with a benign, old voice adding a bit of pressure to the already depressed vice leader.

"Answer him, young man."

Heralton usual gentle expression was gone, replaced with a cold indifference that only meant business.

Booooom—!

And while he was in a tight position, Fred still could perceive what was happening at their headquarters.

Just listening to the sounds of buildings going down and the scream of agonies from their men was enough for him to realize something.

They are really doomed.

"Just… who are you guys?"

Slash—!

"Wrong answer."

Krave immediately sliced Fred's throat. He wouldn't want to waste a single second interrogating the man who was in cahoots that put Duke in his current situation.

'Those bastards…' Remembering Maria's word yesterday in Duke's hospital room made him enraged once again.

Maria only told them a single word as for the ones who instigated and tried to assassinate their boss on their own turf.

"Underworld's Overlords."

The heaviest and strongest bunch in the largest underworld of the world. The giants, the last hurdle, and the bosses of the boss of each organization and gang that operates in this nation.

Maria confidently concluded that these bosses realized how big their organization is and that can fight them all in one go. Right under their noses, they hired their best assassins and did this.

They almost successfully finished the job but since they are talking about their boss, who raised them all to what they are now, they still failed.

That's why it is almost. It isn't a perfect assassination anymore if the victim didn't die.

Hence with these pieces connecting, they are confident that it has something to do with Picky Fifty Gang… somehow?

All in all, they can't wait to bring this news to Duke themselves.

'Is this the reason why he wanted to take the underworld? These overlords started realizing a threat to them which is us and formulated a plan… Still, how did they know our boss and ourselves? We've been keeping a low profile…'

Krave's thoughts wandered around as he was brought back to reality after being smacked on the back of his head.

"Keep your unnecessary thoughts to yourself. We got a job to do."

Calming down for a moment, he released all his anger by cracking his neck as he looked around the room.

"Where's Forren and the Weize Family?"

"Already ahead of us. Forren already killed the member and since both Orelia and Leomord's presence isn't needed here, they switched to another place and helped the girls."

Scratching the back of his head, Krave laughed as he replied, "I guess we've wasted enough time here. Let's go, sir Heralton."

"Sure kid."

Before they left, they looked around the room and set it ablaze.

They destroyed it first as the first step before they lit a fire, engulfing the whole chamber ablaze.

They smashed it into bits right after.

Now, they moved next to helping their comrades by erasing the Picky Fifty Gang from this world.

And their manpower was enough to do it.

…

One refined woman walked through the hallway filled with people who had oppressive auras on their own, yet even with a large age difference, they treated her with awe and respect.

She was a bit younger than them but those eyes were full of harsh experiences, perilous encounters, and agonizing struggles that molded into what she is now.

Her white translucent hair swayed as she greeted her coworkers after they greeted her back. She was wearing a light tunic armor. Her her thigh-high boots were making faint noise but everyone wasn't bothered by it.

In fact, everyone was wearing the same light armor, readying themselves in case in case something urgent that needed their attention happened.

She entered her workplace and was greeted by her assistant.

"Good morning ma'am Cayenne. Weren't you supposed to be in the academy today?"

"Yes, good morning." Cayenne looked at her assistant annoyingly with her gem-like eyes as she added, "There's nothing to do there and I don't want to waste my time with useless things. Any news that piqued your interest, Ghale?"

"Well, I have something." The assistant, Ghale, gleefully answered as he handed Cayenne a bunch of report papers, "It's also a weird one as well. As if whoever did this had a deep anger towards this organization."

"Organization?" Cayenne asked as she brought the papers in her hand, reading them attentively, "What? Erased? And…"

Surprises dawned on Cayenne's front as she focused on the words 'erased', 'disappearance without a trace', and 'finished in a day' on the report card and was slightly perturbed but what came next brought her expectations down.

"Picky Fifty Gang? Are they under an overlord organization somehow?" Cayenne asked, feeling Ghale gave him a useless report.

They were supposed to look at the Fiend's activities, not some unknown gang that was destroyed while not leaving traces except for the sigil of intertwined fallen wings.

"I know that that's why here comes the best part." Ghale gleefully responded while giving another report paper to Cayenne as he gave a name, "This guy's name is Paparano. He's dead."

Cayenne looked at the image of the average person, having no clue where Ghale was getting at but he didn't leave her in the unknown as he continued.

"We only managed to know his name just a few days ago before his gang, Picky Fifty gang was attacked, and the house he was staying at was demolished. Just completely destroyed. As for the person, he was missing in action up to date."

"And you know, on that same day, I've traced some information. There was a lead that, as weird as it sounds, there's a Fiend's branch on that nation and we simply subjugate that place.

"Guess what? As our administration branch was running through their files, we found that the Fiend and the Picky Fifty gang were in cahoots with each other, along with other organizations!"

Ghale smacked his lips as a cold glint stare appeared on his expression, "The Fiend and some unknown, unfamiliar, mid-size organization was doing something. I concluded that some peculiar activities that involved the Fiends, in some way, were happening under our radar. If not for this, we wouldn't have subjugated the other gangs they were in cahoots with!"

With a sharp expression, Cayenne looked back and forth towards the report papers that involved the Fiends, the mid-size organization, and their relationship with each other.

After a few moments, she stood up from her chair as she stated.

"Let's go check what's happening."