Chapter 30

AE 312.4.41

Outside of a large office building in the center of Ambolt, several green uniformed men were standing around, properly armed this time.

The Green dragons made all of the preparations necessary. They knew the exact layout of the building they were about to besiege including the most likely location of certain key figures.

The two outsiders in the group were also given things to do. Sarah was tasked with assisting the group remaining outside the building, who were meant to catch anyone trying to flee the building and to prevent potential backup from entering.

Anthony on the other hand would try to make his way to the top floor independently of anyone else. A role he was given after considering the hellfire that would be let loose the moment someone got up there.

The biggest flaw of the plan was how noticeable they were. The Fireflies obviously figured out that they have been surrounded and were preparing for a fight. Also, shortly after the action started, Helen had to convince the newly arrived police force, led by Alexander himself, to stay out of the fight.

The attack went well initially, with the Green dragons quickly overrunning the lower levels and slowly making their way upward. They had a bit more trouble with the basement which not only housed some of the enemies' strongest fighters, but it also had a few undiscovered exits routes which had to be blocked after the floor was cleared out.

After some deliberation, Sarah was sent down alone to guard the underground entrances and secure the already taken areas with some of the corpses that had piled up.

An hour after the fighting started, the situation became a standstill that was seemingly impossible to break up. After losing their initial momentum, the dragons couldn't do much. Their strength came mostly from team coordination, which was hard to utilize in the corridors of an office building.

The fireflies' situation wasn't much better. Despite having a lot of people with strong abilities, they couldn't utilize their advantage as most of them had fire related abilities. The building was fireproofed, but it wasn't perfect and one stray fireball could burn down the entire place. Which wouldn't have been a problem if they weren't restricted to the upper floors, cut off from every exit route with the exception of the actual fire escape that was being fought over since the attack began.

Meanwhile, Anthony was making his way towards the top floor. He managed to stay hidden, but was progressing a lot slower than he would have liked. Aside from avoiding the numerous individuals who could see him properly, he also had to be careful not to touch anything otherwise he would have been discovered even by those who otherwise had no chance of spotting him.

He did eventually reach the top of the building. Before entering Gregory's room, he sent a message down to the others to be ready to flee the building at a moment's notice. While he was doing that, Peter could finally catch up to him. The boy had a lot more practice at hiding than his father, the only thing slowing him down was his comparably weaker physical abilities. There was only one person who knew about his presence, but she didn't see the need to do anything about it.

Gregory was holding his head, hunched over at his desk, unconsciously emitting heat as he was struggling with his emotions. He was absolutely furious but he had to face reality, he lost. He did intend to put up a fight before his inevitable defeat. Then the doors of his office opened.

In his door stood one man, covered in cascading shadows. The man whose death he personally arranged and who has been haunting him in his nightmares for weeks.

"You… You're supposed to be dead!! I made sure of it!"

The shadow man was silent for a moment, as if thinking about what to say. Then he spoke, with a smile on his face. Not a malevolent smile, not even a condescending one, it was a normal smile with an air of fakeness around it. The kind you'd see on the TV news.

"And I would like to congratulate you. You have succeeded!"

Gregory finally snapped. He lost control of his emotions, resulting in a gigantic explosion of flames that started melting the floor and effectively vaporized the ceiling. It would have killed any normal person, but the intruder was still in front of him. His flesh visibly burning, and now a hole clearly visible in his chest with two floating symbols circling inside.

Gregory was already nervous enough as is, but the sight of the symbols made it worse. He had no idea what they were, but the moment he saw them his mind began to scream at him to get away. Instead of listening to his rational mind however, he started repeatedly shooting columns of fire at the demon in front of him.

He was using his power without consideration for his own well being, until he eventually ran out of energy. The figure he was shooting at was now nothing more than a disfigured pile of burning flesh, but it was healing. The man who should have been dead multiple times over was slowly recovering in front of his eyes while making its way towards him, before speaking up once more.

"I guess it's my turn now."