Everything going wrong that shouldn't be gone wrong!

A muffled Shockwave through the building arrived first, followed by sudden collapse of the wall of the antique watch shop. Panic soon erupted, with civilians beginning to flee in chaos. Old shopkeeper held back his sinking heart as he too escaped without looking back. 

Amidst the rubble of the wall, a man emerged with a slow groan. He soon moved to shake off the dust of concrete and bricks from him. After his explosive entry, behind him from the same hole Alex followed inside with an indifferent look in his eyes. 

His body was glowing brightly with several snake-like energy ropes swirling around his body. From a rough count, there appeared to be more than fifty of such thin energy bands traveling over his body at high speeds. He looked like a god in the mortal world but contrary to his invincible appearance his heart was palpitating in trepidation. 

'Crap! Crap! Crap! Now I have done it. Is this too much of a disaster? Can it still be salvaged? 

He had warned me specifically not to cause any commotion. I even boastfully reassured him. And here I blasted away a shop… '

Breaking his train of thought, Aukhy slammed straight into him. The Devil apparition behind him twisted and grunted in apparent anger. It increased his physical strength further two times up, as right now the veins on his body, which was already protruding on his skin, were pushed to the brink of bursting out. 

Alex raised his hand and one of the energy snakes moved to coil around his hand, and it burst out like a firecracker. The violent outburst occurred accurately between him and the charging figure of Aukhy. 

Boom! 

The walls of the dilapidated shop rattled like a drum, with several parts of roof caved in immediately. Aukhy who was hit on the point blank range was shot away like a human cannonball, apparition on his back crumbled into bits of energy. It had taken the majority of damage from the explosion to protect Aukhy's body. But still more than half of his body was charred blue with burns and blunt impact. 

Alex finally broke his poker expression as he jumped in a slight panic. The shop was visibly crumbling and there was nothing he could do. He tried his best to limit his power but to counter the charge of bull like Aukhy, he still had to produce that much energy so that he could repel him. 

And the side-effect was….. 

Right at this moment, the old shop was finally unable to take any more and collapsed with a bang. The whole structure came down with beams and all, and crushed both Alex and Aukhy who was even farther in somewhere, thrown after the last clash. 

Outside the crumbled location, had already been surrounded by the public which was trembling with fear with the severity of explosions happening inside the shop. Inner City Guards have already started to encircle the shop, whereas the old shopkeeper was rapidly pouring out his complaints and grievances to the City Guard Captain, who was trying to reassure him. 

"Hahahahaha…. Indeed Indeed… San Soothsayer is indeed something which couldn't be challenged by any Soothsayer, however prodigy he might be in this level. 

I knew it!" After a few seconds of collapse, a figure crawled out from the debris of the building while laughing loudly that stunned the whole area.

Aukhy's whole body had contracted back to his original size, but the overwhelming blood and bruises were visible clearly, even in the dim moonlight. Adding to his serious injuries, one of his arms was bent at an odd angle while there was a visible bump on the side of his head that was swelling rapidly. 

The shattered man, appearing to be on his last legs, stumbled out a few steps till moonlight directly illuminated his face. But to the fear of the public there wasn't a hint of pain on his face but a maniacal expression, like a man who was ready to gamble his life at any moment. 

The insanity even creeped out some City Guard who involuntarily took a step back in fear, but soon stopped realizing their subconscious movement. 

Unaware of all of this, Aukhy roared as he laughed loudly like he was challenging the impossible, 

"I knew it from the start! But… I don't accept it!

I have challenged San Soothsayers again and again in hope to brute force my way to this powerful level but have lost every time. No matter how much I tried, this barrier of San level remained unapproachable to me. "

At this moment, a disturbance happened at the corner of a collapsed building. A few enormous pieces of debris flew up and cleared away by themselves as it looked like some invisible force was picking the pieces away. 

After a few seconds, Alex emerged from beneath completely unharmed and unchanged from before, save the number of energy snakes completely covering his body had increased from fifty to nearly hundred. 

His whole body sparked with bright and raw energy, as the snakes revolved around his body continuously. They soon thinned out revealing his body from within as Alex glanced at the laughing maniac at the end of his life. 

"Any other last words before you die."

He muttered roughly, unable to hold back annoyance reflecting in his voice. He had given up on holding back anymore, as the worst had already happened and this fool here was further making him more angry by each passing second. 

'If you know it idiot, then why do the impossible. You dumbfuck, just die before some kind of appreciation towards a fellow rogue Soothsayer arises in my heart.'

It was Alex's True thoughts because he could actually sympathize with his situation. Both of them were essentially from the same strata. No big family or legacy of Visualization technique, rogue Soothsayer like them are always cursed to remain at the same level for their whole lives until some miracle happens. 

Clearly, it was Auburn's desperation to improve that has pushed him into this path… But even if Alex understood him, he did not have that big heart or empathy to do anything for him. Even sympathy he was feeling, was just an emotion derived from the fate of his inevitable death, that too was going to happen by his own hands. 

Aukhy gave a loud chuckle, as his eyes became more and more crazy. He looked unblinkingly towards the high and mighty San Soothsayer, who was looking at him like some kind of insignificant bug. 

"Hahaha… Of Course, Of Course each one of you looked at me like this. Just like this, like you are not doing anything significant but crushing an insect. 

An action so insignificant in your eyes but a heaven's mandate in the eyes of folks like us who could only gaze longingly but never achieve it. 

Hahaha… but guess what? I didn't die yet they died. I am passionate about overcoming my limitations but not a fool to risk my life worthlessly. So how could I jump in without confidence to take you down with me."

At once Alex moved, there wasn't even a second of delay as he waved his hand to send a snake flying like an arrow towards him. There wasn't even need to listen to one more word, a rogue Soothsayer who lived right on the edge of the 'Dog Eating Dog world', he very well knew what was coming afterwards. 

And even if he has confidence to bear the last strike of the dying Soothsayer, he would never take it on willingly if he could help it. Alex knew that he was strong, but he wasn't that delusional to believe that he was the strongest in the world. 

There is always a bigger mountain out there… He knew this practical law of nature by heart. 

Aukhy was caught off guard by a sudden attack, it was the first time he had seen a San Soothsayer attacking like he wanted to avoid his final strike. Usually these high humans had already lost sense of danger, especially while facing ants like him, not taking them seriously till the last moment of their death where they regretted everything. 

But this one was different…. If Aukhy was slightly calm, he would have been scared by this unexpected decision of the enemy. But running high on the adrenaline at the last moments of his severely injured body. He instantly became more crazed.

In addtion of putting all of his Psionic energy, he poured away his life force too that was bleeding out with his injuries into his clenched hand without any regret. 

"His hand! Careful!" The City Guard Captain shouted out loud but due to him being just a Soothsayer. He held back from interfering between the fight at this level.

A bright light shined from the blood stained palm of the Aukhy, who laughed maniacally as the thing in his hand swallowed all of his life including his Psionic energy to activate. 

"One significant difference between us and you are the horizons we see. Where we are envious of the unreachable heaven in our eyes. You, the heaven, also see something at your level that only you could see, the next heaven. 

So here let me end my life at this high ...."

His words were cut short abruptly as a hole appeared on his brain, leading to light vanishing from his eyes almost immediately. From the other side of his head, an energy snake emerged untouched from the blood and flesh, and evaporated in the air. 

The figure of Aukhy stood silent for a few seconds, but then collapsed down like a dead log. Several people released the breath collectively which they were holding together without knowing. 

Only they turned towards the black garbed guy who sighed audibly. 

'Fortunately just in time. But I wonder what kind of artefact he was activating? Was this thing responsible for the deaths of San Soothsayer by his hands? It must be somewhat distinct… '

"Wait! It's.. Still going on!"

Alex shuddered at the shout visibly, as he looked up and saw a blood colored light erupting from the slumped body of Aukhy. 

Only then it dawned on him, 

"Crap! He gave his lifeforce too along with Psionic energy to it. I should have separated the Artefact as soon as I killed him, from his fresh corpse."

Alex rushed forward instantly, but the explosion of light occurred at the very moment. A wave of invisible energy flashed through the place. Anyone who felt the wave passing through them lost consciousness briefly, unwillingly making their brain a forced shut down. 

Alex experienced the effect along with all others, as his eyes turned blank mid dash but within half a second, he recovered consciousness forcefully owing to his strength. But just as he gained back his consciousness, a look of abject fear flashed over his face as he looked forward. 

People fell like helpless dominos around him, even Soothsayers Guards were not spared. But the main thing which instilled the fear in the heart of Alex was the center of blood red glowing Artefact. 

There was a figure taking shape rapidly in the red light. Within seconds an unknown yet blurry figure took shape. It was a figure of a woman in shadow form, who slowly took to the sky. There was a distinct shadow of a phoenix shaped item in her hand, which made Alex's heartbeat slow down like its aura was pressing heavily on his heart. 

The Shockwave from Artefact traveled nearly for one quarter of the inner city, barely reaching the royal castle before disintegrating, alerting the palace into Emergency situation. Several 'stronger than heavens' auras flashed toward the source of disturbance instantly. 

To those who were at the top of the food chain, such distance was almost negligible. They reached instantly at the point of incident but the moment these figures arrived, all of them were shaken to the core with the sight in front of them. 

Young Master Rook too arrived behind Alex at this moment with the second man's unconscious body in his hands who had accompanied Aukhy. Mark's face was white as a sheet as the aura suppressing everyone here was familiar to him. After all, it has been just a few days since his run with a certain rebel who had used the same aura to fool him along with others. But this one was even stronger, even more authentic than the previous one. 

The shadow lady floated above unhindered till she was nearly hundred meters in the sky overlooking the city. There was a phoenix shaped item on her palm fluctuating violently like it was ready to burst at any time. 

"It's…." Several high level figures stuttered as they couldn't make the word escape their mouths. Like they were afraid that calling the thing would cause it to fall on them too. 

"It's the calamity of Cross." 

A figure appeared in front of everyone, a Shadow Master wearing an owl mask. Currently his eyes were glowing deep red, with blood tears leaking from them continuously as he was unblinkly staring high in the sky at that figure. 

"But don't worry. It's not real, just a Shadow recreating the past. We can suppress it if we work together, and it's not even a fully divine artefact yet. 

But at this moment before relieved higher ups after listening to Shadow Master, could even begin to move. The item in the figure's hands high up exploded suddenly without any warning.