"You...!"

The woman gasped, returning to her senses. Her eyes glared at Axel, teeth grinding in fear and anger mixed together—two things that didn’t sit well side by side, and showed plainly on her face because of it.

Her mind was in panic.

After all, they came here thinking it was an easy job, bullying a weak dimension ruler who was brave enough to "steal" recipes from the Trismus Weapon Solutions.

But without knowing what happened, over half of the 10,000 fleet she brought with her to "intimidate" the other party just vanished without a trace.

No, some of the ships near the edges had chunks left behind, falling toward the ground with loud thuds—heavy, final sounds that rolled across the landscape like distant thunder, each one a punctuation mark on just how thoroughly things had gone wrong.

Such were proofs that what happened wasn’t an illusion, or a forced teleportation.

"Something" destroyed the fleet.

And it could, most likely, destroy the rest in a snap too.

Of course, with her experience, it wasn’t hard to figure out what that "something" was.

"You’re harboring a god here?!" She cried, raising a small gun and pointing it right at Axel’s face. "You think that’s enough to go against our client?! You’re sorely mistaken...!"

Axel stared at the weapon in her hand, then at the woman’s face, half in panic and half in turmoil. Then, he smiled. He knew that weapon, after all.

A simplified Trismus Wolfstein P95 Modified Energy Pistol.

A small but powerful pistol able to pierce even through a meter thick steel plate with ease. Compact enough to sit in a coat pocket, but with the kind of hum it gave off at full charge—low, almost imperceptible—you’d know it was serious business the moment you heard it.

Its recipe’s price was roughly 196 Trillion Colts, pretty expensive, but not unaffordable—something that Axel was actually manufacturing already for the shop, of higher quality than the originals from Trismus, but sold cheaper than theirs.

Axel took a deep breath, shrugging lightly, while speaking with pity dripping from his voice.

"I suggest you lower your weapon, Inspector Rochelle Christoff. Even if you fire that at me point-blank range, I doubt you can hurt me either way."

"W-Wait, my name...?!" The woman, Rochelle, gasped, shocked beyond words.

She hadn’t introduced herself, after all.

But to Axel, who can see the information of "everyone" within his territory, knowing her name was a given.

[

Name: Rochelle Christoff

Job: Inspector of the Legal Division, Trismus Weapon Solutions

Age: 74

Affection Level: Irreconcilable Enemies (-75 / 100)

Loyalty: F-

Count: 0

View stats>>>

Average: S

]

Despite looking like she’s in her mid thirties, her age was actually more than double that! Axel was surprised upon seeing this detail, but didn’t let it show on his expression at all.

Furthermore, her average stats were just around rank S (900 points avg.), meaning, she’s not even a threat to Axel. She might be strong relatively to mortals, but... Well, she picked the wrong enemy today.

The next moment, the men behind her raised their respective weapons. Ones that had more firepower compared to Rochelle’s, and posed a "tiny bit" more danger to Axel. The energy cells on a few of them whirred to life, casting faint blue light across their knuckles.

Though in the end, it wasn’t even worth fearing.

Triggers were pulled simultaneously, but Axel watched it all happen as if they were moving in slow motion. Although the weapons wouldn’t be able to hurt him, it could still damage his clothes. So, before they could truly fire their weapons, he moved.

SWOOSH!

Like a storm, he grabbed all of their weapons and stored it within his inventory.

Then, as if nothing happened, he returned to his previous position, standing in the same imposing but leisurely manner as before. Not a single hair out of place. Not even the faint smell of ozone that the charged weapons had left in the air seemed to bother him.

"H-Huh...?"

"Fuck, my weapon?!"

"No way...!"

Confused voices echoed among them upon realizing that their weapons had all vanished.

Not only that, he even took anything and everything that’s not alive and in their person. Weapons, accessories, pen, weird electronics, literally everything. Axel left none behind.

"See?" He said teasingly. "You can’t even hold your weapon while standing before me."

"...!"

Rochelle, too, lost her pistol. But that wasn’t the main problem.

Without missing a beat, she realized that her pendant—a life-saving device she saved for a few years to finally buy—was gone. The familiar weight of it against her collarbone, the faint warmth it always carried from sitting close to skin—both just... absent. Like a tooth pulled clean.

Of course, nobody among her men would have the ability to take her pendant without her noticing. Meaning, the culprit was not them, but...

"Give me back my pendant...!" Rochelle roared, her eyes bloodshot. "Give it back or I’ll fucking kill you!!!"

"What pendant?"

But Axel just tilted his head, feigning ignorance.

"Don’t take me for a fool! I know you took it! Give it back!"

But Rochelle’s mind seemed to be set on retrieving the said trinket.

’I can use this!’ Axel realized as a "friendly" smile crossed his lips.

"Oh, I think I can feel something in my pocket..." He said, acting obliviously. "Is it this one?" And withdrew the only pendant among the things he grabbed.

"That’s it! Give it back!"

The woman rushed toward Axel, almost fearlessly, and reached for the accessory. But Axel quickly raised it above his head, to a height that she couldn’t reach without jumping.

With S-Rank abilities, such a "short" jump wasn’t even difficult for her, though.

She hopped, reaching for the pendant, but—

THUD!

A punch hit her stomach the moment she did.

She was having tunnel vision, enough that she came so close—literally an arm’s length away—to Axel.

The punch he sent wasn’t with all his strength, of course, or the woman’s body would’ve exploded. He was just "warning" her for now.

"Not so fast." He added, watching her crawl on the ground, overturning the contents of her stomach onto the floor in an ugly, gasping heap. "First, order all your troops to back away from our planet. Don’t bother just sending them away for a moment, since if they do, I’ll just delete them like the first ones."

"Shit...! Fuck...!"

Rochelle gasped for air, her vision flashing white from the pain of getting punched. The cold ground against her palms felt distant, secondary to the way her insides refused to cooperate.

"Give... it... back...!"

However, Axel’s words were still far from over.

"—or else," he grinned, tightening his grip on the little trinket.

Loud creaking, cracking noise echoed shortly after—small and sharp, like the first fracture in glass right before it gives. "I will destroy this little thing."

"N-No, wait!"

Hearing this, Rochelle’s face went pale.

If it was just a normal defensive artifact, she would’ve let it go by now. However, the pendant wasn’t just her lifeline, but also... something that stores great secrets.

Ones that, if others knew, things would go bad for Trismus.

Axel didn’t know this yet, but he knew his threat was finally working. The smile tugged on the corner of his lips, pushing them closer to his ears.

His enemy folded to his threat!