Chapter 279: Hard Way

Grey wasn’t surprised that he was ranked so low. If anything, he was surprised he wasn’t ranked lower.

The recap episode had shown him candidates capable of destroying their cities the day they touched down. If clearing Chapter one meant killing the bishop of your city, then it was obvious that they had done at least that much.

But Grey had a feeling that they did a lot more than clearing just Chapter one with that move. Why waste the energy to destroy an entire city if all they needed to do was kill one person? There were probably more Chapters to complete in the city itself, or maybe there were some side quests they could conveniently clear at the same time by doing things that way.

Still, it was nice to know that while there were a lot of monsters present in the Genesis Games, at the very least, there weren’t millions of them.

’Maybe...’ Grey thought to himself.

It would depend. Because there were good odds that the seventeen thousand ahead of him were part of zones that had other participants as well, and if they all took the route that the recap episode’s chosen had, then there were good odds that they had gone about killing all their competition.

Grey didn’t know exactly how many were in this zone with him, but it was at least a few hundred. Just because the people under a zone were weaker than its ultimate leader, didn’t mean that they were weak enough that Grey could deal with them.

That was to say that this seventeen thousand number just might be misleading...

’We’ll get there. But what the hell is a piece of Divinity?’

A shard of something broken descended from above. Twinkling motes of something special danced around it, the world looking as though it had been lit to a new energy even it had never experienced before.

The commotion couldn’t be considered large at all. In fact, it was quite silent.

And yet, there was a huge shift in the lodgings in the distance and a group of women dressed as nuns adorned in white and gold rushed out together.

However, they were a step late. They could only watch as Grey wrapped his hand around the shard, his body feeling like a pulsing wave was surging through it.

Before Grey could even figure out what the shard was, though, a pulsing wave came from Prometheus. For the first time, one of his mechs forced itself into existence.

His Helm Frame covered his face and then a surging line of fire drilled out through it, down his jaw, arm, and through the hand carrying the shard.

It was instantly melted into his hand.

"FUCK!"

Grey couldn’t even let it go. His muscles seized, his veins pulsing wildly as his ligaments were forced into a tightened position.

Drilling lines of molten metal pierced into his body and up through his arm, up his shoulder, and through his jaw, reversing the direction Prometheus had just taken.

BANG.

Grey coughed out a mouthful of soot that sounded more like a gunshot and then everything came to an almost frightening stop.

The world slowed, and Grey just stood there, slowly opening his palm to find...

Nothing.

There wasn’t even a burn mark left despite the pain he had just experienced.

’What the fuck?’

He didn’t even get to see what just happened. He didn’t feel any different either. One moment, it was there. And in the next it was gone.

"BRING IT BACK!" the shrill voice of an older woman echoed.

The short nun appeared before Grey with wrinkled features and murky grey eyes. She practically had to look straight up at him with how close she had gotten.

For a moment, Grey couldn’t help but wonder if it was that he had gotten taller or if she really was that short.

Grey’s mind was still a little disoriented, so he wasn’t sure what was going on himself yet, and then this annoying old lady appeared out of nowhere and started yelling at him.

"Can you—?"

"BRING IT BACK! BRING IT BACK NOW! IT IS NOT YOURS!"

Grey made a weird face. Not his? Where was this lady while he was risking his life to save her worthless little Church? Would they even have any squires left without him?

Sure, the Dukedom would definitely be sending even more powerful existences now that the envoy was dead, but one problem at a time.

Grey reached forward, pinched the cap of her nun hood, and then pulled down, covering her face and muffling her annoyingly shrill voice.

"Now, which one of you is going to tell me where my things are—?"

BANG.

Grey was sent flying by a beam of gold.

As he flew through the air, he felt like he was in the middle of a sitcom. It didn’t even hurt, though he was half convinced that was supposed to have blasted a hole through his body.

He looked up at the sun and shook his head. He had just gotten out of a battle that pushed him to his very limits, was he really going to have to deal with this now?

He sighed. He didn’t really care if he had to kill nuns, he was going to hell anyway.

Grey flipped through the air and landed deftly on his feet.

The eyes of the nuns went wide as he cleared out his ear with a pinky.

Clearly, they were so isolated in their little world that they had no idea how actually powerful he was. What was extra confusing was that if they weren’t on his side, why did they even help heal him back to full health in the first place?

Grey sighed. "Let’s try this again, shall we?"

He patted away at his chest and exhaled a breath.

"Where are my things?"

The echo of a blade filled the air as the fang dagger appeared in Grey’s palm, growing out a blade so wide it was almost thicker than his body.

"We could do this the hard way if you want."

From within the nun’s sanctuary, a young woman with eyes that looked like a polished pair of white marble spheres walked out slowly.