Chapter 435: Intrusion

435 Intrusion "Are you crazy!?" Feather stammered out. He wanted to step back, but his body was just frozen as Nico stared him down with unbridled predatory intent. "ALL the Shield Capos? We run everything on the business side! The side that makes money!"

"There won't be a need for money and other shiny little baubles after we secure the Machineheart," said Nico. "We will build a new world. A world where soldiers, not cushioned paper pushers, rule."

"The Don! He wouldn't sanction this!"

"No, he wouldn't. But I'm sure he'll listen to reason. If he does not and he orders Orlando to slice my head off, then so be it. I do this for the good of this organization. This family." Nico held his fist out to Feather, the coin still covered under his other palm. "Choose. Heads or tails. If you win, I'll make sure your death will be painless.

If you lose, well, Adriana will deal with you."

Feather gulped. Adriana's sadism was not exactly a well-kept secret. She loved to tear apart her enemies limb by limb, bone by bone like a dog. She would treat Feather like an infinite happy meal, and as long as his brain was intact, he would not respawn back at Haven.

'Uh, Thanatos, hello? You seeing this? Now is a REAL good time to show up,' Feather positively shouted in his head. 'HELLO!?'

'Won't choose? Then I'll do it for you. Heads." Nico uncovered his palm. The coin showed a sword etched onto its surface. Feather's heart dropped. The other side of the coin showed a woman's face - that was heads.

He had lost the coin toss.

"Now hold on, I didn't get to choose-," began Feather, but Nico cut him off by flicking the coin with his thumb. The coin shot forward like a golden bullet, ready to gouge out Feather's heart.

Clang.

A metallic ring resonated throughout the forest clearing. A sound that should not have belonged to Feather's heart rupturing from antique money.

Feather had instinctively cringed and closed his eyes, but when he heard that sound, he tentatively opened one of them.

"Sh-shit, you came!" muttered Feather. "Thought you'd forgotten all about me."

Aldrich stood in front of Feather, his black-armored palm held out. The coin had stopped against his palm, sizzling with friction-induced heat. Green mist floated all around him, quickly swirling out and covering the clearing, dropping the temperature to a chill.

Nico raised a brow, but he did not show surprise at this sudden development.

'Did he expect me?' thought Aldrich. He met Nico's gaze. It was stern. Focused. Combat ready. 'No. He's just trained to maintain his composure no matter what. A real veteran.

Good. This will be a nice warm up for me to get used to my new powers.'

"You...you're Thanatos, aren't you? The new bigshot that everyone's talking about," said Nico.

"Very observant," said Aldrich sarcastically. There were not many two-and-a-half-meter tall men in blood-tinged, bone-spiked black armor walking around in the modern world, that was for sure.

Though right now, Volantis was currently in a heavily depowered state from being almost destroyed by being sucked into the other dimension. He could barely armor Aldrich as it was. Stitching was an impossibility, though basic functions like energy readings and mapping were still a go.

"You sound like Feather. No wonder you two are working together." Nico jerked his head up and the coin embedded in Aldrich's gauntlet palm whipped back to its owner.

"Feather doesn't have a monopoly over sarcasm. And that's about as much small talk I'm giving you. I've heard enough from you two." Aldrich had waited until the very last moment for Feather to squeeze information out of Nico.

From the conversation between the two capos, he could tell now that they did not suspect that Feather was working with Aldrich. In addition, they were not expecting him at all.

Meaning this ambush was perfect.

'Volantis, gage this guy's strength,' said Aldrich.

A red circle appeared around Feather in Aldrich's vision. It rotated for a second as Volantis carefully analyzed Feather's total energy level.

'A to A+ rank in raw energy. A formidable foe' stated Volantis.

A combat-based Alter that stood in the A to A+ rank range was a foe that Aldrich would not have taken on alone in the past. But now, with additional levels and powers, the playing field was far more level.

Whether it was slanted towards Aldrich was something he wanted to figure out now. But first.

Aldrich raised his hand, pointing to the sky.

'Vexa. Cast [Kaleidoscope Cage]'.

'As you wish, my lord.' Vexa's cool, calm voice flowed into Aldrich's ear. He had not heard it for quite some time as she had been busy over in India preparing for the untimely demise of Aarav's father.

A plan which, according to her, was now very soon to mobilize with little to no hitches in sight. She was still in India but one of the most useful parts of her kit was that she could cast magic remotely using her butterflies.

Spectral butterflies of ghostly blue and lavender began to flock around the sky in a great big swarm that almost darkened the afternoon sun.

They were normally invisible, but if Vexa wanted to cast magic using them as a medium, she had to reveal them. They fluttered over the clearing, casting a giant shadow over it like a plague of locusts as they moved on over to the warehouse.

Soon, they would set into formation, creating a spherical barrier that would disable any teleportation within its boundary. An observer outside the barrier trying to look in would only see a lattice-shaped wall of dazzling colors much like a kaleidoscope, obscuring any vision looking in or out of the barrier.

It could also allow Vexa herself to use her Entomancy abilities to summon a variety of insectoid monsters within the barrier, and soon, the warehouse would come under attack from a literal swarm of freakish crawling critters.

They would be a competent distraction until Aldrich was done here.

"Interesting." Nico looked up at the skies grimly. "I know that can't be good. You're always full of tricks, Thanatos. Tricks that the rest of the world can't seem to decipher. But I won't get distracted."

He raised his hand towards Aldrich, coin lodged between his index finger and thumb, ready to flick it with deadly speeds again. "Because it doesn't matter how many pieces there are on the board.

Once I checkmate the king, the game ends."