One block away from the building Scarlet is in
A couple hours later
At first, she was just a part of a contract. He was asked to bring her to an orphanage of his own creation in return for permission to set up his own Association.
But after a few years, she began to grow on him. Her more than any of the other orphans in the orphanage he had set up as a cover for the contract. And by the time she got old enough to argue with him? To question him on his inventions? He couldn’t help but admit that he was starting to care for her as he did his own daughter.
Of course, it didn’t hurt that Scarlet was quickly becoming best buds with his actual daughter. So when Allen heard that there was a Fracture near the orphanage several years back, he didn’t hesitate to drop everything and rush over to the city from the capital – arriving there in less than half an hour thanks to one of his skills. Only to find that he had overreacted, and the kids weren’t even in the Fracture.
But now she’s in actual danger. Now she’s in a Fracture.
This thought echoes through Cipher’s mind as he throws a punch straight at the core of the Class II Fracture, bolts of electricity created by nanomachines wrapping around his fist in the process before the core shatters in a matter of seconds. He then sends a wave of flames through the room, torching alive all of the demons in it including the level 250 Demon Commander in charge of the Class II Fracture.
Without a hint of hesitation, Cipher rushes out of the room, all of the demons in the building beginning to lose their connection to the world of Earth now that the core is gone. And by the time the Guardian gets to the front door of the building, every last demon is gone from it, already sent back to their home world of Tartarus, with the shield automatically coming down around the building now that they’re gone.
Cipher summons his magi-tech, skill enhanced hover pack and breaks the sound barrier as he bursts through the air in the direction of his company building, ignoring the shocked looks he’s getting along the way from the few people still on the streets. He then lands on the ground right in front of the main doors, spreads his hands, and lets a large stream of nanomachines fly out to surround the entire building as his eyes close.
If there were any people near this building, they would see his eyes constantly moving beneath his eyelids as he uses the nanomachines to get a layout of every floor in terms of both people and demons. But once the nanomachines reach the twenty-sixth floor, he pauses, his mouth parting open slightly as they find something rather surprising.
His eyes open and a scowl appears on his face.
She signed a contract.
He listens in on the conversations held by the people in the room, which amount to about ten, two of which are armed with his own pulse rifles. And after just a few minutes of listening, he understands what happened, his focus briefly shifting to the dead demon knight located in the middle of the shield in the experimental field.
That damned idiot! Of all the foolish, moronic, and arrogant things you could’ve done and have ever done in your life, this takes the fucking cake!
Despite his thoughts, the man doesn’t hesitate to have his nanomachines scan her body from outside of the building. And what he finds is that she isn’t in critical condition, only with a very light wound to her stomach and a very strange and seemingly impossible – possibly already partially healed? – wound on her arm, along with the crossbow bolt lying next to her unconscious form.
He lets out a sigh of relief at that before his scowl grows even larger, this time more out of anger directed towards her recklessness than anything else. Anger that he quickly begins to dish out towards all of the demons on the first floor the moment he steps inside, incinerating every last one of them with ease.
Considering who told me to create and orphanage and bring her to it in the first place, it’s not surprising that she was chosen for a contract. But the sheer recklessness of fighting – and somehow defeating – a demon knight in the very same Fracture you contracted in is mind boggling.
Cipher doesn’t even pay attention as he simply goes from floor to floor, incinerating the demons while not touching any of the humans – the Class I demons not being anything more than simple bugs in the face of his power.
Maybe this will teach her not to be so reckless. First it’s trying to teach other orphan’s bullies a lesson when they were twice her size by filling their lockers full of worms – Tartarus knows where she got them – then it was trying to negotiate with the fucking board of education for the ability to apply for Tier 1 Universities. And now it’s taking on demon knights while only being a newly contracted Guardian?!
As the man’s irritation rises, so does the death count of the demons he kills through the floors. All the way until he reaches the sixth floor and finds the core situated there with a level 100 Demon Captain guarding it, along with two level 75 demon knights stationed next to the core. But none of them so much as slow the man down as he simply walks in, turns each of them into barbecue, then grabs and shatters the core in his bare palm.
Space begins to warp around them ever so slightly before stabilizing again as the demons filling the building all begin to fade away, each being sent back to Tartarus with regret. Meanwhile all of the humans in the building let out cheers of excitement, relief, and pure joy as the man saves their lives while simply taking out his irritation on the core and the demons.
Cipher doesn’t even stop moving after dealing with the demon core. He just continues walking up the stairs in his path towards the twenty-sixth floor, not even bothering with answering the calls he is getting from Sage and the other Guardians of his Association now that the Fracture has been dealt with.
But as he is stepping onto the eleventh floor, he pauses as he sees through his nanomachines the very source of his current stress, anger, and anxiety waking up.
Then his eyes narrow as he sees the faint smile that makes its way across her face, likely at seeing the System’s message of her killing a demon knight, and whatever achievements that comes along with at her level. Which are most likely quite a lot.
Of course, she doesn’t regret it. Because all the System is going to do is reward her for it.
And so, the man’s irritation rises again as he continues climbing the stairs to go meet his wayward ward.