The Villain's Story

Chapter 959: Bet.

A few hours prior, Alan made a bet with Alexander, it was quite a simple one. Alan argued that someone from Titan would approach them with a challenge of sorts, one likely related to the monster invasion.

It was extra points for Alan if Amanda Wells, who was a bright prospect of Titan, was the one who came with the challenge. In a drunken stupor, Alexander had agreed, and he had now lost.

Alan had been staying away from Daniel Park during his stay in Las Vegas, aware the man was also present, probably enjoying himself in a casino somewhere. With what Maxwell had told him, he expected Daniel to do something, or anything, even.

It was simply to amuse the guild master of Titan, and with how Amanda Wells was as a character, desperate to prove herself to the guild master, and a prideful person like her would definitely take the bait. Although, then again, she wasn’t exactly stupid.

“Twilight and Titan, both guilds compete to see who can get the most monsters?”

Alan smiled, and said.

“Quite a numerical advantage you have, no?”

Amanda smiled back in response, adding.

“Yes, but you are an SSS-rank, aren’t you? One that also has quite a peculiar domain.”

‘Oh, so the golden bastard wants to know what kind of domain I have… Or, it could just be her.’

Alan thought, as he simply agreed to the bet. He turned towards the monster wave, slowly approaching the city. Daniel was probably behind the bet, and not the ‘mention’ of Alan’s domain, The Jade Palace, Amanda was probably behind that one, simply eager to see a domain.

Alan hadn’t used the Jade Palace much on Earth, mainly to test out it’s compatibility with Twilight forces in a secure location, nonetheless, some information still got out, but the true strength of his domain was still an enigma to most.

To Daniel Park, the bet was probably a fun game, he most likely didn’t care if his guild lost or not, anything about Alan was appreciated. Although… Alan did wonder.

How would the world react if they found out he had more than one domain? Courtesy of his special existence. Although one of them was off-limits for now, he still had three he could use.

Obsidian Sanctum, The Jade Palace and Star Shadow Dance.

“I’ve heard many things about it, would be amazing to see it in action.”

She left after that, and Alan just stared at the monster wave as he chuckled. Alan had a certain goal during this expedition, and that was simple, abstain from using mana. Now that he didn’t have the ridiculous mana generation of a baby dragon, he was finding his reserves lacking. It was still an exceedingly great amount, but lacking compared to what Alan had grown used too.

He’d rather just stockpile mana, and opt to use another resource he had been itching to use, his Aura. Alan had made great improvements to his aura, so much more than his magic even. While his reserves of aura could not compare to his mana reserves… his usage of it had been upgraded by leaps and bounds.

Alan was itching to use Aura, and besides, everyone knew he had it, due to the fiasco in Gigantium. At that time, the discovery that he could use Aura had been sidelined by the literal planet, but anyone worth a damn in the world knew he had it.

He also used it quite a lot in physical bouts. Alan didn’t really care if they studied his aura more, aware that they would never be able to understand it. Even [Midas] wouldn’t offer much.

Alan stretched slightly, as he watched the monster wave approach. At first, he had thought of expelling his ‘existence’ to make them scared of him, but scratched that idea soon enough. Las Vegas quite literally depended on the monster waves. It was the major source of income for a lot. The monster materials were worth quite a fortune, after all.

He jumped down from the wall, much to the surprise of everyone and landed on the ground, gently. Sirens and shouts could be heard from the walls, as the people from Titan scrambled on their feet, as well as all the shoulders.

Alexander was there to calm the new recruits from Twilight, and Alan simply waved at them, throwing a wink at Amanda too, who was confused as to what he was doing. After all, jumping infront of possibly tens of thousands of monsters wasn’t a good idea.

The monsters were still far away, which was why the awakened were still up on the walls or descending through the elevators. Thankfully, this meant there was no one in between Alan and the horde.

He was sure many were looking at him, not out of confusion, but simply eager to see what he would do. There were many people affiliated with all sorts of organizations on top of the walls, each one more eager than the last to find out more about Alan Peccator.

Considering his nature as a Dragon, would he finally cast his infamous meteor and destroy a good chunk of the monsters, or use his dragon breath? Would they see him transform, or even use his domain?

Alan was sure many were anticipating his strange domain, but unfortunately, nothing they were waiting for would come, it would be something else. Something completely unrelated to magic.

His aura was special, much like all the others. Aura, although had affinities the same as mana, they had one other thing to their advantage as well. Special qualities, these were more common in aura users than mana users, and were a different kind of affinities related to concepts, or other things that differed from the elements, but were closely related to some of them.

Alan’s aura, for example, was of the space element, however, it also had another quality, one Alan had found out once he had gotten unsealed, once his god beast genes had fully unleashed.

His aura was sharp. It had ‘Sharpness’, that quality, which, when Alan further trained with it, evolved to so much more. Alan’s aura was sharp, incredibly sharp. If Alan used a tiny bit on himself, even if his body was strengthened, he would effortlessly cleave through his body. The level of his aura was not to be underestimated, not at all.

Alan took a deep breath, as he cut out all external stimuli, even the ones originating from the horde. A million vibrations, turned to none as Alan focused on his hands. His palms outstretched, Alan took another deep breath.

His mana focused around his dragon heart, some of it choosing to reside in the winter heart, as it made space for his aura. Simultaneously, his aura exploded out of his dantian and rushed to his hands. It was like a tide, a tsunami of ‘Sharpness’.

Thankfully, Alan had yet to actually ‘Shape’ his aura to allow it to be ‘Sharp’. If he didn’t control this part of his aura, he would find it slicing through his body from within… something Alan found hard to regenerate than usual.

Once his aura condensed in his hands, Alan opened his eyes, finding the silence to be amusing. The monster horde had stopped, much to awe of the awakened and city officials on the wall.

The monsters had stopped, and began to slowly step back. They were afraid of Alan, and the ‘aura’ he released.

“Hmm… Did I let some of it leak? Need to improve my control, I guess.”

He added, as he simply clapped his adds, a single word leaving his mouth, one carrying power, authority, desire, and Willpower.

Cleave.

His aura burst forth, invisible to most. Even those with enhanced observational skills would struggle to see even an afterimage. Alan had used the properties of spatial mana to conceal his aura, without diminishing it’s power.

Like a crescent wave, his aura exploded out towards the horde, and in a single second, it had cleaved through all of them. Monster carcasses, cut cleanly in the middle, dropped to the ground.

A total of forty three thousand seven hundred eighty eight monsters fell in a single second, without being able to put forth an ounce of resistance. A battle that would have taken a day, or even several with the amount of monsters was done in a single second.

The monsters with high defense stat? Obliterated. The ones that were smaller and more agile? Eviscerated. Not one had managed to escape, and Alan laughed, as he began walking in the air, through the aid of [Frostwalker] with a smile on his face, even some hints of boredom.

Yes, Alan wanted to show off, and he had done quite a stellar job at it.

A young man ought to show others he was capable, lest they keep questioning his authority, and annoy him even further.

But then again, Alan really did enjoy some of his tricks, a bit sad that Sabrina wasn’t here to see them. However, at the very least, people wouldn’t disregard him anymore so easily, afraid that what annihilated the monsters would come for them.

And when he stepped on the wall, Alan realized something.

‘…Wait, what would the winner get?’

He probably should have discussed that before…