[You have gained 25 experience points!]
[You have gained 100 experience points!]
[...]
And then the last person succumbs to their death.
The crowded and lively rooftop bar is now silent and deserted like an abandoned cemetery.
Blaze takes a sip from the glass of wine.
Sweet, bitter, and a little cold. Then a surge of gas builds up in the back of your throat, and the liquid leaves traces of burning everywhere it goes, straight down to your stomach.
It's like you are drinking fire in a way.
"Hah... That's heavy."
Blaze mumbles. He understands why people like drinking now.
[Mission: Kill Nadyr Brozovic.
Mission Detail: Nadyr Brozovic, an important link behind the Nocturnal Animals' superbeing-trafficking enterprise. He holds the information of Alyson's whereabouts.
1. Kill Nadyr Brozovic: Incomplete
2. (Optional) Save Alyson before it's too late: Completed
3. (Optional) Rescue all the girls he has been holding: 173 captives released
Mission reward:
1. Main reward: Superpower Blindbox (B-rank)
2. Sub reward: Consumables Blindbox (Rare)
3. Sub reward: (Unknown)]
[Third objective is completed exceptionally. Rewards will be calculated after mission completion.]
Blaze takes a look at the current mission. Apart from the original rewards, a third reward category has appeared.
This probably comes from him rescuing all those girls.
He saves them out of the goodness of his heart, but he does have his own agenda as well. Saving them increases the optional objective completion and can help him acquire more rewards.
That is the truth, and he won't be a hypocrite about it.
The Lantern materializes in Blaze's hand. He puts it on the table.
The yellow fire inside it is burning intensely. Screams of all the trapped souls leak to the outside, causing Nadyr to feel a cold touch run down his spine.
He looks at the Lantern, faces of all his henchmen show up one by one. He recognizes them all.
They are burned and in unimaginable pain. A fate worse than death. Mercy now is to let their soul perish without any more suffering.
A sentence Nadyr now finds too far to reach.
Then yellow energy pours out from all the corpses on the roof. Each materializes into a small fireball and flies into the Lantern.
They enter the Lantern one by one. Blaze welcomes them to their new prison and soon to be slaughterhouse of souls.
He will sooner or later eat them all if they are of no use to him.
"It's the end of the line now, Nadyr."
Blaze turns to the Boss of the Roof.
"Do you have any last words?"
Nadyr lifts his head up and observes the clear blue sky one last time.
The white clouds slowly drift. Wind blows gently on his face. The sunlight covers him, bathing him in the air of the living for one last time.
The sky is so pure, in complete contrast to the scene on top of the building.
Blood covers the floor of the rooftop bar. The smell of death fills the air. Souls flying all around.
Depravity drenches Nadyr's soul. He is now too small, too filthy to even reach his hand out of this mud and touch the sky.
He was nothing special, only a foot soldier in the Steel Legion.
Nadyr was poor, but he was not that bad. He once knew no evil, no obscenity, and no crimes.
But he chose a different path on that day. A path that led him to utter destruction.
Nadyr sighs. He knows he is too far gone. He doesn't deserve to have any last words.
"I have nothing to say. Go ahead."
Blaze raises his palm, aiming directly at Nadyr's head.
A blue shockwave blasts out. It crushes Nadyr's skull into a million pieces. Blood spatters on the couch, and his lifeless body falls like a puppet.
Nadyr Brozovic is now dead.
[You have gained 250 experience points!]
[Mission accomplished!]
[Congratulations, you have received 1x Superpower Blindbox (B-rank), 1x Consumables Blindbox (Rare)]
[Optional objective completion: 346%]
[Calculating additional rewards...]
[Congratulations, you have received 1x Equipment Expansion Kit (Uncommon), 1x Equipment Enhancement Kit (Uncommon), 1x Equipment Booster Kit (Rare)]
[Your reward is delivered to Inventory]
[Equipment Expansion Kit (Uncommon): Your uncommon or lower rank equipment may awaken another Hidden Power.]
[Equipment Enhancement Kit (Uncommon): You may upgrade a Hidden Power of one of your uncommon or lower rank equipment.]
[Equipment Booster Kit (Rare): You may increase the rank of one of your Equipment to Rare.]
[INVENTORY]
1. x27 Matchsticks
2. Mind Potion (2/3 Full)
3. Sun Bird
4. Superpower Blindbox (B-rank)
5. Consumables Blindbox (Rare)
6. Equipment Expansion Kit
7. Equipment Enhancement Kit
8. Equipment Booster (Rare)
9. (Empty)
"That's a lot. My work pays off in the end."
Blaze mumbles, his voice barely audible to the surrounding air. He extends his hand out to pull Nadyr's soul out of his mortal flesh and places it in front of him.
Blaze's eyes then radiate a yellow shade, two beams of light shoot out and touch Nadyr's soul, examining his memory.
The man fascinates Blaze to an extent. It is obvious that Blaze is here to kill them all.
But the man still tries to reason or find a way out of this without putting up a proper fight.
This is odd. The Roof is no pacifist church. This place is a godforsaken human-trafficking hellhole that has been holding all the poor captives against their will.
Nadyr was no gentle being either. Scenes of him hurting others are not rare in William's memory.
But he completely crumbles in front of Blaze, in front of upcoming, unavoidable death.
Blaze wants to know what causes him to be so weak.
And then the memory starts playing. Everything Nadyr has experienced shows up in Blaze's mind like a sped-up movie.
He grabs his fictional popcorn and watches the whole thing.
Nadyr's family was poor. He grew up in a nasty neighborhood with only a single mother by his side, kind of similar to Blaze to an extent.
He did not have most of the necessities like other people. Having a full belly was too much to ask and a blessing of the entire month.
He did not have enough clothes to feel warm in the winter. The cold ate him from the inside out.
The only thing Nadyr could do was work out. That made him less cold.
This helped him to have a strong physique since a young age, making him a menace and natural bully of the hood.
But his bullying was limited. He only did it to acquire enough money to eat or have a coat to wear.
It didn't originate from evil but survival.
Childhood years went out like a breeze for Nadyr, and high school also. He had to see his sweetheart crush being with a more handsome and more gentle boy at prom.
This was, however, not the catalyst of his downfall.
Nadyr then went to the Steel Legion after he finished high school, the organization that was created and controlled by the Institution of Order.
It was when he was there, on one fateful day, that his entire life changed and his heart was corrupted by depravity and the Void.