Agent Ryker watched the [negotiation] in shock. As promised, Kaze lured their mark out in the open, and she was far more powerful than anyone expected.
While Kaze toyed with her, the woman waved her hand in her human form, and a massive residential building crashed to the ground.
More bewildering, the massive cat negotiated and calmed down with dialogue alone.
It was prophetic enough for the man to expect foul play; however, he didn't have time to think about that because the two disappeared.
Two streaks ran across the skycruiser's cameras as Kaze ran at lightning speed, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, and Crux followed him in her cute green frog hoodie.
"Follow them!" Agent Ryker snapped at the pilot, who was still frozen from everything he had watched.
The pilot immediately snapped into focus and moved forward to prevent losing them.
"How can't you catch me?" Kaze laughed, jumping to another building's rooftop.
"I can!" Crux snapped, "I just can't run that fast without…."
Her face turned bright red as she jumped to another building, pulling the hoodie against her thighs. She wasn't wearing anything underneath it!
Storage rings and earrings use soul Qi to link a physical storage space in a set location for the user to access.
Since she was on the Mortal Plane, the link was too far away, and she didn't have any of her items.
Thus, she didn't have spare clothing and refused to show her naked royal body to anyone, least of all the insignificant beings who were sickly and short for this world.
"Without what?" Kaze laughed, jumping onto a tall building that required full-body power to reach.
"You're a gnat!" Crux snapped.
"That's quite the compliment." He laughed heartedly, "This is probably the first time a royal divine beast chased around a gnat!"
Her face flushed bright red to the tip of her ears, and her amethyst eyes glowed.
Without thinking, she ran at ghostly speed and jumped, closing the gap in distance and reaching his height simultaneously.
It was a remarkable feat. However, the G force from falling with such high kinetic energy caused the hoodie to fly off her body.
Instead of grabbing Kaze's throat, as planned, she hopped off the roof to catch the bright green hoodie in the air.
Demonstrating the hundreds of years of experience she had developed as a royal warrior, she grabbed it, pulled it over her body, and landed on another building in one motion.
To the skycruiser's cameras and normal humans, there was a green streak, a porcelain streak, and then another green streak.
They wouldn't even catch the woman's cat ears or tail until the lucky video reviewer played back the video footage in slow motion.
Kaze stopped running and laughed his ass off. "If you stay on Earth, there's all sorts of cute clothing. The variety is remarkable here."
"I don't want this cheap garb!" Crux yelled from the lower building with a bright red face, "I don't have my clothing!
This strange outfit is easy to get in and out of, so I don't have to find new clothing every time I transform!"
"That is a practical argument." Kaze laughed, "Or it would be if the desperation written on your face didn't clearly show your attachment to it!"
"I hate you!" Crux yelled in shame. She hadn't known such humiliation in centuries.
It wouldn't bother her if she [could] kill him, but she knew better. She wasn't even in the same league as the individual.
If it weren't for Kaze's soul corruption, she'd give up any hope of surviving an encounter with him, let alone killing him. She was painfully aware of his strength, and that was the problem!
The emperor was mocking her like a child, and she couldn't even complain about it!
It was the worst.
p
Crux turned bright red again, this time more aggressively. It hadn't been fifteen seconds, and the mocking had returned. And, once again, she deserved it.
She was faster than he was; that wouldn't help her fight him, but it shouldn't have been in dispute.
Kaze baited her into a jest-fest to ridicule her, and she fell into his trap.
"You're such a jerk…." Crux whispered before falling silent, flying to the rooftop with her hands holding the hoodie against her thighs.
The shadow cat pulled the hood over her head tightly when she walked up to the grinning emperor. "I feel like a child around you."
"I am rather old." Kaze chuckled.
"But you look like a child." Crux scoffed bitterly.
"Fair." He smiled, "Do you see that bridge?"
The large drawbridge spanned over 1,000 feet across a river that led into the ocean. It had six lanes on each side and currently has over a thousand cars and shuttles gridlocked on it.
It was the only way to get from one end to the other. So there were thousands of people walking across it, only to find a massive riot on the other end.
She looked at it blankly. "Yes?"
"That's Manrock Bridge." Kaze explained, "It's a major economic staple required to move survivors to the Lainwright Military Base Settlement a month from now.
I'd like help clearing it of vehicles and wreckage. I can deal with separating the healthy from the sick and foolish."
"So just… pushing everything into the water?" Crux asked straightly.
"Correct. The bridge must remain intact; we cannot destroy it at any cost." He confirmed, "There's not a specific time limit either, so there's no need to rush."
While he was spinning his action as a gift to the government, he was actually doing it for his upcoming objective—seizing the military base settlement before the next stage.
With the cultivation techniques he provided and clearing the bridge, he hoped the military would expedite its settlement development.
If he could harvest ten thousand people when he conquered the base.
Crux looked at him strangely. "My techniques are primarily destructive, whereas yours are multi-purposed.
If you did it alone, you'd finish faster than if I helped you. So why wouldn't you give me the task I'd do easily?"
"So you can improve your reputation by solving one of the military's major issues, of course." Kaze smiled, "Besides, it's not a matter of capability.
You're equally capable, just slower. Yet you're seeking more time with me, are you not?"
Crux glided her eyes back to the bridge with a strained expression. He was giving her time to take the question of staying with him seriously.
It made the situation feel real, not a delusion driven by her dreams.
"I'll help you." She whispered, taking flight again, "Let's go."
The two flew into the distance toward the bridge.
Agent Ryker watched the scene in horror. Manrock Bridge was an economic and communications lifeline for Meridian City.
While it was unusable at present, they were actively on site, preparing to retake it. They would clear it by week's end, even if it required them to kill everyone present. It was that important.
So watching the two fly toward it was a serious military threat.
However—
"Are you watching the live feed?" Agent Ryker asked over a comset.
"Yes." General Michaels cringed on the other end.
"What would you like us to do?" The agent asked.
The general sighed. "Nothing."
"Nothing?" Agent Ryker asked in surprise.
"Yes, nothing." General Michaels snapped, "I doubt Mr. Lexicon would leave his faction unattended and attack us in the open.
Even if he did, what could we do about it? If the bridge falls today, it falls.
That said, if they wanted to attack it, it already would have.
That's why we should trust his intentions, as doing otherwise while he aids us will be a slight to our treaty."
Agent Ryker dry-swallowed nervously. "I get that, but shouldn't we prepare to mobilize in retaliation?"
"Do you not think we have forces and resources on standby for that?" General Michaels asked dryly, "It's been that way since the beginning. Now be quiet and do nothing."
"Yes, sir." The agent replied, watching the screens.
Kaze and Crux flew to the edge of the drawbridge. He continued upward, but she stopped, unwilling to let thousands of yelling people look up at the hoodie.
"Let us out! This bridge is the only way to the other end!"
"Fuck you! I'll rip your eyes out!"
"GET BACK!" A soldier yelled, shooting warning shots in the air.
Pandemonium had broken out in the area, with thousands of people yelling or screaming at military personnel that had created concrete barricades.
The military didn't want thousands of rioting people flooding the area, which was being set up for the clear-out operation to retake the bridge.
Hundreds of military tents and humvees were on the other end, with hundreds of soldiers wielding fully automatic machine guns pointing at the bridge area.
One could differentiate the sick from the healthy from the content of the yelling.
The healthy were yelling to get past, pleading for their families, or asking to return. It was the only way to reach the other side, so people were genuinely desperate to get to their children.
By contrast, the sick were yelling for any reason available.
They were pressed up against their barricades in the middle without concern for getting across. Either that or they were standing on vehicles and shuttles, trying to find objects to throw.
"Do it!" A soldier yelled.
Three soldiers opened fire on a group of people, killing them on sight. The healthy screamed in fear and pushed backward.
Unfortunately, the sick charged forward, sweeping them back toward the barricade.
Dozens of healthy people watched in horror as they got pushed toward the death site.
A booming voice ripped through the area just before they reached the ever-stacking pile of dead bodies.
"Enough!" The emperor yelled fifty feet above the swarms of rioters, desperate people, and military personnel.
"In 20 minutes, every person shall be cleared from this bridge. If you seek life, I suggest you listen!"
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