BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER SYSTEM

Erik stepped out of the elevator reached the fourth floor.

He navigated the hallway, but it took little time before he reached the room where Lyria should have been.

With a deep breath, he pushed the door open and stepped inside.

The room greeted him with a stillness, punctuated only by the faint rustling of papers, like leaves in a gentle breeze.

Lyria, seated behind her desk, was engrossed in her work until his entrance. As she looked up, her expression shifted.

Her eyes widened in surprise. The appearance of a Blackguard, particularly someone as infamous as Quakestrike, evoked intense primal emotions in her, as she knew him well.

"Why are you here?" Lyria's voice, usually composed, wavered slightly.

"I came to ask you some questions."

"Questions? Couldn't you ask Momentum?"

By knowing how Quakestrike would have reacted if someone he deemed beneath him replied like that, Erik replied with a threat.

"You should know what happens if you talk like this to a Blackguard. Right?"

Lyria shivered, and reluctance appeared on her face. "I'm sorry, sir. How can I assist you?"

"I need to know more about our target." Erik's voice was steady, threatening even.

Lyria leaned back in her chair, her gaze analyzing the man before her. She found it weird for someone like Quakestrike, who tried to hunt Erik alone, to ask a question like those.

He had never been someone keen on asking quest details, especially considering he thought he would never lose in a battle. However, her reply didn't come late.

"Erik Kay… he is cunning. You all got surprised by the fact someone barely 20 years old was able to battle against you all at the same time. However, that didn't surprise me in the slightest. If there is something he can do that terrifies me, is his ability to go everywhere he wants without no one noticing."

Quakestrike shifted, the armor creaking slightly. "Does he have any vulnerabilities? Relationships we could exploit?" Erik asked.

To those words, Lyria's eyes narrowed.

"He's close to the Fierce Lioness's daughter. But surely, you know, tangling with her daughter could stir a hornet's nest. The Fierce Lioness isn't someone you should cross lightly."

The Fierce Lioness's guild was on another level compared to the other mercenary guilds, to the point they were as strong as the blackguards, but with less influence and people on their side.

"We are already have problems keeping her at bay. Such a provocation may warrant a war, and you should know she doesn't like the Blackguards a lot."

<Umm? This is pretty useful. I may take advantage of this…>

He nodded slowly. "Thank you, Lyria." As he spoke, Lyria's gaze lingered on him, her eyes betraying a flicker of confusion.

Then a wave of panic swept across her features. Quakestrike was known for his unpredictability, a trait that now seemed to loom large in the room.

Her face contorted because of apprehension. Her eyes darted nervously, reflecting a mind racing with thoughts of what this unpredictable man might do next.

"Sir, you surely aren't considering..." Lyria's voice trailed off, the fear clear.

"What might I be considering?" He smirked, the corners of his mouth turning up in a way that almost reached his eyes.

Closing the gap between them, Erik moved closer to Lyria. She shuddered, visibly scared by his proximity.

Erik then lifted his helmet off. When he took off the helmet, Lyria saw that the man underneath bore no resemblance to Quakestrike.

As the woman gazed upon his unveiled face, a surge of fear, even greater than that she had for Quakestrike, engulfed her.

Her eyes widened in alarm, while her pupils dilated in response to the adrenaline now coursing through her veins.

"You!"

"Surprised?"

Erik's tone was nonchalant, almost playful. "How did you—?"

Her voice caught as she pieced it together. "You killed Quakestrike!"

"That's right. Is that a problem?"

"The Blackguards won't let this slide," Lyria said, trying to muster a threatening tone.

Erik laughed, a cold, humorless sound. "I've already faced some of them and killed some. Do you really think I fear them?"

As Lyria edged away, Erik's grin widened, a predatory gleam in his eyes.

"Planning to run?"

"It seems prudent to at least try…" Lyria said.

"I wouldn't if I were you."

The woman looked Erik in the eyes. She knew why he came here for, but still voiced her questions.

"What do you want from me?"

"I just need to know if you were the one who told the Blackguards about me," Erik said.

"I assumed you knew that already."

"I wanted to hear it from you. Yes or no?"

"Why does it matter?" Lyria said.

Lyria's and Erik's relationship had been purely professional, devoid of personal ties. She found it weird for him to ask that question.

"I work for the mercenary guild, and the guild serves them. That was all the reason I needed. We were nothing more than colleagues. Why would I risk my position… no, my life, for you?"

Erik held her gaze, searching for something hidden beneath the surface. He saw fear, but also a spark of defiance, a subtle challenge in the depths of her eyes.

The room seemed to shrink around them, or at least that was for Lyria.

"What about the guild? What did you do to them?" Erik asked. It was clear he was worried about his friends and comrades.

"They told you nothing?"

"Just that you tried suppressing them," Erik said.

"That's a simple way to say we did everything we could to make your guild go bankrupt."

Lyria said that truthfully. She knew lying or trying to underplay what they did was only going to be more dangerous.

"You tried to prevent them from taking quests, but they got private ones. You tried preventing them from selling our products, but they ended up on the Blackmarket."

"And then they fled the city when we directly tried to get your brain stimulating serum's formula," Lyria added. "Yeah. You got smart people under your guild's banner. Congratulation." Erik smiled.

"The question is, will you be able to protect them once the Blackguards will start actively hunting them?"

Erik confidently looked at the woman. "They don't need my protection anymore."

The woman looked into Erik's eyes. There was no shred of doubt in his gaze.

"You may be strong enough to fight the blackguards, but your people aren't."

"I'm confident they will be soon. Besides, I have some ideas to strengthen them in a short amount of time."

Then silence ensued. Slowly, Lyria went to her desk. There was a communication device there, Erik noticed it as soon as he entered.

"What are you planning to do now?"

She asked while walking backward, hoping to take the device and contact Momentum.

The woman clicked the button to start the call, but she realized the device wasn't working.

Fear and panic surged through her at unprecedented speed.

"You wanted to know how I was able to get everywhere I wanted. That's your explanation."

Erik looked at the device Lyria was trying to activate.

The woman picked up the device and looked at it. It was still off. "How can you control it like this?"

"Doesn't the blackguards know I have many powers? What difference can an additional one make?"

"So, that was it? One of your powers allows you to control electrical devices?"

Erik nodded. "You could say it like that…"

"Piece of…"

"Listen, now that I've done everything I had to do, I think we can wrap things up, don't you agree?"

Lyria's fear manifested in an array of physical reactions. Beads of sweat formed on her forehead, the product of her escalating anxiety.

"You came here just to… ask those stupid questions and then… what?"

They trickled down her temples, leaving faint, glistening trails on her skin. Her hands, once steady and confident, now trembled slightly, betraying her composure.

She clasped them together, perhaps in a subconscious effort to still their shaking, but the tremors persisted, small yet telling.

"I came here to look at you in the eyes while killing you. The questions were just for amusement."

Lyria's breathing became shallow and uneven, each inhale shorter than the last, as if she were struggling to find air in a constricting space.

Her eyes darted around the room, seeking an escape that wasn't there.

The muscles in her neck tensed visibly, and every so often, she swallowed hard, an attempt to compose herself that only highlighted her growing distress.

Despite her efforts to maintain a facade of defiance, these involuntary reactions painted a clear picture of her inner turmoil.

It was then that she started begging. "Please, I will do anything you want. Let me go."

"You had your chance, Lyria. The Blackguards' dominion is going to end soon, and mine will be the scythe claiming their heads."

"No, please, n—!"

In a mere fraction of a second, Erik drew his Flyssa, the blade gleaming with a cold, merciless light.

The unmistakable sound of steel cutting through the air echoed inside the room. With a fluid motion, Erik brought the Flyssa down in a swift arc.

The blade met Lyria's neck with a chilling efficiency, severing it from her body.

The suddenness of the act left no time for screams or more pleas, only the finality of a life cut off.

Blood spurted from the wound in a gruesome spectacle, painting the walls and floor in a stark crimson hue.

Lyria's body slumped to the ground, an inert reminder of the brutal reality they had both been part of.

Her head lay a short distance away, her eyes wide open in a final, unseeing gaze.

The silence that followed was heavy, filled with the weight of the deed just committed.

It was at that moment that he picked up his phone and called June.

"Master!" the clone said to the phone. "Are you done with your task?"

"Yes. I'm coming there. Wait for me. We are going to leave the city as soon as I get there."