How I Became the Strongest Sovereign

I walked out of the Hospital and saw the same Elven Guards, who found me in the safe zone. This time they seemed to be lesser in number and only about 6 of them sat outside waiting for me. 

The leader stood up when he spotted me and greeted me straight away.

"Good afternoon A rank Hunter Zeref Amara." He saluted me, showing respect and the others did the same, "I hope you've had a good rest at our best hospital."

"Can we please proceed with the report? I have things to do." I said.

"Of course Young Sir…" The Elf leader proceeded to ask me a couple things about what had happened on that day. He pulled out a clipboard and a pen.

"How many demons were there exactly and where did the elven patrol unit go? There was a report that they were escorting you."

"They were all killed by a high ranking demon. He was probably a duke or marquis; I don't know the power rankings that well." I replied, neglecting the part that It was I who killed the patrol unit.

"And you managed to survive? Against a demon?" He retorted, sarcastically.

"Please don't underestimate me." I smiled, sending a shiver down his spine.

"And this demon, what kind of magic did he use?"

"He used darkness magic and Necromancy."

"Necromancy?!" His voice peaked at surprise.

"So you're telling me you fought an army of undead soldiers created by a necromancer all by yourself and lived to tell the tale?" He sounded unimpressed by the story I was selling.

I cackled some lightning on my palm, making his face go pale.

"I'm a lightning mage."           

"That explains plenty."He sighed, taking notes on his clipboard.

"Anyways, that's what happened. You can choose to believe it or not I'm leaving. Sorry but I have important matters to attend to."

"Please wait, the Elven Military seemed very interested in your short swords. Where did you get them? We're willing to pay any price for them." The man gave an awkward laugh before stopping and realising I was in no mood for games.

"They're not for sale." I said walking past them.

'Those greedy bastards.' Voadhailis scoffed in my head.

"Take care young hunter." The man said, looking back at me as I walked towards the gates.

Time to get back the bank's sh*t…

**

I sneaked up in the bushes and analysed the situation. There were at least 500 personnel on the piece of land. They all wore a maroon coloured robe with Umbra's Black skull Logo on the back.

They managed to build a large facility in a matter of weeks. Guards stood waiting outside the 50 metre by 50 metre building and there were guards on the inside too.

'So what's the plan? Are we attacking head on or going in, stealth mode?' Voadhailis asked in my head.'

'There are definitely researchers or important people in there. They could escape If I cause a commotion. I'll break in there and capture a couple of them.' I replied.

Putting on my assassin clothing I creeped towards the nearest guard. I hid my mana presence, scent, sound, everything, becoming one with my surroundings. 

The S grade Assassin Class Clothes I bought were light and stuck to my body like spandex. It had a camouflage feature that ran on capsules that I kept charged with Lightning mana.

Crack!

I swiftly broke the guard's neck, grabbing his keys and other equipment and burning them to dust.

I had to do something about the watchtowers, Guards were meant to watch for intruders from the towers but it turned out that most of them were busy sleeping or half drunk - perfect for easy kills. 

There were 4 towers in total, I had to swiftly kill the watchmen without raising suspicions.

I zigzagged across the field, before running up one of the towers. As expected both of the watchmen were asleep but in quite a weird way. Why were they spooning?

I shook my head, before breaking their necks. 3 more to go…

Crack.

I broke the last one's neck and put his weapons in my dimension ring to sell to the black market later.

Sitting down next to the dead bodies I deactivated the Assassin's suit and closed my eyes. I expanded my vision using my sixth sense and scanned the vicinity.

A total of 400 armed men were inside the facility and 100 outside; the fastest way into the laboratory, where the scientists were situated, was from the roof.

There were around 20 men on the roof but over half were asleep.

I opened my eyes, getting ready to execute my plan. Activating the Assassin clothes' camouflage effect, I sneaked past a couple guards. 

Perfect.

I levitated up using Gravity magic and made it to the roof, soundlessly. I zigzagged around rapidly snapping their necks 360 degrees. This was the best way to kill them without making a mess, especially as it didn't make too much noise.

Now that all of them were taken care of I switched to my Hunter's attire and cracked my neck left and right, before punching down at the floor beneath me.

BOOM!

The ceiling shattered and pieces of rubble rained down. About half of the scientists were dead and the others were protected by one of them putting up some sort of magic dome.

I descended from the sky to their level. Some of them cowered behind the mage, who put up the protection dome.

"We're under attack!" I could hear the soldiers reaching the research lab already.

"Who are you?" The mage asked, backing out his wand and pointing it at me.

Wands were magical objects that helped to cast spells and amplify their effects. Battle mages like me looked down on them but scholar mages (Mages that used Magic for research purposes) used them a lot.

"I'll ask the questions." I smiled, flash stepping in front of him and ripping his heart out.

"Aaaarghhhhh!!!" The rest of the scientists screamed in fear and tried to run but I froze them in place with 'Gravity Zone.'

I crushed the still beating heart in my hand before wiping my hands clean with the dead mage's white lab coat.

I released my mana pressure and killing intent, making some of them pass out and others piss their pants. That should be enough to scare them a little.

Removing 'Gravity Zone', I walked past them and took a seat on top of a boulder, made of broken concrete.

"If you people cherish your lives you will not move from your spots." I pulled out an apple from my dimension ring and bit into it.

"The intruder is there! Get him! It's only one guy." The Umbra soldiers finally appeared from all angles. 

"Just in time. Here hold my apple." I smiled before handing my apple to one of the female researchers. She was quite pretty but it was sad she was part of those Umbra scum.

'They seem to be all battle hardened mages. At least at D rank or higher.' Voadhailis warned before going back to sleep.

'Nothing I can't take care of.'

Since my awakening, from the hospital he seemed to sleep a lot and absorb more and more MP from my mana pool.

'Voadhailis, Cambio Forma.'

The two short swords materialised around my hands; they vibrated with bursts of mana like they were itching to cause havoc. I glanced back at the scientists, before casting some spells.

'Lightning Aura.'

'Purgatory.'

I danced around weaving through the hundreds of soldiers flinging body parts everywhere. These guys were strong and experienced but they were unable to harm me, no matter their numbers.

I sliced horizontally causing a burning orange flame to cut through a dozen of them. Seeing the sight of dead bodies everywhere, some of the Umbra soldiers started to flee, running away.

"Run! He's a monster!" They started to scream.

"Hehehehe. Where are you running? The party isn't over yet." I cackled, flash stepping towards them severing their limbs and heads. It took me a couple seconds before they were all dead.

I glanced back at the researchers, making them shiver in fear. They all closed their eyes and got on their knees.

"Please spare us! Please!" They begged. 

I walked past their shivering bodies and sat at my original spot. The 2 short swords in my hands dematerialised and vanished into mana particles. 

"You. My apple." I gestured to the woman. She wept, handing over my apple.

"Give me one good reason as to why I should spare your lives. First, you come here and take over my land unauthorised. Second, you experiment on the lives of innocent people and elves and third you dare to threaten my friends' safety.

"Do you really think you deserve to live?" I glared at them all momentarily, making them quiet down.

"We didn't want to do this. Umbra forced us!"

"Yeah! He's right. We didn't want to harm those poor souls. Please let us go." Some of them pleaded but I made them stop by raising my hands.

"How about this, since I'm feeling generous I will count to 30. You have 2 choices, you can either choose to run during the countdown or choose to stay kneeling in front of me. Those of you who choose to stay will have to gamble. Will I kill you or not, who knows."

"Wait wh-" One of them whispered in confusion.

"1…2…" I started counting, continuing to bite my apple. All of them ran except 3 of the women, they stood sitting in front of me.

"Skip a few, 29 and... 30. Ready or not, here I come..." I smiled, clicking my fingers.

BOOM!

A loud thunderclap made the 3 women cower in fear covering their ears. Several thunderbolts struck down at the running researchers. Their bodies turned to black dust and stained the floors. 

"Now that there are only 3 of you left, I'm willing to reconsider killing you. I will ask you several questions and If I think you're lying you'll all meet the same fate. Is that clear?"

They nodded in understanding, knowing there was still hope.

"First question: Why shouldn't I kill you?" 

"Please spare me, I'm still young. I was forced to do this." One of them pleaded.

"I still want to do so many things. I will do anything you want, I beg you let me live." The other one pleaded. 

I was curious at why the old woman at the back hadn't said anything. 

"Don't stain your hands young one by killing 1 and a half lives. It will haunt you forever; this life inside of me hasn't even seen the world yet. You must have a heart! Why are you doing this?!" She yelled.

That one struck a chord.

'Voad, is she lying?'

'Firstly, don't give me nicknames and secondly No. She's telling the truth, I sense a small life form growing inside of her Uterus. I can confirm she's carrying a child. It's up to you if you want to kill her.' he replied before going back to absorbing my mana.

"Tell me more about Umbra's schemes and research. Fake mages, Anything about Umbra's plans etc." my voice was much calmer and gentle now and they relaxed a little too.

"I'm a high ranking researcher so I know more about this than them." The old woman began. 

"Umbra is a filthy and corrupted organisation but I'm sure you already knew that. They forced me to work for them, first experimenting on magical beasts then on humans.

"I remember some time ago there were rumours among the senior workers that Umbra made a deal with some powerful demons. Some top Umbra researchers experimented on the demons and gained insights into how their bodies and mana pools worked. 

"As you know demons don't awaken branched elements like humans. They only awaken pure elements. Umbra researchers were able to find a way to replicate their mana pools and create Fake mages. 

"We turned normal soldiers into fake mages with enhanced magical abilities. However, this cut their regular life span down by over 90%. The first subjects survived a few days before dying. Now they can survive up to a couple months."

Her words weren't wrong. I knew a little about fake mages from my encounter with the Darkness Fake Mage back in the Forest. He said he had a couple years to live, whilst she was telling me their research only allowed them to live a couple months. 

Assuming the worst possible scenario, at the rate they were improving their Fake mages; Umbra would soon successfully create fake mages that could even rival regular mages. 

If they built an army of fake mages, it could be troublesome. I didn't care about the Vrimeon Kingdom or The elven Kingdom, but my family's safety was a different matter.

I didn't have a loyal army like the Shadow Candidate or Shadow Monarch. I only had myself - a one man army. Therefore, I had to get stronger.

"Mmh, I see, so what did the demons get back exactly in return for such valuable information?" I asked throwing the leftover apple on the ground.

"I heard rumours that Umbra handed over something that would mess with the Anti - Demon Barrier of the Elven Kingdom. That's probably how they got in but everyone's told me that the demons still failed their ambush and retreated." The other girl spoke up eagerly.

"Okay I have my answers you all can leave. If I ever see you again working with such shitty organisations, I'll bite you to death." I glared at them, before exiting the building.

They didn't say a word either and dispersed. 

'Grande Sole'

I levitated up 100 metres up into the air and pointed my index finger up. Slowly a ball of flames started to grow until it was at least 50 metres in circumference. The intense heat made clouds disappear and life forms under me started to burn.

I pointed down at the Umbra research facility and the giant ball of flames began to descend and collide with the large building.

BOOM!!

The explosions shook the atmosphere and Ground. All life forms within a kilometre radius disintegrated and burned to ashes. A large hole crater formed under me, where the facility once was.

That was one of our lands taken care of. Earth Element mages would easily turn this piece of land back to its luscious green, ready for rent again. Hopefully.

I descended back down and decided to retrieve the rest of the Bank's land before the sun set and head back to the others.