The Nine Lords Of Order - Chapter 29

After the battle ended, Mars quickly tried to stop the overflow of energy but found out that he couldn’t do anything about. Once this technique was unleashed, he couldn’t stop it. It was flaw within this technique but he knew this flaw would disappear once he became stronger and gained greater control over his power.

It took 90 seconds from the moment he unleashed the overflow until he ran out of energy. Afterwards, both his path gem and his overcharge gem dimmed down considerably. Mars felt fatigue and sleepy all of the sudden.

‘So this is the backlash? It’s quite fierce I would probably struggle against a rank one in this state.’ After murmuring some words Mars approached at the people who lay unconscious on the ground.

At first Mars thought about exterminating these people, however later he had decided to not kill them. That did not mean he would let them off though. A person’s nature and personality was often a reflection of their own attribute. Mars had the Lightning attribute, so his personality was decisive and striking. He would never let his enemies off. Even if they had not provoked him, if someone was fated to be his enemy he would strike! A lightning should always strike first!

Soon Mars was right in front of the guy who had a power level of 3000. He looked at this guy with cold eyes before extending his hand and placing it on the man’s chest.

‘Absorption!’

Arcs of electricity flowed from the unconscious guy towards Mars rapidly. All his energy was being filtered and transformed into electrical currents and flowing towards Mars. His target’s power level was rapidly decreasing as well; from the initial 3000 thousand, it decreased to less than 2000 in a few seconds! However Mars did not stop and kept going

1500

1000

Once the his power level dropped to 600 the absorption stopped for a second. Crack! Mars heard a soft sound of something shattering. The next second the guy on floor was left with a power level of 300!

Mars had caused this guy to drop in rank!

After Mars noticed this he let this guy go. This was the same technique he had used a few months ago to cripple a bandit. The only difference was that back then Mars had absorbed all the energy from that bandit which had crippled him. This time he had spared this guy some energy. Although it would suck for him, he would have the chance to train again in the future.

Mars checked out his energy reserves and sighed in disappointment. Although this absorption technique sounded fearsome he had barely recovered 70% of his original strength. This technique would not work in conscious opponents either.

After dealing with this guy, Mars proceeded to absorb the energy from the ten or so people who were unconscious on the ground.

Everyone he touched would soon fall in rank within seconds! Some of these people were already quite old so when they dropped in rank, they suddenly aged several tens of years after a few moments. Anyone who saw this would get chicken skin.

In the end, Mars fully recovered and even managed to recharge his ‘overcharge’ gem by 40%. He believed he would have to draw lightning from the clouds for a couple of days before he fully recharged his ‘overcharge’ gem.

Mars quickly took a black bandage out from his spacial bag and clumsily covered his right arm with it. ‘Ena is better at this kind of thing’ Mars murmured when he saw his bandage work looked a bit ugly.

For the next few weeks Mars kept ambushing members from the Ascending Devils faction. Each person who was ambushed dropped a whole rank in power. Once news spread to the city it became a huge commotion.

It had to be said it took several years of effort to increase in rank. To suddenly lose a whole rank after being ambushed some people thought this was more fearsome than being killed!

Some rumors said a black clothed figure without a face and red lightning streaking across his body was responsible for these attacks. Others said it was probably a Lightning Spectre since the victims did not show physical wounds on the surface but were sucked out from their energy.

At first people were worried that they were in danger and would suddenly get ambushed and lose a whole rank in power, however when they noticed the victims were exclusively members from the Ascending Devils faction, people started to gloat and sner at their misfortune instead.

That’s what people do. Sometimes they might feel pity, but since nobody was getting killed, people thought it was funny instead.

In the end, it was recognized that the assailant must be someone with a grudge against the Ascending Devils faction. Soon this person was known as the Devil’s Spectre. He became famous very quickly and many operations from the Ascending Devils faction were continously recked by the Devil’s Spectre.

The old man who was the leading figure of the faction was furious and soon he started sending rank 4 experts with each rank 3 squad. However even then, the attacks wouldn’t stop. People would get ambushed at night and would wake up realising they had dropped a whole rank!

The fear spread throughout the whole faction and soon they were so worried about the Devil’s Spectre that they had completely forgotten about their relentless search for Louis, Mars and Ena.

Mars was having trouble ambushing and attacking these squads. He could ask Persian for help, but then he would draw back the attention to himself, Ena and Louis and would defeat the whole point of his ambushes. After all, the Ascending Devil’s faction knew about his Lightning Lynx.

The name of the Devil’s Spectre became more famous and fearsome within the city. When people went out to take a drink and they would often talk about it.

“Did you hear about what happened last night?”

“Don’t tell me it was the Devil’s Spectre again?”

“That’s right! Apparently the Ascending Devil’s faction had prepared an ambush for him last night but in the end they failed the ambush and even a low star rank 4 guy was silently beaten and had his rank drop twice! I heard the guy lost so much longevity that he instantly became a decrepit old man afterwards!”

“No way! So fearsome!”

“That’s not all, It seems this Devil’s Spectre is getting better at ambushes and silently caused many rank 3 combatants to drop in rank before the rank 4 experts around could notice! He is a true ghost.”

“If that’s true I bet the Ascending Devil’s faction will stop their rank 3 operations.”

“Um, I heard this morning that the leader himself would start patrolling along with many rank 4 experts and try to catch this guy.”

“They deserve it! The members from the Ascending Devil’s faction are always acting tyrannically, it was about time someone got back at them!”

“If they don’t capture him, the Ascending Devil’s faction might enter in decline soon”

The leader from Ascending Devil’s faction was so angry but he couldn’t do anything about it. After several weeks many rank 3 members started to leave his faction in tides! Other factions were unforgiving and took in all those rank 3 members that had suddenly left. This placed the Ascending Devil’s faction in a terrible and humiliating position.

Worse of all was that this Devil’s Spectre was faster than gods and devils. He once saw him in person but he still managed to run away and escape his clutches. He could tell this person wasn’t particularly strong, but how could he be so fast?

When Mars used ‘overcharge’ and pushed his movement art ‘lightning flash’ to the limit not even a peak rank 4 existence would be able to catch him. However the burden in his body would multiply by several times.

The backlash was enormous that after escaping he wouldn’t be able to move for several days.

Mars knew his most powerful techniques were fearsome but they also had a double edge. If he wasn’t careful one day, he might be cornered without hope to escape alive.

After several weeks of relentless attacks and ambushes Mars found out he couldn’t deal with the squads anymore. The complete squads of rank 4 experts were not something he could handle. So he quietly disappeared and went back to train. There was a month left before his path gem finished stabilizing. Once that happened he planned to head back into the Lightning Valley and increase his strength again.

This period without agressions had the Ascending Devil’s faction sigh in relief. So many things had happened that they had almost forgotten about Mars and company.

The Devil’s Spectre dealt quite a fearsome blow to their prestige and power. They wouldn’t worry about some punks who were hiding who knows where. The old man had been racking his brains to figure out which fearsome figure had he offended this time. Although he had offended many people conflicts wouldn’t develop in this direction.

There were many times when he would link the Devil’s Spectre and youths he had tried to capture in the Lightning Valley, however he knew that the girl who could wield lightning was not even at rank 3. How could that kid cause so much trouble?

He never guessed Mars could use lightning as well. Lightning users were extremely rare. To find two of them casually traveling? Yeah right!

The shady youth who travelled along with Mars and company was also gloomy. He had joined the Ascending Devil’s faction a while ago and thanks to the information he brought about Mars and Ena he had obtained several thousand merit points easily.

However after the Devil’s Spectre attacks started he had been fearful of going out to complete quests. Every time a quest mission came out he prayed he wouldn’t be among the selected in the group.

‘Such bad luck! The Devil’s Spectre is too fearsome he turns the hard work and hopes of people into ash If he makes my rank drop, increasing back again will be troublesome, I will probably run out of time and will not be able to ascend the island’ He was even thinking about leaving this faction.