Infinite Wealth System: Crazy Tasks, Insane Rewards!-Chapter 228: Real Sovereign War (VIII)

The air around the crash site felt heavier than before, as if the very atmosphere understood that what stood before them was no longer a wounded enemy crawling out of wreckage, but something far worse. Smoke drifted slowly around the shattered remains of Kael’s aircraft, and in the middle of it all, he stood upright, unharmed, untouched by the flames that had consumed everything else.

Harper stepped forward, rifle raised steadily despite the tremor she felt in her chest. Esta stood slightly to her side, calm on the surface but watchful, her eyes carefully studying every movement Kael made. Around them, a handful of Earth soldiers formed a defensive line, boots scraping against broken concrete as they adjusted their stance.

Kael rolled his shoulders once, as if loosening muscles before a casual sparring session rather than a battlefield confrontation. His expression carried a twisted satisfaction.

"You truly thought," he began, his voice smooth but filled with venom, "that crashing my vessel would end me?"

His gaze shifted slowly between Harper and Esta.

"You do not understand what you are standing before. You do not understand what I have become."

Harper tightened her grip on her rifle. "We understand enough," she said coldly. "You are not leaving here."

Kael laughed softly, the sound disturbingly relaxed.

"You won’t stand a chance," he replied. "And I will enjoy killing you."

The soldiers around Harper shifted uneasily.

Esta took one step closer to Harper and spoke quietly but firmly. "He already has the power of the Absolute."

Harper did not take her eyes off Kael. "And what exactly is that supposed to mean?"

"It means," Esta said, her voice serious now, "that conventional weapons will not work."

Harper’s jaw tightened. For a brief moment, doubt flickered in her expression, but she pushed it aside. She had faced impossible enemies before. She had survived situations no one else would have.

She turned slightly away from Esta and pulled the trigger.

The rifle erupted with sharp, controlled bursts. Bullets tore through the smoke toward Kael’s chest with precise accuracy.

They hit.

And then they fell.

One by one, the bullets flattened against his skin and dropped harmlessly to the ground as if they had struck an invisible wall.

Kael did not even flinch.

He looked down at the scattered shells around his feet, then back up at Harper, amused.

"Is that all?" he asked.

The soldiers beside Harper opened fire as well, desperate and furious. The same result followed. Bullets struck, stalled, and fell.

Harper slowly lowered her weapon, her disbelief turning into something colder.

Esta was right.

She looked toward Esta this time, no longer dismissing her words.

"You see," Esta said quietly, "I told you."

Harper swallowed her frustration. "Then what do we use?"

Esta’s expression darkened slightly. "A Blaster. A specific one. And we do not have it here."

A slow, cruel smile spread across Kael’s face.

"How disappointing," he said, before his body blurred forward.

He moved faster than any of them anticipated.

In a single instant, he was standing before the nearest soldier. His hand shot out and gripped the man’s neck, lifting him effortlessly off the ground.

"You dare raise weapons against me?" Kael hissed.

With a sickening crack, he snapped the soldier’s neck and tossed the body aside like discarded debris.

The remaining three soldiers reacted, charging in with knives and tactical strikes, trying to restrain him from multiple angles.

Kael moved through them as though they were children.

He caught one soldier’s fist mid punch and crushed the man’s forearm with bare fingers, the bone splintering audibly. He drove his knee into another’s chest with devastating force, sending the soldier flying backward into a broken wall. The last tried to fire at point blank range, but Kael seized the rifle and slammed the man face first into the ground before stomping down without hesitation.

The ground cracked beneath the impact.

Within seconds, all four soldiers lay motionless.

Harper’s breath hitched.

Kael wiped blood from his knuckles, not his own.

"This," he said calmly, stepping toward Harper and Esta, "is the power of the Absolute."

He struck without warning.

Harper barely had time to raise her rifle before his fist collided with her midsection. The force sent her hurtling backward across the concrete, her body skidding painfully until she crashed into a fractured pillar.

Esta attempted to flank him, activating a pulse strike from her suit, but Kael turned and backhanded her with such force that she spun through the air before slamming hard against the side of a ruined vehicle.

"You disappoint me," Kael said coldly. "Nexus bred you stronger than this."

He advanced on Harper again. She forced herself upright, blood at the corner of her mouth, and threw a precise combat strike toward his jaw.

He caught her wrist mid motion.

"You fight well," he admitted, before twisting her arm violently and throwing her into the ground.

Pain exploded through her shoulder.

Esta staggered to her feet and rushed him again, only for Kael to grip her by the throat and lift her slightly off the ground.

"You betrayed your own," he said quietly, his eyes burning with hatred. "You deserve to watch this world burn."

He threw her aside, her body tumbling across shattered pavement.

Harper struggled to rise again, vision blurring.

Kael stood over them now, his shadow stretching long across the broken battlefield.

"You will die here," he said, his voice filled with chilling certainty. "And I will take pleasure in it."

He raised his fist, preparing to deliver the final blow.

Then a voice cut sharply through the tension.

"Hey, son of a bitch. Over here!"

Kael paused.

He turned slowly.

A young lady stood several meters away, holding a Bazooka over his shoulder, smoke curling faintly from its barrel.

For the first time, Kael’s expression shifted, if only slightly. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Before he could react, the rocket fired.

The projectile tore through the air and struck him directly in the chest.

The explosion erupted in a violent burst of fire and shockwave, sending Kael flying backward through multiple concrete barriers before disappearing into a distant cloud of dust and debris.

The silence afterward rang louder than the blast itself.

Harper forced her head up slowly, vision swimming as she tried to focus on the figure standing in the smoke.

Recognition dawned in her eyes.

"Boss?" she whispered.

The lady lowered the Bazooka slightly, her expression steady.

In another part of the city, far from the battlefield, Camilia and Temi moved anxiously through the quiet halls of a secured residential compound.

"Melinda?" Temi called out softly as they searched room after room.

No answer.

Camilia pushed open another door and scanned inside. Empty.

They had checked the living room, the kitchen, the guest rooms, even the basement shelter.

Nothing.

Camilia’s breathing quickened slightly.

"Where could she be?" she asked, her voice tightening. "Are... are we sure we are safe here?"

Temi stopped in the hallway, listening carefully.

They could here it...

The distant rumble of battle echoed faintly through reinforced walls.

For the first time since the war began, uncertainty crept into the supposed safe zone.

And somewhere outside, something might just have shifted in the darkness that none of them had noticed yet.