Priorities

"What is wrong with you?!"

Rotgi's frustrated question echoed in the tunnel. He had fought and used his skill against more people than he could count. The only ones he could see ignore the effects of the blackish smoke were the guys at the top of the Syndicate.

Nathan smiled as he continued retreating.

"I don't even know where to begin. But if you're talking about this…"

Nathan waved his broken, bruised, and discolored hand in front of him.

"...It's because I've been through worse. I've actually fought a real demon. Your skill, whether it's similar to a demon spawn's curse or their shit, is nothing in comparison."

"It's touch!"

"What is?"

"It's Demonspawn's Touch!"

"Oh, your skill? Makes sense. So what? Telling me that won't make your parents love you."

Rotgi glared at Nathan, the smoke from Demonspawn's Touch swirling around his body like a tornado, unaffected by the cool breeze of the twilight hour before dawn.

Rotgi snapped out of his anger as he realized they had left the tunnel. He cursed himself for falling for Nathan's provocations and letting him out of the tunnel. He glanced around the fake construction site and saw the dead bodies.

"Shit."

Rotgi wanted to kill Nathan. Unfortunately, his position in the Syndicate came with responsibilities. He could kill Nathan pretty quickly. However, it seemed like Nathan had one or two tricks up his sleeve still, so it could take a few moments.

Most importantly, Rotgi could not cause a disturbance that would lead to people noticing and investigating the site. Even if they had friends in high places, they could only cover up so much and silence so many civilians and police officers.

When it came to one of the entrances to their base, they had to be especially careful.

Rotgi, now calm, decided to prioritize.

He looked at Nathan.

"If you know what's best for you, leave right now and don't leak a word of this to the police or the public. If you do, we will find you, and you will wish I had killed you now."

Rotgi didn't wait for an answer. He had to get someone to clean up this mess and get ready to squash any rumors the moment they showed up. He turned around and sprinted down the tunnel as quickly as he could.

Nathan raised his eyebrows in surprise before shrugging and turning around. He kept up his facade until he was a block away from the construction site. There, he collapsed to the ground, unable to move.

He couldn't even sigh in relief. Unusable didn't even begin to describe his body. Nathan was in a bad state, and not only from the lingering effects of Rotgi's skill.

Nathan had used his skill beyond what his body could handle. But it had been necessary since he had to ensure that Rotgi didn't realize how effective his strikes were. Nathan had used masterful control and experience to dictate the flow of the battle. Every time Rotgi broke or fractured a bone, Nathan received the blow so that Rotgi didn't feel that he had broken anything.

Since Nathan didn't stand a chance against Rotgi in a head-to-head fight, his only hope had been to stall and play mindgames until he could find a way out.

Fortunately, Rotgi had been more cautious and cool-headed than he looked. He decided to prioritize the Syndicate and the operation over the gratification he would feel from killing Nathan, knowing that Nathan wouldn't be able to spill the beans about anything without revealing himself.

There was no such thing as anonymity in a world filled with danger and skills. It would also be overwhelmingly easy to shut down an anonymous tip.

But if Rotgi had fought Nathan a little longer, he would have soon realized Nathan's trickery.

Nathan wasn't satisfied.

He had made it out alive with his life and without permanent injury. But he had still almost died. And it had been in a fight against some lowlife Vijang thug who claimed the nickname of a demon without knowing what a demon was.

'They haven't appeared yet, right?'

People with skills related to supernatural beings, even if only demon spawns, were rare. They weren't necessarily strong or anything. But Nathan was pretty sure he would have remembered Rotgi if they had fought before his regression.

The fact that he didn't, meant that he had missed out on more members of the Vijang Syndicate than he first thought. If his hunch was right, he had only scraped the surface of the Syndicate when he exacted his revenge last time. He had killed the surface-dwellers who were too low in rank to enter or even know about the bunker.

Nathan was pissed.

He had gone about his previous life before his regression acting like he was all that after taking revenge on his parents. But this little trip and incident had blown that idea to kingdom come.

Nathan couldn't even describe how he felt. But feelings of wrath and wanting to destroy the Vijang Syndicate rose within him like never before.

Nathan's eyes were bloodshot, and he ground his teeth until he heard his jaw creak as he forced himself to get up. Blood flowed from the wounds on his hands as he clenched his fists.

He had been lazy.

Since Nathan thought the Vijang Syndicate's full extent was only slightly more than it had been before his regression, he had taken it easy. He thought he would just have to get rid of a few thugs and their leaders before they razed the city to the ground in two years.

If Nathan hadn't discovered the bunker, he could have lost his parents again without knowing what happened.

From what he could tell, the Vijang Syndicate could overthrow the city whenever they wanted and be fine as long as they sealed the entrances and hid underground until things blew over. They had more than enough supplies and manpower at the ready.

They probably had a few things left to settle.

But the timeline of two years that Nathan had relied on was as solid as Rotgi's smoke.

Nathan dragged his broken body home.