KABOOM!

Xena Rousey was torn apart and roasted alive!

Unlike Ramirez who stopped at the edge of the explosion due to Lucian's warning, Xena had no one to warn her and ran directly into the center of the bomb and it tore her apart from inside out in a bloody and gory shower!

Her flesh, her blood, and her bones were torn apart by the fragmentation energy of the grenade, thrown everywhere in a shower of gore!

Her eyeballs forever darkened and frozen in pain flew to one side of the grand square, her scorched shoes flew to another side, and her mutilated and scorched limbs flew to another side.

Her body was blasted into smithereens!

The moment Xena died, Lucian looked and he felt like a knife was just stabbed into his heart and twisted as he became distracted.

Davis, the A.I cared not about human emotions.

Davis capitalized instantly on Lucian's distraction, unleashing a powerful laser blast from the Doom Rover v0.1's head compartment that burned a bloody hole through Lucian's chest!

Lucian collapsed to the ground with a thud, bleeding profusely as even his Coackroach DNA no longer seemed as active.

His regeneration glitched.

Despite his injuries, he stared at the lingering flames and the mutilated body parts scorched and shattered by the explosion.

"No, no, Xena…" he rasped in a raving manner like a deranged man, his voice filled with pain and deep longing.

Ramirez, Jake, and Blake also froze as they stared into the lingering flames.

As the last men standing, their eyes flickered with complex emotions as they contemplated on what step to take next.

But in the end, they stayed.

They didn't betray the bond that kept the core of the Extremist Movement together as just like Xena, they abandoned caution and embraced death.

The 3 E Rank Ascended stared at each other and without saying a single word, they understood each other's thoughts.

Blake turned and charged towards the direction of this grand square where the flames of the explosion that killed Xena still lingered.

Pulse Dash!

He turned into a violet blur.

Just like Xena, Blake no longer cared about death as he followed the same logic, hoping that the Mechanist wouldn't place 3 such powerful bombs in just one direction leading out of the grand square.

He hoped that the Mechanist was not that rich and profligate.

It was a gamble but he willingly took it.

As for Ramirez and Jake, even with his leg that was still not fully healed and his numerous injuries, the E Rank Gene Augur and Cyber Gladiator valiantly made their last stand against the Doom Rover v0.1 robot and the Mechanist who was toying with them.

BZZZZZZZZ!

Their ADE flared like twin tsunamis, orange and violet, covering them as they went Plus Ultra, charging at the robot in an unhinged manner.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

What followed next in the ruin of the grand square was an epic battle but the battle was short, lasting only 40 seconds.

Having taken the initiative the moment Lucian's body started deteriorating, at some point in time Leon already switched from the VX-09 Emberfist gauntlets to one of his Terra Nova 71 Rifles.

And it was during the epic last stand of the 2 terrorists that a chain with cuffs suddenly shot out of the torso of the robot, catching Jake off-guard.

The ADE Nullification Shackles!

Knowing just how ridiculous Jake's reaction speed was having faced him twice in battle before now, Leon was adequately prepared for their 3rd clash.

He waited till the swift Cyber Gladiator became desperate and unhinged enough before catching him off-guard with the ADE Nullification Shackles.

As for how the robot could use the shackles, the answer was the ADE Storage Module!

It was through the same ADE module that the Doom Rover v0.1 could use the Pulse Feedback ADE Integrated skill, and it was also through that same module that it could make use of the ADE Nullification Shackles.

By the time Jake knew what was happening, his ADE was already locked even as the chains weighed heavily on him!

Then from the sky, having switched the Terra Nova 71 Rifle regulator to the laser slot, Leon stabilized himself on top the sword drone and aimed as his grayish white ADE pulsed.

Enhance!

His grayish white ADE flared, engulfing the Rifle then he pulled the trigger.

BAM!

Headshot!

Leon unleashed a devastating laser beam that burned a hole through the back of Jake's head, piercing through his brain like a hot knife through butter as brain matter sprayed everywhere!

Jake's legs buckled, then he collapsed lifelessly to the ground.

He was dead even before he hit the ground!

DING!

~----~

[You have killed an E Rank Ascended!]

[You have been rewarded with +80 Data Points!]

[Current Data Points: 382]

…

[You have gained Ascended Essence!]

~----~

The moment Jake died, Ramirez inclined his head and briefly paid attention to his friend's corpse as the muscular terrorist's eyes showed pain and rage.

But then, he ignored his friend and his pain and focused on the robot again.

The fight must not stop!

He locked in.

At the same time that Jake died, he and Ramirez managed to buy Blake enough time to finally escape the trap that Leon set around the grand square!

Jake's sacrifice was not in vain, and Blake's gamble paid off!

There were only 2 jury-rigged bombs in the Eastern corner of the grand square where the 2 bombs triggered earlier.

Without hesitation and without looking back, Blake showcased the full speed of an E Rank Cyber Gladiator and Leon didn't stop him.

Blake accelerated and hit peak speed like the Flash and quickly located the nearest clinic in less than a minute.

[Blue Cherry Clinic]

Just like expected, the clinic was abandoned.

Blake burst his way through the door inside. He was tensed, his adrenaline levels were extremely high, he was desperate but he managed to calm down long enough to find exactly what he was looking for.

He found the pack of vials labeled- [Ozempic]

'Found it!'

He grabbed the entire packet of syringe and Ozempic vials as he instantly turned to return, and that was when it happened.

Blake felt it and his eyes widened. 'It's a trap!'

It was too late to react.

KABOOM!

The entire clinic detonated with a powerful explosion that far eclipsed the one that killed Xena countless times!

Unlike Xena, Blake left nothing behind.

The E Rank Cyber Gladiator simply evaporated like steam under the extreme temperature flames, burnt into a bloody hot mist!

This was Leon's final trap- the Clinics.

During his preparation, with Davis's help, he located all the nearest clinics around the grand square where Lucian had his sermon and he rigged all of them with a minimum of 5 jury-rigged bombs!

The trigger to ignite the bombs was picking any pack of Ozempic in the clinic.

Even if the terrorists made it to one of the clinics, entering inside to get Lucian's medication was suicide and since Blake didn't have Lucian's Danger Premonition, he never realized the danger till it was too late.

DING!

~----~

[You have killed an E Rank Ascended!]

[You have been rewarded with +80 Data Points!]

[Current Data Points: 462]

…

[You have gained Ascended Essence!]

~----~

…

Cell Repair!

Bio-Pulse!

Metabolic Overdrive!

Violent orange ADE erupted around the E Rank Gene Augur as Ramirez locked in and put up a valiant last stand against the robot.

He had nothing left to lose anymore, he no longer cared about his life.

All he cared about was stalling the robot long enough for Blake to return and administer the medication to Lord Lucian.

So long the Lord survived, everything else could be sacrificed, including his own life. Ramirez no longer cared about his life at this point.

Fortunately, for some reason, the Mechanist himself seemed content with floating in the sky and spectating as he fought to the death against the robot.

But Ramirez waited and waited, yet Blake never came back.

He waited for 1 minute, then 2 minutes… a period of time in which Lucian's body deteriorated even more.

Now, he was just bones.

Only then did Ramirez finally have suspicions. 'Is Blake already dead? Is that why the Mechanist is just watching?'

He instantly realized that once again, the Mechanist outsmarted them or in this case, just him.

Leon made him look foolish

'How dare you trick me?' His pride instantly made him flare up angrily.

He fought even more aggressively but against the towering 10-feet tall black humanoid robot, it was like jamming his head against a wall.

And finally, laying motionlessly on the ground, Lucian strained to look at Ramirez as he fought a losing battle.

Lucian's eyes were feverishly yellow and weak as he looked at his last-surviving subordinate, he already had a hunch that Blake was already dead far before Ramirez suspected the truth.

His lips were parched and dry but he forced them open.

"Go…" Lucian croaked. "Leave". He coughed.

"Keep the flames of the movement alive," he urged Ramirez. "Don't let the movement die with me".

"Please… leave…"

Ramirez gritted his teeth as he ignored Lucian and kept on fighting against the massive robot as he battled with his emotions, his anger, and his sense of duty.

In the end, he respected Lucian more.

But the moment Ramirez turned to leave, a familiar chain suddenly launched out of the torso of the robot, shackling his hands.

Unlike Jake, he didn't even realize what happened till the chain cuffed his hands. His eyes widened, then…

Thud!

Leon finally landed from the sky where he levitated since.

Compared to the terrorists, Leon remained completely untouched as he walked towards the already immobilized terrorist.

Ramirez glared at him in anger and hate but Leon didn't even react to him.

Calmly, he searched Ramirez's hidden pockets and picked out a dagger, then he turned the terrorist's face to look at his leader.

Seeing this, Lucian pursed his parched lips as he looked at Leon and Ramirez.

He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. He kept quiet.

Seeing this, Leon smiled. "Thought so," then with a cold look in his eyes, he raised the dagger and ruthlessly slit Ramirez's throat!

"Gah…!" The terrorist's throat gurgled as he struggled but without his ADE, he couldn't wrestle against the power in Leon's firm grip.

He couldn't regenerate, he couldn't harden his skin, he could do nothing. He was just like the victims that they executed on live TV.

Leon kept on slicing, holding his head in place with one hand while cutting deeper with the other as blood gushed out of his neck.

All the while, he kept his eyes straight on Lucian, reading the expressions in the terrorist leader's emaciated face as Lucian stared at the dying Ramirez with a complicated look of pain and sorrow on his face.

Ramirez died in less than 20 seconds.

DING!

~----~

[You have killed an E Rank Ascended!]

[You have been rewarded with +80 Data Points!]

[Current Data Points: 542]

…

[You have gained Ascended Essence!]

~----~

Leon casually threw Ramirez's lifeless body to the ground with a thud as he kept his ruthless eyes fixed on Lucian.

He grinned. "What do you usually say? Gud er store…?"

Then he walked closer and spat on Lucian's face.

"F*cking psychopath!" Leon cursed. "Is this what you feel from killing so many people? This rush of excitement? Was it a f*cking kick to you?"

"Did you derive pleasure from slaughtering people on live TV?" He roared.

He glared into Lucian's feverish yellow eyes. "Did slaughtering them on live TV make you feel strong and masculine?"

"ANSWER ME FOOL!" He grabbed Lucian's jaw and growled. "Did it make you feel like a God?"

Lucian didn't answer, he simply squirmed from his grasp and rolled from his side to his back as he looked up with tears beginning to flow freely down his eyes.

Leon scoffed. "You're crying?"

"Am I supposed to pity you because of that? Huh?" He stomped down on Lucian's torso as he applied pressure on it, making him groan and cough.

Leon glared at him then he intoned in a deep and angry voice. "How dare you cry after everything you've did?"

"You're supposed to take it like a man, the religious fanatic that you're!" He snarled. "Why are you not screaming Gud er store at your end huh? WHY?" He screamed at Lucian's face but the terrorist didn't answer.

His silence annoyed Leon even more as he exhaled to control his erratic emotions.

Then, he removed his backpack and threw it to the side as with Ramirez's dagger still on his hand, he sat on the ground tiredly beside Lucian.

Lucian didn't look at him as he sobbed quietly.

Leon grimaced. "So annoying".

...

[Special Appreciation to D4rkV1II14n and Yametekudastop for the Golden Tickets, thanks man.]

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