34 Fake

When Captain Simon transformed into his Dark Rhinoceros form, not only did he shock the onlooking members of the Angels Arcadia, he also took the black haired woman, Aly, completely by surprise.

His abrupt transformation knocked into the woman sending her flying more than a dozen meters through the air. The blow further exacerbated her injuries, making her unable to react in time.

In that instant, Micheal jumped up into the air, removing his hand from his Spatial Ring. He then sent out two of his Life Orbs, soaring through the sky towards her.

The two orbs flew roughly 8 meters away from Micheal and looped around to catch the stunned woman, stopping her flight. Micheal then commanded them to fly back, carrying her trembling and nearly unconscious form over towards him.

Had she picked anyone other than Captain Simon to try and hold hostage, she would've already been dead.

"Watch ou- huh." The leader of the Enforcement Team cut off his yelled warning halfway through as he saw Captain Simon transform, stuttering to a halt. Everyone then watched Micheal's actions as he smoothly jumped and caught the woman, reeling her in.

"…Incredible…"

"How did he do that?"

"He shot out a pair of… orbs? Telekinetic orbs?"

Murmurs arose from the Coalition members as well as the Enforcement Team, ones that Micheal ignored as he caught the woman, landing on the ground smoothly.

After the increase to both his Soul Quality and Soul stat, Micheal had found that the maximum range he could extend his Life Orbs to had increased to 16 meters and the acceleration was increased a decent amount. He didn't gain any new Orbs, but the new maximum range was a huge boon, giving Micheal even more utility from the Life Orbs.

"Well, that seems to resolve that." Micheal looked down at the now-unconscious woman, his nose wrinkling beneath his mask. Looks could truly be deceiving, something he'd learned the hard way. The more naive, first version of him likely would've seen a gang of men chasing after a bloody and beaten woman and assumed things without checking.

"Thank you for the aid, Emissary Heron." Enforcer Ayer walked forward, his team silently following him. He gave a formal bow,

"She is wanted for trial back at the branch. Her punishment will be meted out there, per protocol. The injuries arose when we tried to stop her." The man's voice was respectful as he explained, motioning at her injured body.

Micheal merely nodded.

The woman would go to a type of trial and likely be executed for her crimes, if they were as serious as they sounded. Her only other option was to work under forced hunting teams, providing slave Point farms for the Angels Arcadia.

Breaking any of the imposed laws by the Big 3 would usually lead to death or physical punishment of some sort. There were only so many punishments that could be enforced in this world, after all, with jail time being rather unfeasible.

This harsh reality was part of why the Big 3 had managed to develop so much in only 3 years.

Simon returned back to normal as the situation calmed down, the rest of the Coalition members quieting.

"If you wouldn't mind, sir, could we retire to a private room for a moment? For protocol reasons, as you well know." Enforcer Ayer began, his eyes still focused on Micheal.

"Of course." Micheal waved a hand casually, calling Captain Simon over. He briefly explained to the man that they would be taking a brief respite, letting him inform everyone else.

Right after that, he motioned for Sophia to come forward. She walked over quickly, emerging from the crowd.

When Enforcer Ayer saw this, he frowned.

"This is…?"

"This is Emissary Crane." Micheal replied succinctly.

That response shut the man up as his eyes widened, genuine surprise filling him. To encounter one Emissary was one thing… to encounter two of them, well, the odds of that were pretty low. As he recognized this fact, a faint hint of suspicion appeared in the man's eyes.

In short order, Micheal and Sophia slipped inside one of the private rooms aboard the large, long-haul ship, quickly followed by Enforcer Ayer. The rest of the Enforcer's men, as well as the other members of the Stardust Coalition, all waited outside.

They had stepped into a room with large metal walls and several open chambers leading off into the bowels of the ship. The lightning was dreary, leaking in from a few small windows and giving the room a somewhat ghoulish look.

After they entered, Ayer closed the door shut and nodded at them

"I must admit, I have not heard your enlightened name before, Emissary." The man began, cutting right to the chase,

'Enlightened name? Who even says that…?' Micheal mentally shrugged and continued to listen.

"I do not doubt your word, but you know as well as I of the rules. If you wouldn't mind." Ayer was rather direct, sticking out his hand expectantly. He kept his voice and actions respectful, but his eyes remained fully focused on Micheal, tensely watching his every movement.

Micheal nodded silently and he held out his emblem. As he did so, beneath his mask, he smiled.

He had picked the Angels Arcadia to impersonate, and not some other group, for a couple of reasons, one among those that was particularly relevant here:

The emblems they used as a sign of their authority.

Each of the Big 3 were extremely influential in the Main Cluster. 3 full years had already gone by in the 7 Layers, more than enough time for each group to establish a very large and powerful presence.

The Godfather Organization didn't use any emblems to verify their men, but instead had all of their elites well known to the public, none of them hiding their identities or using masks. Impersonating any of them would fail, and even if he might be able to pretend to be a mid-level character… it wouldn't be enough to fulfill his plans.

The Nightrunners had a unique way of marking their member's Souls, making them virtually impossible to impersonate, no matter what rank.

Only in the Angels Arcadia did he stand a chance of impersonating one of their strongest branches, their 'Emissaries.' Emissaries had their own internal hierarchy, but the strongest among them were listed among the Supreme A Rankers of the Main Cluster Ranking List.

The Ranking List was a magical list constructed by a mysterious woman with the rare, limited Global Blind Seer Ability, Hansama Babel. It was a unique power that gave her special insight into many different types of things, insight she used to create a grand list that compared all the most powerful members against each other.

It listed the very small number of S Rankers, and the top 10,000 A Rankers. Her powers were unique and the list she maintained had become a popular and well-trusted source of information, letting her create the influential, but neutral, Hidden Mind Group.

While the list could not account for everything, it gave a reasonable estimate of how powerful someone was and how dangerous they would be to fight. The top 50 A Rankers were all considered 'Supreme A Rankers' that were extremely powerful.

Among the Emissaries, there were 10 Supreme A Rankers, and quite a few other strong A Rankers. Blending in among them would prove quite useful.

After all…

One of the 10 Supreme A Ranked Emissaries was a woman Micheal had to kill.

He blinked, shaking the stray thoughts from his head as he watched Enforcer Ayer bring out a second emblem, this one marked slightly differently than his. Instead of a simple pair of angelic wings, it had an angelic wing and a pointy sword emblazoned in it, the sign of an Enforcer.

Ayer mumbled something. Gradually, a faint, glowing blue light began to shimmer, rising off his own emblem. This light slowly moved to hover over Micheal's emblem, faint particles of it flaking off and dissipating in the air.

In the First Layer, the methods for creating their magical emblems were known only to Arcadia's team of researchers and craftsmen. It was a relatively short process that involved imbuing certain types of magical light into a finely carved Cloud Rock, a type of material purchasable from the Shop.

The emblems were imbued with a type of 'code,' one that was extremely complicated, like encryption technology back on Earth. All emblems were linked together through this code, one that only an extremely tiny number of people knew.

Micheal…

Did not know the code, nor did he even have any idea what it could be. Arcadia changed their code every month, from what he'd read up on the compiled history. Even if he had an old code, it would change nothing.

He hadn't made any notable splash in his first run, not while he was on the First Layer. The information he had here was limited to the historical records that humanity gathered together near the end.

Even then, he mostly only remembered the major events from those records and his memories, as well as a few small minor things. Most of the minor stuff wasn't anything he bothered memorizing. After all, it wasn't like he had known he was going to start over. If he had been aware…

He tossed the stray thought to the side again with a mental sigh, focusing on Ayer's actions. He seemed to have gained a bad habit of reminiscing about things from his past life.

The blue light wavered and seemed to drizzle out as it flashed around his emblem. When Enforcer Ayer saw this, his eyes narrowed, a hint of suspicion appearing.

Micheal didn't have any knowledge of Arcadia's codes.

What Micheal did have, however… was some rudimentary knowledge about the science of these emblems, and the ability to create an emblem that looked convincingly like a real one.

When one emblem reacted to another emblem, sharing the correct 'code,' the target emblem released a unique aura. It released a sphere of light that was tightly constrained, a faint orb of energy that gave off a pure feeling.

Something like that was, for almost all people, completely impossible to replicate. It might not be impossible to create a similar aura, but to have it react to their own emblem as well as form a sphere of light… it was simply far beyond the abilities of anyone in the First Layer to create, not after only 3 years.

Micheal couldn't do it either.

What he could do, however, was fake it.

The moment Ayer activated his Enforcer Emblem, Micheal's right finger twitched.

A near invisible, minute string of colorless Sword Energy shot off his finger, forming a long, almost impossible to see trail in the air. This tiny string shot all the way over to the Emblem Micheal had forged, using materials from the shop that bore a good enough resemblance to a proper emblem to get by.

His Sword Energy gave off light. A little manipulation could change that light to any color, though doing so would vastly weaken the energy.

And that weakened energy, when it combined with the glowing appearance of the Emissary Emblem he made…

WHOOSH

A glowing sphere of light appeared, one that gave off a very powerful aura. It rippled sharply, barely containing its spherical shape. Micheal frowned stiffly beneath his mask, feeling the strain of such fine-tuned control on his low Soul stat.

When Ayer saw this reaction on Micheal's emblem, his eyes opened wide in shock, his jaw dropping. He immediately turned to look at Micheal, his hands trembling.

"M-my apologies, sir!" The Enforcer's face had visibly paled, sweat appearing on his forehead. His reaction was rather exaggerated.

'Did I go too over the top?' Stronger Emissaries were given more powerful emblems. Knowing this, Micheal tried to make his appear powerful and daunting, trying to look like an A Ranked Emissary.

Unless you were one of the extremely small number of researchers that designed the emblems, it was practically impossible to tell the difference between his emblem and a legitimate one. People saw what they expected to see. There might be a minor difference here or there, but not all emblems were perfectly identical.

Ayer gave several hurried bows, ducking his head respectfully. His entire body was trembling as he spoke, knowing he had been somewhat disrespectful to an elite Emissary that could end his life with a wave of his hand.

"It's fine." Micheal's voice took on a magnanimous air as he replied, deciding to play the part.

"I assume you won't force Crane to hand hers over as well?" He replied as he held out his hand, canceling the string of Sword Energy with an internal sigh of relief. Maintaining Sword Energy in such a complex shape was incredibly trying.

Ayer quickly returned his emblem to him, stuttering out a reply,

"No, no! Of course not!"

"Good." Micheal's words were smooth, not betraying a hint of emotion.

"Now then." He immediately continued, nodding slightly at Ayer.

"I have been away on a mission and my intel on the Main Cluster's current going-ons are a bit outdated." His voice was leading as he finished speaking, looking at Ayer expectantly.

Ayer picked up on the cue, his eyes lighting up as he realized he'd found a way to make up for his error.

"Ah, of course! I would be happy to fill you in, sir!"

"…"

Several minutes, and several questions later, Micheal had gained a much better grasp of the current Main Cluster, getting clear information on what major events had happened, and what hadn't. What he found out made him rather pleased.

The Head of the Godfather Organization was still alive, the Nightrunners were still acting like they were a good, upright organization, and Leila, the Supreme A Ranker he was infiltrating the Angels Arcadia to take out, was still considered the weakest of the Supreme A Rankers in the Emissaries of Arcadia, ranked at 47th on the Main Cluster Ranking List .

'She isn't active and a traitor yet, and the Nightrunners haven't revealed themselves. With Cameron still kicking it, I have plenty of time.' As this last thought ran through his head, he blinked, smiling beneath his mask, and spoke aloud.

"The force I am here with is the Stardust Coalition. They aren't an official ally, but want to establish a presence in the Main Cluster. Inform the Iron Eye Branch that they are to be treated as a Friend of Arcadia. Maintain silence on which Emissary I am, however. I would like to avoid having my identity leaked, it would put them all in danger."

"Yes sir!" Ayer responded enthusiastically, without hesitation. The reason the Emissaries wore masks was well known. They were the high-level enforcers that fought against powerful groups and enemies. Largely as a result, they were hated and reviled by many, and had many enemies. Being public friends with any Emissary could lead to serious danger.

While Micheal wasn't technically a part of the Stardust Coalition, in the end, the people here had helped him rapidly traverse the Great Bridge with ease. He wouldn't mind paying it forward a little and boosting their start here in the Main Cluster.

The Saru Group, the Flesh Wizards Tower, the various other smaller organizations. All of these powers had notable strength in the Stardust Cluster. The first two, in particular, had provided him with a good deal of help or influence, helping him make fast progress.

Still, he didn't have any time to waste. Humanity was living on a ticking clock. As much as it would be nice to settle down and create a large organization of his own, absorbing these smaller teams, it would take too long.

'I want to make a team… but my team will need to consist of a small number of top-tier, elite humans. It is enough that I help humanity as a whole grow stronger, to bring us up to a competitive level against the other races.' This thought was one of his core ideas. Every human was limited to 7 Abilities, so it wasn't feasible for him to stay as a loner. A single human could not fight against an entire race.

"I will personally see to it!" Ayer continued, interrupting Micheal's thoughts.

After exchanging a few more words, Ayer left the room. Micheal and Sophia exited behind them, watching as the Enforcer went and began to talk with the various members of the Coalition.

Micheal got a few more looks of awe and surprise, as well as ones of happiness as everyone found out their newly minted Coalition was receiving some substantial backing from another group, before they even reached the Main Cluster.

'Speaking of other groups… Shin, buddy, are you already in the Main Cluster?' The Great Bridge from the Stardust Cluster had opened up. Shin's Great Bridge had already been opened as well, a few days ago at least.

'I'll be able to find out soon… I hope you're doing well, bud. We've got a lot of work to do.'

.. .. .. .. .. ..

…Far away from Micheal, near the Main Cluster headquarters of the Godfather Organization, a cheerful, relaxed voice echoed out loud. The speaker was a blonde haired 18-year-old laying languidly on a large, folding beach chair, taking in the warm sunlight from the sky above.

"Oh man, I sure love not doing any work."