Achilles tumbled to a stop amidst the rubble, his head ringing from the force of Heracles' punch. Blood trickled from his nose, but he quickly wiped it away, steeling himself for the next assault. His mind raced, calculating his chances against the overwhelming brute force of Heracles.
He sprang to his feet, scanning the ruined hallway for anything he could use to his advantage. He saw the remnants of a metal clothes-hanging stand and quickly grabbed it, twirling it in his hands to test its weight. It wasn't a spear, but it would have to do.
"What? You found a weapon? Don't mind if I get one, do you?" Heracles noticed a broken steel bar with a chunk of concrete on it that looked like a hammer. He grabbed the steel bar and swung it like a hammer.
"Shit..." Achilles swore, his face paling. He hoped his accomplice would realize something was wrong and dispel the bounded field soon. Otherwise, he would be trapped here with this muscle-bound brute, and he didn't know how long he could hold out.
— Meanwhile - Oceanos —
Within the Oceanos bridge, Odysseus received an emergency signal from Cao Cao. He focused on the hotel floor plan where Cao Cao was located. The GPS signal was bouncing across the entire floor, which should have been impossible given the precision of the GPS device designed for Cao Cao. Even in the event of a malfunction, it shouldn't have caused such widespread signals.
It seemed as though Cao Cao's presence was ubiquitous on that floor. Something was clearly amiss; Odysseus knew he needed expert advice.
He quickly dialed Envy's direct line. Envy, who was in the Golden Empire Hospital undergoing medical checks and observation due to her loss of power, appeared on the main screen of the Oceanos bridge. The hospital room behind her was filled with magical artifacts used for examining magical symptoms embedded in the walls.
"What can I assist you with, Mr. Odysseus?" Envy asked, aware of her impending medical check in five minutes. "I'll need to excuse myself shortly."
Odysseus concisely explained the situation at the hotel and the current challenges they faced.
After listening to Odysseus, Envy smiled and offered a straightforward solution.
"Simply inform Michaela about this and ask her to bring little Cotton along. Cotton is quite clever, and I believe she can help us figure this out easily," Envy suggested, detailing the steps Odysseus needed to take before her medical checkup.
Odysseus promptly contacted Michaela and relayed Envy's instructions.
— Outside Hotel —
Michaela, accompanied by little Cotton who was happily munching on her carrot in her cage, arrived at the hotel. Michaela proceeded into the hotel as usual but found the entire floor where Cao Cao resided locked down by the hotel. It was impossible for her to enter through conventional means, so she exited the elevator and opted to use the stairs from the fire exit to reach the floor.
Navigating through the fire exit, Michaela easily reached the floor where Cao Cao lived. Surprisingly, there were no guards or visible security measures around. It seemed as though the hotel intentionally kept security lax, perhaps in the hope that someone would swiftly eliminate Cao Cao.
Seating herself on the floor, Michaela released little Cotton from her cage.
Achilles rushed toward the public balcony where hotel guests usually socialized. He arrived at the crowd, where people were wondering where this ragged cleaner had come from. Achilles grabbed a patio umbrella and jumped off the balcony without hesitation, despite being more than ten stories high.
Heracles arrived just in time to see Achilles jump and use the patio umbrella to slow his fall, looking back smugly at Heracles as if challenging him to follow.
Heracles made a face like he had just seen an idiot. No, he was actually seeing an idiot!
As expected, the patio umbrella broke, its fabric and structure unable to resist the air for even a second. Achilles plummeted to the ground. The hotel guests screamed in alarm, many ladies shrieking in fright at the sight of a man falling from such a height.
"AAAAAAAAHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhh..."
With a loud crash, Achilles hit the concrete street. The impact left a man-shaped crack in the concrete, but there was no blood, thanks to the blessing of the River Styx. Achilles felt intense pain from the fall but was otherwise unharmed. He slowly got up and wobbled toward the crowd that had gathered to see what happened, vanishing within them.
Many people recorded the incident on their phones. Seeing this, Heracles let out a tired sigh. It would be a pain if his lord wanted to clean up this mess. Now that his job was done, he need to return and check on Cao Cao.
—
Afterward, Michaela picked up her pet, Little Cotton, and captured the mage, who was lying in his own room, clutching his chest with several cracked ribs.
The mage was sent to the hospital under the Golden Empire Group since they have detaining facilities for mages there. The Hightower had used these services many times in the past after apprehending criminal mages.
As for Achilles, he had vanished from the scene as if he was never there in the first place. Albert also urged his people to search for Achilles, but even with the capabilities of the Whispering Hall, they still couldn't locate him.
This was because the Whispering Hall, without their main building, had its limitations. They were training new agents, and the experienced ones mostly stayed at the base to train the newcomers and weren't out in the field. Besides, Daniel had assigned them a mission to search for Leviathan, which had a higher priority than Achilles, allowing him to evade them.
However, not all was lost. Within one day, the Whispering Hall agents uncovered substantial evidence of a large conspiracy aimed at sabotaging the Astral PMC and the reclamation effort to undermine the president's popularity.
This conspiracy involved many congressmen, some generals, the Minister of Defense, and the Confederacy.
In the morning, all the news channels reported the incident and provided bits and pieces of the investigation's progress regarding this matter.
The smear campaign began as many of the congressmen involved threatened to sue anyone trying to uncover the incident. However, it all ended in silence and anti-climax when Greed allowed her TV channel to expose the story. She declared that she would use all her resources to fight anyone who dared to sue her reporters over this matter.
The signal was clear: the uncrowned queen was very pissed about this incident and would not stop until someone ended up in jail, spending the rest of their retirement there.