New Game+

Most of the world leaders had eventually caught on with the changing world. With the many offers and counteroffers by other underwater cities, nations began to vie for access, demanding that it embargo another nation. 

And while talks and bids were being made in an invitation-only conference call by these underwater cities, another malevolent plot was being made.

The Suez Canal trade route has lost its importance once more.

And because no nation would be willing to exhaust or protect this route, attacks and raids were now expected to happen.

The nations that invested so much more and sent a significant amount of resources into that route and expected great losses were now also struggling and forcing a means to send an armada. But the surrounding nations in the Suez Canal all rejected their pleas.

Alliances were made among nations, but there was no way to formalize everything in a short time.

Worst of all, Egypt suddenly opened the gates that allowed the boats in the Suez Canal to reach the Mediterranean seas.

As the gates opened, the captains of each ship that were lining all could not help but suck in a cold breathe of air for the coming terrors that would happen.

And it immediately started without warning.

One of the Chinese vessels in the Suez Canal launched a volley of mortar attacks on Egypt.

Another African vessel shot at the Caliphate region.

And several more of the vessels suddenly opened fire.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

As the barrages happened almost in perfect synch, a group of people watched the attacks within a secret room from one of the ships in the middle. The ship was owned by Turkey and contained a lot of techs and raw products.

"Well, that was easy." Herme smiled as he watched the explosions. They were on the deck of a ship from Turkey and observed the mortars and launches of rockets.

"I had enough blood to take control of the captains and top officials of those ships." Akasha smiled.

"This is perfect. Since we are fighting those three plotters, it's better to start with chaos. We attack everyone and create a war. If things get out of hand and a Continental War happens, it's even better!" Gallium laughed.

"Even the members of those Presiders would be bewildered at the attacks," Omricon added.

"In any case, we've already prepared our traps. We'll see if Arthur can predict our plans and plots." Alvin watched the battle progressed.

"We are fighting someone who can see the future. So the best thing we can do is make this place even more chaotic. But I honestly think that Arthur expects this."

Austin could only sigh. He wanted to argue, but everyone agreed to pursue this route.

"That boy will see through this? Impossible. The skills that I developed to manipulate and control people through the combination of a recently developed ability where my blood manipulates and controls the brains of others who inhale it as it is thrown in the wind through your master's wind ability! How can they possibly predict something like that? This brat has only met me once, and I never showed him my true powers!"

"I don't know about that. You guys plotted to add chaos into the mix and make it very unpredictable. But honestly, our plan is rather predictable." Alvin sighed.

"This is predictable?" Gallium was confused.

"Well... yeah. We have power, but frankly, I've read their battle reports and their deeds. I'm not as good as Lowengren and Arthur. I'm at least as smart as Harker. But when the two of them work together, who knows what they could achieve? We think we are one step ahead, but it's more likely that they have already plotted our actions. We have the might, but they head the wisdom and intelligence to attack us."

"This isn't something that you can prepare for. We've been watching and monitoring the nearby ships. It's almost impossible for any of them to sneak in. We even found the powerful Exoskeletons that are preparing to attack! Only Pridgeon's team is hidden!" Gallium frowned.

"And I can sense if an Unlocked is nearby through the scent of his blood. We've also managed to commandeer this ship secretly and limited the number of people who know of our presence here!" Akasha added.

"I don't know... I only met Cliff. And that guy managed to do some crazy stuff because he was imitating Lowengren's lies. And he already did crazy, great things." Austin sighed again.

"Relax, Austin!" Alvin laughed.

"No. Austin's right." Grant Hermes interjected.

"We are in the palm of Arthur and Lowengren's hand. This battle is practically the ultimate showdown between brains and brawns. It won't take much for them to make us reveal ourselves. We opted to create chaos and make those nations make a sudden barrage on the land of Egypt with earth-digging missiles to create a hole and use my wind to find it, right? It's a good plan, but I never expected to pull this off because they would stop us! I humored you guys just to see what the best plans we can come up with and how they counter it."

"Just why do you respect a bunch of Heroes?" Akasha asked.

"Hey!" Gallium frowned.

"The are Heroes, but the threat-level they give is at an Overcomers level. They told us remember? Arthur has defeated Richie, and their group was able to defeat the Tyrant Empress. Who knows what will happen the next-"

"Ship integrity has been compromised. Weapons of Mass Destruction, SIFAS self-destruct sequence activated. Please abandon shi- Override accepted. Five. Four. Three..."

CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!

The entire team of Hermes, Akasha, and Gallium sped to the skies and flew with great speed.

The moment they flew, all the ships saw how a strange set of foreign beings began to fly up in the heavens with great speed.

Suddenly, a loud broadcast erupted. All cities of Egypt began to give alerts to all ships.

"The Lost Primordial is here! He has manipulated your captains to fight and attack nearby nations! Please unite and stop firing! You were not supposed to attack! Egypt will forgive your attacks but an attack that Lost Primordial or we will all die! Contain your captain and leaders as they are mind-controlled!" Lowengren's voice erupted.

The soldiers heard it and began to search.

"There! An unidentified group of flying men!"

"Quick halt the attack! Protect the cargo and focus on attacking the Lost Primordial!"

Even though these were trade ships, if they did not equip them with any weapons of warfare to pass through enemy territory, then the nations that sent them would be stupid. Each ship had a large escort that would accompany and protect each ship.

But now, all of their attention was fixated on the sudden appearance of unidentified individuals who zoomed right for the sky. 

The anti-air guns of all nearby ships began to shoot.

Some of the further ships began to deploy their long-ranged weapons.

Almost instantly, the chaos that Hermes's team tried to create was focused on them.

"Drats." Omega gave a rarely frustrated sigh.

"Drats indeed. Those brats! That warning was so sudden that it caused all of us to fly like out so fast!" Hermes laughed.

"Ugh. Damn! So this is lying? I bolted like crazy, thinking my life would be over! Well, not as fast as Austin." Alvin also laughed.

The group then felt a terrifying terror.

Akasha was raging mad.

"THAT BRAT!"

"Relax, Akasha. Remember our purpose. We are to fight each other, but at the right moment, we throw all that rage and anger to the secret elites that we saw."

Austin was horrified at what he saw. An entire volley of rockets and weapons were headed their way.

"I was afraid of their schemes, but this is crazy! With just one lie and all our plans came tumbling down! So now, instead of chaos, we have an entire army after us!" Austin was cursing.

Everyone felt a mix of emotions. The announcement was so sudden that they believed it and immediately reacted. There was no time to sit down and process the information.

"Take lessons from that lie. A lie given at a very limited time frame is scary. And what is even scarier is that he could have been telling the truth! Lowengren masked his voice to make it sound robotic and somehow managed to broadcast it on the ship. So his lies made us believe it. But he could have easily have made the real thing. If we refuse to believe his lies, we might have found ourselves not believing the boy who cried wolf and would end up getting blown up for real. We believed his lie because of Lowengren's Maneuver too! Ugh. This is suddenly annoying."

"Boss, let's not forget that Harker is here! If he tells the truth and masks it, it will also have some terrifying effects! Just as how Lowengren's lie got us out here, Harker's truth can also trap us!"

Gallium and Akasha had angry expressions. They finally took the enemy with great caution and even a little bit of fear with what had just happened.

"What do we do now?" Akasha asked.

The bombardment began, and the group began to fly at high speeds and even split up. 

Wind currents allowed the group to move except for Gallium, who free fell towards one of the ships.

Wind Whisperer connected them all, allowing them to maintain a channel of communication. 

"What's the plan? How do we stop this attack?" Akasha asked.

"I don't think it will help if we make any. Any plan we create would be easily countered." Hermes chuckled.

"The boss is right. At this rate, it's better just to charge there and attack Egypt." Austin sighed.

"Then let's kill them now and race down to Egypt and torture that kid!" Akasha flew down as strange wings appeared around her. 

"Wait for a bit, will you? Even though I said that any plans to counter this are useless, we need to have a general plan to help us move. Otherwise, they will use your anger to lead them. Austin?"

"We can't charge to Egypt with an enemy shooting us from behind. We weaken the forces then begin an attack against Egypt. Those other guys watching will soon join this war and try to steal as many resources as they can. If we open a path in Egypt, some of those nations might get greedy and attack by following our lead. Just as how Egypt has an excuse to attack, their counter-attack could also be grounds for the other nations to attack."

"That makes sense. Alright, you guys know what to do?"

"Fight and get to Egypt and torture that kid!"

"Close enough."

"Familiars! Move!" Akasha roared.

On various ships, several figures suddenly emerged. Each ship had about a dozen or so people emerging out of its rooms and began to attack the people on board. Some ran out and jumped out of the ship. Then, a swarm of red bats began to emerge out of nowhere, and it flew in the direction of where these men were jumping.

The men began to walk on the swarm of red bats as they used it as a foothold and started to shoot with the weapons they found on each ship.

The movements were so fast as well and could even match the movements that Jet-Capable Exoskeletons had.

The Unlocked vampires raced through the sky with their dexterity, strength, and aim and began a massacre.

Back in Egypt, Harker and the rest looked at the ongoing battle. Arthur was now starting to mumble but would suddenly stop and mumble again as if he couldn't help it.

"Wow. One phone call and one broadcast did all that?!" Gardo was amazed.

Lowengren and Harker had called one of the people in the ship where Hermes's team stayed. Harker convinced the man and proved that there were invaders within their vessel. Following their instructions, the man who answered the phone secretly took control of the comms and made the announcement which Lowengren delivered through the comm device.

"Now it's time to deploy Egypt's arsenal. This is going to be fun!" Lowengren laughed.