豆豆小说阅读

The Gryphons might have disappeared, but the dungeon had not. It was still looming over the now destroyed garden of Eden, like a bomb waiting to explode. It took a few hours, but the reinforcements arrived there to take care of the mess. The only thing was... there was nothing they could do but wait.

The littered gryphon corpses did surprise the guards. But when they got to know who was responsible for defending countless souls, all of them let out a sigh of relief. Had Ashton not been a part of the trial, then things would have been in a much worse state than it was now.

Sigreid was the first one off the carrierships and immediately took control of the situation. The injured were sent to hospitals while a squad took care of gathering the remains of the dead. This terrorist attack was undoubtedly going to leave a huge mark on the confidence of people over Euphoria.

The Euphorian security force had never faced an attack of such a scale. In fact, they had always managed to quash any attempt at destroying their harmony. But this time, they failed miserably.

The only solace for the people was in the fact the perpetrators that had been caught by Anna. At least they would be able to get some form of justice by punishing them.

The aftermath of the attack was immediately noticed as hundreds of people left the planet and didn\'t even bother completing or registering themselves for the trials. But since a kind of curfew had been imposed around the planet, getting out of there was much more difficult than getting in.

The guards had a reason to believe more terrorists were involved in the planning and the execution of the attack. Also, the quick confession from the captured goons only solidified their decision to do so.

As for Ashton, well, he was more interested in what he had obtained from killing the gryphons. His werewolf and vampire genes finally managed to reach the maximum limit. This meant, that now he only had to focus on his undead genes and he would be on the way to his second evolution.

But before that, Ashton found himself surrounded by a couple of \'guests\'.

"Looks like I was right after all," Otiga sighed, "if only the others took my word a bit more seriously. Which they did not, simply because it involved a club of goofy radical idiots."

As soon as Otiga arrived at the trial grounds, she immediately sought Ashton, because she knew he was the one who took care of the gryphons. She was followed by Shul in his wheelchair. After exchanging greetings, all of them decided to have a chat together, mainly to discuss their next plan of action.

"I can understand," Ashton replied, "When Anna brought them over, I was like, \'These morons caused all this mess?\'. They might not look the part, but they were certainly the ones who executed the plan."

"Even though quite a few lives were lost, thanks to your efforts, it wasn\'t a complete obliteration like we had thought." Shul gave Ashton one of his charismatic smiles, "But young lad, would you mind telling me something?"

"That... should depend on the question. Don\'t you think?"

"I told you, his tongue moves faster than a bullet." Otiga laughed.

Ashton more or less knew what Shul wanted to know. The same thing as the rest of them... while none of their attacks was working against the gryphons, how did he manage to kill so many of them? That too, all by himself?

he couldn\'t remember how many times he was asked the same thing over and over. First by the survivors, then by Sigreid and his soldiers, and the list went on and on. Every time he gave them the same answer...

"It seems only I can kill them. Isn\'t that weird?"

But he had a feeling, that such a generic answer wasn\'t going to work against the monarchs. For all he knew, Otiga might already know more than she was letting others believe. Considering she was one of the galaxy\'s most valued information dealers.

It was the same reason that baffled Ashton a bit more. Her reputation always preceded her, but still, no one believed her when she alerted them about a potential terrorist attack? Something was odd, it almost felt like someone wanted the attack to happen and undermined the authenticity of her information.

\'The matter doesn\'t involve me. Whatever happens on Euphoria is none of my concern.\'

[What if the motive behind the attack was to get rid of you?]

\'What do you mean?\'

[Think about it. You have made quite a few powerful enemies here. They wouldn\'t want anything more than getting rid of you. But since they can\'t go against you openly, they decided to pull this shit off in hopes you\'ll wound up dead. While the rest of the deaths could be chalked up to collateral damage.]

\'Hm... I don\'t think anyone would go to such an extent, but I can\'t ignore the possibility either. I\'ll keep it in mind for now.\'

Suddenly Ashton felt Anna nudge him, pulling him out of his thoughts.

"My apologies, I got lost in my thoughts. What did you want to know, Lord Shul?" Ashton asked with a smile, "Was it related to the Gryphons?"

Shul nodded while the rest looked at him. Seeing no way out of it, Ashton decided to come up with an elaborate and believable lie.

"Honestly, I don\'t have a definite answer for that." Ashton shrugged, "But I think it had something to do with my vampire genes. It\'s only a guess, but I believe they might be weak to vampire saliva or something. I could be wrong though."

Ashton checked their expression to see whether they believed him or not. But that did not help him in any way, since their expressionless faces were unreadable. So much so, that he ended up yawning right in front of their faces.

"Haha, young man, you should rest more. Especially if you\'re planning on participating in the upcoming raid." Shul smiled.

"Raid?" Ashton asked, "What raid?"

"You don\'t think we\'ll leave that dungeon hanging over us, do you?" Otiga replied, "Shul and I are in agreement. We will try to convince the other monarchs but even if they disagreed, we\'ll send our personal forces inside to take care of the issue at its root. Also, I was hoping you\'ll be willing to join us."

Otiga must have hoped Ashton would immediately agree to her request, because after hearing Ashton\'s reply, she got a bit disappointed.

"Hm... it\'s quite a big decision to make. I\'d like to think over it for a day or two before giving you my answer."