After Lavinia stopped talking outside, Max almost immediately heard her voice in his ear. "It's done. Are you ready for the next phase?"

  "Yes," said Max. "For now, prioritize targeting the people that have mana fluctuations somewhat like mine, the mana swordsmen, and the people that are compromised with demonic energy."

  "Got it," Lavinia's voice was grim.

  A moment later, a bead that Max had placed on the ground in one pile was picked up. He’d developed this particular bead to be an explosive that used a pseudo-mana body as a catalyst. If it were thrown or detonated normally, it would be about the same power as one of his old explosive beads. But if it made contact with someone that had a pseudo-mana body, like, for instance, a person on the Mana Swordsman Path, the explosion would be far more deadly.

  Once the bead was picked up, an ectoplasmic spider solidified around it. Max heard Lavinia's voice again. "This is the pile that kills people who stole your technique, right?"

  That's right. Max sent back mentally. The other pile is for the demonic cultivators.

  "Got it."

  A second later, Max saw one of the beads that he'd placed in the second pile lift up, and a spider formed around it too. Quietly, Max said, "Prioritize the demonic-infected people."

  Lavinia gave him a wordless acknowledgment, and for the next thirty seconds or so, spiders made of ectoplasm picked up beads and scuttled out the door. For someone with arachnophobia, it would have been absolutely horrifying.

  Meanwhile, on Max's shoulder, Anansi had materialized. The spider god remnant didn't say anything, but on his humanoid face, a smirk had formed that just kept growing deeper. He's really enjoying this, thought Max.

  Lavinia had left one spirit outside the building to keep watch over what was taking place, and she gave him regular updates. Once all the spiders left with their deadly payloads, Max didn't have anything to do other than hide. So, over the course of several minutes, that's exactly what he did. Every few seconds after the first minute, he heard or felt explosions throughout the building and also picked up sounds of grief and fury.

  The Victory Guild was full of Challengers too, after all. So there was crashing throughout the building as Victory Guild members searched for Max or tried destroying the spiders. However, stopping them wasn't so easy. The diameter of one of Lavinia's spirit spiders was about the size of a dinner plate, like the spider that had materialized in the hallways earlier. However, they did not have to be that size, and could change to be even as small as a real-life wolf spider. This meant they could travel through vents and under doors. There were very few places in the entire building that Lavinia's spirits couldn't reach. On top of that, in their smaller size, they moved slower, but were harder to see.

  For the Victory Guild, trying to find Max had immediately become much more complicated due to the threat of Kamikaze spiders.

  Lavinia's spirit posted outside reported that nobody had left the building to take advantage of Max's amnesty. He shook his head sadly. Shame. He didn't know whether it was because the threat wasn't effective enough or if everybody in the Victory Guild truly was compromised by demonic energies. It had occurred to him, even before confirming the presence of demonic energy, that one reason the war for Earth was not going well could be because of demonic influence. It made a sort of sense, too. If the regular state of the universe was planets being threatened by monster invasion, then demonic entities, which were sort of like spiritual vultures, would find plenty of opportunity in such situations.

  As yet another one of Lavinia's spirits manifested in front of him, picking up yet another bead to carry off, Lavinia suddenly whispered urgently in his ear, "Max, something's happening. Lots of people are starting to come from outside."

  "What do you mean?" he asked.

  "It looks like it's Victory Guild members. There's a lot of them. Quite a few are coming from the same direction as the teleporter."

  Max nodded, and his calm state of mind wasn't shaken. He'd pretty much predicted this. The police outside and the press and the Patriot Guild members had instructions to let any Victory Guild personnel pass. After all, if his prey came to him, it made his hunting easier.

  Lavinia's spirit continued to pulse out fluctuations that hid Max's presence.

  After a couple more minutes, as she tracked the newcomers, she asked, "What do you want me to do?”

  "Just keep attacking," said Max.

  The ghost girl subvocally sent acknowledgement, and the ectoplasm spiders resumed their deadly activities. Suddenly, Lavinia said, "A lot of the poison smoke and the other smoke is starting to clear up. It looks like there are groups organizing to comb the building now, looking for you. On top of that, fewer of my spirits are actually getting close enough to do any damage with your beads anymore. The groups that split up in the building have people dedicated to watching for them."

  Max calmly nodded. He had predicted this, too. After all, the Victory Guild may be rotten to the core, but they were still a powerful Challenger guild. He could hear fewer and fewer explosions throughout the building now, almost like listening to the tail end of a batch of popcorn popping.

  Finally, he told Lavinia, "All of your spirits that still have a bead, have them find a good target, blow up, and then just return. Keep them on standby." He scooped up the beads on the floor. "It's time to wait now."

  "Got it. Do you want me to start phase D?"

  "Not quite yet," said Max. "But prepare for it."

  "I already am," she whispered. "There's a corpse staged in the bushes outside where nobody can see. My spirit pushed it out a window a few minutes ago. They were distracted outside at the time and I don’t think anyone saw it fall."

  Perfect, thought Max. If this had been the world before professional monster hunters and worldwide war became a thing, he had no doubt that the reaction for what was taking place right now would be vastly different. But the fact the world was constantly in danger, or experience erupting violence, plus the fact the Patriot guild was outside, some of whom were no doubt very powerful, and the media was already present, all drastically changed things.

  So far, his best cover to prevent being found by the Victory guild had been causing such a ruckus and then actively attacking. It was hard for the Victory guild to kick in doors and search for him when they were either dodging explosions or watching others be attacked. He had no doubt that quite a few of them were trying to save lives or heal their guild members. It was a mess for sure. He could hear the continued chaos all throughout the huge, former hotel.

  With all of this going on, there were bodies lying all over the place throughout the building.

  And of course, the poison smoke and initial attack that made it difficult to locate Max, also made it easier for Lavinia to steal a body.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Lavinia gave him a regular status report. "Max, it looks like there are people teleporting to the roof. Dozens at least."

  That must be more of the Victory the guild members, thought Max. "What's going on outside?"

  "There are a number of people I don’t know and disaster relief worker civilians who have tried breaking through the circle of people outside, but the multiple barriers you set up are blocking them. Law Enforcement and the Patriot guild are still letting through Victory Guild members though."

  "Perfect," said Max. "Okay, go ahead and start plan D."

  "On it."

  A moment later, Lavina appeared outside the build, manifesting for everyone to see. Max could hear what she was saying, both faintly outside, and through one of her spirits left near his ear.

  She thundered, “Attention! Some of you might be skeptical about our claims that the Victory Guild is rotten and needs purging! However, let me remind you that the Utah front line, which is the portion that the Victory Guild most often serves at and is sometimes even in charge of, has had little to no improvement and has actually been pushed back! Some of you may point out that this is hardly unique and that plenty of other guilds have had similar lack of success. However, the Victory Guild has been compromised, or at verified traces of demonic energy. For those of you who do not know, any Challenger with supernatural power may be approached by or coerced by those who serve the dark to represent evil or chaotic interests in exchange for riches or power! To prove, many of you might be rightfully skeptical of an unknown spirit making accusations like this. So to prove it, to quell any suspicion you might have, please examine this body."

  Max couldn't see what was happening, but he knew what the onlookers would currently be witnessing. A few of Lavinia's slow-moving ectoplasmic golems were carrying the body of one of the dead Victory Guild Challengers that had lingering demonic energy. The golems set the body down near the perimeter around the Victory Guild. The spot was pre-planned. It was near a handful of Patriot Guild challengers that could help, but also plenty of other police and fire department representatives.

  Lavinia said, "If our expectations are correct, Victory Guild members will come out immediately to reclaim the body, while you are all shocked, before anyone can inspect it. They will probably–" her words were cut off by a tremendous crash.

  A window on the third floor exploded, and a big man jumped out of the building, rushing to the dead guild member. Without wasting a single motion, he bent down and scooped up the corpse, easily demolishing the burden-carrying forms of Lavinia's spirits. Then, running back towards the building, he leaped and made it neatly back into the window.

  Max heard the crash and the sound from outside, but Lavinia quietly relayed everything that she was seeing. Even outside the building, she continued, "As you can see, the Victory Guild cannot afford to have anybody examine those types of bodies too closely. Even the most skeptical of you must acknowledge that what we just saw was suspicious, to say the least. Now, I implore all of you—"

  Lavinia's voice was cut off as a huge shout shattered more of the windows from the upper floors of the building. "Enough!" The voice projected with enough force to set off nearby car alarms.

  "Who is it?" thought Max to Lavinia.

  "I think it's Toby Lynch."

  Max narrowed his eyes. He was not expecting Toby Lynch or Sam Lynch to actually make an appearance anytime soon. "Well, I guess I should go outside too."

  "What if it's a trap?" said Lavinia.

  "It's always a trap," Max responded. "But I wasn't scared of these guys to begin with, and if one of the leaders is coming out now, it means that we probably don't have any hope of saving any of the people who might not have been directly involved with them."

  "I don't think any members of the Victory Guild are not directly involved with them," said Lavinia. "A bunch might have been innocent at first, but now..." She let her words trail off. She knew about demonically influenced fighters as well. It was possible to save them, but only if they wanted to save themselves. Max wasn't willing to die a second time because of misplaced pity for people he didn't even know—people who might have been doing awful things and, at the very least, had probably been sabotaging the human war effort.

  Max got up and left his hiding place, moving towards the front side of the building. As he did, he heard Toby Lynch speaking in mid-air. The man was obviously using some sort of mana amplification as he shouted, "You know, originally I was going to play all this off as a terrorist attack. And after I killed the little bastard that just blew up half my building, I was going to use it for sympathy to grow the power and influence of my guild. But I guess the gig is up now." He chuckled. "My brother is in there doing what he needs to do. So I'm sorry that he can't make an appearance. But you will soon discover what he's up to—what my whole guild has been up to for quite some time actually. You see, again, I wasn't planning on doing this now; it's quite premature. But sometimes you have to make an omelet when some eggs are already broken."

  After Max found a window that had already been busted out, using a simple application of his four-star mana body, he spread his wings and allowed himself to float upwards from the opening. Down below, he could see that the majority of onlookers were absolutely shocked. All of the reporters, drones, and magical constructs rigged up with cameras zoomed all over the place, all trying to get the best shot or the best angle of what was happening. He was sure that the reporters were already crafting attention-getting headlines in their heads about the incredible story they were witnessing, the footage they were capturing.

  The reporters filming live were whispering into their mics.

  Max knew from his research that nothing quite like this had happened before. He'd also done plenty of research on Toby Lynch and Sam Lynch, which was how he knew the moment he laid eyes on the man that Lavinia had been correct when she named him.

  Toby was pale with blonde hair. He had a big bushy beard and wore thick armor. The man had no weapons in his hands, but his baleful aura was so strong that one of the windows in the building nearby, which had completely shattered from his shout earlier, was trembling in its frame. His raptor gaze locked onto Max the moment he left the building.

  The big man said, "You must be the guy. You know, I sure hate you, a C-rank that comes in and destroys my guild like this. But to be honest, I haven't wanted to be playing at this hero shit for a while now—that was all Sam, why we kept this up. So I suppose I should thank you, whatever your name is."

  "It's Max. You knew my rank, so the idea you forgot my name is obvious bullshit. And considering I'm the reason you were originally dual-Pathed, you should speak with a bit more respect."

  "Respect is earned, not given." The big blonde man smiled, but his eyes were flat. Intense killing intent rolled off of him in waves.

  Completely nonplussed, Max responded, "I don't know, I came in here single-handedly and blew up half your stupid building, your dumbass guild built on broken promises and demonic stupidity, and I don't even know how many people I've killed so far. If that's not worth at least a little bit of respect, well, I hate to be your server. You're probably one of those assholes that tip like two cents, right? Find something wrong and have to make a self righteous point about it?"

  Toby blinked at Max a few times before laughing heartily.

  Meanwhile, Max was ready for anything. He didn't even have to send a reminder to Lavinia. She'd already consolidated all her spirits. Fighting directly would not be the most efficient use of their power,but the gig was up now. Part of the reason he’d used them as sappers earlier was to try saving as much of the surrounding buildings and city as possible. He had a feeling that if he clashed directly with Toby, Sam, and their entire guild, it was going to cause a lot of collateral damage. But he was a realist. Max wasn’t delusional enough to think that declaring war on the Victory Guild wouldn’t have some ramifications for himself, Vegas, and probably even the rest of the world. But any guilt he might have felt had disappeared after verifying that the Victory Guild had been infiltrated by demonic energies.

  Max continued to float upwards, and as a result, he got a bird's eye view of the moment bright red runes flashed all through the city around the Victory Guild headquarters. Continuing to speak conversationally with mana amplifying his voice, Toby said, "We weren't going to tip off the world that we have this capability now, but oh well. Sam is far more upset about it than I am."

  A second later, rather than a trickle of Victory Guild members teleporting to the top of the roof, returning to help in their guild’s time of need, over one hundred of them appeared at once. The newcomers appeared about ten feet up all around the converted hotel, most of them issuing a squawk of surprise. A few seconds later, the glowing runes changed.

  Too late, Max realized that the magic circle was far outside the ring of onlookers and law enforcement. They were inside of it. One of the people below threw the hood of their hoodie back, and Max was shocked to recognize Lance in the crowd. He hadn't known that his friend had even even coming.

  The runes blazed brighter, and Max shoved fuel into the mana furnace that was his body. The wings he had, courtesy of Daliko, allowed him far better acceleration and control in flight than he'd ever had in his previous life, even at higher levels of power. But before he could reach Toby Lynch, the man began cackled and launched a missile of red energy at Max.

  Max swerved to the side, dodging the attack, but at that very moment, the runes grew even brighter, and the world flared white before disappearing.