"Saitama, wait for my signal. When I tell you to move, then you move. After this is over, I'll treat you to whatever you want to eat."
Lucien leaned closer to Saitama and spoke in a low voice, his expression serious.
When Lucien got involved in dangerous situations, he followed one principle above everything else: stability.
Some people would call him a coward, but he did not care. He was dealing with someone who clearly possessed cheats. No one could predict what kind of unexpected tricks such enemies might pull.
The short haired woman he encountered in the Pirate World had left a deep impression on him.
If that woman had been that dangerous, then the other two associated with her were certainly not simple either. The enemies he faced were becoming stronger and stronger.
"No problem."
Saitama nodded seriously, though his mind had already begun selecting what food he would order later.
Seeing Saitama agree, Lucien quietly relaxed a little. Then his body slowly began to float upward from the ground.
He liked dealing with simple minded Sons of Destiny like Saitama. As long as he understood their personality flaws, guiding them by the nose was easy.
Naive people were always the easiest to manipulate.
"Compared to hunting you, I actually prefer missions related to Sons of Destiny. They are simply too naive and foolish."
Olatayo clasped his hands together. His plum colored pupils looked indifferently at Lucien, though his peripheral vision occasionally glanced toward Saitama, who was still calmly eating barbecue on the ground.
In Olatayo's eyes, Saitama looked like an idiot.
The man was clearly being used yet remained completely unaware. Even if someone possessed invincible power, if his brain was slow then he would eventually be cheated until nothing remained.
Still, it was unfortunate.
The mission given by the Main God this time was only to hunt down the Darkness.
Lucien did not reply. Instead, he silently released his senses, attempting to detect the presence of the other two Reincarnators.
"Relax. Those two are still on their way. I just happened to arrive first."
Olatayo looked arrogant, but unexpectedly he spoke quite a lot instead of attacking immediately.
He had already noticed Lucien's subtle movements.
"It seems you're confident."
Lucien narrowed his eyes slightly.
This man clearly knew about Saitama. Yet he still dared to come directly here without hesitation. That meant one of three possibilities.
He was a fool.
He was extremely arrogant.
Or he was absolutely certain he could control the situation.
Even if Saitama attacked him, he must believe he could either withstand it or escape.
"I want to know what makes you different from those Transmigrators."
Olatayo carefully examined Lucien from head to toe.
He had completed many missions for the Main God, but this was the first time he had encountered someone classified as Darkness. The reward alone was extraordinary. Simply killing Lucien would earn him one hundred thousand exchange points.
In a previous mission, the highest reward he had ever seen was only thirty thousand.
Because of that, he wanted to learn more about this so called Darkness.
If he encountered another one in the future, that knowledge might save his life.
That was the only reason he had not attacked yet.
"There's no difference. You're a Reincarnator, and I'm just a Transmigrator from Earth."
Lucien spread his hands casually while studying Olatayo in return.
No matter how he looked at the man, the golden armor and those swirling portals behind him resembled the Gate of Babylon from Gilgamesh.
If those golden whirlpools were not the Gate of Babylon, Lucien might as well jump into the sea and start filming an action movie.
"It seems we come from the same place. Since you are a Transmigrator, you must have a cheat."
Olatayo's golden eyebrows twitched slightly.
"That makes things troublesome."
He knew very well how dangerous some cheats possessed by Transmigrators could be.
In the previous world he had visited, he encountered one such cheat and nearly died because of it.
"You Reincarnators aren't weak either. That looks like Gilgamesh's Gate of Babylon."
Lucien smirked slightly.
"Since you recognize it, then there is no need to hide anything. I'll send you on your way."
Olatayo's expression turned cold.
He raised his right hand and pressed it downward.
Behind him, golden weapons burst out from countless portals like bullets, forming a dense rain of light that filled the sky.
Boom.
The air beneath Lucien's feet exploded violently.
His entire body ignited with white flames as he shot upward toward the sky.
He had no intention of destroying Z City. That place was practically a treasure land for villains. Most monsters naturally gathered there.
"Vimana."
Olatayo looked upward and snorted.
Brilliant golden light appeared beneath his feet. A magnificent flying vessel made from gold and emerald materialized beneath him.
This was the legendary flying ship Vimana.
Olatayo sat down calmly, and in the next moment the golden vessel shot into the sky, leaving behind a long rainbow trail before vanishing into the clouds.
"Oh, that's fast."
Watching both of them disappear, Saitama quickly grabbed several takoyaki skewers before jumping into the air.
The ground beneath him collapsed into a deep pit.
Then he vanished as well.
Meanwhile, inside the headquarters of the Hero Association, alarms suddenly blared.
"Alarm. Alarm."
"Two powerful energy signatures have appeared in Z City and are now approaching the upper atmosphere above F City. Their threat level has exceeded Dragon level."
"The energy continues to rise. It has now surpassed God level."
The loud announcement instantly woke many staff members and heroes who had been sleeping.
"Damn it, why is it God level again?"
The director hurried through the hallway while putting on his clothes, cursing under his breath as he rushed toward the observation room.
"Director!"
"Director!"
Staff members along the corridor looked extremely tense.
"Can the satellite capture them?"
The director stared at the monitoring screen, breathing heavily.
All he could see were two streaks of light twisting together like racing rainbows.
"Slow the footage to one hundred and fifty times slower. Their speed is still too fast."
"Confirmed. One of them is the same God level being who killed Tatsumaki."
"Who is fighting him?"
"Notify F City immediately. Begin emergency evacuation. Even the shockwaves of a God level battle could destroy the entire city."
"Yes, sir."
At that moment, the citizens of F City were already waking up because of violent tremors.
"What is that?"
Countless people stared up at the night sky.
Streams of golden light flooded the heavens like a glowing storm, illuminating the entire city as brightly as daylight.
"All citizens please evacuate immediately. This is a God level disaster."
"All citizens please evacuate immediately. This is a God level disaster."
The deafening warning echoed across the city.
The panic spread instantly.
People screamed as they fled. Loudspeakers blared nonstop warnings. Fear filled every street.
Boom.
Boom.
Swords and spears rained down from the sky like missiles. Each impact shattered the ground and created enormous craters more than a hundred meters wide.
Moments later, the weapons dissolved into particles of light and vanished, leaving only ruins behind.
"This is getting troublesome."
High above the atmosphere, Lucien gripped the Red Wolf frying pan in his right hand, both the pan and his body coated in powerful Armament Haki.
With rapid movements he deflected the countless weapons raining toward him.
His eyes locked onto Olatayo, who sat calmly upon the glowing Vimana.
A massive wolf tooth club appeared in Lucien's left hand. Instantly it expanded into a colossal pillar lined with fangs, sweeping through the clouds as it smashed toward Olatayo.
Lucien never lacked weapons.
"Rainbow Sword."
Facing the incoming strike, a golden portal opened beside Olatayo.
From it emerged a strange demonic blade covered with spiral patterns.
Olatayo grabbed the sword.
Immediately the spiral tip extended into a massive rainbow colored beam of light.
The beam tore through the atmosphere and collided directly with Lucien's wolf tooth club.
A massive shockwave expanded outward in every direction, forcing the clouds and air away.
Lucien's left arm trembled slightly. The impact made his hand numb.
The wolf tooth club shrank back to its original size in his grip.
A small chip had appeared on its surface, though the damage quickly repaired itself.
Lucien narrowed his eyes.
This Gate of Babylon was even more outrageous than the one used by Gilgamesh.
These weapons were not projections.
They were real divine artifacts.
Above the sky, countless golden portals filled the air like stars.
Olatayo raised the Rainbow Sword high.
The enormous rainbow beam once again connected heaven and earth.
At the same time, numerous Noble Phantasms shot toward Lucien with sonic booms.
Clink.
Clang.
Lucien wielded the frying pan and the wolf tooth club in both hands. His figure flickered rapidly through the rain of weapons as he predicted their trajectories.
Still, the attacks were too dense.
Occasionally he was forced to block directly with his weapons.
"Fall."
Olatayo gripped the Rainbow Sword and slashed downward.
The massive rainbow beam descended toward Lucien as if it intended to split the world apart.
Explosions thundered across the sky.
Lucien crossed the frying pan and wolf tooth club together, blocking the descending beam.
The force slammed him downward from the sky in a cascade of explosions.
When he fell to about one hundred meters above the ground, Lucien forcibly stabilized his body.
Then he swung his right leg through the air.
"Rankyaku."
The massive air slash shot upward, tearing through the atmosphere.
The attack climbed nearly fifty thousand meters into the sky as it raced toward Olatayo.