The destruction of multiple pillars back-to-back shook the entire building and was so loud that it woke everyone out of their stupor.
All the onlookers' faces turned bloodless.
Even the legendary Antonio—the monster feared by all in this entire region for decades—wasn't able to defeat the Cloaked Man and was beaten away like a dog. After smacking Antonio away, the cloaked man didn't stop and kept killing the Devils Spice enforcers like he was squashing bugs; even enforcers tens of metres away from him were turned into floor paint without being able to mount any resistance. While killing, the cloaked man also continued to destroy pillar after pillar.
All thousands of onlookers finally realized what the cloaked man was trying to do.
He was bringing the entire Devils Spice skyscraper to the ground!
There were still many people on the higher floors; they would all die, including those on the ground floor!
The previously laid-back attitude of enjoying a good show completely evaporated from their faces.
The cloaked man was simply a Demon! It made no difference to him whether his opponents were hundreds of Rank 1s or Rank 3s; all were nothing but ants to him!
This was not a show they could sit back and enjoy while clapping and admiring the strength of Devils Spice; no, it was the show of Devils Spice's complete collapse! And if they stayed inside the building, they too would be considered direct participants in it! They would all die, either directly at the hands of the Demonic Cloaked Man or when the entire skyscraper collapsed upon them.
All thousands of them turned and bolted toward the exit like mad dogs.
They finally understood why the previous group of people who escaped from the underground passage hadn't stopped to "enjoy" the show and had simply left the building altogether. They had even laughed at those cowardly idiots for looking like pathetic losers who were running with saliva dripping from their wide-open mouths, their eyes wide and bloodshot.
However, now, all the onlookers' expressions had changed to match, as they frantically ran toward the exit like they had lost their minds.
They had now fully grasped the true identity of the Cloaked Demon. They were now certain, without any doubt, that this was the cruelest Demon who had crawled out from the deepest pit of hell to bring pain and misery to everyone. He wasn't a man who wanted to sit back and talk peacefully. He was there to pull thousands of people—innocent or not, mortal or not, adults or not—down to the deepest pit of hell!
They all frenziedly ran toward the sole door of the building.
At first, many people managed to get through; however, due to the difference in speed and strength, someone stumbled over another and fell. Soon, more and more started falling over that person, and within seconds a human barricade was formed that covered the entire door frame. This happened because no one had the patience to pause and let the previous person stand up and leave; each one of them just wanted to escape at their fastest speed.
Many people saw this, and instead of wasting time waiting for the human blockage to get cleared, they tried to break the walls. To their despair, the walls were too sturdy and also part of an array that couldn't be destroyed by Apprentice Ranks.
The smart people among them charged toward the windows, closed or not; they broke them and leapt out, but in no time those also got jammed due to the high human traffic.
Many turned back and noticed that over twenty pillars had already fallen and only a few remained intact; though the building still hadn't collapsed, it was already wobbling and shaking severely.
The crowd of people ran everywhere in panic like headless chickens, searching for any backdoor. But the moment they appeared within the huge range of the Demon, who was taking a large section of the building as his massacre feasting ground, they were all squashed to death without exception, even though they had no intention of fighting him.
The remaining people's eyes were bloodshot. They guessed they probably only had a few seconds before the upper floors completely collapsed upon their heads. So, out of their utter desperation, they did something which was considered 'inhuman' even by their standards, something they might never forgive themselves for or ever recover from mentally.
They pulled out their swords or whatever weapons they had and charged toward the human barricade at the door and windows. They hacked at them indiscriminately while screaming with madness. Whether it was a man, woman, child, or whoever or whatever was there blocking them from exiting this hellish building, they chopped them down like overgrown bushes.
Blood-churning screams were heard from everywhere within Devils Spice.
The moment the killing began, everyone lost their minds to bloodlust.
Many simply hacked whoever was in front of them, even if the person was not part of the barricade but was someone trying to clear it.
After a person was killed, their corpse didn't disappear, so someone tried to move it away, but someone else threw a fireball at them so both could burn to ash. But they were mere 'paper' Mana Wielders; their fire was not at a level to successfully burn another Mana Wielder to ash, and this created even more chaos, with fire spreading and blocking the exit. The people who saw the person throwing the fireball, instead of escaping, charged at her and started hacking her like inmates from the most insane asylum.
Everyone in Devils Spice descended into absolute insanity!
Many people lost their family members in the stampede and craziness; many cried and wanted to search for the killer of their loved ones, but the killer had either escaped or already perished. It was complete chaos.
However, during all that, not a single person blamed or pointed their finger at the Cloaked Demon; even subconsciously, they avoided blaming him as if he weren't the source of it all. It was because of the deep horror and terror that Eric had implanted in their minds.
It wasn't Eric's intention, but it was the crowd who had selfishly decided to evaluate him as a cruel and terrorizing Demon. From Eric's viewpoint, he was innocent!
Amidst all this, the door and windows were eventually cleared and a lot of people managed to escape. But soon someone slipped on the blood, which ended up creating another barricade, and history repeated itself as the cleansing process continued.
Eric stood beside the immobile Antonio and watched the disaster unfold and repeat itself.
He was utterly and completely speechless.
The current situation was so chaotic that even if he himself had tried to create it, he would have failed. But the funny thing was, he was indeed the mastermind!
Eric had already destroyed all the pillars, but the building wouldn't easily collapse unless one side of the wall was at least brought down. He knew this would happen, as the building was very tough and had arrays planted everywhere. Nevertheless, the entire Devils Spice skyscraper was now hopeless; it could only be destroyed and rebuilt again from the ground up.
People from the upper floors were jumping down from the broken stairway to escape, as only through the ground floor could they leave. Due to this, fresh bodies constantly kept adding to the chaotic party to make it even livelier.
Eric sighed; although he didn't care if all these people died or lived, he wasn't specifically targeting them.
'So please be like good boys and girls and walk out of the hall calmly in a civilized and noble way, and this kind of tragedy wouldn't happen!'
Everyone could then go back home and tell stories to their families about the great show that Eric had personally provided them for free, while also enjoying some ice cream.
'Hm... I also want some ice cream. Sigh, I should go home now; it was a tiring day.'
Eric looked down and saw the murderous and hateful glare of Antonio, and in response, he smiled brightly.
He used his Telepathic Slap to pick the man up into the air and started heading toward one side of the wall that ran from the back to the front of the huge hall.
Eric had already killed all of Devils Spice enforcers, so the surroundings were empty and peaceful.
"Cough, cough. Why... Just why! Answer me!" Antonio coughed, and blood spilled out of his mouth due to his injuries. He was feeling a level of hate that he had never experienced before in his long life. His entire life's hard work was ruined in a single night!
"You should know the reason." While saying this, Eric pulled down his face mask and raised his hood high enough for his face to be visible. He had a calm smile on his face as he faced Antonio, who was staring back at him in absolute shock.
'So young... Is this even real?' Antonio once again questioned if all of this was simply a nightmare and he would soon wake up to his wife's gentle caress.
Antonio gasped at the painful sensations he was experiencing throughout his body, which told him the current situation was very real.
He took a deep breath and spoke hatefully, "You... I got the signal from Rudin, so your target was him. Then why did you kill so many people? Why are you destroying this entire building?! My entire life's hard work! Why are you killing so many innocent people who had nothing to do with this matter?!!!" He bellowed, and then started coughing up more blood.
Eric glanced at Antonio strangely and retorted, "I remember that after I killed Rudin, I wasn't exactly welcomed like a hero. That was still fine, but then you brought so many scary-looking people to attack me, and you are still asking this silly question?"
Antonio was speechless, but there was no way he could digest this!
"Then why destroy the building? Many people are still upstairs. What have they done to you?! They will all die!"
Eric gave Antonio another, even weirder look. "I can see that you are a man of action; you have killed countless people, I assume? Ask yourself, when you took action, was it always measured on a weight scale? Did you never harm people who had done nothing to you? I will leave your subordinates' doings aside."
Antonio was once again speechless. He had battled and killed ever since he was just a kid and a mortal. The people he had killed were not always necessarily in a frontal battle either, and he had done countless heinous deeds when he was young and while growing up. Even during the time he was building Devils Spice from the ground up and becoming the king of the underworld in this entire region, he had done countless inhuman things.
The number of people he had killed and threatened by various wicked means was countless. It had been more than fifty years. Though he no longer killed or did such ruthless things personally, it was a fact that the blood he had spilled was many times more than the number of people who had died and would die within Devils Spice tonight.
No matter what, his family was still at stake, so he simply couldn't drink poison and die. Thus, he spoke with a pleading tone, "I don't know how Rudin provoked a monster like you, but you have already killed plenty as revenge. Just help the innocent people leave this place."
Eric glanced at Antonio from the corner of his eye and answered with an indifferent tone, "In the past, Rudin created scrolls to bind two of my friends to a scumbag. Though Rudin was merely doing business, he successfully invited me to this place."
Eric, though he didn't want to acknowledge it and never showed it outwardly, had actually been furious ever since he picked up the two scrolls from Jack's body.
Killing people was different from torturing them; what those scrolls were about to do was slowly torture both Lyria and Livy until they died. He just couldn't take that smilingly.
"As for innocent people... Yes, they are innocent in terms of not provoking me, but I don't see any reason or obligation to play the same game with them. Do I?"
Why should he sit back and only retaliate when trouble arrived at his door? Since when did people become so 'good'? At least he would happily pass that responsibility to the good people, and thankfully, he wasn't one.
Antonio thought that Eric must have been provoked somehow and that was why he was killing so many people, as even he himself wouldn't kill so many people indiscriminately without any reason or cause.
So, Antonio quickly gave it some thought and guessed that Eric's anger might be due to what he had seen at the underground arena, so he quickly tried to fix the misunderstanding. "I don't know what provoked you so much that you still keep killing even after accomplishing your goal; was it due to the mortal fights in the underground arena? You have misunderstood, they are..."
"They are immigrants from outside of Batley City and have volunteered by themselves to go through all that while earning some money. Is that correct?" Eric completed what Antonio wanted to say with a wide smile.
Antonio looked at Eric in shock, "Y-you knew?"
"I guessed." Eric laughed. He had seen enough immigrants on Earth and their lives to understand what the current immigrants from the surroundings of Batley City had to go through. And the immigrants who were forced to migrate due to the helplessness of war and destruction always suffered the most, as they were depressed and desperate to begin with.
Eric smirked at Antonio, "I am guessing you have a wife or children, or perhaps both upstairs, right?"
Seeing Antonio's expression change drastically, Eric continued without any emotion, "Just let them go. They will live a hellish life after you die. People who have a grudge against you will make a living hell out of them."
Why should he go and save a family who would definitely hold a grudge against him for destroying their wealth and loved ones? He was neither so naive nor so heroic.
Antonio shook violently inside Eric's Telepathic Slap grasp.
He painfully closed his eyes, and all the memories related to his wife came flooding back inside him.
He had lived for so long and had slept with countless women, even forcing himself upon many during his youth, but none had been able to conceive a child for him.
A day finally arrived when, for the first time, he fell in love with a mere commoner girl, who was also born blind. She didn't look at his wealth, power, looks, strength, or anything, but just the burden he had been silently carrying for so long. Eventually, without knowing when, she became an inseparable part of his life and someone whom he dearly loved and could even sacrifice his life for.
She had already provided him with everything and made him feel complete with her gentleness. And just a year ago, she had even given birth to his son! He couldn't express how happy he was; he thought he would never have children as he had failed for ages.
A Mana Wielder has a difficult time having children; it is not rare, but a percentage of them have extra difficulty.
Even so, Aubrey gave birth to Rory—a mere mortal gave birth to his son! It was a miracle, as a mortal and a Mana Wielder have even more difficulty reproducing. He was so happy that he had stopped personally harming others ever since.
But now...
Antonio knew nothing could save him. The blue-eyed boy who was grabbing him with some invisible, large fist could and would definitely kill him. After his death, he couldn't imagine the pain both Aubrey and Rory would have to go through. He had no backup plan, as he never thought he would be so cornered within Batley City, and his wife was still blind. Unfortunately, no potion helped her, and he didn't dare to force her to take Tier 2 or above potions in case she died, and for some unknown reason, she herself also didn't want to be healed.
Antonio suddenly recalled just how many families he had destroyed and just how many children, directly or indirectly, he had ended. His mouth suddenly tasted a weird irony that he never imagined he would experience.
He also understood the boy in front of him was not talking casually. This boy, not to mention help, would kill his wife and son without hesitation.
Yet, somehow, he also couldn't bring himself to blame or hate the blue-eyed boy for it.
'I am sorry, Aubrey, my love, and Rory, my only son. I am just... too much of a failure to be either a husband or a father. I-I should have listened to your words, Aubrey... and should have left this place long ago, and lived somewhere far away together with both of you... but now it's too late to regret...'
Antonio sighed. He felt his life starting to fade away—all his powerful strength, confidence, energy, motivation, everything starting to dissipate into thin air. He only wished he could feel his wife's gentle touch once more, but that was also no longer possible.
Antonio opened his eyes, and the previous hate, anger, panic, desperation, and other such emotions disappeared. He became extremely calm—so calm and carefree that perhaps he had never been since his birth.
Antonio stared at Eric for a long time and suddenly asked in a curious tone, "Just who are you?"
Eric grinned widely.