"This is becoming rather complicated."
Thought Werner.
"I wanted to retire in two-three years, but... Now, if what we think is true, then the presence of a traitor among the black cards is really dangerous; I won't get to retire that quick..." He sighed as he was thinking about this.
"Whoever they are, they must be caught as soon as possible." He said to Johan in a low whisper.
Johan put his hand on his shoulder and said.
"Mr Werner... I will take care of the rest of the matter; don't worry, you don't need to assist me. I will handle this kid myself."
Werner didn't say anything; he just subtly smiled at him and went a few feet behind him, only observing.
"Was that the only thing you wanted to talk about? Why I killed your family?" Johan asked Noah.
"...yeah... For now, depending on your answer, you will either get away with only losing your limbs or your life," replied Noah.
Johan burst out laughing, even though the situation was serious; he couldn't help but laugh at what Noah had said. Noah was pissed at his reaction; if not for getting his answers, he would have immediately lunged at him.
Johan took Noah's words as a joke, but Werner didn't; he had really thought that Noah was capable of causing actual harm to him. Noah was not even slightly deemed weak in Werner's eyes.
"O-oh, sorry, sorry," Johan said while trying to stop laughing. Finally, he stopped and decided to tell the answer he wanted.
"But...I have to praise myself first; even with the help of the government and the power user's society, you still weren't able to dig up the evidence I had hidden...right?"
Noah didn't bother replying, but he wasn't calm at all; his anger would have burst out like a volcanic eruption anytime.
He continued.
"First of all... You, Noah Wills, were not a legitimate family member of the Wills family; you and your brother were illegitimate children of the oldest son of the family. That guy was the worst member of that atrocious family... While your mother was...well...one of us, she was a highly respected person in everyone's eyes. But your father, he was an arrogant and characterless piece of shit. Will's family was so powerful that when it existed, he could forcefully do anything he wanted to do to any woman he saw walk by. Your mother was one of those unfortunate girls; she was abducted by him, and he forced himself on her. It took us over 7 years to locate her, but it was already too late. That bastard had cut her up and fed her to pigs moments after she gave birth to your brother..."
Johan continued explaining in detail about the other crimes the Wills committed, which included horrendous crimes like torture... The only reason Johan was complying with his wish was because he was trying to buy enough time for the complete evacuation of the injured people.
...
There was silence for a while; Noah didn't seem bothered at all by hearing all of this...his face was...indifferent.
Even after hearing the truth about his birth.
His indifferent reaction after listening to all this made Johan agitated, even though no one could see his face because of the suit mask.
After a few moments Noah spoke up.
"That's all?? I thought they must have committed some terrible crimes... But that's the reason you killed every member of my family?"
A few minutes ago it was Noah that was bursting with anger, but now... Every single jury that was near them and heard Johan and Noah were going to erupt like a volcano.
The one who was the most angry was no one other than Johan; that sentence was it for him.
Johan never intended to let him live anyway, but he thought that after hearing what his so called 'family' did to his real mother and others, he would be disgusted at them...But...that was not the case.
Johan thought to himself "ah...i guess it was in both of the brother's blood to inherit only the rotten part pf their parents, i shouldnt have spared them just because they were sharing 'her' blood as well."
He lunged straight at Noah without any warning.
Johan's suit, 'The Vanquisher', was named by the one who had helped in its creation. It was like a mechanoid suit, built so that he could use every single combat move that was ever created to its 200% efficiency, including a combination of attack moves that could never be performed by any human even if they had powers.
No creature born in the entire "universe" could ever come to even try to mimic the suit's heightened strength, speed, agility and durability.
The most wondrous thing about it was that all the moves were uploaded in the suit, and all it required from the user was the ability to think out
combinations of attacks and movements.
When Johan used it, he would not use even one per cent of his stamina; everything was done by the suit. All it required was the brain of the user and flexibility to be able to perform inhuman feats.
Once Johan comes in close to his opponents, it's game over for them.
Noah was surprised at his sudden charge at him and couldn't attack in time.
Seven jabs... Johan hit Noah with seven jabs right at his sternum; it was a consecutive attack that only took two seconds to finish, such was the suit's ability to easily exceed human limits by a mile.
Noah was sent several feet behind, crashing into an already evacuated house.
Johan then launched another attack at him; all he needed to do was think to go near him for the suit to heed his demand.
The next attack that came from him was an axe kick. He used the built-in propelling mini rocket engines that worked by absorbing the kinetic energy released by an attack or movement or absorbed by a physical prowess attack.
But this time Noah dodged it in time and used his wind control to try to blast Johan away and himself from him too.
All of this happened in a few seconds.
The blast was too weak; Noah couldn't gather enough wind to do any damage to his suit or even blast him a few metres back.
He then suddenly fell to his knees; the pain he got from the previous attack kicked in.
His sternum was completely broken with the surrounding ribs fractured as well.
Suddenly bouts of vomiting started coming as well, and he was vomiting blood as well.
There was massive internal bleeding inside his body, though he had a big lack of fighting experience against actually strong opponents, as most of the top ten during his ascension were gravely injured, and the fight with the no. 2 was over in an instant.
He could tell that if he takes this much damage again and if he doesn't manage to get away or kill Johan within a few more minutes, he will inevitably die of internal bleeding.
This time Noah attacked; he used the wind in a way that enveloped parts of his body. In this moment he only bothered to cover his chest and arms in a whirlwind that had a limited radius.
He could only cover two or three parts at max; he lunged at Johan and intended to punch him straight in his face.
Johan dodged easily; because of the state Noah was in, his attack speed was nearly halved.
Even a few seconds more of fighting could cost him his life, but he had no idea; he thought he could go on for a few minutes.
After Johan dodged his attack, he decided to minimise the strength and speed output to only forty per cent.
Then came a fury of various blows directed at Noah, various combinations of attacks and martial arts moves.
The suit's output was reduced as directed, and a moment after he had dodged Noah's fists, his suit began to execute his thoughts.
"Taekwondo: 45-degree kick: intestines"
"Taekwondo: 1080-degree kick:- face"
Johan went behind Noah, who was stumbling to stand straight.
"Wrestling: German suplex"
Johan modified the command to make it so that instead of slamming the opponent to the ground, the opponent is thrown several metres back.
Noah wasn't able to do anything; even now he was too weakened to be able to even stand up properly.
In this state even Johan without his suit could beat him in a fight.
Johan was now slowly heading towards him to finish him off for good. Noah was starting to lose consciousness, and after a moment he lost consciousness.
All of the juries present were amazed as well as stunned at his performance, his moves, speed and strength; all of this surprised them and also motivated them.
Minami, standing a few feet behind Werner, wasn't surprised at the slightest; her faith in Johan was unwavering. She was looking at him with only the utmost admiration, at the same level as her teacher.
But among all the juries present there, the one that was the most shocked was Werner. He wasn't shocked at Johan's feat; he had seen Johan's countless feats, and many of them were much more impressive than this.
He was surprised at how weak Noah was, he thought to himself.
"Something is really wrong; none of these people have witnessed the amount of chaos that top power users can create. And this kid had been given the title of the third strongest power user, yet his abilities do not allow him to be even in the top 30.The previous third-ranker was a beast; even Johan in his prime wasn't able to best that guy in a 1v1. I have to discuss it with Johan; he seems to have noticed it too."
Johan reached where Noah's head was and, without a single moment to waste, stomped his head with full power output and completely crushed his head, killing him instantly.
Werner walked up to him and said.
"Johan, there is something we are missing. Let's go back to HQ immediately; this Noah kid was definitely not the third strongest."
Johan replied.
"I know, sir; that's why I told you to let me fight him alone. He was manipulated in a way that he would become the perfect bait for me. My guess is that the one who manipulated him into the top ten was cha—"
Then Johan suddenly stopped talking, and a second later, a loud bang! Sound was heard.
It was the sound of a gun, a powerful one at that.
A moment later Werner and Minami realised that Johan was shot in the head.
Chapter 12: completed