A few minutes ago,
At the end of Monarako Street, you could see and hear the sounds of the street bustling with noise due to the shouts of merchants and sellers of various goods, like furniture, food, and clothing. The street was still brimming with vitality and crowded with people.
But in one of the alleys between a restaurant and a shop, there was silence amidst the darkness inside. You could see bottles at the alley's entrance and also see the garbage scattered all over the alley's floor; the smell emanating from it was foul, and there were also many cracks on its walls!
Upon closer inspection, this alley was the very same one that Xiao Ping had entered earlier, fleeing from the princess's guards, but this time, there was no one in it.
The time was now around 10:10 in the morning, but the weather was overcast due to the fog coming from the factory chimneys. Even though their location wasn't close—they were in the northern part of the city—the smoke still reached and covered the entire city.
In the next moment, all the sounds from the street vanished, leaving only deadly silence!
And amidst all this eerie silence, there were some ripples above the roof and chimney of the shop next to the restaurant, before the void split open and three figures appeared out of nowhere!
They were tall, about two meters in height, and they were fully clad in black outfits covering their entire bodies. Only their eyebrows and eyes remained visible. Their eyes were completely black, cold, and devoid of any emotion. They were like a black, deep well opening!
One of them looked down at the alley below with a very cold gaze before saying: "Hmm, someone appears from there, but it's not the same person we're looking for!" His words carried no humanity.
"So, do we capture him? And torture him to tell us where that person is!" asked another of the three figures, placing his hand below his waist, his back arched.
"We don't need to search for him everywhere! So we'll turn this street upside down until we find him! Of course, after we kill this person!" The first person spoke and replied to the second.
The person at the front didn't try to stop them but stood there in front of them, while the cold wind played with his black suit, but he was looking at ripples on the alley wall!
The second person moved from his side without even giving him a single glance, stepping onto the shop's roof and stopping before approaching its edge. Even though he moved and placed his foot on it, it didn't make a sound at all!
That person moved his hand downward and said: "Disintegrate!"
...
James Beyond emerged from inside that strange door, the one Xiao Ping had previously entered to reach his bar!
He looked at the wall in front of him and saw only the cracks in that darkness. He also felt that the alley floor was damp from yesterday's rain and felt the trash beneath his foot!
But no annoyance showed on James's face at all. He just continued taking puffs from the cigarette in his hand and stood there coolly before looking up!
He was wearing a round hat on his head, beneath which was his short black hair. He also wore a black Victorian suit; even his coat was black. On his face was a pair of medical glasses with a thin metal frame, and behind them were two red eyes looking coldly upward, specifically towards the person who had advanced to the edge of the opposite shop's roof. Just before that person said: "Disintegrate!", James snapped his fingers, and a giant square barrier, area 200, formed. All the ordinary people fell unconscious before being instantly transferred away!
At that moment, that person's abilities activated very quickly, and everything beside James began to disintegrate in a strange way, and the alley also began to disappear due to the disintegration.
"Tch! This will be the last barrier you make in your pathetic life!" the person spoke coldly.
Seeing that James Beyond hadn't moved from his spot even though everything around him began to disintegrate and disappear, that person's cold gazes continued. But at that moment, he moved his arm quickly towards his right side!
"Baaang!" The sound of colliding arms echoed over the shop's roof!
"Oh! You're better than I expected!" James praised, grabbing that person's arm with one hand.
That person quickly moved away from James's location, took a few steps back, and looked coldly at James Beyond. Then he looked towards his hand, which had been shattered from the elbow, but that person showed no signs of pain whatsoever!
James Beyond looked at that person before looking at the other two standing on his right side. No fear or any emotion showed in their eyes as they looked at him.
"Interesting, interesting! What do we have here?" James spoke, taking the last puff from the cigarette in his hand before throwing it away and said, exhaling that puff from his lungs: "Three Tier 3 individuals!, and no offense, but doesn't that seem like overkill for capturing a beginner?!"
When James said that, the person with the shattered hand moved his healthy hand quickly towards the injured one, before a cracking sound was heard from its bones as it returned to normal, as if it had never been injured!
And then he disappeared and appeared above James Beyond's head at high speed! shaping his hand into an iron fist!
James Beyond moved his body backward, placed his hands on the ground, and directed his feet towards that person!
Their movements weren't ordinary; there was some energy leaking from James's foot and that person's hands!
"Baaang!" The sound of the collision echoed, but this time louder than before.
A cloud of black smoke formed and mixed with the factory smoke due to the impact, but James and that person didn't stop like the previous time. Soon, their bodily postures changed! And they flew high into the sky.
Before they collided a third and fourth time, the collisions continued... each collision causing changes around them.
But unlike James, that person was bleeding from his hands and feet; they were swollen from the successive impacts between them. Yet, that person didn't utter a single moan from the beginning of the fight, as if he felt no pain or truly couldn't feel it!
The two persons on the shop's roof looked coldly towards their friend who was fighting James Beyond and seemed to be struggling!
The person at the back let out a demonic laugh before raising his hands and began playing in the air. Ripples appeared in the atmosphere before a massive cloud formed in the sky.
"WoooooM!" That black cloud released a deafening thunder that illuminated everything for a second before the previous darkness from the factory smoke returned!
That person didn't stop what he was doing before saying: "Reverse!!" and the timeline and space began moving backward before the deafening thunder roared in the sky again!
James Beyond felt that change in the atmosphere and quickly looked towards the roof of that shop, specifically at the person who seemed to be playing in the air. Hints of danger appeared on James's face!
How could he not feel the danger when that person was trying to reverse time and space to its previous state! This would put James in a difficult position, especially since these people had seen him fighting, and they might recognize his techniques and crush them once he revealed all his trump cards!
Therefore, James closed his left eye and opened the other. Soon, things inside it began moving in a circular motion. Strange symbols formed, spelling the word 'Sharyok' in the language Χρονοφύλακες (Chronos) which means ‹‹Cancel or Nullify››
Because of this, one of the lenses of his medical glasses shattered when the spiritual attack passed!
"Oh no! My new glasses!" James spoke sadly.
Meanwhile, that person playing in the air felt that something was wrong, and indeed he felt that some energy had affected him, making controlling his power difficult. Only seconds passed before his energy went out of his control. That wasn't the only thing; that black cloud fired a powerful thunderbolt towards him, but before it reached him and turned him to ashes, that cloud disappeared!
...
End of Chapter ~ To Be Continued