Hitman with a Badass System
chapter-586

"How did you know that?" Eve asked, surprised by Gaya's words. She grew up in Yaserius but never heard House Rottgard possessing a portal to reach Sill Alari. She wondered how the heck Aelia knew this.

"I happen to travel a lot," Gaya simply shrugged. Although Eve could tell she was lying, she didn't poke into the matter deeply because she had no need to.

"But I don't think the Rottgards will welcome us with open arms," Even Nightmare couldn't stay positive after hearing Gaya's plan. He was optimistic but not naive.

"Eve, do you remember Aelia asked how ruthless you would be to save your family?"

Eve nodded at Michael,

"I am asking you again. How far would you go to save your family?"

"As far as I have to,"

"Would you kill the Rottgards-"

"Yes. I will wipe out them in a heartbeat,"

Michael did not even finish his question when Even stomped the ground and roared.

"Good," Michael simply nodded before turning his gaze back at the body. He then cut another piece of flesh and a strand of gray hair from the head.

Michael submerged the flesh, and the strand of hair into the barrel Nightmare brought. The three of them stared at Michael without any clues of what he was doing. Under their curious gazes, Michael washed the flesh and the hair,

"Eve, go give your sister the healing potion," Michael told Eve as she nodded and went inside the carriage. When she disappeared from their sight, Michael quickly willed the system to teleport to Eve's castle. After Michael vanished into thin air, Nightmare came to Gaya's side,

"Are you thinking what I am thinking?" Nightmare asked,

"Yep. He is doing it," Gaya's face had a devilish grin, unlike Nightmare, who seemed a bit worried.

A few minutes later, Michael appeared again before the oak table. With a flick of his wrist, he took out a bunch of ingredients from the system storage. As Michael conjured his alchemy flames which burned with emerald green flames, Gaya and Nightmare approached him.

"So you're weaponizing the plague?" asked Gaya, looking over Michael's shoulder.

"Do you see another way to infiltrate the House Rottgards and use their portal?"

Michael didn't look at Gaya but focused on refining the ingredients,

"I just want to make sure it wouldn't come back to bite us in the butt,"

"It won't. When I finish modifying the plague, it will only affect the Soul Refiners and Fusion stage cultivators," Michael explained while extracting the essence from the herbs.

Initially, Michael thought of making the plague airborne and affecting all the cultivators. They hadn't taken the vaccine he was about to create. However, the modified strain of plague would be extremely unstable and prone to mutate. Moreover, Michael did not want to start a pandemic that he wouldn't be able to control.

Since Michael had reached the Fusion stage, he did not need to kill the weaker cultivators with the plague. Instead, Michael decided to modify the plague strain with the help of the system to only affect Fusion and Soul Refining stage cultivators. This new modified strain wouldn't mutate and was easily fused with the fear toxin.

"That's good. How does it work anyways?" Nightmare asked Michael.

"Once you breathe in the newly enhanced fear toxin, you will experience coughing, vomiting blood, and losing control over your Celestial and Arch energy. Boom, in a couple of minutes, you are nothing but a commoner,"

"I assume you will modify our masks too?" asked Gaya.

Since they hadn't taken the cure yet, the modified fear toxin was dangerous to them. Therefore, Michael had to buy three masks from the system and modify them. Luckily, it was a simple task for Michael as he was a 5-star Inventor and possessed all the necessary parts. But first, Michael needed to finish modifying the plague.

At that moment, black essence beads floated about the green flames. These beads radiated an ominous smoke as Michael slowly merged them together. After which, Michael sent the flesh and the strand of hair into the fire and burnt them. When the flesh and hair burnt in the fire, Gay and Nightmare closed their mouth and nose with their hands. The strong scent was nauseating to the point Gaya felt like throwing up.

Soon, a crimson red smoke gradually emerged from the green flame and merged with the dark ball of essence above the flame. The two mixed together to form a mysterious smoking goo that swam in the air like a fish. Gaya and Nightmare sighed in relief, thinking he had finished, but Michael had only completed half the process.

"Go stall Eve," Michael told Nightmare as the dragon nodded, shrunk its size, and walked towards the carriage. Meanwhile, Michael rolled up his sleeves, revealing the dark bracelet around his right wrist.

"Remove it," Michael asked Gaya to remove the bracelet as he controlled the plague goo with his other hand. Instead, Gaya gently tapped the bracelet and lifted it from his wrist.

Screech!

When Michael willed the APD to come off his wrist, the bracelet split in the middle, and the needles inside Michael's wrist retracted.

After Gaya removed the APD, Michael moved the dark goo above the flame, but this time, the fire turned from jade green to black. The heat produced by the dark flames immediately vaporized the black goo as Michael surrounded the vapor with his arch energy and pulled it into a large vial. As soon as the dark vapor entered the vial, Michael closed it with the cork.

"Now, I have to mix it with the fear toxin," Michael took out another vial with a gray liquid inside. With utmost caution, Michael pulled out the liquid through a syringe and injected the liquid into the plague vial through the cork. To his surprise, when the vapor and liquid made contact, it sparks a purple flame. The flame burnt brightly for a few moments until finally condensed into a dark dusty element.

"This will be our weapon for ultimate domination," Michael devilishly grinned, looking at the dark vial in his hand.

"So, have you given any thought to mixing the blood tonic into the cure?"

"I thought you would never ask. Unfortunately, the cure won't work with the blood tonic mixed in. It's only a setback though. I will find a better cure in the future which could be mixed with the blood tonic,"

Michael really tried to squeeze the blood tonic into the cure, but the formula simply didn't allow it. The cure had to be in its purest form. Otherwise, it wouldn't heal the infected and prevent one from getting infected.

"We would have been gods if it worked," Gaya sighed.

"Yeah," Michael opened the compartment connected to the needles in APD and put the one in his hand inside.

"You can't use the fear toxin while you are in your Ghost persona,"

Gaya was indeed right. If Eve noticed the effects of the fear toxin and saw the Dark Lord using it by any chance, she could make the connection between Ghost and The Dark Lord. Hence, Michael quickly brewed another modified plague and enclosed it in vials without mixing with the far toxin.

He made several vials and handed over a few of them to Gaya before taking out the three black masks from the system storage. They were in no shape or form but plain black respirator masks.

A few minutes later, Nightmare walked out of the carriage with Eve. He couldn't stall Eve any longer. But fortunately, Michael finished everything, including modifying the masks to filter the plague.

Gaya noticed a healing potion in Eve's hand. Before speaking a word, Eve opened up the vial and emptied the potion into her mouth,

"I am ready," Eve said after emptying the vial.

"You have a plan to wipe them out? I have to tell you, they have Four Fusion Stage protectors,"

"The more, the better," Michael grinned, thinking about the experience points he would get by killing Fusion Stage cultivators. Now that Michale had given it a thought, it would be his first time killing a Fusion stage cultivator. He wondered how many experience and badass points as a reward.

With the modified plague in his hand, Michael didn't even fear the Fusion stage cultivators. Finally, after so long, he felt like he was in control of every part of the game.

"Follow my lead, and House Rottgard will cease to exist when the sunrise," Michael put on the mask as his voice changed to something beastly.

Gaya put on the mask and threw the other one at Eve.

"Nightmare, stay here and make sure nothing happens to them,"

"Don't worry about them. I got this," Nightmare said with absolute confidence. Soon, he grew to his full size, casting a shadow upon the trio, making them look puny in front of Nightmare.

"Let's go,"

With a nod, Michael shot out towards the sky and disappeared into the night sky, leaving Nightmare behind. Michael let Gaya take the lead as he flew closer to Eve in case she lost the connection with the arch energy again. Michael was not completely optimistic about bringing Eve with him but knowing her, there was no way she would back down and let them go alone.

If everything went according to Michael's plan, Eve wouldn't have to raise a finger against the Rottgards.

"Hey Eve, how much do you think I can make by selling the cure?"

Eve was surprised by his sudden question.

"Millions," Eve's heart was heavy. Although she knew Ghost wouldn't take coins from them for the cure, she hated to be a freeloader.

No matter what, Eve wanted to repay for everything he did somehow.

"Hey Eve, if you're worried about getting the cure for free, don't. I'm not giving it to you for free. I want Voldigards to be my allies and help set up my Majestic empire in Awor,"

"Anything for you, my friend," Eve placed his hand on his shoulder and revealed an alluring smile that hid the immense sorrow in her heart.

"And thank you,"

"Hey, friends don't say thanks. I am pretty sure you will get to save my ass once or twice in the future," Michael patted Eve on the back and continued their journey towards Yesrious to wipe out the Rottgards.