Autophagy

*BANG

The apartment shook as if a meteor had hit it. The shaking caused Song Lei to stumble in his place. Fortunately, he managed to stop himself from falling in time.

"What!? What was that?" The timid He Lingxin spoke in confusion.

Whenever the apartment shook like this, it usually meant that something was going very wrong. Knowing this, Song Lei and the others decided to go out into the corridor and take a look. However, before he could do so, a system notification appeared in front of his face.

[Your territory is under attack!]

"Fuck... Don't come with me..." Song Lei muttered as he read the notification. Not saying anything more to the others, he pushed the door open and dashed at the highest speed he could. While doing so, he took out the excommunicator he had previously bound to his soul from his soul storage.

On the way, Song Lei brought up his map. There were three dots on the 17th floor, indicating the existence of two beings other than Aston. Their colors were black, which was a color that Song Lei hadn't seen before on his map. However, thinking about it for a few more seconds, he realized what was going on.

'How could I not think of this!? The Claim Flag must've alerted the apartment manager!' He shouted in his mind. With his inhuman speed, it took about thirty seconds for him to run all the way to the 17th floor. The staircase was empty as if there was nothing out of ordinary, however, the walls surrounding the place had gushing wounds on them, bleeding out what seemed like liquid concrete.

Inside those gaping wounds, Song Lei could see faces that were blended in together. They screamed in agony as the wound started healing itself.

'That must be the consciousness of the apartment. Whatever is going on is hurting the apartment itself!'

Diving into the corridor, Song Lei's eyes had a hard time getting used to the flickering lights. Normally, floor 17 was covered with blue lines that made the whole floor look like a circuit board. Those lines would constantly shine, illuminating the whole floor while functioning as something called a soul fortress. This would block ghost-type monsters from entering the floor.

Now, however, those lines were constantly dimming out and lighting up again and again, giving the place a chaotic look.

Turning his head, Song Lei saw two hazy figures standing in the middle of the corridor, facing off Aston. One of these hazy figures had a two-handed broadsword in their hand. The other one had two daggers being held in a reverse-grip.

The aura they emanated was different from every other supernatural being that Song Lei had met up to this point.

Slightly changing his focus, Song Lei looked at Aston who seemed to be in a wounded state. There were a few gushing wounds on his body that constantly leaked out grey smog. He held a gun in one of his hands and a dagger in the other. Both weapons had blue circuit lines running through their surface, giving them a futuristic look.

"Did you think that you guys could just come over and take over this place?" Aston asked with a smile on his face. Although he seemed tired, he didn't seem like he was going time any time soon with that expression of confidence plastered onto his face.

"Your words are meaningless, traitor maggot. Our one and only landlord has already deemed this place as his," one of the hazy figures said. Just like their appearance, their voice was also hazy. Song Lei couldn't even figure out their gender. "You were lucky to live in the personal heaven created by our landlord. You went ahead and not only destroyed that heaven with your own hands, but you also dared to join another faction."

"Indeed, my brother, we should show him what it means to defy the landlord."

"Brandish those pesky weapons you have, lowly spirit guardian," hazy figures said in unison.

They didn't wait for any answers and launched forward as their brandished the weapons in their hands, swinging them time after time at Aston.

Aston, being a spirit guardian, was weak against such direct confrontations. Fortunately, his smarts were enough to keep him up to the standard. He took out what looked like a serum out of his pocket and injected it onto his neck. In an instant, the wounds in his body closed up. His body started emanating a gray fog that covered his surroundings.

Having no intention of leaving him alone, Song Lei brandished the bastard sword in his hands and launched himself forward to join the fight...

...

On top of a nearby apartment, 4 people stood against each other. Dark yellow colored clouds covered the entire sky. In such high height, the wind roared past them, making their hair flutter constantly.

"State your reason for blocking our path," one of those people said. This person was Wei Zhong. Wei Zhong was the older brother of Wei Ya. The Wei siblings were Soul Grandmasters of the Heaven Alliance. Today, they were going to the Hammer Branch that was located in the Heaven and Hell Apartment to deliver some gifts and take a new member back to the main branch.

"I will kindly advise you to go back to where you came from," the person standing against them said. This person was wearing a black-colored robe with intricate designs on it. They had appeared out of nowhere and had blocked the way of the Wei siblings.

"I assume that you are from the Secret Blood Order?" Wei Zhong said as he brought his hand closer to his sword's sheath.

"Oh! How smart! That's indeed the case. Now that you know this, however, we'll have to kill you!" the robed man said. Not wasting any time, with his fellow cultist, they launched forward. Appearing in front of the Wei siblings in a split second, they both took out wands from their robes.

Of course, Wei siblings didn't just sit still and wait to get killed. They quickly put some distance between themselves and the robed men to gather their thoughts.

"They are shamans... This is dangerous," Wei Ya said. One of the robed men lifted his wand into the air. In an instant, a ball of darkness formed on top of his wand before being launched towards Wei siblings like a bullet. "You should go to the apartment quickly. If they have sent people to stall us, there must be a reason behind it. I'll stay here and deal with them," Wei Ya said as she dodged the dark bullet.

"What!? How can you deal with them on your own?" Wei Zhong asked. He took out his katana from its sheath. He then held it with both of his hands. As he held the katana in an inside stance, a yellow-colored streak of energy came out of his body and encased the katana, elongating it to the size of an odachi.

As he grasped the sword tightly, his arms swelled with strength. After that, he swung the sword with all of the power he had gathered in his arms. The energy he had previously encased the sword with launched forward with his strike and carried its might towards where the Secret Blood Order cultists stood.

"Don't worry," Wei Ya tried to calm her brother down. "They are no match for me," she said. A split second later, she raised her hand into the air. A pillar of frost protruded out of her palm and turned into an elegant rapier. After that, just like her brother, yellow energy encased her body and the rapier.

Although Wei Zhong didn't want to leave his sister alone, she was right. He couldn't let their alliance members die when he could go and help them.

"Please hurry up and be careful to not get hurt," he said. "If you get hit too much, their curses might consume your soul."

"Mm... Go on ahead. They won't even be able to touch me."

Although her sister's words didn't reassure him at all, he kicked the ground and jumped to the nearest rooftop.

'Please be safe...'

...

The room was separated in the middle by a veil that blocked the light pretty well. The only thing that could be seen was the silhouette of a human sitting on top of a throne. The illumination was being handled by white-colored candles placed throughout the room. Other than these, there was no furniture in it.

The person behind the veil tapped their finger on the throne, causing a thud to resonate across the room.

In a split second, a man with long hair wearing a suit appeared in the middle of the room. He instantly got down on one of his knees and looked down on the ground, showing the respect and fear he had against the person behind the veil.

"The bells of war have started ringing..." The person behind the veil said. "Start the preparations."

"Whatever you wish, Heavenly Leader...."