"Hydra? My lord, I thought Vedora is the only Hydra in this world" Maxine muttered. Michael removed his mask as well as his chest armor to breathe a little.

  "I have to see something" Michael walked out of the room as Maxine and Azazel followed him behind.

  As usual, the netherels were cleaning the corridors as though they were professional maids. Azazel attached blue orbs on the ceiling to lighten up the place. They didn't provide light like eclectic bulbs but they provided enough to make navigating through the corridors easier.

  After a while of walking, they reached a grayish door that stood 7ft tall. The door had intricate carvings which seemed like Lucifer battling several soldiers on a battlefield filled with skulls.

  Michael pushed the door open to see a spacious room. All four walls had mirrors the size of a 24 inch monitor glued to them. Each monitor showed a view. Previously this room was used as the armory by the Order of Death. The weapons they stored in the room were corroded and rusted with time. They became unusable. Except for the mirrors, there was a glistening white orb that remained in the center of the room on a 4ft pillar.

  "Welcome to the place of power, Maxine" Michael greeted Maxine with a smile. He then walked towards the center of the room. He took a minute to comprehend the potential of the surveillance room. Currently from this room, he could watch over Bredia, some places in Kethen and Royal land. If he could deploy thousands of Spyders all over the world, he would have a bigger surveillance system than anyone in the world.

  The white orb worked as a hard disk. It stored every single footage. If required, Michael could access the footage through the system. Other than him, only Azazel had access to the footage.

  "My Lord, is that…" Maxine pointed at one of the mirrors. Her voice trailed away,

  Michael looked at the mirror pointed by Maxine to see Pirate Lord Corey sleeping on a comfy bed with a naked man. Then Maxine turned her head to the mirror next to see Shorty picking his nose. She even saw her old crew having a party on her ship anchored at the pirate cove. In her shock, she failed to notice the black mirror that had no footage on the corner of the wall.

  She couldn't help feeling her privacy being invaded.

  "Are you feeling like your privacy is being invaded, Maxine?"

  As though he was a mind reader, Michael asked what she was feeling. Maxine was stunned by his question. She wanted to shake her head but she hesitated,

  "Can you see the footage of your room in those mirrors?"

  Maxine looked around the room, staring at every single mirror including the black mirror. Eventually after several moments later, she found no mirror that showed the footage of her room in bertha or her old ship,

  "I don't spy on people I trust. And if I did, it's for your own safety. The Guardians and my enemies will use the people closest to me to get to me. If I don't watch over them, best case they will die. Worst case, they will be tortured until they are broken" His words were somehow soothed her down.

  It also made sense to her, if she was captured by Guardians, she would want Lucifer to locate her and come to her rescue.

  "Take this" Maxine saw the pendant they previously gave to the senators appear in his hand,

  "When you don't want to be watched, remove it and place it somewhere safe" He handed over the Spycam pendant to Maxine.

  "Yes my lord"

  She could feel that Lucifer really trusts her. That warmed her heart deeply. Just as he explained, he wasn't spying on his loyal subordinates because he could see their loyalty in the system window. Yet he was watching over them in case they got into trouble.

  After she wore the pendant around her neck, Michael waved his hand as every single mirror in front of them went black.

  "System, play the footage captured by the drone" He willed the system. Azazel and Maxine stared at the flickering screens in front of them.

  "Play it in slow motion," he ordered the system. Without uttering a word, they all stared at the screens. At the moment, all the mirrors worked as a single gigantic screen.

  For several moments, the screens showed nothing but pitch-black darkness. Then, for a split second, Maxine noticed three pairs of crimson red glow deep within the dark pit. The very next moment, the screens glitched and stopped moving.

  "Play it again slower"

  The footage started again. This time, Maxine didn't even blink. She looked closer at the red glows that appeared for a brief second.

  Michael let out a deep breath. It was dark and the red glow appeared only for a split second but he knew what he saw, they were not just red glows or glitches in the footage. They were pairs of eyes, three pairs of eyes. The three pairs of eyes, the high radiation, the size of the eyes, and his gut feeling told him that it was the hydra resting at the end of the dark pit.

  If his guess was correct, the hydra would be three times the size of King Ghidorah. Just imagining it terrified him to the core. The hydra might be the most powerful existence in this world. Fighting a monster such as this hydra was nothing but asking for death. He realized why the system told him not to search for the hydra until he could reach the immortal stage.

  "Are those eyes, my lord?"After seeing the footage in extreme slow motion, Maxine kinda guessed it.

  "Yes. That hydra is the reason no one in Southern continent can become cultivators" Maxine's jaw slightly dropped,

  "It's sucking all the Arch energy in the atmosphere" As he said, he flicked his wrist, taking the crystal out from his space ring,

  "These crystals must be the by product of Arch energy gathering into the mountain"

  Azazel was hovering behind him. When he saw the crystal he floated towards him in curiosity. He stared at the crystal for a moment,

  "My lord, this is pure arch energy" the demon butler exclaimed,

  "There must be purer Arch energy crystals within the pit" he stood there looking at the screens with hands behind his back,

  Yet again, he played the footage to see the crimson eyes of the Hydra.

  "Not worth the risk of waking that monster up. Azazel"

  "My lord"

  "Tell Dular to summon as many as netherels he could. We are going to mine the shit out of that mountain"? He then turned his gaze towards Maxine,

  "Maxine, make sure no one opens that pathway to the pit. If that Hydra wakes up, it will be game over for us"

  Maxine nodded, hearing his serious voice. She had never seen him serious such as this before.

  "I will teleport the netherels into the mountain. Maxine will store all the crystals for me"

  "How my lord?"

  "Go look how are Aria's brothers doing?"

  Instead of answering how she would be able to store the crystals, Michael asked her to check on Aria's brothers,

  After she left the room, he waved his hand as the dark footage changed into lively scenery. A woman standing on the top of a boulder could be seen. her eyes were closed. Behind her was a majestic waterfall. The water sprayed by the waterfall coupled with the sunlight produced a beautiful miniature rainbow behind the woman.

  "Lailah Alden" Azazel could recognize her with a single look despite her pregnant belly. The pendant Michael gave Lailah was a special one. It had the spyder he built as well as a tiny fly that could detach from itself from the pendant and fly around, taking footage of Lailah from all angles. He bought it from the system as he lacked the materials and tools to build such a tiny camera.

  If one knew what happened between Lailah and him, they would definitely mark him as a hypocrite. He was infuriated at his parents for abandoning him but he did the same to the spirit child. Except, he didn't abandon the child or Laila. He was watching over them. Only Michael was able to access the footage of Laila. Hence one mirror remained dark showing no footage.

  He just remained there watching Lailah in silence.

  "Take care of yourself and the kid Laila"

  Taking a last look at Lailah, he waved his hand again as the mirrors went back to their normal state. He then left the surveillance room to resume his work of shadow ruling the world.

  When he reached his room, he sat on the table and placed the crystal in front of him.

  "Bracelet or pendant?" He asked himself before starting to build the device that would make his subordinates overpowered in the Southern Continent.

  **********************************

  Right at the moment, Maxine was standing before the tubular contaminants in Aria's room. She was staring at the two muscular men submerged in the sparkling blue liquid. Their limbs seemed to be growing which was surprising for her. She knew this was another miracle the Dark Lord could perform.

  As she was staring at them, she heard the door behind her creak open. She turned back to see Lucifer entering the room. She quickly bowed,

  "Give me your hand"

  She reached out her right hand without asking a question. He took out a dark metal bracelet before putting it on her hand,

  "Ouch!" she let out a burst of cry when she suddenly felt a sharp pain around her wrist. It felt as though the bracelet pierced her wrist with hundreds of tiny needles.

  The pain quickly disappeared as he took out a red vial.

  "Drink"

  The red portion was not as watery as the potions she had drank before. It was thick, almost like jelly. It took her a second to swallow the tasteless odorless jelly.

  Several seconds later, she felt an electric bolt running through her veins. She jolted as her entire body shivered. In addition, she was sweating.

  "Put this ring and concentrate on it"

  Taking a few deep breaths, she steadied herself. As he said, after she put the ring on, she began to concentrate on the ring.

  "Are you feeling a connection with the space ring?"

  Maxine nodded. She was still getting used to the new experience,

  "Put this inside" he then threw a healing potion towards her and waited for Maxine to put the healing potion into her space ring.

  Dark lines formed on her forehead due to her concentration but after several seconds, the healing potion in her hand finally disappeared.

  "And that's how you gonna store the crystals"

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  IF everything went to plan, you will see Gaya in the next two chapters.