Guild Wars

Endless sweat flowed down from the brows of the council members, realizing that they were at a literal turning point in their lives and careers. One wrong move, and they would sleep with the fish!

"I vote that we cease all hostilities against the Purgatory Group, return their money, and issue a public apology." James Rockefeller, the nominal chairman of this council, suggested immediately as his face showed a hint of worry.

The other council members saw a vote mandate appear on their screens, and they immediately made their choices.

"I, Councilor Yuuto Nakamoto, vote in favor!"

"I, Councilor Li Jian, vote in favor!"

"I, Councilor Franklin DuPont, vote in favor!"

"I, Councilor Nathan Rothschild, vote in favor!"

"I, Councilor Rosa Astor, vote in favor!"

"I, Councilor Metro Van Duyn, vote in favor!"

"I, Councilor Leero Onassis, vote in favor!"n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"I, Councilor David Collins, vote in favor!"

All of them smashed the green tick and proclaimed loudly, not a single bit of hesitation or unwillingness on their faces. In order to become a world councilor, more than just money or power was needed, but also a kind of perception and ruthlessness that transcended the norm.

There was no such thing as a 'young master' here, and even the arrogant Franklin DuPont knew when to bow his head under the eaves. As they always say, the man who knows how to follow the way of the wind is the truly wise one.

Seeing that this vote had passed unanimously, the councilors glanced at each other with a rare hint of appreciation, applauding themselves in their heart for truly being the best leaders in humanity's history.

"Motion passed. Metro, prepare an apology speech and I will personally read it out at a public conference in 2 hours." James Rockefeller ordered with a hint of relief in his tone.

Before Metro Van Duyn could respond, the entire council chamber began blaring with the sound of an alarm as a red light flashed from every available source of light. A danger symbol appeared on all their monitors while a female AI voice shouted 'Warning! Warning!' over and over again.

"What? What's going on?" Rosa Astor exclaimed with shock, unable to comprehend this rare phenomenon occurring before her.

The lead technician in the chamber was trembling incessantly, his eyes wide open with shock. The nine councilors were about to lose their patience and shake him awake, but he began mumbling softly something that caused their hearts to sink to the bottom.

"LGM-45 'Sentinel' has been launched…"

The faces of the nine councilors changed greatly. The LGM-45 Sentinel was a top-tier strategic missile in the Central Country's nuclear arsenal. It was located in a reinforced subterranean silo off the coast of Miami and was equipped with advanced AI guidance systems that were capable of delivering multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs).

This nuke possesses a payload of ultimate thermonuclear warheads designed by Superhumans' best minds. This meant that when it hits the ground, everyone and everything within the nearest Area Zone (heh) would go boom!

My Brother in Christ, the Sentinel is literally the most powerful nuke in the World Council's possession, their last resort of last resorts, literally being the pinnacle of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) technology.

But enough exposition, the question was, who the heck launched this thing?!

One should know, even for them, there was a rigorous process involved before launching a nuclear warhead anywhere, even into an uninhabited area. It required a positive vote from all 9 council members as well as many heads of states from around the world before it could even be discussed, much less fired.

After World War 3, humans had really learned how awful nukes were. That was why, even with its nearly absolute power, the World Council still set such strong shackles on itself before they should be able to use such an atrocious weapon. It was clear that the founders of the World Council feared the belligerence and stupidity of whoever would inherit their power, thus placed these measures in place.

And it was precisely because of the knowledge of these restrictions that everyone was completely confused as to how anything could have been launched, because they hadn't done anything!

"Oh look, your beloved council took me up on my offer." Draco suddenly stated on the field, which was relayed through the cameras watching him.

"Huh? How did he know?" David Collins asked with a look of bafflement.

The nuke was still undergoing release procedures to be fired and hadn't even hit the air yet. How could this fellow possibly know that they had launched the nuke to attack him?

Unless…

The nine councilors looked at the devious smile Draco was wearing and felt their bodies tremble greatly. When they remembered the power of the GloryGore AI and factored in the fact that this fellow was a Lineage member, they seemed to understand what was going on.

As for Draco, he was amused. After daring to transfer away his hard-earned money and then coming to cause trouble for him to attack the AI, these fellows really thought that they as long as they asked for forgiveness that he would walk away after beating them black and blue?

Since when was there such a good deal?

Draco was the type who might steal candy from a baby unprovoked, just because he was a mean person. Even looking at him wrong when he was passing by was enough for him to painfully gouge out your eyes in hatred, much less direct provocation like this.

Pettiness was nothing to Draco. In fact, when the initial definition for the word 'petty' was being created, they simply conjured up images of Draco and thought hard of how to put it in words.

However, those around him who heard his words were not as amused or casual as him. Both Nadia and her cameraman paled greatly upon hearing that a nuke had been fired towards their location, while the tattooed men showed looks of determined resignation.

They charged at Draco, aiming to make their final moments one of brilliant glory, but the young man just flicked his finger and released a bunch of barely visible purple void blades that sliced all these men into fine pieces.

Nadia was a vampire and her cameraman was a werewolf, so they were not bothered by the blood and guts, which almost blew their cover, but no one had time to care about the slain warriors because they understood that they were all witnessing a world-shaking event.

Feeling threatened by the power of one man, the World Council actually chose to use a nuclear warhead to take him down!

While that might still be justified, there was still the 'minor' problem of this fellow currently standing in the middle of an urban area, and it was far too late to evacuate anyone now!

From the beginning of the conflict, Draco had moved slowly in order to give people time to evacuate in an orderly manner. He was an evil, lecherous bastard, but he still had some semblance of standards. He might not be an anti-hero who protected the weak grudgingly, but he definitely wasn't an anti-villain who tried to help and ended up making things worse!

He was a plain old villain and looking back at his actions since chapter 1, this fellow had probably done every single sin and vice out there that would be enough to sentence him to prison for life.

Let's see…

- About 3,000,000 counts of murdering the innocent (like the water elf tribe)

- 7 counts of rape (Including Paimon from his own Nine Hells and June, the daughter of Cherry from the Mafia Group, The Cardinals.)

- More than 4000 counts of robbery (The Vault of the Deep, The Refinement Treasury, etc)

- 3 counts of kidnapping (Hikari, Zaine, Roma.)

- 3 counts of torture (The players from chapter 20, Local Lord in… that chapter and just a few minutes ago.)

- 1 count of human trafficking (The third-tier sex slaves who were eventually released to RamButt.)

- 4 counts of child abuse (Stabbing Ratchet in chapter 3, beating up Infantile Clarent and bullying his own children when they were babies.)

- 2 counts of elder abuse (Beating up Richmond and beating up the Dragon Ancestor.)

- 3 counts of arson (Burned a significant portion of Four Point Valley during the Flora and Fauna Unique Quest, and also in the Uncontested Field Zone where he first met Zaine.)

- More than a million counts of fraud (Every word from his mouth is basically a lie.)

- Frequent crimes of embezzlement (During the ten-year period, he often used Umbra funds to make it rain on Zaine while she performed a private show for him.) Read chapters at empire

- Frequent crimes of drug trafficking (His so-called 'Alchemy')

- More than a billion counts of war crimes (The First Guild War, The Abyssal War, the War of Extinction, The War of the Worlds… the only ones who have done almost as much as him were Misery and AP, but they considered war crimes as a pastime.)

And so on!

Whew, thinking about all this fellow has done, it really feels like he should be smashed into paste by the hand of righteous justice!

…unfortunately, the owner of the hand of righteous justice was currently flicking the bean while wondering when this criminal would come by and push her down.

However, the nuke that had launched and was now hurtling through the atmosphere would certainly be able to fix this problem!

Countless beings in myriad universes, whether they knew or not, were riding their hopes on this nuke, because if Draco did not die here, they would be the ones to perish under his cruel machinations later in the story!

Draco suddenly looked to the sky towards the west, and the eyes - as well as the camera, followed him there. The group could see a point of light in the sky even though it was daytime, and this point of light was rapidly enlarging with each second.

Nadia was shaken and her lips trembled, while the cameraman had to firmly restrain himself from giving in to his instincts and turn into a werewolf and do his best to prolong his life for a second or two. After all, even if they tried to run now, it was impossible to get out due to the range of the incoming blast, which was also why evacuation was useless.

'Is this the end?' Nadia couldn't help but think.

They say that in one's last moments, their life would flash before their eyes and they would become incredibly horny, hoping to pass on their lineage into the world one last time. In this case, the cameraman glanced at Nadia while Nadia glanced at Draco.

Meanwhile, Draco was amused, his eyebrows furrowing as he felt like fate really was a freaking bitch.

"An LGM Sentinel. Brings back memories." He murmured with nostalgia.

There was no need to guess nor to assume, because this was the exact same nuke that Nathan Rothschild had handed him in the previous timeline allowing him to establish himself as a one-man country with minor veto power. In order to control and deploy his nuke, Draco had been trained by scientists and technicians back then to know all the details of it, as well as the stringent rules behind using it.

Who would have thought that the nuke fired to 'kill' him now would be the very one that had 'saved' him in the previous timeline.

As the point of light grew, it soon reached the height of its explosion. Obviously, this was the type of nuke that would detonate its payload in the air above the target site, rather than physically smashing down like a barbaric rocket from the earlier eras.

Multiple smaller warheads were expelled from the main body of the rocket and then armed themselves as they locked onto their target, approximately 500 meters above Draco's location.

In full view of everyone watching from around the world, these warheads reached their destination and immediately exploded with the maximum amount of power they contained, causing multiple explosions that stacked together.

BOOOM!

Look mom, it's a mushroom cloud!

Sigh, by letting this warhead explode above his head, it was clear that Draco was thoroughly lost in his memories and failed to put up any defense nor achieve his original plan to use his recently unlocked sealing branch to seal the nuke then sneak it into Boundless.

Could this… be the end for Draco?!