Ghoul King: Hail the King!

[Mr Ritcher]

I like this so far, but is there a reason he doesn't use telekinesis like someone with a brain would instead of a comic book character? If he has the strength to move cars, is he not at the level of being able to rip people's heads off their bodies? Or even trip them with a pull on the leg or yank the weapons out of their hand? If he can't use it on them, why not the environment? Like moving the ground their standing on to trip them or converging a ton of materials to lock them in place?

Sure, telekinetically moving his weapons is neat, but why not the enemies? Overall though, I like it so far. Keep it up.

 

[Trafford]

Lucien entered the ruins and walked through narrow paths until he found some kind of hall or something. Fortunately for him, there weren't dark because the Washuu Clan had already built everything for proper excavation.

This hall was not overly big but not even small. Doors were huge enough to be called a smaller gate; they were made from metal and were dark gold in color. There were several people inside; all of them were agents of Vasuki and were guarding the single door that was at the end of the hall.

The entire hall was covered with various carvings on the walls, describing various legends and myths about the Kunlun Mountains; it created a very beautiful and mystical sight.

When Lucien observed closer but still remained hidden, he noticed that the entire hall was filled with various gadgets and crates. Agents of Vasuki were on high vigilance as they guarded the small gate leading to the deeper parts of the Ancestral Site of the Shi Xue Clan.

As there were only eleven agents of Vasuki here, Lucien congealed his kagune and rushed at the closest agent.

As this was an ambush attack, the poor man was killed before he could even draw out his sword to defend himself. Lucien proceeded to another one with great speed, killing them one after another. Lucien was too strong for them to resist, and after several minutes they were all killed.

Then he stored the bodies inside Cross Crest and went to the carvings on the wall.

One peculiar carving, which caught Lucien's interest, was described as something interesting. There was a fight from several hundred years ago when they were fighting against those Holy Knights and eradicating them in the process.

However, the losses were too huge, and even though they achieved victory, there was nothing to celebrate.

When he was reading this carving, he noticed that it wasn't finished entirely.

Probably they couldn't finish the carving, as the Shi Xue Clan was betrayed and massacred by the Washuu Clan soon after the end of the war.

On another carving, next to this one, was an image of some mythical Divine Beasts, Azure Dragon, Vermilion Bird, Black Tortoise, and lastly, White Tiger. They were very imposing images of these creatures, and just by looking, one could tell the nobleness and divines of the carving.

After looking at all carvings and reading them all, Lucien went to the small gate, and with both of his hands, he managed to open it without any problems. The small gate was extremely heavy; Lucien thought the Washuu Clan must use some machine or something to open it.

When he looked back at the hall, some things were reminiscent of some machine.

When he looked behind the small gate, there was a deep underground stairway. Even Lucien couldn't see the end of the stairway, but he knew that this was leading to the Ancestral Site of the Shi Xue Clan, as the true site was located deep under the Kunlun Mountains.

He walked down, and after half an hour, he finally arrived at the end of the stairway; before him was another small golden gate, the same as the previous one.

When he opened the small golden gate, he almost fainted from what he saw there. There was a giant cave of unknown size. This cave was so huge that Lucien couldn't even see the end of the cave. Small rivers were going through the entire place, and some trees and bamboo were growing there; the trees growing here weren't the same as those on the surface.

There were glowing in a light blue color, and thanks to them, the entire place wasn't dark and had a nice atmosphere. Aside from trees, bamboo, and many other plants that were growing here, there were also many buildings in ancient Chinese architecture across the place.

Clearly, they were abandoned for several hundred years, and some were even half destroyed.

Lucien went to the house that was close to him. It was a very small house as they weren't any large buildings here. He opened the door and entered the house; the first thing he saw was the skeleton of a man on the ground.

'Probably some members of the Shi Xue Clan managed to survive and either remained here during the war or returned after war and betrayal of the Washuu Clan. Either way, there is now a slight, almost impossible possibility that maybe someone survived; if they entered hibernation, they could survive for several hundred years.'

Thought Lucien as he searched the house for some valuables. He found several blood essences hidden here, and immediately he stored them away, then he exited the house and followed the road that was constructed here.

The road itself was constructed from stone and was going through entire caves and rivers.

Not even five minutes went by as five agents of Vasuki, and two members of the Washuu Clan appeared and were already rushing at Lucien with their katanas.

Lucien entered Kakuja V2 this time, and he disappeared from the place where he stood. He only appeared behind the agents of Vasuki and members of the Washuu Clan, with blood on his kagune katana as he slashed in the air.

He looked behind him and watched as all of them fell to the ground, without any sight of life. He stored the bodies inside the Cross Crest and proceeded further.

He constantly admired the beauty of this place as he watched various buildings in ancient Chinese architecture and the unique beauty of nature here as they coexisted together, creating wonderful and rare scenery.

He also searched every building on his way and managed to obtain several good things and even some important treasures.

Also, he killed several more agents of Vasuki and members of the Washuu Clan.

He obtained tens of blood essences from the houses he searched, which was a good harvest. The good thing about the Blood-Essence Pellet of that even after countless years, it wouldn't lose its effect as it had when it was freshly extracted.

 

[Trafford]

After collecting everything from the small houses around, he went to the first bigger building he saw when he entered the Ancestral Site of the Shi Xue Clan. It was much bigger, and it looked like a tower.

The height of that tower wasn't reaching the ceiling of this cave, but it wasn't also too far. This wasn't any tower but rather a pagoda; it had seven floors, from what Lucien could see.

He went to the front door, and with one push, he opened them. Inside, the space wasn't big, but as it was a tower, he knew that there were many floors. With one glance, Lucien could tell that this was the library.

There were many books lined on these shelves. Many more compared with Libary in Aeon House.

From what Lucien knew, the Shi Xue Clan was stronger than Aeon House; this was mainly because of the fact that they lacked any kind of neighbor here in China. Compared to that, Aeon House shared the territory and thus even resources with Tepes House a long time ago.

This was the first level of this pagoda. Lucien went through the shelves and looked at the book there; all of them were about history, geography, and other things.

Common knowledge, maybe several years old, but he still stored them inside his Cross Crest.

Then he proceeded to the second floor, which was a little bit smaller than the first floor. Many pagodas tended to have smaller floors as they were higher. Again he went through all books, many of which were still useless; he still stored them in the Cross Crest.

Some were on the third floor.

When he was going to the fourth floor, he encountered a little problem. Doors were closed, and he couldn't open them even with the use of force. When he inspected the patterns on the doors, he noticed that something was required to open them and that something was blood.

More precisely, the blood of the Noble Ghoul, then he congealed kagune dagger and cut his hand, and dropped a few drops of blood onto the door, and they opened.

On the fourth floor, there were books mainly about crafting various times, such as katanas, swords, and other weapons that could kill ghouls. Also, there were books about processing kagune and kakuhou and creating weapons from them; he was delighted with these books as he stored them in the Cross Crest.

The fifth floor was the same as the fourth floor.

Doors required some of his blood to open, and he entered the fifth floor with great haste. As the floors were getting smaller and smaller, this was significantly smaller compared to the first floor.

There were only a few bookshelves here.

This floor had books about the usage of hidden weapons; even though Lucien himself wasn't the type to use hidden weapons, they would find their use.

The Sixth floor had only five bookshelves totally, and all of these books were about martial arts, acupuncture points, meridians, and sword arts.

He was very eager to go through all those books about sword art right now, but sadly it wasn't the right time now.

And finally the last, the seventh floor.

It was empty; nothing was there besides one thick book that Lucien couldn't even open.

The book itself had an aura of profoundness and wisdom. Besides the book, there was one more thing there; it was the seal with the words 'Shi Xue'.

Lucien was shocked to see it because he knew what it represented.

It was key.

Key where the most precious thing of two clans was located.

Their Royal Blood Pond.

Lucien didn't know much about Royal Blood Pond, only one thing, it was found during ancient times in the form of blood crystals.

Exactly two crystals were found.

One of the crystals was kept by the Shi Xue Clan, and another one was kept by the Aeon House. The crystal itself was generating blood, and that blood could be used to boost the bloodline of Ghoul King. It was usually fed to the babies when they were born to make their bloodline stronger and gain resistance against their natural weakness.

Legend told one could evolve into Ghoul King if he had luck.

"When the seal is here, that means even their Sacred Blood Pond must also be here. Hmm, even if the Washuu Clan found this, without the blood of Noble Ghoul, they can't open it even with the key."

Lucien stated in a low voice as he stored both the book and seal of the Shi Xue away.

Then he exited the pagoda and continued searching through houses. He found some armory, but there weren't many useful things besides a few katanas and spears that numbered around a hundred or so.

Apparently, all weapons were used during the war and destroyed.

After walking for some time, he finally knew that he was nearing his target. This was because there were several agents of Vasuki guarding the road and preparing to attack Lucien the moment they saw him.

He only smiled at this and congealed two kagune spears.

Controlled through telekinesis, he killed them all in one hit.

All of them were pierced without any kind of resistance.

After storing their bodies and looking in the distance, he finally found his target. Giant walls were around the entire place, towering into height, made from well-sculpted stone and with several guarding towers. The bad thing about that was that many people were standing at the walls and before the gate.

As Lucien observed the area, there were too many people there.

Just on the walls and at the gate, he could count more than one hundred people, whose majority were from Vasuki and some were members of the Washuu Clan.

'Final battle of this expedition is coming. Hmm, maybe I should you that swords and spears obtained from armory as a long-distance attack to reduce numbers.'

Thought Lucien, as he was planning how to attack.

 

[Trafford]

Lucien took out all weapons he obtained from the armory when he was searching for them. Altogether he had around a hundred and forty various weapons, mainly katanas, spears, and halberds; he decided to use Telekinesis and do something like bombarding with these weapons.

He would be attacking mainly walls because he was lazy to climb up there and kill some surviving agents of Vasuki that would be lucky to survive the waves of flying weapons.

He sorted them by ten, as he would be doing attack in waves, always in ten. He controlled the first ten weapons with his Telekinesis, and all ten weapons were already levitating in the air as they shot toward their targets with lightning speed.

As nobody could predict an attack in the current situation, even though they were aware of the fact that they had lost contact with many of their people.

A huge clamor was suddenly heard out of nowhere as the weapons hit their targets and killed several agents of Vasuki in one go. All of them were pierced through like nothing, without any resistance, without a chance to fight back.

Dust was in the air, and nobody could see anything; even what was before them was completely blank.

When the dust was falling down, another salve of ten flying weapons came by after several seconds. It was killing everything in its path, and even some parts of the walls were destroyed in the process.

Then another wave came, this time aimed a the gate, which was guarded by several agents of Vasuki, who were already trying to hide somewhere. Sadly, attacks from a combination of Telekinesis and those weapons forged by the Shi Xue Clan were too destructive and strong.

Then the fourth wave came, and the fifth one came. When the sixth wave passed, nothing living could be found at the walls or around them, but Lucien didn't stop here and continued to attack the fortification with full power telekinesis.

He could still do eight more rounds of attacking, so he couldn't miss the chance.

With another wave of ferocious attack aimed at the gate, the powerful telekinesis and weapon attack destroyed the entire gate. Now Lucien used his Telekinesis to scan the area and found that almost half of the people inside that fortification were already dead.

He noticed that he couldn't use the bombarding strategy to kill more of them, so he exited his place and went to the fortification.

All those weapons were hovering around him, protecting Lucien if something attacked him; of course, he could use them to attack with a simple thought when he found an opportunity.

When he entered the place, he was in some kind of courtyard; it couldn't be called a small one but a big one either.

Lucien also saw the entrance that was leading to his target, but he needed to deal with his enemies first; thus he sent half of his weapons to attack all agents of Vasuki and members of the Washuu Clan.

As the flying speed of these weapons, controlled through Telekinesis, was very fast, soon the majority of people were killed instantly.

Then he started collecting the corpses of killed people and killing those who managed to survive by chance. Surprisingly, only three people managed to survive his terrifying attack this time. However, as they were injured heavily, they couldn't even resist any kind of attack.

Lucien quickly stored all those bodies inside his Cross Crest and then searched the entire area. He was searching for the place every time he visited it the first time because he wanted to find something useful.

Besides obtaining more than a hundred and something bodies of Vasuki agents and Washuu Clan members, he also managed to retrieve the majority of weapons that were used in the attacks; he was amazed when he saw that not of them were really damaged.

True enough, these weapons were forged by the Shi Xue Clan during their peak era. All of them were masterpieces of their own, so it was rather normal that they weren't damaged even from all of this.

On top of that, he also found supplies that the Washuu Clan brought with them. Here there weren't any firearms or something similar, as only people here were from the Vasuki or the Washuu Clan.

Neither of these two used firearms to combat, only swords. But he found two huge crates, where there were more than forty katanas, there were not of the quality of katanas forged by the Shi Xue Clan, but they could still have some use.

Some of them would be used by other fellow Ghouls, as all Ghouls trained in some martial arts of the way of the weapon, and good weapons were always welcomed.

After everything was done, and everything that had some use was taken, Lucien went to the door, which led to the inner Sanctuary where the legacy was a store. Even Royal Blood Crystal was there, behind closed doors, quietly sleeping, waiting for the time when it would shine once again.

Lucien entered the door, and a few attacks were already aimed at him as soon as he entered. He congealed kagune katana, and as he blocked the attacks with Telekinesis, he sent two precise slashes at his enemies, killing them instantly.

The paths here were narrow, so there would always be only one or two people coming at him.

Thanks to this, he had an effortless time killing them.

 

[Trafford]

As he was walking through those narrow paths, Lucien was already starting to feel very uncomfortable, as he didn't like narrow spaces too much. What was bothering him was the fact that the entire place was filled with agents of Vasuki and members of the Washuu Clan.

Literary, he would encounter at least two of them every five minutes and kill them.

After some time of walking, he found a door, which led to some room or hall. Lucien entered the room and was in the huge spacious hall. There was nothing here; Lucien sighed in disappointment as he knew that this was some kind of training area or something similar.

He exited the hall and returned to the narrow path; then, he continued for some time until he found another door.

This time it was better as he found some valuable things, cause here were stored some weapons, and he immediately took them all; also, this hall was connected to another smaller room, which had stored blood essences. Lucien didn't know from what they were refined, but he still took them and stored them in his Cross Crest.

After that, he exited the hall and walked through the pathway. Unfortunately, he didn't manage to find another door leading to another room or hall, which could have contained some treasure or something useful for him.

The only thing waiting for him were members of the Washuu Clan, which were attacking him the moment when they saw him with more ferocious attacks. From this attitude, Lucien could tell that he was nearing the inner sanctum. In this shrine was the inheritance stored, and also where was the hidden passageway leading to the room where Royal Blood Crystal was.

When he finally arrived at the place, there was a giant stone gate and before the gate were ten members of the Washuu Clan nicely lined up and holding their katanas, ready to attack.

The last line of defense was reached, and the last fight of this expedition was nearing.

Lucien turned his kakugan on, his eyes where the iris turned red, and the sclera turned black with red veins across the eye and into the skin around the eye. He entered Kakuja V1, to gain some slighter power boost, as he felt that these people here were pretty strong ones; then, one of them walked out of the line and stood before Lucien.

"Welcome, heir of the Aeon House, it is rather unfortunate for you to be here, but as you wish, this place would be your final resting place."

Said the man as he gripped his katana. His voice was neither arrogant nor aggressive. He was just telling the facts, but for Lucien, he was hallucinating and spewing nonsense. Lucien was only smiling at this, but soon his gaze turned serious as the rest of the men started to surround him. Some of them even congealed their kagunes.

This was an interesting point about the Washuu Clan, as they fought with the combination of their katanas and kagune if they were serious. And the same goes for the Aeon House, as the combination of kagune and weapon was very deadly if used correctly.

"All of those mercenaries were slaughtered as ants by my kagune daggers through telekinesis. Your agents of Vasuki, loyal dogs of the Washuu Clan, couldn't stand even one hit from me and were killed in an instant. Even though your clan members could be better than them, to my family or me and my race, you are nothing more than blood traitors and weaklings that should have been massacred several centuries ago. And so you would join them in the grave, and now after my emotive speech."

Lucien stated while he took his battle stance and prepared for the fight.

He knew that they were far weaker than him but they were stronger than the majority of people he had encountered so far, and he shouldn't underestimate his enemy. His grandfather always told him to be wary of every enemy he would encounter because you can't know if they are concealing their strength or what.

"Shall we dance, gentlemen?"

This was a clear provocation for the Washuu Clan members. One more hot-blooded than others couldn't stand this kind of battle strategy and sent himself at Lucien's blade. Actually, he wasn't used to provoking his enemies at first, but this was also taught by his grandfather to him, as he was a shameless person who would say anything in order for his opponent to lose control of himself.

This was a very good strategy as people who lost themselves in a rage couldn't properly think during the combat and this would result in death. The old man was very despicable and shameless as he said he could even provoke an ascetic monk to attack him in a fit of rage.

As the first person attacked him, Lucien chuckled as he saw the strategy that he had implemented succeed, and one of them had already attacked him without any plan and thus destroying their formation and encirclement.

The man attacked Lucien with both kagune and katana. His kagune was bikaku-type, covering the entire left arm, creating another blade around his arm. Lucien easily dodged the attack and kicked the man to his chest, sending him flying at high speed.

He crashed several meters away and even took another one with him. One would be killed and another one heavily injured because Lucien's kicks could kill even A-Rated ghouls if he used his full power.

Then he slashed at another man that was standing next to the one that attacked him and pierced through his belly with his kagune katana. He then congealed his kagune tail and slashed at his head as he was kneeling on the ground, severing his head in the process. Now, as the encirclement was completely destroyed, Lucien could move around as he wanted.

Then with the use of his tail, he defended against an attack that came from behind, as two men tried to sneak attack him when he was dealing with their colleague. But this wasn't very useful as his kagune tail, easily blocked the attacks and even managed to counter-attack with a precise slash aiming at the waist of one of the men, splitting him in two.

Another one had a face pale as a sheet when Lucien slashed his throat with kagune katana.

Then he turned around and saw that five were already down and five remained. The remaining five men of the Washuu Clan were now scared as Lucien was much stronger than they initially thought.

On the other side, Lucien was surprised at how weak these people were. He was aware that the Aeon House was many times stronger as they now forced their clansmen to evolve with RC Star Evolution Method.

He rushed at the remaining five men of the Washuu Clan and jumped in the air. He used his tail to attack one of them, which seemed to be bigger than the others and stood in the middle of them. His tail was very fast and very sharp. The poor man couldn't even see the attack, as he was killed in a mere second.

Lucien landed in the middle of them and attacked another one with a bikaku-type kagune. This time his opponent tried to defend, as his bikaku was more inclined to the defense than attack.

Unfortunately, his bikaku shattered like glass in the frontal confrontation and Lucien's kagune katana easily killed him.

Then a shocking situation arose, when the remaining men from the Washuu Clan realized that they couldn't defeat him, all of them chose their own type of choice. One of them committed suicide and the other two tried to escape. When he saw the one who committed suicide, Lucien thought that he must be a very loyal person to the Washuu Clan.

And his fate could be even worse if he chose to return to the clan.

Seeing those two men escaping, Lucien ended his Kakuja V1 and congealed two kagune lances that shot like lightning, swiftly piecing them, killing both of them on the spot. Lucien collected all bodies around and stood before the huge stone gate, which gave an ancient and profound aura.

It led towards the sanctuary where inheritance and Royal Blood Crystal were hidden.

Lucien opened those doors and entered the dark path that was illuminated by faint fire from torches on the walls.

 

[Trafford]

When he exited the pathway, he was welcomed by magnificent sight. Lucien could see that the entire area where the shrine was located looked breathtaking. The whole place was, by one word, massive.

Actually, it was something like a giant pedestal that was connected to the entrance by a bridge. When Lucien looked down, he could see magma that was radiating the entire space. The entire pedestal was decorated with giant stone objects, we could say, that was filled with magma. There were four of them, one at each corner of the pedestal.

On the walls were carved various symbols that Lucien didn't recognize and the end of the pedestal was the actual entrance to the location where the inheritance was stored and where the Royal Blood Stone was stored too. It was created from some kind of blue crystal that was glowing and creating a very subtle aura.

This entire place looked too magical and too imposing, but he knew that this wasn't something created by the Shi Xue Clan; they only found it when they came to the Kunlun Mountains. He could tell that from the architecture in this place.

As the architecture was completely different before entering this Ancestral Site and Ancestral Shrine. Outside where that underground world was, all buildings were in the architecture of ancient China; here, the architecture reminded something different, something unknown.

Lucien was walking through the bridge and saw one person standing in front of that entrance which was sealed away. An elderly man was standing there, in an appearance similar to the Washuu Tsuneyoshi. He wore a grey kimono with the Washuu Clan emblem on it and had katana hanging at his waist.

"To some extent, I was expecting that someone of your House would come here; now the only choice for us is to fight to decide the final winner, don't you also think, young man?"

As soon as he saw Lucien entering the Ancestral Shrine and walking through the bridge, old man said.

Lucien was rather surprised to hear that the Old man was expecting him, but it wasn't too unrealistic for the Washuu Clan to expect intervention from the Aeon House in this matter. This time it was serious, as they were practically trying to steal the inheritance of the Shi Xue Clan, and their actions were pure blasphemy in the eyes of the Aeon House.

"Forgive me rudeness for not introducing myself. My name is Washuu Tsunekashi, the Grand Elder of the Washuu Clan."

Introduced himself as Grand Elder of the Washuu Clan, Washuu Tsunekashi. He was from the same generation as the Washuu Tsuneyoshi, as all people in their generation have their names starting with Tsune.

From what Lucien knew that he was second-in-command after the patriarch as he was Grand Elder, and he was probably the sole grand elder of the clan, as the Washuu Clan wasn't particularly huge.

"Lucien Etras di Aeon, Heir of the Aeon House of Noble Ghouls."

Lucien bowed to him in a similar manner, paying respect to his opponent.

"Now, I would please for Elder to make the first move, please."

Said Lucien with courtesy. Some things such as manners and other similar things couldn't be forgotten. Lucien liked it as they created his personality, and thanks to that, he could proudly walk as a proper nobleman.

Seeing this, Grand Elder Washuu Tsunekashi smiled slightly as he was given an advantage as he could attack first. He knew that Lucien gave him this advantage because of seniority, and he could be considered his senior, respectable one because he was much stronger than several elders of the Washuu Clan.

Together, even though they were enemies.

Grand Elder Washuu Tsunekashi immediately entered his Kakuja, which was similar to Eto and Roma, enlarging him to several meters tall giant. He looked like those ogres that Lucien fought some time ago.

A year or so.

His Kakuja created biological armor around him, he was tall, seven meters or so, and in his hand, he was gripping a huge katana made out of kagune.

Lucien entered his Kakuja V2 without a second thought, knowing that the enemy this time was powerful. He was covered in body armor, and in his hand, he was also gripping a kagune katana, similarly to his opponent. In this version, his face wasn't covered, as the kakuja mask was there only from the Kakuja V3.

Then the battle started. Even though the Grand Elder Washuu Tsunekashi in his kakuja form was huge, it didn't reduce his speed even a bit, and he quickly appeared before Lucien, slashing at him with his katana.

Lucien blocked the attack head-on and met with powerful force. Apparently, the physical power of the Grand Elder Washuu Tsunekashi was much higher than his, even though he was in kakuja form.

'To these were old monsters from the Washuu Clan father and grandpa talked about. I wonder what they did to gain such a fearsome kakuja form. Even though it's in the type of biological armor, which is rather inconvenient, it didn't have any major flaws or openings. His kakuja is several times better than Eto's Owl form.'

Thought Lucien in his mind, as he was reminded of words of his father and grandfather who were talking about some old monsters in the Washuu Clan. It was fascinating how they could attain such fearsome power without strengthening methods or something.

In his base form, Grand Elder Washuu Tsunekashi was several times weaker than Lucien in base form. But in the kakuja form, Grand Elder's Washuu Tsunekashi's was even with Lucien's Kakuja V2.

Lucien twitched his body and managed to block the slash successfully and returned the attack, slashing at the arm of the Grand Elder Washuu Tsunekashi. He hit him successfully because such a large kakuja would have a slower reaction time and slower attack speed.

Even if the difference is only a few seconds, they could decide life and death. His shoulder bled, and Lucien jumped several meters away, giving Grand Elder Washuu Tsunekashi a deep glare.

"I wonder about one thing. How could you attain such fearsome kakuja, Grand Elder Washuu Tsunekashi? If I am not wrong, you could be counted as one of the most powerful ghouls on this planet with this kind of power."

Said Lucien, after considering a few possibilities behind his fearsome powers. Now, this was turned into the battle of techniques, speed, and craftiness. Because they were similar in physical strength, other factors decided the outcome of this battle.

Lucien had in his arsenal telekinesis, so his offensive versatility was higher.

 

[Trafford]

Grand Elder Washuu Tsunekashi smiled at this question, as it was very logical and understandable. Despite not being the Noble Ghoul, it was very weird for the ghoul to attain such strength. Lucien was truly perplexed at how he achieved this feat.

"I am truly old, and my memory isn't serving me good compared to the past, so I must apologize for this."

Said Grand Elder Washuu Tsunekashi to Lucien. He knew that Grand Elder Washuu Tsunekashi was laying, as there was absolutely no reason why to tell him this kind of information. This was also a strategy as their strength was on the same level, and nobody would know the final winner of this match.

"Don't worry, Grand Elder; If I thought about some possibilities, I would say only one thing about your great strength and power. As this wasn't achieved by some cultivation method or natural strengthening, then this leads us to one conclusion."

Spoke Lucien slowly, and Grand Elder Washuu Tsunekashi already had a bad look on his face as he knew that Lucien was already aware of the reason behind his strength. Truthfully it wasn't so hard to deduce it.

If it wasn't cultivation or natural strengthening or something similar, then we could search for an answer in one thing.

Science.

"Genetical Modification, am I right?"

Asked Lucien in a curious voice and watched as the expression of the Grand Elder Washuu Tsunekashi was only worsening to the point of being extremely ugly. It was apparent that Lucien was right and found the true reason. Now when he had a reason, he already had a

person responsible in his mind for all of this. Only one man was doing so many experiments on ghouls, humans, and other breeds to the extreme.

Kanou Akihiro.

"Seeing your face is like seeing the answer. Should I continue? I already have a person in my mind responsible for all of this. The one responsible for the operation that happened after the Steel Beam Incident, and he managed to create the first artificial one-eyed ghoul in this world. A human created something miraculous like this without the help of our race, but it would be impossible without the help of your clan, right?"

Lucien continued

Grand Elder Washuu Tsunekashi was aware that the truth was revealed and that Lucien knew about Kanou Akihiro and his numerous experiments. If this was also known to the Aeon House, and especially now when the Washuu Clan was weakened by a significant margin as many of their Elders and agents of the Vasuki died in this expedition, it could have terrible consequences.

"Hmm, good young one. Now we must fight to the death; either I perish or you."

Stated Grand Elder Washuu Tsunekashi as he gripped his katana and rushed at Lucien with top speed. Lucien did the same action, but different from the Grand Elder Washuu Tsunekashi, as he wasn't attacking, but he only dodged the attack at high speed.

When he successfully dodged the attack and was behind the Grand Elder Washuu Tsunekashi, he threw his kagune katana at him with his full power, penetrating his right shoulder.

Lucien aimed at the right shoulder for a simple reason.

The Grand Elder Washuu Tsunekashi was right-handed, and now his combat prowess would be reduced to some extent. The Grand Elder Washuu Tsunekashi growled in pain as the katana pierced through his shoulder and created a severe injury.

Then he congealed the kagune tail, the permanent one as he couldn't congeal other ones, and rushed at the Grand Elder Washuu Tsunekashi. He jumped in the air, and with his tail, he slashed at the place where the katana was stabbed.

He didn't manage to sever the arm completely as the kakuja was too huge and too dense, but he created a large enough wound, and with the additional strike, Grand Elder Washuu Tsunekashi would be without the entire arm.

Lucien then used telekinesis on his kagune katana, which shot towards him, and Lucien caught it with great speed and attacked once more when he was still in the air. But sadly, his attack this time was only half effective as the Grand Elder Washuu Tsunekashi blocked the incoming katana and punched at Lucien, shooting him away several meters.

Lucien got up and split a little amount of blood, but he was relatively fine. On the other side, the Grand Elder Washuu Tsunekashi was severely injured and couldn't use his right hand to attack anymore and was forced to hold his katana with his left hand.

He dropped his katana and rushed at the Grand Elder Washuu Tsunekashi, just with his tail as his weapon. When he was already before him, he slashed at the right led with his tail, and at the same time, he used his telekinesis to control his kagune katana to do the same thing to his left leg.

As this happened to the fact, he managed to deliver two deep cuts on both legs of the Grand Elder Washuu Tsunekashi, intercepting his ability to walk to some extent.

This was Lucien's actual strategy, to immobilize his opponent. Then when the opponent can't move properly, he would exit his Kakuja V2, and through telekinesis, he would bombard him with kagune daggers, killing him in the process.

Then Lucien turned around with his tail and slashed at the left leg, and at the same time, the kagune katana also attacked the left leg of the Grand Elder Washuu Tsunekashi with full power. This time, Lucien managed to sever his left leg, causing the Grand Elder Washuu Tsunekashi to lose stance and fall on his right knee.

Then he jumped away from him, exited his Kakuja V2, created tens of kagune daggers to the maximum, and looked at the Grand Elder Washuu Tsunekashi. Now both of them knew that the fight was ended and the winner was decided.

"Ha, this was a hell of a good fight. It was my honor. Now do what must be done."

Said the Grand Elder Washuu Tsunekashi. Only a few short words, but for Lucien, it was enough. His words contained everything. Admitting defeat and also recognition. Lucien nodded his head and sent several tens of kagune daggers to attack the Grand Elder Washuu Tsunekashi.

They flew at a terrifying speed and each one had great penetrative and destructive power. The Grand Elder Washuu Tsunekashi died in the process.

Lucien looked around him and looked at some parts of the destroyed floor. He walked to the corpse of the Grand Elder Washuu Tsunekashi and stored it in his Cross Crest. This would do a good Blood-Essence.

Then he walked to the wall, which was created from those shining blue crystals, and stood before a small mechanism. This mechanism required two things to open. One was that seal, which Lucien found in the pagoda, and another thing was the blood of the pure-blooded Noble Ghoul.

 

[Trafford]

Lucien took out the seal of the Shi Xue Clan, which he found in the pagoda, and inserted it into the mechanism. Nothing happened so far as the blood of the pure-blood Noble Ghoul was required.

Thus, Lucien congealed the kagune dagger, cut his hand, and dripped several drops of blood onto the mechanism. Only then the mechanism started working and glow in the blue light, similar in color to that crystal.

So even though the Washuu Clan found the Ancestral Shrine, they couldn't access it and open the door. They didn't even have a seal of the Shi Xue Clan that served as the key, and they weren't pure-blooded ghouls either.

Maybe they would try to open it with explosives or something, but who knows? Lucien thought even those weapons that he obtained would cause problems if they fell into the hands of the Washuu Clan and then Vasuki.

Lucien stepped away and let to massive stone door open. They were opening slowly, and it took some time for the door to open fully. After they opened, Lucien entered the place, and there were two altars in the small room.

The entire room was dark and the only light was generating those blue crystals, creating a very subtle atmosphere here. Altars were carved in simple architecture, without any decorations or something, just plain stone and that's all.

And finally, the next thing here was, of course, the Royal Blood Crystal. It looked rather ordinary, like any other crystal, it was just in blood-red color and it was constantly releasing a bloody aura of slaughter and blood. Crystal was now its so-called sealed state.

Lucien stored it in his Cross Crest.

The most fascinating thing there and the most precious thing was Heart.

Yes, a beating heart on the pedestal.

With only one description.

'Heart of the Ghoul King'

Lucien was shocked but quickly recovered and stored it in his Cross Crest.

After searching through the entire room several times, Lucien decided to go away and explore the underground region once more. There were still many buildings where he wasn't, and there could be something valuable for him.

He exited the Ancestral Shrine and when he was at the entrance to the shrine itself, he bowed slightly, paying respect to ancestors of his race that fell in the battle and betrayal by the Washuu Clan.

Lucien then walked away from the fortification and searched for some buildings. He mainly found some houses which served as housing space for people. There weren't many valuable things in these houses, almost nothing that had any use.

After some time, he was delighted because he found a big building. But when he entered, he was utterly disappointed as this was some medical ward combined with a place for storing the medicine. After exploring the rest of this place and getting to know that nothing valuable was here, he decided to leave.

***

Lucien slept for several hours in a row before going to work.

The extraction process of several hundred corpses. There were countless corpses of B-Rated and A-Rated ghouls here. And corpses of agents of Vasuki and members of the Washuu Clan were also high in numbers; this would give him enough Blood-Essences to speed up his evolution.

He extracted Blood-Essence from those B-Rated and A-Rated ghouls at first because they were the weakest. They were around three hundred of them; Lucien didn't count them as it was too bothersome to do something so annoying.

As all of these Blood-Essences would be used for his evolution, he didn't keep them and stored them in a special place. From all these ghouls, he obtained around one hundred Blood Essences.

Then he moved forward and started refining the bodies of Vasuki agents. They were much stronger and more potent compared to those mercenaries.

Almost eighty Blood-Essences. This was a huge number as agents of Vasuki numbered in tens; maybe they were only a hundred altogether. They even gave more blood essences compared to their numbers.

After he extracted everything, he looked at the beating Heart of the Ghoul King.

It was so mesmerizing that he couldn't control himself and bit into the Heart of the Ghoul King.

After several seconds he at the entire Heart of the Ghoul King. Then he felt some weird in his body, as his whole body was being strengthened, especially the Kagune and his mental power to use Telekinesis. Even his RC Level increased a bit.

He opened The Game to see the precise changes.

[Name: Lucien Etras di Aeon

Race: Ghoul King (12%)

RC Type: Rinkaku

RC Level: 65,894

Unique State: Kakuja V4

- Kakuja V1: Left hand - body armor, right hand - kagune katana

- Kakuja V2: Entire body armor without a mask, kagune katana

- Kakuja V3: Entire body armor with the mask, another armor layer (extra thin), kagune katana

- Kakuja V4: Entire body armor with the mask, another armor layer (extra thin), kagune katana, Rinkaku Tails

Star Rank: 4th

***

Abilities: Telekinesis - Alpha]

He saw that his Telekinesis had been strengthened to the Alpha-Level, and now had the strength of more than a hundred tonnes. Also, his race has changed to the Ghoul King, but not entirely; his race was still only evolving.

After the process was done, he would be geniue Ghoul King.

In the next few days, Lucien trained and familiarized himself with his new strength. There was still some time before the 11th Ward Battle and raid on the Cochlea Prison.

 

[Trafford]

He spent most of his time during the flight reading various reports that talked about the situation in Tokyo. These things were specially prepared for Lucien and were delivered here often.

He was somewhat satisfied with the situation in Tokyo, as everything was going according to plan. The Aogiri Tree entered the final phase of preparations for the 11th Ward Battle and Cochlea Raid.

All weapons, ammunition, and other things were also supplied to the Aogiri Tree. Of course, there were things like blood essences and also some support regarding manpower as Lucien also ordered to hire of some ghoul mercenaries. Still, only strong ones, such as the Commission of Counter Ghoul, had a slight advantage over strong people that participated in the 11th Ward Battle.

Next, he sent a message to Blood Island informing them about everything that happened. He also mentioned that he found three Blood-Essence Extractors, various weapons and blood essences, many books, and martial arts.

Next, he mentioned some things about the Royal Blood Crystal and his fight with the Grand Elder Washuu Tsunekashi, but for now, he decided to omit everything about the Heart of the Ghoul King.

Soon after the message was sent, he even received a reply, saying that his father would arrive in Tokyo, take the Blood-Essence Extractors, and discuss things about theRoyal Blood Crystal. He was happy to see his father after a long time, and he also learned that Patriarch Asmodeus would arrive soon, as he was already on his way to Tokyo.

He would arrive in a more secret way, as they didn't want to alert the Washuu Clan. Hearing that the Washuu Clan had something as strong as pinnacle 5th Star, Kakuja V2, it was decided they must be more careful.

***

After a few hours, Lucien finally arrived in Tokyo. There was already a small convoy waiting for him, as now there was an ideal time for the Washuu Clan to ambush him, as he was carrying many precious things on him as the Royal Blood Crystal and many other martial arts and books.

Lucien went to the Helter Skelter Bar to see Itori. They were apart for two months, which could be said to be a long time. Soon enough, he arrived at the Helter Skelter Bar and entered the bar. It was empty as it was most time. Not many people visited this place.

When Itori saw Lucien, she immediately ran to him and hugged him with all her strength. Lucien hugged her back and kissed her lips. She was surprised at first, but soon she passionately returned his kiss, and they entered the long season of kissing, and almost both of them couldn't resist their lust, but then Lucien stopped as this wasn't the appropriate time to do the deed.

"I missed you very much, my love, my Itori."

Whispered Lucien to her ear; with a gentle voice, he was still hugging her closely. She had almost tears at the corner of her eyes when she heard his word of love and devotion.

"I missed you too, dear. I love you, and please don't leave me behind next time."

Said Itori, as she also missed Lucien very much and she wanted to help him, but she knew that with her strength, it would be impossible to fight against the Washuu Clan as they were many times stronger than her.

Even though she ate many blood essences that Lucien gave her and even trained in the simplified version of the Rinkaku Martial Arts, it didn't help, and she couldn't attain the strength to rival the pinnacle 5th Star, and Pinnacle 5th Star was above SS-Rate Ghoul.

At best, she could be able to fight and kill most of the Special-Class Ghoul Investigators with her improved strength.

"Don't worry; I won't be leaving soon."

Smiled Lucien as he gently stroked her hair and they both sat down and Lucien started talking about his adventure in the Kunlun Mountains. He talked about his fights with the Washuu Clan, Vasuki, and others.

Then he described the Ancestral Site and the Ancestral Shrine of the Shi Xue Clan and the many rewards he obtained.

"Ohh, and something bad also happened."

Itori was surprised that his face turned so serious.

Lucien was serious now because of one thing. His father would visit here, and of course, he won't approve either of his relationships, as she wasn't Nobility, but he was already prepared for this as he had the Royal Blood Crystal in his hands and by the rules of the Aeon House, it was his, cause he was the one who obtained the treasure.

"Soon, my father would arrive in Tokyo because of things from the Shi Xue Clan. He would personally bring them to the Aeon House. But this also means that he would meet you and also meet Eto. With how his personality is, he would disapprove of our relationship."

Lucien told Itori about Eto a long time ago, and she couldn't refuse him. She was angry at him, but he promised he would have only two and them and even swore an oath to the heavens.

Lucien knew that if his mother came, there could be some room for discussion, but his father was different. She was aware that his father would disapprove, and nobody knew what would happen because hearing this made her very nervous.

 

[Trafford]

Lucien spent a long time with Itori and even took her to dinner at his estate, where the meat of demons was often served to him. He also gave her some Blood-Essences and other things before they separated, and Itori returned to the Helter Skelter Bar.

Lucien then went to the 24th Ward to find Eto because they had many things to discuss together. So he went there; fortunately, he was in a very close place where Eto lived.

He went there and fortunately she was at home. He entered her so-called house and found that she was currently reading some books. When she saw him, she stood up, went to him, and started scanning him closely with curious eyes.

Then as if she lost interest, she sat down on the nearest chair and signaled Lucien to sit down too.

"How are the preparations going? I read various reports that everything should be going good and everything for the 11th Ward Battle is already prepared and also more importantly for the Cochlea Raid."

Said Lucien as soon as he sat down. He already had some images of the situation from the reports he read in his jet.

"Everything is already prepared for the fight. All weapons and ammunition are on the place, and most importantly, we have managed to obtain several new S-Rated Ghouls and one SS-Rated Ghoul from the Blood-Essences that you provided us with."

Eto answered his question, which Lucien found very good, especially since several new S-Rated ghouls popped out in the Aogiri Tree and one SS-Rated one.

That greatly enhanced the strength of the entire Aogiri Tree and made them an even more valuable chess piece in Lucien's eyes. Besides Eto and Tatara, no one from Aogiri Tree had any worth to him, and they were just usable pawns.

"Who was the one that became SS-Rated?"

Questioned Lucien with great curiosity.

He wondered if it was Kirishima Ayato or Oomori Yakumo. Truth be told, both of them were hard to handle, but maybe Kirishima Ayato was a bit easier as Oomori Yakumo was mad.

"Ayato. As he became the SS-Rated ghoul, Tatara started to train him in martial arts and teach him combat techniques. But don't worry, Tatara personally has beaten some sense and obedience to him so that he won't be behaving so arrogantly and idiotic as before. He is, after all, without much real combat experience, so this would help him much."

Eto stated after some consideration on what to say.

Ayato's attitude became much better after getting beaten to death several times in a row by Tatara. He was too arrogant before, and this helped him understand his place. Eto knew that some people weren't that good-tempered and would just kill him on the spot, as Lucien did.

After getting trained by Tatara, whose strength was also rising day by day as he also got a lot of blood essences, trained Ayato, he showed wonderful results. Now it would be trouble for several Associate Special Class Ghoul Investigators to battle him.

Before, it was different, as he was totally inexperienced; two or three Associate Special Class Ghoul Investigators were enough to defeat him. Now they would need more than that.

"Good. I would give you enough blood essences to raise your RC Level of all executives and especially Tatara's and Noro's."

Lucien noted as he took out some blood essences that he had prepared for this occasion. Then both of them talked about some minor things before Lucien left the 24th Ward and went back to his estate.

It was already evening, so Lucien went to train a little bit before going to sleep. He always used to train a little bit in his Kenjutsu before going to sleep as it gave him better sleep.

***

In the morning, at his estate, a big surprise was waiting for him in the form of his father Asmodeus, who had now arrived in Tokyo. He was sitting in the living room of the estate and drinking his morning coffee.

Clothed in the pitch-black suit, coupled with his bright blue eyes and long white hair, he was releasing an aura of dominance and nobleness. He was waiting for Lucien to wake up as he knew that they had just now returned from the Kunlun Mountains.

After Lucien woke up, he clothed himself in his Noble White Attire and went to the living room where his father was already waiting for him.

"Father."

Lucien greeted his father with a slight bow because this was also something like a formal greeting to the Patriarch of the Aeon House. His father had a rare gentle smile on his face as he nodded his head and both of them sat down.

"So where should you start?"

Asmodeus question his son and Lucien started telling everything from the start of the expedition in the Kunlun Mountains. Asmodeus was pleased with his son's performance, especially with the harvest he obtained.

Things like the Blood-Essence Extractor were critical to the Aeon House as they were too scarce and had significant effects.

"Besides those three Blood-Essence Extractors, I have also obtained numerous weapons and martial techniques."

 

[Trafford]

But what shocked Lucien the most was the next topic that his father talked about. He almost got a heart attack.

"With the Tepes House agreement, we have decided to construct an actual Empire."

Explained Asmodeus.

This was rather shocking news to Lucien, but he was rather happy about it. It would greatly benefit the Aeon House, as it would be easier to create and extend influence. Not to mention the fact it would also mean that fighting against demons and humans in the future would be organized and coordinated.

After some slight pause, Asmodeus continued in his talk.

"We have an agreement with the Tepes House, that we Aeon House would be ruling Imperial House and have all power, with Tepes House supporting us. This isn't that surprising, as those greedy vampires only care about their magic and technology. Fortunately, they never really cared about ruling land, as it was already seen on the Blood Island."

Technically the Blood Island was shared between Aeon House and Tepes House equally. In reality, Ghouls controlled the entire island, as Vampires were locked in their magic towers and researching god knows what.

They only came out only in three situations.

The first one was a lack of blood and blood essences. The second one was a lack of research material, and the third one was a grave situation when some powerful demons appeared. And in some cases, the fourth reason was lust, but this was only in the case of younger vampires, only males. Even Lucien's friend Dante already had three wives or so.

"This isn't so bad a situation. They would develop more powerful weapons and magitek, and in return, they would get more and more magic and technologies to research. Hopefully, some would join the army, as they are also powerful combatants."

Lucien noted down during the conversation.

He knew even though most of them enjoyed locking themselves in magic towers and researching everything that caught their interest, some of them would be able to join the army. Their skills in the field of blood control and magic were unparalleled and were useful in large-scale battles.

"Don't worry about that. Probably most of the younger vampires who couldn't spend years in seclusion would surely join the army. And many older ones too, as the new world would be full of opportunities and I forgot to say one more very important thing."

Said Asmodeus with a serious voice. He knew that younger ones wouldn't be able to hold back and just sit inside their magic towers or their seniors' towers and research magic. They, too, were a battle race but rather calmed down and focused more on the research of magic and blood control.

"What?"

"The creation of the new empire is already going on. Soon everything would be done, and also the creation of new laws, the army, and other important things was almost finished. With this, we could increase the efficiency of cleaning the underground world under Blood Island and also increase the killing rate of the demons that came to Blood Island."

This was certainly the truth, as the unified army would greatly speed up the process of killing demons and many other operations. You must know that cooperation between the two armies and creating one united were two different things.

"Do you already have a name for the empire?"

Lucien asked his father.

He felt that they were progressing at a very fast rate. He was truly happy cause when they created an Empire, his father would be the Imperial Emperor, and he would be the Imperial Crown Prince. It sounded cool and very majestical that he could introduce himself as Imperial Crown Prince Lucien Etras di Aeon of XXX empire.

"Wandenreich. The Walled Empire, or Invisible Empire, will be the nation of the last supernatural species, such as Ghouls and Vampires. A lot of ghouls are right now being transported to the Blood Island, and countless technologies and things are brought there."

Said Asmodeus with a proud expression. Lucien also liked the name of the newly-created little empire with a few hundred residents. Wandenreich sounded imposing and majestical enough for just a name to scare some weaker enemies and even was true to its meaning, as it was a hidden nation in the shadows.

Just like a ghoul preying on his prey.

"Our race was never unified under the one banner, and now our time has come. After the Washuu has fallen, we can turn our sight to the hidden enemy... humans."

I said with a menacing grin.

"Indeed, even if we are not strong enough... demons are."

Said Asmodeus.

As this part of the discussion was solved, they soon managed to discuss every topic on the plan, except the one. One of the most important ones. The Royal Blood Crystal. This crystal was of utmost importance as it could even change an ordinary ghoul into the Noble Ghoul.

Asmodeus already knew that he would use it on his little girlfriends, as he knew about it long ago. But he still feigned ignorance about this matter and didn't say anything.

"What will you do with the Royal Blood Crystal, son? As you have obtained this crystal, you have the right to do whatever you wish with it."

Hearing this, Lucien was happy because he knew that this was a silent approval from his father to do what he wanted.

Lucien wanted to use the Royal Blood Crystal to awaken the bloodlines of four people.

Itori and Eto were in for certain. Other two were Arima Kishou and Tatara. Both of them were excellent warriors and leaders that could lead people. Wandenreich would have great use of them.

"As you already know, father, I would like to you the Royal Blood Crystal for the Awakening process on the four people. As you already know, two are my future wives because you should have investigated it."

 

[Trafford]

Asmodeus nodded in an awkward feeling, and then he started to think about the other two people who could be worthy of the Awakening process and the usage of the Royal Blood Crystal on them.

He only found one such person, and that was, of course, Arima Kishou, as he was a peerless combat genius, but he couldn't think about the second person.

"Who are the other two? One of them should be White Reaper, Arima Kishou, as I can't see anyone more worthy and suitable than him, but who is the second one?"

Asked Asmodeus with great curiosity.

"Tatara. The remnant of the Chi Shen Lian, he is greatly talented in the field of martial arts, hand-to-hand combat, and also combats with kagune. I have sparred with him several times, and I must say, he is powerful and talented. He could even learn during the battle itself and adapt his combat style to the combat style of his enemy; he would be a great help for us in the future."

Hearing this, Asmodeus nodded his head in agreement, and then he wanted to ask about Lucien's chosen wives. Even though he believed in his son, he wanted to meet them at least once. But now it wasn't the right time to do that, as he should return soon, together with the three Blood-Essence Extractors.

Both of them then talked about the situation on Blood Island a bit and some other topics. After some time, Asmodeus took three Blood-Essence Extractors and went back to the Blood Island; he then left Tokyo, using Lucien's jet.

After his father left, Lucien was relatively happy, as everything he had done was good, and also he got his silent approval to do as he wished. The Blood Island would undergo another series of huge changes as the three additional Blood-Essence Extractors were obtained.

This would significantly enhance the entire House's strength and the strength of former royal guards, now Sternritter, or the Star Knights, but the German name sounded way better.

Currently, the Sternritter has only four members. One was the person, who trained with Lucien regularly, Nalthos, who was now Grandmaster of the Sternritter, as he was as strong as his father now.

Besides him, there were also three others. Namely Arseahr, Loruel, and Zelilius. Loruel was the only female amongst the four of them, and she was a very good friend of Lucien's mother, Selene.

All four of them were the strongest of the entire Noble Ghoul race, and thus they were tasked with being the Sternritter, as it was decided there would be a limited amount of them.

Lucien wanted to make Arima Kishou and Tatara Sternritter because both of them had great potential and were experienced and talented.

Lucien then went to train a bit and also trained in kenjutsu as he felt.

Tomorrow he would visit Uta and discuss some preparations for the 11th Ward Battle and Cochlea Raid, and also he needed to visit Itori and inform her about recent developments in the situation. He also planned to visit Anteiku and also again Eto.

After some time of training, he went to sleep. Before going to sleep, he spent some time reading through books in the library, especially those books he obtained in the Ancestral Site of the Shi Xue Clan.

***

The next day in the morning, Lucien woke up rather early, and as usual, he did his routine. Coffee, training kenjutsu, and reading some books. After finishing his favorite routine, he went to the Helter Skelter Bar.

"Hi, my dear."

Lucien said while he hugged Itori close to him and gave her a kiss. Itori immediately returned his kiss with great passion, and then they both sat down, and Lucien started telling her all those joyous news. He talked about how his father gave a silent approval.

Itori was happy about all of these. And another thing that made her happy was that she would be able to help Lucien in his future fights.

"Itori, soon the 11th Ward Battle would begin. I also plan to participate in this operation as this is the perfect chance to greatly weaken both the Washuu Clan and also Commission of Counter Ghoul. Our true purpose is the Cochlea prison and frees all ghouls inside the prison. Then we could wreak havoc as much as we want."

Lucien explained all of his plans to Itori and told her if she found an appropriate opportunity, she would be free to hunt and kill as many ghoul investigators in the 14th Ward as she wanted. Because the Commission of Counter Ghoul would concentrate all of their forces in the 11th Ward, all other wards would be weakened slightly, but then he thought about another possibility.

Because of Lucien's achievements, his father informed him that they could send one person to Tokyo to help Lucien in his matters. Especially in his fight against the Washuu Clan and their lackeys. Lucien chose one of the Sternritter, N0.3 Zelilius. of theSternritter.

Spearman with extremely dangerous spear technique.

Lucien knew that the Sternritter N0.3 Zelilius would arrive either tomorrow or the day after.

"Good, then I would also join the fun when the battle would erupt."

Said Itori with a smile on her face, as she was happy that she could help Lucien.

"But you won't be going alone. Soon, someone from the Blood Island would arrive as support, and he would also be responsible for your safety. You two would join hands and attack some ghoul investigators during the 11th Ward Battle and kill them for sure. I will give you a list tomorrow. Some of them have great potential and should be killed, while others are either Associate Special Class Ghoul Investigators or Special Class Ghoul Investigators. Remember, we must do everything in order to annihilate the Washuu Clan and kill those blood traitors."

Lucien said with a strong hatred in his voice.

 

[Trafford]

After talking about some other essential matters with Itori, Lucien went to the 24th Ward to spend more time with Eto. Even though he wasn't in contact with her as long as he was with Itori, there was weird chemistry between the two of them.

She was a very mischievous and sometimes funny person. Also very intelligent and interesting. Unique views of the world. Lucien wanted to show her a real-world and also truth. She has sacrificed her entire life to one thing, the destruction of the Washuu Clan.

Lucien wanted to give her a new reason to live because once the Washuu Clan was destroyed, there won't be anybody who would be creating the so-called balance between the ghoul world and the world of humans.

It was very possible that the all-out war between two species for supremacy would erupt.

Thus Lucien spent a very long time explaining the entire situation they were in. He told her that her revenge against the Washuu Clan would be fulfilled in the near future and asked her what she wanted to do after that. Then after some time of silence, he came to her, and without any notice, he kissed her lips.

Eto was utterly taken by surprise as this was totally out of any expectations. After a short time, she completely stopped resisting his advance, and she returned his kiss in a more passionate matter.

"Eto, you need to spread your agenda further and bring more ghouls here. Soon enough, every one of our kind would need to unite to form something greater."

He said slowly.

"Think about it. I will visit you after a few days."

Said Lucien as he exited the 24th Ward and returned to his mansion. Only ten days or so remained until the start of the 11th Ward Battle and the Cochlea Raid. Lucien was fully prepared for the attack and war. Tomorrow or the day after would, Sternritter N0.3 Zelilios arrive, which would be a massive help to Lucien as he would gain warrior on his own level.

***

Tomorrow afternoon, Tokyo Airport.

At the familiar airport, Lucien's private jet was already parked just now. From the just exited seemingly young man in his early thirties. He had pitch-black hair and bright green eyes. His physique and stature were those of an experienced warrior.

There wasn't any opening in his way of walking. One could say that he was a very experienced person and had fought many life and death battles.

Clothed in noble-looking white attire that was very similar to the white attire that Lucien used to wear. Coupled with his entire person, he looked noble and also tyrannical at the same time. He was the Sternritter N0.3 Zelilios that came to Tokyo to help Lucien in his fight against the Washuu Clan.

For every Sacred Devourer Ghoul, this was a huge honor to be able to kill those filthy blood traitors. To members of the Sternritter, who were most loyal to Aeon House even more. Another thing was also that if they performed well, they would be heavily rewarded, tt was also known that Lucien was generous to his subordinates.

Before the jet, there was already one Hummer H3 waiting for him. He got into the car and the whole time didn't say anything. He just kept silent and thought about various things to come, especially upcoming battles that would take place.

'Emperor said that his Highness Crown Prince is plotting something against the Washuu Clan in upcoming battles. If I perform well, I should be able to obtain many more Blood-Essences to reach higher Stars in the Evolutionary Ladder.'

Thought Zelilous in his mind as he was sitting inside the Hummer H3. Like many other Ghouls, he was also a battle maniac, and his blood was already boiling at the thought of fighting the Washuu Clan.

***

Lucien's Estate, 21st Ward.

"I greet Your Highness, Crown Prince Lucien Etras di Aeon."

Said Sternritter Zelilios with respect as he bowed slightly.

"Sternritter N0.3 Zelilios, welcome and thank you for your efforts."

Greeted Lucien back. There wasn't any sign of arrogance or anything similar in his words, as he also respected every member of the Sternritter, and they respected him because they knew of his power and talent.

Sternritter Grandmaster, Nalthos, who trained Lucien from his early years, said that his talent in the way of the sword and martial arts were terrifying.

After greeting, they both sat down on the nearby sofa.

"So now that you have arrived, Zelilios, I am thrilled because we can attack many places of those blood traitors, Washuu Clan. Previously I had only limited possibilities as the hidden elders have terrifying power. I believe you have read my report about my fight with the Grand Elder of the Washuu Clan, Washuu Tsunekashi."

Zellilios nodded his head as he was aware of that. When he read that report for the first time, he was amazed by that. Not because Lucien won, this was something obvious and expectable, but rather the power of that Grand Elder of the Washuu Clan, Washuu Tsunekashi.

"Your first task would be to guard my future wife Itori, and together with her, you would kill several Associate Special Class ghoul investigators and Special Class Ghoul Investigators. Collect those corpses into the interspatial ring and bring them back to me."

Yes, now that Vampires and Ghoul nobility merged, Vampires gave out their legacies too. One of them was quite a lot of interspatial rings that had huge use. They didn't have a big capacity, but it wouldn't be a problem for them to store several hundred corpses.

Zelilios nodded with a serious expression.

This order was of utmost priority because he had to kill the strongest people of the Commission of Counter Ghoul, which would greatly weaken the Washuu Clan.

And more important was, of course, the safety of Itori, who was a future wife of Crown Prince of the Wandenreich. For Zelilios, this was the perfect opportunity to gain tremendous merit. He, too, knew that Lucien wasn't a stingy person, and he greatly valued his people.

Zelilios also admired Lucien because of his hard-working nature and willpower. From an early age, Lucien constantly trained and created new ways for Ghouls to get stronger and evolve further.

He also created something as miraculous as the RC Star Evolution Method, which made use of the RC Cells to further evolve into a stronger lifeform.

 

[Trafford]

"So I have chosen four people as the primary targets. All of them rank as the strongest ghoul investigators of the Commission of Counter Ghoul. Two of them are Special Class Ghoul Investigators, namely Shinohara Yukinori and Kuroiwa Iwao. Then Associate Special Class Chino Mutsumi, and finally, the most troublesome is Suzuya Juuzou. His strength is very hard to determine."

Said Lucien, as he gave some important documents about all the people there. These documents contained important information about all four ghoul investigators. There were many things such as their quinque, abilities, etc.

Zelilios started reading through them. The first one was the most troublesome, Suzuya Juuzouu. His priority was very important as he had great potential and innate talent.

=============================================

Name: Suzuya Juuzou

Ghoul Investigators Rank: Rank 3 (actual rank between First-Class and Associate Special Class)

Appearance: Young-looking man with an androgynous appearance, with pale skin and pure shoulder-length white hair. He has dark red eyes with bags under them. In his hair, he wears red hairpins, which form the Roman numeral XIII, keeping back his bangs.

Abilities:

Pain Tolerance: Extremely high pain tolerance, thanks to his life with Big Madam and countless special circumstances that led him to have extremely high pain tolerance and also him being mentally very unstable. We could conclude that the subject is crazy to some amount.

Swordsmanship/Knife Throwing: He is very good at wielding a sword to some extent, but his stronger side is knife throwing at targets. Also, he is very good at fighting with his knives and dagger-like weapons. Has very good combat instincts and also could adapt to new situations easily.

Quinque:

Scorpion 1/56 - B-Rated Bikaku Quinque that takes the form of a Throwing Knife. It is a set of 56 blades that can be used both as melee and throwing weapons.

Conclusion: Target is extremely dangerous due to its current power and also big potential. Extremely unstable mentally and very hard to control. Due to these circumstances, extermination is the only choice. It should be disposed of as soon as possible.

Priority: Kill at all costs

=============================================

"Zelilios remember, this one is a priority. Even if you kill just him, it would be considered a success because he had great potential and could become the second Arima Kishou. But the problem with Suzuya is that he is crazy and can't be controlled. The only person who can control him is Shinohara Yukinori, who is loyal to the Commission of Counter Ghoul."

Zelilios nodded and then took out another page. This one described another ghoul investigator, this time; it was unknown Chino Mutsumi, Associate Special Class Ghoul Investigator.

=============================================

Name: Chino Mutsumi

Ghoul Investigators Rank: Associate Special Class

Appearance: Middle-aged man, with short black hair and glasses, just like the other investigators, wears a formal suit and tie.

Abilities:

Unknown, one of weaker Associate Special Classes, but has good leading abilities, and he is usually tasked with leading weaker ghoul investigators or other cannon fodder troops of the CCG.

Quinque:

Lily 1 - Not enough information

Conclusion: One of the weaker Associate Special Classes, but killing him would create at least some chaos because CCG would lose a capable ghoul investigator.

Priority: Low-Level, Kill if there is a possibility

=============================================

This one was weaker, and he was on the sure kill list only because of his rank. If he weren't an Associate Special Class Ghoul Investigator, Lucien wouldn't even bother to put his name on the list.

Next remained only two people. Both are Special Class Ghoul Investigators and one of the strongest ghoul investigators in the entire Commission of Counter Ghoul. The first one was Shinohara Yukinori.

=============================================

Name: Shinohara Yukinori

Ghoul Investigators Rank: Special Class

Appearance: Middle-aged, bulky man with a large nose and a wide chin. He has short black hair and a beard.

Abilities: He is an experienced veteran who has encountered as many powerful ghouls as the number of students he has taught. He has very good combat instincts and also has plenty of experience as he fought countless strong ghouls and killed many of them.

Quinque:

Demon Yamada - This is an S-Rated Bikaku-type quinque that takes the form of a long butcher knife.

Arata - A prototype koukaku quinque that is made not as a weapon but as armor to protect and enhance the user. The exoskeleton strengthens the user's agility and strength to match an SS-Rated or SSS-Rated ghoul's physique. The carapace gives better protection against kagune than normal body armor, and it is more energy-efficient than most quinque, presumably since it draws energy from the user's body. Unlike most quinque that are fed preservatives, the Arata can be manually set to higher levels of RC for the effects to be more potent at the cost of the wearer's vigor. At the time, it was still a prototype, and the armor could not be used safely for a long period of time.

Conclusion: Veteran Special Class Ghoul Investigator and also one of the most important people in the CCG. Highly loyal to the CCG and must be killed. His death would greatly weaken the entire CCG and the Washuu Clan's power. Also, he is one of the division leaders of the CCG, so his priority must be enhanced.

Priority: High-Level, Kill.

=============================================

Zelilius read through these reports, and his blood was already boiling as he couldn't wait when he would fight with them and kill them one by one.

And the last one was also Special Class Ghoul Investigators, Kuroiwa Iwao.

=============================================

Name: Kuroiwa Iwao

Ghoul Investigators Rank: Special Class

Appearance: Large, stocky man with a square face, thick eyebrows, and round eyes.

Abilities: An experienced veteran ghoul investigator and fighter. He has very good combat instincts and also has plenty of experience as he fought countless strong ghouls and killed many of them.

Abnormal durability and Strength: It was noticed that he has a strong ability to recover from wounds at a fast rate. Also, he has extremely high physical strength, several times of the average man.

Quinque:

Kuroiwa Special - This is an S-Rated Rinkaku-type Quinque, that resembles a large shield; it could be used to attack and defend.

Arata - A prototype koukaku quinque made not as a weapon but as armor to protect and enhance the user. The exoskeleton strengthens the user's agility and strength to match an SS-Rated or SSS-Rated ghoul's physique. The carapace gives better protection against kagune than normal body armor, and it is more energy-efficient than most quinque, presumably since it draws energy from the user's body. Unlike most quinque that are fed preservatives, the Arata can be manually set to higher levels of Rc for the effects to be more potent, at the cost of the wearer's vigor. At the time, it was still a prototype, and the armor could not be used safely for a long period of time.

Conclusion: Veteran Special Class Ghoul Investigator and also one of the most important people in the CCG. Highly loyal to the CCG and must be killed. His death would greatly weaken the entire CCG and the Washuu Clan's power. Also, he is one of the division leaders of the CCG, so his priority must be enhanced.

Priority: High-Level, Kill.

=============================================

 

[Trafford]

"Remember, try to dispose of Suzuya Juuzou. He is your highest priority target. If you kill him, then you could go after Kuroiwa Iwao and Shinohara Yukinori. This last one, Chino Mutsumi, Itori would take care of him, as he is significantly weaker than other ghoul investigators."

Zelilios nodded his head and set his mindset to kill Suzuya Juuzou at first because he couldn't be controlled, so the only option was to kill him.

"Now tell me, what do you think about them?"

Lucien questioned with curiosity because he believed that Sternritter Zelilios already had some plans and also some opinions about the four of them.

"If we go from weakest to strongest, then that Chino Mutsumi is weakest, and he doesn't need to be prioritized. He is probably someone who spent his entire life in the CCG and climbed through the ranks after several decades through hard work and not a personal strength. Compared to him, the rest of them are totally different cases."

Lucien nodded, as this was the absolute truth. There have always existed some people like Chino Mutsumi in the CCG. They were very weak in combat, but they had spent countless years in the CCG and were highly loyal to the Commission.

This was the only reason why somebody like him was Associate Special Class Ghoul Investigator, as even some First Class Ghoul Investigators were stronger than people like them.

"Kuroiwa Iwao and Shinohara Yukinori. Both of them are Special Class Ghoul Investigators, but that doesn't make them dangerous. What makes them dangerous is that they hold that armor-type quinque Arata that could drastically raise the user's strength. Both of them are experienced fighters and also leaders. If they are killed, then the CCG would be greatly hurt. And lastly, that mad kid, Suzuya Juuzou. He would be useful for us because he is greatly talented and has other strong sides. But sadly, his mental state is messed up due to all that torture by Big Madam, and thus can't be converted. The only option is to kill him to prevent future troubles."

Lucien was very satisfied after talking with Zelilios. Clearly, the Sternritter N0.3 was very intelligent and knew what should be done.

There was also one person who should be on that list, Marude Itsuki. He was usually the commander of the forces of CCG and almost never participated in direct fights. As he was always barricaded in the various command centers, it would be troublesome to kill someone like him, who is very well protected.

Lucien ordered Zelilios to attack when they would be fighting with Owl. Then Itori would also join, and together with Zelilios, they would strike when enemies would be preoccupied with the Owl, Yoshimura.

***

December 12, 0 ASBI.

Time went by, and only one week remained before the 11th Ward Battle and Cochlea Raid.

Lucien was currently in the 24th Ward talking with Eto about preparations.

"CCG started suppressing the local ghouls of the 11th Ward. Thanks to this, we have obtained more manpower, and new ghouls joined the Aoigiri Tree. Soon we would attack all ghoul investigators in retaliation, which would lead the CCG's local branch to launch the war against us."

CCG started suppressing the local ghouls because somebody was too hard to control. They were wreaking havoc here and there, killing many people in the process. Even Rize lived here six months before the Steel Beam Incident, but after she killed and ate too many people, many ghoul investigators moved in.

"Oh, I must inform you that my reinforcements arrived. During the 11th Ward Battle Special Class Ghoul Investigators, Shinohara Yukinori and Kuroiwa Iwao would die with ease."

Hearing this, Eto grew happier as two loyal supporters of the CCG would die. She didn't care about how many people died. The only thing which mattered to her was the destruction of the Washuu Clan and Vasuki. Then she passionately kissed Lucien on his lips without stopping for several minutes until Lucien left.

After he left, Eto muttered something in a feeble voice that didn't go unnoticed by Lucien, as his reflexes were many times stronger.

"Soon, you will be mine, my love."

***

Helter Skelter Bar, 14th Ward.

"Here are the targets for the 11th Ward Battle. I have ordered Holy Imperial Knight Zelilios to protect you all time, but he also has his duties. You have only one target, Associate Special Class Ghoul Investigator, Chino Mutsumi; after that, you would go and help Zelilios in completing his won assignments."

Explained Lucien the current situation to Itori. He was aware of her need to help him, but Lucien didn't let her join his battles with the Washuu Clan due to her weaker strength. Now they were fighting just the Commission of Counter Ghoul, which was significantly weaker than the Washuu Clan, so it was okay.

"Oki, Oki, dear. You know that I am very happy that I can help you at least with this. In the future, when I get strong, I will be able to help you much more."

Itori said and Lucien smiled at this and stroked her orange hair.

Lucien spent the entire night here with Itori as they talked about various things.

As a proper gentleman, Lucien wanted their first time to be a memorable moment, so he planned it for December 24, Christmas Eve. At Christmas, there was a somewhat magical atmosphere and romantic time.

So Lucien thought this would be a perfect opportunity and also it would be nice to go to some mountain resort, where everything is covered in snow, he very enjoyed that environment.

Now only less than a week remained till the 11th Ward Battle, which would be a significant event, as many of the important characters in the CCG would die, and also Cochlea would be breached, and many ghouls would escape the prison.

 

[Trafford]

15th December, 0 ASBI

Even though it was already December, there wasn't even snow or anything out there. Only coldness and sometimes it would rain. Maybe all talks about global warming weren't false after all. Today was already the 15th of December; only four days remained till the 11th Ward Battle and the start of the grand plan.

Today Lucien took Zelilios, and both of them went to Ateiku, and they would visit the 11th Ward. Zelilios wanted to see where the 11th Ward Battle would take place because, after that, he could decide the perfect strategy.

Both of them were clothed in pitch-black suits and wearing long black coats and hats. Zelilios was following after Lucien and guarding him every second, as it was his responsibility as a Sternritter.

***

Anteiku Coffee, 20th Ward.

Lucien and Zelilios arrived at the Anteiku after a short time, as Lucien teleported both of them to a nearby back alley. With this, they could go unnoticed by the Washuu Clan and also Vasuki.

After they entered the coffee, Lucien noticed that it was almost empty, and the only people there were waiters and very few customers. Because it was before noon, around ten hours after morning, even Touka was missing before she was still visiting a school.

Lucien now noticed knew a face, Irimi Kaya. Because he wasn't visiting the Anteiku often and only visited for special occasions, he never saw it until now. She was a woman with long, dark hair with long, parted locks in the front. At first glance, she seemed to be a rather solemn and taciturn woman. Even Lucien must admit that she was a hot woman and very beautiful.

Besides her, there was also Nishio Nishiki, surprisingly, and of course, Old man Yoshimura. Lucien sat down at a table that was near the window, and Zelilios stood behind him like a loyal guardian. This was because he was formally a guard for Crown Prince, and without consent, he couldn't sit down as he was still performing his duty.

"You can sit down, Zelilios; now there isn't any danger here, as this could be considered a relatively safe place. Sit down and enjoy a coffee. They are making a very good one."

Soon there, a person came to their table, and that person was Nishiki. He had a weird expression on his face as he remembered how Lucien knocked him out or somebody told him that.

To this, Lucien smiled and decided to provoke him a little because it would be fun to watch the show. Nishiki was a hot-blooded person bit, and he was easily angered.

"Hoi, you are already healed."

To this sentence, his eyebrows twitched in anger as he was visibly going to explode. Nishiki was also a prideful person because, for a ghoul as young as him, he was a relatively strong person. He could get over the fact that Touka had beaten him once, and Lucien knocked him out in one punch.

"Shut up, you fucker. I could have easily beaten you if it weren't for that sneak attack."

He was considered a prodigy and genius, but he had a very insensitive attitude and abrasive language. The moment he said that, Zelilios shot at him, knocked him down on the table, and pressed his kagune to his neck.

"Insolence. For insulting the Crown Prince, I should separate your head from the rest."

Said Zelilios with bloodlust, as this caught the attention of Irimi Kaya and Kaneki Ken came here and looked with shock at the situation. They saw Nishiki, who had kagune pressed against his neck by a strange man, that was releasing an extremely dangerous aura.

Kaneki didn't know how dangerous that man was as his instincts weren't that developed, but Irimi knew; she knew that he was far more dangerous than most ghouls she had encountered in her entire life.

"Mr. Aeon, could your friend please release Nishiki? I would personally make sure that he would control his speech properly next time."

Said Old man Yoshimura as he appeared out of nowhere and looked at Lucien, who nodded his head. Then Zelilios released Nishiki, who was panting for breath, as Zelilios almost strangled him out of anger. Then he sat beside Lucien and watched the trees behind the window.

"Two espressos, please. Large ones."

Said Lucien to Yoshimura, who nodded and went to prepare the coffee. Soon, Yoshimura delivered the coffees, who sat beside them and started talking with Lucien about recent developments.

"Washuu Clan and Vasuki lost a huge part of their manpower, so they are severely injured now. I don't know to what extent, but I have managed to kill one Grand Elder of the Washuu Clan and several of their Elders. I won't talk about agents of the Vasuki as that's meaningless."

Old man Yoshimura smiled lightly, hearing this, as he was also happy that the Washuu Clan and Vasuki lost many of their people, as they were always behind that endless circle of killing.

"Soon, a huge war would erupt, and everyone would fight for survival, be careful and also give good advice to your employees. Chaotic times will descend, but soon, the Washuu Clan won't be a problem anymore. I just need a few years until everything is ready."

He was planning to firstly weaken the Washuu Clan for some time, before going for some time, before everything on the Blood Island would be ready, then he would deliver his final push.

Now he calculated it at four years. After four years, there would be no more Washuu Clan and no more Vasuki.

"Some of us waited for decades for this to happen. I think four years isn't that bad. When the Washuu Clan is gone, there could be co-existence between our two races."

Lucien just smiled and didn't say anything.

He had his own thoughts and laughed at the attempts at the co-existence. For him, it was a pipe dream that would never happen.

 

[Trafford]

19th December, Evening, 21st Ward, Lucien's Estate.

"Over a thousand members of the CCG and Police have surrounded and are waiting to raid the 11th Ward Ghoul's stronghold. Nearby residents are being evacuated to designated locations by the police. The raid is being commanded by Special Class Investigator Marude Itsuki, who also discovered the location. He spoke confidently about this large-scale operation. 'We will risk our lives to protect 99 percent of the citizens. But we will need everybody's cooperation for the other 1 percent. We will regain peace in the 11th Ward.'"

It was going in the news, and Lucien was watching it with eagerness as he was preparing his battle attire. He wore his battle attire and also his Hollow Mask. Zelilios also wore his combat attire, which was a little similar to his, and also wore a mask similar to Lucien's.

"The battle has begun. I am going to wreak havoc at the Cochlea Prison together with Tatara. You will go to the 11th Ward and kill those people on the list and protect Itori. Be careful and complete your mission."

Lucien ordered while he finished preparing all his necessary things.

"Yes, Your Highness."

***

Sometime after the start of the operation, 11th Ward.

On the roof of the building, there were several people in cloaks and masks standing. Bin Brothers, strengthened by blood essences, were two in identical outfits and masks and were now stronger than ordinary S-Rated ghouls.

Other ones were Noro, in the typical red cloak of the Aogiri Tree and he was wearing that weird smiling mask of his and Tarata in his traditional white attire, a remnant of Chi She Lian and red half-maks covering the lower half of his face. Eto was looking at soldiers of CCG beneath them as she was covered in bandages.

The last ones were Nico, a member of the Clowns and an associate of the Aogiri Tree. He was a spy; Clowns planted that in the Aogiri Tree, but it was the truth that he helped them immensely by giving them various important information and so on. Kirishima Ayato was doing the same thing as Eto, observing those soldiers of the CCG beneath them.

"They are here faster than expected."

Eto noted as she watched those soldiers of the CCG running here and there as they were creating the barricade and fortifications.

"Yes... Bin Brothers to the main building!"

Answered Tatara, and at the same time, he started giving orders.

"Yes."

Said both of them simultaneously.

"Kirishima, back. We need to go now, Eto, Noro; from now you are in charge."

After that, both of them walked away and met with Lucien.

"Hello, Eto, Tatara. I am glad that my supplies are given good use. I have ordered one of the strongest subordinates to stay here and hunt for the stronger ghoul investigators. Once an Owl arrives here, you could use that chaos for your people to escape. Now we must go to the Cochlea."

Lucien also went to the 11th Ward to meet with Eto and Tatara, and after a short talk, they left for the Cochlea Prison, together with most of the Aogiri members. Even though the 11th Ward would have lesser people, they were actually better-prepared thanks to Lucien's support.

CCG created a barricade with the use of their armored transports, and there were many people stationed, mainly those cannon fodder carrying firearms with Q Bullets. But the Aogiri Tree was even better armed as Lucien ordered complete fortification.

There were many heavy machine guns on the building, more precisely, M2 Browning machine guns. Several of them were firing at the cannon fodders of the CCG, killing tens of them in the first wave.

This caused their numbers to lessen, as there were now much more vulnerable greatly.

After they tried to resist, there would be surprised by grenade launchers. Even though members of the Aogiri Tree weren't that good at shooting, Lucien's mercenaries taught them all they could, and some of them were also there operating the M2 Browning machine guns.

***

As the battle was going on, the CCG was suffering heavy losses. The only one suffering was the cannon fodder, as they were falling like flies. Ghouls were using their kagunes as shields, significantly reducing the damage done by the CCG to them.

This didn't go unnoticed by Marude Itsuki, who was raging at seeing this. His subordinate, Mabuchi Katsuya, Rank 1 Ghoul Investigator, gave him just now a report about the situation.

"Sir, the building that serves as the base of the Aogiri Tree is heavily fortified. They have several M2 Browning machine guns and are unable even to leave the barricade. Besides that, they are using their kagunes as a shield to defend against our attacks, which greatly reduces our combat power. We have already lost almost one hundred people after an hour of the attack."

Marude Itsuki frowned hearing this, as it was clear that this would be nothing more than a stalemate if they couldn't breach through this barricade, but it was impossible because the enemy had several M2 Browning machine guns. The only chance would be waiting for a good opportunity to push through.

In another part of the battle zone, there were several people of the CCG talking. Shinohara Yukinori, Amon Koutarou, and also Suzuya Juuzou were talking together. Suzuya was bored because they weren't attacking, and also his mindset required a battle.

He was a young-looking man with an androgynous appearance, with pale skin and pure shoulder-length white hair. He wears red hairpins, which form the Roman numeral XIII (13), keeping back his bangs. He had dark red eyes with bags under them.

"... aren't we attacking?"

He asked in a bored voice as he looked at the non-changing status of the battle.

"We can't attack."

Answered Amon, who was standing behind him with crossed arms, as he was too observing the battle before him. Everybody knew that this wasn't going in a good way. If they didn't solve this, the only conclusion would be either terrible losses or retreats.

"They have large amounts of firearms and are heavily armed. I don't know from where they have obtained such an amount of firearms, but it appears that either the Aoigiri Tree obtained them or somebody is sponsoring them. Another thing, they have a better position than us, as they are above. They could pick us off from there."

Explained Amon to Suzuya. Even though he was relatively younger, he was a very intelligent and experienced person.

 

[Trafford]

"What if we go around back?"

Asked Suzuya; now he looked like he had found an American continent.

"It's too risky... we could be ambushed. On the surrounding forest makes it difficult to flank them. On the other side is the ocean. Attacking from towers 1 and 2 in the front is the safest plan."

Said Amon, the best strategy for this battle. But even that didn't stop curious Suzuya from asking all useless questions, as he was lacking common sense about many things.

"And also... why are we using guns against ghouls? Bullets don't penetrate kagune, do they?"

Shinohara Yukinori was only standing there and kept silent. He let Amon answer all of Juuzo's questions, as it was usually him who was giving him the common sense.

"Not normal lead bullets. The CCG uses kagune bullets. They are known as Q Bullets. They have dissolved kagune mixed into them. It's effective against all four types of kagune. Using kagune bullets is, to some degree, an effective option. Strictly to some degree, though."

Q Bullets were only useful against weaker ghouls who had weaker kagune. To some stronger ones, they were practically useless as normal bullets. But still, in large amounts, they were able to kill some ghouls and injure those strong ones to some extent. Even if a smaller one.

"Hmm... I didn't know about that. You know so much, Amon."

Said Suzuya as he was playing with his hands.

"It's only thinly coated. Since the material can only be obtained from ghouls. In a one-on-one situation, quinque is the best weapon. Long-range quinque is much more effective than any Q Bullet. Not having that tonight is our biggest drawback."

Said Shinora from the back. 'If only Arima were here' was also heard faintly, as he said that with a very weak voice.

"Will my scorpion be effective?"

Turning to Shinohara, Suzuya asked.

"Should be... But don't use it against strong ghouls. You will die. If Jason or Bin Brothers show up, avoid them."

Warned him, Shinohara.

"Okay,..."

Muttered Suzuya, and after that, he turned against Amon. There was still a battle going on all around them, but they could still converse calmly.

"I would like to see your quinque too, Amon... What Kaku is it?"

"... Koukaku."

"Amon is good with heavy ones."

Remarked Shinohara as he watched the entire discussion with an amused face.

"Can I borrow It?"

Asked Suzuay with eagerness. His real meaning, of course, was 'Can I have it actually?'. Even though he was a little crazy, he was an extremely good fighter, and also he was addicted to combat and slaughter.

"No."

Answered Amon in an instant with a cold voice as he watched the progress of the battle.

"Shinohara."

Was heard behind them, and a new person came here. It was Kuroiwa Iwao. Special Class Ghoul Investigator and also one person on Lucien's sure-to-kill list.

"Iwaccho."

Iwaccho was the nickname that some people used to call him.

"Hey..."

"How's it going in the front?"

Asked Shinohara.

"It's standstill, but we have suffered some heavy losses. They are extremely well and heavily fortified. Marude is already totally frustrated. .... We are trying to come up with a different route. Although breaking through from the front would be the quickest way... but that would cost us a lot."

Summarized the situation on the front Kuroiwa.

"Ghouls using humans weapons. Now that's funny. Our commander is screaming to bring in tanks."

In the meantime, Suzuya found something interesting. It was a luxurious old-school motorcycle that looked very nice, and it belonged to Marude.

"Sir."

Asked Suzuya curiously as he watched that motorcycle.

"Mm?"

"Whose bike is that?"

"Oh, that? ... That's Marude's. He drives it even to crime scenes. Tao shows it off."

"..."

***

Front

Currently, Marude's mood was only worsening, and he was like a time bomb. Nobody knew when he would explode, as he was totally pissed. His subordinate Mabuchi knew that situation was pretty bad as Marude had already even stopped talking, and his expression was already beyond ugly.

"Hey, gimme your rifle."

Said Marude to one of the soldiers that were beside him.

"What...?"

Asked soldiers in a confused voice.

"Just give it to me!!"

Screamed Marude as he took the rifle from the soldier's hands. He immediately took a shooting stance and started shooting at some ghouls that were in the visible places. After several seconds he managed to kill two ghouls that weren't covered properly by shooting their heads.

"Where did you guys learn to shoot?! Kids in the arcade are better shots than you!! Now hurry up and get rid of those snipers and machine guns. Damm it!!"

Screamed Marude at all people around him in frustration. He wasn't a special class for nothing. Even though he didn't usually participate in direct confrontations, he was still very strong. And his biggest specialty was shooting.

"Oof, Oof."

Was heard from a distance.

It was Suzuya yelling that, as he was already sitting on Marude's bike.

"That looks exactly like my bike."

Said Marude as he watched Suzuya, unaware that soon he would lose something very precious to him.

"Yeh, it's yours."

Said Mabuchi to him.

"Yeah, right. I have my keys right here..."

He was searching through the pockets on his coat but found nothing. It was apparent that Suzuya had stolen his keys and also now was stealing his bike.

"Could you please move?"

Yelled Suzuay at them because they were standing on his road. He was planning to use that bike to breach that fortification of the ghouls inside that building, and he was using Marude's bike as the sacrifice.

"W-wait... What's he doing with my bike?"

Asked Marude with fear in his voice. And this fear was only getting bigger and bigger when the bigger started, and Suzuya was riding it here.

"I dunno..."

Said Mabuchi to this, as he was watching this with an amused expression because Marude literary loved his bike the most.

"No... No, No!!! No, No, No!!"

Screamed Marude with full might as he was rushed at Suzuya.

"Wait, stop, w-wait!! Stop."

Marude managed to catch Suzuya and was handed on the back and dragged by Suzuya, who was riding the bike. This caught the attention of the majority of people here.

"Juzo?! Maru!! Let go!! Let go!! You're gonna get hurt, you idiot."

Yelled Shinohara at Marude, who was stubbornly holding at his bike, not letting go.

"He is the... Idiot!!!!"

Screamed Marude as he let go of the bike. Then Suzuya, with a bike, shot through the air and aimed at the fortification of the ghouls. Then he stood up on the bike and prepared to jump at the fortification. But something happened.

Shadow appeared before him and the spear pierced through the entire Suzuya and also a motorcycle. All of that happened in an instant, and people only saw how Suzuya fell down, with the kagune spear in his chest, piercing through his heart.

Both of them, Suzuya and the motorcycle, fell down, and the motorcycle exploded because it was also severely damaged.

Zelilios has accomplished his first target, killing Suzuya Juuzou successfully. Even though he was now weak, he had great potential, and he was a too unstable factor. He must be eliminated at all costs.

 

[Trafford]

Immediately after Suzuya Juuzou was killed, something more interesting happened. Suddenly there, all ghoul intensified their firing rate by several times and launched a wave of another attack. They shot smoke screen grenades, several tens of them.

The entire area was covered in huge smoke, nobody saw anything, and you couldn't even properly breathe because of the smoke. Inside the building, Aogiri Tree members were currently retreating, leaving only a minority of them behind. Those who remained were controlling those heavy machine guns, M2 Browning machine guns, to do more damage to the CCG by killing many of their cannon fodder.

"Juuzou!!"

Screamed Shinohara after he saw Suzuya getting killed. He was something like a surrogate parent to his cause after he was rescued from the Big Madam; Shinohara was taking care of him and teaching him many things. Now all that was gone, as he was killed.

But still, he controlled his emotions and stepped back because of the smokescreen covering the entire area and fierce shooting from the ghouls operating M2 Browning machine guns.

Meanwhile, Zelilios also disappeared and was currently helping many of the Aogiri Tree members to escape through hidden tunnels and metro under the building. Also, people from Anteiku successfully infiltrated the building and searched for Kaneki Ken.

After ten minutes or so, after the smoke slowly vanished, they found that only a few ghouls were remaining in the positions, and many CCG cannon fodder members, concentrated their firepower on those positions; and after some effort, they managed to get rid of those ghouls, thus breaking through this frontline.

"Everyone charge!!!"

Screamed Marude Itsuki as all of the CCG cannon fodder members and also ghoul investigators charged at their target, which was the base of the Aogiri Tree. Currently, they suffered heavy losses, and from the original one thousand or so, only eight hundred remained alive.

But when they finally entered the building, a surprise awaited them. It was almost empty. Only a few ghouls remained there, but those were quickly disposed of by many ghoul investigators who were there.

One of them was also Hirako Take, a member of Squad 0 under the command of Arima Kishou.

They occupied those buildings at lightning speed as they were almost empty, and soon the Commission of Counter Ghoul controlled the entire surroundings and many of the buildings.

The only main building, which was the base of the Aogiri Tree in the 11th Ward, wasn't still fully under their control, but as CCG was going here and there, a few strong ghouls remained here and hunted for the doves.

One of them was Kirishima Ayato, who was now many times stronger thanks to blood essences, but still, his arrogance and idiotism weren't at properly lowered.

They slaughtered them like ants, especially Ayato and Bin Brothers; they were practically unstoppable in the mass of ordinary cannon fodder members of the CCG.

They were waiting for Noro to finish his part. And his part was planting explosives to bury this place together with countless people of the CCG. This would give them enough time for the most important part of the plan, the Cochlea Raid.

***

After a short time, CCG quickly took control of surrounding buildings and places. It was rather disturbing that they didn't encounter a lot of ghouls, barely twenty altogether, and all of them were extremely weak, below B-Rate. Many could already guess that rest of them had already escaped to another place or were hiding somewhere.

But what was more troublesome than that was the appearance of a new person. One-Eyed Owl has shown. This was getting too problematic already. Owl was rated as an SSS-Rate ghoul, an extremely dangerous one, and only one person could fight with it, White Reaper Arima Kishou, who wasn't here now.

"Tch... If only Arima were here... Who gives a crap about some emergency investigation of the two-four!!"

Cursed Marude Itsuki in the command center when he heard the message about the One-Eyed Owl from Shinohara Yukinori. The appearance of this ghoul turned the entire operation to a whole new level. Even that fortification created by several heavy machine guns, M2 Brownings, wasn't that serious.

"Shinohara! Only keep competent men that are expendable... and send the rest to the other towers. If you two can't handle him, then nobody can. It'll just be a waste of lives and won't buy us any time, either. Deal with him with the lowest number of men possible. Over and out."

Marude gave orders as he sat weakly at his chair in the command center. He watched the entire situation through the cameras.

***

There was another fight going on at one location between Kaneki Ken and Ayato Kirishima. Although Ayato was stronger than in the past, he was still at some disadvantage against Kaneki with his fearsome rinkaku kagune.

The battle progressed to Kaneki's advantage until Ayato chose to escape using his ukaku kagune; he flew away. Kaneki then took the unconscious Touka in a princess carry and took her away.

***

Zelilios was currently watching the fight between the One-Eyed Owl and two Special Class Ghoul Investigators, Shinohara Yukinori and Kuroiwa Iwao. Both of them were covered in their armor-type quinque, Arata Proto, and wielding their respective quinques.

Armor Arata Proto looked like some futuristic exoskeleton armor; it was black in color and had blue lines throughout the entire armor.

Both Shinohara Yukinori and Kuroiwa Iwao charged at the One-Eyed Owl and the rest of the ghoul investigators covered them by providing cover fire and support. Yoshimura, in his Owl-form, was an extremely fearsome and dangerous ghoul. He had Ukaku-type kagune and constantly released the crystal-like attack that was aimed at both ghoul investigators.

When they got close enough to him, and both of them slashed their quinques at Yoshimura with full power, he easily blocked their attacks. Yoshimura was more experienced than both of them, and he even managed to counterattack and knock them away several meters.

"This Arata's got one helluva protective feature for a prototype... we would have died twice by now if we were using gear from ten years ago."

Shinohara stated while panting for breath.

"Yeah... Using a kakuja kagune makes all the difference."

'He's got an ukaku that is best suited for long-range attacks... at close range; he is got the kagune on his shoulders... on top of that, he's got a shotgun-like kagune that covers close to midrange.' Though Shinohara was in his mind as he watched Shinohara.

"But man... I don't think he's gonna run out of steam either... this is what you call having all bases covered. The Owl is without a doubt the wort of the ghouls."

 

[Trafford]

After that, he looked at another person standing there, with an indifferent expression, who was still calm as ever. Hirako Take. He is of average height, and his facial features have been described as "plain," or "bland." He usually has a blank expression on his face. Always calm and indifferent. He was a perfect duo with Arima Kishou, who was his mentor.

'Senior Investigator Hirako... he didn't stand out much in the academy, but after joining the bureau, he partnered up with Arima, who was, at the time, 22 years old and an Associate Special Class Investigator. While working with Arima, he eliminated a group of clown mask ghouls and made outstanding contributions to the 24th Ward investigation with his sound work ethic. His partnership with Investigator Arima lasted six years until he was promoted to Senior Investigator. Hira's the guy who's watched Arima the most up close. The one gut with firsthand knowledge of how Arima engaged the Owl.'

It was going through the mind of Shinohara Yukinori as he was waiting for Hirako to make a move. If somebody could think about an efficient strategy, then it would be only Hirako, as he watched Arima fight Owl several times and even participated in some fights against Owl.

Hirako gripped his quinque and rushed at Owl/Yoshimura and slashed at the target with full force.

He dodged the counterattack of Yoshimura and hit his target. To this, both Shinohara and Kuroiwa used this chance and attacked Owl together with their quinques and with the usage of Arata Proto.

At first, it appeared that they got the Owl and managed to subdue it. But it was not the case.

"It's over."

"Yeah."

"We lost."

Said three voices at almost the same time after another. It was apparent that their plan had failed. Owl was totally unscratched.

"The owl's kakuho can't be fatally damaged even with both Special Investigator's quinques. Even though both were made from kagune of S-Rated ghouls."

Stated Hirako as he observed Owl, and both Special Class Investigators Shinohara and Kuroiwa were prepared to attack the Owl again as they had the support of the Arata, but the attacks were all useless, and they couldn't even injure Owl.

Even leaving scratch seemed impossible.

"Iwaccho. How far were we allowed to take these prototypes?"

Said Shinohara to Kuroiwa as he already knew that this situation was hopeless. They couldn't even injure the Owl, let alone defeat it.

"... You think what I'm thinking?"

"Yeah. Let's do it."

Said Shinohara with the resolution, and both of them stood up and pressed the hidden button on the neck part of the Arata. Then the whole armor started glowing in malicious bloody red color and releasing a fearful aura.

***

In another part of the complex, there were several tens of ghoul investigators searching through the building. Leading them was Chino Mutsumi, Associate Special Class ghoul investigator. They had yet to find some ghouls, and after some time, they finally found them. There were around ten members of the Aogiri Tree hiding. Leading them were Bin Brothers.

But there was also somebody else who didn't belong to the Aogiri Tree. It was a woman in weird attire, which was actually similar to Lucien's battle attire. She had long orange hair and was wearing a noseless carnival clown mask with a toothy grin. The mask has a heart with three dots as its right eye and clover as its left eye with spades beside them and a protruding chin.

Itori was here hiding, amongst them, waiting for a good opportunity. Similarly to Zelilios, who was waiting for his, after explosives exploded an entire building would collapse. Then he would strike and harvest lives.

Itori has hidden amongst members of the Aogiri Tree and was in a group under the Bin Brothers' leadership. Two brothers didn't know who she was, but they only heard from Tatara if something happened to her, death would be salvation for them if her fianceé found them, as he was a more powerful ghoul than Eto. So they didn't dare to be disrespectful to her and let her do what she wanted.

Cannon fodder soldiers of the CCG took firing positions under the command of the Chino Mutsumi, and at the moment they started shooting, Itori charged out with full speed. She congealed several kagune tails of her rinkaku kagune and attacked the line of the cannon fodder soldiers, killing several of them instantly.

As this happened too quickly, not even one of them had some time to react, and even Associate Special Class wasn't an exception, as he wasn't a very good fighter. Rather than a fighter, he was used to leading a squad of these cannon fodder soldiers.

Itori took her chance as she slashed her tails as his hand, which was holding the quinque, swiftly severed his hand.

Blood squirted from his arm, and the poor man kneeled on the ground. He looked at Itori with clear fear in his eyes as she calmly severed his head from his body. Then she turned to the members of the Aogiri Tree and Bin Brothers, who finished killing the rest of the cannon fodder soldiers and even killed several weak ghoul investigators.

Of course, those investigators were killed by the Bin Brothers, as they were now many times stronger thanks to the blood essences. Only a small amount was missing, and they would reach the SS-Rate.

"Clean it here and quickly leave this place. Soon entire building would be destroyed."

Said Itori as she also exited this place and went to the place where Zelilios was hiding. She wanted to see the fight between Special Classes and the Owl. And, of course, the most important part of the show was how Zelilios would kill his targets. She saw how magnifically he killed his first target Suzuya Juuzou and now only two people from the list remained.

***

Command Center of the 11th Ward Countermeasures Units.

"We have lost connection with the Associate Special Class Investigator Chino Mutsumi after he took his squad of several tens of soldiers to explore Tower 7. The only thing which was heard before connection loss were the noises of the fight. Probably they were killed by an ambush by the Aogiri Tree."

Reported Mabuchi to Marude Itsuki, who was frowning hard after hearing this. The situation was already out of control. They have lost more than three hundred people, including Associate Special Class Investigator and several lower-ranked investigators.

Now even Owl has appeared, and two Special Class investigators, Shinohara and Kurioiwa, were doing their best to keep it out of the battle. One could conclude that this battle is a fiasco.

 

[Trafford]

Special Classes Shinohara and Kuroiwa had very hard times in dealing with the Owl. Nothing worked even after they activated 'Eat Up' of the Arata Proto, which significantly boosted their physical capabilities in general. The price they were paying was great, but the results weren't.

They exchanged several moves with the Owl, but they couldn't injure him or anything even though their coordination was one of the best in the entire CCG because they were partners in the past and also friends who trained together. But everything was useless in front of the supreme power.

They were using the Arata to its maximum until the armor-type unique's effect became unbearable. Yoshimura was looking at the two Special Class Investigators, who were using Arata, even with the cost of their own life, with pity.

"What a horrifying weapon."

Said Yoshimura with a sorrowful voice. Both of them were shocked because they had heard something unheard. Owl was actually communicating with them.

"The world continues to breed anger and sadness. Pilfering, killing. We justify those acts to convince ourselves that we are only doing what we are supposed to. Your weapon is a symbol of that. There exists no reason to take another's life. Any act of taking a life is equally evil."

Both of them were deeply shocked after Yoshimura said those deep words. What an old man Yoshimura said was the actual truth. This was the vicious circle of endless hatred and killing. Nothing more and nothing less.

Humans hunted ghouls out of hatred, and ghouls would do the same in revenge. Hatred would lead only to another hatred. Yoshimura didn't like killing others, especially after he defected from the Vasuki. Because of this, he has also been nicknamed a Non-Killing Owl.

"If there is such a thing as a soul, it seems Arata does not intend to lend you a hand. It's time..."

Said Yoshimura, and after that, he immediately rushed away from this place. He escaped.

"Shinohara! I'm pulling it off of you! Radio Commander Marude and request a med team."

Ordered Kuroiwa as he held heavily injured Shinohara. He was in much better condition than his friend. Zelilios watched everything in the dark, and he already chose a target. He would be able to kill one of them, and he decided to kill the already severely injured Shinohara.

"Shinohara. The Owl is an SSS-Rated ghoul who has produced countless victims. He's one of our most wanted targets. We lost countless special investigators to him. Ten years ago, during the Anti-Owl operation that took place while I was recuperating, there were wounded, but none were killed. Just like tonight."

Who could have thought that there were actually two Owls. One was Yoshimura, and another was Eto. He was protecting his daughter by attracting the CCG to him. He was doing it for a very long time, always in the dark.

***

Command Center of the 11th Ward Countermeasures Units.

"Commander Marude Towers 1 through 8 have been cleared! Sadly we didn't manage to find many ghouls, not even thirty. The squad of the Associate Special Class Investigator Chino Mutsumi was already found, and we have confirmed their death by an ambush."

Reported one of the soldiers of the CCG.

"Hmm... this is getting only worse. Hopefully, nothing bad will happen from now. Prepare a press conference to announce our victory. ETo the public that takes peace for granted. Even though we have some losses, we have still managed to destroy the lair of the Aoigiri Tree in the 11th Ward."

Said Marude with a frown, as they had already lost too much in today's battle. It was the truth, they had suffered heavy losses, but they still managed to complete at least the primary objective of this mission.

Destruction of the lair of the Aogiri Tree in the 11th Ward. In reality, CCG had a high tolerance for the loss of those ordinary cannon fodders. They could be replaced in a year or so; losing even half of them wasn't a problem, even though it would create some problems.

"Sir, it's the main office..."

Reported one person behind the communication panel.

"Who is it?"

"Special Class Investigator Arima."

"Arima? I get it; he must have gotten word of my great victory."

Marude took the phone from the hands of the assistant at great speed.

"Hello! This is the 11th Ward Special Task Force Commander Marude. Hey Arima! While you were out mole hunting, I already took care of business here! Even though we have suffered some losses, we could still go."

Said Marude to Arima.

"That's great. Then would you mind sending any available units my way? The Ghoul Detention Center, Cochlea, in the 23rd Ward, had been attacked. Possibly by the 11th Ward ghouls main unit. We have identified SS-Rate Tatara, SS-Rate Hollow, and S-Rate Eto there. Probably the entire Cochlea person is already annihilated. I am heading there right now myself. I'll see you soon."

Finished Arima as he closed the call.

".... Main unit?"

Muttered Marude as he weakly sat down at the chair and looked blankly at monitors. No wonder they couldn't even find some strong ghouls, and even the number of ghouls here was so small. This was just a trap. Simple diversion of forces. The target of Aogiri Tree was never a defense of this base but rather Cochlea. That was their real target.

The entire base in the 11th Ward only served as a distraction and trap to weaken their forces and kill some of their people. They would gain enough time to raid Cochlea Prison. Now this entire situation wasn't even a fiasco. It was a pure catastrophe. They fell into the enemy's trap and even lost many of their people for nothing.

Now the only thing which mattered was to aid Cochlea. If ghouls there managed to escape, that would be terrible. Marude was totally horrified by the fact that SS-Rate Hollow had joined them in this attack.

He heard about that ghoul, as he was personally identified by the chairman of the CCG, Washuu Tsuneyoshi, as extremely dangerous. Still, till now, he wasn't showing any affiliations to the Aogiri Tree.

 

[Trafford]

Cochlea Prison, 23rd Ward

Many people were standing on the roof, building before the Cochlea Detention Center in the 23rd Ward. Almost all of them were wearing dark red outfits of the Aogiri Tree and also wore identical creepy masks; these were ordinary members of the Aogiri Tree.

Only three people were clothed differently.

One person wore a pure white robe with a bloody red mask covering his lower face.

Tatara, the direct subordinate of the One-Eyed King. Another one was covered in bandages; that was, of course, Eto. And the last person was wearing the traditional battle attire of ancient samurais and wore a weird-looking skeleton mask.

Hollow, Lucien.

"When will the main door open?"

Asked Eto with a mischievous voice as she looked at the Cochlea Prison.

"Soon."

Answered Tatara with a calm voice after he finished giving orders to various members of the Aogiri Tree and commanders of the smaller squads. Their target was to free as many ghouls as they could and also to kill the entire staff of the Cochlea.

Especially wardens and interrogators.

Warden Misaka Kyouji was a former Associate Special Class Ghoul Investigator, but that won't be a problem. Lucien also wanted to kill two interrogators, Tokage Goumasa and Kijima Shiki, as they were wicked psychos, but one must admit that they were perfect interrogators, so their death would also be a loss for the

CCG. Not talking about that, Kijima Shiki was at the strength of an Associate Special Class Investigator.

"When the doors open, I would enter first and clean those ants. It would lessen our losses, as our forces would be vulnerable during the entrance to the prison."

Lucien stated as he watched the door of the Cochlea, which showed some slight movement. It was clear that the door would soon open.

He was planning to enter first and kill all those people with firearms to lessen the losses of the Aogiri Tree. Then he would go on a killing spree, searching for the staff of the Cochlea and especially the deputy warden and interrogators.

Both Tatara and Eto agreed with him, and then the entire mini-army proceeded to the Cochlea. Because the outer part was usually unprotected, they got to the front door very quickly, and Lucien stood at the edge of the door, or we should rather say the gate, to the Cochlea.

"Then I am going. Wait for my signal."

Said Lucien; when the gate was opened enough as he congealed his kagune and jumped down. He was falling down at great speed and faintly admired this prison.

The Cochlea is built deep underground and is divided into four levels by the danger of prisoners. The structure's walls are coated with quinque steel to help keep ghouls secured within.

The First Floor is designed to imprison the lower-rated ghouls. A-Rate and below, practically all of them were here, with the exception of very strong and dangerous A-Rated ones.

The Second Floor was designated to imprison the S-Rated ghouls, which could be deemed as very dangerous. S-rated ghouls are very rare because the natural barrier for ordinary ghouls was A-Rate. Very few of them could cross into the S-Rate.

Third Floor is designated to imprison SS-Rated ghouls. In reality, this was the last Floor that was usually used because SSS-Rate ghouls were too rare and mainly, they were killed rather than captured.

The Fourth Floor was for the SSS-Rate ghoul, the most dangerous and powerful individuals. It was also the smallest Floor in the entire Cochlea Detention Center.

Underneath the Fourth Floor was a disposal room, fittingly named as it is where ghouls are sent through a compactor to be crushed to death, thereof "disposed."

Also, all ghouls in the Cochlea Detention Center were often given RC suppressants. Those are the drugs used to suppress the activity of the kakuhou. They were specially made by the CCG's Medical Department, designed for the sole purpose of inhibiting the activity of a ghoul's Rc cells.

The effects on ghouls include slower regeneration, kagune impairment, even the capability of preventing its use at all, and vulnerability to mundane items such as knives; grogginess has been observed, but it is unconfirmed to be either an intended symptom or a common side effect. When Rc cell activity is suppressed, it may cause an increase in melanin production that causes changes in hair color.

The CCG uses Rc suppressants as a means to subdue a ghoul rather than to exterminate it. Cochlea uses it for their ghoul prisoners, to weaken them for interrogation and/or as a measure of caution. Another known use that takes advantage of the ghoul's newfound vulnerability is for surgery or dissection.

As Lucien was falling down, there were tens of people under him, holding various firearms in their hands as they were shooting at him to kill. He only smiled at this and congealed several kagune daggers, and through his telekinesis, he controlled them to attack that staff.

Soon, those kagune daggers shot at the people, who were totally defenseless against such powerful weapons as the kagune daggers and were effortlessly slaughtered, like pigs. After Lucien landed down, he sent one kagune dagger to the sky as notice for the rest of the attacking party to begin the attack.

After that, countless Aogiri Tree members jumped down and covered the entire area. They were landing at various places in the prison, swiftly killing the remaining guards. Thanks to Lucien's first attack, there were no causalities during the entrance of the Aogiri Tree members.

Then Lucien went to the command tower to open all cells for all ghouls in the Cochlea prison. His aim was, of course, to unlock all doors and exits. Command Tower was placed, which contained a control panel for the entire prison.

Lucien got there quickly and tore apart the quinque steel doors. He killed two personnel people in an instant and then sat down behind the control panel. Even though he wasn't a computer expert, he could still open all cells and exits; after that, he would go hunt for the warden and interrogators.

 

[Trafford]

"Tatara, I would now take my leave for the hunt for rats who are hiding here. We will meet at the pre-arranged place after the set time. I wish you good luck."

Lucien stated, after which he left the command room.

Tatara nodded his head and then also exited the command room to fight against the wardens of the Cochlea Prison. The roles were already given. Tatara would fight against those who showed themselves, and Lucien would go hunt for those who were hiding.

After Lucien exited the place, he went to the section where the interrogation rooms were located. They were located randomly, as some were on Level 1, Level 2, or Level 3. Level 4 was completely devoid of facilities as such because they were rather useless there.

No SSS-Rate ghoul would be interrogated.

Lucien dashed through corridors, killing every staff of the Cochlea Prison he saw, leaving behind only headless corpses. He was using his tail for this work, as he was too lazy to use a sword. Besides, his tail reacted on its own already when it saw a target.

After some time, he arrived at the Interrogation section, where he started slaughtering every person he found. Accidentally, there were a lot of ordinary people hiding there because this area should have been secured through an unbreachable quinque steel heavy door.

Still, those were torn apart by Lucien's kagune tails.

After Lucien killed more than forty people, mainly civilian staff, he finally found one of the head interrogators of the Cochlea Prison. Even though slaughtering ordinary people could be said to be bad or, Lucien didn't care much because they were also partly responsible for the torture of countless ghouls.

Tokage Goumasa was one of the head interrogators in the Cochlea Prison. He was also one of the best interrogators here, only falling behind Kijima Shiki. He was a madman with high sadistic tendencies. When Yamori was held in the Cochlea Prison, he was responsible for interrogating him, turning him into the crazy person he is today.

The retribution didn't wait long.

His initial appearance of an average-looking man turned into disfigured and riddled with scars. And he was also kicked out of his position as the interrogator, but he often visited Cochlea Prison to help with some hard cases.

Lucien knew that he would be here today as he had a great information broker.

As Lucien didn't want to kill him immediately, he severed all his limbs, one by one, slowly, and to make it more painful; he was constantly using his psionic energy to let him have a clear mind, not falling unconscious.

He tortured him for several minutes, even though it was a rather short time for a person like him, but he set his pain receptors to the maximum with the usage of his psionic energy. After that, he left him there to die, as he knew that he wouldn't live past several seconds. Previously he was kept alive by psionic energy, but now...

But more importantly, Lucien was searching for Kijima Shiki. In Lucien's opinion, a person is more wicked and mad than anything seen in this world. He also had the strength of the Associate Special Class Investigator, so Lucien would be very happy to kill him right now. Of course, by killing him, he could prevent some tragedies in the future.

***

"So you went after Cochlea the entire time?"

Questioned Misaka Kyoji as he held his quinque. It was a weird-looking quinque that did something, like devouring its target and killing it with some special means. Misaka Kyoji was a middle-aged man, skinny and pale. He had long blond hair but was bald on the top of his head.

He turned it on with his hands, and the entire cocoon started glowing in fierce light, but soon, it stooped. Misaka Kyoji had a victorious smile on his face as he thought he had killed Tatara. But the reality was far crueler. Soon entire quinque started disintegrating, and a blood-red hole appeared on the warden's white attire.

"Yes."

Said Tatara as he pierced through the warden's heart with his hand. Then he threw him down from the bridge and walked away, killing many CCG staff members with his kagune tail. His tail was too strong and too hard; it even destroyed walls without any effort.

Tatara went down to the lower floors, especially to the Third Floor, which was used to confine SS-Rated ghouls. Currently, there are only six of them or so. One of the people locked there was also Kamishiro Matasaka, known as Sachi or Orca.

He was an extremely strong ghoul, well-versed in martial arts, as he was taught by his foster father, Kamishiro, who was a martial arts master. Ironically Kamishiro was a human, but he adopted Matasaka, and he even gave him his name.

The rating of Kamishiro Matasaka was around SS, but his real one should be rather SSS-Rate.

Besides him, now we're in Cochlea, only the other two SS-Rate ghouls. One of them was Porpora Donato, Hoito Roma, and one unnamed SS-Rated ghoul whose nickname was The Blade, as his quinque had the form of the blade.

Tatara was told by Lucien not to release Porpora Donato or Hoito Roma, as it would be better for them to be in prison for a while. Both of them were members of the Clowns, and now it wasn't time to release them.

Lucien wanted to release them when the time would be more appropriate.

As Lucien said that, Tatara wouldn't release two of them and let them enjoy the wonders of the Cochlea Detention Center for some time.

***

In another part of the Cochlea Prison, Lucien was searching through every part to find some people to kill. By now, almost the entire prison was filled with corpses of the ghoul investigators, guardians of the prison, or other staff members.

When prisoners were released, they were killing people at a terrifying rate and regaining their peak condition as most of them were significantly weakened.

 

[Trafford]

11th Ward, the base of the Aogiri Tree

After Owl disappeared from the fight, both Kuroiwa and Shinohara were left there. Shinohara was severely injured and could barely stand, and Kuroiwa was holding him. He was in a much better state than his colleague.

BOOOOOOOM

Only one sound was heard and the entire building started shaking at first and the whole building started collapsing. Explosives planted by Noro through the entire building finally detonated an entire building would collapse in several seconds. Buring together with it, several hundred cannon fodders of the CCG.

"Madam Itori, you should retreat and wait for me at the pre-arranged place. I would return after killing my target."

Said Zelilios respectfully to the Itori as they watched this huge building collapse. Zelilios aimed to kill just Shinohara because he knew that he was severely injured and killing him would be very easy.

On the contrary, Kuroiwa was rather fine and he could defend against him with Arata Proto for some time.

Itori pouted, and then she nodded her head and silently retreated from this place, eventually leaving the 11th Ward. As she was retreating, she killed several escaping people. Because the entire building was already devoid of the ghouls, only humans remained here.

In the meantime, Zelilios was watching collapsing radio tower, which almost fell on the Special Class Investigators, Kuroiwa and Shinohara, until Owl saved them. Zelilios smiled at this and took out two spears that Lucien found in the ruins of the Shi Xue Clan.

Then he threw one kagune spear, aiming at the Special Class Investigator Kuroiwa, who was holding a severely injured Shinohara and was using his quinque, Kuroiwa Special, to support both of them.

One must say that even though Kuroiwa was human, his reflexes were very good as he managed to notice the kagune spear and hurriedly blocked it with his quinque Kuroiwa Special, which was an oversized butcher knife.

Something miraculous happened afterward. Even though he managed successfully block the kagune spear, but his own quinque was shattered in the process.

Completely destroyed.

Kuroiwa was completely shocked by the fact his kagune shattered like porcelain, but he didn't have time to think about it.

It was because Zeilios was already before them, and with one strong kick, he kicked investigator Kuroiwa several meters away, and with his spear, he pierced through the heart of Special Class Ghoul Investigator Shinohara. Instant Kill.

Today, 19. December, on the 11th Ward Battle, Special Class Ghoul Investigator, Invulnerable Shinohara, has fallen to the enemy. This would be very good news to many ghouls because Special Class Investigators were too rare and they weren't some disposable pawns that could be replaced anytime.

When it came to the ghoul subjugation, SS-Rate would need several Special Class Investigators to group upon him. Of course, if they are ordinary investigators, not some geniuses like Arima Kishou, who were terrified by one word.

This talked about how rare were Special Classes in the CCG. There were only a few of them and now one of them fell. A glorious victory for ghouls in Japan and a disastrous defeat for humans in Japan.

After Zelilios killed Special Class Shinohara, he quickly escaped from the already collapsing building.

***

"Commander Marude, the entire building, is collapsing and all of our people are still inside."

Reported one person, sitting behind computers, to Marude Itsuki, who was shocked by surprise.

"Evacuate!!!! Immediately!!!"

Yelled Marude in anger when he saw the entire building collapsing on the people of the CCG. He was a person who valued his subordinates and colleagues. It was quite a rare sight for people like him to be in the lead of such large-scale operations.

After some time, when Marude calmed down a little, he turned to his assistant Mabuchi, who had just now finished a call.

"How are the loses?"

Asked Marude with anger and hatred in his voice. It was clear that the entire battle here was just a trap to kill as many of their people as possible. Even Associate Special Class fell and countless lower-ranked investigators.

"More than 90% were in the building when it collapsed and only a minority of them managed to escape that collapse. Many of them would be killed either by an explosion or the collapsing building. It's hard to tell losses now, but probably more than half of them won't be able to return."

Said Mabuchi with sadness in his voice as he looked at Marude.

"FUUUUUUCCCKKK!!!!!"

Screamed Marude when he heard that. From originally one thousand or so people, not even half managed to survive. This was an utter catastrophe. The entire operation turned out to be a huge loss for the CCG.

Lucien wanted the Commission of Counter Ghoul to have catastrophic losses. Only one reason was behind this. If they killed too many of the CCG people and high-ranked ghoul investigators, the equilibrium would be disrupted, and the Washuu Clan would do anything to preserve it. They would bring agents of the Vasuki to the play and also some of their hidden people.

Because agents of the Vasuki were always hiding in the dark, like some rats, it was incredibly hard to find them or their bases. Now they won't be able to hide for long, as they would now be more on the world's light.

Lucien's plan to give CCG a critical blow was completed in one part. Now only remained only one thing and that was Cochlea. Even though Marude won't be able to move people to the Cochlea cause more than half were killed and the rest was injured, they would have a significantly easier time.

 

[Trafford]

23rd Ward, Cochlea Detention Center

In one room in the Cochlea, a dead man was lying on the ground; both of his hands were severed and in his chest was a giant bloody hole. He had a pale and skinny face and one vertical scar on each side of his lips.

His hair was cut as a mushroom and he looked rather weird. This was the deputy warden of the Cochlea Detention Center, Haisaki Shinme, who was just now killed by Lucien when he was searching for the Kijima Shiki.

One must say that Haisaki Shinme wasn't a strong person, as he could barely even dodge one of Lucien's attacks. And that attack was a very weak one. He was killed in mere seconds and it was easy to kill.

On the contrary, his strength lay in strategies and plans; he was a person who personally designed many defense mechanisms for the Cochlea Prison.

After that, Lucien went to the lower floors in the hope of finding the last person he wanted to find.

Kijima Shiki.

He had the strength of the Associate Special Class Investigator and was very good at killing ghouls. Even though he himself was looking as he was, his experiences were real, and he could fight pretty well.

Kijima was an exceptionally strange-looking individual with a rotund figure. His face and body were heavily scarred, with discolored skin grafts and facial features that appeared to have been badly mangled or burned in the past. He wore a distinctive black hat and suit, with a red bow tie, and had a peg leg.

He used mainly two quinques, Totoro, which was an A+-Rated quinque of bikaku type. It was used to capture targets. It was also called a capture quinque. Another one was a Rotten Follow, an S-Rated rinkaku quinque in the form of a large chainsaw.

It utilized a kakuhou as an engine and quinque ores for blades and was a powerful quinque, easily able to decapitate and slice enemies in half.

After searching through another interrogation room, which was also locked, Lucien finally found his target. Because interrogation rooms were automatically locked up, many interrogators and personnel were hiding there.

They were locked several minutes after Cochlea was breached.

Lucien even tried to open them up through the command computer, but his attempts were all futile.

In this interrogation room, there were several tens of people, even some of the armed staff, several ghoul investigators; probably some weaker trashes because they ran away the moment Cochlea was breached.

This was one of the special defense mechanisms of the Cochlea. When it was breached, special areas, also called safe areas, would be locked down after several minutes. One of those areas was all interrogation areas.

But these measures were nothing to Lucien or some very strong ghouls, like Tatara or Eto in her Owl form. Even though huge doors from the quinque steel were rather hard to breach, it wasn't something impossible.

Lucien stood before quinque steel doors and then started slashing at the doors with his kagune tails. With several of them at the same time. Under ferocious attacks from his kagune, after one minute, doors were breached and Lucien could enter the interrogation area.

There were already some Cochlear armed staff and ghoul investigators there, waiting to form him under the leadership of the

Kijima Shiki was armed with his quinque Rotten Follow. Lucien now directly used mental power on those ordinary people that were hiding in the corners of the room, crushing their brains under wawes of the psionic energy. This was a new move he learned after some time of training and studying mental power.

After that, he congealed two kagune daggers, which shot with the speed of the lighting at the ordinary armed staff and weaker ghoul investigators, slaughtering them in an instant. All of their heads were severed in a moment, and only headless bodies fell onto the ground.

"Mr. Kijima, I was waiting for a long time to kill you."

Lucien said quietly as he rushed at Kijima with lightning speed and slashed at him with three kagune tails simultaneously.

Kijima tried to defend with his quinque Rotten Follow, but at most, he could only defend two-tail at the same time, but the third one severed his right hand, which was holding the quinque Rotten Follow.

"You know, I am not a very huge fan of the torture, but that doesn't mean I don't know it."

Said Lucien with a wicked smile as he was using the same method that he used on the previous target interrogator Tokage. This time, he was even more precise, causing Kijima to feel even more intense pain.

This could be said to be retribution for all ghouls he tortured to death. Lucien tortured him for several minutes before severing all his limbs and crushing his eyes. He then left him to die in a room filled with corpses, blood, body parts, and death.

Now all of his tasks were done, Lucien went to the third floor of the Cochlea Detention Center to find Eto and Tatara. Both of them were there because the third floor hosted SS-Rated ghouls, but only one would be released by them.

Kamishiro Matasaka, even though he was rated as an SS-Rated ghoul, his real abilities were much higher. Not talking about him being a martial arts master, he could greatly help the Aogiri Tree grow stronger.

And he would play a great role in the next part of Lucien's scheme, the Fortification of the 24th Ward and the creation of a fortress in Japan for Wandenreich.

Almost the entire Cochlea Prison was now filled with corpses and rivers of blood. This was mainly thanks to Lucien because he was also doing his best to find those safe areas and kill everybody inside.

Cochlea Prison has a number of personnel in the hundreds.

Maybe even a thousand people were killed during this raid. The only shame was that they couldn't destroy this place. If they did so, some ghouls, which Lucien wanted to have captured, would either escape during the destruction, or some other bad things could happen.

 

[Trafford]

Besides slaughtering the entire staff of the Cochlea Detention Center and all wardens, interrogators, and ghoul investigators, Lucien had one more important target. It was a Disposal Room in prison.

It was a room where ghouls were disposed of and was full of the skeletons and bones of thousands of ghouls.

Lucien could refine them to the blood essences.

When the ghoul dies, and his corpse is rotting, all RC Cells would somehow escape to the bones to save themselves. It was a natural process. Lucien wanted to obtain those bones and remains in the Disposal Room because there were countless remains for the last several tens of years.

When Lucien arrived at the Third Floor, where the SS-Rated ghouls were imprisoned, he noticed there were only a few people in the room. One of them was, of course, Tatara, and another one was Eto, traditionally covered in bandages.

Lucien recognized only one of the two remaining people, Kamishira Matasaka. He only wore black pants and nothing else.

He is a muscular, bulky man, most likely middle-aged, and has strong facial features, thick black eyebrows, and a long wispy black mustache. His black scalp hair is long as well. With his muscular physique and calm yet fearsome expression, he looked dangerous.

Another ghoul who was there was a middle-aged man in a blue prison outfit. He was also an SS-Rate ghoul who was imprisoned there for more than ten years. He looked rather ordinary at first look, but Lucien could feel the bloodthirsty aura from him. He knew that this ordinary-looking middle-aged man must have killed too many people.

"Oya, Oya, are you already done with hunting for your targets?"

Asked Eto with a mischievous tone in her voice as she looked at Lucien. He only nodded his head in agreement and came to the four of them.

"We should be going; soon, Arima with an entire flock of doves would arrive. Then it would be too late for escape for weaker members. I would stay behind and stall him for time."

Said Lucien to all of them after he came.

It was part of his plan to fight with Arima for a time. Weaker ghouls, especially those below SS-Rate, won't stand a chance in front of Arima. Even SS-Rated ghouls would be lucky to escape. He was strongest here, so it was also a bit of his responsibility to stall for a time.

All four of them nodded, and then Kamishiro Matasaka came to Lucien and patted his shoulder.

"After we make it alive, I want to spar with you, young man."

Said Kamishiro Matasaka. He was a martial arts master in hand-to-hand combat. He studied martial arts for his entire life, and with one look, he could tell that Lucien was very strong and also trained in martial arts.

He was a wise ghoul who avoided killing people needlessly, and he was one of the more calm ones. He holds respect towards humans, or at the very least, the martial arts they have developed. In his life of mastering it, he says he has taken a human concept even further by combining technique with the strength of a ghoul.

"It would be my honor, master Kamishiro. Now I must do something else if you excuse me. After I am done, we could leave."

Said Lucien after he went to the center point of the room, turned on his kakugan, and entered Kakuja V3, releasing a somewhat oppressive aura that seemed to suppress everybody around.

Then he took a battle stance, and with full force, he punched to do ground, creating a huge spider web of cracks, eventually cracking the floor.

The floor cracked, and everything fell down, together with Lucien. He appeared on the Fourth Floor, which was used for the detention of the SSS-Rated ghoul, and currently, it was totally empty. He repeated the process of breaking the floor, and he broke the floor into the Disposal Room.

He fell down together with stones and the remains of the floor and now he was in the disposal room.

It was a bit smaller than the First Floor, but it was huge. What's more entire floor was filled with bones and remains of the ghouls. Lucien was very excited to find this, and he immediately collected all of those bones to the Cross Crest.

After he cleared the entire disposal room, he jumped up to the Third Floor.

"Now we could go."

Said Lucien to them as they exited the Third Floor and were on the Second Floor, which hosted S-Rated ghouls. Lucien could see there were six ghouls, one of them being Naki. He was Yamori's right-hand man.

Member of the ghoul gang, White Suits.

White Suits is a gang of ghouls named for the distinct style of clothing worn by members. They are noted for their strong loyalty to one another and model their structure after a traditionally organized crime syndicate and model their power structure by individual strength. Founder of the gang of Yamori, nicknamed Jason.

Lucien wondered if Yamori would survive the 11th Ward Battle. That man was too unstable and too crazy; he couldn't be used as an Executive of the Aogiri Tree anymore. He was too severely injured after his fight with Kaneki; if nobody saved him, he would surely die.

Lucien thought it would be best if Jason died today. All that interrogation in the Cochlea turned him crazy, beyond salvation. This was also one of the reasons why he killed everyone in Cochlea and tortured interrogators to death.

Retribution.

"We must go faster. They would soon arrive. Tatara, take all S-Rated ghouls and SS-Rated ghouls and create the path on the place we have talked about. I would be fighting Arima in the meantime."

 

[Trafford]

After they exited the Cochlea Detention Center, all of the ghouls here, be they former prisoners or members of the Aogiri Tree, escaped at the greatest speed they could. Lucien stayed behind to observe the situation and fight with Arima. He knew that he could also escape, but some slower and weaker ghouls would be massacred as a result.

Soon, he finally saw Arima Kishou, in his pure white coat and with two cases, for his quinques, IXA and Narukami. What was interesting was the fact that Arima came here alone; probably, the rest of the support would come here after some time.

It was understandable he came alone, as no ghoul would dare go against him or escape him.

Both of them looked at each other before nodding in agreement. It was time to put up some fight to act. Lucien turned on his kakugan and congealed one kagune katana; this time, it would be contesting in the kenjutsu.

He entered the Kakuja V3 as body armor enveloped him.

They would fight until those reinforcements arrived, and then Lucien would attack them in the hope of killing some ghoul investigators before escaping from the stage. Leaving the 23rd Ward, left for the 24th Ward, where the headquarters of the Aogiri Tree was located.

Sparks were in the air as the weapons clashed. If Lucien had used his full power, he could have easily destroyed that quinque named IXA. Not talking about Kakuja, where he would be able to kill even Arima Kishou already with ease now.

So in this fight, he was holding back greatly because, after all, Arima was only half-human, and even though he had a bit stronger physique than a normal human, he wasn't that special. Lucien held back as much as he could because he had already crossed the norm.

In his normal state, he could be considered Superhuman by any means. If he entered the Kakuja V4, his blunt strength would be able to injure him severely, and even Arima was holding back.

They exchanged several rounds of exchanges, but not even one of them was getting tired of it, and both of them could still continue. After ten or so minutes, footsteps could be heard as many people were approaching this place.

All of them were ghoul investigators, Rank 1 and higher.

Lucien smiled seeing this and congealed several kagune daggers, which he controlled through his telekinesis ability, and attacked those ghoul investigators approaching this place. Several of them managed to draw out their quinques and save their lives, as only their quinques were shattered.

Some of the ghoul investigators were killed on the spot, which was a good thing for Lucien as he managed to kill more of them.

After that, he jumped down from the roof of the building where they were fighting and disappeared from the sight of the Arima. There was nothing they could do now, as all members of the Aogiri Tree and prisoners of the Cochlea escaped long ago, and going after Lucien was pure suicide, as only Arima would be capable of that.

The only thing that remained now was to go to the Cochlea and look at the loss of the prison and damage.

Now both the 11th Ward Battle and Cochlea Raid were successfully done. In the 11th Ward Battle, the Commission of Counter Ghoul lost the majority of their manpower and even one Associate Special Class Investigator and, what's worse, even a Special Class Investigator.

In the Cochlea Raid, the entire staff of the Cochlea was slaughtered, turning the entire prison into rivers of blood and a cemetery of corpses and decapitated bodies.

Warden and deputy warden were both killed, entire armed staff and civil staff were slaughtered, and all interrogators and ghoul investigators were killed too.

One could say both operations were a great success for Lucien and his schemes. Now that puppet of the Washuu Clan, CCG suffered such huge losses they would need reinforcements to function properly. The only one who could send them if, of course, the Washuu Clan from their own people and hidden reserves.

Such as members of the Washuu Clan itself or some agents of the Vasuki.

All of them would go out of hiding and be in the world's light. Easily killable. Members of the Washuu Clan and Vasuki were troublesome in one common aspect. They were good at hiding in the dark, and Lucien was too lazy to search for them and all.

It was much easier to slaughter countless people of the CCG to force them to appear.

Arima oversaw everything, and he was aware that all of this was necessary to achieve their goal. Something which even old man Yoshimura wanted, but his means were too soft.

To gain something, you must at first lose something.

Lucien looked at the Cochlea Detention Center for the last time before going to the 24th Ward.

 

[Trafford]

24th Ward, Tokyo

Now 24th Ward was far more lively because new 'citizens' arrived, and those were, of course, the prisoners from Cochlea Detention Center. Many of them were already arranging some housing as they couldn't stay on the surface or other Wards as their faces were known in public, and CCG would be now hunting for escapees from the Cochlea Prison, especially hard.

Lucien was on the top of some ruined building, observing the entire 24th Ward and the ghouls that had arrived now. He was also planning some ways to fortify the 24th Ward in his head, turning it into a massive Fortress City.

For this, he would need his people to do it or to command the works, as many ghouls here wouldn't be too useful in renovation or reconstructional works.

"Eto, come here."

Lucien said after some time when he was observing the ruins of the 24th Ward. He knew that Eto was behind him and silently watching him in the dark.

"Thank you for your cooperation. Both operations were a success, especially the 11th Ward Battle, as we managed to completely cripple the forces of the CCG for some time at least. Many agents of the Vasuki and the Washuu Clan would now participate in the CCG operations by going to the terrain as ghoul investigators."

Lucien nodded, hearing this as he had a victorious smile on his face.

Probably Eto already got the news that even Special Class Investigator was killed in the fight. Only this would attract many ghouls to join the Aogiri Tree as they had the capability to kill even Special Class Investigator, which was a terror to weaker ghouls.

Eto wasn't currently wearing those mummy-looking bandages and that tattered red outfit; instead, she was wearing simple light clothes and a black coat.

"I was also helping myself. If the CCG is crippled, then as you have said. Agents of Vasuki would be forced to reveal themselves from the dark and it would be much easier to kill them. Members of the Washuu Clan are also good, but in this aspect, they aren't that troublesome compared to the Vasuki; they are always hiding in the dark like some rats. How are your losses?"

Asked Lucien in the last sentence. They should be minimalized to a great extent, but not every fight can be won without some sacrifices.

"Minimal, but we have lost around thirty or forty low-ranking members. Mainly C-Rated ghouls and some B-rated ones. They were the cover troops in the 11th Ward Battle; they served their purpose even though their purpose was death. However, their sacrifice won't be forgotten, and it wasn't in vain."

Answered Eto in half sad voice and half proud voice.

She was similar to him in this thing; she was also rationalizing everything she could. The purpose of the weakest members of the Aoigiri Tree was to cover for the rest to escape.

They died, and the rest could live; that was a world where only the strong survived.

"That's good; we should concentrate the majority of forces in the 24th Ward for now, as I have some plans for it. Oh yes, did he join the organization?"

Lucien was confident that he could turn the entire 24th Ward into an impenetrable fortress in two years or so.

And another important thing was the recruitment of Kaneki Ken into the Aogiri Tree, where he would learn how to lead ghouls and Lucien would also teach him how to fight properly.

Also, Kamishiro Matasaka could teach him some martial arts. Everything in goal to cultivate the new One-Eyed King. Everything was part of their own schemes, originally, it was the only plan of Eto and Arima, but Lucien joined because at least he could do something for ghoul kind after he left this world.

One thing was a safe sanctuary in the form of the 24th Ward, and another was a One-Eyed King as ruler and protector.

"Yes, he did. For now, he would learn how to lead them and how to live as a ghoul. You could also teach him to fight, and also Mr. Kamishiro also agreed that he would teach him some of his martial arts to make him stronger. When he would be ready, then Arima would do his part of the job, and soon new One-Eyed King would be born."

Said Eto.

"Hmm... what about that other madman, Yamori? Did he survive, or was he killed by that half-ass?"

Lucien question concerning the fate of Jason, Oomori Yakumo; in reality, Lucien hoped that he would be killed as he was becoming more and more unpredictable and uncontrollable.

Of course, if he was dead, then Lucien wanted his body; he was still an S-Rated ghoul, and he would do a good blood essence.

"Dead, he was eaten alive by him. Do you want his body and the bodies of other ghouls that died during the 11th Ward Battle and Cochlea Raid?"

Even Eto herself was surprised that Jason was killed and eaten alive by an artificial one-eyed ghoul who had never fought in his life before and was human in the past. But that was real, and she was also rather happy that Yamori was now that, as he was becoming too unstable.

That interrogator in Cochlea really broke him too much, turning him crazy.

"Very good, and bring me all the bodies you could find. I would give some to you, Tatara, Kamishiro, and also our new newcomer. You would also get your part of the blood essences refined. He needs to get stronger to fight future battles we would be having."

Lucien noted down while he continued to observe the ruins of the 24th Ward.

 

[Trafford]

Eto didn't know what to say as an answer to his question; she just blankly looked at Lucien, and god knew what was going on in her head. Lucien smiled, seeing this, and prepared to leave.

After Lucien said some philosophical quotes, he left the place and went to the Helter Skelter Bar. He left with great speed as Itori was already waiting for him there, and Sternritter Zelilios was also there waiting for his return.

Eto remained there for an hour, even after Lucien left, thinking about his words and their meaning. She observed the 24th Ward and the ruined state of the place. She hoped that in the future, the entire 24th Ward could be reconstructed to be a safe zone for all ghouls and be a fortress for the Aogiri Tree.

***

14th Ward, Helter Skelter Bar

Itori was drinking her blood wine and tried to get some information about Lucien from Zelilios, who was sitting there with closed eyes as he was meditating and ignoring her attempts to gain some information from him.

He was tasked with her protection, but now it was also too much on him as she was already talking non-stop for several hours in one go.

He knew that she was trying to know more about Lucien. Still, he wasn't in a position to tell her something, even though, technically, her social status was higher. Nevertheless, as Wandenreich placed everything in capabilities and personal strength and cultivation, her status wasn't that high, even though she was Crown Prince's soon-to-be wife.

At the same time, she was still talking but less than before because she noticed that Zelilios wouldn't say anything to her. When Itori was sipping her blood wine, Zelilios was meditating, doors opened, and Lucien was already here.

Zelilios stood up and bowed lightly to Lucien.

"Welcome, Your Highness."

Lucien nodded and made a simple hand gesture, and Zelilios then stopped bowing.

"Zelilios."

Then Lucien went to the Itir, and after a light hug, all of them sat down, and Zelilios started talking about the 11th Ward Battle and who was killed by whom.

"I have personally killed Suzuya Juuzou and Special Class Investigator Shinohara Yukinori. Lady Itori killed Associate Special Class Investigator Chino Mutsumi. In conclusion, many ghoul investigators died, and firearms and explosions of the building killed even more cannon fodders of the CCG. They literally lost more than half of their forces."

Summarized Zelilios recent event, the 11th Ward Battle.

"Good that you have managed to kill Special Class Investigator Shinohara; he was one of the stronger ones in Special Classes. It is a bit of a shame that Kuroiwa managed to escape with his life but so be it.

Even the loss of one Special Class Investigator is a disastrous blow to the Commission of Counter Ghoul."

Even though it was a bit sad for Lucien that Zelilios didn't manage to kill Special Class Investigator Kuroiwa, even the loss of one Special Class was terrible. Another thing was also the fact that Shinohara was one of the stronger Special Classes, as they were also some of them who were far weaker than him.

They were Special Classes Goul Investigators; they didn't grow up on trees.

"Zelilios, now I have another task for you. Go to find Darkwalker and tell him that time to reconstruct the 24th Ward has begun. Mobilization of Liberatus has been approved, and they could start in one week. I want to have all exits to be fortified, and those unused or strategically bad should be sealed properly. Even rats won't be able to bypass it."

Liberatus was, in reality, a smaller army of ghouls who were sympathisants of the Aogiri Tree all around the world. They numbered in hundreds, but they lacked strong ghouls to lead them; they only had three S-rated ghouls. Lucien was controlling Liberatus for some time already through Dalkwaler.

Now they would integrate with the Aogiri Tree, creating even more organization and would help in the fortification of the 24th Ward.

"Yes, your Highness"

Zelilios nodded as he answered. Creating an impenetrable fortress in an important area was a good plan. It would be great for establishing ghoul supremacy over the world.

"I would bring there half material required for the complete reconstruction and fortification through my Cross Crest. Maybe even more than half. Rest you could buy on the black market; they would care only for the money."

Lucien planned to get all material thereby himself as it was much easier, and it would be without any suspicion from the side of the CCG. He could also get the help of the Tsukiyama Family, as they were also ghouls and merchants.

Lucien talked to Zelilios about a few more things before telling him to go attend to his duties, and he remained here alone with Itori.

"So, how was your first grand battle, my dear?"

Questioned Lucien gently as he sat beside Itori and stroked her orange hair. Itori cuddled to his chest, using him as a pillow.

"Very good, but next time I want a more important role."

Lucien nodded and kissed her on her cheek, and smiled at her answer, thinking it would be impossible for now as she wasn't strong enough. Even he himself was evenly matched with the Grand Elder of the Washuu Clan, Washuu Tsunekashi. Lucien didn't know if the Washuu Clan had more people with similar strength or not, so it was dangerous to leave Itori fighting as she wanted.

Itori probably knew that too, but she didn't say anything, and they just enjoyed the company of each other. Lucien was planning to let Zelilios participate in all future fights and some of his future attacks on the hidden facilities of the Washuu Clan.

Tomorrow or the day after, CCG would inform the people about the situation probably as they won't be able to keep it hidden from the rest of the world for too long.

Not talking about the fact that the situation is now rather bad and grave. They lost too many people, so they tried to recruit more new people into the Academy.

 

[Trafford]

Lucien was currently sitting in the living room together with Itori, Darkwalker, Zelilios and even Uta came here. All of them were watching the TV News, as it would be today when CCG would inform the public about the 11th Ward Battle and Cochlea Raid results.

It was disastrous for them, but something happened.

The Washuu Clan has used a large part of their deep-rooted power in managing to convince the Japanese government to help the CCG by promoting entering the CCG and becoming the ghoul investigator.

Lucien also sent the letter to the Tsukiyama Family and informed them about the current state of the Washuu Clan and their intentions to wipe them out and prepare.

Head of the Tsukiyama, Tsukiyama Mirumo, being an intelligent man, knew what to do, and he was using the power of the entire family and conglomerate to put pressure on the CCG and the Washuu Clan.

Even though the Washuu Clan was deeply rooted in Japan, Tsukiyama Family was extremely wealthy, more than the Washuu Clan, and also they had the support of the Aeon House and their financial and political network.

Thanks to this, CCG was lately under colossal pressure, which resulted in the loss of almost half of potential recruits and a large part of the funds that were given to them by the government.

Tsukiyama Family was aware of the Aeon House as they were also a very old ghoul family and were related to the Rosewald Family, which was a German noble family that were ghouls who infiltrated Germany.

Lucien also got an invitation from the Tsukiyama Mirumo for the Christmas ball on the 23rd of December, tt was a gathering of almost all influential ghouls in entire Japan and Asian Countries.

Lucien thought it could be fun, and he could also get some help for the Aogiri Tree, as many of those ghouls hated CCG and similar organizations to the core and used every chance to deal them some damage.

Soon, TV News started, and the moderator started announcing the news, with the first one being the 11th Ward Battle and Cochlea Raid.

"In the evening of December 19, the 11th Ward Special Countermeasures Unit began its assault on Aogiri's base; however, the assault was halted by the Aogiri ghouls heavily armed with firearms and heavy firearms. CCG suffered a lot of losses during the siege, and after the explosion of the building, less than half of the 11th Ward Special Countermeasures Unit. Also, an SSS-Rate ghoul named Owl appeared and joined the fight against the CCG. Aogiri Tree hardly lost any people; by words of the CCG, they escaped before the 11th Ward Special Countermeasures Unit entered the base. Next, we would be announcing the casualties of the CCG during the 11th Ward Battle, where several important and high-ranking members fell.

Associate Special Class Investigator Chino Mutsumi.

Special Class Investigator Shinohara Yukinori.

The loss of the Associate Special Class and Special Class happened after a long time again in their heroic fights against the ghouls."

Lucien was surprised that they didn't say even a word about Zelilios being the killer of the Special Class Investigator Shinohara Yukinori. Probably the Washuu Clan knew the killer's identity and kept it for themselves.

After a short break, news continued.

"During the same time as 11th Ward was going on and 11th Ward, Special Countermeasures Unit were fighting against the Aogiri ghouls; Cochlea Detention Center was breached. The true objective of the Aogiri Tree was the entire time at Cochlea Detention Center in the 23rd Ward. They attacked the prison and freed prisoners there. The entire staff of the Cochlea Detention Center was slaughtered, leaving none alive, and Warden Misaka Kyouji and Deputy Warden Haisaki Shinme were killed during the raid."

What followed next was the press conference with the Washuu Yoshitoki being the only one from the CCG there. He wore a pure white suit, a pink shirt, and a red tie.

"And now I would like to welcome here, Bureau Director of the CCG's Main Office and heir of the Washuu Clan, Washuu Yoshitoki."

Then all cameras were only on the Washuu Yoshitoki, who slowly started talking.

"11th Ward Battle was a disastrous loss for the CCG, and it was a despicable trap from the Aogiri Tree terrorists to kill humans and eat them. The entire staff of the Cochlea Detention Center, including all civilians, were slaughtered mercilessly, leaving none alive. All ghouls in the Cochlea Detention Center escaped, including all S-Rated ghouls and SS-Rated ones, bringing dark times to Tokyo once again. CCG suffered many casualties. The loss of the Associate Special Class Chino Mutsumi greatly hurt our abilities to lead lower-ranking investigators to command operations, and the loss of the Special Class Investigator Shinohara Yukinori severely damaged our ability to hunt for SS-Rated ghouls."

Lucien was surprised at how much of the truth they were telling, but it was ironic that the Washuu Clan members were talking about humanity and slaughtering humans. Next, he was talking nonsense about losses and grave situations.

Lucien knew what their aim was. After the suppression of the various groups and even the government, which came like lightning from the clear sky, they suffered the next day greatly immediately after the event.

Now they are trying to get the public on their side. Very clever move very clever, but Tsukiyama Family won't be doing anything seeing this, and they would manipulate the media to pressure them too.

Next half an hour, Washuu Yoshitoki appeals to the public to motivate them to unite against the evil ghouls and join the CCG in their sacred mission of annihilating ghouls and protecting the civilians. Truly funny.

The entire press conference took around an hour, and after answering some very unfriendly questions, all of the journalists asking those questions were paid by the Tsukiyama Family to make an image of the CCG and the Washuu Clan worse in the eyes of the public.

In the current situation, it was rather easy. Lucien was wondering what the situation would be tomorrow when all was settled.