Ava furrowed her brows. It was her job to maintain the established order, and clearly, it was being threatened. The guards here were being purposely rebellious in their supposed choice of deviance. Ava stomped toward the gates. "I'll open it myself!" She shouted.

Alexandro's already visible smirk grew even wider.

As Ava approached, all the hundred guards—the whole lot of the—suddenly launched toward her.  Their eyes flared green as he lunged toward her simultaneously. Her eyes widened.

Alexandro swiftly looked over at the Wizard. 

The Wizard nodded, giving him permission to intervene.

Alexandro suddenly vanished and reappeared in front of Ava. Promptly, he received a punch to his face. Then, Ava got one to her temple. Alexandro then quickly teleported back a few meters.

The guards immediately fell back and returned to their former positions. Their exact former positions. Compared to when they attacked, their green, glowing eyes were now a bit less radiant.

Taking everything in, Alexandro rekindled the smirk on his face. "Mhm." He tested how strong these guards were when he took that punch. He usually did this. And this time around, they were quite mediocre. Not too powerful at all. Though, the energy around them reminded him of someone. Someone quite familiar.

"Stay away from the gates!" Snapped the guard who had punched Alexandro. "I don't want to hurt you, people!"

Ava turned around to the Wizard. She felt pain but her pain was insignificant compared to their problem at that given moment. "They attack when we're near the gates," she said, a hand on her head. "What do we do!"

The Wizard roved at the scene before. He hesitated. 

Through the gaps in the gates, he was able to see a golden Machine and over a hundred people matching around it. This golden machine was a modified tank. The hatch was lifted, and a head poked out from the top. It was the head of a glaring man, staring into the Wizard's soul.

The Wizard's eyes widened. He clenched his teeth and balled his fists. "Kill the guards! Kill them all!"

Ava grimaced. "But sir—"

"I said kill them ALL!!!" He shuddered in nervousness.

Ava looked at the Wizard in disbelief. How could he resort to such a vile action so quickly? They needed those guards. The walls had been breached a couple of times recently so they increased the number of guards to ensure the colony's safety. Should these guards get taken out of the picture, they would definitely be problems. 

"What are you waiting for?" The Wizard growled. "I said kill them all." He got no response and no action from Ava so he quickly turned to Alexandro. "You're not my errand boy, but I would appreciate some assistance from." The Wizard folded his sleeves. "It's been a while since I've last battled. Who knows? This might be my final one before my retirement tomorrow. Getting my hands dirty."

Alexandro smirked. "No, sir. Please allow me. I'll take care of it for you."

The Wizard looked at him. "You will?"

"Underestimating me, I see," Alexandro scoffed. "Watch me end this within a minute or two."

Ava frowned. She failed to follow the Wizard's instruction whereas Alexandro, the stranger, was quick to act. There was nothing else she could have done, and there still was not, for there was no stopping to them—over a hundred guards were about to lose their lives. 

She turned around. Maybe it was best the citizens did not see this barbaric behavior from the Wizard as the sole Governor of their area of settlement. There were a few people in the distance, squinting to observe the science before them. Of course, these onlookers had their eyes glued to the scene. There were soldiers and rebelling guards and machines and strangers and politics. However, it was best she got them to move away from this area.

She quickly rushed down the paved path that led to the entrance gate of the colony and gestured her hands in the air. "Everyone indoors! Indoors now! There is a new ability user who controls chemicals to intoxicate the air—you'll die if you don't get indoors now!"

After getting most people away from the gates, Ava slowed her sprint such that it became a saunter. She then haled, looking over her shoulder. Alexandro and the Wizard were back at the gates. She only barely made Alexandro out. Her pupils were moving rapidly while trying to track him as he relocated every second.

Moreover, the guards were being knocked down, one after the other. They fell like a pack of cards in the wind. Ava turned around and started toward the gates again. She kept an eye on the one-sided battle the whole time. Before she could even make it back to the gates, all the guards were already sprawled out on the floor. 

The Wizard looked down at the corpses on the paved ground with a nuance. You couldn't discern what those eyes meant. Was it anger? Sorrow? Remorse? Ava couldn't know but there was one thing she knew for sure: the Wizard was well aware of what he had just done.

The guards mostly wore their heads the wrong way on. Alexandro was quite skilled when it came to snapping their necks. And since he was quick with it, the unpleasant deaths of these guards were quick and painless. They just died in an instant. Some of them were stacked atop each other, and others were sprawled out randomly afield. 

The Wizard sighed, then looked at the gates. "Ava," he said softly.

Ava shook her head and started toward the gates.

In short, she had opened the gates after many failed attempts. Only succeeded after Alexandro offered his kind assistance. Of course, she had given him "the look" to show that she wasn't going to express her gratitude but rather her skepticism and lack of trust instead.

The Wizard walked back a few meters and watched as the glossy, gold-plated tank rolled on the paved road through the extremely tall gates. There were many soldiers surrounding this fancy tank. They pursued it with a solemn march. Straight backs and stern faces, virtually moving simultaneously with every taken step. 

The Soldiers stopped as the tank came to a halt. Then, the tank's hatch was lifted. A man casually poked his head out and looked around. He only chose to climb out after a full minute. As he clambered out of the interior and made his way down the tank, everything and everyone was silent. 

The man then made his way through the soldiers. The soldiers stepped back one after the other, progressively clearing a path for their leader. And this leader walked straight up to the Wizard and halted.

The man was a bit shorter than the Wizard remembered. Or perhaps the Wizard's impressively over-average height made it seem this way. The man was about Ava's height if the Wizard should compare. Even through the man's red sunglasses with the golden frame was the Wizard able to recognize piercing eyes. 

The man's buzzcut—cut extremely low—was golden as well, giving him a unique and almost bald look. He then deliberately removed his glasses and continued to peer into the Wizard's soul. 

The Wizard took a mild step back. He was looking into golden pupils. You seldom saw something like this, if at all. 

This man was Midas. He was not the owner of a System. In fact, he had secretly existed before the Great Rendell was murdered and the world's suppressed magic was restored. So, he was neither a successor nor someone who possessed a restored ability. Much similar to the Wizard in this regard. 

Not all Gods had gone the route of having a successor take their roles through a system. Most Gods, mainly the less powerful ones who were not a part of the Titans of Norse or the Greek Olympians, simply visited Earth and chose whoever they wanted themselves without all the system mayhem. Midas, a bit more than a demigod but below a true god. was a bit different. He chose to not give up his power at all and walked the surface of the Earth in his own human body. 

Midas had been roaming the Earth for over a decade now, and he was having a hell of a time. Most feared Midas because of his large numbers of soldiers. However, attaining these men was no easy task for him. He had to work for this. He worked to become one of the richest and most powerful men in the world.

"You had me waiting," Midas said. He had a strange accent. Even after a decade, he hadn't lost his greek accent.

"I'm sorry, your golden highness," the Wizard wanted to bow but Midas gave him no room for that; their chests nearly touched. "I had no idea you were truly interested in this event I've hosted."

Midas clenched his teeth. "You've killed all of your men without a second of hesitation. How dare you must. I cannot, ahh, trust someone like you.. For that, I'm going to have to have this place, ahhh, what do you ehh humans call deh ka-boom again? Nuked! I'll have this co-lon-ee of yours nuked today."