Grim Reaper in the Apocalypse: Reaping Immortals

Atlan had no idea why they sounded so serious.

"What's the Door?" Atlan asked out loud.

Ninth looked over at his face and scrutinized it. She didn't have to look at his epaulet to know that he was in the low-stage Student realm. The answer to his question was not something that he was allowed to know just yet.

"Who are you?" Ninth said, squinting her eyes.

Even though his face didn't look familiar, for some reason, the pressure and aura around him were very familiar.

Neumann put a hand on his daughter's shoulder and assured her that Atlan was no stranger.

"He's Atlan."

Only then did she finally understand the familiarity.

"Ah, so you're my father's friend. He talks about you a lot. He brags you to my mom whenever you do something amazing."

She didn't recognize him as the Star Porter. She recognized him as her father's friend.

"He's also the one I've been talking to you about. Didn't I mention his name already?"

Lizzie frequently talked about Atlan to her friends, but Ninth was always too busy thinking about Canzers and how to kill them. She often forgot what her friends said to her.

"The Star Porter is an important asset for the City," Pterina said.

Ninth was a little bit overwhelmed with how much support the novice porter had. It was no easy task to have Lizzie and Pterina vouch for someone as young as Atlan. It made her trust the unfamiliar youth.

And most importantly, he was her father's friend.

"The Door is the innermost place inside the Church Remedium. You don't have to know what's beyond the Door to know that it should be the most protected place inside Genesis City.

No Canzer should ever be allowed to step foot near the Door. The City's life depends on it."

"And somehow, the Ifrit found its way there," Atlan said.

"Yes. It shouldn't even be possible that a low-ranking Canzer like that could circumvent our defenses, but it did. Damn anomalies." Ninth almost swung her sword from frustration.

Meanwhile, Pterina bit her lips as she understood the situation. She paced back and forth to try and calm herself down, but as long as the threat of that lone Ifrit existed, she couldn't relax for even a second.

"It's good that you retreated," Pterina said. "Things could have gone a lot worse if you rashly went and confronted the Ifrit."

Ninth looked back at her team. They were disheartened being unable to kill the Canzer with their powers. "We immediately backed out when we saw it."

"Can't you have used the oil lamp?" Atlan asked.

"No. It's gotten wise. It knows what will happen once we get the oil lamp close enough to activate it.

And Ifrits are a prideful bunch. They would rather self-destruct if they knew that they would die from the oil lamp anyway. The moment we try to get close to it, it would immediately explode and take the Door with it.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that the entire City will explode once that happens. We'll be nothing left but a crater in the Unclaimed Lands."

Atlan was appalled to hear of such a terrible situation. He didn't know that one wrong move could obliterate the entire City off the face of the planet. It wasn't the destruction of the Church or a single district, it was the destruction of the entire Genesis City!

He finally understood why they were so frightened to hear that an Ifrit was at the Door.

Even with how powerful Specialist Saviors were, they couldn't do anything in such a perilous situation. With one wrong move, they could kill everyone in the City. That was terrifying.

"We need to alert HeadQuarters right this instant," Lizzie hurriedly said.

"They were already notified the moment Ninth and her team failed the mission." Pterina pointed at her glowing watch.

"We need Specialist Operators that can communicate with Canzers," Ninth said.

"There are people that can talk to Canzers?" That intrigued Atlan, but Pterina shook her head. Read exclusive content at empire

"Not talk, but communicate. Even if we can't understand each other's language, there are other ways to know the Canzer's intent.

It's just like trying to communicate with a monkey. If you warn them not to take the bananas in your garden using human language, then they'll ignore you and continue to pillage the garden. But if you show them another monkey being electrocuted the moment they stepped foot in the garden, then they'll understand that there are some lines they shouldn't cross."

Atlan thought some Operators could talk to Canzers like he could, but it turned out that he was the only one who had that power.

"But why do you want to communicate with the Ifrit? Isn't it better to find another solution to kill it before it could self-destruct?"

"Because that's way too risky. We can't take any chances. And the fact that it hasn't self-destructed yet means that it wants something."

Atlan looked at Ninth. "You want to negotiate with the Canzers?"

She nodded.

"It's not the first time we've done it. During such extreme cases where the entire City is at stake, brute force won't cut it. We need diplomacy.

We'll have no trouble resorting to violence if that doesn't work, of course."

Atlan thought that all high-level Savior missions contained nothing but throwing LifeSkill powers that could destroy entire Cities to the Canzers. Perhaps, that was true for most Specialist level missions, but it turned out that the truly high-stakes missions didn't even include fighting at all.

Meanwhile, Pterina walked over to the soldiers and ordered them to give her the fastest truck in their arsenal. They needed to get to the HeadQuarters as soon as possible.

Ninth, her team, Lizzie, Pterina, Neumann, and Atlan all boarded the truck and it raced through the barricaded streets.

The soldiers on the other side of the road immediately opened up the blockade to let them pass through.

The soldiers blocked any civilian mount or vehicle around the road and opened up a straight open road towards HeadQuarters.

"What happens once you talk to the Canzer?" Atlan asked.

Ninth answered honestly. "We'll give it what it wants."

"Why?"

"This is a hostage situation, kid."