Chapter 36: Anti System Weapon
The center Executioner did not answer Kanos’s question. Even with an invisible shadow thread pressing deep into his throat and drawing fresh blood, the masked man let out a low, vibrating chuckle. It was the laugh of someone who still fully believed he held the absolute upper hand.
"You really think a cheap trick like this can hold a Number Caste?" the Executioner spoke. His robotic voice echoed inside the cramped, ruined basement. "We are the immune blood cells of this world. We erase viruses like you."
The Executioner suddenly squeezed his eyes shut behind his silver visor. He stopped trying to move his arms or legs. Instead, he simply activated a vocal command through the system interface in his head.
"System Override," the Executioner chanted loudly. "Absolute Mana Nullification."
Sili immediately scrambled backward under the broken table. The skinny broker frantically threw his hands over his head. "Get down! He is detonating an anti magic pulse!" Sili screamed at the top of his lungs. "It will wipe out every single active spell in a fifty meter radius!"
A blindingly pure white light erupted from the Executioner’s chest armor. The shockwave did not carry any physical heat or pushing force. It was a silent, invisible wave that washed over the entire basement in a fraction of a second.
The remaining green moss glowing on the brick walls instantly died out. The small magical light bulbs hanging near the ceiling shattered into dust. The faint magical aura naturally coating Belida’s black greatsword vanished completely. The system was actively purging all traces of mana in the room, forcefully resetting the environment to a zero magic state.
The Executioner opened his eyes, fully expecting Kanos’s invisible trap to evaporate into nothingness. He confidently stepped forward to snap Kanos’s neck.
He took exactly half a step before a horrifying sound of grinding metal filled the room.
The pitch black threads did not disappear. They did not even flinch. The extremely thin wire wrapped around the Executioner’s right knee instantly bit much deeper into the joint, slicing right through the thick silver plating and severing the main tendon underneath.
The Executioner dropped heavily onto his good knee, screaming in pure shock and agonizing pain. Blood pooled rapidly around his iron boot.
"How?" the masked man gasped. His robotic voice finally cracked, revealing genuine human panic. "The Nullification pulse erases all mana structures. Your magic should be gone!"
Kanos wiped a thick trail of blood running from his left nostril. His head felt like it was currently being crushed inside an industrial vice, but his eyes remained dead cold.
"The system only erases magic," Kanos answered quietly. He slowly raised his right hand, his fingers slightly curled like a man holding an invisible set of strings. "My ink has zero mana in it. It is pure physical mass. Heavy, solid, and completely outside your stupid catalog."
Kanos twisted his right wrist sharply to the left.
The invisible threads scattered across the room tightened with a sickening creak. Kanos was no longer just using the threads as a static trap. He was actively manipulating the tension. He analyzed the structural leverage points of the Executioner’s heavy armor in his mind. He pulled the precise strings connected to the center Executioner’s right shoulder and elbow.
The trapped man groaned loudly. His right arm was forcefully jerked upward against his will, exactly like a wooden puppet being controlled by a master puppeteer. The heavy gauntlet on that arm was pointed directly at the second Executioner standing frozen near the door.
"Fire your gauntlet," Kanos commanded the center Executioner. "Or I will pull the string on your neck and take your head off right now."
"You... you bastard," the man choked out. He tried desperately to resist the pull, but Kanos’s shadow threads were infinitely stronger than human muscle. The thin wire around his neck tightened dangerously, slicing the skin and making him gag on his own blood.
The man had no choice. He channeled his remaining physical stamina into his gauntlet. A massive blast of kinetic fire shot out from his palm, slamming squarely into his own teammate’s chest.
The second Executioner was violently blasted backward by friendly fire. His silver armor dented inward, and his defensive stance completely broke apart.
Papuyu did not waste a single millisecond of that opening.
The female hitman kicked off the wall. She slid incredibly low across the dusty floor, easily avoiding Kanos’s deadly threads because she had perfectly memorized their pattern. She popped up right behind the second Executioner who was still stumbling from the fire blast.
Papuyu raised her dark steel daggers. She drove both blades brutally into the tiny, unarmored gaps right behind the man’s knees. As the heavy giant fell backward, Papuyu smoothly twisted her body and plunged her right dagger directly into the exposed gap between his helmet and neck guard. She severed his spinal cord in one clean, absolutely flawless strike. The second Executioner hit the ground dead.
"One down," Papuyu announced flatly. She yanked her dagger out, flicking the blood onto the stone floor.
Belida pushed himself up from the corner of the room. The giant knight ignored his badly burned palms. He picked up his black greatsword, holding the long hilt tightly. Belida carefully stepped forward, navigating the safe zones of Kanos’s web with surprising agility for a man his size.
The third Executioner tried to raise his mace to block, but his arms were completely restricted by Kanos’s invisible threads. Every time he twitched, the wires cut deeper into his wrists.
Belida stood right in front of the trapped man. He raised the giant black sword high above his head.
"This is for ruining my armor," Belida grumbled with his heavy voice.
The greatsword came down like a guillotine. The heavy black steel smashed cleanly through the silver helmet, splitting the third Executioner’s head and chest plate perfectly in half. The body collapsed into a bloody heap of ruined metal.
Kanos immediately let out a long, ragged breath. He completely released his mental focus. The entire web of pitch black threads instantly lost its structural integrity. The invisible wires melted back into thin smoke, then quickly evaporated into the damp air of the basement.
Kanos dropped hard onto one knee. He grabbed the edge of the broken table to keep himself from kissing the floor. His lungs heaved desperately. The mental toll of actively controlling the heavy shadow threads against a struggling level sixty target was completely insane. His brain felt fried.
The center Executioner was still alive, kneeling in a pool of his own blood. His right leg was completely useless. He stared at his two dead comrades, then looked up at Kanos with pure, unfiltered terror. The absolute arrogance he had just a few minutes ago was entirely wiped out.
Papuyu walked over quietly. She grabbed the man by the collar of his heavy armor and shoved him backward against a wooden pillar. She placed the cold edge of her bloody dagger right under his chin.
"He asked you a question earlier," Papuyu said coldly. "How many more dogs did the Bureau send to Marrath?"
The man swallowed hard. He looked at Kanos, who was currently staring at him with eyes darker than the bottom of the dungeon.
"Two... two full divisions," the Executioner stammered, coughing up blood. "Sixty men. They are already surrounding the lower district. You cannot run. The moment my heartbeat monitor stops, the commanders will know exactly where this building is."
Sili crawled out from under the table ruins. He clutched his bag of books tightly to his chest.
"Boss, the roof is literally groaning," Sili pointed nervously upward. "The lead lining on the ceiling is melting from all the heat blasts earlier. The Bureau’s tracking magic is going to scan this whole block in less than three minutes."
Kanos slowly pushed himself up. He wiped his bloody face with his sleeve. He looked down at the terrified Executioner.
"You guys rely too much on monitors," Kanos said softly.
Belida stepped forward without waiting for another word. The giant knight casually swung the flat side of his greatsword, hitting the side of the Executioner’s silver helmet with a loud crack. The man’s eyes rolled back, and he was instantly knocked out cold. He was deeply unconscious, but his heart was still beating. His monitor would not trigger the death alarm just yet.
"That buys us maybe ten minutes before he bleeds out and dies on his own," Belida stated calmly, resting the heavy sword on his broad shoulder.
"We need a route that their magic hounds cannot track," Kanos turned to Sili. "You mentioned the deep sewers earlier."
Sili nodded incredibly fast. He adjusted his cracked glasses. "I know a maintenance tunnel. It is directly connected to the toxic runoff from the old alchemical factories. The smell down there is so vile that even the mutant sewer rats refuse to go near it. The Bureau’s tracking dogs will completely lose their sense of smell if they try to follow us."
"Lead the way," Kanos commanded.
Papuyu quickly leaned down and ripped a small silver badge from the unconscious Executioner’s chest plate. She pocketed the valuable item without a word, then moved to the front to escort Sili.
The four of them quickly rushed out of the basement. The heavy rain immediately hit Kanos’s tired face, washing away some of the black soot. They stepped into the dark, muddy alleyway of the lower district. Behind them, the old grain warehouse finally gave up. The burning wooden pillars cracked loudly, and the entire roof collapsed inward with a massive, booming crash, burying the three Executioners under tons of flaming debris.
Kanos pulled the hood of his gray cloak up, completely hiding his face in the shadows. The sound of warning sirens began ringing loudly from the upper city, echoing terribly across the rainy night. The real hunt had just begun.
