At Rain's last words, the temperature in the hall dropped drastically as only one thought ran through the heads of the two Numbered elites in the hall.
Escape.
After being part of the underground world for the better part of their lives, they were both keenly aware of their own limits. Being part of an organization where their ranks were based on strength and influence, they had both constantly challenged stronger opponents in the past and knew exactly where they stood against an opponent whose movements, they couldn't follow with their eyes and did not hesitate to spring into action.
Cavernous Darkness?
The moment Number 10 sensed the change in the temperature, she quickly activated one of the rings in her hand and an already precast spell was activated instantly.
A dome of absolute blackness shot out from the black ring on her finger and instantly expanded across the hall. Within the black, even creatures with Darkvision are unable to see through this magical darkness.
This 4th Tier spell also throws off the magic essence within it, preventing an accurate use of magic sense or any perception skills and spells. This was one of the most efficient covers for an escape and both Number 10 and 77 understood what to do next without any further communication between them.
The white ring on Number 10's fingers glowed but its light was immediately swallowed up by the darkness as it instantly activated another spell.
?Dimension Door?
As the supposed 10th strongest person in the organization, Number 10 was indeed, very confident in her strength even against beings at the Level of Demon Lords. However, as the Leader of the organization's secret manufacturing division, she needed to be constantly prepared to escape in every given situation.
She couldn't afford to let herself be defeated or even worse, captured and tortured for the secrets in her head which was why she hadn't been in support of this mission to begin with and why she had instantly chosen to retreat without even confirming the enemy's strength.
The moment the spell sealed in the white ring was released, a formless door opened behind her and she immediately dashed towards it and was closely followed by Number 77 who had not even questioned her decision to flee despite this place being an important location for the organization.
However,
?Gravity Wall?
The moment the skill was used, an invisible wall of pure gravity, fell upon the Dimension door, shattering the spell in an instant, forcing both Number 10 and 77 to stop in their tracks.
"What! How?!"
Number 77 found it difficult to believe what has just happened. He had witnessed Number 10 use this combination of spells before and there had never been a person capable of stopping their escape.
Most people would just randomly send spells flying but as the Darkness skrews with their perception, their attacks lose all accuracy yet in a single move, she has accurately shattered their escape spell.
"Greater Magic - Daylight."
Before Number 77 could even completely process what had happened earlier, the darkness was immediately dispelled as a sphere of light suddenly spread out from the center of the hall, completely erasing the absolute darkness.
"Now then, where do you think you're going?"
Number 10 clicked her tongue in frustration as both of her escape tools were rendered useless in a matter of milliseconds, she didn't care how they had been located within the darkness as it wasn't as though they had switched locations the moment the darkness spell was activated so anyone with perfect memory and spatial recognition should be able to remain aware even in the darkness.
What she couldn't believe was how frightening her reaction speed had been despite their lack of hesitation in her decision to retreat.
'Did she already predicted that? Was this all a trap to begin with? Fuck.'
"Focus fool!"
She knew full well they couldn't just stand there looking stupid if they wanted to escape and now had to force their way through. Although she would rather not use her Ultimate trump card as it was a gamble on its own, there would be no point in having it if she were to die here.
"Max Magic - Grand Fireball."
"Widened Magic - Ice wall!"
Snapping out of his stupor, 77 immediately followed Number 10's attack with a massive ice wall to protect them from the massive blast of the Fireball and give them a moment to prepare for their next attack to create an opening for another attempt at an escape.
However, before they could even begin to chant their next spells, their attacks were shattered once again before their eyes with an immersed Gravitational force.
"Tsk! Bitch! Try and stop this!"
"Darkness Magic, Overtier Magic - Dark Lance!"
The entire hall pulsated as a wave of absolute darkness gathered in front of her extended hand and slowly formed a massive corporal spear that shot out with the speed of light.
As the spear wasn't made up of any tangible or physical object, none of them believed the attack could be affected by gravity and they were indeed correct.
Still—
Raising her slender finger at the incoming Darkness lance, Rain silently cast a spell of her own and immediately, dark purple lightning danced across her fingertips and shot at the lance of Darkness, shattering the over-tiered spell in its entirety as it continued onward to the caster.
Chaos Lightning.
"Fuck! She didn't even use a chant."
77, being the slowest to react, found himself in front of the incoming lightning after being pushed from behind by Ten, he hadn't even been able to grumble at being used as a shield before his entire existence was reduced to ash.
"Oh... Trash will be trash I guess."
Number clicked her tongue again at the mocking words from the emissary as she pulled out an item from her spatial box during the time Number 77 was being vaporized by the lightning.
This item was the organization's most valued Divine Grade Magic Artifact.
The Hourglass of Chronos.
This was the Ultimate trump card she had been entrusted with by the organization. A weapon of absolute power, one that signified her rise through the ranks.
??????
Formerly known by the name Grendel. The now 10th ranked of Numbers had been nothing more than a common orphan thief living in the streets of Blackwing City, the capital city of the Zorak family.
She had always felt as though the world had forsaken her. Raised in a run-down orphanage after both her parents had died in a war, she met with misfortune all her life as the orphanage she lived in along with everyone she had come to know died in a mysterious fire that burnt down the building to the ground.
After losing everything she had at such an early age, she was forced to steal to survive and slowly discovered her talent for crime until one day, she was ambushed and beaten to a pulp by a band of bandits who felt her ambitions was too big for a nobody like her.
However, their attempt at snuffing out the competition had only lit a fire under her, causing her to seek the help of the organization to increase her strength before coming back and annihilating the band of wannabe and claiming their territory for the organization which helped increase her rank and in turn, gave her access to more resources to grow even stronger than she was.
This was when she realized the only thing she could truly rely on in this world was her own strength. After that, she dedicated herself to the organization, completing mission after mission as she rapidly increased her rank until she had nearly reached the pinnacle of the organization and earned the trust of the Single Digits.
As such, she was also trusted with the secrets of the organization and permitted to carry one of the organization's only ten artifacts as a trump card. A number that would put most noble family's to shame as the idea of possessing even one true magic artifact was a dream for most.
So the fact that she had been trusted with one such item, give her a sense of belonging and loyalty to the organization. As such, her determination and will to survive had grown even more.
??????
The moment she brought out the hourglass from her storage, Number 10 did not waste any time and immediately turned the hourglass upside down to start the countdown.
The moment the first grain of sand touched the bottom of the hourglass, everything froze. From the birds and bugs in the air to the tiniest insects on the ground, every single living and non-living organism in this world had come to a halt.
Chronos was known as the living embodiment of time itself, the personification of endlessness and a being that had existed since the very beginning and this artifact was the perfect representation of just that.
Possessing several Temporal abilities, it was one of the most powerful items in the possession of Numbers. One of these abilities was, of course, Time Stop.
This did not simply stop the flow of time within a limited space but rather, it completely brings time itself to a stop in all of reality for the duration of the hourglass.
The Hourglass of Chronos also protects its user from any Temporal attack and from being noticed by the God of Time and any being capable of resisting Stopped Time within the universe.
Naturally, there were countless risks to this artifact as it possesses a living attribute that can influence its user to abuse its powers until it destroys time itself.
Seeing what remains of Number 77 hanging in the air in front of her in the middle of being vaporized, Number 10 sighed in relief as she had been afraid of being stopped from activating her last resort.
"I should get out of here immediately."
Even though the hourglass timer lasted an entire hour, Number 10 didn't want to take any chances as she didn't know when the emissary would be able to resist the spell even though she didn't believe that was possible as this was a 9th Tier spell.
A spell at the pinnacle of existence itself. A spell that existed in the same realm as the gods themselves. The possibility that the emissary from a recently created family like the Darknar family could resist such a spell was null.
However, she hadn't even been able to take a single step when she suddenly felt the arm holding onto the hourglass get lighter.
She hesitated for a moment before turning to look at her hand, or at least, where her hand should've been.
For some explicit reason, it seemed her hand all the way to her elbow was missing, and just like the Lion King before her, the veins in her arms had also been coagulated in the process.
"That's... Impossible... how can you—..."
Naturally, her eyes located the source of her problems as her eyes caught sight of her hand being discarded as though it was trash, and the emissary that had appeared behind her at some point, now held the hourglass as she observed the artifact with great interest.
No matter which way she swirled it, the sands in the hourglass continuously flowed in one direction as though it was determined to complete its countdown at any cost.
"Oh... so this was your last card. I was wondering when you'd use it. How interesting."
With the artifact stolen from her person, the protection it gave against its effects was slowly being stripped away as her body gradually became frozen in time.
"The spell worked, time has stopped. Why... how are you able to still move."
"Hmm me? Curious?"
A cheeky smile was plastered on Rain's face as she returned one of her short swords to her storage and turned to face Number 10.
"I'll be honest, I have no idea too, but you didn't think you'd get away from me just because you stopped time did you?"
Unfortunately, Number 10 could no longer speak as her body had been completely frozen in place after the effect of the stoppage of time has caught up to her.
Rain sighed, she hadn't expected the girl to freeze as well and had only taken the hourglass Incase it possess more effects.
She also wasn't aware of why she had been immune to stopped time but looking at the Gold and Emerald bracelets in her arms, she thought perhaps it was a side effect of having a God Tier artifact on hand.
"Now then, do I have to wait the full hour or? How the hell do I start the flow of time again."
Rain mused to herself as she used appraisal on the artifact before learning how to use the item. She then turned to observe her surroundings.
Given that she had already killed off two of the members of Numbers, she, unfortunately, couldn't kill the girl for now as she was their only access to information on the secrets of Numbers and their information on the nobles of this region.
As for the Viscount responsible for bringing her here, he was balled up in a corner completely terrified at some point during all this. Rain thought about how she should deal with him for a moment before casting two delayed spells and resuming time.
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