—A few hours earlier.
—Underneath the Heartrail family's mansion.
A black portal whose existence distorted the space around itself, slowly closed behind a figure as she walked back into the underground hallway.
After sending all 35 Dark Elves slaves through the Gate to a section of the underground labyrinth, the only other living being left with Rain was Number 10, who was currently still stuck in a temporal stasis caused by the magic artifact, the Hourglass of Chronos.
Rain silently stared at the frozen member of the organization she was quite interested in as she thought about the various ways to get the information she needed out of her as quickly as possible, but surprisingly came up short.
Normally she would be able to fairly easily force the information out of her target but as Number 10 was a high-ranking Numbered elite from such an important organization, she naturally would have several mental protective spells cast on her.
Such a thing would not have been an issue if it were only spells to fortify her mental resistance or protect her mind.
However, Rain had confirmed she had the worst one of all. If she was ever magically compelled to divulge any of the organization's secrets, her mind was programmed to collapse, sending her into a berserk state and attacking anyone around her. Hence, Rain needed to be rather creative this time.
Taking out the Hourglass of Chronos from her storage, she undid the Time capsule skill and just as Number 10 was regaining her sense of time once more, Rain activated Spatial teleportation, returning to the underground labyrinth alongside 10 whose vision suddenly shifted as she appeared in a completely different place than she was only a moment ago.
Any thoughts of resistance were immediately suppressed by the overwhelming sense of dread and despair that had suddenly surrounded her.
Even for a warrior of her caliber, she found it difficult to even breathe much less stand up or even escape. It seems all her trump cards and escape tools had been utterly demolished and only fear lingered in her eyes as she raised her head and observe her new surroundings.
They were currently still underground but were now located in what seemed to be a cavern with the purest of lakes she had ever seen at the center of the cave. The waters emitted a faint blue glow that continuously purified the air around it and gave a tranquil feeling.
The lake seems to be protected by a magical barrier she can hardly see but felt as though it would be impossible to destroy, its surroundings was one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen.
The light from the lake softly illuminated its surroundings as the land around the waters appeared rich with green life about a meter around the lake. Incredibly rare and magically rich flowers bloomed around the lake, causing the entire atmosphere to became rich in magic essence which was almost suffocating.
The entire ground of the rest of the cave was surprisingly constructed with marble, making her doubt her earlier conclusions on whether this was indeed an underground cavern.
As her eyes slowly took in more information, around her, she saw massively built armored warriors, each exuding an aura rivaling if not surpassing hers with a layer of death aura oozing out of the slits of their armor as they were strategically placed around the cave.
"Pardon the intrusion, Emrys. I require your assistance on a slight issue with this one."
Hearing those words come from a familiar figure beside her, Number hesitantly traced her line of sight as her already fragile heart shattered in absolute despair.
Before her was the very definition of death itself. The embodiment of the grim reaper, the king of the underworld.
Seated atop a stone throne as back as the void of a black hole that was placed atop slightly elevated platform at the end of the cave, was a skeleton, an ArchLich. Its bones as black as its throne as a malicious blue flame devoid of life, danced inside the empty eye sockets of its skull.
A chill immediately ran across her spine as she practically lost control of all her bodily functions as her mind went blank, completely devoid of any thoughts or emotions.
"Very well."
Emrys's voice rang out in the underground labyrinth, his ghastly voice that seem to originate from the underworld were completely devoid of emotions as his gaze swept across the insignificant insect before him. An illusionary book appeared before him and immediately began to flip through its pages on its own before stopping at the right skill.
? Malevolent Intent ?
A skill once belonging to a devil, being a more dangerous variation of the skill, Domination without any mind-altering effects as it was even more similar to simple aura intimidation.
However, in this case, the skill forces its target will to zero without damaging their spirit or soul which completely ignored any mental resistance, setting the stages of Emrys' next action.
Using Spirit summoning, Emrys summon a Mind Eater. They were powerful Tier 5 spirits with the ability to magically consume their target's mind and memories from a distance of up to 12 feet.
Normally they would immediately digest the memories, turning them into energy but as a summoned creature, they could be forced to relinquish the memories, infusing them into another creature or item.
Without hesitation, the unsightly Mind Eater obeyed its summoner's order and attacked the stunned girl before it, completely consuming the essence of her mind in minutes.
After devouring all of 10's memories, leaving her an empty shell to be used in the creation of the undead in the future, all her memories were then transferred into the transmission crystal already prepared by Rain.
With that, Rain's business with Emrys had ended and she left the rest to Emrys to deal with as she teleported back to her previous location with the new memory crystal in hand.
Thanks to the usefulness of the hourglass of Chronos, it had only taken her a few minutes to locate the information she was searching for through decades of memories.
There were only two things Rain was interested in learning from her memories.
The first was the location of her organization's base within the city as they could not operate their slave and snuggling operations from the warehouse underneath the Heartrail mansion.
The second was finding any incriminating documents on the organization's dealings with the various noble household and information pertaining to possible corrupted nobles families within the Floato region.
The third and final thing she needed to know was the location of the highest-ranked elites of the Numbers organization, the Single Digits. Along with any vital information on the organization that may be of use to them.
First things first, she needed to handle the aftermath of this situation with the knights sniffing around above ground.
????????
"Hmm... The shop being used as a front for Numbers' base of operation in Radiance City should be just behind this door. According to her memory, there ought to be another entrance through the building over there too."
Rain currently stood at the entrance to a lower-class flower shop in the middle district of Radiance City. This unappealing building saw little to no traffic during the day and held little to no flowers in stock yet managed to stay in business for so long now.
Her gaze then shifted towards an old abandoned building several houses away.
After waiting for the Royal Guards to locate her using the sudden destruction of the Heartrail family's mansion, she used the event as an excuse to dismiss the maids and knights assigned to monitor her in the name of protection.
With that, whatever magic tools they were using to keep an eye on her could be fooled by a simple clone as they would no longer have access to the interiors of her current residence.
Hence, Rain switched her outfit into something more comfortable and escaped into the city retracing Number 10's movements as she located their base in the city.
Using a flower shop as a cover was a surprise to Rain but she assumed it made it easier to explain away the high foot traffic going in and out of such a desolate shop as flowers were quite high-maintenance items that didn't necessarily need to be sold to draw in admirers.
Or perhaps there was another reason for the choice. Rain thought but did not dwell on the matter as her attention had shifted slightly.
"The second entrance can also serve as an escape route, and her memories showed it should be manned by at least two people posing as common thugs. I'll handle the main entrance, why don't you head for the other one and stop anyone from escaping."
The Shadow underneath her feet suddenly moved with insane speed as it merged into the night and disappeared in a certain direction.
"Now then, let's begin."
Indeed, her decision was correct. The second entrance can also serve as an escape route, and her memories showed how the entire lair was set up in a way that prioritize escape rather than defeat.
Rain turned to face the heavy metal door before her. If anyone had investigated even a little, they would find it strange for the doors of a simple flower shop to be made with such heavy metal and the windows that were even more heavily reinforced with magic, making them even more secure than the massive door.
Rain didn't dwell on their stupidity any longer as she returned her attention to the door. She remembered how Number 10's memories showed this door could only be opened from within as she touched the door's surface.
The door was made of refined steel sheathed in rare metal plates, probably adamantine or Duranium, making it both thick and heavy. It was immediately apparent that an ordinary demon would have a lot of trouble breaking this door down without magic tools.
However, Rain grabbed the metal handle of the door and pulled it. She knew from the memories of 10 that the door opened towards the inside and should be locked unless a special knock was made.
Yet to her surprise, the thick-looking door was rather fragile as it casually came off its hinges without much effort, even though it had completely destabilized the structural integrity of the building.
"I guess I should've attempted to pick the locks first. I'm getting less stealthier by the minute. Well, who cares anyway."
Rain spoke to herself as she casually waltzed through the flower shop and approached the metal door at the end of the room. This time, she opted for a light kick instead.
*Boom!
What... the hell...?"
Inside the second room was a passage with a staircase leading upstairs to the right, and a pair of heavy adamantine double doors at the end of the passage. In front of the door stood a large bearded ogre with a Great Sword strapped to his back. His mouth was open and he had a retarded look on his face.
"Hmm? Oh right, sorry, the doors here were more fragile than I expected. I only wanted to see if they were locked and they just came off... hehe."
Rain tilted her head and stuck her tongue out as she casually turned her back on the ogre and roughly put the already deformed door back in place using gravity manipulation as though it would magically go back to normal if she just shoved it in.
While the ogre was still frozen in shock, Rain casually stepped inside, no longer bothering to conceal her intent.
"—Oi, what the hell was that?"
"Hey, bozo! what's going on out there?!"
Several voices came from behind the Adamantine doors behind the ogre.
However, the ogre facing Rain did not bother about them. Instead, he addressed Rain, completely stumped on what to do:
"...Er... W-welcome?"
Th𝗲 most uptodate novels are published on free(w)ebnov(e)l.𝒄𝒐𝙢