With a bright flash of light, Sekiro, holding his exaggerated tome, summoned a illumination onto the dark hall, using his magic to enhance the light's range further than it should.
With the bright illumination came a scene of calculated carnage.
Blood stained the floor, and bodies fell one by one like dominoes. The ambushers that hid deep in the darkness let out no cry or sound as they fell, their vitals stopped and their minds vanquished.
There was no light in their eyes, and by the time Harita and his team had the room to look closely at the carcasses, most if them had been felled.
And only one remained. Standing with an unnatural purpose was a male combatant, holding a sword in one hand and a dagger in the other. He, too, had no light in his eyes, only the cold dim of acceptance.
Was it acceptance? He truly did not know.
Nor did he want to.
Taking tentative steps back, he whispered to a Squire:
"Careful. Since he hasn't run away yet, he might have something up his sleeve."
The Squire nodded and inched forward. There were fresh wounds on the exposed parts that his armor did not cover, and blood stained his clothes.
Looking at the injured Squire, Harita grimaced at his own state. He was injured, too, much more than others. As somebody who relied on his superior agility for combat, he couldn't wear anything too encumbering, and the light armor that was available for him from the Order's own equipment didn't fit his taste.
They simply stood out too much with all the regalia and engravings, and the very few that did might as well have been nothing. He would do better without them. Thus, after much consideration, he chose not to equip them and buy his own clothing. They weren't reinforced with anything, but they were light and easy to carry. That way, he wouldn't have to walk around with a crest of the Order, too, and he could walk around relatively free, which was one of the main reasons he chose to buy his own clothing.
Inching further back, he neared Bian and said, "Get ready. Who knows what might happen…"
The lustrous woman only nodded.
Holding his dagger in one hand, Harita tensed and watched the Squire, as well as a couple others near the man, each holding a weapon of their own.
And then, the battle started. It was swift and efficient, the years of training and experience under their belt showing its luster. In the end, the man really did have a last card to play, but unfortunately, it turned out to be moot compared to the numbers before him.
It wasn't even five minutes until the man fell to the ground, a gaping wound on his thigh pooling wound below him. Glancing at Sekiro, he nodded deliberately and walked closer, dismissing Silent Reverie and kneeled before the man.
Beside him, Sekiro stood with a stoic expression, his tome of spells opened, casting a dim glow from the pages within.
"Where is The Hatter?" Harita asked in a deep voice.
The man did not speak at first, instead he just looked to one side, at the rest of the team, and chuckled.
"Just kill this body," he said. "There's no point. You'll never get to me in time, anyways."
The man's voice did not sound like his own.
Harita frowned. Standing up, he looked around and said:
"Does anybody have any tracking abilities or anti-Manipulation items?"
The team looked at each other with wary expressions and shook their heads.
Harita grit his teeth.
'This is bad…' he thought. 'At this rate, we might have to retreat and find a way to counter the rest The Hatter's ability… But Lieren might be here…'
'The Hatter is a mystery contestant of the Exousia competition, and so, not many people know his title as Sagittarius… even the Exouisa family with their extended information network was only aware of it after a lot of investigation and expending a lot of resources… most of the low-ranking members of the Council and Order wouldn't know, either… They simply aren't in a high enough position to be privy in that situation.'
'And if I tell them now, that would only complicate matters further…'
'And there's still that black-haired girl we met earlier… was that Horis Han Li? That kid was a girl? If so, then if we find her and convince her to leave, then the investigation would be over, and my reinforcements would be moot.'
'Hopefully, the Exousia finally finishes tracking this place… that way, I can still have backup should the worst come. But if they take too long, then The Hatter might relocate. I still have the map… so there's that…'
'Could I have made a mistake?'
As terrible cold permeated Harita's skin, a hollow voice suddenly resounded from behind him:
"He's over there."
Whipping his head around, he found the girl again. She had raven-black hair and sunken black eyes. She stood in a shadow, gracefully embraced by it, and looked at him with an unnerving stare.
Subjected to her gaze, Harita shuddered.
'What a creepy girl.'
Standing up, he didn't question her identity further so as not to scare the girl away again and asked in a congenial voice:
"Is The Hatter over there?" He looked at the direction the girl was pointing at.
"No," she said evenly. The next moment, she was gone again.
This time, it looked as if she submerged herself in the shadows, then disappeared entirely.
"Sir…" Squire Owens said, his voice low.
"I get it, I'll be careful." As his men were injured, Harita did not want to take any more excessive risks.
But he didn't want to abandon the boy, either. To him, that kid was as much of a priority as himself. An Oath was not something anybody can just turn itself away from.
Taking a step forward, he ordered his soldiers to be wary and stay vigilant. Making sure not to show weakness, he strode forward and tried to follow his own advice.
Under the light of Mage Sekiro's spell, the darkness didn't feel as oppressive anymore.
…As the group progressed, Bian felt her mind slowly gather itself, piecing things together.
'For now, I should play along… I still have the upper hand,' thinking that, she joined the group with an expressionless face, holding Weeping Maiden tightly.
◇◆◇◆◇
In the slums of New Mireton, a fight of titanic proportions rose to greater heights.
"Ha-ha-ha!" Laughter boomed like fireworks, rolling through the minds of the masked figures.
*Ka-caw!*
The titanic avian creature with yellow and sapphire feathers flapped its battered and bloody wings, conjuring a blast of tempestuous wind. With each flap, a gale that conjured small whirlwinds that spun in different directions, swallowing dozens of people wearing sad masks.
Even then, the fight didn't stop. Nor did it slow down.
Wit hundreds of people, all with magical abilities of varying power, affinity, and range, as well as the Myth's control over them increasing their efficiency and coordination a dozen-fold to what it was before, even the Legend felt at loss sometimes.
Granted, each individual ability was weak on its own. Together, however… now that was a sight to see.
Reflected in the Legend's golden eyes were hundreds of magical abilities joined together to create a better whole.
In a flash of bright light, dozens of soaring projectiles cut the air as it flew at intense speed, conjuring the wind created by the Legend to boost the projectiles' speed and correct its shaky trajectory, aiming true to its mark.
With a guttural sound, it dug deep into the creature's many small wounds. Several magical effects triggered at once, casting bright fire, chilling cold, freezing wind, coruscating earth, and shocking elements into the creature's bloody appendages, forcing it to expend even more mana to Reinforce its wings and keep itself soaring.
The Legend let out a guttural cry from the pain, causing eardrums to burst and glass to shatter all around the slums. Even the wood closest to it seemingly exploder, unable to hold itself together under the annihilating stress that the titanic avian creature put it through.
The golden intelligent eyes it possessed seemed to grow dim, too. The fire in its heart was slowly fading away.
It looked as if the end of a legend had neared an inevitable end.
In the darkness, a Myth writ in frustration.
'Something's off…' it thought, Manipulating the hundreds of puppets under its command.
To it, a feat such as this was of no difficulty. As long as the sad masks it bore on its body was attached to anybody, it would be able to form a link from anybody over a great distance. With the authority of its Ascension has brought it, Manipulating these many people was an easy task, as well.
Even then, it still had a trick or two up its sleeves… should the masks ever be removed.
But that wasn't what frustrated it. It was something else.
Something more vile…
'That guy should fall soon… The power its holds is nowhere near what its past counterpart holds, probably because of a failed summoning. Its reincarnation was most likely interrupted, causing a malfunction. The fact that it even succeeded is something of note… still, what a shame.'
'If I had been able to fight this guy with its original power… Huhu, that would certainly be something, wouldn't it?'
Extending its link to a hundred puppets—the mages and knights that offered their lives to protect this city—it willed them to charge forward, using their bodies as cannon fodder.
The Legend took the bait immediately, clawing and cawing its way through the mass of bodies, eviscerating them from the face of this earth. Blood, bodies, and several body parts littered the ground under its wake, and by the time it was done, a new batch of people was already nearing its figure, weapons raised while those at the back—the ones with ranged weapons and powers—activated their spells simultaneously, mixing and blending them together.
Under the monster of darkness and sad masks' rule, the soldiers were like a hive mind. Each individual fulfilled their role faithfully with no strings attached, only cold precision that did the bidding of its master with no complaints or useless emotions involved.
Soon, the legend was going to fall.
And by then, the monster was going to fade away.
In the darkness, the monster writhed in frustration. Endless frustration.
"Ah… when is it…"
When will the Myth finally be satisfied?
◇◆◇◆◇
Purposely evading the darkness of the alleyways, Zolovat raced through the slums of the city of New Mireton. There was constant perspiration running down his face as the battle of titanic heights reached its peak, and the monsters that were involved in it fought on, raising their weapons and using their immense power to decimate each other.
Luckily, he had one less problem to deal with.
With his Vow with Aquarius resolved and set in stone, he didn't have to worry about his safety as much anymore. Sure, he could send subordinates through a roundabout method to resolve the problem that was Zolovat Mocný, but they would surely be weaker in comparison to their master.
'And be less tricky to fight, too…' Aquarius was a mystery. Normally, a mage tend to specialize in one aspect or element only, using all their spell to complement their first.
Aquarius wasn't like that. He had variety, whether that be the abilities he possessed or the powers they displayed. Normally, one wouldn't do that. Lest they tear minds apart from the constant switching and varying combinations.
"But I shouldn't focus on that for now…" Making sure that he kept his cool and use his affinity for the earth to search for hidden entrances to what might be The Hatter's base, he rushed onward.
Under the moonlight, several battles raged on. Some were bigger than others, some were more important than others.