Parking next to the entrance, the armoured vehicle powered down, and out came two figures of a vaguely humanoid shape, although notably half the average height.
Behind them stood a tall and muscular figure, dressed similarly to the two. Their expressions were unreadable under the pale masks as they approached.
The masks had six vertical slits where the mouths should have been and dark chasms in place of their eyes making their presence all the more intimidating.
The robbers stood at the entrance to the complex to greet them, their body language much more stoic and domineering than during their earlier conversation.
Stirn and unyielding, they strongly shook hands with the figures, then allowed them passage into the complex, guiding them to the hovering Vehicular Arcanum.
Eying the vehicle hungrily, one of the figures spoke, his voice deep and husky.
"Ohhohoho! What a beauty this one!"
The figure whistled and petted the automobile gently as he circled it, taking in the brilliant sight of such a marvellous Arcanum.
"Truly one for the ages! Aye, tell me something then; how much was it, eh!?"
A brief silence followed as Robber One simply stared at him with an unamused glare. Easing the tension Robber Two put his hand on his brother's shoulder and chuckled.
"Oh, well sorry to disappoint you... friend, but it seems your luck has run out. This one is beyond simple money; it cannot be bought. It's a one-of-a-kind you see."
The short figure laughed and looked at the two in amusement, then he let his face slowly grow serious as he asked:
"So then, I assume you were able to snatch it, yes?"
The two robbers, their demeanour emotionless and confident, calmly moved to the boot of the car.
"Of course, of course, just as you asked a fully functional 'Mirror of Life Trapping'"
Robber two said as he opened the boot of the vehicle and pulled out a small 4-inch long gold capsule with a 2-inch glass window on its front showing a holographic 3D image of a mirror hovering inside.
"So, seeing as we've gone and kept our part of the deal..."
Pleased, the gnomish man gestured to the Orc, prompting him to approach with a metallic suitcase in hand. He placed the case on top of the car's boot and opened it, revealing neatly arranged stacks of Leynotes, Leydrithia's most prominent form of currency.
The currency of Leydrithia included denominations of 10, 20, 50, 100, and 200 Leynotes.
Additionally, there were smaller denominations represented by Sigils, which served as a coin-based currency carved from a common type of crystal found all over Leydrithia that held a low "Athar Capacity".
Derivatives of Sigils included values of 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, and 5.
Athar Capacity was the total amount of Athar that an object could hold or produce at any given time.
From his hiding spot, Solace quietly observed the case's contents; it was filled to the brim with Leynotes, most of which were in the 100 Leynote denomination.
Seeing the money, Robber Two pulled out a colourless lens that he placed over his eye to scan the case. After a few seconds, he smiled and closed the case, seemingly satisfied.
The robber then pointed the 4-inch cylindrical device at a spot on the floor as he focused his Ether, into the device.
The hollow top of the device glowed a vibrant blue light that projected the image of a tall mirror, materializing it out of the way of the car.
"Well then, gentlemen, it's been a pleasure, but I'm afraid me and my partner here have things to do and people to see... I would hate to bore you with all the details, so we'll simply bid you farewell."
The gnomish man chuckled.
"Well of course. We would hate to stall you, especially after all the good work you've afforded us. We hope to do business again soon."
Robber Two shrugged and glanced at Robber One, signalling him to get the vehicle ready.
"I see... Well, unfortunately, I do believe this will be our last job."
Laughing the gnomish man petted him on the side and sighed as he looked around the compound.
Catching some vague, curious scent from somewhere on the second floor of the complex, his eyes eventually landed on some large crates that leaned against the railings.
His eyes narrowed for a second before returning to normal.
"Hoping to turn your lives around, huh?"
Robber Two followed his line of sight as he shrugged. There, he noticed a barely visible shadow on the wall shifting ever so slightly; he suppressed a smile.
"Something like that, I guess."
"Well, good luck on that endeavour then."
Said the Gnome. Robber Two nodded and walked away as he repeated back to him:
"You too, you might need it."
The automobile suddenly boomed to life humming and glowing a Burnt Sierra colour with Robber One at the wheel. Giving the man a polite nod, Robber Two jumped into the convertible.
Smiling, the short figure whistled to his companions, gesturing for them to make way so the Arcanum could safely drive past.
They complied, and the robbers slowly drove past them, then from the second floor erupted two jets of flame, rocketing a figure wreathed in black and silver accents 35 feet above the rest of them as he sent a sphere of pale Ether towards the exit which exploded on impact, blocking the exit in a mountain of ice spikes.
Simultaneously, the gnome had materialized a crossbow in his hands and let loose a silver bolt that grew midair, aimed to pierce the half-elf's stomach but only managing to catapult him to the ceiling.
Despite the hit, he didn't even seem affected. Gathering his Ether on his way down, he converted it into a burst of air to pillow himself and break his fall, landing gently on the floor; prone in front of the blocked entrance.
Urgently, he picked himself up, watching carefully as the automobile accelerated toward him, spying for any exploitable features, but other than the orbs of light, he was stumped.
Unbudging, he readied for a head-on collision with the vehicle, but to his surprise, the automobile vanished, and the ice spikes covering th e entrance shattered as an invisible construct bolted past him, barely outlined by the rain.
"They escaped... Impressive. But if they could turn invisible this whole time then why did they have me trail them all around the city? Why didn't they just... Turn invisible, unless they were meant to lead me here..."
Solace froze as a chill crept up his spine.
"And they said they were ordered to break out of the bank at a certain time, which also happened to be when I usually head to work, meaning they were supposed to cause a disturbance during their heist to lure me in."
Finally, a terrible realisation dawned on him.
"This is a trap."
Smiling nervously to himself he muttered under his breath:
"How terrible..."
He sighed tiredly as he turned his sights to the three remaining figures. His eyes narrowed, and scanning them briefly for less than a second, he determined the Orc was the biggest threat.
Then, without word or warning, he unleashed a bolt of lightning at the orcish man, knocking him back into the gnome woman and crashing, destroying a crate full of an unidentified powder, obscuring them like a smoke cloud as they lay in the wreckage.
Lunging at the gnomish man and picking him up by his throat, delivering 3 earth-shattering punches to his body and breaking his nose before the gnomish man rebelled letting his blade sing, but only managed to cut the air, missing Solace by an inch and pulling himself free.
Jumping back, he noticed the Orc emerging from the veil of smoke, behind Solace, rushing in with a blind fury.
Trying to keep Solace distracted, the gnomish man pounced, letting his shortsword whistle in the air as Solace pulled back, ducking and dodging each attempt with relative ease, eventually stepping on his sword during a downward swing and pivoting on that foot with a reverse axe kick.
Taking advantage of his momentary windedness, he ground swept him and caught the Orc's blade mere inches from his face with his other hand in one fluid motion.
With an unreadable expression, he looked into the Orc's eyes for a moment, piercing deep into his very soul with an icy chill. His stare heavy with a cold determination, made the Orc shiver.
Noticing that imperceptible change, Solace let go of the blade of the heavy greatsword and ducked underneath, letting the obvious instrument of death impact with the floor as he advanced the Orc.
Struggling to quickly balance itself from the power of the swing in time, with one precise hit to the Orc's solar plexus, Solace watched as it painfully sunk to its knees, leaning on its behemoth of a sword for support.
Standing over him, he turned his head to see the gnomish man struggling to find his way onto his feet, then coldly he exclaimed for all to hear:
"I suggest you all give up now; from your uniform, you seem to be government-sponsored Astrals, right? I'm uncertain why you would decide to stoop so low as petty theft or why you would target me of all people but it ends here."
The gnomish man exploded in a horse laugh.
"You know... 'Apricity' I doubted all the rumours around your ruinous strength, attributing them instead as bloated adoration... But seeing it first-hand makes me wonder why you're not an 'Ascended Existence' yet. Ehh, I suppose it doesn't matter anyway; you seem to already possess a strength comparable to some of those monsters."
Solace glanced at him coldly as he continued his verbal dribble.
"Your older brother is a Tier 2 Solivigant, and your younger sister is a Tier 4 Ascendent, isn't she? So then what's preventing you from doing the same... Family troubles maybe?"
Solace didn't speak, slowly growing impatient.
"Do you surrender or no-"
His sentence got cut short, as he felt a familiar pull tugging at his "Soul". His sights landed on a 4-foot wide, 6-foot tall gold crested mirror with intricate patterns on its gold platting, with a feminine figure of short stature muttered under her breath archaic "Runesmith" incantations next to it.
The mirror was fashionable and sophisticated in design much like those one would normally find in the rooms of young noble girls or many of the beloved idols of Leydrithia.
However, this mirror was very different; instead of reflecting the world as is, it showed a darker, more distorted version of reality, twisting whatever reflection it cast to show a corrupted version of it.
Feeling the pull of the mirror, Solace averted his gaze, focusing instead on the gnome woman standing next to it, as she muttered Runic Scripture to strengthen the mirror's trance and further activate its dormant traits.
Recognising it as a Mal-Empirica and its possible ties to the Outer Mirror, a dimension entirely removed from reality... Well almost anyway. A sickening murmur called to him.
"That mirror... It's not possible... It's a Mal-Empirica. What does this mean...? Uhh, No time to think about it now; the threat levels have changed; I'll have to capture her first."
His thoughts concluded and with that, he rushed to the mirror, enduring the ever-looming call of the distant realm, beckoning him to join its ranks.
The gnomish man was barely able to even take a step before Solace was already upon the woman.
Focusing some of his Ether into his feet, he violently shook the ground beneath her, causing her to lose balance momentarily and tip over to one foot, trying not to fall, leaving herself vulnerable to attack.
Taking full advantage, he swept her into a leaning uppercut, sending her high up into the air, while his other hand manipulated the air above her into a powerful gale that cratered her into the floor.
A distance away, the gnomish man hurled his silver shortsword at Solace in a desperate attempt to stop him but came up short as Solace merely tilted his neck, catching a glimpse of his reflection in the blade's polished metal as it whistled past his head.
Suddenly stopping, the sword snapped back mid-air, nearly slicing Solace's throat open if not for his lightning-fast reflexes. He bent backwards, narrowly avoiding the blade as it swung above his face before returning to the gnome's hand.
Jetting past the gnome, the Orc made a charge toward Solace, reaching him just as he straightened and, without a second's notice, brought down the full weight of his greatsword with audible effort, putting all his strength into the swing.
Which made it all the more disheartening for him to see Solace deflect the blade with his left forearm as it made a cut in his sleeve and slid frictionless against bony scales, deflecting off to the side and partially biting into the floor with the tip.
But determined to land at least one blow against him, the Orc brought his exceptionally sharp claws down on Solace, who was anticipating it and ready with a counter.
Or so he would have, were it not for the call of the mirror ravaging his mind once more, briefly stranding him in cycling thoughts whispering to him.
That momentary distraction allowed the orc to slash his face, leaving a five-fingered claw mark in the form of pale bony scales where he'd struck.
Trying to snap his arm back for another slash he readied his other hand for an upward swing with the greatsword.
At that moment, the orc's eyes widened as the elf caught his arm before the slash could connect and drew in a deep breath.
Struggling against his grip, the orc let out a bestial roar as he grew bigger, inheriting more primal features, hidden under the armour.
The orc oozed a deluge of physical power, as Solace felt the sword begin to shake and slowly lift off the ground from under his tight grip.
He raised an eyebrow, and then, finally releasing his breath, he exhaled a torrent of cold energy that chased away any bit of warmth that might have been present inside the compound.
As cold winds formed ice and snow in every direction, covering the entire warehouse in thick layers of the elements. Knocking back the gnomes.
In the aftermath of it all, the Orc stood frozen with its hand lying on the hilt of its sword. The gnomish man shivered at the sight of it and glanced at the gnome woman with a knowing look.
Noticing it, she nodded and sprung into action, dropping a gem littered with runic inscriptions near the mirror and activating it one last time as a distraction as she ran past Solace to the gnomish man who was running to intercept her halfway.
Shrugging off the nauseating effects of the mirror, the dizziness faded, and he realised their plan but already it was too late; the two touched hands and wisped away in a flash of green light.
"They escaped..."
Sighing, he slumped and looked back at the frozen figure of the Orc, commanding the ice to thaw as its deathly and inevitable grasp seemed to slip from the air.
The Orc's hand fell from the hilt of the sword as his body hit the floor. Solace was certain he didn't use enough Ether to kill him and signed in relief as he saw the Orc's chest rise and fall.
The Orc looked fine or rather alive at the very least; his armour seemed to have dissipated somehow, likely destroyed by Solace's icy breath weapon, and his clothes underneath were frozen so thoroughly that they had shattered into pieces when he fell to the floor.
Looking at the Orc, his relief quickly turned into concern, as the Orc's skin rippled and paled, its flesh turning grey and slimy as its muscle mass rapidly shrunk and its height grew to elongate much of its form.
Where there were orange eyes before, now were cavernous pits of inky blackness.
Solace paled, for there on the floor was no Orc but a shape-shifting creature often termed a "Doppelgänger" by the public but more officially coined "Mimic-Shades".
Paralyzed by shock he froze in silent disbelief as the far-stretching implications of such a discovery rummaged around inside the canvas of his mind, processing everything to come after this.
"This... This can't mean anything good for us. How long has he... Have they been...?"
Grim silence seemed to settle comfortably in the pressing quiet of the compound disturbed only by Solace's own beating heart drumming in his ears.
"I- I need to warn everyone, fast."