Cyril Sarnath
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Chapter 168
🕑 Added 2023-05-19 12:51:40 +0000 UTCThe kidnappers were only Level 4 and they stood no chance against Kora. She easily reached them but then her sense of danger fired up. Something was not right. The kidnappers came to halt, then dispersed in different directions, she followed the one with the Untainted Paradise executive on his shoulder. She briefly considered her next move but any weapon conjured by her might potentially harm Pucci—
She didn’t see what hit her but she stumbled. The kidnapper stopped and turned around. Kora got to her feet and used her spiritual aura to find out what was going on. The strength or reach of her aura was nowhere near Keynes’s but her Talent’s side effect was a good understanding of how auras functioned.
Other people were hidden between the trees and within the bush. So, this was an ambush. She almost felt pity for the attackers but she couldn’t ignore the fact that they’d killed several people a few moments ago.
[Empower] granted her insane level of strength and speed. As she kicked off, the ground exploded behind with soil, roots and branches being thrown in all directions. The kidnapper with Pucci on his shoulder folded around her fist, then was shot away dead, while Kora grabbed Pucci.
“Get her!”
She felt her mind come under assault from several sources and she stumbled once more. At some point, she let go of Pucci as she fought the tremendous pressure invading her mind.
Fight it… she told herself but [Empower] didn’t strengthen her Mind attribute unfortunately, even with her Talent. It was a purely physical spell. In a brief moment of clarity as she struggled with the mental assault, she conjured a sword but she didn’t use it as the world turned black.
***
I found them! Alice shouted in his head. This way.
Keynes’ arrival was clearly expected as the attackers had knives pressed against Pucci’s and Kora’s necks. Both of them were unconscious. The blinking man stood between them.
“You’re persistent, Keynes Kid.”
“Let them go,” Keynes growled. “And I will spare you.”
The man shook his head. His face was hidden behind a purple shawl. Keynes took time to properly assess the situation. The attackers wore rift items but he couldn’t discern more than that. He didn’t know if it was possible to read items other people wore. Perhaps at higher Levels or spiritual stages.
“You do not understand what is happening, which is not surprising. The Web is temporarily disabled.”
“Let. Them. Go.” Keynes reiterated with heavy emphasis on each word. He was not going to get dragged into pointless discussion.
There is a teleport formation, Alice said.
What? Where?
A hundred metres from here… In a safe zone. If they reach it, you will not be able to stop them.
Before Keynes could act, the man in the middle said, “now.”
Keynes’s mind went under mental assault.
The Pure Body buff blocked [Mental Image] x2
The Pure Body buff blocked [Mental Wounds]
The Pure Body buff blocked [Mind Kick] x3
Even with his debuff Keynes felt the attack having some effect on him. It wasn’t enough to knock him out but the second of disorientation was all the attacker needed to [Blink] in and cut one Keynes’s legs.
Pain sobered his mind and he punched the attacker in the guts.
“Argh.” The man immediately [Blink]ed away as Keynes flared [Chaos Aura] in the small area around himself. He wasn’t going to play nice.
Meanwhile, the other kidnappers took the opportunity and fled with Pucci and Kora. Not bothering with a health potion, Keynes took to the sky and chased them. A hundred metres was a very short distance for Level 4…
He dropped from the sky on one of the trailing kidnappers, while the others had managed to reach the safe zone with Pucci and Kora. The blinking man was there too. [Blink] was overpowered.
Keynes grabbed the Level 4 man’s neck and pressed him into the ground covered by dry leaves and twigs. The Level 4 had similar attributes due to the rift items but the attributes from the items were inferior to the innate ones. Plus, Keynes slammed the man with his spiritual aura.
“I am going to kill him if you do not let them go,” Keynes said, his voice cold, emotionless.
“Unfortunate but without consequence.”
“You…” Keynes unleashed [Chaos Aura] around himself. Everything in the three-metre radius changed its state, dissolving, boiling, hardening, bubbling. [Chaos Aura] had an unpredictable effect on the physical world. The man beneath Keynes didn’t have a chance to even squeak as his body turned to many different things in the span of one second.
Keynes stood up, ignoring the pain from the cut. It was shallow. His eyes were on the leader of the group who stared at the spectacle in a state of shock. It didn’t last long as he barked orders to retreat into the teleporting formation.
“I will find you,” Keynes said while the group teleported out.
Master… Alice said.
Not now, Alice, Keynes said to her then added aloud. “Why did you help, Lem Solaris?”
There was no response. Keynes crushed emotions that tried to find their way to the surface. He needed a clear mind for what was ahead of him. He would finish Lem Solaris’s stupid task then find and kill every single person involved in the kidnapping.
He took out the tablet from his dimensional pouch and found one message written in red, capital letters.
“WE ARE UNDER ATTACK”
***
The entire building shook as Vivena tore through the gate of Untainted Paradise’s headquarters that stood where Wagner Zimmermann’s house had been. The Level 4 steel door was nothing before the strength of her stack of 15 poisons and items that granted her additional attributes.
Guards that came at her didn’t last a second. Her ceramic blade passed through them like they were made out of air. All of them were Level 4 with crafted items. She recognised the spiritual signature of such items. How could they hope to stand a chance against someone who easily destroyed a Level 4 steel door? Zimmermann must have washed their brains as well. That man, together with Keynes Kid, would die horribly. They were responsible for all the deaths… She had to force herself to stop quivering in rage as she remembered all the deaths the last outbreak has caused. Her friends. Her family.
Defensive formations activated but she dodged or blocked the attacks coming from traps. She moved past the long hall, exhausting all the traps. She admitted that they would be a hindrance to Level 5 and pose a serious threat to Level 4. Anyone below would be killed instantly.
She came to an intersection and she realised that not only the exterior but the interior had changed as well, though one thing remained constant - the absurd display of wealth. She briefly considered destroying it but thought better of it. There was always the risk of Zimmermann fleeing her and she didn’t want it to happen.
Despite all the changes, lucky for her, the direction to the CEO’s office was clearly marked. She followed the signs, dispatching stragglers. Some of them weren’t guards but they were as guilty as Wagner Zimmermann and Keynes Kid. But otherwise, it was quite obvious that evacuation was underway.
I better hurry up. I don’t want the rats to escape.
The CEO’s office was behind a set of Level 4 doors made out of materials Vivena didn’t recognise. The chamber was enormous and packed with an intimidating level of wealth and curiosities. It didn’t work on her in the slightest.
As she made a step forward, side doors opened and men wearing black armour walked into the chamber and created a line before the door. One of them took off his helmet.
“Vivena? What hell are you doing?” Tyr asked.
She could say that he got stronger, but she was unable to confirm it, meaning he must have levelled up to Level 7. But he was still a mixed essence ascender and even if he wasn’t it would make no difference.
“Where is Keynes Kid?”
“Vivena, calm down. Whatever you need we can work it out.”
“I will ask one last time. Where is he?”She didn’t have patience for idle talk. “You have five seconds to answer.”
“Vivena… please. This—”
Clearly he wasn’t going to answer her. His eyes barely registered what occurred as she cut through his neck. She frowned at the fact that the blade almost reached its breaking point. So definitely Tyr was Level 7.
The others were Level 5 though and even with spells and offensive Talents, they stood no chance. She was too fast for them to react. She let one of [Fireball]s hit her, causing her no damage. The Vitality attribute provided natural resistance to damage.
Without hesitation, Vivena swung the door open. At the end of the expansive and luxurious office, next to a floor-to-ceiling window stood a man she didn’t recognise. Like with Tyr, she couldn’t determine his Level. And he had surprisingly solid control of his spiritual aura.
She put her sword back into the dimensional bag. She had a feeling this man’s neck might snap the Level 3 blade. It would be the last thing she wanted.
“Vivena Sael,” the man said, sounding tired. “Why on earth is the meaning of this… mass murder?”
The words cut through her like razor blades, filling her with rage. Whoever this man was, he had the audacity to call this mass murder? What would he call what Keynes Kid had done? Genocide? Extermination? Was there even a word to describe it? She didn’t think so.
As she made a step forward, the man raised a tablet.
“Another step and you will die.”
He locked her eyes with the man. He was going to die a horrible death.
“Try me.”
He pressed a button and the room filled with green smoke.
House of Poisons Talent (minor upgrade) has blocked the Poison Cleansing debuff
The Poison Cleaning debuff failed to purge poisons from your body
She shot forward, twisting around stakes that shot from the ceiling. With dread, she realised that without her minor upgrade she would be dead. Wagner Zimmermann had expected her to turn against him. And if he wasn’t here, he was a bigger threat than she thought.
The man attacked without hesitation but did he truly understand the chasm between their strength? He did not. In barely a few seconds, the broken man lay on his desk. She wasn’t going to stop there. It was known that the higher Level ascenders had a higher pain tolerance.
She used [Create Poison] and [Imbue Poison] on her knife, then cut the man’s side. Poisons she could now create were some of the worst kind with many different effects.
The man spasmed then his back arched.
“Where are Keynes Kid and Wagner Zimmermann?”
He looked away. She made another cut.
“Each time I make a cut, the poison in your body increases the level of pain without inflicting additional damage. Given your high Vitality and the long lasting nature of this poison, your agony will last for hours. So I will ask again. Where are Keynes Kid and Wagner Zimmermann?”
By third cut, the man quivered uncontrollably, trying to withstand the pain. He was going to fail. Poisons had a very persistent nature that would outlive the body’s natural vitality. Even her own body rebelled occasionally if she went overboard with her Talent.
The man’s head turned to her. His eyes, even filled with pain, remained lucid.
“You…are…a…murderer.”
“NO! KEYNES KID IS A MURDERER! YOU ARE ALL GUILTY!”
In her enraged state, she almost slammed her fist against the man’s head. She stopped herself from giving him an easy escape.
The man smiled sadly.
“Code…Shaper.”
Everything went white.
***
Geneva was rocked by the massive blast. The explosion decimated the Untainted Paradise’s headquarters together with anything in a hundred metre radius. Any Level 0 and many nearby Level 1 windows were shattered and several close by buildings were evacuated because of the risk of collapse. An estimated number of deaths was over a thousand as the explosion caused a landslide that destroyed many residential houses on its way down.
The Ministry of Geneva said that the cause of the explosion was unknown and they were launching a thorough investigation into the matter and the responsible people would face the consequences.
