The smoking ruins of the underground safe settled into quiet dust.
Chrites turned away from the collapsed steel vault, his glowing blue eyes scanning Vane and Linease.
The tension in his broad shoulders relaxed completely.
“You both have done very, very great,” Chrites said, his voice carrying a warm, proud emotion behind his painted demon mask.
He looked directly at Linease, nodding his head slowly.
“Linease, even though this is your first field mission, you have done incredibly well.
It was not expected for a recruit to adapt this fast, but you have performed far above my expectations.
Well done.”
Linease let out a heavy breath wiping sweat from her forehead.
A bright, relieved smile spread across her face.
“Thank you, Chrites.
I really gave it everything I had.”
“Thank you, sir,” Vane added, bowing his head with a respectful, calm emotion.
“She followed my tactical commands perfectly.”
Linease sheathed her sidearm with a metallic CLACK.
She looked around the ruined perimeter, her eyes curious.
“Is there any mission left for us to do tonight?”
“No, no, no,” Chrites replied, shaking his head with a relaxed, easy demeanor.
“The interception is complete.
We can go back home now.”
“Can we use the portal door again?” Linease asked eagerly.
“Yes, but not right here,” Chrites explained, his tone turning analytical and serious as he pointed toward flashing lights in the distance.
“It is an open area.
If we use the portal door right now, the mana displacement would be really problematic.
It would disturb local energy fields and draw heavy sensors straight to us.
We will walk to a quiet location first.”
“Okay, let us go by walking,” Linease agreed, her voice full of cheerful, excited emotion.
“Honestly, I prefer not using a fast teleportation spell right now.
I really want to see and explore the city.”
“I do not have a particular problem with that if you want to explore the streets for a bit,” Chrites chuckled softly.
The three of them slipped away from the collapsing facility, moving silently through dark alleyways until they merged onto the wider, brightly lit commercial avenues of the Cebel continent.
Linease walked between Chrites and Vane, her eyes wide with pure, fascinated emotion as she looked up at towering skyscrapers.
Massive holographic advertisements cast vibrant streaks of blue light across paved sidewalks.
Vane kept his hand near his weapon, scanning the crowds with a watchful, protective emotion.
Chrites simply walked with his hands deep in his pockets, acting completely unbothered.
Linease marveled at the unique architecture and heavy magical conduits running along the facades.
After walking peacefully for about twenty minutes, the bright neon lights began to fade.
They arrived at the abandoned, highly secluded industrial outskirts of the city.
Massive, rusted shipping containers and empty concrete lots provided the perfect cover.
“This place is empty enough,” Chrites stated, stopping in the center of a wide concrete field.
“We can safely create the portal here.”
Before Chrites could raise his hands to weave the magic, the heavy silence of the night was completely shattered.
TAP.
TAP.
The distinct sound of heavy boots echoing against the pavement came from the shadows behind them.
Chrites, Vane, and Linease stopped dead in their tracks.
The air temperature instantly plummeted.
“Oh, finally, someone nice to meet here,” the mysterious voice continued, dripping with a highly amused, arrogant emotion.
“Really, really great.”
Chrites slowly turned around, the hem of his long black coat sweeping quietly against the dusty concrete.
His glowing blue eyes locked onto a figure stepping casually out from between two rusted shipping containers.
The man standing before them was not just a common mercenary or a standard gang thug.
The unyielding pressure radiating from his physical body was absolutely suffocating.
He was Trcids, universally considered to be one of the absolute strongest characters in the entire world.
He held the terrifying rank of Legendary Master, operating from the shadows as the supreme leader of the world’s greatest organization known as DNT.
Trcids wore a pristine white formal suit, a confident, wicked smile resting on his face.
“Oh, really, I want to tell you guys one funny thing,” Trcids said, laughing softly with a deeply mocking, entertained emotion.
“That thief I sent to you earlier for robbing the safe was just a complete fool.
Honestly, he was just a disposable toy.”
Linease clenched her fists, her breath hitching.
“Do you know why I did not allow him to use stealth magic to rob that item?” Trcids asked, pacing slowly with a proud demeanor.
“Because I wanted him to openly attack.
I wanted your organization to reveal yourselves.
And I must admit, your guys are really awesome.
In less than five minutes, you crushed a fortified vault and executed an elite mage.
You are really strong.”
Trcids stopped pacing, his eyes gleaming with a cold, calculated emotion.
“But the sad thing is, you were not able to understand my true strategy.
That was my exact plan from the very beginning.
I watched the entire fight unfold.
I watched you teleporting here.
I watched all of your movements while I was just chilling in the background, thinking to myself that this display of power was really, really good.”
Linease felt pure, uncontrollable anger explode in her chest.
She stepped forward, pointing an accusing finger at the white-suited leader.
“Are you completely insane?!” Linease shouted, her voice trembling with raw, furious emotion.
“You purposely sent your own member to die just for seeing our combat powers?
You let him get executed just for your own enjoying?
Are you really insane?
Are you some kind of twisted psycho?”
Trcids tilted his head, letting out a loud, echoing laugh filled with pure, condescending amusement.
“Oh ho, little girl,” Trcids chuckled warmly, his eyes sweeping over her mask.
“I did not know about a girl being part of this team.
I know each and every member present in your organization, but I have never heard of you.
Are you a new member?”
“It is not your matter!” Linease snapped back with fierce, defiant emotion.
“Oh, girl, you are really silly,” Trcids sighed with a dismissive, bored emotion.
“If you think sacrificing a pawn is big, you do not understand the world.
You are in a popular organization, yet you get emotional over something small.
Nothing more.”
Chrites stepped directly in front of Linease, cutting off Trcids’s line of sight.
The playful, casual demeanor Chrites usually carried completely vanished.
His aura turned incredibly dense, cold, and serious.
“It is enough,” Chrites stated, his magically distorted voice vibrating with heavy, protective emotion.
“You are scaring my people.
That is not good.”
Chrites kept his arms relaxed at his sides, his glowing blue eyes locking onto the white-suited leader.
“What do you want from me right now?
Do you want to have a real fight, or are you going to turn around and go back?”
Trcids did not say a single word in response.
His wicked smile simply widened.
HUMMMMM!
Without using any spoken incantation or launching a physical attack, Trcids simply unleashed his absolute magical power.
He released the heavy locks on his internal core, letting his raw, unbridled aura explode outward into the open air.
The power was so overwhelmingly intense that the concrete beneath his boots instantly cracked.
A suffocating pressure filled the district, bleeding rapidly into the Cebel city streets.
The sheer gravity felt like a crushing mountain.
Trcids stood there looking exactly like a walking weapon, a terrifying demon descending upon the mortal plane.
THUD!
Linease was completely unable to withstand the catastrophic pressure.
Her legs gave out instantly, and she fell hard onto her knees, gasping desperately for air as the aura crushed her senses.
Beside her, Vane gritted his teeth, his face sweating profusely, but he managed to remain standing purely because of his highly refined Master ranking.
Chrites, however, stood completely unbothered.
He balanced his body perfectly against the crushing gravity, smiling casually behind his demon mask as if nothing had just happened.
“We cannot fight here,” Chrites said, his voice cutting clearly through the roaring wind of the aura.
“If we fight here, this entire city gets destroyed.”
Trcids’s eyes flashed.
“Oh, you have got a valid point.
But honestly, I do not care about this city at all.
However, if you want room to breathe…
fine.
Let us go away elsewhere.”
“Vane, hold onto her,” Chrites commanded telepathically with absolute focus.
SWISH!
Chrites summoned a massive surge of spatial magic, teleporting himself, Trcids, Vane, and Linease simultaneously to maintain his team’s safety.
The Cebel rooftops vanished entirely.
They reappeared in a vast, desolate mountain range surrounded by dense, empty forests where absolutely no one was around to get hurt.
The wind howled through the barren peaks.
Trcids stood a hundred yards away, his white suit glowing amidst the dark trees.
Slowly, deliberately, Chrites reached down to his hip.
SHING!
With a sharp, ringing metallic sound, Chrites finally drew his plain black sword entirely from its scabbard.
It was an incredibly epic, historic moment.
He had not drawn his primary weapon for a serious duel since the beginning of the show.
Holding the perfectly polished steel blade forward, the absolute power of the Legendary Master fully awakened, ready to clash against the supreme leader of DNT.