Liam moved with a chilling, mechanical efficiency. He quickly pressed the edge of his sword against the mander’s neck and sliced through, decapitating the man in a single, fluid motion. He did exactly as Raze had manded without a second thought. In the world of Pagna, death was a constant that carried very little weight; it was a reality everyone lived with daily. Only those in the Light Faction seemed to truly care about the value of a single life.
For the rest of the world, even for those born of the same blood and family, people were often viewed as nothing more than direct tools to be used and discarded. Having been raised and forged in the brutal environment of Pagna, it was easy for Liam to take the life of a man he had only just met. There was no hesitation, no remorse, and no lingering doubt.
Furthermore, they couldn’t afford a single mistake at this stage of the operation. This mander was a key part of the systemic changes that had overtaken all of Alterian. He was among those who were perfectly willing to kill thousands of innocent people if it meant securing his own safety and status. If they had left him alive and he decided to report to the Grand Magus, or if he had unintentionally raised an alarm in a moment of panic, it would have promised everything the group had worked so hard to achieve.
Back at the barracks, the group held a brief meeting and decided to split up once more. Now that Alen was holding the new enchanted item in his hand, his confidence in close-quarters bat had surged. He was physically and mentally prepared for the next phase. Raze announced that he was going to head toward the towers to deal with the long-range threats, while the others would move through the shadows to systematically deal with the manders of each remaining sector.
Their mission was to harvest every enchanted item held by the leadership. As they gathered these artifacts, they planned to pass them onto Kelly, Londo, and Sophie. Raze did have a brief moment of internal wondering about how exactly a cat was meant to utilize a high-level enchanted item, or how effectively the magic would translate to a non-human form, but they couldn’t afford to leave any resources behind.
Regardless of the logistical questions, the group broke apart and began their work. They wore the robes of the mages they had just killed, using the fabric as a disguise to blend in as they navigated the area. It turned out that moving within the outer section of the wall was much easier than they had initially anticipated. This was largely because the outer ring was posed of mages who hadn’t joined the Noble Guild immediately and were treated with less scrutiny. The very strength and rigid order that the Noble Guild prided itself on was being its greatest vulnerability; because they believed their territory was secure, they had allowed themselves to be easily infiltrated from within.
When Raze reached the bottom section of the first tower, he found several mages standing guard. They were vigilant, but they were no match for a Dark Magus. Utilizing his wind magic to muffle the sound of his approach and his natural quickness to bridge the gap, Raze was able to finish off everyone in the immediate area. He worked quickly, making sure to leave no physical evidence or magical residue behind.
Once the guards were dealt with, Raze knelt at the base of the structure. He began to meticulously draw a plex magic circle directly into the ground underneath where the tower was placed. He focused his mana, ensuring every line of the array was perfect.
’When the time is right, I will activate all of these at once with my magic,’ Raze thought to himself. ’I just need to plete this same setup for the rest of the towers along this wall. If I can drop them all simultaneously, their surveillance will go dark.’ Despite the progress, he still felt a lingering sense of worry. ’It makes me wonder... how are we actually going to get inside the second wall? I have a feeling this is as far as we will be able to go without being caught. The security there won’t be as lax as it is here.’
While Raze focused on the towers, the others were performing their roles with equal success. Liam moved through his targets with his all-cutting sword, leaving a trail of silent destruction. B relied on her overwhelming physical strength to neutralize any mage who dared to stand in her way. Alen, however, was showing the most change; he was even more confident than before now that he had his new enchanted item.
During one encounter, Alen didn’t even bother to dodge. He went straight into a wind-cut spell, lifting his arm to block the magical strike head-on. The body-hardening enchantment held firm, the wind blade dissipating against his skin with a dull thud. Alen then used that momentum to flip himself through the air, firing a concentrated fireball that defeated his opponent instantly.
It turned out that for his specific fighting style, , one that required constant movement and aggressive attacking, , the metallic body enchantment was the perfect fit. While it might not have been the ideal choice for someone like Raze or Liam, it was exactly what Alen needed for the moment.
The group moved together from one barracks to the next, clearing each one with tactical precision. This method allowed them to cover each other’s backs; if someone was spotted, the others could intervene and eliminate the witness before an alarm could be triggered. With each mander they took down, a new enchanted item was claimed, and they continued to pass these items around the group to bolster their collective power.
In the end, the stolen enchanted items had been spread out and given to everyone. All of the barracks manders in the outer ring, along with the mages stationed under them, had been successfully eliminated. The job was grueling and bloody. It was the kind of work that required a solid, detached mind to continue; a weaker person would have crumbled under the weight of so many deaths.
There were some mages who had fallen to their knees and begged for their lives to be saved, but the group had to remain firm. They reminded themselves that there were thousands of people in Alterian who didn’t even get the chance to beg before the Noble Guild’s expansion crushed them. Eventually, after pleting everything they needed to do in the outer sector, Raze and the others met back up at the original barracks.
"We managed to gather some vital information," Liam said. He had been using his system to cross-reference the manders’ statements to see who was lying. "It seems that everyone stationed in the second part of the wall wears a special municator on their wrist. These devices are different from the ones given to the mages in the outer ring. We took the municators from the manders we killed, but we have to be careful. The guards at the next wall might have a specific way to verify if the person wearing the device is the actual owner."
Raze had figured as much. The security was only going to get tighter from here on out. He looked toward the inner wall, his expression unreadable. It was time to head into the second part of the wall, , the section that Idore was so confident in. The Grand Magus believed that if someone managed to get past the first layer, they would find themselves trapped in a place they could never leave.
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