“Please stop!”
“Someone, stop us!”
“A devil! He is the devil himself!”
The screams of everyone inside the halls were fading behind Arthur as he entered the inner gardens of the mansion. The outer section was for the low levels, as the estate was divided into several buildings. Arthur wondered how big this mansion was and realized the empire could not be unaware of it.
The sounds of battle echoed from behind him as Arthur walked down the paved path. He was walking according to the map he obtained from that gangster, which should lead him to the underground prison where Gray was held.
As soon as he stepped foot into the garden, two figures appeared to his sides. They wielded curved blades toward his neck with identical moves from opposite sides. Their movements were too fast for Arthur to follow, but he leaned back at the last second.
The two blades struck each other, making sparks fly in the garden. An orange hue from the flames lit the place, but Arthur still failed to see them coming. After their attack failed, the two figures disappeared.
Arthur staggered back while looking for them, but he failed to see or even sense the two assailants. It was one of the few times he felt threatened in this timeline and after fighting Amelio.
The swaying flames behind him made the shadows twist and turn, making it even more difficult for Arthur to look for clues. A rune appeared in his hand, which sent a powerful pulse around him, causing ripples and resonance to any living beings. The sky’s trees, insects, and birds resonated with his rune. Arthur detected nothing near him.
The golden eyes scanned the premises, but he couldn’t see anything, as if the last attack was a figment of his imagination. Arthur raised his foot and stepped forward again, making the two shadows reappear behind him.
This time, Arthur was prepared, and he jumped in a front flip with the two attacks grazing his robes but nothing more. Then, in midair, he struck his palms toward the two figures, and a powerful sonic blast exploded from them, sending the two figures crashing toward the walls.
BOOM!
Arthur landed on his feet at the same time the two figures slammed to the wall, creating two body prints of their figures before falling to the ground. Then, without wasting a second, Arthur rushed toward them and wrote another rune.
[Restrain-IV]
Several ethereal ropes sprung from his fingers and coiled around the two figures, almost crushing them. Arthur couldn’t allow them to disappear again, but his efforts were futile. The two figures disappeared.
“What the hell is this ability?” muttered Arthur with confusion. He could feel no mana from them or anything. He could only see their appearance, wearing tight black clothes when they attacked him.
His coils wrapped around empty air before Arthur deactivated them. The garden was quiet except for the sounds of infighting among the gangsters. Arthur turned and rushed toward the underground entrance, deciding he couldn’t waste time with these two.
His mission wasn’t to kill the Mansell Gang but to free Gray. If he does that, he can do whatever he wants later. Arthur expected the two figures to come after him, but nothing happened after that, and he reached the next building.
There were several buildings in this estate, and Arthur knew that the underground entrance was in the main one behind the one he was entering. So Arthur teleported past the building, appearing on the other side, where a long hallway connected to the main building.
Arthur could see guards filling the hallway, each at the Vetus-ranker. It seems they were expecting him, all carrying artifacts that lit up with dangerous lights.
“Intruder!” shouted the first one who swung his Warhammer at Arthur, but the latter dodged and struck his neck. The man’s neck was broken, and he collapsed. In one swift motion, Arthur crouched before he activated his legacy rune.
[+3 Strength]
His stats increased as a spearman attacked him. Then, Arthur switched his rune and activated Release, making his stats reach deme-ranker realms to catch the spearhead. Then, he tugged on and made the warrior stagger toward him, which allowed Arthur to punch his face.
After the sound of bones breaking, the warrior was sent flying by the punch, crashing into his comrades. Arthur stared at the silent men who looked frightened and motioned for them to attack him. These hotheaded gangsters were easily provoked, and all of them rushed at him. Arthur grinned as his golden mana exploded, lifting the limits of his body. Power filled his soul, and, at that moment, Arthur felt he was invincible.
***
Haro let go of her bowstring, sending rapid shots that paralyzed the gangsters one after the other. However, her captain took the less savory approach and knocked them out with the body of his blade. The gangsters fell one after the other, unconscious, but the living ones were a quarter of the dead.
“That was the last of them,” said Captain Munro after smacking the last gangster. “Although I would be happy to see them kill each other, this is not how we do things.”
Haro nodded but remained quiet. She knew the Mansell Gang and even knew their base’s location, but she could never do anything because any offense could start a civil war in Helios. The one called City of Warriors degraded to be a host for parasites.
These men had several crimes to their names, ranging from extortion, stealing, raping, and killing. The more she heard about their crimes, the more she wanted to storm into this place and kill them. However, the Holy Grounds never approved, telling them to wait until they gathered enough resources to take down the gang.
Most of the knights knew these words were just a sedative, no more than a promise aimed to stall for time. However, in the last years, no real measure was taken, and the empire overlooked the actions of these gangs.
One of her comrades once commented that their justice was incomplete while he was drunk. The squad was in a bar, and most of them quieted him down, but he was transferred the next day without contacting them again. All of them knew what had happened then.
Haro often thought about his last words: Incomplete Justice. The title was befitting, but it suggested that their knighthood had some justice against these gangs. If she met him again one day after her mouth slipped, she would correct him and say their justice was not incomplete but selective.
“We need to keep going, Haro,” said Captain Munro, making her snap out of her daze. “It seems that Arthur Silvera is fighting inside since an absurd amount of mana is coming from there.”
“Yessir.”
The two left the hall and entered the inner gardens, with different smaller buildings. The place was eerie and quiet, with no light other than the burning flames of the front yard.
Weng~
Boom!
A buzzing sound almost made their ears bleed, followed by an eruption of mana that burst like a bubble from the estate’s center. The explosion pushed the two back and destroyed the adjacent buildings to it, turning them to dust.
“We need to get closer!” Captain Munro seemed to realize that the real fight was happening there and that their target should also be there. Haro steadied herself before following him, rushing toward the source of the explosion.
The white light sphere started fading as the two got closer. However, like ebbs and tides, the mana explosion created a black hole of gravity that pulled everything towards it. Thus, the two were thrown off their feet as the force pulled them toward the explosion.
“Haro!”
“Yessir!” shouted the female knight as she kept away her bow and raised her arms. Although her ability was mainly useless, it was helpful for one thing: cushioning. A giant jelly bubble suddenly appeared in front of the two, negating their crash to the mansion, which crumbled under the pull of the black hole.
“This is akin to a fissure!” shouted Captain Munro as she hugged the giant jelly bubble and looked ahead. “Listen well. Arthur Silvera might be fighting against the boss of the Mansell Gang. Once he does, we are going to contact the headquarters and report. Understood?”
“And what if he catches us before we do that?” said Haro with fear as she, her jellyfish, and the rest of the buildings started crumbling and entering a whirlpool that headed toward the center of mana.
“Well, let’s pray my charm will work,” said Captain Munro while flashing a dashing smile. Haro stared at him and nodded, feeling like her death sentence had been signed.
However, even with everything she saw, Arthur Silvera didn’t strike her as a villain. Instead, he seemed to be here for the sole purpose of eliminating the Mansell Gang. If that was so, then his justice was better than theirs.
