"On top of that, there's no way those two idiots created the Doppelgangers.
"If we move too soon, the person who gave them those creatures and took the weapons might just dispose of his accomplices as soon as they outlive their usefulness, leaving us empty-handed. Like it or not, we are their bodyguards."
Jirni's smile was so bright and every one of her movements so tender that no one doubted for a second that the words that she was whispering were sweet promises of love.
"Fine." Orion pushed her hands away. "The backup is waiting outside, but they should intervene at the first sign of trouble. You stick to the Countess, I'm going to speak with our host."
Then he turned around and walked away without looking back.
For the first time in her life, Jirni didn't need her training to express all the sadness and pain that she felt.
***
Outside the City Hall, at the same time.
The group had split into two teams. Manohar and Phloria waited for the Doppelganger inside the City Lord's office while Friya and Quylla stood on the tallest buildings at the opposing sides of the City Hall.
Manohar only cared about capturing the Doppelganger while Phloria was more worried about retrieving the weapons as soon as possible. Dealing with an unknown creature was already bad enough.
Dealing with an unknown creature armed with state-of-the-art equipment while she was incapable of using earth and air magic due to the arrays surrounding the city and Spirit Magic due to Manohar was the stuff nightmares were made of.
As for Friya and Quylla, they used the high ground to keep an eye on the area. Their role was to keep the Doppelganger from escaping in the case something went wrong and to coordinate the members of the Association hidden in the nearby buildings.
The mages didn't like taking orders from someone so young and inexperienced, but the name Ernas carried enough weight to crush a career without the Royals even asking for an explanation.
So, when Orion had given the orders, the mages had agreed with a plastered smile on their faces.
Working alone allowed the girls to freely use Spirit Magic to bypass the restrictions that the elemental sealing arrays imposed on fake mages.
'Man, your Scope spell is really good. At night such a small dimensional fissure is as good as invisible.' Quylla said.
'I created it more for offense than recon, but thanks.' Normally it was impossible to use a mind link from a great distance, but by creating a dimensional hole the size of a pinhole near her sister, Friya could talk with her as if they were just a few meters apart.
Friya kept her enchanted rapier, Dreadnought, on her left side while on her right there was what looked like a stringless crossbow ending in a giant tuning fork.
'What is that thing?' Quylla asked.
'Something that Lith wants me to field test. He tried to explain to me how it works but I didn't understand a word he said except that it's based on a mix of earth and air magic. According to him, it packs quite a punch.' Friya replied.
'I thought he couldn't make Spirit Artifacts yet.' Quylla was flabbergasted.
'He can't. It's not a Spirit Artifact.'
'Then what's the point of bringing it around? The elemental sealing arrays of Ruham make it useless.'
'Look, Lith told me that it would work and that's enough for me.' Friya shrugged. 'Now stay sharp. It's time for the shift change.'
As predicted, they spotted two identical guards entering from the opposite entrances. The problem was that both carried nothing suspicious and entered along with their colleagues without the need to use their magical imprint on the door.
'Fuck! Any luck with Life Vision?' Quylla asked.
'Are you kidding me? If I open a fissure in a well-lit area filled with people, the guards will sound the alarm and our mission will fail before starting.' Friya alerted the mages of the Association while her sister notified Phloria.
"The Doppelganger is coming our way. You'd better prepare, Professor." She said while laying her enchanted estoc, Reaver, on the City Lord's desk to have her hands free and pretend to chant fake magic.
'Dammit, Lith made it seem so natural, but I'm afraid of messing up. Manohar is a genius who learned tier one Spirit Magic by watching Quylla perform it once. If he notices my ruse, he'll ask me questions I can't answer.' Phloria thought.
"Who do you take me for, Beanpole? I'm always ready." The Mad Professor opened his arms and countless golden runes covered his pristine white uniform until it almost turned completely yellow.
'That's similar to the array that Dawn used to keep her magical lab made of hard-light constructs always active.' Phloria recognized the pattern from the hologram that Lith had used to show her the fight against the Horseman but aside from that, she had no idea what she had just witnessed.
After combining his efforts with Balkor, Manohar had invented an array that he could wear whose sole purpose was to keep his spells at the ready after he was done casting them.
The golden runes belonged to Light Mastery spells that Phloria had no knowledge of, and there were more than thirty of them. Most of them were of high tier, Manohar kept some of low tier only to not waste a single inch of the array.
While the magical formation lay dormant, it consumed only a little amount of mana that was provided by the custom professor uniform that Orion had crafted per Manohar's instructions.
'I am the greatest light magic genius of the Kingdom, but I must admit that Jirni's plus one beats me at Forgemastery. He managed to whip up my armor even though I only gave him a rough sketch.' Yet it actually was more like a childish doodle filled with a wish list of enchantments.
"Any idea of the ETA of the Doppelganger?" Phloria wasn't so lucky.
Reaver could hold her spells only for two minutes. One second longer and they would fade away, wasting her mana.
"No clue. Good luck." Quylla replied and hung the call to keep the noise from alerting the enemy of their presence.
Phloria cursed Life Vision's blazing eyes that would have probably piqued Manohar's curiosity and decided to count up to sixty before starting her chant.
The door of the office opened a few minutes later and the person who stepped through the door didn't match Quylla's description.
The Doppelganger had memorized the appearance of all the guards, giving it the ability to blend in any area of the City Hall after checking who it could mimic without meeting the original.
Manohar and Phloria held their breath from their hiding spot, wondering where the creature kept the weapons. The woman it now resembled was stout and short. There was no way to hide the stolen artifacts under her clothes without them bulging out suspiciously.
'The City Lord used a small wedge between the door and the lock so that the protections can't trigger. Once the Doppelganger is done with her task, she only has to close the door after removing the wedge to activate the protection and leave no trace of her passage..' Manohar thought.
