Chapter 482: Midnight Slaughter

The time was nigh, and the Midnight Syndicate would soon be arriving.

After regrouping with Xiang Peng and the other survivors at the Library of Infinite Beginnings, we quickly organized who would go where and set out discretely.

I had Lorelei patrol from the roof of a nearby building to scan for the Midnight Syndicate members, and left Mei Gui with her as a guard. Meanwhile, the girls and I helped set up all the survivors and told them where they would each go, and before long, all of us were set up, waiting for the Midnight Syndicate’s forces to arrive.

Along the roofs of the buildings leading up to the Library of Infinite Beginnings, we and the survivors camped silently. As soon as the Midnight Syndicate showed up, we would begin launching a barrage of magic spells at them and take them down with ease.

Lan Xiao Su and Xiang Peng had worked together to set up a barrier around us that could conceal our presences from any detection abilities, so the Midnight Syndicate wouldn’t be able to tell we were hiding up here unless they had a powerful master with them. Given the results of last night’s fight, however, it was safe to assume there wasn’t anyone especially strong leading them—and even if there was, Mei Gui had helped with the Enchantment as well, so there was the power of Chaos at play here. Even if they had antimagic—which they didn’t—they wouldn’t be able to see past our concealment.

Of course, just as a double measure, I made sure to leave a few survivors inside the building as well, just so they wouldn’t be suspicious. This way, even if the Midnight Syndicate could somehow break past our concealment barriers, their attention would be first directed towards the people inside the building.

As for who was in the building? Well, the girls and I, of course.

I had Xiang Peng take charge over the survivors on the outside, and established a telepathic link with her through Psychic Magic. This way, we had all angles covered, and all preparations were complete.

All that was left was-

“They’re here,” Lorelei suddenly said from within my lap, opening her beautiful eyes in her human form.

“All right,” I said, then immediately reached out to Xiang Peng in my head. “Set the plan into motion.”

“Roger that,” she replied, and I smiled.

“Let the slaughter begin.”

*****

Outside, the battle started with us having the drop on them.

The poor Midnight Syndicate members had no idea what was coming for them until it was too late. They flooded into the streets from the back alleyways and began making their way towards the library, but had no idea about the myriad of powerful spells heading their way from the roofs overhead. They laughed and snickered, thinking the survivors inside the library had no idea they were about to get ambushed.

Little did they know, they were the ones getting ambushed.

“Level Two Fire Magic — Abomination Flare!”

“Level Three Ice Magic — Spear Hail!”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Level Three Sky Magic — Thundercry!”

In a single instant, the survivors from the rooftops unleashed their fury upon the clueless Midnight Syndicate members all at once. Fire blazed down from above, sharp shards of ice skewered the cultists with ease, and lightning reduced their bodies to nothing but ashes. The ones who didn’t die to these were tortured by Psychokinetic attacks, blinded by Light, or drowned in a string of Curses.

Heavy rain and fog conjured by magic made it impossible for them to figure out what was going on, and the frail barriers they managed to put up were destroyed in an instant by the powerful attacks, following one after another. The Midnight Syndicate members began fleeing for their lives in all different directions, the most of their army gone, and it was then that the survivors leaped down from the roofs and took things into their own hands. The battle got real personal, and the cult members were cut down one by one.

The few remaining soldiers and the ones leading them desperately ran for cover from the barrage of deadly magic, realizing they had been utterly outplayed like fools, and ran for their lives towards the closest building—in this case, the Library of Infinite Beginnings.

From the start, this was exactly what I had expected them to do. From beginning to end, everything was within my plans. Every last detail, every fine specific, was calculated and factored into my plot. The Midnight Syndicate stood no chance at all from the moment my plan was set into motion—and now, it was time for the final nail in the coffin.

As the doors were busted open by the fleeing Midnight Syndicate members, I smirked.

“… Welcome.”

“E-Eek!” The old man leading them, wearing a monocle, nearly fell backwards at the sight of me. Since the lights were turned off, I was but a silhouette in the darkness, and my armor made me look like some kind of serial killer.

“My, my, so scared, are we?” Ling Xin said from beside me in her Shadow Empress outfit, and leaned on my shoulder. “You all looked so smug just a few minutes earlier, too…”

“P-Please! We’re sorry!” The old man got to his knees and kowtowed on the floor, begging for forgiveness.

“Hmph. The moment things start looking bad, you simply surrender?” Amane narrowed her eyes and drew her katana, pointing it at the old man. “Your cowardice and lack of honor… disgusts me.”

“Heheh… at least they know when they’ve lost, right?” Axilia giggled, spinning her scythe around in her hand and standing behind me. “But that aside, darling… can I kill them already? I’m aching for some… blood…”

“Sometimes, I really can’t tell if you’re actually a vampire, Axilia,” I said with a chuckle. “But not yet. I have a few questions for them.”

“A-A few questions?” The old man leading them slowly lifted his face off from the carpet ground fearfully.

“Yes,” I replied with a smile, standing up from my chair and walking closer until I was right in front of the man, then crouched down in front of his face and lifted his chin. “Answer me truthfully, okay? If you do that without hiding anything… I’ll let you go.”

“S-Swear it! Curse yourself and promise to let me leave this place alive and well!”

“Oh, just you?” I laughed. “What about your followers there?”

The old man glanced at his cowering comrades and gulped. “T-Them too!”

“Hm… alright. Level Two Curse Magic — Oath: If you tell me the whole truth to all my questions and don’t try anything sneaky like attacking me, and I don’t let you and your scum teammates leave this building, I will be killed by lightning.”

A symbol of purple light appeared in my left palm, and dimmed away soon after. I smiled at the old man.

“Is this fine?”

“Y-Yes…”

“Good. Now, as for my first question… where are your superiors? You know, your leader ‘X’ and his four subordinates. Be exact.”

“F-Fragment. They’re inside Fragm-“

“I said be exact.“

“E-Eek! I d-don’t know their exact location, but they should be in the IMF Headquarters building! That’s where they can get all the information they are searching for…”

“Oh? Information? What kind of information?”

“That… I don’t know…”

“Huh? Really, now?” I asked in a mildly threatening tone.

“Y-Yes! I really don’t know! P-Please, just let us go already!”

“Oh no, not yet,” I snickered. “There’s still a couple questions I have left. One… what are X and his subordinates’ abilities? How strong are they?”

“I don’t know that! I haven’t even seen their faces!”

“Hm… how suspicious.”

“I-I’m not lying!” The old man cried, practically on the verge of tears as he gave in to despair. “Please, I’m only a Bishop… I’m not ranked high enough to know about that kind of thing…”

So the Midnight Syndicate’s ranking system amongst its members are similar to that of the Church? How interesting…

“I see. Well, one more thing, then.”

“Y-Yes?” The old man looked at me hopefully, eager to finally be free of this torture.

“… What do you know about antimagic?”

“Antimagic…? What’s that?”

Hm… I’m reading his mind right now, and it doesn’t seem like he’s faking it.

“Never mind. You’re free to go.”

“H-Huh? But…” The old man turned around and glanced at the glass doors they broke in coming here, and saw that the survivors outside were still launching destruction everywhere. “How are we supposed to…”

“Oh, that’s up to you,” I said with an innocent smile. “I only promised to let you leave this building. What’s out there is not my problem.”

“Wha-!” The old man’s eyes widened at the realization that he had been tricked, and gritted his teeth in rage. “D-Damn you, bastard… you tricked me… I’ll kill you! RAGH!”

He suddenly leaped up from the floor and launched a blast of curse energy at me, but his movements were slow and sluggish due to the fear. I didn’t even bother messing with him and instead merely absorbed his mana with my Chaos magic, then turned around and waved at them.

“Well, by attacking me, you broke the oath. Looks like you sealed your own fate, hm? Axilia, they’re all yours.”

“Hehe~ I love you, darling~”

Axilia leaned in and kissed me on the cheek, then swung her scythe around and stepped closer to the old man and his lackeys like a Grim Reaper in the night. Amane and Ling Xin joined her on either side, and together, the three were like daughters of Death itself.

“Goodbye~”

“AHHHH!”

SLASH.

The soft sound of something falling to the carpet floor echoed across the empty library.