A full moon hung high above Port Hassel, casting its cold, pale light across the placid river, where faint glints of crimson rippled on the surface.
This was the moat harbor located on the southeastern fringe of the capital, Brierda.
Beyond Port Hassel lay the stronghold of the Brierda Mafia, operating openly under the guise of a licensed enterprise.
"Boss."
A cluster of buildings stood stark against the night along the shore. Several figures appeared by the docks, passing through layers of guards comprised of the mafia's elite. Under the respectful salutes of the mafiosi, they arrived before the tallest black edifice.
"For the next hour, do not permit any executives to enter the Hassel Building above the second floor. Wait outside."
The leader was draped in a deep black coat, his hood trembling faintly in the night wind. Shadows masked most of his face, revealing only a pair of cold, gleaming eyes.
"Understood."
His strides were light and agile. With him leading the way, no mafia member dared to hesitate. Guiding the small group through the dark shadows cast by the buildings, his form was almost impossible to track.
When another stray beam of moonlight filtered through a floor-to-ceiling window and illuminated him, his resolute, handsome face was finally revealed, dark grey hair falling across his brow.
Professor Landry and his two students followed behind Barton.
They had donned the animal masks Barton handed them earlier to prevent other mafia members from seeing Professor Landry inside their syndicate's stronghold.
After only a few steps through the building's interior, not another soul from the mafia could be seen.
Barton quickened his pace. Inside the building, the deep amber floor lamps stretched their shadows long and thin behind them.
"This is the Hassel Building, the headquarters of the Brierda Mafia. Only the boss, executives, and select authorized members may enter."
Barton led Lanqi upward floor by floor.
The interior decor of the Hassel Building leaned classical, utilizing an abundance of black and brown stone tiles, exuding the refined ambiance of a century-old grand hotel.
"I will find a way to persuade your boss."
Lanqi understood that Barton was highlighting both the secrecy of this place and its danger—no matter what accident befell them here, no one outside would ever know. This was a secluded realm where one could die without a burial plot.
"The person you are about to meet... is in an extremely volatile state right now. There is a high probability she will not give you the chance to speak," Barton said as they walked, speaking from his understanding of his employer.
He harbored no ill impression of this reasonable Saint Creti Monastery professor. At the very least, a man willing to venture deep into mafia territory alone for his students could not be a bad sort.
And most importantly, the man possessed the will to stand against the Blood Clan.
"Meaning I'll probably have to withstand her opening strike?" Lanqi deduced.
Exchanging blows upon meeting was perhaps a martial method of communication, or perhaps a test.
"Correct. Otherwise, she will likely strike straight for your throat so you cannot speak and disturb her thoughts," Barton agreed.
"Uh..."
This fighting habit of gagging someone before pummeling them felt vaguely familiar to Lanqi.
"What are you thinking about?" Talia questioned, placing her invisible hand right against his neck.
"Could you put your hand down before speaking, Teacher?"
Lanqi had no further doubts.
Before long, Barton led them to his office, coming to a halt before a bookshelf that spanned the entire wall.
His fingers rearranged several books on the shelves in an arcane sequence. Accompanied by the faint metallic click of turning mechanisms, the ordinary-looking bookcase slowly pivoted open, unveiling a deep passageway hidden behind it.
"You two young ladies may stop here."
Barton turned back and addressed Elsa and Ursula.
Further down was a zone only he and Landry were permitted to enter; the two students could simply remain in this secure executive office.
He did not mind them seeing this secret mafia entrance.
For them, only two outcomes awaited tonight: either they would leave smoothly alongside Landry, or they would remain behind in the Brierda Mafia together with him.
"Brother, please be careful."
Elsa hesitated for a moment before handing the little black cat back to her brother.
She still wished to ensure her brother's safety as much as possible.
Boss Cat wavered, glancing between the two of them.
Lanqi would certainly need it in such a perilous place, yet it also had a duty to protect Elsa.
"Regardless of what happens next, I will do my best to ensure their safety," Barton assured Lanqi with solemn resolve.
"Understood. Thank you, Mr. Barton."
Lanqi nodded.
Talia discerned that Barton had spoken the truth just now and relayed this to Lanqi in his mind.
"Meow, then here I go, meow."
Seeing this, Boss Cat leapt into Lanqi's shadow. Since Elsa was safe, it had no further reservations; piloting the Lanqi Unit felt far more secure anyway.
"Go handle your business with peace of mind, Professor. With me here, I won't let Elsa get bored," Ursula said, waving the back of her hand casually toward Professor Landry.
"All right. See you shortly."
Lanqi nodded in assent.
Barton was already striding into the corridor behind the bookcase.
Lanqi followed Barton into the tunnel without hesitation. The anti-magic steel behind the bookcase snapped shut silently, leaving no trace that it had ever been opened.
The passage within was dimly lit, with a flickering lamp every few meters casting a faint, pale glow.
A peculiar, indescribable chill permeated the air, making it feel as though they were stepping into an icy cavern.
Barton guided Lanqi through the labyrinthine subterranean corridors with swift, confident steps, intimately familiar with every inch of the secret route.
He navigated one bewildering turn after another and passed several closed barriers of anti-magic steel before finally stopping in front of a silver-white vertical elevator.
"Roughly how strong is your boss?" Lanqi inquired of the mafia boss beside him while they waited.
In Talia's estimation, Barton Hall was already among the empire's absolute elite. Had he remained in the military, attaining the rank of major general would have been effortless, posing an immense threat to the Allied Forces.
"Only in her do I see a glimmer of hope against the Blood Clan. Faint though it may be, at least it is not zero," Barton replied flatly.
He pressed his palm onto the control panel. With a soft screech, the elevator doors parted. He led Professor Landry inside, and without any manual input, the doors sealed shut and the lift plummeted rapidly.
With every few meters they descended, a streak of white light flashed across the shaft walls, momentarily illuminating Barton's stern, resolute countenance inside the cabin.
"..."
Lanqi held his tongue, remaining quiet inside the elevator.
Prying further might cross into impoliteness.
The usually approachable Barton had not disclosed his employer's exact strength, a testament to his loyalty.
Even so, Lanqi could deduce quite a bit.
To keep the Blood Clan in check, one required at least the core combat strength of Tier 8. Without reaching Tier 8, one could hardly pose a genuine threat to them.
Even as a formidable Tier 7 combatant, with few rivals left in the empire, Barton still resembled an ant trying to shake a giant tree before the power of the Blood Clan.
Therefore, the boss whom Barton served was highly likely a Tier 8 power.
Yet within Tier 8, the divide between different realms of strength was vast as heaven and earth; he simply could not tell which tier Barton's boss belonged to.
The elevator creaked as it plummeted, the entire compartment sinking continuously as if descending into the planet's deepest core.
Gradually, all the noise from the surface was cut off completely. Nothing remained around them except a deathly silence and the cramped space plunging toward the unknown.
When the elevator finally ground to a halt, a colossal gate forged of pure white anti-magic steel came into view, radiating a spine-chilling frost.
The gate's surface was inscribed with spatial barrier runes.
"You even have a spatial barrier down here?"
As far as Lanqi knew, Blood Moon City was enclosed by a spatial barrier, rendering it entirely unreachable by ordinary physical means.
The mafia's underground spatial barrier clearly could not match the scale of Blood Moon City, yet creating a spatial barrier at all was already beyond the capability of ordinary mortals.
"It cost a fortune."
Barton seemed thoroughly accustomed to it. Reaching into his coat, he produced a secret key shaped like a crescent moon and inserted it into a hidden slot beside the door.
With a low mechanical hum, the heavy anti-magic steel parted slowly. A blinding white radiance instantly flooded the area, bringing a sudden wave of dizziness.
When their vision finally adjusted to the abrupt brightness, a vast underground palace spread out before Lanqi's eyes. A wave of freezing cold rushed over them, accompanied by a deathly silence that hung heavily over the hall, turning even their breath to frost.
The pristine white walls and floor reflected brilliant sheens under the icy-blue illumination, resembling a dimension completely severed from the mortal world.
Across the vaulted dome, a silver river of stars drifted lazily, giving the illusion of gazing upon the true night sky through tens of thousands of meters.
"Boss, Professor Landry is here."
Barton bowed slightly as he addressed the distance.
"Good. You may leave."
From the center of the palace in the distance, a figure spoke.
Her face was cloaked in illusory makeup that refracted perspective like shards of broken glass, rendering her true features indecipherable. The harder one stared at her visage, the dizzier one became.
Across her neck, scarlet fissures crept like ominous tattoos, with molten veins of magic power coursing downward, searing her skin.
"..."
Barton had intended to say something more, but a chilling mana silently spread outward. The woman in the distance radiated a terrifying malevolence, akin to a demon lord freshly emerged from the abyss.
The moment she cast her gaze toward them, Barton felt the crushing pressure and fell instantly silent, unwilling to provoke his employer when she was visibly in foul spirits.
He shot a warning glance toward Professor Landry, signaling him to be careful, before quickly exiting the underground palace. The anti-magic steel rumbled shut immediately behind him.
Inside the subterranean chamber.
Sensing something unusual about her visitor, the woman turned her head slowly. Her reddish-brown eyes were like two fathomless pools of stagnant water, exuding a chilling dread.
The instant their eyes met, Boss Cat, hidden across space within the shadow, felt as though its very soul were being sucked into that reddish-brown abyss, unable to break free.
It felt its consciousness rapidly crumbling. A boundless terror clung to it like a shadow, nearly engulfing it entirely.
Resisting the dizzying sensation of falling into an abyss, Boss Cat dug its paws in fiercely, fighting to maintain its last shred of clarity.
Meanwhile, facing the woman, Lanqi remained utterly composed, his expression unshaken by the terrifying aura.
"So it's just the two of us now..."
The corners of the figure's lips curled into a spine-chilling smile.
Even her enchanted voice carried a mental interference that induced overwhelming drowsiness.
"I—"
Just as Lanqi was about to speak, a burst of crimson flames erupted beneath her feet the very next second, thrashing wildly in midair like the talons of an ancient fiend.
The hellish claw roared forth with incredible speed, engulfing Lanqi's figure in the blink of an eye and clamping down tight around him.
"Wait, don't fight! Don't fight!"
Lanqi was already enveloped in an invisible wind barrier devoid of visual effects. Isolated by the gale and radiant ward, the flames failed to harm him in the slightest.
"An immunity field?" the silver-haired woman muttered in bewilderment.
She had considered that Professor Landry might be concealing his true strength beneath a Tier 6 facade, but she had never imagined this man could deploy a defensive spell on the order of Tier 8 while pretending to be a mere Tier 6.
A big fish indeed.
Consequently, she was able to gauge her opponent's caliber.
He appeared to be Tier 6 on the surface yet possessed unique means of reaching Tier 7 intensity, and could occasionally unleash even more powerful moves.
The magical fluctuations she had sensed earlier had already far exceeded the standard of a Tier 6.
Yet his body seemed laden with constraints, his magical output severely restrained—there was bound to be a limit!
A sudden frost mist swept through, centered around the silver-haired woman, howling and tearing through the subterranean chamber.
Her figure blurred into a pitch-black afterimage, lunging toward Lanqi with speed no ordinary person could ever match. A piercing shriek tore through the air, and in the next heartbeat, her fingers were almost around Lanqi's throat.
Though the magical pressure radiating from her was suffocating, she clearly deemed this opponent unworthy of her full magic spells.
A sheer contest of physical might would suffice to sever his head and spill his blood on the spot.
At the critical juncture, Lanqi remained unflustered.
A mental barrier woven of pure willpower materialized before him, intercepting the silver-haired woman's charge head-on.
The two forces collided violently in midair, erupting in invisible sparks of magic.
To the silver-haired woman's astonishment, Landry's mental barrier not only countered her attack perfectly but even launched a swift countercharge. The two stood locked in place, neither yielding an inch.
"Your mental magic is far too feeble!" the silver-haired woman scoffed.
Wielding mental magic before her was nothing short of offering an amateur display to a master.
Within an instant, utilizing a similar principle of inverse calculation, she dismantled the mental barrier layer by layer and retaliated with mental magic of her own.
"I'm feeble?"
Within Lanqi's consciousness, Talia caught those words. A flicker of surprise crossed her eyes, swiftly superseded by cold anger.
This insolent person seemed bent on humiliating her, deliberately picking apart her specialty with what was supposedly an unorthodox counter. Such arrogant behavior infuriated her most.
Even when confronting a formidable opponent, Lanqi had instructed her not to treat the other party as a mortal foe, but merely to find a way to calm her down. Yet this touched upon her pride, and Talia had no intention of backing down an inch.
"Wait, can't we talk this out?"
Lanqi felt as though he had run into a lunatic.
This person refused to listen to reason whatsoever.
She was acting exactly like an enraged Talia!
"I don't care who you are! Once you're turned into my slave, you'll be far more useful than anything else!"
Before her voice had even faded, the silver-haired woman unleashed a surge of mana that shook the very ground, tinting the entire chamber an ominous dark hue. Countless bottomless fissures spread outward like a spiderweb across the stone.
Immediately following, black cursed flames geysered up from the depths. The silver-haired woman commanded the eerie dark fire to rage around Lanqi like vengeful specters, intent on reducing him to ash.
...
At the same moment, up on the surface.
Even Elsa and Ursula, waiting in the upper-floor office of the Hassel Building, stood up in alarm, the hairs on their bodies standing on end.
Such a terrifying magical tremor felt as though two Tier 8 powerhouses had started an all-out war directly beneath their feet!
Even through countless layers of seals and wards, the impending sense of danger seeped right through to where they stood.
Downstairs, every member of the mafia snapped into a state of high alert.
"The boss... made a move?"
They felt the tremors rolling through the earth in sheer disbelief.
Hundreds of meters beneath the river harbor building.
"Meow! Meow!"
Boss Cat clutched its head inside the shadow.
It felt Lanqi shouldn't have stepped into this place at all.
If this fight dragged on, victory seemed completely out of reach.
This silver-haired woman was far too terrifying—stronger even than Polman. Relying purely on the possession state, they stood no chance against her.
Talia's physical manifestation rapidly solidified before Lanqi, blocking the blow for him as she prepared to unleash her ultimate spell.
"Curse magic?"
The silver-haired woman sneered, her mesmerizing voice dripping with contempt.
Their movements grew increasingly mirrored, and even their mana began to resonate and interweave.
Orange feather-like motes of light scattered through the silver-white palace. A maiden resembling an ethereal fairy among flowers came to rest midair.
Just as their mana reached its absolute zenith, on the verge of erupting into a direct collision—
"Huh?"
Two voices gasped simultaneously.
The mana bordering on the divine realm halted from its gathered state, lingering with a touch of hesitation before quietly dissolving away.
The silver-haired woman appeared to be discerning whether this was an illusion.
If it were an illusion, the only phenomenon capable of producing this that came to mind was the Gentle Land of the Fallen.
Yet within the Gentle Land of the Fallen, those ensnared would never easily doubt that they were inside it; that was a logical contradiction.
That overwhelming magic power. That breathtaking countenance. That dignified, noble aura.
And that presence, distinct from the past, radiating the regal pressure of a Demon King.
Without a doubt.
She could only be one person.
"Sis... ter...?"
The silver-haired woman stared wide-eyed in disbelief, tears welling up in her eyes as she gazed at the figure before her.
The murderous intent in her gaze froze, leaving no clue as to what was running through her mind.
After several agonizing seconds, her lips parted slightly, but she dared not utter a complete sentence.
From the moment the gray-haired witch's reflection was cast in her pupils, she could not pull her eyes away from Talia's face.
"I... I didn't... I didn't mean to hurt you..."
All the lethal intent she had gathered moments ago vanished without a trace, replaced by anxious, lingering fear.
Even after a century apart, even if memories had grown faint with time, she would never forget the face of the one dearest to her in this world!
Though she could not comprehend why her proud sister had ended up in such a state, carving her soul onto a human being, she believed with all her heart that this was indeed her sister.
The hostility she had directed toward Lanqi had completely transformed into gratitude and warmth, as if looking upon family.
Talia was utterly baffled. She subconsciously tugged at the corner of Lanqi's coat, as if demanding to know what on earth was happening. Yet Lanqi merely spread his hands with a smile, leaving her to confirm things for herself.
He relaxed, deliberately acting like an innocent bystander, as if telling Talia: *The commission you gave me when crafting Caliera's Shadow-Weaving Record appears to be complete. What comes next is for you to verify on your own.*
"Iphatia?"
Talia could not see through the silver-haired woman's face clearly, nor could she hear her true voice. But after the woman had unleashed her power without reserve, those familiar spells and that identical signature mana were unmistakably the same as her own.
Talia could only call out the name tentatively.
"It's me."
The silver-haired woman dropped her enchanted voice. The illusory mask over her face shattered like a cracked prism, stripping away her disguise to reveal her true countenance.
Her eyes were brimming with tears of grievance.
"Why are you here?"
Talia had never dreamed that this mysterious boss hiding beneath the mafia's stronghold would be the very sister she had searched so desperately for—Iphatia!
Seeing her younger sister covered in blood-red scars, Talia felt her heart clench.
She could not imagine what horrors her beloved sister had endured to end up in this state.
The moment Talia looked back at Iphatia,
"Sister! I missed you so much... You finally came to the Southern Continent to find me..."
Iphatia threw herself forward, wrapping her arms around Talia and burying her head into her chest, weeping inconsolably.
Chapter 743