Chapter 25

  Mansion of Glass and Shadows part 1

  The skies were deep, with shades of black, orange and hues of purple.

  Isabelle opened her eyes and found herself in the burning forest surrounded by scattered remains of the jet they were flying on. Her back was up against a large chunk of the jet’s remains, a section with the Golden Lion’s insignia on it.

  “Urgh…” A sharp groan escaped her lips while crimson electricity crackled around her body. There was a stiffness all over her body that made it difficult to even lift a finger. She slowly turned her head to the right and saw Grant tinkering with some of the jet’s remaining communication devices.

  He noticed how she slowly glanced over at him and greeted with a nonchalant, “Morning, sunshine.”

  “What… what happened?” She asked with an aching voice. The thick burning smoke invaded her nose and made her feel nauseated.

  “Someone sent us a greeting. Shot us out of the sky.” The brown-haired esper answered. Though he answered her question, she could have guessed that much just by looking around the ruins.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Setting up a signal jammer. Making sure that whoever shot us down doesn’t radio for help. It won’t be long until a scout comes here to confirm our bodies.”

  “And… What about the pilot?”

  Grant sighed, “He’s our only casualty. Dreadnought and Nice are doing what they can to help him, but… his odds are slim to say the least.” He pointed to their direction.

  The silver-haired woman cast her gaze to where he was pointing, and saw the two non-espers, Dreadnought and Nice, patching up the barely breathing pilot with a first-aid kit in an open area of the forest.

  “How long was I out?”

  “Less than five minutes.”

  She slowly got up, and a sharp pain shot through her body. She then looked over the operatives scattered within her field of view.

  To her left, Felix was holding an unconscious Maria with bloody bandages wrapped around her head. He gave a sharp glare that made him unapproachable, killing intent radiated all over his body.

  And ahead to her right, Anastasia sat on the ground with covered eyes while the hush crackle of fire echoed all over her.

  At the edges of the wreckage, Nero kneeled down on the ground, his hands radiating with a red haze while using psychic power to spray the earth upward to put out the flames.

  He turned around and noticed Isabelle standing behind her, as their crimson eyes made contact, the blond man called out to her, “Isa, help me put out the fires!”

  “Ah, right…” She nodded stiffly.

  The silver-haired esper lifted her hand up to her chest level, and the ground beneath all of them cracked and rumbled.

  Her energy shook the loose soil. Everyone took notice of this.

  “Isabelle?” Grant mumbled out.

  Thoughtlessly, she uprooted the earth, and caused several meters of dirt to spiral up into the air. Nero and Grant both quickly released their auras as best as they could to avoid it.

  The piles of dirt scattered across wreckage, raining down and extinguishing the flames.

  As it fell, an orb of blue light formed, protecting both Felix and Maria from the falling earth.

  When it stopped, only the thin clatter remained. The area dimmed significantly as the flames went out.

  Grant dispersed his aura, causing the dirt to fall back to the ground. He then flashed her a disappointed look that said all that needed to be said, to which she responded with an embarrassed smile.

  Anastasia then got up and walked over to the two of them, covered from head to toe in dirt.

  “You should have warned us that you were going to do that.” She chastised her.

  “I’m sorry…”

  “We’re okay!” Yelled the two non-espers as they were buried under all of the mess.

  The red-haired woman then used her aura to outwardly disperse the dirt on her body, spraying it at the two.

  Isabelle shielded her face with her hands, “Hey!”

  “I’m working here!” Grant shouted as he covered himself from the dirt.

  Felix gently wiped off some of the dirt that got caught on Maria’s face.

  Anastasia glanced around, seeing that the flames were all gone, and gave a very quiet, “Thank you.” To Isabelle.

  “Oh, um… you’re welcome.” She responded.

  However, as she uttered those words, they all noticed a rustle in the bushes.

  An invisible line made its way towards Grant’s back, but Nero drew the blade on his hip and halved the bullet before it could take out the brown-haired esper.

  The fragmented halves scraped through the dirt before coming to a halt with Grant in between them, and the blond esper raised his sword once more. Grant turned around and to see what was going on.

  Three more bullets shot out from the trees. Nero sliced through the first, but just barely stopped the second. The third bullet passed through the red swordsman and went straight towards the man behind him.

  The brown-haired esper coughed out a red sputter as the bullet struck his chest.

  “Grant!” Isabelle yelled out in fright.

  Voices echoed from the trees, the operatives all watched intently as three figures revealed themselves from the shadows.

  Large men with cybernetic augmentations all over their bodies stood before the operatives. On their foreheads were digits, or designation numbers. On the left had the digits “forty-eight”, on the right had “forty-nine”, and in the middle behind the two, “fifty.”

  “So that’s what’s keeping us from calling for assistance.” Forty-Nine said.

  “Oh see… who called that? Me!” Grant snidely exclaimed.

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  Isabelle yelled in exasperation, “Is it really the time to brag?!”

  “What are you waiting for? Get rid of them!” Fifty barked the order.

  Forty-Eight and Forty-Nine rushed towards the agents. Nero pulled out his blade himself as Forty-Nine sprouted a blade from his mechanical arm, while Forty-Eight rushed towards the two non-espers.

  Dreadnought and Nice raised their guns, ready to fight, but Anastasia got in between them.

  A fight ensued as both Nero and Anastasia engaged the two cybernetic enemies. Their bodies began to shimmer with a light that outlined their bodies.

  “Anya! What are you doing? I can do this on my own!” Nero yelled out.

  He swiftly evaded the cyborg’s quick slashes and countered, but as he swung his sword at the enemy’s throat, a metal clang reverberated on collision, and he backed away.

  Unable to slice through the layer of chrome, he looked at the slight chip on his sword’s edge.

  “Sure you can…” Anastasia remarked as she saw his sword fail to cut down his enemy.

  Anastasia, backed by Nice and Dreadnought, exchanged blows with her opponent. While the bullets they fired had ricocheted off the cyborg’s body, her psychic enhanced fists visibly caused harm to the enemy.

  “But you have no choice but to accept my help this time.” She shook her hand slightly as she felt the pain in her knuckles, “Ahk…” A sharp exhale escaped her lips.

  Nero grinned, “Fine then. I’ll leave that one to you.”

  The two espers held their ground against the cyborgs, but they were unable to land a meaningful hit into the mix.

  Isabelle raised her palms, and the two cyborgs began to glow red.

  Forty-Eight and Forty-Nine showed startled expressions as they were enveloped in her crimson aura, before suddenly being slammed into one another by the silver-haired esper.

  “What are you doing fighting them hand-to-hand?!” The silver-haired woman scolded Nero and Anastasia with a hoarse voice.

  As her crimson energy dissipated, the cyborgs got back on their feet, they immediately rushed in a frenzy to attack the two espers.

  There was a metallic shriek as Nero’s sword clashed with the cyborg. Anastasia pulled out an ornate gun, and from it shot out a burning ball of psychic energy.

  It burst into dazzling fiery flickers as it struck her enemy, though it did minimal damage, it was able to knock Forty-Nine back a few feet.

  She gasped, then called out, “Nero!”

  Nero immediately understood and pushed back his opponent. With quick, explosive strikes, the two espers forced the cyborgs closer to one another.

  “Grr!” Forty-Nine growled as his back pressed against Forty-Eight.

  He roared and readied to rush in, but before the cyborg could take another step, a whistling wind tickled Isabelle’s ear as a chain suddenly shot out from behind her.

  With a quick flash of red, it made a sudden u-turn and coiled around the mechanical enemies, “Now Isabelle!” Grant shouted.

  Isabelle realized what they were doing. A perfect shot was laid out in front of her and she began to materialize a ball of psychic power in her hand.

  But before she could fire the finishing blow, the last cyborg, number Fifty, intervened and fired a hail of lead towards them. Both Nero and Anastasia flared up their energies, but it quickly wore thin as the bullets ran it dry, and they remained helpless where they stood.

  Grant’s psychic grip quickly loosened as he defended himself, but his aura was not fast enough, and one of the bullets shot his body back into the wreckage.

  The silver-haired woman flinched, but a blue silhouette flashed in front of her.

  Felix let out pained grunts as he wrapped his arms around her body, shielding her from the rain of lead. Despite his back being riddled with bullets, the assault was unable to pierce through his black coat.

  The two cyborgs escaped the chains and rushed after her.

  While Isabelle’s arm was still facing the enemies, the thumping of her panicked heart made it difficult to concentrate, and disrupted the formation of her energy.

  With his arms wrapped around her flustered face, Felix said in a hush whisper, “Isabelle, now.”

  His silent, almost pleading voice calmed her down, and the deafening beat of her heart calmed down. The crimson ball shot out of her hands – A red blaze ravaged the forest.

  As the explosion faded into glistening red particles, the path ahead cleared up. Roughly a hundred meters of woodland had been flattened by the blast, and the scattering chunks of wood and fauna clattered back to the ground.

  The two cyborgs laid in the center of the ravaged remains, completely incapacitated by her overwhelming attack.

  Isabelle broke out a deep gasp and started to take in ragged breaths.

  “Good job.” Felix muttered.

  Between her breaths, she nodded, as if to thank him.

  “Bravo…” Cyborg Fifty clapped as he walked out of the forest, “With that radio jammer, I can’t call for help. And I doubt that any of you will let me get out of here alive.” A second set of mechanical arms popped out from behind him. “So then, which one of you will put me to the ground?!”

  “Anya, don’t hold back this time.” Nero grinned.

  “Neither should you.” She replied.

  Anastasia and Nero readied their stances and aimed their weapons at the remaining enemy, who appeared to be a significantly greater threat than the two they already dealt with.

  “Are you the one who shot down our plane?” Felix’s voice interrupted the battle. He let go of Isabelle, who then dropped to her knees due to the accumulated stress.

  With a proud stride, the cyborg approached his enemy, “And if I am?”

  As soon as those words escaped his lips, a flash of blue light followed less than a second after.

  Before any of them could even blink, Felix had slammed the cyborg’s head to a foot deep into the ground.

  In front of Isabelle stood a glowing blue silhouette that gradually faded, far ahead of her, however, stood the real Felix, whose hands pressed tightly against his opponent’s face.

  “Grrr! GRAG–” The cyborg’s growled, his eyes turned red while all he grappled against Felix.

  Despite his right arm being squeezed by four mechanical arms, the blue-eyed agent refused budge.

  With a frigid stare, he lifted the cyborg by the face, then slammed him into the ground.

  Cyborg Fifty gasped, air exiting his lungs. But the blue-eyed agent repeated the motion, bashing the cyborg’s head into the ground. Again and again, relentlessly, until an earthy crater formed underneath his enemy’s head.

  When the mechanical man went quiet, he loosened his grip on the cyborg’s face, letting his mechanical foe drop down with a thud.

  “We… should have gotten… answers…” Anastasia wanted to scold him, but her voice shrank as she spoke.

  An excruciating quiet filled the air.

  All of the operatives felt frozen by the intense malice leaking out of his body. They all looked at Felix with a nervous fright.

  Like a slap to the face, Isabelle remembered her own words to him, “From the stories I’ve heard, I thought that you’d be… a cold and hardened killer.”

  A weak, aching voice muttered out and shattered the silence, “Looks like you put him on silent mode…”

  They all looked the dark-haired woman, who in turn looked at all of them with a pained gaze.

  Felix’s cold glare quickly softened as soon as he heard her voice, dusting off his black coat, “You would have killed him if I did.”

  “... You mean he’s still alive?” Grant muttered out in disbelief, staring at the smear of blood that lead to the unconscious cyborg.

  “Maria… are you okay?” Isabelle quickly rushed to her side.

  “Did you really think I would die from something like this?” The black-haired girl sneered.

  Nero shrugged his arms, “Most people normally die when you kill them, yes.”

  Anastasia then walked up to Grant, who was sitting on the ground, “I thought you got shot?”

  “I did.” Grant pulled out his chain, revealing the bullet caught between one of the links. He then lifted up his shirt, revealing a bleeding bruise on his stomach, “I just barely blocked the bullet.”

  “That suit is bullet resistant. It wouldn’t have killed you anyway.” The red-haired woman argued, “Can you get up?”

  “Yeah, I just need a couple of minutes to heal.” He groaned.

  “Same here.” Maria also responded as Isabelle helped her stay upright.

  “You can control chains? That’s cool.” Nice remarked.

  “Yeah… it’s to hunt people down. Take them to justice. I guess it’s got something to do with me being a bounty hunter.” The brown-haired man chuckled with a sharp groan, wrapping the chain back up.

  “So what now?” Isabelle asked.

  “We continue the mission.” Felix responded with single-minded determination.

  Anastasia looked at the silver-haired woman “Actually, before that… Isabelle, can we ask you to move the ground again… preferably make a hole?”

  “Hm? What for?” The silver-haired girl tilted her head.

  She mouth opened slightly, but before she could answer, Nero spoke up, “I’ll do it. Isa, you just get some rest, okay?”

  “Ah, mhm. Sure.” She replied, completely oblivious.

  “Okay. We’ll come back in five minutes, all of you should be ready by then. It won’t take long until they notice their scouts are missing.” Anastasia remarked as she started walking.

  “Don’t worry, Tundra. We’ll help.” Both Nice and Dreadnought added as they went along.

  As they left shortly, the remaining operatives stood side by side watching what Grant was doing.

  Metals sharply hissed and groaned as the red-eyed man folded the jet’s surface around the unconscious cyborgs, “There, that should do it. Gotta be thorough.” He said as he clapped the dust off his hands.

  “If you want to be thorough, why not just slice their throat?” Maria asked as she twirled her knife.

  Felix placed his hand on Maria’s shoulder with a disapproving nod, “I don’t think we should kill them… Not if it’s not necessary.”

  Isabelle then turned to them, “I agree with Felix.”

  The brown-haired man, Grant, shrugged in response, “Guess our hands are tied. I guess we should get our gear?” Grant turned his focus over to the wreckage, where their luggage was buried under the earth and dirt.

  Not long after putting on their equipment, Anastasia and Nero walked out of the forest, along with the other two non-espers walking behind them. There was a small amount of with dirt around all of their sleeves.

  “It’s time to get moving.” Their red-haired leader declared.

  In the woods, around the bushes, was a shallow grave, with a single plank of wood standing upright. On top of it was the pilot’s hat.

  ~