Eva moved with speed and precision through the Merchant Guild's headquarters. It wasn't that she had been here before, but she could easily map out where she needed to go with Control.
After all, this wasn't the Refinement God's Treasury where the Void of Perfection was suppressed. Eva was free to expand hers freely whenever she paused to assess her surroundings.
As she skittered across the rooftop like a bug, she noticed that there were a few squads of guards patrolling beneath her. Her eyes narrowed coldly as she contemplated countermeasures to their mobilizations.
People hardly ever looked up, and even if they did right now, she was too cloaked in the shadows invisible for anyone or anything to spot her that wasn't a powerful magical device.
Still, Eva was not arrogant enough to believe that the Merchant Guild hadn't encountered professional thieves like her over the millennia. Surely, there had to be someone among the group who might be sharp enough to drag Eva out of hiding?
As Eva neared the treasury, she noticed that the guard presence increased yet again, only these ones were not patrolling. Instead, they stood fast at all exit points covering all possible escape routes, blocking off any attempt to flee.
Eva paused here and became solemn. She understood that if she continued on, she would encounter something that would absolutely pierce the veil and reveal her presence no matter how expertly she had covered herself up.
Once that happened, these guards would box her in and slaughter her like a pig. What made her grave was that these guards should be aware that positioning themselves like this would make it obvious.
Any thief who saw this would realize the hidden message. They would either consider this a bluff and continue, feel confident in their 'supreme' invisibility, and continue… or they would be smart enough to take a hint and leave with their lives intact.
This was the last point of return for any would-be thief. The Merchant Guild was basically saying 'bravo, young chap/lass for making it this far. Now, turn around and leave while I'm still in a good mood, or else…'
Eva took a deep breath and continued on. She wasn't exactly 100% confident, but she knew how to maintain extreme stealth at all times. She had some guesses about what might lay ahead, but there was only one way to be sure.
Eva crossed this hallway and entered another. Here there wasn't a single guard, yet there weren't any windows or cervices to escape from either. On top of that, the roof was jagged with spikes, forcing anyone who came to walk on the ground.
Unfortunately for them, Eva stuck to the roof. She wasn't using her Control to perform this feat nor was that a game skill. One does not simply jump on a wall and shout 'woohoo, I'm spider(wo)man!' instead of falling face-first on the ground like the idiot they were.
Eva was using her bloodline, specifically her Abyssal Eye Inheritance. She had cloaked her fingertips in the void, using its attractive properties to keep her attached to any surface.
Just as Izanagi spun clockwise to pull anything within its depths, Eva had made herself a 'living' Izanagi of sorts. So, she wasn't sticking to the roof per se, but rather that the roof was sticking to her.
After crossing half of the hallway using this method, she noticed that there was a young boy floating in a meditative position near the door to the treasury. He was like some Eastern Cultivator as he sat like that, with the difference being that there was no spirit energy or anything like that around him, merely a sharp blue light that was like an aura.
When Eva laid eyes upon him, her pupils constricted. She finally had the answer as to why the Merchant Guild had been so confident and unbothered. They had employed the best and rarest type of guard for their treasury… a Mind Mage!
Their class was called Cerebramancers, and they dealt with all forms of mental magic, techniques, and methods. This was different from the mental abilities that Zaine, Eva, and Draco possessed, as that fell under the category of psychic abilities.
They directly used their brains for mental abilities, which drained mental stamina. Cerebramancers used mana to facilitate their mental abilities, making it far easier for them to work for long periods of time.
It was similar to the relationship between objective and subjective magic. Psychics using mental abilities were stronger and more diverse, but it was harder to learn and even harder to master.
Mind Magicians using mental abilities were more rigid, slower, and constrained, but it only required skillbooks and mana, both of which the Merchant Guild could provide in heaps.
"Come out, I have already sensed you." The Cerebramancer demanded in a youthful voice.
His previously closed eyes opened to reveal dark blue eyes shining like stars. He wore an azure mage's robe that looked a size too big for him, which would be cute in any situation but the current one.
Eva gracefully landed from the roof like a cat and dispelled her invisibility, but kept her form cloaked. She walked up to the fellow calmly and stared him right in the eye.
The Cerebramancer flinched as he gazed into those abyssal portals, quickly looking away and making sure to avoid any further eye contact. Eva clicked her tongue, as she was prepared to rip his soul into the abyss for eternity, but he was clever enough to look away.
However, Eva was not done. She still walked up to the fellow and began channeling her Celestial Maiden Inheritance. The psychic abilities that the Celestial Maiden Inheritance focused on were the polar opposite of what the Dark Angel Inheritance did.
The Dark Angel focused on manipulating the matter of world around the caster, as well as the body of the caster themselves, whereas the Celestial Maiden focused on manipulating the energy of the world and the minds of all others except the caster themselves.
For example, Telepathy, mind control, astral projection, channeling, and the like fell under the purview of this Inheritance. As such, Eva walked up to the Cerebramancer who was tongue-tied by the waves of mental powers that washed over him.
He had tried to call out the alarm, but he was suffering under a mental compulsion from the person before him to remain silent and go to sleep. He could barely resist the second command, but he had fallen under the first.
He was shocked to find that the intruder was a psychic, which was the archnemesis of any Cerebramancer. He knew his odds, especially against such a powerful and experienced psychic.
Once Eva reached him, she gently whispered into his ear: "Sleep. Sleep, little one. Sleep and never wake up."
He desperately fought against this command, but it was like being roofied or inhaling anesthesia. No matter how hard one resisted with sheer willpower, the sleep would come eventually, and it did.
The last thing the young and promising Cerebramancer who had a bright future ahead of him saw, was the cold black eyes looking down at him like he was vermin, nonchalant to the innocent life they had ruined.
Eva ignored the boy and walked onward. She rubbed her temples as she felt tired mentally. Channeling her Celestial Maiden Inheritance so strongly was quite strenuous.
She had spent years of her life suppressing it so that she could have peace of mind, so to turn the dial up to the max was quite jarring. Nevertheless, she reached the treasury door and sighed with relief.
Now that she was here, the heist was partly successful. Eva took out the Orb of Worlds and located the exact spot where the treasury was placed. It was in the vault itself, but hidden in a corner.
She used the key that had been on the young boy's body to open the vault. As the last checkpoint, it was only natural that he would have a key to verify those who came to withdraw anything.
He would use his mind magic to read the mind of those who came forth and then open it for them. Once they reappeared, he would verify that they had indeed only taken out what they were sent to before closing it.
Without any more resistance, Eva easily entered and walked to the location of the pocket space. It was right in front of a statue of the God of Wealth, Plutus. Eva chuckled and enacted her master plan.
There were a few ways to break into a pocket space. There was brute force, slitting, and transference. Brute force would be punching a hole into the pocket space and walking through, but that required serious strength and made the most noise.
There was slitting, which was basically cutting a slit through the fabric of space to enter. Eva could not do this as that would require special skills or items. The final one was transference, which meant teleporting herself in, which she needed something like the Orb of Worlds for.
However, none of the above methods were what she intended to use. Eva walked up to the pocket space which was invisible to the n.a.k.e.d eye and channeled her Abyssal Eye Inheritance.
Izanagi was cast in full force, dragging the pocket space into the abyss. However, Eva soon clenched her teeth in pain as it was like using a pickup truck with a tow cable to try and drag a plane away.
Her bloodline energy was burned so quickly that she was about to lose her grip on the pocket space, but it was no problem for her. She took out an Angel's Kiss potion and drank it, upping the pulling force greatly.
The pocket space as a whole was unmoving, but a single section of it was being pulled. It was akin to someone pinching a piece of a rubber ball and pulling. Even though it would be hard to, with enough strength, one could eventually rip a hole through it.
Unlike rubber balls though, this pocket space's world was stable and would repair itself in time. As such, as soon as Eva managed to create an entrance after draining 10 Angel's Kiss potions, she quickly rushed in before it healed itself almost instantly.
Once in, Eva was greeted by a realm of utter beauty… and wealth. Using Control to check the content of this pocket space, her face became black and she staggered backward.
She had always felt that she and Draco were rich, but she now understood that they were but nouveau riche to an established clan that controlled the world in the shadows.
Epic item? Are you mad? That kind of trash didn't make it here. There were only Legendaries at the minimum, with many Semi-Divine items of various different types of kinds as well. No wonder any Rank 7 powerhouse affiliated with the Merchant Guild was better equipped than their freelance peers.
Aether Crystals? Plenty. Almost unlimited. Enough that it almost made a continent in this mini small world. Eva saw a lot of good stuff, but no Divine items, which was reasonable.
Only the Church of Light had that, and probably the War Maniac Pavilion too.
Eva quickly honed in on the platinum and fell down in shock. The platinum formed a mountain as big as Mount Everest in the real world.
1 billion? Bro, she was guessing that there was around 30 billion platinum if not more. She suddenly felt like a pauper for thinking that 1 billion was such a huge amount and that she would be harming them.
Had she managed to sneak past the Cerebramancer perfectly, the Merchant Guild would never have even noticed her theft in any capacity. This left a bitter taste in her mouth, but she sighed and took it with a grain of salt.
Eva felt that each item had its own protection in the form of magical barriers, but Eva simply smiled and walked through them thanks to her Free Movement passive.
These barriers were there to prevent people from entering, not to raise alarms. As such, Eva decided to leave a weaker trail by stealing 25% of the Aether Crystals and the Platinum.
She did not touch the items. No matter how good, they would leave a trail if anyone used them. By the time Umbra became strong enough to not fear retribution, she and Draco would likely be clad in all Divine items, so there was no need to hoard them right now.
Eva had never enjoyed robbing anyone in her life, it was her old shameless Draco from the previous timeline who loved that.
However, for the first time, Eva found herself humming a tune as her lovely face was spread into a wide smile as she shoveled the possessions of others into the Bag of Holding Draco had made for her.