Due to most of the ash corps being spread to different mines and sites of natural resources, they were currently understaffed when it came to the internal affairs of the city.
Since the leader of The Creed gang, Slade, who had a highly wanted man was allegedly involved in the mission, it was automatically categorized as a high-level mission. This meant not anyone can handle it, so Commander Darius decided to handle the mission by himself.
"See you in a bit." Commander Darius took a step back and disappeared from the room.
'This can't be a coincidence.' Ashely thought with a puzzled expression. If one hadn't properly looked into the profile of the trio, they would easily pass it as coincidence because the events that led to the current situation couldn't be orchestrated.
'The reason Darius decided to go was that they were 'understaffed', but the cause of this was because of the unexpected attacks from the beasts.' Ashely thought.
'Also, it wasn't as if he knew that the warehouse robbery would take place or that the trio would accept and complete the commission.' Ashely was in deep thoughts as she returned to her office to wait for Commander Darius to return.
'Although it doesn't sound plausible, what if he knew? I mean he is in the Angel realm, he is more powerful than normal people think.' Ashely thought.
A gang could be controlled since they were humans, but when it came to the rampant beast attacks, she couldn't wrap her head on how a human could control beasts. Unless it was a way that people of the current age hadn't heard of.
"Except for the royal family, I don't think there is anyone or family that has lived that long." Ashely said to herself, but when she thought of what she just said, her eyes widened in realization.
'It makes a lot of sense if the royal family is added to the picture. They could easily control gangs from behind the scene, and as for the beasts, they might have a way to control them.' The picture she was trying to paint was almost complete, but it lacked a final piece and that was a reason.
'Even if they had control over the Creed gang and the beasts, why would they put so many people's lives in danger, cause economic and security issues for just 3 boys?' This was the most mind-boggling question.
It was after she spent more than 10 minutes looking for an answer that she realized that she was accusing the most powerful and most dangerous power of the empire of committing crimes.
'Shit! Let's not try this again.' There was a hint of fear on her face as she looked around the room to make sure no one was there.
It was a series of thoughts like these that led many investigators and ash corps to investigate things they weren't meant to know and led to their early demise.
…
The moment Commander Darius disappeared from his office, he appeared at the first location stated in the report, the sewers.
'Not bad.' Darius was impressed by how accurate the locator skill was.
Once he had confirmed the location of the stolen goods, he took a step and appeared in the reception room of the textile factory. In the report, it stated the connection between the textile factory and The Creed gang so he had to confirm it.
It was already night meaning the factory was already closed. All the real workers were already out of the factory and all the halls and rooms in the factory were filled with patrolling gang members.
At the reception, the lights were off, but there were gang members in dark on their night shift of watching the entrance.
Not caring about the gang members who couldn't see him, Commander Darius brought out the Beholder from his dimensional space.
"Let's see what happened here." Darius injected his mana into the artifact causing a ripple that made the surface of the mirror tear in half, revealing a yellow-stained eyeball filled with multiple eerie blood vessels.
Once the eyelid was fully open, the pupil had a purple aura that sent images of what happened to Darius' mind. The scene of Brian walking into the reception and Blake and Castiel sneaking in.
When he got to where Brian brought out the royal family crest he squinted his brows, but it soon went back to normal. When there was no other useful info, he canceled the link with the beholder before placing it back into his dimensional place.
He took a step and appeared in the storage room and looked in the direction of the hidden door. "Without the space and darkness element, it is very hard to come this far."
"Although there is a lot of paperwork to return to, I find this more boring. I was hoping that something crazy happened just lie the other times." Darius shook his head in disappointment.
"Let's get this over with then." Darius instantly scanned the factory along with the entire hideout in search of Slade.
"Found you." Darius took another step and appeared in a very spacious office that had an entire wall that displayed live footage of the streets around the factory.
"Nice office you got here." Darius said as he looked around the room with an impressed look on his face.
The sudden announcement caused Slade to instantly turn around while simultaneously casting spells and activating all his defensive artifacts.
"I think this should be nice for my office, but I think I prefer the view of the Bulian hills." Darius continued speaking as he didn't even pay attention to Slade whose heart-thumping could be heard.
"By now you should know that trying to fight me is useless." Darius said as he glanced in his direction before returning his attention to the large wall display.
"Are you here to kill or maybe capture me?" Slade asked in a hopeless tone when he saw that the one standing in front of him was the commander of the ash corps.
"Surprisingly I am not here for any of them." Darius finally turned to him.
"Your hideout will be raided by ash corps and adventurers tomorrow, but you are still useful to the royal family." Slade was shocked by the news and had so many questions to ask, but he didn't dare speak when an angel was still talking.
"The catch here is that you need to prove to the royal family that you are worthy of their attention. The test is that you have to survive the raid and do not escape before it starts." Darius said.
Slade was dumbfounded by the so-called test. Not as if he didn't like the head start, but what was now the need for the test if he could make proper preparations to escape beforehand.
As for what would happen if he tried escaping before the raid. He didn't need anyone to tell him, because if Darius could locate him, then he would be dead in an instant if he tried escaping.
"Any questions on that?" Darius gave him a chance to speak.
"What is the next step after I survive the raid?" Slade asked the next step as he had already accepted his fate
It wasn't as if Slade loved the idea of the gang he had spent years building getting destroyed. It was just that he knew once the royal family had decided his gang was to be erased there was no saving it. It was even a miracle that they had decided he would live.
"I love your confidence." Darius chuckled before continuing. "A man from the guild of assassins would come to recruit you. The rest would be explained after that."
Seeing that Slade had no questions, Darius was about to leave but that was when he recalled something. "Before you make a big mistake by attacking the party that solved this case, I advise you to forget about them because they are being protected by the royal family."
With the information passed, Darius took a step and returned to his office, and called for Ashely.
The moment Darius left, Slade brought out a bottle of wine and without a glass, he began downing its contents as he tried to understand why he was so unlucky.. Everything he managed to build always got destroyed whenever things were going well.