Xia De kept a close eye on the time. When there were 10 seconds left before the 【Bordeaux Candle】 reached its 47-second usage limit, he led the two girls into the shadow of the building.
He reached out and extinguished the candle, then immediately relit it. After confirming that it still hadn't attracted attention, he continued walking towards the three-story building wall of the printing factory.
The door was locked from the inside, but they didn't intend to enter through the door.
Walking halfway around the small building, Annette continuously used coin tosses to divine their luck, finally choosing a window.
After Bei Ya Si unlocked it with a special alchemical item, the three of them climbed in one by one.
There are many ways to infiltrate; killing everyone is one option, but tonight the trio's goal was the relic.
Therefore, regarding the Ring術士 on the ground, if they could avoid combat, they should not provoke them.
The entire first floor had no lights on, and the air was filled with the smell of ink, which perfectly matched the atmosphere of a printing factory.
In this silence, Annette, holding Xia De's hand, walked at the very front, leading the two of them to the room where the night watchman was located on the first floor.
Instead of entering, they carefully blew some black dust through the door crack.
The three of them moved away from the door and held their breath. During this time, Xia De extinguished the candle again and relit it.
It was a full minute later before they dared to breathe again, then they left directly and walked in the direction of the underground warehouse, where the printing factory's goods were stacked.
The entrance to the underground warehouse was on the side of the stairs on the west side of the first floor, blocked by an iron door that looked very sturdy.
Two iron locks hung outside the iron door, and it was also sealed with an iron chain.
Even if the person inside wanted to come out, they would need the cooperation of someone outside the door.
The three of them stopped at the doorway. Annette tossed the coin a few more times, hesitated, then nodded to the other two.
This meant she believed there was a high probability of a Ring術士 in the warehouse.
Although based on the strength of the Mercury Blood organization and the suspicion of the injured Silver-Eyed One, the person guarding the relic door would at most not exceed a 6th Ring, but after all, Annette, the strongest among the three, was only a Third Ring.
“Muting Charm.”
Annette looked at Bei Ya Si, who shook the iron triangular piece in her hand.
With a slight squeeze of her fingers, the runes on the metal glowed faintly in the darkness, and then, as if a gust of wind swept over the three of them, all sound completely disappeared.
Annette looked at Xia De, and Xia De gestured to indicate he understood.
He reached out and extinguished the candle flame, then immediately relit it.
As the candle relit and the 47-second timer restarted, Annette reached out and pushed open the door in front of her.
The charm's effect made the sound of the door opening completely disappear, and the somewhat dazzling gas lamp light from inside the door immediately shone out through the crack.
Without any hesitation, Bei Ya Si, standing in front of the door, rushed in first.
To prevent her own use of power from causing the other two to appear, she let go of Xia De's hand.
Her left hand shook the silver metal bell 【Judge's Holy Bell】 hanging at her waist, and amidst the unheard ringing of the bell, Bei Ya Si raised her right hand:
“Sunlight Gun!”
Golden lightning gathered in her palm, but strangely, it made no crackling sound.
The golden color illuminated everything inside and outside the door, and then the golden lightning, with a forceful strike from Bei Ya Si, shot into the interior of the underground warehouse.
Meanwhile, Xia De and Annette, still in their invisible state, quickly entered the underground warehouse, stood on the descending steps, and closed the opened door.
The muting charm was thrown at their feet, ensuring that no sound would be transmitted to the outside.
Only after stepping over the charm could the two hear the sound of a whistle and a bell, which were signs of the Destiny Ring manifesting.
Coming from the dark environment into the warehouse lit by gas lamps, Xia De instinctively squinted his eyes.
Annette, however, couldn't bother with such details; she immediately let go of Xia De, rushed down the steps, and went into the underground warehouse to help Bei Ya Si.
Inside the warehouse, stacks of cardboard boxes, some even reaching the ceiling, formed a maze of boxes in the massive underground space.
At the end of the descending stairs, Annette and Bei Ya Si stood side by side.
Behind the two ladies, their Destiny Rings manifested, and in front of them, a bald man with a scar over his right eye, his face grim, clutched his left arm, wounded by the Sunlight Gun, and looked at them.
In this situation, there was no need for idle chatter like “Who are you?”, the man extended his hand, and the Destiny Ring of a Five-Ring Sorcerer spun rapidly, the spiritual light stretching into circular lines shimmering in the steam mist.
Xia De counted down in his mind, took out the 【Ancient Magic Witches' Golden Necklace】 from his pocket, temporarily held the candle in his mouth, and hung the necklace around his neck with both hands.
At the same time, another golden lightning bolt from Bei Ya Si's hand seemed to pierce through space, while Scarface slightly bent his waist and then actually disappeared into thin air.
The flashing golden lightning struck the cardboard boxes, piercing through them and leaving scorched marks on the wall.
The paper sheets scattered by the lightning fluttered in the air, Annette tossed another coin, her purple eyes filled with determination:
“Left.”
Bei Ya Si gently shook the bell in her left hand—
Clang~
Her left foot stomped the ground fiercely, and a shockwave made of golden-yellow light spread from her feet along the ground to the left.
More cardboard boxes collapsed in swathes, but at the same time, the man's figure also appeared:
“You are all low-Ring術士, how dare you...”
He threw an air punch at Annette with his right hand, and after a dull thud, the female Diviner spat out a mouthful of blood, stumbled back, and fell motionless on the steps.
Then he tried to air-punch Bei Ya Si, but the appearance of the enemy also meant that Bei Ya Si had the opportunity to meet his gaze:
“Balance!”
Yellow light spread from her eyes to the surroundings, and with the ringing of the bell, another golden lightning bolt flew out.
Scarface tried to repeat his trick of disappearing into thin air, but when he bent down, only his legs disappeared:
“What? What kind of power is this?”
He dodged the Sunlight Gun by lying on his side, but then a silver light suddenly flared from his side.
Unable to dodge, he could only raise both arms to block, and then he saw the dazzling, dreamlike silver radiance.
He was only momentarily distracted, then immediately made the mercury-like glow surge onto his arms, attempting to block the Silver Moon Slash, but that Moonlight was not affected at all.
Like cutting a carrot, it cleanly severed his right arm.
The severed arm's cut was exceptionally smooth, and blood only began to gush out after the severed arm hit the ground.
“Ah!”
Scarface howled and sprang up.
Xia De, whose body had appeared due to using a Miracle, immediately retreated.
The candle flame brightened, and he disappeared again.
The man supported himself on the ground with one hand, his whole body trembling, and terrifying black mist surged from his pores, enveloping his entire body:
“Do you... do you really know who you are dealing with?”
His body completely melted into the mist, and then a huge, sinister, wailing ghost face, carrying terrifying black mist, shot upwards.
Within the black mist, countless ferocious faces seemed to be roaring, and in that massive ghost face, one could almost see hundreds of souls wailing.
A chilling wind swept through the enclosed basement, and amidst eerie whispers, the light in the room grew increasingly dim.
Xia De felt his physical strength rapidly draining; the black mist was absorbing life.
“This is a necromantic Miracle, 【Ghost Mist Avatar】! I know who he is! Ghost Mount, a Five-Ring Sorcerer of Mercury Blood, with a bounty of 300 pounds.
Be careful, absolutely do not let that mist touch you.”
Bei Ya Si shouted loudly, throwing the golden lightning in her hand at the mist again, but it only evaporated a portion of the black mist.
The brown-haired girl gritted her teeth:
“Damn it, we must attack the mist simultaneously, point-to-point attacks are useless.”
“It's okay, he doesn't have the power of a Five-Ring Sorcerer right now, watch me!”
Annette, who had fallen on the steps, struggled to remove the butterfly-shaped hair ornament from her hair and tossed it into the air.
Transparent blue butterflies continuously flew out from within the hair ornament and became entangled with the black mist enveloped by the ghost face.
The black mist was actually being devoured by the blue butterflies, but the ghost face didn't care at all.
It roared, dragging black smoke, and lunged in the direction of the disappeared Xia De.
It seemed to realize that among everyone here, the young man was the weakest.
“He brought this upon himself! Good opportunity, Detective!”
“Silver Moon!”
Extreme silver light burst from his fingertips, sweeping through the room like an exploding sun.
In that light, the black mist melted like ice encountering the sun, and the piercing roar almost shattered Xia De's eardrums, yet the ghost face still lunged at him with all its might.
He subconsciously wanted to use an illusion to hide, but then he saw Bei Ya Si, eyes closed, who had rushed over at some point.
Raising her right fist, although the scorching golden-yellow light on her fist was completely suppressed by the Silver Moon's radiance, Xia De had no doubt about the power of this punch:
“Sunlight Fist!”
Bei Ya Si's fist pierced through the ghost face in front of Xia De, and at the same time, the swarm of blue butterflies thrown by Annette also drilled into the ghost face's interior through the hole created by the punch.
A chilling wind gushed out from the large hole in the ghost face, and the wailing sounds, if not for the charm silencing them, could have spread throughout the entire district.
Xia De, standing in front of the ghost face, tightly clutched the luxurious necklace around his neck with his left hand, feeling the enhanced power.
The light at his fingertips rapidly weakened, but his entire palm was shaking.
He swung that dazzling light forward:
“Silver Moon Slash!”
It was as if all the light was compressed into this Moonlight, and the arc-shaped light blade left a luminous afterimage in space, directly splitting the ghost face entangled by the butterfly swarm.
It silently left a perfect arc-shaped imprint on the opposite wall.
The black mist dissipated, the chilling wind and the terrifying whispers vanished, and the gas lamp's light once again enveloped the area.
The blue butterfly swarm flew back into the injured Annette's hand, transforming back into the butterfly-shaped hair ornament.
Scarface's bisected corpse appeared from the dissipating ghost face, falling at Xia De's feet.
Xia De breathed heavily, calculating the time; from opening the door to the end of the battle, it was only about half a minute.
