Night was falling over the bustling capital of Panderium. The blue sun was slowly disappearing beyond the horizon, throwing dark shades of purple over the continent of Arcanterra.

It was one of those moments when the world felt surreal. Sunrise and sunset were peculiar, as these were the only times the sun’s blue color made itself noticeable. Whereas during the day, it appeared to be bathing the world in nothing but pure white radiance, the rise and setting exposed a myriad of colorful rays.

And currently under these rays, three shrouded outlines, two humanoid, and one feline, were moving over brown roofs. Crossing the gaps between the buildings with ease, the trio was headed straight for what was best described as a fortress.

Constructed entirely out of solid stone, it seemed to tower over anything near it, with a height of at least sixty meters. The multiple watch towers, each one manned with four guards armed with steam rifles, gave off a grim air to passersby. Yet there was no hesitation in the group's footsteps as they turned, approaching the prison in what could only be described as a precarious endeavor.

This was mostly thanks to the fact that the complex stood on a small hill with a generous amount of room between it and the surrounding residential buildings. This formed a death zone, with anyone wanting to enter the grey fortress having to cross the completely open area.

Several streets before the death zone, the trio used the ceramic roof tiles as footholds and came to a halt.

According to the plan, they would wait till night had completely fallen before resuming the infiltration of the prison. And night wouldn’t fall till around ten minutes for now, so that left them with a considerable amount of time.

While her companions made themselves comfortable on the roof, as much as that was possible, Blur checked the plan for any flaws one last time.

Under the veil of darkness, they would be entering the prison through the sewers. Technically they didn’t need to wait for nightfall, but during the night the guards paid extra attention to the death zone around the prison. This meant that fewer guards would be patrolling the corridors and tunnels of the dungeon below. And since that was where their target was located, it was the perfect time to get him out. Yet he would merely switch hands. There was no freedom awaiting him, no matter in whose hands he was.

The plan was laughably simple, the thorough preparations made it that straightforward. After securing the target they would leave by taking a different path through the sewers, entering a horse carriage that would be waiting for them, and then transporting the target to a safe house several kilometers away where he would then be held for further safeguarding.

It was impressive how much information on the target and the prison Dupe had collected over the past few days. Her puppets weren’t only for show. In addition to the layout of the grey fortress, they now also knew a lot about their target. Apparently it was a humanoid male. Not much more was known about him appearance-wise since no one had been able to gaze through the blueish fog that stuck to his skin like a suit of armor.

In comparison, his power was quite well documented. Before he had been captured in Sianes, a port city that bordered the great Poneva Lake, he had caused thousands of civilian casualties.

Subsequently, there had been a lot of eyewitnesses and a lengthy police report, which had found its way into the hands of the Arcane Operatives. Having one of Dupe’s puppets infiltrate the police force of Panderium two years ago proved invaluable once again.

His power had entailed an aura of absolute fear, which sent anyone close to him into a panicked frenzy as they tried to flee. Some even fainted on the spot. Those made up a large chunk of the causalities because it turned out that staying close to an unrestrained mutant was in fact, not healthy. Mutant was a more common term used to refer to experiments of the Corrupted by the ones in the know. It originated from the fact that most of the time, not much humanity was to be found in whatever was left of the human bodies used for these experiments.

Apart from the latent aura emanating from his body, he had shown the ability to manifest all kinds of common human fears into reality. From giant spiders to slowly narrowing spaces, there were many different kinds of horrors, but that wouldn’t matter today. The prisoner had a multitude of suppressive chains, cuffs, and the like placed on him by the officials; it was impossible for him to use any of his powers.

When Blur finished her mental inspection of the plan, the sun was already throwing its last few weak rays over the horizon. The view held a certain tantalizing appeal, but alas it wasn’t appropriate to appreciate it during a mission.

Time to go.

With a quick hand signal, Blur let the other two know that the next step of the plan started now. Now that nightfall had arrived, another facet of the plan would be set into motion as well.

Using the mole planted in the police’s ranks, they had prepared a false alarm that would draw attention away from the prison. Although that wouldn’t make the guards abandon their duties, it would make them less observant of the prison’s dungeon. That was all the trio needed in order to achieve their goal.

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A series of shouts from the grey fortress let Blur know that the feint had succeeded. Without hesitation, she entered the sewers through a trash- obscured manhole, closely followed by Sliver and Dupe.

The sewers were bathed in complete darkness, but since every member of the trio had the means to see in the dark, it posed no issue.

Doesn’t make the stench any better though.

Grimacing at the foul smell, the pale scientist carefully manipulated her own flesh and closed her nose. While she could circumvent the stench in such a manner, the others had to bear with it. It must have been far worse for Sliver who had the nose of a feline, but he didn’t let his discomfort show. The same went for Dupe’s puppet. She was simply following along.

They soon arrived before a reinforced iron door. While they could take the easy route and just kick it in, that would be far too loud. So instead they opted for another option.

Placing her hand on the keyhole, Blur channeled one of her abilities with utmost precision. Sliver; Mantle Directing, allowed her to remove layers of what she touched. Thankfully it was possible to decide the amount of a surface she wanted to remove.

A careful lock removal later, the door swung open, revealing a sparsely illuminated corridor. By capitalizing on a short timeframe in which no guards were present in the prison’s dungeon, they entered the corridor unobstructed.

After passing by multiple doors leading to other holding cells and navigating through increasingly gloomy hallways, Blur arrived before a massive iron door. Everything about it screamed "don’t open!", but she didn’t even bat an eye at the warning signs fixed to the wall right next to the steel entrance. Instead, the pale scientist repeated what she had done earlier and prepared to enter the cell. With a quiet, grating, hiss the door swung open, now left with a hole where the lock had been.

She slipped into the room while Sliver and Dupe stayed back to keep watch. The insides of the cell were nearly empty with only the captive himself kneeled in its center. He was held down by numerous chains which were fastened to the cold stone floor. Additionally, two pairs of shackles bound his arms and legs. Only the rhythmic sounds of breathing revealed the fact that he was alive.

Striding confidently, Blur approached the shackled prisoner. Just like Dupe’s research had proclaimed, it was impossible to make out any distinct features about the prisoner, due to a blueish fog. The fog looked like a ghastly cloak or perhaps a second skin, exuding an aura of dread. This aura however was only faint. The enchanted shackles were doing their job.

Squatting down in front of the restrained man, Blur procured a small glass vial containing a strong sedative and dumped its contents into the prisoner’s mouth. As he hesitantly swallowed the fluid, there was a minor fluctuation in the blueish fog. In that moment two hazel eyes were revealed. They burned with insanity and murderous intent,, but were missing the element which turned a savage beast into a cold-blooded killer: reason.

The captive’s breathing changed, indicating that the sedative had taken effect. Noticing this change, Blur began to remove the chains the same way she had removed the locks earlier. One after another, heavy chains fell to the floor. However, no resounding thuds were echoing through the chamber since Blur was using another ability to mute them.

When the last chain became undone, she brought the kneeling man up to his feet before throwing him over her shoulder. It was time to bring the stolen goods home. Blur handed the captive over to Dupe’s puppet after leaving the cell and they began to head back.

The return trip through the sewers was uneventful, and the trio soon found themselves beneath another manhole, leading them to where their horse carriage awaited. They left the sewers, entered the carriage, returning back to the safe house.

Since the journey would take at least thirty minutes, they made themselves comfortable in the roomy carriage. Dupe placed the captive between herself and Blur, while Sliver took a seat opposite to them. This ensured that even if the captive woke up, he wouldn’t be able to escape easily.

But none of them were scared of this actually occurring; the sedative should be enough to knock him out for at least ten hours, if not more. And that was with his nature as a mutant taken into account; any normal human would die from such a dose.

The interior of the carriage was quite high-class, lending the kidnapping scene an aloof atmosphere. Ornate surroundings stood in stark contrast to the shackled, blueish man, who had just unknowingly switched captors. It was mismatched in nearly every aspect; a giant black feline lounging on velvet cushions didn’t exactly match the carriage’s interior either, at least not by Arcanterra’s standards.

Leaning back into her soft seat, Blur watched the gas lamps illuminated streets rush past with a thoughtful shimmer in her eyes. She didn’t worry about someone seeing the captive and being startled by his odd appearance, because he wasn’t visible to onlookers. From an outsider’s point of view, only Blur and Dupe were currently inside the carriage, this was achieved through a minor illusion applied to the windows. Of course, this also meant that, as soon as the doors were opened the illusion would fail to veil Sliver and the captive, but limiting it to only the windows tremendously decreased the upkeep.

Silence filled the carriage and only the muffled sound of horse hooves stepping on stone remained. Dupe was reading a newspaper and intermediately disappearing into the background, Sliver was intently monitoring the captive and Blur was staring out the window. She had opened up her nose again after leaving the sewers and was now going through possible methods she could employ to uncover the Corrupted’s source of power. With a perfect test subject at her disposal, a myriad of options opened up.

Twenty minutes went by like this and she gradually settled on the specific methods she would use. Then something weird happened, the carriage stopped. Alarmed by this, Blur changed the illusion to cover Sliver and the captive themselves instead of the windows and exited the carriage to find out why they had suddenly stopped.

They were now in the outskirts of Votal and the streets were utterly devoid of activity at this hour. Yet there was someone who was currently blocking the carriage’s path. Blur scanned the stranger from head to toe. Their facial features were perfectly androgynous, accentuated by a high nose bridge and a chiseled jaw. Voluminous grey hair encapsulated their face, nearly reaching down to the shoulders. Their outfit consisted of high-waist black pants and a white shirt; frills accentuated its cuffs and collar.

Blur processed all these details in a split second. She had seen someone with androgynous features like the stranger before, and she could vividly remember the chaos that followed their appearance. One of the corners of her mouth twitched as she readied for combat.