Chapter 17

In the Aster Organisation Fortress.

"What was that?" A subordinate of Pope Abril asked in confusion upon seeing the sudden change in the mansion.

"We were about to win a moment ago; what happened?" Another subordinate was added.

Lord Darik looked at Pope Abril and spoke, "This must be the backup plan of the 'Thieving Maidan' clone."

"I also thought that but soon disregarded it. How did she use two skills almost at the same time? No one can activate two skills at once; this is impossible." The Pope replied.

"And what's your deduction after all this?" Lord Darik asked.

"Her clone has vanished, probably caught by the Lords of Soul Domain as we haven't seen it. She has a way to cast two skills at once, and that unknown Black Soul is somehow interconnected in all this event. Don't ask me how, as I also haven't figured it out yet." Pope Abril responded.

Lord Darik praised, "That's an interesting conclusion." And enquired, "So, there is a possibility that the reason we banded together will still be a hindrance to our plan."

"Yeah! With his soul-absorbing skill, I think he can recover faster." Pope Abril spoke in a low tone and thought, 'I took a major bet and lost. Huff! Now not only I made enemies with the Thieving Maiden but also created an unknown enemy, which is way scarier. If not for the advantage of Mia being with Black Soul users were higher, why would I choose otherwise?'

"Nothing we can do now; let's leave the rest to them, as I don't have any way to contact them." Lord Darik spoke and moved his gaze towards the mansion.

…

Everyone was covering themselves with a roof so as not to get shot by a sniper.

"So, now what?" Nico asked Anbu in his soul form.

"Why are you siding with him? Did you really plan to betray them from the start?" Mia, who was next to him, asked back while pointing towards the dead bodies of Dhruv and Tara.

"Of course not; you are new in the temple, so you don't know, but Code 6B is for betrayal; it changes every time before we head to a new mission. You are not aware of that, as initially we won't have to change sides, but now the situation is different." Nico explained.

"Yeah! Nice, and made an unwanted enemy. He is smart and still out there. I despise this behaviour of the upper echelon; note that." Mia replied in anger.

"Well, when you become the 'Holy Maiden', you can change that." Nico teased.

"Quit your bikering; you are about to vanish anyway. And you healing girl, I definitely don't want you on my side, but since the deed is done, let's move. At least you can carry people with your skill." Anbu said it with an authoritative tone.

Mia gave a side glance to Anbu. "You are quite similar to that guy over there, you know." She said while pointing towards Dhruv's body.

"Alright then it's time to say goodbye bye and you guys take care of her, or you can guess where my spear is going to hit." Nico said and flew upwards from the open glass at the top and saw the whole devastated battle field. "Bloody hell, what in the world is going on there?" Above the mansion, he shouted and flew away.

Even the people in the loud helicopter heard his shout, and although the commander couldn't see him, he was startled and looked around and gave a low shout, "What going on now?"

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...

With tired eyes, Dhruv's main body looked at the artefact and spoke, sweat dripping from his face. "I'm really exhausted, but we have to release these souls from this Soul Box."

"You did very well, to be fair; my main body uses her 70% of memory to maintain me." Tara praised.

"I only used 4 'Mind Clone's' and I'm on the brink of collapse; if I used another one, ufff, it would have been a total disaster." Dhruv sighed and continued, "Here, refine it and release the souls inside." He threw the Soul Box to her.

She started refining it and spoke. "Refining this artefact is okay, but unfortunately I can't release the souls inside.

"You're joking, right." He spoke in disbelief. "Can't you see the condition I'm in?"

"It's not like I don't want to, but I can't, White Soul issue." She replied honestly.

"I'm going to totally collapse if I use any soul energy of mine."

"Come on, you are not going to die. I'll take care of you while you are unconscious." Tara spoke with a sinister smile.

"I don't like the sound of that."

"Here it's refined; you know if the Black Soul, who is controlling these unconscious puppets, shuts his power, all these people will really die." She urged and pointed out the urgency of the situation.

"Huff! Fine, let's do this. At least I can check how far is my limit." As Dhruv spoke, he took the Soul Box and refined it with her help.

Dhruv activated the artefact and asked. "How many hours or days do you think I'll be unconscious?"

"I don't know." She said.

'Yeah! Right, this is the ultimate test for me. If she wants, she can definitely kill me while I'm unconscious.' He thought inwardly and spoke, "I'm trusting my life to you; get us to a safe place; after this, our location will be exposed."

"Oh! You don't have to worry; as I said, I'll take care of you." She spoke sinisterly.

'Why is she like this?' As he thought, the souls started coming out of the box. From a distance, one could see a building with 20 floors leaking water from the top floor. But they are souls quickly spreading in all directions to get to their original bodies; screeching sounds could be heard from all directions.

Dhruv started sweating, and blood started coming out of his ears as he was the closest to Soul Box. He turned his head to look at Tara's condition but was disappointed. "If you knew about this, why didn't you tell me?" He shouted.

"Don't be a baby now; you planned all this but overlooked the small details, which is quite funny in its own way. Here." She teased and passed the headphones to him.

"Haaa! Much better. Thanks."

Although his bleeding from the ears was solved, he coughed out a mouth full of black blood. 'I need to hang on; it's not even half empty.' He persisted and gave a shout, "Aaahhhhh."

Anbu also heard Nico's shout and observed the abnormal behavior and was confused. "So, the Soul Box was taken by him, but wait, isn't he a soul wisp now?"

"Yeah! How is this possible? Is his soul-absorbing skill this powerful? He recovered instantly and even refined the Soul Box for himself." Shambu also analyzed.

"This is not good if he made his way to us instead of releasing souls; we might have been caught off guard." Anbu added.

"Cut off your soul connection with those unconscious puppets." Shambu suggested.

"Don't talk nonsense." Anbu rebuked.

"Yeah! He will directly attack us." Mia chipped in.

"Let's leave this place using this chance." Anbu said and launched his skill, 'Soul Puppet' towards the helicopter.

The whole hovering helicopter shook with intensity. "Quick, carry us there; they will transform into the mindless puppets soon, and the helicopter will crash." Anbu instructed Mia.

She used the skill 'Harmony' and carried them upwards. They went inside; Anbu replaced the pilot seat, and others sat in the lobby.

"So, this is the sniper who killed Nico." 'Kick! Kick!' Mia spoke, looking at the lying sniper in the middle of the lobby, and kicked him a few times. Then she looked at the majestic sight of the building where Dhruv was releasing the souls.

Mia thought, 'Mr.D. is interesting. I haven't seen anyone like him. If possible, I would like to meet him in his real body in the upper world. Hopefully he isn't angry for betraying him, as I was also in the dark about it.'

'This isn't good; I should have left earlier, like Sniper B, but I remained to watch the situation from above, and now I'm trapped with these bunch of people who I wanted to kill earlier.' Sniper A 'Mind Clone' screamed in his mind.

Sniper A opened his eyes slightly only to see Mia's long legs in front of him. 'Why did she have to sit right in front of me? Ah! Well, let's act unconscious.' And the helicopter flew away under Anbu's control.

Meanwhile, his real body, Dhruv, almost released the souls trapped inside the Soul Box, but suddenly he felt something amiss. He couldn't even inform Tara about the situation when he fell on the ground.

"You reached your limit." Tara wondered, and after checking, she confirmed he is unconscious now. "Alright, you can come out now. You know I already felt your presence when my clone used 'Treasure Identifier'."

A man with the round glasses, long hair, and fit body came into the room where Dhruv was unconscious. He looked at him for a moment, then turned his gaze towards Tara.

"I don't like beating around the bush. So, it will be wise for you both to come with me." The man spoke with a firm tone, leaving no room for argument.

"Hmm, I don't know about that. Just tell me you're an enemy or ally." Tara spoke bluntly.

"Depends on what you do next, but he is an ally." The man replied without batting an eye.

"Oh! So it's like that. I was wondering how a person from the lower world got this lucky. It turns out there was a conspiracy behind this all along." Tara replied.

"I don't know what you are talking about; we don't have much time, so decide for yourself if you want to come or not. But I'm definitely taking him." He showed an unshakeable stance.

"Alright, let's go." Tara affirmed.

…

“Hey, look here. This phone is livestreaming.” A soldier spoke.