Fayette City was dimly lit in a soft, blue light by glowstones interspaced evenly along the walls and streets.
The guards above us raised the alarm, and fired spells and arrows down towards us.
But none of them could match our pace. It didn’t take long for us to position houses and storefronts between us and the battlements, and soon there was enough distance that the guards at the battlements could no longer reach us with their ranged attacks.
Of course, some guards were in the streets chasing us, but they didn’t stand a chance catching us.
The Abelino clones seemed to know exactly where to go, rushing through a main street of the city.
It was well into the night, and the streets were mostly empty, except for guards heading to or from their posts.
Abelino, it seemed, was still on his best behavior. He disabled each guard we encountered easily, leaving their unconscious bodies on the ground.
It was nice, following in the wake of 16 Abelinos, and not having to fight anyone myself.
Our destination was a prefab Schema warehouse, which presumably held a Teleportation Circle and the evil Abelino clone.
In the distance, I could see the other group of 16 or so Abelino clones closing in on the other side of the warehouse. They were fanning out along the street.
One of the Abelino clones tossed a circular item towards the warehouse, and I saw a thin film of mana, balloon out like a sphere, centered on the warehouse.
The device—one of the items Abelino had bought from the store—was a Teleportation Disruptor. It would be horribly anti-climactic if we were to raid the warehouse, suffer a few clone losses, just for the mind-controlled clone to escape through the Teleportation Circle.
The warehouse we were going to break into was surrounded by a Mana Shield. But somehow, it seemed, this Teleportation Disruptor could still take effect.
I focused on my Mana Sensing, looking for anything that could be a trap.
There were guards running towards us, and several of them had pretty powerful presences. But nothing that would give Abelino pause.
The warehouse, though, was brimming in mana. I was barely capable of sensing mana through a Mana Shield. I could sense huge concentrations of mana, but that was all I could tell.
I had no intentions to die.
The Abelino clones activated the same attack that I had seen previously. This time, I noticed, it was the clones that hadn’t struck the wall, that attacked now. They all struck the air with their weapons, and an afterimage of their weapons merged together, forming a bolt of energy that struck the warehouse.
This time, however, the energy was not focused on just one or two points. The bolt of energy that struck the warehouse slid through the walls like a knife through warm butter, destroying more than half of the walls in front of us.
I watched as the whole building collapsed in on itself.
The moment there were holes in the walls, several Abelinos tossed in Igneal Ingots that had my Explosive Rune Pattern carved on them.
The inside of the teleportation chamber soon lit up with explosions.
It seemed that Abelino’s gloves were finally off.
And it seemed that the mind-controlled Abelinos had miscalculated.
For some reason, they had decided to both reside in the same place. If they had split up, then they could quickly retreat. But they had settled on Fayette City as the place of their final battle.
Having any sort of final battle against over 30 Abelino clones couldn’t be considered a good idea.
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Had they assumed that Abelino would appear through the Teleportation Circle?
The roof of the warehouse had completely collapsed by now, and I had the uneasy feeling that everything was going too easily.
If the Armed Forces were backed by the Mentalist Cooperative, then they should have deeper foundations than this.
Why would the mind-controlled clones decide to hide in the same city, instead of splitting up into two different places?
Probably to encourage Abelino to go all-out.
This is what they wanted to happen. But why? PR?
His soul?
Why didn’t you say anything earlier?
In front of me, rising out of the rubble of the destroyed warehouse, I could see the figure of the two bedraggled Abelino clones.
The mind-controlled clones were surrounded by Abelino clones, but they rushed to break the encirclement regardless.
This whole time, I had been standing, invisible, next to several Abelino clones, and now, I started walking softly away, following Samantha’s combat shadow.
I was heading towards a nearby house. Most of the houses on this street were protected by Mana Shields, but as I studied this house, I noticed that there were particularly large concentrations of mana inside this house.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the Abelino clones fighting. Their movements were a blur, and I could barely make out each strike and blow as it happened.
In front of me, three figures exited the house I was approaching. They paused on the porch of the house. General Scott stood on my right, in full armor, with a massive sword in his hand. On the left was someone I had never seen before, a black man wearing sorcerer’s robes and holding a tome tightly in both hands. He was chanting something softly in a monotone.
Looking at the woman in the middle, and how the men on either side of her guarded her protectively, I knew she was my target.
She had brown hair that fell below her shoulders, with a vivid streak of grey that ran through the full length of her hair. From the wrinkles in her face and hands, she looked to be around sixty, but I knew that in the Schema, looks could be deceiving when it came to age.
The woman wore a thin crown on her head. It looked like it was made of three thin strands of pure silver woven together in a loose weave. Rather than equipment, she wore a purple dress that extended from her shoulders to her ankles.
Just like Lord Ignatius, she had several rings on her fingers, and I could see the fine chain for a necklace at her neck. She was also protected by numerous Mana Shields.
The woman raised her hands and called in a powerful voice, “STOP.”
Around me, I saw all of the Abelino clones—except for the ones that had already been mind-controlled—freeze where they were.
It was a terrifying sight. The woman in front of me could control over 30 of the highest-leveled people in the Zone, with a single word.
This is so broken and overpowered. Lord Ignatius at least had to make eye contact.
Each Abelino froze in unnatural, awkward positions, for a split second, and then they stood as one, assuming neutral stances, facing the woman in front of me.
The mind-controlled clones seemed unaffected and made their way towards the three members of the Mentalist Cooperative.
Someone has tried to exert Mental Control over you. Your skill, Don’t Mind Me, has taken effect. Do you wish to approve this control?
Fuck no, I thought, immediately.
I continued walking as silently as I could towards the woman who, I assumed, was a member of the Mentalist Cooperative.
“Go,” the woman said, placing her hand on General Scott’s shoulder.
The moment her hand touched General Scott’s shoulder, I noticed mana flood into General Scott’s body, through his shoulder, and into his hand.
General Scott took off the armored glove on his hand, and left the porch, passing just a few feet away from me.
I was just a few yards away from the woman.
Can I used Cursed Lightning?
Explosives?
I sniffed. Let’s leave that as a last resort.
I followed the combat shadow, stepping lightly on the grass of the front lawn, hoping that they wouldn’t notice the fresh indents below my feet.
General Scott had almost reached the closest Abelino.
I was just a yard away when things went downhill.
“Assassin,” the sorcerer beside the woman said suddenly, pushing the woman back towards the house, and stepping forward with his book held protectively near his chest.