The first stage of Lando's rescue mission was to scout out the guards' headquarters. It was located near the prison, and if anything unexpected happened, the entire city guard would chase him down with slim chance of escape.
The prison was situated in the center district of Goldton, and the response time for any threats was very short.
Luckily for him, there wasn't much activity in the nearby camp. Most guards seemed to be inside, either asleep or doing paperwork, as the majority of duty guards at that time patrolled the city due to the imposed curfew. This made the guard activity in the center district smaller than usual and allowed Lando to sneak in relatively easy.
With the quiet guard headquarters, Lando continued onward in the direction of the prison. The director of the dungeon, which was the strongest magician in the dungeon, was a solid-stage metal mage, and his office was located near the prison's entry. The dungeon itself was heavily guarded, and anyone attempting to break in or out had to go through the entry, unless they were space mages.
Lando planned to evade the director and directly phase into the -4th floor, which was as deep as he could go, as the -5th floor where his mother was presumably held captive, was enchanted against space magic.
At ground level, the prison appeared to be a slightly larger building with reinforced walls.
Lando glanced one last time at his drawing, which displayed the layout of the dungeon. He closed his eyes and calculated his path down there, as he would have all his normal senses blocked on the way. As a mage, he could now phase through solid matter and go much further. He had already tested it on his way here and discovered he could travel close to a kilometer with ease, and even further if he expanded all his mana.
He didn't need to go that far, as his final destination was 138 meters down and 247 meters straight ahead. The entire dungeon resembled an upside-down pyramid with five levels, so he had to pass underneath some of the upper levels to reach his destination without traversing through other floors.
Taking a deep breath and holding it, as he couldn't breathe underground, Lando prepared to go. He phased into the earth and two minutes later appeared in a complex of chambers.
He braced himself, ready to fight, as he couldn't be sure that there were no guards patrolling where he would appear. Luckily, there was no guard in sight. He exhaled quietly and took a moment to stabilize his breathing.
Taking a look around, Lando compared his drawings with his intended destination. He realized he was slightly off, but he was on the correct floor and, most importantly, undetected.
Quietly and carefully, he scouted out the patrolling guards and located the stairs leading up and down. Although undetected, Lando attempted to sneak into the lowest level but was faced by a guard sitting right next to the stairs.
According to the guard's badge, he was a mage in the gaseous stage, and Lando couldn't find a way around him as the staircase down was already enchanted against his space magic.
After a few minutes of scouting, Lando counted three mages in the gaseous stage and nine apprentices on the entire floor. There was also one cell with a guard inside as he could hear the screams of a person being tortured. As Lando passed by what seemed to be a torture chamber, he heard the guard saying with a gleeful voice “Andrew oh Andrew, why are you doing this to yourself, you could end all of this if you just be a little bit more accommodating you know? What good does your pride bring you down here?”
The cells were enclosed by solid stone walls with only one door leading in. Each door had two metal sliders, one at eye level for observation and the other at ground level for food delivery.
All the sliders were closed, preventing Lando from seeing inside the cells without opening one. However, he had no intention of opening them as he didn't care about the prisoners on this floor and opening the doors might reveal his presence to the guards.
He paused in a dark corner, weighing his options. One option was to assassinate the guard blocking his way down, but his absence would surely raise the alarm amongst the other guards on the floor.
After some time, he made the decision to assassinate all the guards on the floor in quick succession. This would provide him with the most time in the lower floor, as he didn't want to risk returning and finding a squad of magicians waiting for him.
He observed the guards for about half an hour, making sure he remembered all their patrols and patterns. He waited for the guard to finish torturing the man in the cell, as he was the only variable in his plan.
The guard in the apprentice stage walked out of the cell and locked it again. Approaching one of his colleagues, he spoke in an exhausted voice, "Wow, this guy has held on for 12 days straight without dying or giving in. Quite the accomplishment, I have to say. But I like the challenging ones even more," he finished with a laugh.
His companion responded less enthusiastically, "I guess you've found the right job then. I don't know how you can torture these people day in and day out with such enthusiasm."
"I was on a mission once where we took a prisoner. I was tasked with extracting information from him. My curiosity peaked I could not stop anymore. The resilience of these individuals surprises me every time. Did you know that, depending on the stage of the magician, they can survive for hours with their chest open, watching their own heart beat? Once I had..." The other guard raised his hand to interrupt his colleague's speech about the innards of people and said with a pale face, "Stop right there, Mitchell. It's great that you like your job, but I'm just here to enjoy the easy money. If our boss isn't looking, maybe even take a nice nap from time to time and get paid for it."
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His colleague shrugged, took a towel to clean his hands of the blood and gore, took a sip of water, and refreshed himself before heading to his next victim.
As the guard vanished into another cell, Lando's blood boiled. Not because he disliked the man's actions, but because it reminded him that at this very moment, his mother was likely being tortured in the same manner just a floor below.
Not willing to wait any longer, and with the guards' patterns already memorized, Lando made his way to his first victim. It happened to be the same apprentice who had been talking with the torturer moments ago. The apprentice was sitting in a chair, head leaning on his right hand with closed eyes.
The dungeon was poorly lit, providing many dark shadows for Lando to hide and move closer to the guards.
It wasn't too difficult to approach the sleeping guard, as he seemed to be taking a nap. Lando placed a space barrier around himself and the guard, not wanting to leave bloodstains behind. With a quick stab from behind, Lando's dagger went right into the guard's temple.
The guard was dead within seconds, and Lando disposed of the body and the blood that splattered on his barrier. There was no evidence left to indicate that a murder had taken place just moments ago, and Lando left in the shadows to make his way to his next target.
Lando had grown up relatively sheltered from the harsh realities of the world. The most brutal scene he had witnessed before coming to Goldton for his graduation was a man getting stabbed during a robbery in Sisterreach when he was about 11. Fortunately, the man survived as his mother was nearby, and the robber was apprehended. He had never been in a serious fight before, aside from sparring sessions at the academy. But he was determined to take a life if it meant saving his mother.
He moved on like a machine, not dwelling on the lives he took along the way. The only thing on his mind was the image of his mother being tortured just one floor below.
His rampage came to a halt as he reached his first challenge, having already eliminated six out of the ten apprentices on the floor. The remaining ones were close to the gas stage mages, making them slightly more difficult to kill.
He paused near the mage who was guarding the stairs leading down. The mage was sitting in a chair next to the stairs, seemingly meditating or asleep with his eyes closed.
Lando positioned himself in a dark corner, about four meters away from the mage. He harnessed his space magic in front of him, while surrounding himself with time magic to hasten his movements.
The space magic appeared as a nearly invisible glass marble, distorting light in random directions. Lando poured a significant amount of his mana into the projectile and aimed it directly at the mage's head.
Without waiting for the outcome, Lando sprinted after the bullet, his speed increased by the time magic.
The bullet hit its intended target, and the mage's head contorted along with the space warped by the magical marble. He was dead before Lando could reach him for a follow-up attack.
Somewhat stunned by the outcome, Lando stored the mage's body and disappeared into the shadows once again. He thought to himself, ‘I suppose assassinating someone unprepared for an attack is quite different from fighting them head-on, especially when using a significant amount of mana in my first attack.’
Satisfied and reassured by the outcome, Lando waited a few moments to recharge his mana.
Lando's next targets were a gas stage mage and his assistant, who were inside an office working quietly on some papers. Unnoticed, Lando phased through the wall and positioned himself in a dark corner, out of their view.
Thinking that what had worked before would work again, Lando began channeling his elemental mana. However, just as he was about to shoot his space bullet at the mage's head, the mage turned around and locked eyes with Lando, seeing through the shadow his hood projected.
Adapting quickly, Lando redirected his aim and fired the bullet at the mage's chest, as it was a slightly easier target in his mind. The mage tried to dodge, but it was too late. The bullet hit his chest, deforming a significant portion of it. Though visibly shocked and in pain, the mage remained standing. Before the mage could cast a spell, Lando swiftly closed the distance, moving with a speed the mage could barely follow.
Lando passed by the mage as the mage attempted a defensive gesture, and Lando stabbed his dagger into the mage's neck from behind.
At the same time, the apprentice realized they were under attack as this whole situation took only a second and shouted out loudly, "Intruder!"
Unperturbed by the shout, as his space barrier isolated the sound, Lando swiftly moved towards the apprentice. The apprentice seemed to be preparing an attack with his fire element, but Lando arrived in front of him before he could finish his spell.
With a dagger stabbed into the temple, Lando glanced back at the mage, who was now lying on the ground, spitting out blood and unable to move, presumably paralyzed from the cervical vertebrae injury inflicted by Lando.
Not wasting any time, Lando swiftly finished off the mage with a stab to the heart. He stored the bodies, tidied up the room to make it appear undisturbed, and left the same way he had entered.
‘That didn't go as smoothly as I had hoped. My magic didn't have as much impact on this mage as it did on the last one. Hmm … he must have already channeled some of his mana through his body, making it harder for my bullet to instantly kill him,’ Lando reflected.
As the first mage demonstrated, Lando could eliminate his targets in one shot if they were caught off guard. However, it would become significantly more difficult if they detected him beforehand. The second mage was already injured and defenseless before he could react properly. In a direct confrontation, the outcome would have been much closer.
Armed with these experiences, Lando proceeded towards the remaining gas mage guarding the floor. This attempt went much smoother, even though there were 2 apprentices accompanying the mage, as they did not recognize him until after he had fired his attack. The additional distance between him and his targets played to his advantage.
He stored the bodies of the last magicians in his spatial ring and approached the current torture chamber. Phasing into the cell, he was confronted with a horrifying scene straight out of a horror story: a man crucified on the wall while a guard slowly skinned him alive.
Without further hesitation, Lando swiftly killed the guard with a stab to the temple, discarded the body, and locked eyes with the man pinned to the wall. Lando unleashed three rapid-fire space bullets, aiming at the nails that held the man in place. Before the man even reached the floor, he had already lost consciousness. Lando swiftly left the cell and moved on.
He took a few minutes to meditate in a dark corner, replenishing his energy and reflecting on his fights. Once he felt ready, he approached the staircase, thinking to himself, "I'll be with you in a moment mom."