CHAPTER 34: NIGHTSHADE RAID

Soren and Tina watched quietly. The night was most certainly going to be long.

A few streets away from them, Soren could see sparks igniting quickly and disintegrating just as fast. A fight was happening.

He couldn’t exactly tell their shapes or what exactly was happening—there were cloaks moving too fast for his eyes to see, fighting against what looked to be… Plants?

He frowned. “I may need to get closer if we want to actually see what’s happening.”

Tina glanced up and down at him briefly. “I have a Sacred Treasure that could allow me to see more clearly in the dark. This is your final chance—are you sure you want to stay around? Your ability to see into the Beyond is useful but I can certainly go without it, no issue.”

Soren thought for a second then smiled—he nodded. Tina simply sighed and grabbed him by the hood of his rain-cloak. “What the—”

Before he could even finish his sentence, Soren felt a strange energy surrounding his body—Tina’s Soul Frame. She didn’t even give him a chance to regret his decision; they immediately flew off of the balcony they were secretly huddled in—flying through the air.

“What the fuck!!!” He looked behind him in shock—Tina’s feet were somehow kicking the air forward rapidly. He quickly closed his mouth—an insect almost entered inside. This was certainly not what he was expecting.

They shot rapidly toward the scene. A few explosions even caught his attention, and yet, not even a flicker of sound could be heard for miles.

The night held its breath—a tranquil sea of quiet was rupturing with conflict.

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Riding atop a colossal black wolf was a man covered in dark-gray robes. His illustrious green hair fluttered in the wind as the giant wolf maneuvered across the now demolished street. Large beams of light were shooting rapidly toward them at speeds they almost couldn’t conceive.

“Captain! There’s more to your right!”

He grit his teeth and pulled back on the wolf’s jet-black furr, letting it shift directions. A beam of light pierced right through where they were moments prior.

In the distance were countless large flowers that had their petals aimed at them. Anima was rapidly condensing at their centers before shooting at them at rapid speeds. This was a spell Captain Virion of the Court of Nightshade knew of—Blooming Burst.

It was a fairly common 3rd Circle magecraft that only required one to have a plant or spirit affinity. Either one worked, especially in Yadria where spirit anima was much more concentrated.

However, this was different. A blooming burst magecraft requires the user to have a root connecting the plant to him at all times. These were autonomous. It was as if each colossal plant was alive on its own, fighting with its own conscious thought.

He grit his teeth. “Maneuver to the backside! We must enter that facility no matter what! The Saintesses are watching us!”

“Yes sir,” they all replied.

It was fairly strange. Just a day earlier, finding even a single clue regarding the origin of the Nameless Mist was almost impossible. They had scoured countless slums, Unblessed districts, and quarantined countless neighborhoods.

Nothing.

It was as if the mist had a mind of its own. It simply out maneuvered them at every turn. And what was worse was the fact that it continued to spread. Even if many of the higher nobles could put up some resistance to its corrupted influence, the same could not be said about their children. It was truly shameful—the longer they stalled, the more casualties they acquired. The Nightshade Court was certainly going to lose its status if it had continued.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

It was only a few hours earlier that they managed to catch their first lead. An anonymous letter that told them of this location.

In hindsight, it was fairly obvious. The facility they were trying to breach had enough space to hide large quantities of Malevolent Hexes. It was also in a fairly unblessed section of Yadria that most nobles wouldn’t even dare to touch. Although it wasn’t a slum by any means, it also had a stigma from 30 something years ago that kept most normal citizens away from its windows.

Why did they never search that area?

The question rang in his head as they sprinted closer toward the building. This was also another mystery he had no answer to—why did they get detected so quickly?

Their plan was to swiftly and secretly infiltrate the building from multiple floors at the same time to corner whoever was inside, manufacturing the Malevolent Hexes. And yet only mere moments after their arrival in their designated areas, they were ambushed.

This should have been an impossibility. Countless wards lined their clothing that gave them stealth that not even some Saints could detect without a bit of effort. And the magecraft they had prepared should have made them practically invisible within the shadows. That was who they were—the Court of Nightshade.

At least until tonight… Was the intel we received a trap all along? He wondered. There was also the possibility that there was a traitor within the Court that had leaked the information about the raid.

Regardless, Virion soldiered on. Two of his men were also escorting him toward the building’s main entrance—each one riding a Dark Mist Wolf, as they called them—a well known breed of Spirit Beasts that Yadria had been using for many millennia. In front of them were an army of plants and vines, each charging up their own burst of anima to shoot at their enemy.

Virion frowned and commanded his Soul Weapon to activate. A flood of violet light flooded from his palms, morphing into the shape of two daggers. It only took a breath’s length for them to solidify—he gripped them tightly. A dark purple miasma shifted menacingly across their edge.

Whispering Thorns had activated.

With his arms crossed, he narrowed his vision and slashed the air in front of him. An “X” shaped mark formed in the air, rapidly shooting forward toward the plants blocking their way. Phase Strike!

This was an ability he had trained for countless years now. It allowed him to attack the vitals of any enemy his Soul Weapons sees fit. By using the Beyond, the Soul Weapon automatically obtains the information necessary to make the calculated strike, and immediately sends the attack through the Beyond itself to pierce the enemy where it matters most.

In an instant, hundreds of plants in front of them were shredded into nothing.

He grinned. This was the power of his Soul Weapon. An ability that could only be countered by someone who could see into the Beyond. Becoming the captain of the Court of Nightshade was certainly not an easy task, but it certainly was easier with this—out of 364 assassinations, he had failed none so far.

After clearing the rest of the plants, the group had finally made it toward the front entrance of the now dilapidated building. Piles of rubble had already accumulated from all the bombardments it had received earlier during their march. He glanced over at his soldiers.

“Tell Julive to rotate around the back. We have to make sure all angles are secured!”

They swiftly nodded. The person behind him who was also riding on a Dark Mist Wolf activated his soul weapon. It was a yellow leaf that he placed on his lips—a tune began to play, one that was too faint to hear unless you were paying attention to it.

The message was carried over successfully.

Nodding to each other, they placed their attention back to the front gate.

Without holding back, Virion dismounted from the Dark Mist Wolf and walked over to the gate—he kicked it down effortlessly.

With his Soul Frame activated, he glanced around the darkened warehouse.

Completely empty. There was absolutely nothing inside.

“What in the blossoms…”

“Ugh!” Suddenly, a grunt was heard from one of his subordinates. Virion swiftly shifted his neck back. The man with the leaf Soul Weapon he knew as Silvon, was holding his own neck tightly, as if he was suffocating. A black, gooey substance seeped out from his mouth as he struggled to keep himself up. His eyes rolled back into his skull, leaving only the eerie whites visible. His breath hitched, and only seconds later, all life slipped away from him.

Virion looked down in horror—a black wooden stake had pierced through Silvon’s heart. From within the gaps of the festering wound rose a dark mist that cloaked his now lifeless body.

Virion and his other subordinate backed away swiftly. A ghost-like figure manifested behind Silvon whose skin rapidly dried up. He had been turned into a Malevolent Hex.

The figure smiled at Virion, “The Whispering Dream greets you.”