CHAPTER 84: THE SHADOWS

High above the skies of the Velastra Research Facility, storm clouds crackled faintly in the distance.

Mirelle hovered alone in the air, her mana flaring like a radiant sun, illuminating the dark veil that had suddenly surrounded her. Her eyes darted left and right, seemingly trying to discern the opponents’ position.

Except, there was nothing to discern.

It was utterly silent, almost as if there were no one in the skies besides her.

’How professional are these people? I can’t even detect them with my magic perception.’ Mirelle furrowed her brows. She was truly astonished by these people’s abilities and wondered if they had been lurking all along.

This kind of stealth and concealment was a far cry from the earlier lurkers whom she had easily perceived and neutralized.

Alas, her moment of distraction in trying to compare the two opened a slight window of weakness.

The opponents were swift and efficient in catching any slight window of opportunity.

SHNK!

A whisper of wind blew past, and then a blade nearly sliced through her barrier from behind.

Alarmed, she parried instinctively and wanted to counterattack, but the assailant had already vanished before impact.

"Stop your action." Mirelle may be in a blind spot, but she knew she was surrounded.

"I’m here on orders of the Crown Prince to intercept you all from acting recklessly." She shouted, hoping that they would at least hear her explanation.

Unfortunately, what she received was utter silence. The opponents didn’t blink, didn’t speak, and didn’t care. They simply moved like streaks of ink across the sky, their forms flickering between shadow and light.

Not even sound followed them. It was just pressure, sudden and suffocating, like the weight of death.

"I know you all can hear me. I’m the Crown Prince’s Tutor, Mirelle Ashthrone."

Swoosh!

Another blade shot forth, aiming straight at her vital points.

Mirelle’s eyes narrowed. Her barrier swiftly pulsed outward in a radial burst, briefly revealing twelve people spaced around her in a perfect formation.

The power of her barrier subtly revealed her aura as a sixth-circle mage.

This kind of power finally alerted one of them.

"If you were the Crown Prince’s Tutor, then why are you out here instead of being near him?" A question was raised, but the source of their voice could be heard in every direction at once. Needless to say, they were extremely cautious and made sure Mirelle would have zero chance of pinpointing any one of their locations.

"I was commanded to be here by the Crown Prince," she snarled, spinning and unleashing dozens of radiant bolts outward in every direction.

She had sensed they had only just spoken to distract her momentarily. Thus, she hurriedly tried to take the initiative.

Unfortunately, it was still too slow.

They vanished before the magic struck.

Afterward, a slash of red ran down her arm, followed by another cut grazing her thigh.

One after another, the opponents’ attacks landed in light-speed shadowstep assaults from multiple angles. The opponents didn’t even give her time to counter or relax.

"Tch!" Mirelle growled, blood misting into the air. She glanced at her injuries and recalled the moveset used.

"Illusion... no, it’s layered phasing." She muttered in a grave tone.

Those attacks from them were bending space itself.

Upon realizing that, she conjured a tri-layered defensive dome, rapidly rotating in opposing directions to distort trajectory predictions. The sphere pulsed with compressed mana, repelling two attackers who tried to blink inside.

"Target is resisting heavily," a voice spoke coldly at an indiscernible position. Nevertheless, it was clear that they were distorted by the spell seal cast by Mirelle.

"Change capture priority to a lethal intent." Another voice resounded.

’Lethal intent? Were the previous attacks not lethal enough?’ Mirelle frowned and nearly fainted from anger. Her arms were bleeding profusely from the blades, and she felt her mana was regenerating extremely slowly.

"You’re all bullying too much—" Before Mirelle could finish her sentence, a thunderous boom reverberated in the skies.

Three opponents collided into her barrier at once, forming a binding sigil mid-air, aimed at sealing her mana flow. Chains of shadow wrapped around her limbs like serpents, glowing with nullifying glyphs.

Her mana-infused wings flickered.

"I said—STAY BACK AND LISTEN!!"

With a deafening shriek of mana, Mirelle detonated a self-charged spell core, shattering the bindings in a shockwave of raw force. The explosion tossed several people away, briefly disrupting their formation.

Blood leaked from her lips, but her glare burned fiercer than ever.

"You don’t want to listen?" she hissed through gritted teeth. "Then prepare to suffer a harsh beating before I make you listen!"

She had finally lost her patience. She would have been fine if the latter were Leonard because he was the Crown Prince.

But these people?

They could all just suffer a good beating first!

Having endured enough, she raised both hands, causing the skies to light up. Above her, dozens of radiant spears formed, each one crackling with divine intensity.

With intense, radiant spears brightening the area, Mirelle finally unveiled some of the opponents who had her surrounded. Her eyes narrowed in a cold light as she recognized one of them to be the person who had struck her earlier.

She was about to land a fury of attacks without caring whether it would kill them or not, until a voice suddenly echoed through the token in her pocket.

"Ahem, to the people fighting my tutor at the moment. Stand down and listen to her."

"This voice is?" Both Mirelle and the opponents paused their actions upon hearing the voice.

They recognized this tone. It was none other than Leonard’s voice.

"A teleportation passage will be opened, so only the highest Shadows in here and Mirelle should enter. The rest of the Shadows are to disperse and remain hidden until further notice." Leonard’s voice resounded once again.

Shortly after the voice faded away, a bright blue passage surged from the token itself.

"You couldn’t have done that earlier?" Mirelle’s face twitched repeatedly when she witnessed the teleportation passage emerging.

Her clothes were torn apart, and there were a few cuts on her arms and thighs. Originally, her clothes were somewhat colorful, but now they only had the color red, which was dyed with her own blood.