NOVEL NEXT Chapter 383: We've Got Company!
The hallway groaned as the entire building shook unsteadily, stone dust thick in the air in the aftermath of the destruction of half of the structure.
Cracks webbed across the ceiling like glass about to shatter. And then, the silence descended, sitting brittle, and expectant.
Lilith stood there, staring at Ren with wide eyes, her knives slick with blood.
Thorn leaned heavily on his bone arm, bruised and bloodied, the air around him still humming faintly with golden glow.
Breaking the silence, Ren almost seemed to chuckle to himself before taking a step towards the others. Just as he was a few steps away from the corpse, the blood oozing out of it flashed, pulling the surviving two mercenaries through space to appear beside it.
Ren's head snapped backwards, with Lilith and Thorn crouching into battle stances.
But the mercenaries were not looking at them. Instead, they knelt by the remains of their comrade, staring at it.
Their eyes were wide as if they couldn't believe what they were seeing, but it didn't change the image before them. Half of the body of their comrade was missing, the other half mangled beyond recognition.
One of them, the woman with the curved sword and the ghost-echo technique, lifted her head slowly. Her eyes were red.
She didn't scream.
She didn't curse.
She simply stood, calm and cold.
And then she moved.
Fast.
Her sword flashed, and an echo followed a split second later, two slashes layered over one.
There was a flash of muted light as Ren teleported away.
However, Lilith surged forward with a snarl, ducking under the first and twisted past the second, slicing upward with her dagger. But the mercenary was already gone, gravity shifting her upward toward the ceiling.
From above, the other mercenary dropped like a meteor, gravity slamming into Thorn, who had followed behind Lilith, with crushing force.
Boom!
The pressure was much stronger than the previous ones, as if the grief and anger of their comrade's death had amplified their powers.
Thorn staggered backward, the floor cracking beneath him. He threw up an arm, barely blocking a second strike, then shoved the mercenary away with a burst of strength-enhanced speed.
"Company!" came Ren's voice.
Then, flash!
He arrived beside them in a blur of purple light, the air rippling with the scent of scorched stone.
His Vine Armor wove around him, and his hands already glowed with crackling kinetic energy.
"Nice of you to drop in." Thorn grunted.
The gravity mercenary struck first, trying to crush them under a dome of pressure. Ren stepped forward, his Push resonance bursting outward and shattering the gravity bubble like glass.
The echo-blade mercenary came from the side, twin slashes aimed for Lilith's neck. Ren intercepted with a barrier from his bracer, before Lilith twisted behind him and threw a knife that bent in midair, following a pull thread and burying into the mercenary's shoulder.
The mercenary screamed, just as her echo stabbed forward, but Lilith sidestepped it, dancing between reality and delay with amazing footwork.
"Fall back!" The gravity user shouted.
But Ren wasn't letting them go so easily.
He threw a teleportation coin behind them, vanished, and reappeared mid-air, dropping toward them like judgment.
"Push!"
The impact cracked the ground, forcing the two mercenaries back.
Yet they recovered fast, their synergy sharper than before, blades and gravity working together in deadly arcs.
For a moment, it was chaos.
Flashes of light, ripples of silence, the whistling echo of knives and swords clashing, feet pounding across stone, pressure rising and falling with every breath.
And then, a low hum filled the hallway.
Boots.
Dozens of them.
From behind and ahead, figures began to appear in gleaming silver armor marked with the sigil of Carthage.
Their faces were impassive, their weapons drawn.
The mercenaries froze, eyes darting.
"We're done." The gravity user hissed.
The echo-blade nodded, slicing through the wall beside them with a final strike. Stone crumbled, and through the dust, they vanished.
Gone.
Ren exhaled sharply.
Thorn fell to one knee, groaning.
Lilith wiped blood from her mouth and muttered, "Cowards."
The lead soldier of Carthage stepped forward, eyes scanning the destruction. Her voice was cold.
"What happened here?"
Ren stood, brushing stone from his shoulder. "We just survived an attack."
The soldier looked at the bodies, the wreckage, the gaping hole in the building.
"Start talking." She snarled. "Fast."
Ren nodded calmly. "We came to the district office to upgrade our badges. We were shown in, waited, then were handed documents. That's when they attacked. Three cloaked individuals. No warning, no words."
He gestured toward the broken wall, and the blood smeared along the floor.
"They were fast, skilled, and definitely not amateurs. We defended ourselves."
The officer narrowed her eyes. "And the building?"
"Collateral." Ren replied. "One of them had control over gravity. The other, something to do with illusions or delayed attacks. We didn't have the luxury of holding back. We did manage to kill one of them though."
He pointed to what remained of the corpse, and her eyes snapped to it.
She said nothing for a moment, looking towards her soldiers, who were already inspecting the corpses and wreckage.
Then she raised her hand. "Bind them."
Thorn's brows furrowed. "Wait, what?"
"It's procedure." She said coldly. "Until we verify your story and assess damages, you're all under investigation."
Thorn looked to Ren, uncertain. Ren gave a small nod.
"We'll comply." Ren said evenly. "We've got nothing to hide."
Lilith, silent until now, allowed the guards to clasp metal cuffs around her wrists, her knives already stashed away. Thorn followed suit, grumbling under his breath.
Ren held out his arms without protest. The cold steel clicked into place.
The soldier watched them carefully. "You'll be questioned separately. Any attempt to lie or escape will be met with force."
Ren smiled faintly. "Duly noted."
And with that, the three of them were led through the ruins, past the splintered walls and shattered stone, down the silent hallway as armored boots echoed behind them.
Ren's expression remained calm, but his mind was racing.
They couldn't mention the Silent Choir.
Not yet. Not without proof.
For now, they had to play along. Stay alive. And wait for the next move.