Chapter 12:

Nero relaxed inside his plane's cockpit as it flew silently in the night sky, since he'd arrive at the location in an hour he decided to study the runes in his head and try to decipher how to use them.

In his head hundreds of strange letters were floating before him, five of the charecters were looked very complex, and fell under the category known as main runes. Branched below them were smaller charecters which had specific functions known as sub-runes.Each of them were related the main runes that could manipulate simple laws like the fire, earth, wind, lightning and liquid.

From what he could understand, the runes would work as a medium to manipulate the elements around him. If he wanted to create a water ball he'd have to first inscribe a rune that would gather water from the moisture in the atmosphere, then he'd have to create another rune that would use the wind to accelerate the water ball in a predetermined direction of his choosing. Same goes for a fire ball or even stone projectiles.

Using an earth rune would probably yield results akin to witnessing chunk of the ground floating and taking shape in front of him before the wind rune launched it in a predetermined direction.

Runes were usually written on something like a piece of paper and fed with mana, then everything would take place, he could also write more complex runes that could for example isolate certain elements in the air. Since his runes were meant to be a mixture of science and magic this made sense, how else would the civilization that made his nanites be so advanced if they didn't create very specific runes for very specific purposes.

This was also why he had to study hundreds of characters, each of those were a branch from all purpose runes like creating a simple orange flame, he could instead mix an air rune specifically made to gather butane and mix it with a flame rune to weild blue flames.

Of the five main runes a few of the had a small amount of sub runes, fire and lightning having the least, liquid had the most sub runes with air coming close behind while earth had the third most sub-runes.

Since there were different forms of liquids, and the earth held many ores and other minerals while the air also had many games this made sense. Fire and lightning on the other hand didn't have many variants as the other elements.

[Approaching preset location EST 10 minutes.] A robotic voice came from the cockpit casuing Nero to emerge from his thoughts.

He spent the remaining time making sure his two cutlass pistols were functional. Right now he wore a light tectical suit that had metal plates protecting his vitals.

For added safety he even wore a helmet that could take a hit from a powerful rifle and only come out with a slight dent.

He also had a ninjatō on his person in case the situation required. Although he could create weapons with his nanites he didn't want to reveal his cards to everyone he faced unless necessary.

He checked to make sure his parachute was strapped on tightly. As he got closer he slowed his speed as much as possible, when he felt it was safe he opened the cockpit and jumped out. The airplane also did a U-turn and went back to it's original mission which was to find an island big enough to act as an air-base.

With practiced efficiency he landed a few kilometers away from where Ichigo was, from what he knew they were in a camp belonging to bandits under serpent's command.

Due to his careful nature serpent always had his shipments switch hands a few times to scout for any unwanted attention.

Running the rest of the way, Nero didn't even break a sweat and soon arrived to hear loud chatter as some men sat around a camp fire.

Ichigo was now captured up with the other 'slaves' while Ryōshi and his men acted as if this was a normal business day and left. Nobody could guess that tonight would be their last.

Using cybermind, Nero signaled Ichigo who gladly jumped into action.Even without a weapon she used her newfound strength to yank the chains holding her legs and bent the bars on the metal cage with some effort.

Nero also jumped into action and started picking off the guards patrolling the parameter.

.....

Ichigo's POV

After receiving the signal, I quickly escaped my restraints and snuck away from the carriages towards the center of the camps. This is where I'd find their leader and the next location where serpent would hopefully be waiting.

I swiftly and silently took out anyone I met along the way and soon enough I was in front of the leader's tent. Placing my ear on the fabric I could hear stiflled moans and sobs along with unerving chuckles and grunts from within the tent.

Seeing as his guard was down, I used this chance to enter the tent and snuck behind the leader, before he could react I knocked him and the woman below him out.

"I've captured the target. Please proceed with the next phase." I spoke into my bracelet, from there, I could only hear sounds of battle as lord Nero started his massecre. Battle shouts screams and pleas for mercy resounded through the camp for the next 30 minutes.

After that silence reigned over the place, as if there was no battle to begun with.

I dragged the bandit leader out to find lord Nero standing among the corpses wearing a strange new apparel. I didn't bother asking him about it though and only awaited my next orders.

"Go recall Ryōshi and his men, they're 3 kilometers south from here." As always his cold voice sent shivers down my spine as I imagined his pirecing eyes staring at everybody around him and regarding them as nothing more than ants.

"At once my lord." I bowed lightly and left to fulfill my duty.

As I left I could hear screams from the bandit leader, probably a new victim to lord Nero's brutal means to extract info.

...

Nero's POV

After watching Ichigo dissappear into the night, I refocused my attention to the uncomcious man laying below me. I simply made a small incision into his flesh and invaded his body with some nanites.

On cue he jolted up and started looking around in confusion.

"Your comrades are dead, since I want to do this as quickly as possible I'll as you once where we're you going to take the slaves?" I asked him coldly.

He glared defiantly at me and even had the nerve to spit at me, evading the saliva I sighed.

"We'll do this the hard way then." I said as I instructed my nanites to make him feel the worst pain in his life.

His shrill screams resounded in the forest and scared away the birds and other nearby rodents.

After a few more hours he finally broke and spilled everything I wanted to hear. Apparently he was to pass the cargo off to a merchant who would be passing by here a day from now. I almost wanted to hit myself on the head since I assumed he'd be delivering the cargo himself. Now I had to impersonate him and pass on the cargo without raising any suspicions, sometimes my bloody approach really cost me since I also had to clean up the mess.

After getting what I needed I extracted mana from him since he was now a useless broken mess, I'd have to use force to make the merchant coorparate.

Looking around me, all I could see were bloodied corpses. Just like always my actions yielded results but I doubt they will go unnoticed if I continue. Until I could find serpent I couldn't afford to be found out.

With this in mind, I started working on new plans that would give results while also letting me keep a lower profile.

'Haa, I guess I'll have to be patient for a bit longer.'

....

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