159 Escape Plan

Rin took the initiative to submerge himself into darkness and exit the jail cell that they were put in. He crept towards the exit and scouted the area to see who the enemies were and how many there were.

Returning after a while, he reported back to everyone including Ace who was now fully awake, "It looks like there are 20 guards outside, one of them seems to be meditating while everyone else is wide awake so I think he's the one suppressing our powers."

"Get us out of here first so we can get the lay of the land and then we can plan," ordered Light in a solemn tone.

Nodding, Rin helped each of them exit the cells one by one. By the end, he was exhausted and laying on the ground panting. Despite being a level 2 Variant, moving large objects through the shadows was still extremely energy consuming.

Yukio healed Rin to accelerate his recovery and then focused on healing Light to help him recover his abilities. Light then peeked outside to assess the situation, ideally they could just sneak out without anyone the wiser. Unfortunately, the guards were well spaced and alert. They also guarded the door very closely, so it wouldn't be possible for them to escape without them noticing and reacting.

Rin was the first to move out, his job was to knock out the man that was meditating. That Variant was the key person to get rid of as he was suppressing their powers. Rin quickly got into position and reached a single finger out of the shadows to indicate to Light and the others that he was in position. After this Rin counted 5 seconds before going into action.

Light closed his eyes and began creating an illusion based on what was already there. His intention was to make them invisible to the guards so they would have the element of surprise. It was too much of a burden on him to create an illusion that also illustrates the guards doing actions that they weren't doing. His goal was to get rid of as many of them in stealth mode as possible.

Then, the twins got to work. Rin directly appeared from the shadows and stabbed the meditating man in the carotid. As he died, Rin carefully placed him against the wall to make it seem like he was still meditating as he stealthily moved onto the next person.

Yukio also dashed towards the nearest person. He stole the man's guns and daggers first. Then he stabbed the guard in the carotid and also made it look like the man was just resting. Both the twins had both adopted the lethal and clean style of fighting that Aida taught them.

Meanwhile, Light brought Ace as they cautiously walked closer towards the exit. He could feel his powers recover after the first Variant guard was killed.

Their group had successfully killed roughly 8 of the guards before they were finally alerted. One of the guards who was standing there said, "Hey! Stop slacking and get back to work. We have to make sure nobody escapes before our leaders give us the order."

The other guards continued to stay alert but didn't react to the man's orders, they were clearly used to his uptight behavior. Seeing that there was no response from the guards sitting on the floor, this man walked over and prodded one of the dead guards, who immediately fell over with blood gushing out of his neck.

"Oh sh*t!! We're being attacked!" He quickly alerted the other guards and got into a fighting position. Before he could get out another word, Light quickly stabbed the man's neck and silenced him. He maintained their "invisibility" with his illusions but signalled to everyone to go all out.

Yukio took out the guns he collected from the dead guards and tossed a couple to Ace and Light before taking out two more and shooting towards the remaining guards. Hearing the first bullet ricochet and echo through the underground chamber, the other guards immediately got into defensive positions, prepared to fight the unseen enemy.

Light and the others continued shooting, but unfortunately their success rate was much lower now that their enemies were prepared and had engaged their abilities. Unable to see the attackers, the guards just randomly threw their attacks towards the dead guards. They clearly had no attachment towards their fellow guards who were lying on the ground.

After receiving a crash course from Light and Aida, they all knew early that the safest place when fighting a whole group was at the center where their attacks would hit each other. This was a very effective way to restrain a large group of enemies. Light, Ace and Yukio had already made their way over while Rin weaved in and out of the shadows to finish off the ones on the edge.

Not long after, they finally killed the last guard. Ace was in charge of collecting the gems from the Variants they had just killed while Light and Rin did more reconnaissance. Yukio focused on healing the injuries they had sustained from the fight just now. While they had dodged most of the lethal shots, it didn't prevent a few stray shots from scraping past them.

Soon, Light and Rin came back. They explained, "This place is like a maze. We can't seem to understand the layout of the place."

Hearing that, Ace volunteered, "Find me a computer and I can pull up a layout."

"I know where that is!" exclaimed an excited Rin as he led them to another room in the underground maze. It was a room full of surveillance footage across the base.

They efficiently took out the two guards who were watching over the room and Ace got to work. As he pulled up the map, the others scanned the video footage to find where Lucifer was.

After finding the information, they quickly set off towards the place Lucifer and the base leader were negotiating. With Ace's help, they were able to find the path with the fewest number of people and guards, allowing them to reach the building mostly unhindered.

Upon reaching the location, they quietly hid behind a corner as they studied the location. Rin was hiding the shadows, watching the area to make sure no one ambushed them. Ace and Yukio also served as lookouts as Light closed his eyes to inspect what was going on inside. Unfortunately, there were no cameras so he would have to use his empathic abilities to determine the situation instead.

He quickly noticed that Lucifer was under some kind of hypnosis. His brain waves seemed to indicate that he was in a semi-conscious state similar to when someone had drunk way too much alcohol. Light furrowed his eyebrows for a moment before making a decision.