The Darkest Night (3/?)

Having existed for upwards of two-thousand years, most of the prominent Magus families had various means to preserve their legacy, even in the fact of imminent destruction. All they really had to do was protect their Magic Crest and any important heritage artifacts, an easy feat considering they could be fused together with the Ego of a person, making them virtually undetectable to even the most powerful Magi.

Had they considered for a moment that they would have lost, even the Barthomeloi family would have been able to avoid ultimate destruction at the hands of the Empire by passing on their Legacy to a suitable heir, one which would be groomed in absolute secrecy until the time of their inevitable rise to prominence. After all, a Magic Crest could contain thousands of years of knowledge and, in some extreme cases, fragments of the previous inheritor's will.

With so much information existing within their mind from a young age, even a newborn would be able to quickly establish themselves within society. They could simply pretend to be a prodigy or, if the situation makes such a status unviable, lay low in the shadows of society. Having the ability to literally brainwash and mind control people was a powerful tool among normal citizens so, while it was not the most glorious lifestyle, the relative peace of the world made it very easy to survive with just the most diminutive knowledge of Magecraft, much less thousands of years of said knowledge.

Unfortunately for the Nobles that had conspired against the Empire, Da Vinci's research of Magic Crests resulted in the development of a device that allows them to be detected with relative ease. Thus, with Scáthach being able to track people using Strings of Fate, courtesy of Vahn and Alaya, it was only a matter of time until their Legacy was exposed, secured, and potentially even destroyed. The only way to circumvent this outcome was to have no fate whatsoever which, generally speaking, meant you were already dead.

Using the knowledge provided to her by her [Wisdom of the Haunted Ground], Alaya's Strings of Fate, and the data provided by Sherlock, it only took a few minutes for Scáthach to track down the secret underground shelter where Alexander and Allard were hiding. They were holed up more than 500m beneath the surface of the earth on a small volcanic island in the Pacific Ring of Fire.

If Vahn hadn't tasked her with bringing them back to be judged, Scáthach would have sunk the entire island, burying the brothers and their servants alike. Now, she had to use a more roundabout method as, despite the depravity of the two brothers, not everyone in the shelter would be labeled as evil in the eyes of Vahn. This was one of the things that often troubled her as, while it may not be the most humane course of action, Scáthach knew it was better to purge those related to vile and wicked people to avoid future troubles. Her knowledge of the future used to allow her to determine what kind of people such individuals would grow up to be but, ever since Vahn entered the world, it became a lot harder to peer into the fates of others.

Releasing a rare sigh, Scáthach muttered, "That man has affected me too much..." before returning to her cold and detached persona. Then, despite the powerful Bounded Field and complex barriers that even prevented satellites from viewing the island, Scáthach tore through the void itself to invade the compound directly. This caused a high-pitched alarm to sound out but, despite their best efforts, the inhabitants of the underground facility quickly discovered there was no way to escape the infamous Executor of the Emperor's Will.

Prior to entering the Bounded Field, Scáthach alerted Vahn to its location while creating a massive barrier that surrounded the already existing one. This completely sealed off the surrounding space so, unless they had the Spiritron Transporter Da Vinci was working on, there was little hope they could escape. They would need to have mastery over space comparable to Zelretch as, with her EX-Rank [Primordial Rune]s, there was very little her opponents could do to circumvent them.

With Strings of Fate and one of the most powerful forms of Clairvoyance in the world, Scáthach made short work of nearly every combatant within the underground shelter. Most didn't even know what had happened before darkness claimed their vision as, even without the ability to freely move through space, Scáthach's speed alone wasn't something that most people could grasp. She could move several thousand kilometers per hour without even disturbing the surrounding wind or making a single sound so the Magi within could only fire blindly in the hopes of landing a lucky hit on what many believed to be an invisible enemy.

The only people to truly grasp her movements were Alexander and Allard but, within the limited confines of the underground bunker, there wasn't much they could do. Scáthach had A-Rank [Magic Resistance], A-Rank [Curse Nullification], and B-Rank [Magic Reflection] active by default whenever she was fighting against a Magi so, unless they intended to bury themselves, the brothers had very limited options as far as spells were concerned. It didn't help that they had expected to be hunted down so, rather than keep their legacy items all in one location, they had already spread them all over the world, hiding them away until their heir could claim them in the distant future.

This knowledge made the men bolder than they otherwise would have been so, after Scáthach used her spear to pin Allard to a wall, Alexander used the 'opportunity' to reverse the flow of his mana, feeding it into a gemstone embedded into his heart. He was prepared to take the entire island out with him but, before the spell could fully activate, Scáthach appeared right in front of him, her hand piercing his chest to pull out the still-beating heart within.

While this wouldn't have made much of a difference under normal circumstances, Scáthach had considerable mastery over Space and Time Laws which, combined with her connection to the Land of Shadows, meant such tactics were ultimately pointless. She simply tossed Alexander's heart into a void where time itself didn't exist, sealing it in forevermore at the moment prior to its exploding. In the same motion, she jammed an [Effigy of the Hero] into Alexander's chest, coldly stating, "A gift to celebrate our meeting..."

A powerful enough Magus could easily survive decapitation or having their heart pierced, at least for a short period of time, so Alexander hadn't immediately died from the intense shock. Rather, he was so determined to see Scáthach's end that he resisted blacking out, only to feel at a complete loss as the woman easily undermined his efforts. Then, just as darkness began to encroach upon him, a fire began to burn in his chest as he was forcibly healed while the [Effigy of the Hero], graciously gifted to him by Scáthach, was still inside his body.

Scáthach made sure the burning idol wouldn't kill Alexander while restraining his movement using reddish-black chains that functioned similarly to [Enkidu]. Like this, she managed to capture both brothers before pulling out a communication device that looked like a palm-sized rainbow quartz. This was the physical form of Spiritrons and, while it couldn't do much alone, Scáthach was able to use it as an anchor to communicate with Avalon, even while inside an isolated Bounded Field.

After a momentary delay, a projection appeared from within the Spiritron Crystal. It took on the form of the Ark System's Avatar, a small blue figure constructed of light that vaguely resembled a human.

Without waiting for its inquiry, Scáthach explained, "Send an extraction and cleanup team to these coordinates. There are twenty-three people requiring extraction and fifty-nine casualties."

As this wasn't 'his' first time interacting with Scáthach, Ark gave a polite bow before quickly setting to the task he had been assigned. Then, moments later, a massive gateway was opened within the room as a black metallic box, covered in glimmering golden runes, was transferred from Da Vinci's Fourth Laboratory, a factory set up in coordination with the Atlas Temple. There, weapons systems and golems were researched as, since its founding, the Alchemists of the Atlas Temple had been more focused on the production of Artificial Humans and weapons than anything else.

When the black box had fully emerged, the gate behind it collapsed in on itself rather violently as a result of the still-developing tech. This was the main reason behind the massive metallic box as, if it were a normal person, being transferred through Imaginary Number Space using Spiritron Tunneling would rip them apart. You would have to be a Tier 5 entity to have any hopes of surviving since you weren't actually moving through space, but a void of non-existence where the Laws that allowed for the actuality of matter simply didn't exist.

This was her first time seeing the prototype in action so Scáthach couldn't help but watch on, her interest piqued, albeit only slightly. Her Caster self had helped conceptualize the prototype so, while minuscule, a small feeling of pride filled Scáthach's chest as the box opened to reveal its contents. It was packed to the brim with a procession of ten Companions, each having a jackal template, and the Artificial Humans that had been assigned to them. This was one of the Cleaning Teams that had been put together, their sole purpose being the actualization of Vahn's will when he was unable to carry it out personally.

At the center of the group, a youth with white hair and red eyes stepped forward and gave a small salute as he said, "Captain Vali Argo reporting with Unit Alpha-001. Please advise, Lady Scáthach."

With a curt nod, Scáthach created a three-dimensional layout of the compound using her mana while explaining the team's task. They needed to cremate the corpses of the deceased, treat the wounded, and transport those that had been marked as 'innocent' to the mainland once the rest of the team arrived. This advanced group was primarily responsible for securing the facility and making sure nobody escaped, a task Scáthach couldn't be bothered with as she had other places to be and very little time.

Their mission assigned, the team led by Captain Argo quickly set out to secure the facility as their Companions analyzed every nook and cranny to make sure there were no hidden dangers. At the same time, Scáthach teleported away with Alexander and Allard after removing the spatial lock she had placed around the island. In the future, the underground facility would be converted into one of the Empire's many outposts as Da Vinci's micrograms would quickly modify and expand the interior to make it suitable for research on geothermal energy and artificial leylines.

That, however, was none of Scáthach's concern so, after depositing Alexander within a secure facility, she flew around with the restrained Allard, using his own Strings of Fate to find the location of their heir and other affiliates. The brutish man who had ruined the lives of thousands of people couldn't do anything about the situation at all. Even death was denied him as the chains restraining his body made it impossible to muster up any of his magical power while the mask Scáthach had forced on him robbed all of his senses while preventing him from biting his tongue.

Allard had enjoyed playing with and tormenting others his entire life but now, after a single botched assassination attempt, his life had become a waking nightmare with no hope of escape. All he could do was curse Vahn, his family, the Empire, and the demonic woman that had captured him.

Unfortunately, despite Allard's best efforts, all of his curses came out as nothing more than muffled grunts and whining as Scáthach dragged him through the air at hypersonic speeds, his cries only reaching the root cause of all his suffering, himself...

(A/N: Alternate Titles: 'When Shishou's on the prowl, you're already fucked','Leave it to Da Vinci to find a way to transfer matter through a plane where it can't exist xD...','RIP pig-boi, squeal all you like')

(A/N: Two-Part chapter coming this afternoon.)

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