The blade was covered in twisted Runes, which emanated a ghostly glow in the night.
’With this Demon-breaking Blade, I can shatter Protective Arrays and Force Field Witchcraft with ease.’
He placed his left hand on the door, and a faint gray Magic Power surged from his palm.
The Magic Power crept into the crack of the door like the finest Tentacles, beginning to analyze the locking Runes within.
Three seconds later, a faint CLICK came from within the door.
The lock was open. A glint of coldness flashed in the tall, thin assassin’s eyes.
He gently pushed the door. The Metal hinges gave a soft groan as the opening slowly widened.
A dim, yellow light spilled from within, casting a small, fan-shaped patch on the ground.
He turned sideways, preparing to slip inside... but in that very instant.
HMMMM...
A low hum vibrated up from beneath his feet.
On the courtyard floor, twelve dark-yellow Rune Stones lit up simultaneously!
Beams of light intertwined like chains, instantly outlining a complex Array ten meters in diameter.
The tall, thin assassin’s pupils constricted.
His body felt as if it were enveloped in an invisible mire, every inch of his muscles growing heavy and sluggish.
Even breathing became exceedingly difficult.
"An Earth Vein... Imprisonment Array?"
A hoarse growl escaped his throat, his eyes filled with disbelief.
’The way this Array is laid out... it’s not a conventional Protective Array at all.’
’It’s a variant specifically designed to target Hiders, using Earth Vein Energy to generate a Gravity Field Shift.’
’This is bad. It’s a trap!’
Inside the Laboratory, Ian remained seated.
He didn’t even glance back at the commotion outside.
He simply raised his right hand and tapped his index finger lightly in the air.
A silver-gray halo materialized at his fingertip.
The halo spun and expanded, instantly splitting into three silver-gray spheres, each the size of a walnut.
Intricate Star Orbit patterns flowed across the surfaces of the spheres, and within them, one could faintly see the phantoms of stars being born and dying.
With a flick of his finger.
SWOOSH!
The three Collapse Balls shot out soundlessly, passed through the crack in the door, and came to a precise halt three inches before the foreheads of the three men outside.
The control over the distance was perfect.
The tall, thin assassin froze.
He could feel the terrifying Gravity emanating from the sphere before his forehead.
It was like an invisible hand, gently squeezing his brain.
If it moved just one inch closer, his head would burst like a ripe watermelon.
The other two assassins, both at Level One Peak, were in an even worse state.
Both had fallen to their knees, their hands pressed hard against the ground, their knuckles cracking from the strain.
Veins bulged on their foreheads, and their eyes were shot with blood.
"Who sent you to your deaths? Do they hold me in such low regard?"
A calm voice drifted from the Laboratory.
The voice was soft, yet it reached the ears of all three men with perfect clarity.
The tall, thin assassin clenched his jaw, a grinding sound coming from his throat.
His earlier confidence had instantly turned to despair.
’Is this really the Magic Potion Alchemist from some remote island? How could he possess such bizarre and powerful Witchcraft?’
"You... You’re not at the Level Two Initial Stage?!"
He struggled to move his left hand toward his waist, where a Curse Talisman was hidden.
Once detonated, all life within a fifty-meter radius would be consumed by the Curse’s Erosion, their flesh and blood putrefying.
It was his last resort, and also the mandatory "cleanup protocol" to be executed upon mission failure.
The instant his fingers touched the Talisman.
The Gravity of the Collapse Ball before his forehead suddenly tripled!
"Aargh..."
The tall, thin assassin let out a muffled groan, his left hand frozen in mid-air, unable to move an inch.
He couldn’t even twitch a fingertip.
The other two fared even worse.
Their kneeling posture collapsed into a prostrate one, their faces slammed against the ground by the Gravity Field. The faint sound of their nasal bones shattering could be heard.
Blood seeped from their nostrils and the corners of their mouths, blooming like dark red flowers on the Stone Slab.
"Why bother."
A soft sigh came from the Laboratory, as if in regret.
Ian finally stood up and turned to look outside.
The dim, yellow light shone from behind, stretching his Shadow long before him.
The Shadow extended into the courtyard, enveloping the three assassins.
He raised his right hand and slowly closed his fingers, as if grasping something.
The motion was slow and gentle.
As if holding a fragile flower.
Outside.
The three Collapse Balls contracted simultaneously, their Gravity Fields tightening to the absolute limit in an instant!
The tall, thin assassin’s pupils dilated to their maximum.
The last thing he saw was his two companions’ heads being crushed like lumps of clay in an invisible hand.
Skull, brain matter, eyeballs, teeth...
In one-thousandth of a second, all their tissues were compressed, collapsed, and ultimately reduced to a pinch of fine ash.
The fine ash drifted from the stumps of their necks, scattering into the night wind.
And yet, their bodies remained completely unharmed!
Still in their prostrate positions.
The cuts on their necks were as smooth as mirrors, without a single drop of blood spilling.
All blood and bodily fluids had been utterly disintegrated in the instant of the gravitational collapse.
The tall, thin assassin was consumed by terror and tried to scream.
’No... I’m a Level Two Crystalized Wizard! I have hundreds of years left to live... How can I die here?’
But the sound caught in his throat, turning into a strange, GURGLING noise.
Then, he felt his own head begin to deform.
It felt as if ten thousand needles were piercing his brain from all directions—stirring, squeezing, crushing...
Before his consciousness faded to black, he heard one last voice.
"Cleaning up the trash is such a bother."
...
Silence returned to the courtyard.
Only the night wind blew past, carrying away those three clouds of fine ash.
On the ground, two headless bodies lay silently, their necks cut with an eerie smoothness.
The tall, thin assassin’s corpse remained kneeling, its head also gone, leaving only a bare stump of a neck.
Ian walked out of the Laboratory and into the courtyard.
Moonlight fell upon him, casting a faint silver sheen on the edges of his black robes.
He crouched down, flicking his finger at the waists of the three corpses.
Three Tokens slid from their pockets and into his palm.
The Tokens were Dark Gold, their fronts branded with the Time Trace Badge of the Justice Clan.