Zura stood before it, cloak fluttering in the wind. His eyes scanned the front gate, chained and enchanted, the kind of spellwork that tried too hard to hide something unspeakable. Venessa walked up beside him, calm but focused, a cigarette half-lit between her fingers. Magna cracked his knuckles behind them, that stupid grin he wore before fights already stretching wide.
"This is it," Zura said. His voice was low.
They didn't need to say anything more.
Inside the compound, slavers laughed. Women cried. Steel clanged. Some guards sat around a table playing dice, unaware that hell had just arrived at their doorstep.
The front gate exploded.
Zura didn't waste time. He lunged in first, mana already flowing like wildfire through his veins. A bandit reached for his weapon—Zura's boot hit his jaw first, shattering bone, sending him flying across the room like a broken puppet. Another slaver screamed and raised a fire spell, but Zura was faster. With a flick of his wrist, chains of black lightning wrapped around the man's neck and yanked him forward—right into Zura's knee.
The snap echoed through the hall.
Magna came crashing in next, launching explosive fireballs that blew chunks off the walls. Screams filled the air. One slaver tried to run. Magna didn't even look—just snapped his fingers and the man exploded mid-step.
Venessa moved like smoke, her threads slithering across the walls and around necks. She danced between cages and blades like water, elegant and untouchable. A whip of glowing thread sliced through the air, wrapping around a guard's arm, yanking him into the bars so hard his skull cracked open.
Zura's mana thinned but he didn't stop. He drew from what he'd practiced. New runes burned across his grimoire—one of the absorption spells he'd copied weeks ago.
"Mana Drain: Chain Devour."
A swirling storm of chains erupted from his book, each one leeching mana from the enemies it struck. One, two, five—he kept moving, kept hitting, his breathing sharp, sweat slick on his forehead. He'd learned to push longer. Harder. Smarter. He wasn't the same guy who needed backup.
A noble voice suddenly rang out from the top of the staircase.
"You filthy mongrels dare enter this place?"
A tall man walked down in silver robes embroidered with royal crests. His hair was sleek. His smile was cruel.
Zura stopped, blood dripping from his knuckles. "You're the one behind all this?"
The noble didn't deny it. "Slavery is tradition. Profit. You insects think you can crawl into our world and change—"
Zura didn't let him finish.
A mana spear shot through the noble's thigh. He dropped with a howl. Venessa's threads pinned his arms behind him like a broken doll. Magna's flame hovered inches from his eye.
"You'll burn," Magna said, voice low, deadly. "But not before you squeal."
Zura stepped close. He stared at the noble, eyes cold.
"No trial. No prison. Just fire."
The noble screamed, but it was already too late. Chains coiled around his body. Zura's mana surged one last time. The explosion was silent—but the light swallowed everything.
When it cleared, only ash remained.
Behind them, cages creaked open. Victims crawled out, many too weak to walk. Venessa moved first, helping a girl down from her chains. Magna handed water to a boy with bruised ribs.
Zura just stood there. Blood on his boots. Fire in his chest.
He looked over—and saw Venessa watching him.
Their eyes locked.
For a second, they didn't say anything. No smile. No flirting. Just a heavy, quiet tension between them—like something unspoken but always there.
Venessa looked away first.
"…Let's go home," she muttered.
Zura didn't reply. He turned, cloak brushing the floor, footsteps slow and heavy.
The base behind them burned.
Justice had been delivered. In their own way.
Once everything was settled, they went to submit the mission report and it didn't go as they imagined in their heads.
The war room was tense.
Zura stood in the center, arms crossed, dried blood still on his coat. Vanessa and Magna stood behind him, quiet but steady. Across from them, a table full of Magic Knight captains—cold stares, tapping fingers, hushed whispers.
Charlotte's lips were thin. "You executed a noble. A royal noble. Without trial."
Zura didn't blink. "He was enslaving civilians. Men, women, kids. We found over sixty of them in chains. Some were dead."
Kaiser adjusted his monocle. "We're not debating whether he was guilty. We're asking why you didn't bring him in."
"We couldn't," Vanessa said, stepping forward. "He attacked us the moment we exposed him. He had his own private guard. Magic-enhanced."
"I don't remember asking you," one of the older captains snapped.
"Then listen now," Zura growled, stepping closer. "We were outnumbered. He was armed. He made it clear he wouldn't come quietly."
"You expect us to believe that?" another captain said, scoffing. "A royal? Someone from that house? Do you know what you're suggesting? That they'd… stoop to slavery? That they'd run a black-market operation out of a ruin in the countryside?"
"They did," Magna said, voice flat. "We saw it. We ended it. You weren't there."
A silence stretched through the chamber.
"That's enough," Yami's voice cut through like a sword drawn slow.
Every captain turned. He hadn't spoken since it started.
He stepped forward, arms still folded, one foot planted lazily on the table. His cigarette glowed.
"I trust my guys. You think Zura's the type to kill a noble just 'cause he felt like it?" Yami's eyes narrowed. "You want to run his mana signature through the Tower of Truth, go ahead. But unless one of you plans to raise the noble from ash and ask him for a statement, shut the hell up."
No one moved.
Yami exhaled smoke through his nose.
"That's what I thought."
And just like that, the meeting ended.
They were dismissed.
Zura didn't speak a word on the way back.
The Black Bull base felt quiet, unusually so. Maybe everyone sensed it—what he'd done. What they all did. There was no cheering. No teasing. Just silence and distant footsteps.
He made his way to his room, the door creaking open—
—and stopped.
Noelle sat on his bed.
***
A/N- hey guys, since I missed the updates this week, I uploaded them all at once. I also didn't want to waste chapters showing the training after the long wait, so I skimmed over it. I hope you guys are okay with it. But if you want me to add it, I will keep that in mind.
And as I have been saying, I am writing my original novel and participating in a monthly contest. Only two weeks remain now and it's not looking good for us.
Forget the top 3, we are not even top 10, or top 15. Just by adding it to your library, reading it, providing feedback, and sharing it with your fellow readers, it will help me rank up.
I am trying my best with that novel, and unlike writing a fanfic where I am chained by the universe, I have full freedom in that novel. I have also made some changes in the novel compared to the earlier version, so I hope you give it a try. It already has 32 chapters.
The name of the novel is Harem with the Limitless System in the Apocalypse: I am Super OP. I will tag it below too.