A dozen guards stood in a semicircle at the entrance to the production floor, their magical weapons raised, their faces hidden behind visored helmets. Their uniforms were dark, military-grade, the insignia of the Shaw family emblazoned on their chests.
And their eyes, Hoshimi could see them now, through the transparent visors were fixed directly on him.
[They're using thermal goggles. How the hell did they know that I was coming too!?]
A man stood at the entrance to the chamber, flanked by a dozen guards in tactical gear.
He was tall, distinguished, his silver hair slicked back from a face that was all sharp angles and sharper eyes. He wore an expensive suit, dark gray, perfectly tailored, and his hands were clasped behind his back in a posture of casual authority.
"Dear uncle," she said, her voice cold. "Still following my father like a loyal dog."
"The Patriarch rewards loyalty. Unlike some annoying cat." He gestured with his weapon.
[They've thoroughly prepared for Hoshimi's invisibility, but I didn't tell anyone that he was coming with me. I didn't tell anyone the date that we were coming here today. It must've been the insider. A double agent. Reporting information to both sides. Whether we win or lose, he'll be the only one standing. Absolute bullshit]
Neila's expression didn't change, but Hoshimi felt her grip tighten further. "Then he knows why I'm here."
Hoshimi stepped forward, his hands raised slightly, his posture deliberately non-threatening. "She has nothing to do with me. I was a hundred percent coerced, she has something over me. A Witch's Oath. I swear my loyalty to your family."
Neila's head snapped toward him, her eyes blazing. "What are you—"
"She promised to release me from the oath if I helped her break in here," Hoshimi continued, his voice steady. "I don't want any part of this. I just want to go back to the Academy."
Mark studied him for a long moment. "Don't care."
"I can show you the oath. The contract. It's—"
"Enough." Mark raised his weapon.
Hoshimi's hand drifted toward his sword. "I surrender."
"Too late."
The guards opened fire.
Hoshimi moved before the first bullet left its barrel, his body dissolving into invisibility, his hand reaching for Neila's.
But she was already moving, already snapping her fingers, already sending a sonic wave rippling through the air that deflected the first volley of shots into the ceiling.
"Vigil Hexa!"
[They're magical tools. That must mean that they can be reflected!]
The volley of shots shattered against the floating hexagons.
"You bastard!" she snarled, her voice directed at Hoshimi even as her eyes tracked the guards. "You were just going to leave me?"
"What other plan did you have!? I was planning to buy us time!"
"By throwing me under the bus?"
"It didn't work anyway!"
Another volley. "Vigil Hexa!"
He could see the guards' eyes through their visors, tracking him despite his invisibility, the thermal goggles cutting through his concealment like it wasn't there.
"They can see me!" he called out. "The goggles—"
"I noticed!" Neila snapped again, sending another guard stumbling backward with a burst of compressed sound. "Any other brilliant observations?"
One of the guards broke from the main group, circling around to flank them. Hoshimi intercepted him.
Bang.
A bullet straight through his head.
Neila was backing toward the center of the room, toward the cylinder with its pulsing light and its impossible occupant.
They ran.
They ran deeper into the facility, weaving between the production lines, ducking under conveyor belts, using the machinery as cover.
The guards pursued, their boots thundering against the concrete floor, their shouts echoing through the vast chamber.
Neila snapped her fingers. A sonic blast erupted behind them, catching two of the guards in the chest and sending them flying into a stack of metal crates.
The crates toppled with a deafening crash, scattering components across the floor and creating a momentary barrier between them and their pursuers.
"That won't hold them for long," she gasped. "We need another way out."
"The maintenance tunnels. There." He pointed at a hatch set into the far wall, half-hidden behind a massive piece of machinery. "If we can reach it—"
A guard appeared in front of them, his weapon raised.
Hoshimi released Neila's hand and drew his sword in the same motion. The blade came alive with blue light, the runes on its surface shifting into patterns he still didn't fully understand. He struck before the guard could fire, the blade carving an arc through the air that caught the man across the chest and sent him sprawling.
"Go!" He grabbed Neila's hand again, pulling her toward the hatch. "I'll cover you!"
She didn't argue.
She just ran, her small frame weaving through the chaos with surprising agility, her hand still clutched in his, refusing to let go.
They reached the hatch.
Hoshimi wrenched it open, revealing a dark tunnel that sloped downward into the earth. The air that rushed out was cold and damp, carrying the faint smell of sewage and decay.
"Down," he said. "Now."
They plunged into the darkness.
"We can't outrun them forever," Neila said. Her voice was strained, her breathing too fast. "They'll corner us eventually. There's nowhere to go. If only I had more mana—"
The tunnel opened into a smaller chamber. Maintenance equipment lined the walls, pipes, valves, gauges that monitored systems Hoshimi didn't understand. Another hatch on the far wall, locked, with no obvious way to open it.
"Dead end," Neila said. "Wonderful. We're going to die"
"The guards—"
"Are coming. No shit I can hear them." She pressed her back against the wall, her chest heaving. "I could probably take a few of them. But there's too many of them, I'm a long range attacker and I have a shallow mana pool—" She looked at him, her blue eyes meeting his. "You can't fight them all. Not with your injuries still healing."
"I can try."
"I know you can try." Her voice was softer now.
The guards were closer. Hoshimi could hear their footsteps, their voices, the crackle of their radios.
Neila pushed herself off the wall. Her expression had shifted—resignation, maybe, or determination, or something in between. "I need to get back to that chamber. To the goddess."
"What?"
"Don't try to mansplain me, puppet. I have an idea." She was already moving, pushing past him toward the tunnel entrance. "Cover me. I just need a few minutes."
"That's insane. There are at least five guards between us and the chamber, plus whatever other security he's brought. You'll be killed before you get halfway there."
"Then I suppose you'd better make sure I get there." She looked back at him. "Think you can manage that?"
"Why would you want to—"
"Primordials are real," she said. "I'm borrowing her power." She was already walking, her footsteps echoing in the narrow tunnel. "The Goddess probably wants freedom, the fact that she is still able to produce weapons means that she still has power, just no output. I'm making a Witch's Oath"
"That's the stupidest plan I've ever heard."
"I know." She didn't look back. "Can you think of another plan, puppet?"
He followed her.
The guards had set up a perimeter around the main chamber, their thermal goggles tracking the tunnel entrances, their weapons trained on any movement.
"There," Neila breathed. "I need to get to her. Just for a moment. Just long enough to speak the words."
"Speak what words?"
She didn't answer.
Hoshimi moved. His invisibility was still active, but the thermal goggles made it nearly useless. So he didn't bother trying to be subtle. He just moved, relying on speed and chaos and the blade in his hand.
The first guard went down before he knew what hit him.
The second managed to get off a shot, but the bullet went wide, ricocheting off a piece of machinery and embedding itself in the far wall. Hoshimi's sword carved through his weapon, through his armor, through the flesh beneath.
The remaining guards turned toward the commotion. Toward him. Toward the invisible threat that their goggles could barely track.
"Now," he shouted. "Whatever you're going to do, do it now!"
Neila was already running. Not toward the guards, but toward the goddess. Toward the emaciated figure suspended in her web of cables, her gray skin pulsing with the faint remnants of her stolen mana.
"Vert," she said, and her voice was different now. Softer. Almost reverent. "Mammon. Primordial Goddess of Greed. I am Neila Shaw, and I come to offer you a deal."
The guards were closing in. Hoshimi could see them circling, their thermal goggles tracking his movements, their weapons raised. He couldn't hold them off. Not for long. Not with his injuries still healing.
"Hoshimi!" she called out. "Cover me!"
He just moved, positioning himself between her and the advancing guards, his blade a blur of blue light that deflected bullets and blades alike.
The sword's presence in his chest was pulsing now, feeding him strength, guiding his movements with an instinct that wasn't quite his own.
Behind him, he heard Neila's voice.
"Hey."