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At the end of the hidden tunnel leading to Chimera Clauzen’s main base, Mira and her group stood by, until Arlon contacted them through one of the shikigami. He reported they succeeded in infiltrating the control room, and that all devices had been stopped on that side. That meant most of the main base’s defense systems had been shut down.
Though Fricca added that something odd had happened. There was a powerful barrier protecting the heart of their operations, and she had not decoded half of it when it suddenly vanished.
There were two explanations for that, either the person who cast the barrier had died, or they had dispelled it willingly. No issues if it was the former case, but in the latter, it was hard to decide what their intentions were, so Fricca warned the infiltration group to be careful.
「Got it, we’ll watch out. Also good job taking care of everything, we’ll take it from here!」 Kagura ended the connection after that, and repeated the information to Mira and Sero.
「Hmm, so they’re finally done over there, I see.」 Mira, who had been sitting on the ground, jumped on her feet and stretched.
「Let’s accomplish our side of the mission as well then.」 Sero returned, having wrapped dozens of Chimera Clauzen’s worker from the tunnels in Arresting Cloth, and leaving them next to the entrance to the main base.
Thanks to the attack on the other site, the tunnels had become more noisy in the past minutes. A moment after the noise started, the workers ran one after another into Mira’s group like cattle, and were quickly restrained. Soon most of them were captured, and the tunnels became silent again.
「The rest of our forces should be arriving shortly, so let’s leave cleaning up to them…」 Kagura said to herself as she casually threw a charm to the large pile of workers, then put her hand to the knob and turned it without hesitation.
「Time to break in!」 Announcing that loudly, Kagura took the lead, stepping into Chimera Clauzen’s main base.
「Now starts the real mission.」
「Yeah, let’s do our best.」
Mira and Sero nodded to each other, and followed closely behind Kagura.
Chimera Clauzen’s main base lay beyond the door. It was a large space dug out, populated by multiple enormous structures.
They were using the power of light spirits as well, while underground, everything was brightly lit like with sunlight, and every nook and cranny was visible. Even a capital city could easily fit inside the underground area, but the central part stood out as odd, being surrounded by tall thick walls.
「If I had to guess, that’s where the bigwigs are staying. Where shall we go first though?」
「I’m sure they’ve realized the defenses are down, so if I had to bet that’s where they’re hiding…」
While the space was filled with large structures, there was one path that seemed to cut through all of them, leading straight towards a gate in the central walls. It was almost inviting for someone infiltrating.
Either they were fully confident that no one would find their base, or it was a lure to appear unprotected and trap their enemy. Chimera Clauzen had a history of being extremely wary. So it was impossible to know how many layers of security they had set up.
How would they approach this? Mira and Sero examined the large place, planning about it just like they would when entering a dungeon for the first time. But Kagura took a decided step forward.
「We’ll break in through their front gates, obviously! If they try to stop us, we’ll just beat them to a pulp!」
She ran down the main path, heading straight for the gate in the walls.
「Oh well, guess she’s as combative as always.」
Mira grumbled to herself, chasing after Kagura. Back when this was still a game for them, Kagura had a habit of charging straight ahead without a solid plan, and for some odd reason, it always had surprisingly good results. Whether it was that old habit resurfacing, or that she could no longer contain herself having her bitter enemies so close to her, Mira simply followed after her.
「Maybe doing whatever we can in the moment, rather than wasting time planning is better after all. Their defenses are weakened, so we’ll have more room to move too. But more importantly, we have the power of a wiseman on our side, so we should emerge victorious no matter what we’re matched against.」
Kagura stood above all other onmyoji masters, and Sero’s gaze was focused on her as he spoke, then turned to Mira as well.
They were a small group, but extremely powerful. Whatever their combined power might be, at least they possessed the tools to destroy most traps that could get in their way. Not to mention that a larger platoon would arrive shortly after them, so they really had little reason to stay mulling about things.
「Hmm, fair enough. From my experience so far, they aren’t the most overwhelming enemies out there. As long as we are mindful of attacks using spirit magic, we should be alright.」
Mira lifted her gaze, looking at the tall walls gradually getting closer, and recalled her fight against one of Chimera Clauzen’s heads in the Ancient Circular Gate. The spirit bomb, spirit arms, and black sword. They were all powerful weapons, but she did not feel much danger. And now they were armed with Anti-Demon Silver weapons too, making them prepared for anything. They really only had to be mindful of Chimera Clauzen’s specialized tricks using spiritual magic.
The more they thought about it, Kagura’s instinctive reaction had really been their best choice.
(No matter, there’s no need to think so deeply about it after all.)
Mira watched as Kagura blew the gates apart, heaving a sigh. If she had been a little more discrete, they would have the option for a surprise attack.
Mira passed through the destroyed gate a moment after Kagura, and saw a rather unexpected, but actually favorable scene there. The construction past the gate looked like the entrance of a castle. While not as gaudy, it was still rather elaborate. Kagura stood in the middle, confronting three extravagant people.
「Oh look, there’s two more of them. I was about to check what was happening, and an intruder ran here. That won’t do, no no no.」 One of their opponents said that, seeing the arrival of Mira and Sero after Kagura.
He wore a voluptuous and very heavy-looking armor. It was hard to believe he could move carrying all of it, and he was armed with a halberd shaped like a battle axe. Obviously, those were all spirit arms.
「Somehow the defense systems are down. I bet they’re responsible for that.」
The next one to speak was a younger looking man, with reddish brown hair. A sword and small shield hung from his belt, and he wore light armor covered by a coat. He stood with his arms crossed with a self-important air, his eyes judging Mira’s group.
「I would expect them to take longer if that was the case. I think it’s safer to assume the control station was taken down by another group.」
The third one chimed in. He was a middle aged man wearing jet black robes, and holding a black staff, presumably the spellcaster of the group. Once his eyes focused on Mira, he knit his brows for some reason.
As far as Mira could tell, they all wore spirit arms, to an excessive extent. That made it easy to conclude that they were likely three of Chimera Clauzen’s heads. Running into three out of a total of five was an incredibly good result for charging in mindlessly.
「Let me guess, you’re Chimera’s heads, right?」
「But of course we are!」
「Then shut up and die.」
Kagura was ready to fight, and calmly uttered those words. Chimera Clauzen was a group focused on harming spirits, humanity’s good neighbors, making Chimera Kagura’s enemy. But her voice held more hatred than that, like she was confronting the murderers of her family.
「I hate to say this, but this might end up being troublesome.」
「Huh, how do you figure? It’s just some lanky dude and two girls. Sure, they might be relatively strong if they made it all the way here, but just look at them, they’re barely armed compared to us, not to mention our weapons are far stronger. No way we lose against them.」
Sometimes emotions could push a person way beyond their limits, and the man in heavy armor was well aware of that. But the younger man with reddish brown hair just looked at the three again, and spoke against it.
He had a point as well, the three heads wore spirit arms that were far more powerful than those Mira had encountered before, their strength clearly apparent. But that also called into question just how many sacrifices had been made to produce those weapons, the man’s words hinting at that. It just helped to ignite Kagura’s wrath though.
「You should actually be careful here. I know that silver haired girl, she’s the one who snatched the Spirit King’s power from me.」
