'I can use this.'
Elena grinned widely in her concealed underwater cave, far away from the hidden base.
What she'd just witnessed was definitely surprising, and though she gained no information at all, she certainly did gain something great.
She found a way in.
'Forming an alliance with that man is impossible.'
After all, she was the very murderer he hated with such passion.
'However, using him is a different story.'
It felt a bit morally ambiguous to use a man with an evident understanding of right and wrong, but at the same time…
'If he came with the Black Dragon Clan on this mission, how can he be innocent?'
All people committed sin for the sake of survival in this gruesome universe.
Punishing such sin for the sake of it was wrong. This was a point that the prior age of Valkyries and Elena heavily disagreed on.
There was no sense of morality in a war between denizens. The winner was right, and the loser was dirt.
Since everyone was committing sin equally, was there a need to specifically inquisition against it?
Nevertheless, Elena made her decision rapidly. As she did so, she constantly received feedback from her remaining impure souls, giving her a relatively complete map of the facility.
'This facility's infrastructure is too simple. It's clear that the third hidden base is only used to store cannon fodder.'
The strongest beings in this base were 1st and 2nd revolution masters, and on top of that, they were mostly clustered within the base's center, the place where Darrius just got himself captured.
As long as Elena could avoid that area, it was likely that she could evade their perception as well.
'I can't bank on that. Despite Delia's carelessness, the Black Dragon Clan as a whole is taking its current operations extremely seriously. The lower level members are only told that the fate of the clan is at stake without any details on why, but they're all ready to lay down their lives with just this much motivation.'
It was a terrifying level of cohesion that would've seemed like mind control if an outlier like Darrius didn't exist.
'It's too unrealistic to believe I can make Darrius betray the clan…'
If so, she needed to get more creative.
Dealing with smart people was always the most difficult, yet, from another perspective, wasn't it always fun to receive a challenge?
Elena submerged her consciousness into the impure soul that was attached to Darrius. Naturally, it was taken into the prison with him as it was latched to his body.
Elena became one with this soul, taking control of its body and slowly materializing as wisps of smoke around Darrius.
His eyes, closed in meditation, immediately snapped open.
"Who?!" He roared vigilantly before remembering his current situation.
Of course, there was nobody who could penetrate the Black Dragon Clan's special item, the Cube. It was a mobile prison with the integrity of an obsidian fortress.
"Do you seek revenge?"
Impossibly, a voice joined him in the prison space. It was dark, grimy, and filled with an aura of evil and death.
"Who are you?!" Darrius yelled, spreading his awareness and heightening his senses.
"Do you seek revenge?"
The same words rang out again.
Darrius' eyes hardened.
An entity that he couldn't sense or perceive in any sense…
Was offering him an opportunity?
This could either be an extreme blessing or a mistake greater than any other.
However, for the current Darrius…
His sister had just been slaughtered.
He wanted to see her killer dead.
No, he wanted to see her killer tortured until their soul collapsed and then desecrated and fed to dogs.
His eyes turned red in murderous intent.
He stopped thinking.
"Yes, I want revenge."
Delia was the only family he had left in this world. Not just his direct family, but his entire family line has been massacred more than 50 years ago, leaving just him and his little sister to fend for themselves.
The Black Dragon Clan was too massive for them to offer support to each and every member of the clan.
As such, the siblings were forced through a great deal of harrowing suffering before they finally received aid and were adopted by an elder of the clan.
However, just what did fate have against them?
Even that elder was slaughtered on a mission 20 years ago.
Grown adults at that point, the siblings received no more aid at all, relegated to their comber divisions and indoctrinated into the army as common soldiers.
Compared to the rage in his soul right now, his feelings for the Black Dragon Clan were negligible.
Elena grinned to herself.
Consent was key.
Now that she'd received it.
'Take it.'
She gave the order, and the impure soul immediately wrapped around Darrius' body and pierced his spiritual world.
Thereafter, it turned into a black crystalline structure that took root on his spiritual continent.
Darrius' eyes widened.
He felt an unknown power flowing through his body.
It was murky, impure, and evil, but it wasn't anything like the diametrically vile mana of the Nox.
'With this…' Darrius thought to himself.
With the aid of this strange power that had been granted to him…
Crack!
The Cube began to crack.
And within seconds, it shattered entirely.
Bang!
Space imploded as the compressed space rapidly expanded back to its original size and spat Darrius out.
"What…?!" The woman from earlier exclaimed, shooting to her feet.
"Darrius, how did you escape?!" She roared commandingly.
However, the current Darrius was in no state to listen to her words.
Grrrr…!
He let out a low growl, puffs of black mana smoke rising from his body.
"Revenge…will be…mine!"
Bang!
He slammed his foot against the ground and rapidly pushed forward, rushing out of the room and several hundred meters down the corridor within a second.
"Stop him! Do not let him leave the base!" The man in charge roared.
Alarms blared throughout the base, and a multitude of troops responded at once.
Darrius was immediately surrounded from all sides.
"Darrius, don't make us do this!" the man at the head of the group exclaimed.
Darrius glanced over indifferently.
"Peter…" he muttered with a brief instance of lucidity.
Yet, even with a clear ability to understand his actions, he didn't make a different choice.
"I must avenge my sister, even if it costs me my life!"
His body burst with eerie black mana.
And without suspense, a deadly melee began.
***
Flash!
A flash of light enveloped a nondescript figure and transported her to her destination.
Elena spread her awareness and cautiously moved forward, carefully avoiding the route Darrius was taking to the exit.
'The distraction is working properly, but the roots don't have a lot of personal power. Once he runs through the energy supply, he'll collapse entirely.'
That was the terrifying thing about impure souls. Not only could they corrupt one's spiritual world, but they would also take back the power they lent by sucking the host's body until they were satisfied.
In most cases, as the host used every ounce of provided power to achieve their desires, they were never able to resist having every ounce of their mana and vitality sucked away.
'When that happens, the facility will go into high alert, and it'll be almost impossible for me to escape.'
Elena judged that she had roughly 15 minutes before Darrius ran out of steam.
But for her current task…
'15 minutes is more than enough.'
Elena grinned as she stuck a strange device to a nearby wall. She turned it clockwise 90 degrees, and when she let go, it melded into the wall and disappeared.
'One down, ninety-nine to go.'
Destroying the base was a task she could easily accomplish within the given time limit.
What she now needed to place her focus on was finding someone to provide her with information about the other two bases.
'Hmm, then, am I going to have to target some extreme peak masters?'
The thought was absurd.
But what was the harm in entertaining it?
Elena was sure excited to try, that much was certain.
