Chapter 35: The First Attempt
The First Attempt
"Here we are." Bazett announced, stopping the car at a fair distance away from the field where Shirou had found the nest of the criminal Magi the previous day. "We are back, and I don't think anyone saw us."
"Very good, Bazett." Lord El-Melloi nodded, looking out of the window, watching as several other cars came to a stop right behind them. Enforcers came pouring out of those cars a second later, and they rapidly established a perimeter around their position, setting up several Bounded Fields.
It was the day after the evening at Frankfurt, and just as Lord El-Melloi had arranged, the seven of them, that being Shirou, Svin, Flat, Grey, Bazett, Caren, and the lord himself, had arrived at the field near Lykershausen with the Enforcers in tow.
The atmosphere around the small group was tense, as for most of them, it would be the first time that they'd ever participated in, or even been close to, the storming of a base of enemy Magi.
There were exceptions of course. Lord El-Melloi for instance had survived the Fourth Holy Grail War in one piece, meaning that a battle he was almost guaranteed to win didn't impress him anymore.
Bazett too was calm, as she was very experienced at battle, meaning that taking down a few labrats wasn't even in the top ten of the most dangerous things she'd done that year.
Shirou however, despite what might be expected of him, was not calm at all. Rather, he was frustrated and impatient, though not because he was nervous about the attack itself, but because the Enforcers were taking too long in getting ready.
He had more to do today!
As soon as the nest had been destroyed and the enemy Magi were either dead or captured, he would be heading to the Einzbern castle for the first time, to finally take a look at his sister's prison with his own eyes. In other words, every second wasted in this field was a second that he couldn't spend on scouting the Einzbern castle.
That was why it was very annoying to be unable to do anything but sit tight and wait until the Enforcers were done preparing, all while creating an uncomfortable silence in the car with his obvious agitation.
Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, Flat was always more than willing to break uncomfortable silences and provide distractions, and today was no exception.
"We're going to storm the nest today, huh?" The frail boy huffed, rubbing his thumb over his chin. "That's going to be a tough one, but I'm not worried."
"You aren't?" Svin asked, playing along with his friend. "Why not?"
"Because we have our super-jacked Asian with us!" Flat proclaimed, enthusiastically gesturing towards Shirou. "We are invincible!"
"But of course!" Svin pumped his fist, grinning widely. "How could I have forgotten?! His Divine righteousness will surely see us to victory!"
They roared in laughter together, and Shirou groaned, cursing both them for their jokes and himself for causing the situation in the first place.
The previous evening, he had saved Caren Ortensia and her tour group from a bunch of violent robbers, and not only had that resulted in a very embarrassing scene as miss Ortensia hugged him while proclaiming him to be some kind of agent of God, but the local newspapers had also run with the story, seeing in it a perfect opportunity for a grand sale.
No matter how old he might become, Shirou would never forget the moment when Flat came up to him that morning, just before they'd left the hotel, holding a copy of 'The Frankfurter Allgemeine' and asking him with glee whether he was the 'super-jacked Asian' who had saved a tour-group from a violent robbery that night, while shouting 'In the name of God' all the while.
In hindsight, he shouldn't have reacted as he did, ripping the paper out of Flat's hands to read the article for himself, as that had only confirmed to the frail teen that Shirou was indeed this 'super-jacked Asian'. Needless to say, a storm of jokes had followed.
Even now, Flat was rubbing his hands in glee, still holding on to that newspaper, ever watching for a moment in which he could crack another joke at Shirou's expense, and the redhead, who had grown very tired of the boy by now, decided to get out of the car and see if the Enforcers happened to need any help.
"Yes, Shirou. You should join them at once." Flat nodded once he saw that Shirou was planning on heading towards the Enforcers. "They would get nowhere if they didn't have your super-jackedness to do the work for them."
Had Shirou already mentioned Flat's jokes weren't even that good…?
"We must sally forth, in the name of God." Flat continued, striking a cross with his hands, and Shirou groaned in exasperation again.
Lord El-Melloi, normally the only one who was capable of controlling Flat, was of no help here. He was having a whispered discussion with Bazett, not paying much attention to what was going on in the rest of the car. Grey watched them with sharp eyes, determined not to miss anything of importance, also ignoring Flat's words.
Svin was of course Flat's compatriot in the matter, smiling widely as he kept reading the specific article mentioning Shirou time and again, giggling under his breath all the while.
"Hehehe. 'He came by prayer to lay a divine smack-down on those evil men.' How hilarious." The handsome teen's eyes sparkled in immense amusement, and he had to bite his lip not to burst out in laughter.
Strangely enough however, and completely against Shirou's expectations, miss Ortensia hadn't teased him even once about the incident. Even though she'd been present at the event itself, and thus had first-hand knowledge of it, she had chosen not to make any comments about it.
She hadn't mentioned the incident at all that morning, or even just said anything more than three-word sentences at most. Rather, she seemed preoccupied with something else, as her eyes were glazed, showing she was deep in thought.
While it would normally be a cause for alarm to have that conniving woman be deep in thought, as it surely meant she was putting together her next tease, Shirou wasn't sure this time what she was thinking. The nun's oddly distracted behaviour had thrown his impression of her into disarray.
But there would be plenty of time to think about that later. For now, he had a hideout to storm and a bunch of criminal Magi to deal with.
Again.
"I don't think this will take long." Shirou told Lord El-Melloi in lieu of a goodbye, and after receiving a nod of acknowledgement in return, left the car, completely missing how Caren Ortensia promptly zoned back in the moment he left her sight, smirked widely, and reached for a bag under her chair, a bag that still held the cheerleader outfit that Shirou had Projected the day before.
Once out of the car, Shirou made a beeline for Gideon, the 'leader' of the team of Enforcers.
The reason for the quotation marks was that Lord El-Melloi was the actual leader of the trip, being the one who had hired them and who paid their salary, and that it was actually Bazett who stood directly below him as field-leader.
Nevertheless, with Lord El-Melloi categorically refusing to step onto the battlefield if it wasn't absolutely necessary, and Bazett sticking close to him to provide protection, the Enforcers had needed another de facto leader on the field.
That leader was Gideon. An easy-going black-haired man with a kind smile, blue eyes that seemed to sparkle in the light of the sun, and a lean body that was geared more towards endurance than sheer power.
Shirou had already met the man in a bar in Frankfurt the previous evening, and though it had been a short meeting, it had left the redhead with a favourable impression of the black-haired Enforcer.
That was why, when Shirou came within earshot of the team, he was able to address the man by name.
"Sir Gideon." The redhead greeted the Enforcer. "How are you today?"
"I am well, mister Fujimaru." Gideon replied, getting up from where he'd been setting up a Bounded Field that was meant to ward off all sounds coming from inside it, the blonde woman standing nearby promptly taking over for him. "And how are you on this fine, sunny day?"
"I am well too." Shirou nodded at him, giving the man a strained smile, feeling impatience bubbling up inside of him. "When are we going to attack?"
"Soon." Far from being put off or annoyed by Shirou's obvious impatience, Gideon merely smiled benignly. "When the Bounded Fields are up and we can be sure no one outside will hear or see anything, we will begin the attack."
"Right." Shirou nodded. "How long will that take, approximately?"
"Around three to four hours." Gideon stated, beaming proudly.
"Three to four hours?!" Shirou spluttered, almost rearing back in shock. That was incredibly long! He barely needed half an hour to install Bounded Fields far more numerous and powerful than what they were creating here.
"I know, impressively quick, isn't it?" Gideon grinned, interpreting Shirou's shock incorrectly. "I wish I could say it's our massive talent and skill, but regrettably, it is not. The reason we can do it so fast is because we have these."
'These' turned out to be pyramid-shaped Mystic Codes, and when Shirou Traced the one in Gideon's hands, he saw that they were meant to speed up the process of creating Bounded Fields.
"These babies have half-formed Bounded Fields installed in them." Gideon explained happily. "You just take them along in a bag, and when you reach your destination, you use a simple spell-array to complete the Bounded Field entirely in just four hours instead of more than twelve. Nice, quick, and easy."
"…Right." Shirou smiled uncomfortably. It was of course an improvement to only take four hours instead of twelve, but in the redhead's book, measuring the time in hours at all instead of minutes was still rather bad.
"Of course, the Bounded Fields cannot be too elaborate or powerful. To the best of my knowledge, there are no Mystic Codes in existence that allow for the acceleration of the setup of strong Fields, never mind those of the Ultimate class. Fortunately, we don't need elaborate or powerful Fields here." Gideon continued his explanation, before wiping some imaginary sweat off his brow as he gave Shirou a lopsided grin. "But man, am I glad the Vice-Director agreed to foot the bill for this. Those pre-prepared Bounded Fields are insanely expensive, to the point she wouldn't allow us to buy more than four. Not that there were many more to buy in the first place, as they are insanely popular and are usually bought right after one comes onto the market, but still."
Shirou had to forcibly suppress the urge to frown when Gideon suddenly lied to him, but he managed to disguise it as a sudden coughing fit, doing it convincingly enough that none of the Enforcers showed any sign of suspicion.
Now, to be fair to Gideon, the black-haired Enforcer hadn't lied directly, but there definitely were untruths hidden in his words, mainly around the part where he mentioned how Lady Barthomeloi had given them the money they needed to buy the Mystic Codes.
If Shirou had to guess, he would say that Gideon's team hadn't actually bought those Mystic Codes, like he claimed, but rather had created them and then only pretended to buy them for appearance's sake.
Which was in accordance with the fact that Shirou had already seen and smelled that the Mystic Codes had been made by one of the team's members. His Tracing had pointed that out clearly enough, and it had even told him precisely which one of them was responsible for their creation.
It was the cloaked, hooded fellow that was hanging around in the back, pretending not to listen to Gideon's and Shirou's conversation as he strutted around, checking up on how his inventions were doing.
That was… concerning.
Not because such an invention was worthy of a Sealing Designation, no, that barely even occurred to Shirou. What he was far more worried about was that they had apparently ripped Lady Barthomeloi off, asking her for money to buy things they already had in their possession.
A very bold move, and one Shirou hoped they wouldn't get in trouble for. They seemed like nice people, even if they had scammed the Vice-Director, and they certainly didn't deserve to be brutally executed.
But Shirou and Gideon were digressing from the matter at hand. They had been discussing how long it would take for the Bounded Fields to be installed, and the answer Shirou had received had been entirely unsatisfactory. Three to four hours was simply too much time.
Again, he had more to do today.
Spurred on by his ever-increasing impatience and the need to finally do something useful in his quest to save Illya, Shirou decided to throw caution in the wind and take matters into his own hands.
"I am something of an expert in Bounded Fields myself." He told Gideon, and without waiting for a reply, marched over to the four Enforcers working on the Fields, practically pushed them aside, and took over the work, using his own style of creating Bounded Fields to drastically speed up the process.
Of course, the teen did take care not to make it freakishly fast, so while he could have been done in no more than two minutes, he dragged it out to half an hour instead.
For him, an unforgivably long time to install some third-rate Bounded Fields, but apparently a prodigiously short time for basically everyone else.
For a moment, just one short moment, Shirou wondered whether his apparent talent in Magecraft might be enough to offset his lacking mindset and make him a First-Rate Magus after all.
But then he shook his mind free of such inane matters again.
Gideon would be the first to admit that his team of Enforcers wasn't the Clocktower's best by any meaning of the word.
He loved his team, and it was safe to say he saw them as his family after all the years they'd worked together, but that didn't mean he couldn't acknowledge that they didn't seem like much at first sight.
They were a group of nine individuals working together, and each and every one of them was an outcast in some way, a pariah in the Magus Association.
They'd all started out well enough in life, as members of quite prestigious families –Gideon himself was, or rather had been, an Eulyphis– and most of them were even quite talented at what they did. By all accounts, most of them should have gone on to lead successful lives as Magi.
But none of them had managed to succeed. They all had failed in some unforgivable way, and it had destroyed their reputations. Some of them were considered total failures, others were known for their regular use of excessive violence, again others were seen as insane liabilities, and Gideon himself was just plain looked down upon by everyone who knew him.
In a way, it was perhaps only to be expected that the nine of them would gravitate towards each other over the years. They'd become fast friends, and eventually, they had decided to form an Enforcer-team together, the reason being that Enforcer-teams were generally left to their own devices.
Becoming an Enforcer-team also required them to pick a leader however.
Enter Gideon. He wasn't the strongest of them, or the smartest, or the wisest. He wasn't the most magically gifted, nor did he have many important connections in the Clocktower.
What he did have however were organising skills. He was a natural at putting together plans that took every strength and weakness of the team into account. He had taken nine individuals, all of them incredibly different in personality, fighting style, goals, and background, and forged them into a well-functioning unit.
Thanks to Gideon, this team was more than just the sum of its parts. Because of him, they could punch far above their supposed weight class, which was perhaps best signified by the fact that they'd never lost a member in all their seven years of active service.
It had all been somewhat shaky in the beginning, as they all had to get used to each other and they'd all been through too much to trust easily, but with Gideon's guidance and with some patience and understanding, they'd become a unit they were all proud to be a part of. A unit with a near-spotless record and a success rate of a hundred percent.
Well, almost a hundred percent. Their most recent mission, to hunt down the Sealing Designee Vincent Balefor in Lord El-Melloi's name, had been a failure.
They'd worked on it for four years without success, and in the end, they'd only succeeded because of Shirou Fujimaru, Lord El-Melloi's new apprentice, doing all the work for them.
They'd still been paid, and it had been marked down as a success on their record, but Gideon felt, and his teammates agreed, that it had been a loss on their part.
That was why they had eagerly accepted when Lord El-Melloi had approached them again to hunt more criminal Magi. It was an opportunity to wipe the slate clean, so to speak.
Gideon hadn't expected to be shown up by Fujimaru yet again though.
The black-haired Enforcer watched with eyes wide as saucers as Fujimaru took a mere thirty minutes to singlehandedly complete a task that should have taken four men at least six times as long.
It wasn't the first time Gideon had seen a prodigy apply their craft –he might have told Fujimaru that they had bought the Mystic Codes that held pre-prepared Bounded Fields, but in truth, it had been Khamul, a member of Gideon's team, who had developed and created them himself– but it remained quite a wondrous sight nonetheless.
It wasn't quite worthy of a Sealing Designation as far as Gideon could tell, as Fujimaru had probably made extensive use of Khamul's pre-prepared Bounded Fields, but it was certainly an amazing feat.
No wonder the Clocktower had been so abuzz about him over the past week if showings like this were commonplace with him.
Despite his surprise however, Gideon was still a professional, so he shook off his shock over Fujimaru's feat and quickly altered his attack-plan, moving the timeline up three hours.
"Alright, everyone, gather 'round." He called his team together, to give them an outline of the plan. He'd actually wanted to do that somewhere in the three hours he would have had at his disposal during the installation of the Bounded Fields, but then Fujimaru came along, and now he had to improvise. "In this operation, speed will be of the absolute essence. Our task is not just to capture or neutralise the Magi before they can further harm their captives, but we must also secure as much evidence about their crimes and accomplices as we can."
Gideon had been briefed extensively on the purpose of this hunt. It wasn't just to destroy a nest of monstrous Magi that had committed horrific acts for far too long, but also to obtain enough evidence that any possible accomplices could be tracked down and dealt with as well.
"Since there will be captives and fragile evidence present, we cannot use large-scale destructive magic, either to force our way in or to neutralise our opponents." Gideon continued his speech, giving both Ruti and Theodora an imploring look. "Use spells with great precision only, and if possible, keep yourself confined to melee. Of course, if you find yourself or another team member in a pinch, do what you need to do to survive, but only if it is absolutely necessary. I want no fire, no floods, no scorching beams of light, no acid, and above all, no explosions."
Ruti seemed particularly disappointed at the last rule, but Gideon ignored her for now.
"That we need to move quickly and carefully does not mean we must be careless however. It is important that we provide cover for each other at all times, and that we always remember that no price is worth our lives." Gideon cast his look around the group, weighing several possibilities in his head, before he pointed at two of his team members as well as Fujimaru. "Rit, Suladan, and Fujimaru, you will be our spearhead. You will take point, while the rest of us will provide cover for you as you break into the hideout."
Rit, Gideon's beautiful, blonde girlfriend, and somewhat of a battle junkie, grinned widely at being assigned to the frontline. Suladan, a perpetually grim-looking, bald Egyptian, nodded solemnly. Fujimaru just inclined his head with a neutral expression.
"Break down the defences. Neutralise every single Magus present. Take whatever booty you can find. Leave nothing behind in there. Once we're done, we'll burn that place down as thoroughly as possible." He spurred them on with some encouraging words, before holding up a cautioning finger. "Don't stay behind without telling me, or you'll be in serious trouble when the place starts burning."
Not that he thought anyone would be that stupid, but better safe than sorry.
Gideon laid out a few more details of his plan, and once he was certain everyone had understood every facet of it, and that no one had any questions, he set things into motion.
"Khamul." He spoke, looking at the cloaked man, whose face was shrouded in the shadows of his hood, as it always was. "Neutralise the Bounded Fields around the hideout. Make sure our marks inside won't get a warning until it is too late."
The hood went up and down, and Khamul moved towards the fence to which the Bounded Fields of their targets were anchored.
Fujimaru was quick to follow him there.
"You have a way of disabling Bounded Fields that does not alert their creators of their destruction?" The redhead sounded extremely interested, and Gideon supposed it was a prodigy's nature to seek more knowledge about their preferred field. "How do you do that?"
"…I do not disable them, at least not directly." Khamul's voice, soft and scratchy, came from within the shadows of the hood, answering Fujimaru's question readily enough. "It is more that I… 'disrupt' them, temporarily making them unable to fulfil their function. If you can successfully do so without destroying them, then you safely pass through the Bounded Fields without alerting their casters."
"Wow." Fujimaru breathed in wonder, and Gideon had to agree with his assessment. He too considered it an amazing trick. "Why don't more people use that technique?"
"The Bounded Field in question must be weak and simple." Khamul explained, his hands moving in patterns just above the fence. "In order to disrupt it, you must first study it for a long time, to truly understand it. Then you must place your own power into it, to effectively block several of its properties. Compare it, if you will, to chemistry. You must first understand the material's properties before you can use it in deliberate reactions. Just improvising will destroy your materials and leave you with nothing useful."
"I suppose this technique doesn't allow for mistakes then?" Fujimaru asked, sounding like he already knew the answer.
"No. Making a mistake will inevitably trigger the Field and alert the casters. This is a very delicate procedure. At least, that was how it was explained to me."
"I understand." Fujimaru nodded, seemingly satisfied with that explanation, and he fell silent again, watching closely how Khamul worked.
Behind the redhead, and out of his sight, Gideon let out a deep breath of relief. Fortunately, Fujimaru had accepted Khamul's words, and hadn't wondered about the obvious holes in the hooded man's story.
Even if the technique of disrupting Bounded Fields was limited to weak and simple Bounded Fields only, it should still be wildly popular, both for application and for research. The only reason that it wasn't was because Khamul himself had been the one who developed said technique and hadn't shared with anyone except the team yet.
Khamul had a once-in-a-century talent in manipulating Bounded Fields. He was a true savant, who had the potential to progress the field by decades on his own. However, with the possibility of a Sealing Designation hanging over him like the Sword of Damocles, he kept most of his inventions to himself, and had no intention of sharing them until after his death and the cremation of his body, when no one would be able to hurt him anymore.
But they couldn't tell Fujimaru that. The boy wouldn't understand. He wouldn't see why Khamul was so desperate to keep his talents and inventions a secret. The redhead would have no idea how it was to live in fear of being Sealed once people found out what you could do.
"We are quite lucky. As I said, this Field is weak and simple." Khamul let out a breathless laugh, one that sounded more like he was choking. "I will be done soon."
"Would you mind it terribly if I took over?" Fujimaru suddenly requested, and, after the hood turned towards the redhead in a clear motion of surprise, Khamul indicated he could go ahead. The robed man had no pride that could persuade him to refuse Fujimaru after all. "Thank you."
For a few seconds, the redhead studied the Bounded Field, peering at it with eyes that Gideon swore were almost glowing. Then he snapped his fingers.
"The Bounded Field has been successfully disrupted." Khamul announced immediately, the faintest inflection of surprise in the scratchy voice. "The way is free, and our marks are yet unaware of us."
Gideon wasted not a second on surprise. He could think about what Fujimaru had just done after the battle was over.
"Fujimaru, Rit, Suladan." He called out to the vanguard, before pointing towards the tree under which the entrance to the hideout was located. "Attack!"
None of the three wasted a moment to follow his orders. They stormed forward, Fujimaru in the lead, Rit behind him, and Suladan closing the line.
Rit was the fastest of their team, though Suladan wasn't much slower, yet neither of them could keep up with Fujimaru, who quickly distanced himself from them as he became a veritable blur in his rush towards the target.
Though that didn't stop Gideon from noticing he'd suddenly donned a beautiful set of armour and held a small weapon of some kind in his hand.
Then the rest of the group started moving, and with a last look at Lord El-Melloi –who was standing a fair distance away with the rest of his students, looking on as the attack began– Gideon stormed towards the hideout as well.
Disrupting Bounded Fields.
A technique that could render Bounded Fields unable to perform their functions without having to destroy them and thus alert their casters of the fact that you were coming for them.
Shirou had never known such a technique existed. He hadn't even thought it was possible. Maybe it could be done in theory, if all conditions were perfectly met, but in practice, it should be unfeasible to play around with something that complex without messing something up long before you were done.
This Khamul had to be an absolute genius to be able to do it anyway.
Sure, the shrouded man's explanation of the matter had made it sound like disrupting Bounded Fields was a well-known technique, which simply wasn't that useful in combat, but Shirou wasn't fooled. He had noticed that the man was lying through his teeth while saying all that.
Khamul had developed the concept of disrupting Bounded Fields by himself, and there was no one else in the world who knew about it.
It was a feat worthy of celebration and laudation. If the hooded man went public with it at any point in his life, Magi from all over the world would fall to their knees before him, begging him to teach them. 'Khamul' would become a household name in the Moonlit World in an instant.
Shirou understood perfectly well why Khamul kept it a secret instead though.
While there were plenty of people who would love his invention, there would be just as many who would curse his name for it. Khamul would be given his money and shallow praise, but it would be coupled with numerous assassination attempts, scorn, hatred, and jealousy.
And that was only if he wasn't immediately Sealed and kept at some Department forever to keep creating more amazing spells for the rest of his life and beyond.
It really was much better for Khamul's health and general well-being to keep it a secret. Khamul knew it, his team knew it, and Shirou knew it now too. As such, the redhead's mouth was sealed. He wasn't going to betray other people's secrets.
He was however going to make use of Khamul's technique himself. It would be of immense help after all in scouting out and eventually entering the Einzbern-castle without alerting its inhabitants, not to mention in potential future cases in which he might have to attack Magi in their own homes.
But that was something for later. Right now, he needed to deal with the nest, to neutralise the Magi inside, rescue their victims, and to obtain the information that Lady Barthomeloi had asked for.
A tall order, considering he was going in practically blind, but it wouldn't be the first time he had done so, so Shirou buckled up and got to work. The moment Gideon gave the order, he was already sprinting down the field, Rit and Suladan hot on his heels.
Shirou deployed his armour immediately and summoned Mjolnir to his hand. He rushed towards the hatch that he had pinpointed the day before, finding it exactly where he thought it would be, between the roots of the great oak tree.
Once there, he quickly checked it for any protective Enchantments, and, when he had established it was nothing his Magic Resistance couldn't deal with, smashed his fist down on the hatch to break said Enchantments.
They crumbled into useless bits of raw Magical Energy under his blow, and Shirou then ripped off the hatch, exposing the entrance of the lair.
It was a tunnel going directly down, with a diameter about twice the width of Shirou's shoulders, now exposed to the outside world.
There was a ladder installed against the side, but Shirou ignored it. The drop was only seven metres at most, a fall he could have dealt with even before Mjolnir had arrived.
Shirou jumped down the hatch, fell for less than a second, and landed smoothly on the ground...
"Curse you!"
…Before immediately using Mjolnir to parry a spell.
Shirou cast a quick look around the room he was in, establishing that it was nothing but a round, empty space, being perhaps four metres in diameter. Beside the ladder and a door leading deeper inside the base, there was nothing, leaving Shirou free to focus on his assailant.
She was an older lady, with brownish hair that was starting to grey, a few wrinkles, and a cane in her hand. She still had her hand outstretched from when she'd fired the spell, but she didn't attack again, too busy gaping at him, utterly floored by how easily he'd parried her spell.
Not an experienced combatant then, which was confirmed when Shirou rushed her and easily knocked her out, without the woman even trying to evade or block his attack.
Hearing the quiet thump of another person dropping themselves into the hideout, Shirou looked back, seeing that Rit had followed him in, holding a knife in each hand. The blonde girl first zeroed in on the unconscious woman and then gave him a big, approving smile, getting out of the way just before Suladan came down as well, holding a long, thin sword.
Continuing the assault, Shirou kicked in the door that led deeper inside. He stormed through the opening and…
…He froze.
For beyond that door lay a nightmare.
It was a laboratory, or at least an imitation of one. It fulfilled the basic requirements that most people would think of when trying to imagine a laboratory, though it was doubtful any real scientist would have considered it a good working space.
It was rather large, especially for an underground room. The walls, floor and ceiling were made out of stainless steel and painted white, and light was provided by massive electrical lamps that had been embedded in the ceiling.
The room was stuffed to the brim. Workbenches and tables were everywhere, chairs were scattered around between them, whiteboards and chalkboards were placed at strategic locations, and there were plenty of trash bins available.
There was no shortage of people inside either. Over a dozen Magi were present, all of them wearing lab coats or other protective clothing, and all of them in various states of surprise and shock.
At the other end of the room from where Shirou was standing, there was another door, which led even further into the facility, towards rooms that looked much like the one he was standing in now.
By which he meant that they looked absolutely nightmarish.
This was no normal laboratory like the ones you could find in every university in the Western World and the developed parts of the Far East. This was no place of honourable research meant to further develop mankind's knowledge.
This was a laboratory straight out of a torture-porn horror flick.
It. Was. Awful!
Shirou had been immune to horrid and terrible sights since the Fire, so while he was shocked and horrified by what he saw, he didn't faint, puke, or gag.
A normal person would have done all three.
Rit gasped in shock when she entered the room, and Suladan loudly ground his teeth in anger when he beheld the foul scene. They had been thoroughly desensitized to horrid scenes by their years of experience as Enforcers, but what they saw here went too far even for them.
Dead bodies and crudely severed body parts were strewn around everywhere, in numbers greater than Shirou had ever seen, most of them having been cut or even partially flayed.
Numerous still-living people were chained and bound to the walls and the tables, by shackles and ropes or by Magecraft, all of them subjected to indescribable torture, made even worse by the fact that most of them were rendered unable to struggle or even scream.
Blood covered every table and every knife in sight, litres and litres of it, so much that a fair-sized swimming pool could have been filled.
Shirou could see it all. Worse, he could even feel the pain and suffering that permeated the air, hear the unending screaming that had sounded in here, and sense the utter despair that the victims had felt before they died horrible deaths.
Never had Shirou seen anything like this. Not with the Dead Apostle. Not with the Phantasmal Beast. Not with Oni. Not even with Vincent Balefor and his ilk.
The people, no, the monsters in this hideout easily surpassed everyone and everything Shirou had come across before in cruelty and viciousness. Their faces, so normal looking, were just masks hiding abominable creatures that had no business walking free.
So when Rit threw one of her knives into a Magus' eye, piercing his brain and killing him instantly, and Suladan used his sword to bisect another Magus, setting off pandemonium in the room, Shirou didn't feel at all inclined to stop or reprimand them.
Warrior's Madness rose to the surface ever so slightly, and Shirou embraced it, charging forward and breaking bones left and right, for once uncaring about any fatalities as he avenged the people who had met a horrible end in his hellhole.
'There hadn't been a single warning.'
That was all Head Professor Edokas could think as a massive crash sounded from the entrance of their base, quickly followed by another crash, and then yet another. The screaming, muffled from where he sat but still clearly audible, started seconds later.
Edokas had lived long enough and had sufficient life-experience to realise what those sounds meant. One didn't survive for years on the streets of Honduras if one didn't learn to recognise trouble at the faintest sign.
The base was clearly under attack, and based on the crashes and screams of panic, Edokas could confidently say the assailants had broken through the hatch and the first door, and were now in the process of beating the ever-living daylights out of his followers.
Edokas didn't waste a second on wondering how that was possible, and why his Bounded Fields hadn't warned him of the attackers' approach. Instead, he immediately took stock of his own situation.
Sitting in his office in the deepest part of the base, Edokas was furthest removed from the action at the entrance, yet this was no consolation.
That the enemy combatants had to go through the entire base to get to him didn't mean much when no one in the base could even remotely be considered a warrior of any kind. They were just researchers, and any Enforcer or mercenary who knew what they were doing would cut through the lot of them like carving a cake.
Worse, there was only one way in and out of the base, meaning there was no way for Edokas to escape either now that the entrance had been taken by enemy forces.
Edokas vaguely registered those two facts, but those actually weren't even the main reasons he was worried. What he was most worried about was the fact that Lars was working in one of the labs closer to the entrance, and the fact that he didn't have the Meluastea's file with him.
Edokas could kick himself. That file, that accursed file that was full of information about the Meluastea's entire operation, was still lying on one of his workbenches in the third lab. He had placed it there because it was too heavy to carry all the time, and then he'd forgotten it when he'd returned to his office.
If it hadn't been for the fact that hurting himself was a terrible idea in the light of the situation, Edokas would have smashed his head on his desk. He had promised Lars that he would always keep the file with him, he had sworn it, yet at this crucial juncture, he had failed. He had left it behind on the day that the attackers came, and if they got their hands on it, it would spell the end of the Meluastea.
So instead of holing up in his office to escape the attackers for as long as he could, as he normally would have done, Edokas grabbed everything he could find in his office that could serve some purpose in combat and rushed out, determined to not fail Lars or his masters again.
As he left the office however, Edokas also made a list of priorities for himself.
The most important thing was to get himself and Lars out of there. Whether it was by fighting themselves a way out or by negotiating a surrender didn't matter. As long as he and Lars survived, he could deal with everything else.
If possible, he'd also take care of that file, destroy it as well as he could, but that was only secondary. Screw the Meluastea and their wishes, Lars was far more important.
Edokas did not spend a single thought on his research, or on his other acolytes. Edokas only thought about Lars.
About his son.
Shirou knew that Lady Barthomeloi had sent him to this hideout in order to confront him with the Meluastea's evil so he would join her crusade against them. He knew that, yet he liked to think that if she'd truly known what was taking place in there, she'd have destroyed the hideout herself long before.
The redhead had only been inside for several minutes, but he'd already found countless projects that effortlessly eclipsed everything Vincent Balefor had done in terms of vileness and evil.
He'd found some kind of torture devices, embedded in the bodies of the poor victims, that seemed made only to cause the most excruciating of agony while also paralysing those victims, most of whom had gone mad from the pain.
He'd discovered prosthetic limbs that seemed to eat themselves into the flesh of their wearers, and continued eating after they were in place, quickly killing whoever they had attached themselves to.
There were people who had been infected with some kind of supercharged cancer cells, of whom the flesh was literally rotting and melting off their bones. There was acid being developed that worked excruciatingly slowly on human skin and flesh. There were plants that clearly longed for human meat.
The sight of animals and humans being combined into Chimeras was a nasty reminder of Vincent Balefor, but when Shirou looked closer, he saw that this was even worse than what Balefor had gotten up to.
All of it was near-cartoonish in its evil.
Shirou had no way of knowing that this nest was the place where the Meluastea stored the people and projects that even they considered 'a bit much'. He could only feel astounded at what he saw, what the Meluastea apparently did and approved of.
The redhead was glad to see however that both Rit and Suladan also seemed utterly baffled and disgusted, viciously attacking everyone in sight, intent on avenging the poor victims and making sure the perpetrators could never harm anyone again.
Unlike before though, they took care not to kill the Magi anymore, as they wanted prisoners too.
As Shirou looked on, Suladan savagely sliced off limbs, gouged out eyes, cut deep into bones and tendons, and more than once used the hilt of his sword to bash people over the head. At the other side of the room, Rit sliced and cut herself a way across the Magi too, and eventually kicked a male Magus so hard between his legs that Shirou could almost hear the man's testicles pop.
As for the redhead himself, he had spent the first few minutes of the battle partially held in Warrior's Madness, but with the looming threat of immense exhaustion hanging over his head, and with the knowledge that he needed clarity of mind to achieve his objective, he'd eventually managed to calm himself down again.
Now he mostly followed his true and tried method of tapping people on the head to carefully knock them out, though he often added a broken bone here and there as well.
He avoided killing as much as he could however. They needed people to interrogate, and furthermore, he had no doubt that the fate the Clocktower had in store for them was much, much worse than any method of killing that he could envision himself.
One could ask themselves at this point why Shirou even bothered keeping his 'no killing' rule in place if he was just going to let his victims be executed anyway, but that actually touched upon an issue Shirou had been pondering himself.
Originally, he had adopted his no-killing rule because he was fighting mundane criminals, crooks who had largely never killed anyone before, and at most had made themselves guilty of theft, robbery, scamming, and occasionally assault, none of which were crimes that carried the death-penalty.
Not killing anyone was Shirou's way of at least somewhat keeping in line with the law, to prevent himself from following his father's path in killing at the drop of a hat because it might save people in the future.
Now that he was in the Moonlit World however, where the crimes were generally far worse and the very culture and laws were harsher and more brutal, his reasoning didn't work as well anymore.
Perhaps it was in fact time that he abandoned his no killing rule. He didn't want to go Kiritsugu's way, but killing people, actually evil people, in battle was hardly the same as cold-bloodedly killing whoever was convenient to kill at a given moment.
Shirou should not go around slaughtering people for the heck of it, but perhaps he could stop being so prudent about not killing people at all, and just strike when the situation called for it.
This wasn't the time for that though. Right now, he needed as many prisoners as possible, so he made sure not to use lethal force.
Additionally, he needed to be very careful about not hitting prisoners or evidence. They needed both if they were to ever put an end to the Meluastea, so prudence was very much required.
So far, they had captured over twenty Magi, and obtained a lot of documents and other paperwork. With some luck, they'd be able to get useful intel from it.
Knock on wood.
"We're moving to the third laboratory!" Rit cried after she slammed the last Magus down to the ground in a movement that had most likely broken his spine. "Fujimaru, do your thing!"
"Understood." Shirou called back, before he held out his hand and started gathering Healing Power.
Normally, when he used his Healing Power, he just placed a hand on the injured person's body and transmitted the golden energy like that, pushing it out from within himself and towards the person in need of healing. If the injured person was not within reach, he could shoot the golden energy from a distance, like a beam of golden light.
For these laboratories however, filled with many people in need of his aid, one more horrifically injured than the other, transmitting the golden energy by touch or shooting straight beams at them would take too long. There were too many people over a too large area, and Shirou needed to press the attack.
As such, he gathered the energy on his palm, where it shaped itself into a golden orb. That golden orb he then threw towards the middle of the room. When it hit the ground, it exploded in a burst of Healing Power that saturated the entire room at once.
It was essentially a move that sacrificed efficiency and thoroughness for speed. It would not be able to completely heal everyone, but it would take away the worst of the pain and the injuries that the victims were suffering from, and it would allow them to survive until he returned to truly heal them.
Today had been the first time Shirou had ever used such a technique. He'd done it on an impulse, after the first laboratory had been cleared, and since it had been extremely effective at removing the worst of the wounds from the poor victims, he was now doing it in every lab.
Of course, Rit and Suladan had gotten the shock of their lives when Shirou had suddenly set off a giant, golden explosion for the first time. Suladan had jumped a metre into the air, and Rit had let out an extremely high-pitched scream, one that sounded suspiciously like the word 'Gideon'.
Looking back, perhaps they wouldn't have been so angry at Shirou for that if he hadn't laughed at them.
Something to remember for the future.
Fortunately, they'd quickly realised the use of his new technique, and now, instead of jumping or screaming in fright, they stood still to bask in the golden rays, which erased their fatigue and recharged them for the next battle.
Then they continued.
Edokas sprinted through the fifth laboratory as fast as his rather obese body allowed him to. He had not a second to waste, so he forced his legs to move, putting the one in front of the other, time and again, despite every cell and fibre in his body screaming at him to stop and rest.
Just like Lord El-Melloi and Flat, Edokas was not in very good physical shape, to put it extremely mildly. It wasn't entirely his fault though, as he had been cooped up in the underground hideout for years now, in which most of the rooms barely had the space to let you turn around without bumping into something, let alone do some exercise.
Then again, Edokas had only exacerbated the issue by regularly stuffing himself with unhealthy food, gorging himself on whatever he fancied on a particular day, feeling no need to limit himself. He'd been hungry for most of his early life, and he wasn't ever going to be hungry again.
He'd been enjoying the good life a little too much, and on this day, when his running-abilities suddenly were of vital importance, he fell short of what was needed.
By the time he arrived at the third laboratory, where Lars and the file were supposed to be, he found himself eye to eye with the first assailant.
Said assailant, a redheaded youth wearing a splendid set of armour and holding a hammer, stood on the other side of the lab, in the door opening between the second and the third. His baleful golden eyes glared at Edokas with a barely contained fury, and the Head Professor almost fainted when he made eye-contact.
It was only through supreme willpower that he managed to tear his eyes away from that horrid gaze and look through the rest of the room instead.
Lars and the file were both located right in the middle of the laboratory, at an equal distance from Edokas and the assailant. There was no one else present in the room, all Magi who had been present before having fled further into the base already.
"Professor Edokas!" Lars called out, his voice full of fear as he held out a hand towards his father figure, his legs shaking too much for him to try and run away.
Edokas' mind raced as he desperately tried to think of something to save Lars. He had no illusions about being able to reach the boy before the assailant. He was old and fat, while the redheaded youth was young, slim, and fit, with powerful legs that no doubt allowed him to run at incredible speed whenever he wanted to.
If Edokas wanted to reach Lars before the assailant did, if he wanted the merest chance of surviving the next few seconds, he needed a distraction, something to divert attention away from his acolyte.
Fortunately, he had just the thing.
"Intruder! Listen to me! That file contains a treasure trove of information." He called out, pointing at said file, hope filling his breast as the assailant's eyes flickered towards the bundle of papers instead of Lars and him. "It's from the Meluastea! It holds all their secrets, their plans, their illegal operations, everything they don't want outsiders to know! With that file, you have them by the balls. You can get everything you want from them!"
In truth, Edokas had no idea what the assailant wanted exactly, but he figured no one would be able to refuse a bounty like that file.
Lars, bless that boy, immediately understood what Edokas was trying to do, and without a second of hesitation, he grabbed the file from the desk and threw it in the general direction of the assailant. A beautiful distraction that would force the redheaded youth to focus on the file and disregard Lars and Edokas for a few precious seconds.
Edokas began moving, lifting his right foot to start running again, while Lars began turning to him, his legs no longer shaking as badly now that an actual plan had been set into motion.
Then the assailant moved, becoming a veritable blur as he crossed the distance in less than a second and snatched the file out of the air before it had even reached the apex of its flight.
He now stood right behind Lars, but instead of striking the boy, as Edokas had feared he would, he chose to take a step back, protectively hugging the file to his chest, having no doubt seen its worth.
Using the momentary reprieve, Edokas ran up to Lars and protectively placed himself in front of his favourite acolyte.
"Assailant." Edokas barked, puffing up his chest and trying to look self-confident, fighting against his own instincts, which screamed at him to fall to his knees when the redhaired youth locked eyes with him again. "I wish to negotiate our surrender."
The assailant seemed taken aback by Edokas' words, but then he leaned forward slightly, looking vaguely interested.
"Just you two or everyone in the base?" The redheaded boy asked in a youthful, strong voice, one that almost made Edokas' bones rattle from its intensity.
"Just us two. I don't speak for the others." He responded, deciding it was wiser not to mention that he was supposed to be the one in charge of the base. "Just my acolyte, Lars, and me, Edokas. W-We're no one special here, and we don't want to give our lives for this nonsense. E-Everyone here is crazy anyway. Please, consider letting us go."
"I see." It seemed like the assailant believed him, as he made no further threatening motions and instead stayed back, still looking vaguely interested. Emboldened by this, Edokas continued.
"I don't expect you to indulge us for free of course. I can make it worth your while. I know a lot of secrets, even more than in that file, from many more families than just the Meluastea. If you spare us, I will gladly tell you all about them."
Edokas had absolutely no qualms about throwing other Magi under the bus, even if they had been his allies. He owed them nothing, and they would instantly do the same if they found themselves in his position. He did what he had to in order to survive. That was how things worked in the Moonlit World.
"An interesting offer." The assailant gave them a beautiful smile, yet Edokas could not feel relieved in the slightest, as the assailant's eyes remained so cold that they could have refrozen the Arctic. "You can present it to Lady Barthomeloi, once I have delivered you to her."
"No, please!" Lars cried, while Edokas' body stiffened in fear of the mention of that hated name, but before either of them could do anything more, the assailant crossed the distance between them in the blink of an eye.
The last thing Edokas saw was a fist flying at his face.
Then there was nothing.
Gideon was currently standing in the first laboratory of the hideout, looking at the huge mess that had been made only minutes before by Fujimaru, Suladan, and Rit.
The trio had not been gentle during the storming of this place, and it showed in the massive amounts of property damage and the horribly injured and mutilated Magi that had been strewn around and left to die.
The trio had already charged deeper into the hideout, followed closely behind by Ruti, Mai, and Theodora, who provided them with ranged support, leaving him with Khamul, Kyra, and Angy to take the role of rear-guard and clean-up crew.
And there definitely was a lot to be cleaned up.
To start with, the Magi themselves. They might have been taken down with extreme prejudice and were now neutralised, but that didn't mean they could just leave them lying around.
Okay, they might get away with that with the dead Magi, but there were plenty of them left who were alive and needed to be restrained before they woke up. Most of them also needed some kind of medical treatment, to ensure they wouldn't die before they could be interrogated.
Aside from securing the Magi, they also needed to gather every piece of information that seemed potentially useful to their operation. Gideon and his team weren't going to touch the research-projects if they didn't have to –way too much risk of being cursed in some way– but administrative documents were fair play after they had been screened a bit for Enchantments and Curses.
Lastly, there were the victims of the criminal Magi who needed to be freed from their bounds, healed, and then Hypnotised as quickly as possible to remove and replace all memories of what had transpired.
Normally, tending to the victims was a horrible task. The injuries on themselves were bad enough, but the screaming, crying, insanity, and sometimes even hero-worship of the saviours that came with them made it even worse.
In this particular case however, when the victims were freed, they barely needed any healing at all. Sure, there were small injuries, as well as scars, and some people had nasty devices embedded under their skin or had pins in their skulls, but there were no life-threatening wounds, and all possible spells on them had already been neutralised.
Gideon had noticed the golden explosion that Fujimaru had triggered, and he had been able to analyse it enough to know it had healing and Curse-breaking effects, but until now, he hadn't properly appreciated just how effective those golden rays truly were.
They had healed the most grievous of wounds, cured the nastiest afflictions, removed Curses, Enchantments, and other spells, and had even put every single victim in a dreamless, undisturbed sleep, making Hypnotising them much easier.
All of that with one spell that had taken a few seconds to cast.
Fujimaru was even more impressive than Gideon had realised at first, and the black-haired Enforcer felt much less bad about losing out to him on the matter of Vincent Balefor now.
That boy was clearly a prodigy, who might one day reach the level of Lorelei Barthomeloi herself.
Okay, that was an exaggeration, but he could perhaps come close enough.
"Penny for your thoughts, Gideon?"
The question was asked by Angy, who had just come up to him after she finished Hypnotising yet another victim. The tiny, though well-developed and mature, woman had been forced to take a short break after seeing too many horrendous things in quick succession, but she was back with a vengeance now.
"Just thinking about Fujimaru's spell." Gideon replied shortly, giving her a calm smile.
"Yes, so am I, but I don't stand around looking stupid." Angy lightly scolded him, frowning up at her much taller boss. "There is much work to be done still, so get moving already."
"Of course." Gideon accepted her chiding words. "I shall get started on-"
Then they went around a corner, and Gideon's stomach lurched, forcing him to close his mouth lest his breakfast came up again.
Next to him, Angy turned a pasty white, and she quickly averted her eyes.
Even among the horrors of this laboratory, what they had laid their eyes upon at that moment was particularly bad in a way that made Gideon momentarily lose faith in the good of humanity altogether.
It was an abominable, accursed construction of seven human heads linked together by steel wires, the eyes gouged out, the skin partially flayed, and pins and needles having been inserted everywhere.
What was particularly horrid however, and what had made Gideon's stomach rebel, was the fact that there were at least two heads in the mix that had belonged to children below the age of ten.
The heads were clearly dead now, but Gideon was willing to bet a lot of money on them having been alive right up to the point where Fujimaru's spell had found them and had decided there was nothing it could do except mercy-killing them.
"Flagrante!" Angy spat out the short chant, and the next moment, the construction was consumed in magical flames that burned as hot as the sun, and kept burning until nothing but ashes remained.
"Such evil." Gideon muttered unconsciously, his hand grasping at his own throat. "Such wickedness."
"I hope the one responsible for this travesty is still alive." Angy hissed. "Lady Barthomeloi will make them pay for this in ways we can probably not even imagine, and right now, that seems like a wonderful prospect."
Gideon certainly didn't disagree, but he didn't explicitly agree either. It wasn't their role to pass a verdict after all, nor could they allow themselves to be consumed by revenge.
Angy left soon after, to burn more abominable research, and Gideon moved on, looking around for another team member he'd been wanting to speak to, that being…
"Kyra." Gideon called out to the team's administrator, a tall, buxom woman with dark-purple hair that seemed to shine every time light fell on it. She was standing next to a table in the middle of the room, bent over several papers, and Gideon moved to join her. "What have you found so far?"
Kyra looked up from the documents she'd been studying, giving him a lazy, closed-eyed smile, one that would have sent many a man's heart into racing-mode. It would have sent Gideon's heart racing too, if it hadn't already been filled to the brim with his feelings for Rit.
"I have actually found quite a bit so far." The purple-haired woman replied, turning away from him for a second to give a grateful nod to Khamul, who'd just placed another stack of papers on her table. "Most of this is just their research, which is… distasteful, to say the least, but there are some pieces of information hidden here and there that indicate clearly that they had help from other people. People from outside this base."
"That sounds promising." Gideon placed a hand on his chin in thought, peering at the papers with focused eyes. "Is there anything that Lord El-Melloi can use to find these accomplices?"
"I am sorry, but no." Kyra looked sad at the admission, her large, dewy eyes looking so miserable that nearly every man and woman who saw them would have been desperate to cheer her up again. "It only proves there areaccomplices, not who they are."
"Ah, that's a pity." Gideon crossed his arms in contemplation. He was almost tempted to take a look at the documents himself, but that would serve no purpose. Kyra had a much finer eye for detail than he, so if she hadn't found anything, he wouldn't either. "Keep looking."
"Of course." Kyra nodded, before turning back to her paperwork, which was as clear a dismissal as he would ever get from the woman.
Just in time too, for the next matter to deal with presented itself only moments after Gideon had left Kyra and her documents behind.
"Gideon!" Khamul's scratchy voice sounded from near the door that led deeper into the base. "They have cleared the second laboratory as well."
"Already?" Gideon blinked in surprise, and Khamul nodded silently. "Then we shouldn't take too long to follow. Are we finished here?"
"We are." The hood went up and down in a nod. "The Magi have been restrained, the victims helped as much as possible, and the evidence has been secured."
"Excellent. We move on to the second lab. Take Angy and go ahead." Gideon ordered, seeing that the small woman had already moved towards Khamul. "Same procedure. Restrain the Magi, help the victims, collect the evidence. Kyra and I will follow in a few minutes."
"Yes sir." Angy and Khamul both gave sharp nods, before they left for the second laboratory.
They made for a strange duo, Angy, the tiny, pink-haired woman –who was rumoured to have a leprechaun somewhere in her family tree– and Khamul, the tall, perpetually-cloaked man, but they worked well together despite their seeming differences.
Gideon was glad about that.
The black-haired Enforcer then made one more round through the first laboratory, ensuring they hadn't forgotten or overseen anything of importance, and then helped Kyra collect and carry her documents as they followed behind Angy and Khamul.
In the distance, he could hear the sounds of fighting, and he wondered for a moment how many laboratories there actually were in this massive complex.
Hopefully not too many.
"W-Wait! I-I surrender!" A tall, handsome Magus cried as Suladan advanced on him. "I-I c-can make you rich! L-Listen to m- ARGH!"
"C-Come now." Another Magus spluttered when Rit turned towards him. "T-There is no need for a girl as pretty as you to- IIIEEEH!"
"You-" A third Magus couldn't get more than one syllable out before Shirou backhanded her into a wall.
They were currently in the fifth and last laboratory of the base, and all that was left now were the pathetic cowards who had fled to the deepest part of their hideout when it became clear they were under attack.
Every Magus with the faintest spark of resistance or pride had already been defeated, and only these spineless wretches were left.
Not a single attempt at resistance was made. Courage and valour had long abandoned these people. All they did was run around the lab in an attempt to avoid Shirou, Rit, and Suladan, and whenever one was cornered, they threw themselves on the ground to beg for their lives.
Several of them had even tried to circle around the three of them to flee back to the upper laboratories, but they had run straight into Theodora, Ruti, and Mai. Safe to say, those Magi were no longer an issue.
Shirou had been taken aback when several of the Magi started crying in despair, but considering what they had been getting up to in here, he found it difficult to feel any sympathy.
It was, in one word, pitiful.
It wasn't long before the last of the criminals fell to the ground, felled by a bash of Suladan's sword. The handsome Egyptian gave the Magus a last kick, before he stepped back and made eye-contact with Shirou and Rit.
The laboratories had been cleared, the office behind the fifth laboratory was empty of any human presence, and all who remained of the Magi were a few more people in the living quarters, who were now also running around or trying to hide in their rooms.
"There are a few more people left in the living quarters." Shirou told the other two when he had pinpointed the precise locations. "I suggest we take them down quickly, before they have time to prepare."
"How many?" Rit asked, looking up from cleaning her dagger with a piece of cloth she'd ripped from a Magus' dress.
"Six."
"You and Suladan can handle them. I'll go back to help Gideon with the clean-up." The blonde girl replied, sheathing her blades again. "I'll take Theodora, Ruti, and Mai with me. We still have to restrain the living Magi and help the victims. There will be plenty to do."
"At least you don't have to search for evidence anymore." Suladan's lips curled up ever so slightly, and Rit grinned in return.
"True, true. We have the file now after all."
Ah yes. That file. The one they had been offered in exchange for the fat Magus' freedom, as well as that of his apprentice.
Not that his clumsy attempt at bribery had availed him. Not only was there nothing he could offer to Shirou that the redhead wouldn't also be able to get as well without his help, but Shirou didn't negotiate with criminals anyway, especially those who had committed beastly crimes.
As such, Shirou had knocked the man and his apprentice unconscious. They would be handed over to Lady Barthomeloi, along with the rest of the Magi.
After that, he had taken a look at the file, along with Rit and Suladan.
It had taken them less than a minute of paging through the bundle of papers to realise they were looking at the metaphorical jackpot, a veritable treasure trove of evidence.
Everything they needed to bring the Meluastea down was in there. It told them who the accomplices and the sponsors of the base were, what the Magi in the base had done, were doing, and would do, whose orders they followed, who else was involved, and who stood at the head of the operation.
It was everything they'd hoped for and more. Lord El-Melloi would be delighted, and Lady Barthomeloi just as much.
Finding that file had been a massive windfall, and it had turned the rest of the attack into nothing more than mobbing up the remaining resistance.
So with that in mind, Shirou made for the living quarters of the base to strike down the last of the Magi...
"Ahem!"
Only to stop when Rit suddenly cleared her throat. He turned back to the blond girl, and saw that she was holding out her hand, giving him an expectant smile.
Shirou huffed in amusement, and then he placed the file in her hand.
Undoubtedly, she intended to present it to Gideon, perhaps coupled with a story about how hard she'd had to fight for it, and then demand his praise in return. And, perhaps, a bit more than just praise.
"Do you know where the living quarters are?" Suladan interrupted his contemplations, and Shirou nodded in response. "Then lead the way."
When Rit found the rest of her team and presented the file to them, she was met with… mixed reactions.
"So I did all of this work for nothing?" Kyra gave an outraged pout when Rit presented them with the file, casting all the evidence she'd been painstakingly collecting over the past hour to the side, before throwing her arms up in a huff, which did very interesting things with her boobs that Gideon definitely wasn't looking at and that Ruti definitely was looking at. "Couldn't you have told me sooner, Rit?"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Rit apologised profusely, bowing over and over again as Kyra's pout proved amazingly effective against her, as it always did. "W-We were just pressing the attack, and then we found the file, but we had to continue or…"
"Rit, she's just messing with you." Gideon stepped in before it could go too far, placing a comforting hand on his girlfriend's head and giving the tall, mature woman a chiding look. "Kyra, stop being mean to Rit."
"Haha, I cannot help it. She's just too adorable." Kyra's pout disappeared like snow under a warm sun, and she gave Rit a blinding smile. "Well done, Rit."
"Indeed. Well done." Gideon agreed.
Being praised by her boyfriend, as well as by the woman who she had a not-so-subtle crush on, did wonders for Rit's mood, and the blonde girl bounced back, her lips shaping themselves into a happy grin.
"So can we consider this mission accomplished?" A high-pitched voice fell in, and Gideon turned to Angy and Khamul, who were working on healing the victims. "Because if so, then please give us a hand here."
"Of course." Gideon nodded, before addressing Rit and Kyra again. "Kyra, please help them with healing and Hypnotising the victims. Ruti, search the laboratories for any living Magi, and Rit, give me a situation report, tell me where everyone is."
The tall woman immediately left to help Angy and Khamul, her staff in hand and healing spells on her lips, while Ruti began combing through the lab and Rit began ticking on her fingers.
"Fujimaru and Suladan are in the base's living quarters, fighting the last remaining Magi." Those were two fingers going up. "You are here, and I am here, and Angy, Khamul, Ruti, and Kyra are over there." An additional six fingers went up. "Theodora and Mai are in the fifth laboratory, taking care of the most pressing matters over there." Another two fingers made ten fingers in total. "As for Lord El-Melloi and his apprentices…"
"They should still be outside." Gideon nodded.
"Eh, no. They are right behind you." Rit corrected him meekly.
And indeed, when Gideon turned around, there they were; Lord El-Melloi, miss Bazett, and the lord's apprentices, apparently having entered some time ago.
Gideon was glad they'd already cleaned up the worst of what they'd found in the labs, because if they hadn't, then the three teenagers might really have fainted, as pale and clammy as they already looked.
The nun had her eyes closed, and her lips moved in what Gideon assumed to be a prayer. Whether it was for protection, for the sake of the souls who had needlessly died here, or to ask for retribution against the guilty parties wasn't clear, but all three would be fine with him.
Miss Bazett, who was guiding the little nun by the shoulder, looked perfectly fine. Her mouth was pulled into an enraged scowl, but physically, she was in perfect health.
Lord El-Melloi had his poker face in place, but cracks were showing, and his immense sadness was visible as day for anyone who paid attention.
"Mister Gideon." Lord El-Melloi greeted him, the grief on his face intensifying as he looked around the third laboratory. "Your report?"
"Lord El-Melloi." Gideon nodded in acknowledgement, before gesturing at Rit, who repeated her earlier statements, informing the lord about everyone's locations and activities.
"I see. It sounds like you worked hard." Lord El-Melloi rubbed his chin in thought. "Have you found information on possible accomplices?"
This was the point where Gideon couldn't keep a small grin of his face, which was mirrored by Rit's own grin, and he lifted the file to around chest height, so he could best present it.
"Behold, my lord, your evidence." Gideon held the file out to his employer, who took it with a curious expression. "None of us have any idea how this got here, or why it even exists, but you will find it is a godsend nonetheless."
"Is it?" Lord El-Melloi mused, opening the file to begin flicking through the pages, before his eyes lit up in triumph. "It is!"
"So it's good?" Bazett, who was still holding on to the praying nun, asked.
"It's perfect." The grin on the lord's face could almost be described as feral. "This is everything we needed. As soon as we're out, we can burn this place down and be done with it."
"We'll get everyone out as soon as possible." Gideon nodded. "Fujimaru and Suladan are still in the living quarters, but knowing those two, they won't be long."
"Excellent."
"So, Lord El-Melloi, now that you have found the evidence you need to track down those accomplices, will you be increasing the length of our contract?" Rit asked, eager to continue with hunting down monstrous Magi. "We would be glad to deal with the people behind all this. Just say the word."
"You'll have to discuss that with Lady Barthomeloi." Lord El-Melloi quickly deflected the matter however. "She will take things over from here. I was only charged with taking down this base. Dealing with their accomplices, and if I'm correct in my suspicions, their masters, will be taken care of by the Vice-Director herself. As such, she will also be in charge of hiring and directing personnel."
"I see." Rit's voice became a bit more contemplative, but she bounced back easily enough. "Not a problem! Lorelei and I are old buds! She'll be sure to give us the mission if I ask nicely."
"Please don't talk like that!" Gideon said promptly, giving Rit a chop on the head, before he turned to Lord El-Melloi. "Understood, my lord. We'll discuss things with the Vice-Director. For now, please stay safe until we have wrapped this matter up completely."
"Is there anything we can do to help?" One of the apprentices, an outrageously handsome fellow, suddenly stepped forward with a determined look in his eyes, quickly followed by the hooded girl.
"Well, we can certainly use some help." Gideon gave Lord El-Melloi a questioning look, and when the lord shrugged his shoulders, began giving out tasks. "Focus mainly on securing the still-living Magi, helping the victims, and destroying the foulest and most dangerous things in here."
"Understood." The handsome teen nodded sharply. "I can do securing and destroying."
"I will do what I can." The hooded girl –good grief, she was almost like a mini-Khamul– clenched her fists.
"I know some rudimentary healing techniques." The nun, who had stopped praying, piped up, already looking around for people to help. "I'll get to it."
"Do you want me to come with you?" Bazett asked, looking concerned about the nun wandering off alone. "It might be dangerous."
"It might be, but I have God as my protector." The little nun's smile was blinding in its intensity.
Gideon was pretty sure that God didn't work like that, but who was he to go against a nun on God-related matters?
"Let her be, Bazett." Lord El-Melloi sighed, before turning back to the rest of the group. "Alright, let's get to work. The sooner we are done, the sooner we can get out of here."
""Yessir!""
"There are two more Magi in this room. Those will be the last of them." Shirou informed Suladan when they arrived at the last door in the hall of the living quarters. "I don't think they are planning to resist. I don't sense any Magecraft being used."
"That is hardly surprising." The Egyptian man grumbled, contemplatively tapping a finger against his sword, probably wondering whether he even needed to keep it in hand. "None of them have resisted so far."
They had been going around the living quarters for a while now, and much the same applied for the Magi here as for the Magi in the fifth laboratory.
These were the people who had fled at the first sign of trouble, the ones who hoped that the braver, more defiant Magi would deal with the problem for them. They had no spine and no pride, and often didn't even try to fight when Shirou and Suladan appeared before them. They just threw themselves on the ground to beg for mercy, to which Shirou's response was always the same.
He knocked them unconscious.