She spoke in a low voice, and in the sealed chamber her words sounded especially clear.
The hidden room was crammed with books, manuscripts, and all kinds of research instruments.
In the corner, on a simple bed, lay an old man with snow white hair. His breathing was faint, and he remained unconscious.
That was her grandfather, the head of the Oliventa family.
He had been gravely injured in the attack years ago and had never fully recovered since.
The glowing points on the crystal began to move.
Anna Oliventa took a deep breath and stepped toward the control console.
On the surface were more than a dozen levers and buttons, each corresponding to a different defensive mechanism within the mansion.
These mechanisms had been built over several generations of her family.
Originally, they were just meant to deter academic theft. No one had expected they would one day be used against CP agents.
She pulled the first lever.
On the second floor of the mansion above, the trap beneath the floorboards activated.
When two agents stepped onto designated sections of the corridor, the boards gave way, and they dropped toward a five meter pit lined with sharpened stakes. The stakes were coated with a neurotoxin. It would not kill, but it would paralyze quickly.
"One down."
Anna watched the crystal as the light representing that agent dimmed and then went still.
But the other agent reacted with incredible speed and immediately gave the alarm.
Next, the chandelier trap in the main hall triggered, metal fragments raining down in a fan-shaped barrage.
Anna pulled the second lever, and the books hidden in the floor's false layer erupted upward.
It was psychological warfare.
Use a flood of books to create chaos, then conceal the real killing move within.
Those specially prepared books contained blended chemical powders.
The explosions tore through the hall, and smoke filled the crystal's field of view.
On the display, all four light points weakened, but continued to move.
Anna frowned.
These agents were tougher than she had anticipated.
Conventional traps could only delay them, not eliminate them.
She glanced at her grandfather on the bed, and determination flashed in her eyes.
She would have to strike personally.
Anna opened a hidden compartment in the wall and took out a set of gear: a gas mask, a specially designed research robe with fine metal threads woven inside to resist ordinary cuts, and a short staff.
The staff was a family heirloom.
The crystal set in its head could amplify the power of the "true words" drawn from ancient characters.
She moved to the other side of the chamber and pushed open a secret door disguised as a bookshelf.
Behind it was a narrow vertical shaft that led directly up to the dried well in the back courtyard.
"Grandfather, wait for me to return."
With that, she climbed into the passage.
The mechanism at the well mouth had already been prepared.
When the agents approached, it would automatically spray phosphorus powder.
Anna paused at the top of the well, taking a moment to confirm the situation outside.
Four agents had been driven back temporarily by the phosphorus. They were busy tearing off burning garments and slapping at the smoldering powder on their bodies.
Now.
She sprang out of the well, landing lightly, and at the same time thrust the short staff into the ground to activate the preset Gravity True Word array.
Lines of ancient characters flared into being across the earth, changing the local rules of the world in this small area.
The CP agents' movements slowed immediately.
Anna seized the opening, pulled out a sheet of paper, and bit her fingertip. Using her blood as ink, she wrote at high speed.
Three specific ancient characters: "Quake", "Break", "Scatter".
Each character carried its own conceptual power, and combined, they could generate a powerful shockwave of energy.
She slapped the talisman onto the staff.
The crystal at the tip shattered, and the words of light took form, then detonated outward.
All four agents were blasted away and knocked unconscious.
Anna panted, feeling more than half her inner strength drained in one burst.
Using the true words consumed "spirituality", the special bond formed with the ancient characters through years of study.
Every time she used them, that spirituality was worn down a little, and it would take long hours of meditation to restore.
But this was no time to rest.
The crystal display showed the remaining agents racing toward her position.
Anna pulled the short staff from the ground.
The crystal at the tip was already a shattered stump. She quickly dug out a spare crystal from inside her robe and fitted it into place.
Then she heard it.
Not the footfalls of CP agents, but something heavier.
She lifted her gaze.
A tall, dark figure descended from the mansion rooftop and landed right in front of her.
The impact of his landing made the ground itself tremble.
Long hair whipped in the night wind. Scarlet slit pupils burned in the dim light like smoldering embers.
His bare upper body was covered in dark golden lines that seemed to move beneath the skin, flowing slowly as if alive.
What shook Anna the most was his eyes.
Those were not the eyes of a human being.
At least, not entirely.