Industrial Zone
After waiting for half an hour The heavy, lead-lined vault doors at the end of the cell block hissed open, releasing a cloud of pressurized mana-suppressant gas. A procession of twenty high-tier buyers stepped onto the polished concrete, flanked by Syndicate guards.
To a normal observer, this was a gathering of Silverport's secret elite. To Kael's Divine Sense, it was a collection of Rank-D filth led by three pulsating beacons of Rank-C corruption.
The majority of the group consisted of Seventeen Rank-D "Collection Agents" and corrupt minor nobles. Their statuses were typical for their rank, but their gear was expensive, designed to suppress and transport "merchandise."
COMMON BUYER STATUS (REPRESENTATIVE)]
Average Level: 30–35 (Rank: D)
Average Strength: 28 | Agility: 30 | Vitality: 32
Common Skills: [Binding Thread], [Mental Fog], [Force Cage]
However, the three leading the pack—the VIPs—radiated a different level of threat. They walked with the predatory confidence of those who had never been held accountable by the law.
The VIP Buyers
1. Baron Vane (The Slaver Architect)
Rank: C (Level 48)
Awakened Power: [Iron Will Dominance] (Rank C) — Can mentally enslave those with lower Vitality than his own.
Description: A tall, gaunt man in a sharp charcoal suit with a silver-tipped cane. His eyes were cold, calculating every girl in the cages as a line item on a balance sheet.
2. Madame Sola (The "Alchemist")
Rank: C (Level 45)
Awakened Power: [Essence Extraction] (Rank C) — Drains mana and life force to create longevity elixirs.
Description: Dressed in flowing crimson silks, she wore a mask of porcelain beauty, but her hands were stained with the permanent yellow hue of toxic reagents. She looked at the girls not as humans, but as "ingredients."
3. General Grime (The Deserter)
Rank: C (Level 52)
Awakened Power: [Solidified Shadow] (Rank C) — Manipulates darkness into physical blades and armor.
Description: A massive, scarred man with a military bearing. He sought "war-slaves" for his private mercenary camp in the lawless borderlands.
Marcus, the Syndicate handler, bowed low as the VIPs approached the central row of cages.
"Baron, Madame, General... welcome to the harvest," Marcus said, his cybernetic eye whirring as he gestured toward the cages. "We've never had a batch this 'clean.' No records, no powerful kin, and high mana-compatibility across the board."
Baron Vane stopped in front of Cell 402, his cane tapping rhythmically against the bars. He looked past the unconscious Maya and locked onto the golden-haired girl, Elias Vance's daughter.
"So this is the 'Golden Sparrow,'" the Baron mused, a cruel smile touching his thin lips. "The Council is paying a fortune to see her wings clipped. I'll take her, of course. But who is the one next to her? The brunette?"
"Just a mechanic's daughter, Baron," Marcus chuckled. "A 'Zero' family. We snatched her to fill the quota. High compatibility, though—she'd make a fine domestic servant or a mana-battery for the Madame."
Madame Sola stepped closer, sniffing the air near the bars. She frowned slightly. "The air is strange here, Marcus. It smells of... ozone? Like a storm is brewing inside the ventilation."
"Just the industrial humidifiers, Madame," Marcus dismissed, waving a hand. "Now, let's talk pricing. For the entire batch, including the 'special' assignments, the Syndicate is looking for—"
"I don't care about the price," General Grime interrupted, his voice like grinding stones. He stepped up to the bars of Cell 402, his Rank-C shadow-aura beginning to leak from his boots, darkening the floor. "I want the strong ones. This mechanic's girl... she looks resilient. I'll take her for the front lines."
Inside the cell, the golden-haired girl sobbed harder, clutching Maya's arm. Maya, however, didn't move. She stared straight at the General, her eyes reflecting a flicker of golden light that shouldn't have been there.
Hidden in the corner, shrouded by Shadow Veil, Kael watched the General's hand reach for the cage door. His Infinite Mana began to churn, his Thunder Strike (Level 6) humming with a frequency that was starting to vibrate the very metal of the building.
"Twenty buyers," Kael's voice whispered in Maya's mind, cold and precise. "Twenty targets. Three C-Ranks. One debt."
While the buyers and Syndicate handlers stood outside the bars of Cell 402, debating the market price of human lives, Kael remained a silent, invisible specter in the corner of the cage. He didn't move a muscle, but his mind was an apex predator navigating the digital architecture of the entire facility.
He activated Technomancy, his consciousness diving into the electrical currents of the building like a lightning strike hitting a copper wire.
[TECHNOMANCY ACTIVE: DEEP SYSTEM INFILTRATION]
[ACCESSING LOCAL AREA NETWORK...]
[BYPASSING FIREWALLS: 100% SUCCESS]
Kael didn't just look for cameras. He became the network. In the blink of an eye, his digital presence bypassed the Syndicate's encrypted servers and leaped into the personal devices of every buyer in the room.
Kael extracted the complete "Sales History" of the Vanguard-Alpha Cold Storage. He pulled the coordinates, buyer names, and shipping manifests for every girl sold in the last three years.
He bypassed Baron Vane's private cloud, downloading a web of communications that linked the Silverport Council families to the kidnapping of Elias Vance's daughter. He now held the "Crime Reports" that the police had suppressed—every bribe, every threat, and every payoff was now stored in his mental archive.
He identified every "Shadow Investor" behind the Syndicate, mapping out a global web of human trafficking that extended far beyond Silverport.
Then, Kael turned his attention to the most vital target: the money. To a Divine Magus, digital security was a joke. Encryption was just a series of electronic pulses, and Kael was the god of those pulses.
[TARGETING: 20x RANK-D BANK ACCOUNTS]
[TARGETING: 3x RANK-C OFFSHORE CRYPTO-VAULTS]
[TARGETING: SYNDICATE OPERATIONAL FUND]
In the digital world, Kael's presence appeared as a golden bolt of lightning that tore through the banking firewalls of the Swiss Neutral Zones and the Cayman Isles.
Baron Vane: $12,400,000 — Drained.
Madame Sola: $8,200,000 — Drained.
General Grime: $4,500,000 — Drained.
Syndicate Local Fund: $15,000,000 — Drained.
20 Minor Buyers: Combined $11,000,000 — Drained.
[TOTAL ASSETS RECOVERED: $51,100,000.00]
[RECIPIENT ACCOUNT: KAEL THORNE (ENCRYPTED ROUTING)]
Outside the cell, Marcus noticed his tablet flicker for a microsecond. "Strange... a momentary lag in the server," he muttered, tapping the screen. He didn't realize that his entire organization was now bankrupt, and every dark secret they owned was now a weapon in Kael's hands.
Kael looked at the back of General Grime's head, his invisible fingers twitching with the urge to strike. The data was secured. The evidence was saved. The money was his.
The digital execution was over. Now, it was time for the physical one.
[DATA TRANSFER COMPLETE]
[SYSTEM SHUTDOWN: INITIATING...]
Kael's eyes shifted from a calm gold to a jagged, blinding white. He reached out and placed his hand on the cold steel bars of the cage. Through his Technomancy, he didn't just unlock the door; he prepared to turn the entire metal infrastructure of the room into a giant electric chair.