Chapter 34: Soul Stone
Hodell's eyes lit up.
This energy barrier was exactly like a newly rich noble's extravagant mansion. It looked terrifying from the outside, but once you looked closely enough, there were cracks everywhere.
The moment the fluctuation gap appeared, he moved.
His body shot forward like a drawn arrow, cutting through the faint blue curtain of light in a single leap.
A numb current ran over his skin the instant he passed through, making every hair on his body stand slightly on end, but the infiltration succeeded.
He landed soundlessly on a narrow metal platform.
Above him was a grilled vent used for heat exhaust, but the energy flow inside it was strange. The place practically screamed bait.
"So you like setting hooks and waiting for fish?"
Hodell lowered his gaze instead.
Beneath the platform ran a row of thick coolant pipelines embedded directly beneath the fortress armor. He spread the sonic perception fortress armor. He spread the sonic perception granted by [Bat Habit], letting invisible waves roll outward and bounce back with precise feedback.
One section of pipe passed through the fortress using an old physical sealing method.
"A maintenance route?" he muttered. "Crude, but good enough for ordinary people. Not good enough for ultrasound."
He did not hesitate.
Hooking one hand over the platform edge, he swung down like a pendulum and landed beside the pipe. High frequency energy condensed along his fingertips, forming an almost invisible blade. He cut through the seam in quick, controlled strokes.
Metal hissed. Heat and energy erosion softened the joint. A few minutes later, several key bolts had been ruined.
Hodell pressed both hands against the pipe and forced it aside.
A grating creak followed.
The pipe shifted just enough to reveal a gap large enough for him to slip through sideways. Behind it was a narrow, damp maintenance shaft steeped in a pungent coolant smell.
He slid inside without pause.
The passage was cramped, cold, and unpleasant. Hodell crawled forward for more than ten meters before a maintenance valve leading upward came into view. He sabotaged the locking structure inside and carefully pushed it open a crack.
Dim light filtered in.
This appeared to be an internal energy distribution layer. Pipes crisscrossed the space like a metallic jungle, and machines rumbled endlessly around him. With his enhanced senses and sound based perception, he moved through the maze without leaving a trace.
Eventually, he found a ventilation grille and peered through it.
Below lay a secure chamber.
The leader of the Snake Fang Gang, whose face had already been identified earlier, stood there with a fawning expression, bowing slightly toward an unremarkable figure draped in a gray cloak.
At the center of the room sat a black metal box engraved with dense isolation runes.
A transaction.
Or the end of one.
Hodell narrowed his eyes.
Should he wait and gather more information, or strike now?
Before he made the choice, the gray cloaked figure suddenly turned his head.
Straight toward the vent.
Hodell moved at once.
The latches of the vent were cut in a flash, and he dropped from above without the slightest warning, aiming straight for the center of the room.
"Who is it?!"
The Snake Fang leader reacted a beat too slowly, snatching up an enchanted cleaver from nearby.
The cloaked figure, however, was far faster.
The instant Hodell landed, a withered hand shot out from beneath the cloak. Dark, frigid energy swirled around the fingertips, condensing into something between spell and claw as it stabbed for Hodell's chest.
An expert.
Hodell gave up any thought of holding back. His body twisted sharply to the side, barely slipping past the attack. Even so, the frigid energy brushed across his combat suit and sent a biting chill deep into his flesh.
The cloaked man pressed the advantage without pause.
His offensive came in waves, each strike sharp, dense, and eerily cold. A pale blue claw shape formed and collapsed over and over around his hand, ripping through the air with murderous intent. The chamber was small, leaving Hodell little room to exploit his mobility. For a few exchanges, he was driven backward, his arms going numb every time their powers collided.
Seeing the intruder being forced back, the Snake Fang leader's eyes darted greedily toward the black box on the central table.
That motion did not escape Hodell.
So the real prize was not the man.
It was the box.
Once he understood that, he changed tactics immediately.
Instead of continuing to evade, he drove forward.
The gray cloaked man let out a harsh laugh. "Tired of living?"
The frost around his fingers deepened. The blue claw in his hand grew more solid, more vicious, then tore toward Hodell with enough force to split stone.
Hodell charged right into it.
As the distance vanished, the cloaked man's unease flared without warning. The other side was moving too decisively. Too confidently.
Then Hodell's fist ignited.
A blazing red heat erupted around his right hand, swelling in an instant into a brand like molten iron. The chamber temperature spiked violently.
Character Summon Card, Elijah.
[Character Summon Card used. Remaining uses: 2/3]
The next second, the fire wreathed fist slammed forward like a meteor.
The gray cloaked man's pupils shrank.
He had no time to retreat. He could only gather his own power and meet it head on.
Fire and frost collided.
The explosion of heat and cold twisted the air into a pale vortex. The blue claw shuddered as cracks spread across it like fractures in ancient ice. Then the entire thing burst apart under the force of the punch.
The gray cloaked man was driven back with a grunt, his sleeve smoking, his arm trembling from the impact.
Even the Snake Fang leader had to hastily raise a barrier to avoid being caught in the backlash. He stood there frozen, his face blank with disbelief.
Hodell did not waste the opening.
The cloaked man was still trying to steady himself, still calculating, still telling himself that a strike like that had to come at a heavy cost.
He was wrong.
Hodell lunged again.
The gray cloaked man felt his scalp go numb.
Impossible.
That level of power should not come twice in a row.
His confidence collapsed almost instantly. This time, instead of meeting Hodell head on, he chose the safest option he knew.
Retreat.
Yet Hodell was already on him.
The cloaked man clenched his teeth and forced his frigid power into another defensive claw, trying to buy himself even a fraction of time.
The second Flame Fist shattered it even more brutally than the first.
[Character Summon Card used. Remaining uses: 1/3]
There was no contest this time. The blazing force crushed straight through the hastily formed defense, smashing aside the man's arm and sending him flying.
He struck the wall, bounced, and nearly collapsed, but in the instant before he hit the ground, he threw out a dark gray sphere.
Smoke exploded across the room.
A thick, choking haze flooded the chamber and swallowed everything from sight.
Hodell held his breath and wrapped himself in a light energy barrier. He did not rush forward. The box and the gang leader were still here. There was no need to gamble on chasing a desperate enemy through unknown smoke.
By the time the haze thinned, the gray cloaked figure was gone.
Only scattered frost, scorch marks, and a wrecked room remained.
The Snake Fang leader had lost every trace of courage.
Seeing his strongest backer flee, his face turned bloodless. He took one step toward the exit, saw Hodell's gaze shift to him, and immediately stiffened.
Then, to Hodell's mild astonishment, the man bent at the waist and raised the black box with both hands like an offering.
"Big brother," he said hoarsely, forcing out a smile uglier than crying, "it was all a misunderstanding."
Hodell looked at him.
Then at the box.
Then back at him.
"You know me?"
The leader froze.
That was clearly not the question he had expected.
For a few painful seconds, his mouth opened and closed uselessly. He could neither admit nor deny anything without sounding like an idiot.
Hodell stopped bothering with him.
He took the box.
It was cold and heavy, and the energy flowing through it was strange enough to make his heart tighten. He loosened the lid just enough to peer inside.
A fist sized crystal lay nestled within the lining.
Its main body was dark, almost like a fragment of starless night, but within that darkness flowed a slow deep red glow, pulsing like blood through a vein. The longer one looked at it, the more unsettling it became, as though the crystal were not being observed but observing in return.
Footsteps thundered outside.
Fast.
Urgent.
Hodell glanced once at the still bowing, nearly kneeling Snake Fang leader, then closed the box.
The door burst open a moment later.
Kyle entered first, with Baron at his shoulder. Both were on guard, ready to fight.
The moment they saw the room, the fleeing backer gone, the Snake Fang leader practically surrendering himself, and Hodell standing there with the box in hand, their expressions eased.
"It's good you're alive," Kyle said. His gaze swept over the scorched walls, the frost marks, and the damage littering the chamber. His eyes sharpened again. "There was a strong energy collision just now."
"One escaped," Hodell said simply. "Strong, fast, and prepared. But I got this."
He handed the box over.
Loyi, who had arrived right behind them, instantly stepped forward. The moment he saw the crystal inside, his face changed.
He pulled several compact testing tools from his belt and began examining it on the spot with unusual seriousness.
No one interrupted him.
After several breaths, he finally looked up.
"This is a soul stone," he said. "Level One controlled item. Extremely rare. Highly dangerous."
The room fell still.
Loyi continued, his voice lower now.
"It can amplify and stabilize mental states. In legitimate hands, it can be used to treat severe mental trauma. In the wrong hands, it can just as easily inflict irreversible mental damage, personality collapse, or full mental destruction."
A soul stone.
The name clicked into place for Hodell at once.
Freeman.
The strange conversation the night before his death.
The supposed research accident the next morning.
Everything suddenly looked a little less accidental.
His panel flashed.
[E rank mission Snake Fang Shadows completed]
[Reward: 15,000 EXP]
[Hidden condition met: Seize the soul stone]
[Special reward obtained: Skill Upgrade Card x1]
...
The special interrogation room was cold enough to make people feel cleaner just by stepping into it.
Bare walls. Sound dampening material. A metal table fixed to the floor. Chairs that could not be moved.
The Snake Fang leader sat restrained under several layers of magical shackles, sweat rolling down his temples despite the chill.
The interrogator across from him wore the kind of expression that made men confess just to fill the silence.
"Who was the man in the gray cloak?"
"I don't know!" the leader said at once, voice cracking. "I swear I don't! He came to me first! He gave us money, weapons, channels! He said he could make Snake Fang the biggest power in the Old District!"
"What did he want in return?"
The leader swallowed hard.
"He wanted us to help gather materials. Rare ones. And soul stones. Mostly soul stones."
"What were the soul stones for?"
"I don't know!" he nearly shouted, panic making him shrill. "I really don't know! I'm just a middleman! He never told me anything important! I only handled deliveries and manpower!"
The interrogator studied him for a long moment.
Then he exchanged a look with the assistant at his side and gave a slight nod.
That was the end of it.
The clues were real, but the man himself knew almost nothing beyond what had already been guessed. Snake Fang had been funded, armed, and used. Once the gang became inconvenient, they would have been discarded exactly the same way.
Ambition had merely helped them die faster.
...
By the time the team reconvened, the mood had loosened somewhat.
Baron sat with his shield propped beside him, wiping blood and grime from its edge with little enthusiasm. Eileen organized recovery potions and supplies while chatting to lighten the air. Sasha remained in her usual corner, quiet and unreadable. Loyi, on the other hand, was still mentally chewing on the soul stone.
Hodell listened more than he spoke.
"So the officials still don't know what that man actually wanted the soul stone for?" he asked at last.
Loyi shook his head. "Not yet. The intelligence chain ends with Snake Fang."
Baron snorted. "Cowards like that always know just enough to ruin things and never enough to be useful. Waste of air."
Eileen let out a soft sigh. "Still, things have been strange lately. People in administration have looked exhausted. I heard the Deputy Director of Administrative Affairs got the filing date wrong on an important document and had to be corrected several times by his own secretary."
Loyi's expression shifted instantly into analysis mode.
"Sudden memory lapses, poor concentration, dulled mental responsiveness. It could be overwork. It could also be seasonal neuroendocrine instability, especially with the current environmental changes. Or a mild mental fatigue syndrome caused by long term stress."
Eileen gave him a helpless smile. "You always make it sound like the entire city is one step away from collapsing."
"Cities often are," Loyi replied seriously.
Baron barked out a laugh.
Hodell did not.
His thoughts were already elsewhere.
The soul stone.
Freeman's death.
Mental trauma. Memory lapses. Mental destabilization.
None of it felt separate anymore.
That evening, when Sasha asked what he planned to do next, he answered without hesitation.
"The archives."
He needed more than guesses now.
He needed context.
...
The archives of the General Administration felt less like a room and more like a maze built to exhaust curiosity.
Physical paper records occupied only a small fraction of the shelves. Most information was stored in energy crystals linked to rune terminals, each one containing huge volumes of theory, history, engineering, governance, magical research, classified incidents, and institutional records.
It was a vast sea of knowledge.
A badly organized one.
Liuli Star's information systems were still transitional. Magic conducting technology was advanced in some areas, primitive in others. Search functions existed, but nothing like a true high speed indexing system. Looking for a specific topic still required patience, luck, and a willingness to dig.
Worse, the most useful materials were separated by clearance.
Hodell's current access was decent, but far from unrestricted.
He set his target clearly.
Soul stones.
Mental stabilization.
Mental interference.
Abnormal cognitive phenomena.
He moved from shelf to shelf, scanning metal index plates and terminal labels. At last, in a remote corner of the archive, he stopped in front of a section that matched what he needed.
[Unstable Phenomena and High Risk Item Archives. Clearance Level Two and Above]
.....
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