"That's... Spirit World Traversal! Someone's fled!"
The spiritual ripple flashed and vanished in an instant, but Sothal, Daly, and the others all sensed the disturbance too.
What was going on?
They were separated by two whole blocks. The team members on surveillance had all performed anti divination rituals, and every one of them was hidden extremely well at this moment.
So why had they suddenly been discovered? Or perhaps, it wasn't that they'd been discovered at all, just a coincidence? Would more Aurora Order members flee one after another from here on?
Everyone turned as one to look toward Silas at the altar.
"Your Excellency!"
They urgently needed Silas to give them direction.
As the highest ranking leader present, Silas not only held the authority to command the others but also bore the responsibility for the operation's outcome.
Whatever decision he made in this critical moment could well determine the final result of the entire event.
If it succeeded, nothing more needed to be said. If it failed, he would be the one to bear the ultimate consequences.
Silas's expression didn't change, but his thoughts were racing.
Should they pursue whoever had left the scene? Should they act decisively and launch the operation immediately? Or should they stick to the original plan?
Time was tight. Whichever choice it was, a decision had to be made quickly!
"Stick to the original plan."
A few seconds later, he said in a low voice, "Notify all the team members to be ready. The moment they hear my command, they move immediately!"
Aside from that one spiritual ripple, the overall atmosphere of the area hadn't changed much. Silas was gambling, betting that it had simply been a coincidence.
To compensate, he began performing the ritual at astonishing speed.
Lighting candles, burning herbs, drawing strange symbols onto materials rich with spiritual energy... a process that would normally require an ordinary Beyonder to proceed with painstaking care, he completed in an incredibly short span of time.
Among the watching Nighthawks, Daly, who had some grasp of ritual magic, widened her eyes in astonishment.
The Deacon was simply too skilled at this!
At the same time, with his back to them, Silas processed the materials while asking under his breath, "Antia, can you track that fellow?"
"Are you underestimating me?"
The angel's clear voice carried a hint of indignation.
"Then catch up to him and pin down his location. Your condition's still unstable, so don't engage. Wait until I'm done here."
Silas instructed quietly.
"Understood!"
The moment the words settled, a faint, imperceptible ripple seemed to dissipate into nothing. Antia Trois had already slipped away through the spirit world.
Silas relaxed slightly, and turned his full attention back to the ritual before him.
...
Meanwhile, inside the target's residence.
"We can begin."
Mr. X, Lewis Wien, delivered his customary opening line out of habit, then settled back into his chair, resting his chin on his hand as he observed the members mingling.
He watched them trade low grade Beyonder materials, feel each other out, and discuss shallow bits of Beyonder knowledge.
A bunch of fools...
He couldn't help but think with contempt.
In a room separated from him, the "Saint Tenebrous" Kisma was keeping watch over the entire gathering, waiting for the blasphemer to take the bait.
In truth, there should have been another figure present as well, the "Saint of Secrets" Botis, but for some unknown reason, he'd suddenly left just moments earlier.
What had Botis gone off to do?
Damn it, doesn't that cut my safety margin in half!
Sharing the same "Apprentice" pathway, Kisma could clearly sense the ripple of "Travel," confirming that only one Saint remained behind him now.
If the Blood Reverend happened to show up at this exact moment, that would spell real trouble.
BOOM!
As if to prove Lewis's ill omened words true, an invisible yet vast force field suddenly manifested, enveloping the entire room, no, the entire district!
It was a powerful isolation, an airtight blockade. The connection between reality and the spirit world was forcibly severed in that instant, and countless spirits, gripped by terror, cowered and fled into hidden corners impossible to observe.
The path to the spirit world had been sealed off!
As a "Traveler," Lewis was extremely sensitive to his connection with the spirit world.
In this moment, he felt like an ordinary person who'd suddenly lost a leg, his vision turning drastically blurry, an instinctive wave of discomfort and disorientation washing over him.
They're here!
He leapt up from his chair, ignoring the gathering still underway, and rushed to the window, peering out through the glass.
The gathering was being held on the second floor, with the ground floor entrance facing directly out onto the street below.
Lewis saw that the ordinary pedestrians and carriages on the road had already vanished entirely. In their place was a crowd pressing forward like a heavy black cloud.
They wore black formal attire, their expressions grim, and the only splash of vivid color among them was the blood red gloves on their hands.
"Red Gloves!"
The members attending the gathering also spotted the terrifying group of black clad figures, and it didn't take long before someone in the know recognized them: they were the elite Red Gloves of the Church of the Evernight Goddess.
"How can it be the Red Gloves!"
The attendees immediately fell into panic and confusion.
Had the Evernight Church really tightened its grip this much, that simply attending an underground Beyonder gathering would bring elites like these to their door?
"Mr. X, what do we do now?"
More and more people turned to Lewis for help.
But he only stared out the window, his face ashen.
He saw that the ground floor entrances of the building he was in, as well as several buildings nearby, had all burst open, and numerous believers in classical robes came pouring out, charging at the Red Gloves surrounding them with a fanatical, reckless fervor, utterly unafraid of death.
Bang, bang, bang!
Gunfire rang out like rain.
Enchanted bullets struck the cursed bodies, and thick plumes of smoke billowed up instantly: high pressure steam bullets carrying devastating lethal force. The believers hit by them shattered like soft cake.
Some of the Red Gloves were dealing with the believers, while the rest, led by a single man, charged straight toward the building where the gathering was taking place.
The man leading them wore a blood red shirt beneath black formal wear. He raised his head, his crimson eyes calmly meeting Lewis's gaze.
Damn it!
It wasn't the Blood Reverend after all, it was someone from the Evernight Church!
Fury surged up within Lewis. Not only had the trap failed to work, it had instead drawn in the very last people who should have been drawn in!
He had to strike back immediately!
He whipped his head around and rubbed the ring on his finger, and it instantly blazed with blood red light. In the next moment, he swept his arm toward the panicking crowd inside the room.
Bang! Bang!
The panicked people burst apart one after another, turning into pure flesh and blood that surged toward Lewis and gathered onto his body.
The flesh and blood formed a thick, heavy cloak that shielded him, while also making his spirituality grow foul and swollen with power.
"Lord Kisma!"
He called out loudly to the "Saint Tenebrous." Under the ring's effect, his spirituality had surged dramatically, and he felt a strength like nothing he'd ever known before.
He thrust his hand forward, and an invisible force activated at once.
Among the Red Gloves surrounding the building outside, one man's hand moved of its own accord, turning his revolver on his own comrade and pulling the trigger.
The Traveler's "Invisible Hand"!