They could not afford detection, which is why they were deployed on the outskirts of the Academy town: outside the walls, among the low-lying foothills which sloped gently downward. Their descent had been quicker than those to which they were accustomed, all thanks to some ridiculously expensive runic devices kindly donated by the tech-heavy Peoples' Empire of Sinae. A military-grade wingsuit combined with complex runes for controlling velocity via wind magic did wonders for in-air maneuverability, they discovered, and the few who allowed their minds to wander in the brief moments before making landfall suspected that the Union would soon become a regular client of the Peoples' Empire.
It was a smart move: Sinae had every reason to distrust the Domino Witch and they held a generations-long vendetta against the Moriarty family, who had tried and failed to infiltrate and control their land via the opium trade centuries prior, but they had used this opportunity to strengthen commercial ties with the Union instead of attacking the Witch directly.
Four strike teams approached Camelot from the cardinal directions, each composed of twelve special forces veterans with multiple high-risk missions under their belt. They had been specifically selected from the battalions proficient in magical warfare; their participation in this operation was optional, though, and each one volunteered without a moment's hesitation.
The teams made their way to the city gates without disturbing so much as a single blade of grass or a pebble on the hillside. The wingsuits had been designed to give as much control as possible while retaining freedom of movement, and thus they had no need to discard such valuable equipment. Plus, they would use them later. Their movements were calm, careful, rehearsed: they had been long prepared to assault Britannia's magic bulwark, but none of them expected the day to come so soon. Among them were a handful of men who survived the Domino Witch's first appearance—through luck and coincidence rather than skill—and who were back for blood.
Upon reaching the gates, the teams split and lined up on each side of the open portal.
"Alpha in position."
"Gamma in position."
"Delta."
"Beta."
Somewhere in Brussels, the mission commander adjusted a loss projection spreadsheet and notified his superiors that they were ready to move to the next phase. The reply came immediately: "Proceed."
He relayed the order.
"Alpha, confirm."
"Beta, confirm."
"Gamma, confirm."
"Delta, confirm."
"All units, clear to engage," came the order and immediately the teams moved in unison through the Academy's outer gates to subdue or eliminate the security teams.
The Royal Academy of Magic employed a detection system similar to that used in shield magic in order to track people entering and exiting the campus, but that was the extent of its capabilities. It could not identify friend from foe, and it could not take action whenever a detection was triggered; it could only log the event. When it had been built, this system had been considered state-of-the-art. Decades of political neglect that had prevented the Academy from staying relevant in matters of security, however, and Campus Security had been forced to adapt.
One adjustment they had been able to make, and which was proving useful in this present moment, was an analytical alert which would be generated if similar-sized groups of people entered multiple gates at the same time. With more people, the severity of the alert was raised: it was currently at its maximum severity level.
Campus Security had an office at each gate, and the policy for on-shift guards required them to be ready to deploy at a moment's notice. When the first guard at the east gate stepped out of the barracks, his head exploded in a rain of beige-red chunks of flesh, blood, bone, and brain, leaving only the gruesome stump of a neck behind.
"Jerry's down!" the next guard cried, pushing the corpse forward so it wouldn't block the doorway. "Check your shields, guys! Make sure they're active!"
"I thought I saw Jerry activate his shield—" said another, but as the second guard exited, he was subjected to the same fate.
The point man for the eastern strike team advanced and was now able to aim directly within the barracks, adding two more kills to his count before the guards were able to react and block his line of sight.
"Four tangoes eliminated. Two remaining."
"Beta team, activate x-vis."
"Targets located. Distance—three-point-two meters."
"Ready—"
Instead of going through the door, one of the technical officers readied a large, rifle-shaped runic device at the barracks and squeezed the trigger twice. When fired, his rounds teleported exactly 3.2 meters ahead of his position, bypassing the barracks' thick concrete walls.
"Two tangoes eliminated."
"This is beta—east gate secure."
In Brussels, the mission commander received four similar reports, each ending with the confirmation: "…gate secure." He was pleased and doing his best to avoid hubris, but the operation was so far proceeding as expected thanks to their technological superiority. The wingsuits provided by the Peoples' Empire had done their job and would assist in the strike teams' future extraction; their armaments and intelligence had been provided by an anti-Moriarty faction within Britannia's own government and represented the pinnacle of magic-infused weaponry.
Every team member had been issued a standard M4-MA, but they were used in conjunction with a unique type of ammunition designed to penetrate personal shield magic. A research prodigy within the Academy itself was the source, interestingly enough. They had sent a sample of the rounds to the Union's own national magical laboratory, and a thorough deconstruction of the runes had allowed them to grasp their usage and implementation.
Standard magically-accelerated rounds—the ones which gave the M4-MA its identifier—used the typical gunpowder reaction as the catalyst and energy source for the runes inscribed on the bullet itself, which directed the bullet towards its target with more speed and accuracy than was usually possible. They were fast, but not fast enough to avoid being tagged and removed by shield magic.
The penetrator rounds had solved that particular problem. Since shield magic detected fast-moving objects and then used their own kinetic energy as the catalyst for their transmutation into noble gases, the answer was similar to how Jessamine had counteracted Rome's nullification zone. In addition to magic controlling the bullet's speed and accuracy, these rounds also somehow created a magic "dead zone" around themselves as they travelled. It interfered with detection magic, but it also interfered with the remediation element; the bullets were unstoppable by magical means alone, and their speed was such that physical deterrents were awfully ineffective.
But the one element that the New Roman Union researchers couldn't discern was the most critical of them all—the dead zone. What was its source? How did it function? Could it be replicated? They could not answer, and thus they deemed the creator of these awe-inspiring magical tools to be a genius as-of-yet unseen by the modern world.
Perhaps he was even on par with Lord Ravensleigh, the first Britannian genius, they said.
As the four strike teams approached the Academy's underclassmen female dorm from all sides, the soldiers were inclined to agree: their mystery inventor was a miracle-worker who was also the reason why this mission was possible.
What other way was there to confront the Domino Witch?
After all, the Union had twice learned that opposing her was a suicidal strategy. She was a prodigy of magic; their benefactor was a prodigy of science.
If there was no hope to fight this fire with water, they'd fight it with fire.
The room assigned to Elisabeth Moriarty was facing Market Court from the center of the third floor. Beta team activated their wingsuits and jumped many feet into the air, assuming a vertical circle formation around her window before using magical latches to affix themselves to the wall; their rifles were trained on the window, looking for any sign of movement or attempted escape.
Gamma team used the same technique to assemble on the roof, making sure to cover any potential egress via the roof-access stairwell while also watching Camelot in every possible direction for signs of interference, reinforcements, or an ambush. Delta team had taken up a similar formation in Market Court; the teams were confident that they had preserved the element of surprise, as they could see no activity whatsoever in the deserted Academy alleyways.
"Beta, Gamma, Delta in position. Ingress ready."
"Affirmative," replied mission command. "Green light. Go, go, go."
A simple runic device separated the lock from the door, and Alpha team entered the underclassmen women's dorm. Once inside, they rapidly climbed a peripheral stairwell—they couldn't risk the noise of an elevator waking their target, and three flights of steps was no large effort for Alpha team—and as they ascended, they rolled an aerosol tranquilizer dispenser down each hallway. They couldn't afford any interruptions.
"Beta team, what's the status of the target?"
"Sleeping."
"Roger."
They reached the third floor and moved noiselessly to Elisabeth's door, forming up on both sides as they prepared to breach the room.
"One minute behind schedule. Rookie—your turn."
One of Alpha team with the affectionate callsign 'Rookie' separated himself and stood in front of the door, preparing to use a complex spell to disintegrate the door without making a noticeable sound.
He never got the chance, and nor did he need to.
"Activating x-vis… code red!" he whispered. "Target is awake and sitting on her bed. She's looking right at me."
"All teams, be alert. Surprise has been lost."
"You can come in!" came a voice from inside the room. "It's open."
The men of Alpha team hesitantly looked to their team leader for guidance, but he didn't have anything to give them.
"Command—she's inviting us in," he radioed, but was met with radio silence. In Brussels, the mission commander was anxiously adjusting his loss predictions, but he was arriving at the same result no matter how he performed the calculation.
"Alpha team, you're clear to proceed," he eventually replied, before adding a postscript: "I'm sorry. You're damned if you do, damned if you don't."
The team leader tested the handle and found, to his surprise, that Elisabeth had been telling the truth. Keeping his weapon drawn and his finger on the trigger, he and four others of his team entered the Spartan dormitory. It was surprisingly cheap-looking for someone of Ms. Moriarty's reputation, but they were not there to critique her choice of lodging: they were there to kill her, and they weren't about to let themselves be distracted.
"You're late," said Elisabeth. "Haven't you heard? It's rude to keep a lady waiting."
"You were expecting us," replied Alpha's leader. "How?"
"I'm a Moriarty, sweetie. Your first mistake was assuming that any part of this operation was unknown to me."
He appeared unfazed, but her assertion had shaken him.
"In that case, you know why we're here?"
"Not quite—but I can hazard a guess."
The team leader didn't wait for her to guess.
"We're here to pay you back from Rome, witch."
They think I'm the Domino Witch, she realized. That's not what I was expecting.
I guess he isn't trying to kill me—yet.
I can use this to my advantage.
It's risky, but it'll work if I don't make any mistakes.
I'm very glad I reviewed those recordings…
"Where did I mess up?" she asked, doing her best to impersonate the Domino Witch. "I'm fairly certain that I've kept my identity under wraps."
The soldier looked confused for a moment before answering:
"When you used magic two days ago in Rome, we were able to trace it here. But didn't you already know that?"
"And here I thought I'd avoided that," she replied.
So the Domino Witch was somehow able to fool the Roman nullification zone, and she must've intentionally placed the blame on me.
Elisabeth allowed a small grin to crease her face.
That reminds me of someone I know.
Now—time to deal with this.
"I must applaud your efforts," she said. "To assemble a strike force with so little time and preparation, and top-of-the-line equipment, no less? Very impressive. But I'm afraid you're out of your depth here. You're lucky, though, because I'm tired and would like to sleep. If you leave now…"
Her entire expression changed; what was once polite and welcoming was now murderous and sadistic.
"…you'll leave with your lives."
But, to his credit, none of the soldiers present showed any fear at her words.
"Hmmm… that's a tempting offer," said Alpha's commander, before aiming his rifle at Elisabeth's shoulder. "There's just one thing I'd like to confirm first, though."
He squeezed the trigger; Elisabeth didn't even feel the impact, as the speed with which the penetrator round destroyed her shoulder was faster than her brain could register the pain. When she looked to her left, she saw that the entire shoulder—joint, tendon, shoulder blade, and part of her clavicle—had been vaporized, and her arm was bleeding out on her bed.
It was when she instinctively tried to move that arm that the torture set in: it appeared as a sharp, searing pain from the damaged nerves, and though it mellowed after a few seconds, it never fully subsided.
"Would you look at that—these rounds can penetrate even the shield of the Domino Witch. What were you saying? You'll let us leave with our lives?"
Elisabeth whipped her head back to face him, her eyes alight with hatred and her mouth contorted into a grimacing scowl, but even that simple action caused her to cry out from the pain. Her opponent smiled, though it was barely visible beneath his tactical helmet, and Elisabeth began to panic.
This is bad. They're equipped to fight the Domino Witch, not me.
I need to escape—I don't have much time.
"Ciao, Domino Witch," he said, refocusing his rifle on Elisabeth's head as she expected. "This is for brother-in-law, and for my sister."
Just as his finger began applying pressure to the trigger apparatus, the young woman vanished. His round went through the wall, and he desperately hoped that there weren't any civilian casualties, but his sympathy was interrupted by a strong blow knocking his rifle aside.
"She's invisible!" he shouted, and they heard her footsteps move towards the hallway. He took a moment to collect himself as his team began pursuit. "All teams—be prepared. Target has used instinctive invisibility and is fleeing on foot. Confirmed viability of penetrator rounds."
He took a moment to survey the room and noticed a trail of blood leading towards the open window; it had been closed when they entered.
"Alpha team, disengage! She went through the window. Beta team, do you have any sign of her?"
"Negative."
"Delta?"
"Bloodstains—leading towards the east gate."
"Command, what are our orders?"
A moment of silence, and then: "Pursue target and complete the objective. Green light to engage as necessary. Shoot to kill."
"Affirmative."
Elisabeth forced herself to continue running, knowing that the enemy might catch her at any moment. Her pain threatened to distract her from casting her invisibility magic; if she got caught with her guard down—again—she'd be dead. Even creating a distraction via magic had been challenging, and she wasn't sure that she could trust herself to do so again.
Her invisibility spell had been the right move; it operated not by transforming physical elements but by bridging the space between two points. It essentially created a bubble around her through which all forms of energy would pass, including physical matter. Unbeknownst to Elisabeth, the only reason her invisibility had proven effective against the penetrator rounds was the power of her imagination; her instinctive magic had overpowered the dead zone, allowing the bullets to pass without causing any damage.
She could hear the clamor of footsteps behind her; the pursuers were making no attempt to hide themselves anymore, and they didn't have any traumatic injuries which needed critical attention. Elisabeth was not so fortunate.
I might pass out from blood loss before I can escape, she realized. I may be able to stop the bleeding, but I'd probably have to cancel my invisibility.
This is going to be a long night…
I need to make my way to our safe house.