Chapter 26: The First Shift
The Corrupted Gate didn't just open; it bled. Thick, oily mana pooled on the marble floor of the recruitment hall, and from that darkness, the "packages" emerged. They were Corrupted Hounds—creatures that looked like they had been sketched in charcoal and then dipped in tar, their bodies flickering with unstable static.
"Silas!" Xavier shouted over the sound of screaming civilians. "First rule of the job: Combat is secondary. Our goal is the return delivery!"
Silas gripped his wooden staff, his knuckles white. "Return delivery? Xavier, those things are eating the booths!"
"Exactly. They're out of place. We're just putting them back where they belong." Xavier's eyes glowed as he activated Engine Sync.
The internal hum was different now—refined. Instead of the jagged, tooth-grinding vibration of his early days, it felt like a high-performance turbine. He could feel the flow of energy moving from his core to his limbs with zero waste.
"Silas, [Nature's Bind]! Now! Create a conveyor belt!"
Silas didn't fully understand the terminology, but he understood the intent. He slammed his staff down. Thick, thorn-covered vines ripped through the expensive tiling, weaving together into long, flexible tracks that snaked toward the hounds.
"I've got them pinned!" Silas yelled as the vines lashed around the legs of three hounds, binding them into a singular, thrashing mass of shadow and fur.
"Good. Now, watch the master at work."
Xavier didn't run; he accelerated. He used the vines as rails, sliding along them with a sparks flying from his boots. He reached into his Infinite-Sized Bag, but instead of pulling something out, he reversed the flow.
"Cargo intake: Initiated!"
The suction wasn't enough to swallow the monsters whole—corrupted mana was too dense. But it was enough to act like a tether. Xavier grabbed the vine-wrapped bundle of hounds and began to spin.
RPM climbing. 500... 1000... 2000.
The air around him began to howl. Turbine Breathing filtered the acrid, purple smoke of the breach, turning the poison into pure kinetic fuel.
"Silas, give me a ramp!"
Silas gritted his teeth, sweat pouring down his face. A massive, sturdy root erupted from the ground, angling upward toward the jagged center of the gate.
Xavier hit the ramp at full tilt. At the apex, he triggered the Exhaust Saber, not to slash, but to use the Overdrive blast as a thruster. A crescent of blue flame erupted from the blade's guard, propelling him and his "cargo" directly into the maw of the gate.
BOOM.
The impact of the monsters being shoved back into their own dimension caused a localized mana implosion. The black ichor on the floor began to evaporate as the gate's stability crumbled.
"Xavier, look out!" Serena's voice cut through the roar of the wind.
A massive, solidified shadow—the Corrupted Guardian—reached out from the closing portal, its hand gripping the edge of reality to keep the door open. It looked like a glitch in the world, a void that shouldn't exist.
Xavier felt the heat rising. His thermal management was holding, but the Guardian was cold—a freezing, soul-deep chill that threatened to stall his engine.
"Silas, anchor me!"
Vine-cables snapped onto Xavier's waist, tethering him to the hall's structural pillars. Xavier planted his feet, leveled the Exhaust Saber, and took one final, deep breath.
"One final delivery... return to sender!"
He didn't swing. He thrust. The Exhaust Saber acted as a nozzle, venting all the built-up heat and pressure from his ten-minute fight with Mable and this current breach into a single, focused point. A beam of superheated air and mana punched through the Guardian's chest.
The shadow shrieked—a sound like grinding metal—and dissolved into mist. The gate snapped shut with the sound of a thunderclap.
Silence returned to the hall, broken only by the hiss of melting marble.
Xavier landed roughly, his boots smoking. Silas collapsed to his knees, gasping for air, but a wide, disbelieving grin was on his face.
"We... we actually did it," Silas wheezed. "We delivered a breach."
Serena walked through the settling dust, her tablet out, her expression as unreadable as ever. She stopped in front of Silas and tapped the screen.
Ping.
Silas looked at his phone. A notification from a new app—Magical Delivery Staff Portal—blinked.
[Payment Received: Disaster Relief Hazard Pay]
[Bonus: First Mission Excellence]
"Your performance was 84% efficient," Serena said, looking down at Silas. "But your cargo securing was adequate. Welcome to the company, Employee #1."
Xavier laughed, wiping a streak of black soot from his forehead. "See? Better than guild work, right?"
"Much better," Silas laughed, clutching his phone. "The pay is way better."
But Serena's face didn't stay relaxed for long. She turned the tablet toward Xavier. A new message was blinking in red, bypass-coded through the system's private server.
[New Customer Inquiry: "The Shadow" has requested a private, off-the-books delivery.]
[Item: The Heart of the Bureau.]
[Note: Don't be late, Irregular.]
Xavier's grin faded. The hooded figure wasn't just watching—they were placing an order.
"Well," Xavier muttered, looking at the ominous red text. "I guess the honeymoon phase is over."