"Who could it be?"
"Another player we haven’t identified?
"Soone who used this arrest as cover to conduct their own operation?"
Everyone’s mind worked through possibilities.
"Possible," Selene acknowledged. "But that’s beyond the scope of our current investigation. We’ve verified your suspect isn’t responsible for the theft. The rest is your problem to solve."
The House representatives exchanged defeated looks, realizing the Category S Guards had done what they could and found nothing useful.
"Then... we have no leads," Lady Z said quietly. "No suspects, no evidence, no way to recover the stolen items."
"You have our sympathies," Selene replied formally. "But our priority is transporting this prisoner to our secure facility and completing our investigation into the Desgarron incident. We can’t delay further on matters outside our jurisdiction."
The representatives had no grounds to argue. They’d received the examination they requested, and it had produced no actionable intelligence. The Category S Guards had obligations that took precedence over local criminal economy problems.
Lady Z nodded reluctantly. "Thank you for your assistance, even if it didn’t provide answers. We won’t delay you further."
The three investigators resud their journey, leaving the Dark Comrce District representatives standing on the road with their unanswered questions and catastrophic losses.
As the Guards disappeared into the distance, Iris voiced what everyone was thinking. "If Rey didn’t steal the items, who did? And how did they execute sothing so sophisticated while everyone was focused on his capture?"
No one had answers.
*********
The Category S Guards traveled for several hours, putting distance between themselves and Elkrim as they headed toward the wilderness areas that separated major cities.
Their route would take them through uninhabited regions before reaching the next urban center, where they could access long-range teleportation facilities for direct transport to the Capital.
The wilderness was quiet—ancient forests and natural terrain that had remained largely untouched by civilization. The perfect location for secure transport of a dangerous prisoner, far from potential rescue attempts or interference.
Since they didn’t know what could be in store, or if Rey had any other allies, it was better to travel through these uninhabited regions to avoid casualties.
They also intentionally slowed down their transportation speed to bait any pursuers that could be Rey’s allies. This was all so they could capture even more collaborators since it was highly unlikely that Rey was working alone.
Thus far, however, they hadn’t been able to find a single pursuer.
They detected no one.
’Looks like they abandoned him, after all...’ Selene was a litle disappointed by this developnt, but since this was always a possibility, she wasn’t too distracted y it.
"We should rest briefly," Thane suggested as evening approached. "We’ve been traveling since the auction, and we’ll need full alertness for the teleportation procedures."
Selene agreed. "Find a secure location. We’ll camp for two hours, then continue to the teleportation hub."
They selected a clearing surrounded by dense forest, establishing basic wards and detection periters. The Dinsional Prison remained in its case, constantly monitored but requiring no active managent. Rey was completely contained within the pocket dinsion, unable to affect anything outside it.
The three investigators settled into their rest positions, maintaining professional alertness but allowing themselves the relaxation necessary for extended operation. They’d successfully concluded a complex investigation, captured a dangerous perpetrator, and were now simply executing routine transport procedures.
Their guard was as high as professional protocol demanded.
But not high enough for what ca next.
It was all encapsulated in a single mont—no, the fraction of a mont.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!!
The wilderness erupted.
Not with fire or explosion in the conventional sense, but with total existential annihilation.
Reality itself fractured across a massive radius centered on the clearing where the Guards had stopped. Space, ti, matter, energy—all of it subjected to a destructive force that operated on fundantal levels beyond normal physics.
Selene had a fraction of a second to recognize the attack before it consud her.
Divine-tier destruction, preprogramd and triggered by their presence in this specific location. She tried to activate defensive Techniques, tried to warn her colleagues, tried to do anything—
The annihilation wave hit.
Everything within a one-kiloter radius ceased to exist.
The three Category S Guards, their equipnt, the very ground they’d been standing on—all of it erased as reality was forcibly restructured to exclude their presence.
The destruction was absolute, instantaneous, and completely overwhelming.
When it subsided, nothing remained of the clearing or the surrounding forest except a perfectly spherical crater. Not burned or blasted—simply absent, as though that volu of space had been excised from existence entirely.
And at the center of the crater, miraculously intact, sat the Dinsional Prison cube.
The destruction that had annihilated everything else had failed to penetrate the pocket dinsion’s isolation from baseline reality. The prison had survived, protected by the very characteristics that made it impossible to escape from within.
But the case containing it was gone.
The additional wards that had protected it were erased. And the structural integrity of the cube itself had been compromised by proximity to such overwhelming, destructive force.
Cracks appeared across the crystalline surface.
The pocket dinsion destabilized as its containnt failed. The geotry that had kept it isolated from normal space began collapsing, the dinsional barriers breaking down under structural stress.
With a sound like reality shattering, the Dinsional Prison broke apart.
Rey tumbled out of the disintegrating pocket dinsion, landing on the smooth surface of the crater with shock and confusion. He’d felt the prison destabilizing, experienced the dinsional barriers failing, but had no idea what external force could have caused such catastrophic damage.
’What the hell...?’
He stood slowly, his teenage form unrestrained now that the mystical chains had been left behind in the collapsed pocket dinsion. His enhanced perception scanned the area, taking in the massive crater, the complete absence of anything that had been present before, and the ominous silence.
"What... happened?" Rey muttered, genuine confusion coloring his voice.
"You were rescued," a voice replied from behind him.
Rey spun around, instincts screaming danger despite detecting no hostile presence.
A figure stood at the crater’s edge, cloaked in shadow that seed to absorb light rather than rely blocking it. The darkness was unnatural, mystical, designed to obscure identity and appearance.
Then the shadows dissolved like morning mist, revealing what lay beneath.
Rey stared at his own face.
The figure was identical to him in every visible detail—sa distinctive black-and-white hair, sa purple eyes, sa teenage features, sa mystical signature radiating Chaos Energy.
A perfect duplicate, indistinguishable from the original.
The duplicate smiled with satisfaction, its expression carrying knowledge and confidence that matched Rey’s own analytical deanor.
"It’s good to have you back again..." the duplicate said, its voice identical to Rey’s own.
"...."
[A/N: Who saw this coming?]
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