Faeloria's team carefully entered the underground prison, ensuring they stayed under the enemy's radar. Of course, they remained on high alert, ready to "silence" anyone who discovered their presence.
The prison's layout was complex, with three floors above ground and five floors below. To enhance security and prevent prisoners from escaping, the stairs leading to the next floor were deliberately placed as far away as possible for each layer, making it extrely difficult to either sneak in or out.
Naturally, they ignored the upper floors for now, as the chances of their target being there were slim.
"Clear..." Faeloria whispered as they moved forward.
Thanks to her advanced stealth spell, not even caras or the enhanced senses of beastn could detect their presence. They proceeded through the floors smoothly, undisturbed by the enemy's sentries and security.
"Wait!" She called out suddenly.
There was still sothing they couldn't easily bypass—physical traps.
While Faeloria's stealth could fool magical traps, infrared sensors, and motion sensors, it couldn't counteract physical traps like tripwires or pressure plates. As such, they had to proceed carefully.
The deeper they went, the more traps they encountered, which slowed them down significantly.
They needed over five minutes to fully inspect each floor, searching for the vault, before moving deeper. In the end, they wasted a full 25 minutes before finally finding sothing remotely related to what they were looking for.
"This is it," Faeloria declared as she stared at the giant vault before them.
It was hidden on the fifth basent floor, on the opposite end of the hallway from the cell where Lorelai had supposedly been held. It was heavily guarded, with traps and sensors everywhere to protect it.
With hand signals, the three of them quickly moved into position and silently neutralized the guards. Eight sentries died without knowing what hit them.
"Alright, now we just need to break open this lock, take the contents, and leave," Faeloria sighed before turning to Kelek, their resident hacker. "Can you do it?" she asked.
Kelek moved beside the vault, touching it lightly. "We won't know until I try."
Regardless of whether he could unlock it with his skills, they "had to." So, as he said, he had no choice but to try.
He pulled out his Holo Tab, connected a small wire to it, and plugged it into an exposed part of the circuit beneath the vault's keypad. As soon as he did, numbers flashed across his monitor, changing rapidly every second.
"This is... a six-fold variable cipher! Damn, resourceful bastards!" he cursed, realizing the task's unexpected complexity.
A six-fold variable cipher, as the na implies, uses a six-part encryption thod with six variable "keys" that change every second. To fully decrypt the passcode, Kelek had to figure out all six keys within one second before they changed again.
His fingers danced over the two virtual keyboards, creating afterimages, making it seem as though he had six arms. However, even with his superhuman speed, Kelek gritted his teeth, frustration clear on his face.
"Damn it! I'm too slow! I can't keep up with all six keys at once!" he exclaid, half in panic. "Chief, buffs!"
"On it."
Faeloria closed her eyes and carefully cast a buff over Kelek, increasing his ti perception and agility. This unorthodox spell was sothing only she could perform, but it ca with a heavy price.
Kelek's eyes turned bloodshot as his hands moved more than three tis faster than before, creating the illusion of sixteen hands flying across the keyboards. The veins on his arms and neck bulged unnaturally, as if they were about to burst.
Then, in the span of ten intense seconds, Kelek finally raised his hands and coughed up blood. "It's done!" he gasped.
"Hang on! Doublecast: Dispel-Heal!"
Without missing a beat, Faeloria cast a dual spell over him. The Dispel removed the harmful effects of the buff, while Heal began repairing the damage his body had endured.
Cronos Blessing, the buff Faeloria used, was a double-edged sword. It greatly enhanced one's abilities but placed an imnse strain on the body. If she let soone below level 1,000 use it for the full minute, their death would be inevitable.
"Great job, Kelek," Faeloria praised him.
The man, still pale and panting from the pain, gave a weak smile.
She turned to the now-unlocked vault and slowly twisted the door handle open. Inside, as expected, was the anti-brainwashing equipnt Juviel City had produced.
"Collect everything here," Faeloria ordered, stepping into the vault with the others and beginning to store the masks in their storage devices.
But after retrieving the first one, Faeloria realized her mistake.
*RRRRRIIIIIIIIIINNNNGGGGGGG!*
"...!"
It was already too late when they noticed. The items had been placed on pressure plates! Removing them triggered an alarm that blared throughout the prison, alerting everyone to their presence.
"Shit!" Faeloria cursed, uncharacteristically. "Hurry up! We need to retreat!"
In less than ten seconds, they gathered all the equipnt from the vault, placed it inside their Storage Rings, and sprinted back toward their exit. However, before they even reached the stairs, they encountered ard sentries who began attacking without hesitation. Bullets flew toward them like a disturbed beehive!
Stealth no longer worked on them!
'Were we hit by Mana Marking?!'
Faeloria realized the trap inside the vault was more than just physical. Layered spells had marked them!
Bullets whizzed through the air, each one deadly enough to seriously harm even her. Thankfully, Faeloria wasn't defenseless. Activating her artifact bracelet, imbued with a powerful shield spell, she deflected the initial barrage and rushed forward.
They couldn't afford to waste any more ti. In the middle of enemy territory, every second counted.
Faeloria closed the gap, moving within a ter of the enemies, and cast a deadly spell. "Kyuin Noxis Sirreo Gala Spicht! Shadow God's Wrathful Impaler!"
In a 180-degree arc, shadowy spikes erupted from the ground, impaling everyone in front of her. The spikes extended to the walls, over fifty ters away. In one swift move, the first wave of sentries was eliminated, their bodies left mangled in the aftermath.
"Let's move!"
But their hardships had only just begun.
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