Chapter 90: Mana Chaos And Mana Instabilization Runes, Execution
After memorizing everything, I closed the documents and put them back.
’I should set-up the assassination ingredients before I steal anything.’
I moved towards the door tucked into the far corner.
It was locked with heavier wards.
I slipped through the shadows and entered, finding myself in what was clearly a training hall.
The marble floor reflected faint light from the overhead fixtures, but my focus was on the massive, intricate rune array carved into the floor.
’So, you do know Runic Alchemy.’
The standard alchemy was good for creating mana potions, but even the best alchemists lost some mana during the process.
Asterios was using runic alchemy to pull mana directly from gold, since it was more efficient.
I crouched, tracing the edges of the array with my eyes.
’If I poison the gold, he’ll die when he draws mana from it... but that would leave behind traces of assassination.’
A plan began to form in my mind.
I had searched the "apartment" for surveillance already.
Unsurprisingly, there were no cameras here.
Asterios was already set up layered security outside and he wasn’t the type to tolerate being watched in his private space.
’Let’s check the powerlines.’
Sliding back into the shadows, I followed the main conduits that fed the base’s systems.
The electrical grid was well maintained, with three backup generators in addition to the main one.
The surveillance network was tied into all four, meaning even if one or two failed, the cameras wouldn’t go dark.
Worse, the cameras had battery backups. They could keep running for half a day without any generator support.
The tunnel gates—used for transporting gold and mana potions—were powered through the electrical grid.
They ran off the main generator but switched to backups if needed.
Disabling all of this at once wouldn’t be simple, but it was possible.
I checked Asterios’ location before moving further.
He was overseeing workers loading mana potions into unmarked vehicles.
The shipments were likely headed to clients (Illegal Exorcists).
He was using the knowledge given to him by the invaders to run his business.
I left him there and returned to the training hall.
’Let’s start.’
I pulled out several pouches of alchemical ingredients and set them out in a neat line.
Yuna watched me silently.
Using the Quickmix Technique, I shaped them into three nail-sized balls.
These balls had no special property.
One by one, I etched complex rune arrays into their surface using Fairy Dust as the medium.
Twenty minutes later, the first rune array was completed.
Now, the ball was an EMP bomb.
I drew the same runes on the other two balls.
’I should try to get a mechanic-type class soon. Making EMPs and similar items would be a lot faster with it.’
The EMP bombs I created were strong enough to fry the generators and anything tied to them, surveillance included. Batteries wouldn’t matter if I did this.
But using the EMP bombs directly would scream "sabotage," and I did not want to leave behind traces of the assassination.
Instead, I began inscribing a series of runes into the floor, weaving them into the existing array so they were hard to detect at a glance.
I drew [Mana Chaos] and, [Mana Instabilization] runes.
"You know these runes too...?" Yuna muttered.
Mana Chaos would make the absorbed mana hard to control when it entered the body.
Mana Instabilization would make the original rune array drawn on the floor go berserk.
I engraved more runes.
[Mana Disruption] rune to destabilize the gold’s mana extraction process. It would help the Mana Instabilization rune.
[Voltaic Conductor] rune to pull in stray electrical energy.
[Charge Amplifier] rune to increase the voltage far beyond safe limits.
[Overload Burst] rune to trigger a mana-electrical feedback explosion.
Lastly, I added a Disguise Rune to hide the new runes I had created, and a Failsafe Burn rune to erase the rune array after it was used.
...
Asterios Dukas POV
Asterios rolled his shoulder as he stepped back into his private quarters.
The muscles in his neck felt tight, and he let out a low sigh.
Today had been rough, maybe one of the worst in the past few months.
His workload had been creeping up day by day, meetings piling onto more meetings, and every decision seemed to demand more time than he had to give.
And then there was the matter of his body double.
The man was dead.
Asterios sat down on the edge of his bed and rubbed his temples.
He wasn’t particularly sentimental about the man himself.
The body double had been useful, nothing more, and replacing him was possible.
The Dusk Hand Hidden Clan didn’t need its leader to stand in the open; Asterios could still direct everything from behind the scenes.
The butler could act as the face of the House Hand without trouble.
The problem was the way the man had died.
"Was it really a heart attack?
"I chose someone fit with no major health issues. It makes no sense for him to just drop dead like that."
The medical report had been thorough, signed off by trusted professionals.
They said it was a natural heart attack.
There had been no poison, and no external wounds.
Still, paranoia was second nature to him.
"If it had been an assassination, then the assassin was skilled enough to hide every trace.
"But who would send an assassin of that caliber after me?"
He frowned and leaned back against the wall.
"The Dusk Hand is small. We have no active enemies, and we keep a low profile. No one should be willing to spend resources on a high-rank assassin just for me."
No matter how he turned it over in his mind, there was no answer.
"Haah."
A sigh escaped his lips.
He couldn’t afford to waste time chasing shadows.
He rose from the bed, walked over to the vault hidden in the corner of the room, and keyed in the sequence.
The heavy metal door opened with a hiss, revealing neatly stacked gold bars.
He selected several and carried them into his training room.
The training room was lit with soft ceiling lights and smelled faintly of dust and old parchment.
Runes were already inscribed across the floor.