Chapter 281
Lith signaled to those behind him to stop, scanning the place with Life Vision .
'What the f*ck? I can feel the lingering presence of healing magic emanating from them . I can even smell traces of soap coming from their bodies . Someone has been taking good care of them, but why?' Lith thought .
'Maybe I can answer that . ' Solus felt there was something terribly wrong there .
'All these people have only two things in common . Each one of them is older than twenty years and has at least an orange core . '
'What?' Lith was bewildered by her words . So many people and no one with a red core was something impossible to achieve by chance . Not coupled with their age . Twenty years was the threshold of a mana core natural evolution for non Awakened one .
"Is there something wrong?" Yerna asked .
"Everything is clear . The grille is just a grille . Why no one is trying to escape?" The more Lith looked at them, the more the cellar reminded him of pigpen instead of a prison .
Yerna walked past him, placing her hand on the keyhole turning it into an icicle before crashing it with her fist . She only needed to smell the breath of one of the prisoners to answer his question .
"Ophaz . They keep them dosed . " Ophaz was the name of a plant from which it was possible to extract the drug her team had been following for weeks . At low dosage, it induced a feeling of euphoria while at higher dosage it caused the user to be in a catatonic state .
They would still be able to move and talk if interrogated, but their mind was clouded by the drug . They had no memory of themselves or will to fight .
"It's the latest form of slavery . Once you give someone the first dose, it turns them into meat dolls . "
"Do you want me to cleanse them?"
"Gods, no . This is a blessing in disguise . " The Captain shook her head .
"Best case scenario, they would freak out . This way they are meeker than sheep . It will only take one of us to get them to safety . Can you . . ?"
Lith sighed, opening a Warp Steps back to the control room . The prisoners moved sluggishly, mindlessly obeying the Captain's orders .
"What do you make of this, Captain?"
"Aside from a few exceptions, they are too bad looking or old to have any value as slaves, even for a fighting arena . Judging from the state of this place, they have been here for a while .
"Only the cost of the drug necessary to keep them meek for so long makes the whole operation unprofitable . They have been nurtured for some reason I'm unable to comprehend . " She then ordered the units outside to lock the perimeter .
While Lith and the Captain were moving the prisoners, a couple of members of the unit performed a quick search of the cellar . They discovered a few small crates containing packets of drugs ready to be sold and several big crates .
The latter contained luxury furniture ready to be shipped .
"What the heck?" Hren was flabbergasted .
"One of these things is worth more than I earn in a year!"
"Seems we arrived just in time . " Khran had a brooding face .
"Those people were the last batch of whatever they are doing . The ringleader has packed their stuff and is ready to leave . "
Sweeping the first and the second floor took them less than a couple of minutes . With Red telling them where and how many their targets were, it was like shooting fishes in a barrel . At each floor, Red would always detect the same inactive array .
While moving through the various rooms and corridors, they could see that unlike the ground floor, the rest of the house was still completely furnished . Everything from the paintings to the tapestry was very valuable, but they were assembled with no taste .
It seemed a patchwork made by a color-blind art connoisseur .
'Ugh! I have never seen anything so tacky in three lives . ' Lith thought .
'Whoever did this would put the Mona Lisa beside a Pollock, with some piece of junk modern art in front of them both . I'm no expert, but that's enough to deserve to be hanged . '
'Bad news . ' Solus chimed in . 'I don't know if it's the same array Red sensed on the other floors, but there's one active on the third floor . I don't know its purpose, but I can tell you it's something powerful enough to blind my mana sense .
If not for Red, I couldn't tell you how many people there are up there . '
"Wait, something is wrong here . " They were moving in a single column and Lith was right behind the Captain, making it easy for him to stop the unit's advance .
"I can feel the hair on my neck standing up . " He lied . According to Mogar's superstition, it was a common phenomenon in presence of powerful magic . In reality, it was just a reaction in front of impending danger, completely unrelated to magic .
"I thought I was getting paranoid because it's all too easy . " Yerna nervously touched her nape .
"What about you lot?" Fear spread like a disease, soon everyone shared the same feeling despite being calm until a second prior .
"Red, check the next floor . "
"Gods protect me!" Red yelped after obeying the Captain's order .
"White is right, there is something very wrong here . "
'Of course, I am . Right, Solus?' Lith inwardly grinned . She didn't reply, limiting herself to a retching thought .
"I don't know what kind of array we are about to face, but I can tell you this . It's very powerful, it spreads through the whole house, and it feels…"
Red extended his consciousness trying to probe deeper in order to understand the nature of their enemy .
"It feels twisted . The spell is rooted from the light element, but the magic flows backward . It's hard to explain . " Red was now drenched in cold sweat, his stomach was twisted into a knot .
"Are you sure there's only one person left in the house?" Captain Yerna could feel the tension rising, her instinct was telling her to walk away .
"Besides us? Positive . " Red nodded . "It's right in the middle of the last floor . Hasn't moved since I cast the spell . "
"An array this powerful could make our numbers irrelevant . The hostages are safe, there is no reason to walk into a potential trap . Let's get out and wait for the reinforcements to arrive . This is above our paygrade . The Mage Association can deal with this much better than us . "
They walked back along the silence corridor they had created, quickly reaching the ground floor again . A blinding light erupted from under their feet .
Red and Lith both understood what was happening . The former had studied hard to master such spell, the latter had already fallen for it once .
The teleporting array moved the whole unit in the attic on the third floor .
The entire floor was occupied by a single room, encircled by a dome made of light which pulsed with a rhythmical beat like it was alive .
"First you interrupt my meal, then you steal my food . " The man speaking was the most handsome and the most repulsing that any of those present had ever seen .
"I won't let you go away without proper compensation . "
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