Mystical Journey

Outside the expo, at the plaza between Hotel Coconut Tree and the convention center the expo was held in.

Yellow street lamps littered the circular gray plaza. Half of them has already died down, damaged.

Two white pillars were erected in the plaza, each measuring about fifteen meters tall.

There were two bronze statues on the top of the pillars, one of a girl of nobility with a horse whip, the other a knight on a majestic warhorse.

Below the pillar with the knight, some security guards with blue uniform gathered around two guards who fainted, examining them.

Some passersby rounded up to watch. It looked somewhat crowded.

Creak!

Two police cars with black and white stripes sped into the plaza and stopped. Two officers stepped out of their vehicles. The one in lead had a strict face and a fake eye emphasized by the unnaturally white eyeball.

He saw the few bystanders in a crowd. His real eye twitched when he saw a beautiful lady in white miniskirt in the lead, and marched toward the fainted.

"Move aside, give way!"

The other two policemen made way for him.

The man with a fake eye marched near the woman, and stopped for a split second.

"Well somebody’s moving quick." He grunted.

"We aren’t interested in your little tricks." The lady retorted, "Looks like somebody else is confident."

"Not as much as you are." Fake Eye smirked. Both of them moved away from each other, he approached the people who fainted and started examining them.

The woman with white miniskirt did not stay for long. She left the crowd with several other people.

One of them was an old man with walking stick. "Are they all here?" He eyed Fake Eye from afar.

"Almost. The five main forces are here. When should we start?" She nodded.

"Let’s observe for a little," The old man’s voice was soft, but it was clear as day to the woman. "The main problem here is not the random party starting a riot. Our main opponent is still the Argentists. Watch them with constant vigilance."

"I know, Katyusha and Wendy are waiting for them. Even though our main opponents are the Argentists, we can’t let the small fries get the prize." She smiled.

On the other side, a group of expo-goers walked out. Among them, Katyusha stood behind two of her friends and watched.

"Let’s go. It’s boring stuff. Some people want to break in, but the guards chased them away, but they were also downed." The woman with brown hair in front of her said. "This place is messy."

"It is messy," The girl at the back echoed, she had a short and dulled red hair, her face wasn’t memorable, and she looked like she hasn’t been getting enough sleep with the dark circles on her eyes. She was dressed like a thug on the street.

"I’ve lived here for many years, there were stuff happening almost every week. I wonder if the two guards were okay, but let’s get back in. Fake Eye is here, nothing bad will happen once he’s here."

She was one of the collectors who sold the host of the expo one of her collections. However, different from the other collectors, she only qualified the entrance by selling her item. She only pretended to be interested to try and find a rich man for herself.

Katyusha looked at the red haired girl. If she wasn’t the original owner of the Mirror of Secret Texts, she wouldn’t have tried to get close to her.

The other girl is one of the other main force, Wendy.

The three were going to turn back into the expo.

A dull thud.

"Duck!" A man roared.

Boom!

A ball of golden flame burst out from the center of the plaza. White smoke accompanied by the shockwave flooded everywhere. Innocent people screamed and tried to escape, two cars nearby even got flipped over. Several horses got scared. Neighs and tyre screeches filled the air near the plaza.

Within a second, the peaceful plaza were disrupted with chaos.

Six or seven people laid strewn about, it was impossible to tell if they’re dead or alive. As the white smoke dissipates, several figures in white dashed soundlessly toward the entrance of the expo.

"Now!" At the same time, three people by the woman in white miniskirt zoomed toward the back door of the expo.

Beep! Beep!

Alarms went off from inside the hall.

***************

Inside the hall.

Garen was standing in the middle of the bodyguards when the explosion happened followed by the alarm. He knew someone had made a move.

Chaos broke out in the hall. A few people by the entrance got knocked down first. White figures zipped in and toward the black pillar in the center.

"Die!"

A low growl. Three people rushed at one white figure each, and zoomed out of sight to fight them.

Bang! Bang bang!

Some people started shooting, sounds of guns firing started getting more intensive.

Yelps and screams filled the rampageous hall. Some visitors with their own bodyguards hid in corners followed by people who wished to get protection.

The hall quieted soon after. The hall packed with people suddenly became empty. On the ground, there were a dozen of bodies, everyone else had retreated to the corners to hide.

Garen noticed Ophany’s paleness, her eyes were overflowing with fear and worry. Her gaze shot outside, worrying about her schoolmates.

The other university students crouched not far from there, hiding behind some of the pillars. It’ll be safer. Two of the girls were sobbing quietly.

Everyone was on the floor, so no one were able to see outside. Only a few bodyguards kept watch around them.

Blows were exchanged and guns were fired from inside and outside of the expo. When some of the attacks hit the walls, they even shook violently.

Soon, a white figure escaped, leaving blood trails and roaring his opponent behind. One of the windows at the side of the hall was broken as he escaped, leaving broken glass on the ground.

"He took the thing! Stop him!" A huge black man punched a hole in the wall with his bare fist and chased after.

Tut tut tut tut tut…

Submachine guns were fired, sandwiching some shots from shotguns, it’s like several parties were engaged in gunfights all at the same time.

Outside, two opposing forces were in trigger happy mode with their weapons, the box containing the Mirror of Secret Texts kept changing hands between the two parties.

The three Argentist elites were all Grandmasters of Combat, by their side, they have several Level three Sharpshooters. Katyusha and her team were fighting off the other party who wanted the Mirror of Secret Texts, all four of them were disciplined and speed-focused Sharpshooters acting harmoniously with each other. They don’t have the auras of a Grandmaster of Combat, but with their own weapons, they were able to keep the Argentist elites at bay.

The main shooter was the woman in white miniskirt. She was holding two enlarged silver pistols and moved at high speed while she fired at the three Grandmasters of Combat. The power of the pistols were so strong, holes as large as fists appeared wherever the bullets landed.

On the side of the Argentists, the black man as imposing as a tower led the fight. He held a black shield, blocking every bullet coming his way, and pushing away any opponents who managed to get here.

"Give up, Chris!" The black man blocked a bullet from the woman with white miniskirt and took a few steps backward. His shield had a small dent in it where the bullet hit. "Even if you managed to secure the item, you will never be able to get it out of this city!"

"Unwavering Shield Marvin, you don’t have a say in whether we are capable of bringing it out of the city." The woman sneered. She continued shooting with one hand and magically changed the magazine with the other. "With just three Argentists, you won’t be able to stop us."

"Hmph, don’t you understand? We could exhibit it, we already have necessary preparation for situations like this!" The black Grandmaster of Combat smirked.

"So you are prepared, but did you think we didn’t?"

Boom!

Another grenade exploded.

The box with the Mirror of Secret Texts was blasted into the air.

None of the both parties glanced at the box, but instead started barraging the other side with attacks, obviously planning to do the other side in while they’re distracted.

Clink! Clank!

Marvin’s charging figure stopped, his shield had yet again stopped another bullet. Both of them were planning the same thing.

At this moment, the box in the air started its downward motion.

Fwoosh!

A barely audible draft of wind sounded. A black figure leaped from behind Chris toward the box like a swallow in flight.

On the other side, two white figures charged out from behind Marvin, arriving at the box at the same time.

Thump! Nobody managed to catch the box, leaving it to drop on the ground.

"The Argentist bishop?" One of the white figure yelled. All three of them fell backward, landing on the ground.

The two figures in white stepped on the stone tiles several times before they could neutralize the impact they received, leaving a few black marks on the tiles.

It was only until they regained their balance that other people could see their faces. They were two middle-aged man and woman. They had a winding black snake stitched on each of their right sleeves.

"Aren’t you at the Fivestar Continent? How could this be?" The man in white growled unbelievably.

The black figure stood still, revealing a middle-aged man with black hair. He looked like an average person, but his skin glimmered silver, and his most prominent feature was a dark red mark on the left of his face, burning like a crimson fire.

The man stood with his hands at his back, and calmly stared at the two on the opposite.

"Trying to snatch my possession at my place? You were pretty daring."

He shuffled left, leaving the wall behind him with two deep bullet holes.