Supreme Monarch



 The tunnels underneath the city were originally designed for the Royal family's use and thus, were kept secret from the rest of the masses. Hence why they had not been maintained for decades now yet Blane and Bam did not find its current state to be too bad. 

 It was clear the tunnels were still in use even now, or at least, the tunnels leading to the underground storage unit they were just in. Meaning, these tunnels were being used for the transportation of that drug's main ingredient. 

 After leaving the storage unit housing the Mana shards and walking for a while, Blane— who led the group as their vanguard, suddenly stopped as he felt his sense of direction was being skewed. 

 "Something wrong?"

 Blane turned to glance at the pair walking behind him and shook his head as he continued walking without saying a single word. 

 He could now vaguely sense the effects of a powerful concealment spell that was currently active all around them but it seems the two behind him were unable to sense its effects. 

 In the presence of such powerful ancient magic, telling the others might end up exposing them to danger rather than increasing their awareness. As they were already being affected by the spell, he couldn't be sure what words they would hear from his mouth. 

 Still, the fact that they were still following closely behind him meant their sight was not yet being affected so keeping his mouth shut was the best option in this situation. 

 He could tell that locating the underground cell again would be a problem but that couldn't stop him from tracking the enemy base. 

 He was currently using a piece of clothing from one of the dead bodies as a conduit in locating their base and as long as he followed the Mana trail and kept a close eye on the others, they would not get deceived by the concealment spell. 

 However, they had only walked for about 10 minutes when they came upon a dead end. 

 "It's a dead end."

 "We can all see that kid."

"Oh right, my bad." 

 "Spread out and look for anything that might be a clue."

"Right."

 Blane frowned inwardly, his tracking spell pointed straight ahead so there was no mistake about this on his part but that didn't change the fact that there was a solid wall in front of them. 

After searching around for a bit, they soon located a lever at the right corner of the tunnel and Bam curiously pulled it before Blane could stop him. 

 The wall in front of them moved aside, revealing a dimly lit hallway with flickering lamps on the wall. Blane glared at Bam who awkwardly scratched the back of his helmet slightly embarrassed. 

Blane sighed and gave the signal for Kate to wait behind and protect this entrance Incase anyone was able to escape from them. He then turned to Bam and spoke seriously. 

"Listen Bam, we should kill everyone from here onwards. I don't have anything to bind them with, and if they raise the alarm we'll be in trouble. Even if we knock them out, they might wake up. Under the circumstances, it's just too risky to try and subdue a location we don't know anything about... is something wrong?"

"Ah, no, it's nothing."

Bam shook his head to chase away his uneasiness. His heart pounded in his chest, but he tried his best to ignore it.

"Forgive me. I'm alright over here. Ready to go at any time."

"Really? ...Hm, looks like I was underestimating you, forgive me."

 "Oh please, you don't have to apologize for anything. My face does not scream confidence, to begin with."

 "I see... You've been acting strange ever since this mission started, but you've got a determined face on you now. I do understand how you feel, giving as this is not the type of mission you're used to and we might encounter a powerful enemy. Still, don't worry. I'm here. There's also no need to fight to the death, we're only here to investigate after all."

Blane patted Bam on the back and walked into the hall. This was the first time he had ever spoken to Bam so casually since he arrived and Bam could understand why. 

He clutched his weapon tightly and followed closely behind. 

They'd only walked for a few more minutes when the sound of heavy footsteps came from behind the door to their right of the hallway. Then they heard the sound of locks disengaging — three, to be precise.

 The two immediately paused and readied their weapons. 

In the instant the door opened, Bam slammed his entire body weight into the door, rooting the entire thing off its hinges, and before he could even stand up to finish off the guy on the floor, Blane was already done dispatching the rest and his blade came piercing through the guy's skull.

 Simultaneously, there were sounds of bodies dropping to the ground like lifeless puppets as Blane pulled out his one-edged blade and swung it in the air to get the blood and brain matter out. 

Bam was left speechless as he raised his head to see the entire room now almost empty, over six headless bodies on the ground with their heads rolling next to them. 

 'What the hell just happened.'

 Bam was completely dumbfounded. He had always known that Blane was stronger than him yet he had never expected the difference between them to be so vast it almost seemed limitless. 

 His mind was pulled back together by a voice that made a similar sound as the one he was making in his mind. 

 There was one more person left alive within the room, a demihuman in leather armor and carrying a short sword. Bam knew why this one had been left alive and while he felt ashamed to receive such handouts, he could not complain as he immediately rushed him and closed the distance in an instant.

"Ah! Who the hell are you?!"

The man stabbed at Bam with his blade, but Bam easily deflected it with his sword.

After that, Bam raised his sword high and brought it down on the man from above.

The man tried to block it with his sword, but a mere short sword could not withstand a strike with Bam's full weight behind it. Bam's sword snapped the short sword in half and his blade sank into the man's shoulder, carving through his larynx.

 The man cried out in pain as he collapsed to the ground. Blood gushed out of his open wound as his opponent twitched and spasmed on the ground as he lay dying.

Bam rushed deeper into the room, riding the flow of the battle while remaining alert. No enemies came out of hiding to meet him. He could hear Blane running up the stairs to the first floor behind him. This was clearly the underground base of the same organization that was producing the drug so there shouldn't be any operations going on in the upper floors but there could be enemies all the same. 

Still, he had to make sure there were no enemies left alive here before he moved on to the next room. 

A minute passed.

Having checked their assigned floors and satisfied themselves that there were no other enemies, Bam and Blane met at the entrance.

"I went over the first floor, but I didn't see any enemies."

"Same here. With the number of people we found here, this doesn't seem to be the base of the Secret Order as expected. I reckon this might just be a temporary hideout of a new organization."

"You may be right. There seems to be an extension to the top floor that leads to other buildings that might be the cover of this organization. If that's the case, then there should be a hidden entrance to where they're running their operation from."

Blane spoke as he walked towards one of the walls in the room, his eyes keenly searching for any hidden doors they might've missed.

Bam had not learned any thief skills, so he could not detect secret doors just by looking, so he simply had to rely on Blane while remaining alert In case of hidden enemies. 

 After searching the various rooms for a while, a secret door was suddenly triggered and the large painting on the wall moved to the side to reveal a narrow passageway that extended deep into the wall. 

 "What do you think?"

 "Seems like a whole different section of the base. This place might just be here to fool their enemies and their true base of operations might just be on the other side."

 "That's current. I'll go first, when I get to the other side, I will signal you to make your way there as well."

 "Understood."

 Blane moved swiftly through the passageway, he didn't seem to be worried about any traps, perhaps he possessed a skill for sensing traps which was why he had decided to go first.

 After what seemed to be more than a minute, Bam received the signal and dashed through the narrow passage. If he were to be ambushed in such a tight space, he didn't think he would be able to fully defend himself as his fighting style was ill-suited to such cramped spaces. 

 After getting to the other side, he came to an open room with no pieces of furniture but a bunch of large paintings that seemed valuable on the walls. There appeared to be stone slaps with rare items on each side of the room.

 There was also a large door on the other side of the room where he could sense the presence of a single individual behind that door. 

 "I'm sure you can sense the presence of someone behind there. You wait here, we don't want to go rushing into the enemy base. I'll use stealth and Investigate further in case there is someone too strong for us to handle."

 "Right! Understood."

 Before Bam could fully not his head, Blane's body slowly became transparent as he sank into his shadow and disappeared completely. 

 Bam also did his best to hide his aura and rein in his presence as he observed the room he was left alone in. 

 Walking to the stone slaps at each side, there were items like vases, crowns, and gauntlets but even someone as inexperienced in valuables as him could tell that these were all fakes and even the paintings appears to be copies but that was to be expected. 

 He didn't think any self respecting criminal organization would so carelessly display valuable items like these in such a shabby place, even if this was a secret base. 

 Although he had to admit, even if these paintings were fakes, they were the most aesthetically pleasing art piece he had ever seen in his life, and he had spent the last few months living in the Emerald palace. 

 That was because, these paintings all depicted the most amazing and beautiful landscapes of building and cities he could never imagine in any lifetime. He couldn't find the words to describe what he was looking at as he couldn't even comprehend the concept of such impossible structures. 

 'The cities of imagination. How interesting.'

 Bam spent several seconds admiring the art work when he suddenly shook his head and snapped out of his daze. He couldn't afford to get distracted in such a place. 

 He then walked over to the painting and began to study them closely. As the hidden passage that led here had been hidden behind a painting, he wanted to make sure these did not hide any more hidden passages.

He placed his ear to the painting and listened, placing a knock on each of them as Blane had done to confirm if it was indeed hollow within.

 As he moved around repeating the action over and over again, the sounds of foot steps suddenly rang in his ears. Bam's heart skipped a beat as he jolted into a fighting stance and traced where that sound was coming from. 

 To his surprise, it was coming from the passage from which they had originally entered. 

 Seconds later, a man slowly emerged from the passageway just as Bam was stunned with shock.

Cold sweat poured down Bam's back as the man's aura flooded the room. His metallic armor seems to develop a mind of their own as they tightly gripped onto his body for dear life. 

 "Ahhh.... you must be one of the intruders. Are you also one of the ones that destroyed that foolish Viscount's mansion? If so, what happened to Number 10? Was she captured or killed? Do tell you're dying to know."