819 Subteam Operation
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819 Subteam Operation
In the evening, in Trier, at 35 Rue Saint-Nornez in Quartier 20, known for its public cemetery.
In different states of invisibility, Franca, Jenna, and Anthony stood outside Room 6 on the fifth floor, checking the details of the environment and making final preparations for their operation.
According to the information provided by Periodic Table, Nikila, a suspected member of the Moses Ascetic Order and possibly a Mirror Person, was an ordinary employee of a grain company, living a very regular life, leaving home punctually every day and returning on time.
The only unusual thing about Nikila was that, despite being in his mid-thirties, he was still unmarried, citing severe intermittent migraines as the reason why women found him unappealing.
When Franca read this information, she immediately thought, This matches the characteristic of Mystery Pryers continuously influenced by the evil G.o.d, Hidden Sage… Could it be that Mirror People of the Mystery Pryer pathway are also infused with knowledge by the Hidden Sage?
Recalling the content of the dossier, Franca emerged from her invisibility state and created a layer of frost, making it seep into the keyhole and freeze solid.
As a result, she produced a crystalline key and easily opened Nikila’s door.
Taking advantage of the fact that this ordinary employee hadn’t yet returned home from work, Franca took out a mirror and began divination to avoid any traps or warning setups that might be in the apartment.
“Bedroom, living room, and guest room all have full-length mirrors, and there are up to fifteen or sixteen portable mirrors. If you’re not a Mirror Person, who would believe that?” Franca mumbled to herself, checking the room twice.
She was also conveying the collected information to Jenna and Anthony outside the door.
Of course, there was another possibility for so many mirrors, which was that Nikila was a Demoness. However, it was obvious that this individual was not an exceptionally attractive female, nor even a female at all.
Franca went to the full-length mirror in the living room, looked at Jenna and Anthony’s figures in the hallway, and said, “I’ll ambush behind this mirror. Follow the plan to force the target into this mirror. If he can use the mirror world, we can confirm he’s the Mirror Person, Griffith.”
As she spoke, black flames quietly burned around the room, erasing traces left by the previous search.
Jenna nodded slightly and specifically reminded, “Be careful of an ambush behind the mirror, like the one Lumian encountered before.”
“Don’t worry. Magic Mirror Divination told me there’s no ambush. Of course, I won’t fully trust and rely on divination. I’ll stay vigilant.” Franca felt Jenna’s concern, smiling as she took out the Seven-Stone Bracelet from the Traveler’s Bag, now with only two diamonds left, and tossed it outside.
As she threw it, she couldn’t help but mutter in her heart, Out with the old, in with the new, out with the old, in with the new…
Once Jenna caught the Seven-Stone Bracelet, Franca reiterated, “After confirming Nikila enters this mirror, you both immediately teleport away, using that fixed entrance to the mirror world to a.s.sist me.”
“No problem,” Anthony replied, wearing gloves, closing the apartment door, and warming the lock area, which had become icy from the cold key.
This was to prevent Nikila from sensing the residual cold and suspecting anything amiss when he opened the door.
Once Jenna and Anthony left, Franca took out the Ice Amulet, hanging it around her neck.
Then she placed her palm against the full-length mirror in the living room.
With a flash of cold light, she silently pa.s.sed through the gla.s.s.
Behind the mirror was void, a spider-web-like deep dark tunnel filled Franca’s vision.
Keeping a close watch on the surroundings, Franca breathed a sigh of relief and murmured, No ambush.
Confirming this, she leaned closer to the mirror, peering through the gla.s.s into the apartment’s living room: Nikila had not yet returned, and outside, the dusk was eerily quiet.
Franca’s nerves instinctively tightened. She raised her right hand, rubbed her temples, and sighed.
It would be great if Lumian were here…
This operation was proposed and perfected by her, killing many of her brain cells and making her responsible for achieving the goal without severely harming Jenna and Anthony. She couldn’t relax at all.
In the past, Lumian bore these burdens and responsibilities. She only needed to question and use her imagination to complete her part of the task.
Sigh, being a team leader is exhausting, no chance to slack off… Franca composed herself and patiently waited.
In the café diagonally across from 35 Rue Saint-Nornez.
Jenna, now a girl in a black dress with her hood removed, sat by the window, chatting with Anthony about various Trier anecdotes.
Suddenly, she propped her left elbow on the table, using her palm to press down her original flaxen hair, her voice dropping slightly. “The target is back.”
Anthony, while acting attracted to the beautiful woman opposite, glanced with his peripheral vision at the apartment building.
A double-decker public carriage had stopped by the roadside, and a man in his thirties wearing a black wool coat and a half-high silk top hat got off.
The man was nearly six feet tall, walked steadily, had a thin face with distinct features, and rare deep black eyes.
It’s definitely Nikila… Anthony nodded slightly to Jenna, confirming she hadn’t mistaken the target.
Jenna then straightened her head, withdrew her left hand, and glanced at the cuckoo clock on the café wall.
She smiled lightly at Anthony and said, “Three minutes to go.”
She meant that in three minutes, the operation would officially start.
The reason for waiting three more minutes in the café was to avoid Nikila’s instinctual investigation as a Mystery Pryer after returning home.
This was a detail discussed and decided by Franca, Jenna, and Anthony.
…
Nikila, wearing a half-high silk top hat, walked step by step up to the fifth floor and stopped outside Room 6.
He didn’t open the door immediately but raised his right hand and rubbed his temples.
Then he closed his eyes briefly and reopened them, his pupils now a deep purple with a mysterious aura.
Eye of Mystery Prying!
Usually, Nikila used special Warlock spells to weaken the effect of the Eye of Mystery Prying to avoid sudden death, but it couldn’t be completely sealed. Now, he was using it to its full potential to observe the surroundings inside and outside the room.
Bugs on the ceiling, hairs in the cracks, the neighbor cooking in front of the coal stove, dust floating in the air, children running up and down the stairs, rats hiding in the shadows, pedestrians pa.s.sing by on the streets -all these scenes overlapped in Nikila’s deep purple eyes.
At the same time, he saw shadowy curtains around him and dark aqueous light on the surfaces of all mirrors.
Before the gaze behind the shadowy curtain could become more p.r.o.nounced, Nikila ended his observation abruptly, closing his eyes.
He knew if he continued looking, something unpredictable might happen, filling him with fear.
Phew… The Eye of Mystery Prying is truly dangerous. Listeners on the Secrets Suppliant pathway hear things, we see things, and both are equally likely to encounter the forbidden and die mysteriously… Nikila muttered, pulling out a brown leather scroll from an inner pocket of his black wool coat, softly chanting a word in Hermes-“Myopia.”
The scroll immediately ignited with black flames, quickly turning to ash.
The mysterious deep purple in Nikila’s eyes faded into the black depths of his pupils.
After doing this, Nikila took out his key and opened the door.
He had confirmed there were no suspicious individuals or enemies hiding in the shadows, nor were there any signs of abnormalities around the apartment or the street.
Entering the living room, closing the door behind him, Nikila unb.u.t.toned the top of his wool coat and white shirt, relaxing on the sofa with his arms stretched out.
Franca, watching from behind the full-length mirror, took advantage of Nikila’s forward movement to grab a beer from the coffee table, extending her right hand slightly through the mirror, pressing it tightly against the gla.s.s.
When Nikila sat back on the sofa, Franca immediately withdrew her hand.
Gulping beer, Nikila read the newspapers he had brought back, behaving like any ordinary employee.
Time pa.s.sed slowly, and as three minutes elapsed, Jenna and Anthony left the café, turning into a nearby secluded alley, preparing both their shadow hiding and Psychological Invisibility techniques.
They quickly returned to the target apartment and hid in their prearranged positions.
At this time, Nikila was still reading the newspapers, considering whether to go out for dinner or cook something simple.
Suddenly, Nikila’s throat felt dry and itchy, as if he hadn’t drunk water for a long time.
He coughed once and thought, I drank half a bottle of beer, why is my throat so dry?
As this thought crossed his mind, he couldn’t help but cough again.
Immediately, a strong sense of unease washed over him.
Something’s wrong!
Just as Nikila became alert, Jenna, hearing two consecutive coughs from the target through the wall, emerged from the shadows without hesitation. With her hood still on, she inserted the Arrow of the Bloodthirsty into her own heart.
Her flaxen hair seemed to lengthen slightly, her contours became more refined, and her facial features more stunning.
Previously, Jenna’s beauty highlighted her feminine charm, an expression of femininity. Now, her beauty seemed to become a more independent concept, alluring by sheer virtue of its existence.
Through the door, she made the shadows beneath Nikila’s feet and the surrounding darkness coalesce into illusory yet solid black chains, wrapping around the target.