The assault had officially begun.
Judging from the frequency of the explosions, Lethe's group wasn't interested in subtlety. Then again, Knox wasn't particularly surprised. Expecting a group of talented first-year students to conduct a stealth operation after locating an enemy hideout was like expecting a charging bull to politely knock before entering a room.
The result was predictable.
Chaos spread throughout the ruins.
Shouts echoed from every direction as guards rushed through the corridors. Orders overlapped with one another, alarm bells continued ringing in the distance, and somewhere far above, another section of the ruins collapsed with a thunderous crash that sent dust cascading from the ceiling.
For an organization that had spent considerable effort hiding its existence, the hideout suddenly felt remarkably exposed.
Knox quietly watched the unfolding disaster from the shadows near the ceiling.
The room he currently occupied appeared to function as some sort of command center. Maps covered the walls. Documents were scattered across multiple desks. Several shelves contained records and reports that would've been extremely useful if Knox hadn't already finished examining them.
At this point, there wasn't much left to learn.
The important pieces had already been found.
The existence of Gideon's twin.
The Holy Federation's suspicious handling of information.
And most importantly, the possibility that everyone had been looking in the wrong direction from the very beginning.
The thought lingered in Knox's mind as another explosion shook the room.
This time, the reaction was immediate.
The door slammed open.
A middle-aged man hurried inside.
Behind him came several others, their expressions pale enough to suggest the situation outside wasn't improving.
"Gideon!"
The man seated behind the central desk immediately rose to his feet.
Unlike the calm and composed image presented throughout the reports, the actual Gideon looked considerably less impressive while panicking.
"What happened?!"
"We're under attack!"
"I can hear that!"
Gideon's voice rose sharply.
"What I want to know is who's attacking us!"
The subordinate hesitated.
For a brief moment, he looked like a man questioning every decision that had led him to this point in life.
Then he answered.
"Three students."
The room fell silent.
Gideon blinked.
"...Students?"
"They're wearing Efnel uniforms."
Whatever color remained on Gideon's face vanished instantly.
"Efnel?"
"Yes."
The subordinate swallowed.
"One of them uses holy magic."
A muscle twitched beneath Gideon's eye.
"Another uses blessings."
The twitch became worse.
"And the last one keeps blowing a trumpet."
This time, even Gideon looked confused.
"...A trumpet?"
"Yes."
"As a weapon?"
"I think so."
"You think so?"
The man looked deeply troubled.
"At one point she blew the trumpet, then three walls exploded."
"..."
"..."
"Honestly, sir, I stopped trying to understand after that."
Knox had to admit that was a reasonable response.
Unfortunately for Gideon, the situation only became more alarming from there.
"They're advancing too quickly."
The subordinate pointed toward a map hanging nearby.
"We've already lost three defensive positions."
"What about the necromancers stationed near the eastern corridor?"
"Defeated."
"The undead units?"
"Destroyed."
"The reserve group?"
The man visibly winced.
"...Also defeated."
A heavy silence descended upon the room.
Several people exchanged nervous looks.
Others avoided eye contact entirely.
Meanwhile, Gideon looked like he was rapidly approaching the conclusion that staying here was an exceptionally bad idea.
"We're leaving."
The decision came immediately, without hesitation, debate, or any foolish notion of making a heroic last stand.
This was pure survival instinct.
"Prepare the evacuation route."
The room instantly sprang into motion.
Several individuals rushed toward nearby cabinets. Others gathered documents while a pair of guards moved toward a hidden passage concealed behind one of the shelves.
Knox's eyes narrowed slightly as realization settled in. So there really was an escape route.
Not that it mattered.
Gideon wasn't going anywhere today.
As the room descended into controlled panic, Knox quietly considered his next move. The answer arrived almost immediately.
The Federation's people were already moving.
Of that much, he was reasonably certain.
And if his theory regarding Gideon's twin was correct, then someone would need to keep an eye on them.
A faint smile appeared beneath his mask.
"Now then."
His voice was little more than a whisper.
"I should probably have someone track them~"
"Hehe ♪ ~, Knox, Knox, I'm bored~"
The voice came so suddenly that it would've startled most people. It was soft, sweet, and playful, with an almost musical quality woven into every word.
"How about sending me? ♪"
Knox turned his head, and the smile beneath his mask immediately widened.
"Hm?"
His gaze settled on the owner of the voice, slowly traveling upward, then downward, before returning to her face once again.
"You?"
The amusement in his voice was unmistakable.
"You do realize what I need, right? Someone to quietly follow people, stay hidden, observe from a distance, and absolutely avoid drawing attention."
His head tilted slightly.
"I don't think stalking suits your image at all~"
"Ehhh?!"
Cyrene sounded genuinely offended, though the tiny pout on her face made it rather difficult to take her seriously.
"That's rude."
The pout lasted for all of two seconds before a soft giggle escaped her lips, her earlier offense apparently forgotten just as quickly as it had appeared.
"Besides, I've always wanted to know what it's like to be a spy~"
Her eyes seemed to sparkle at the thought as another musical giggle slipped out.
"Sneaking into an enemy base, hiding your identity, exchanging secret messages under the moonlight... doesn't it sound romantic? ♪"
Knox stared at her in silence, while the mysterious girl simply smiled back as though she hadn't just volunteered herself for an infiltration mission in the middle of an exploding ruin. Neither of them seemed particularly bothered by the chaos unfolding around them.
Eventually, Knox let out a long sigh, the kind usually reserved for decisions he already suspected would come back to trouble him later.
"Alright."
He waved one hand dismissively.
"Just watch them."
The girl's smile immediately brightened as she placed one hand against her chest with theatrical confidence.
"Hehe~ Leave it to this cute and beautiful me! ♪"
Somehow, the sheer confidence behind that declaration only made Knox trust her less.
Then again, sending her away was probably much easier than dealing with the noise she'd make if he refused.
"See you later~"
The mysterious girl's cheerful laughter gradually faded into the distance, and a moment later, her presence vanished entirely.
Knox stared at the empty space for several seconds before quietly shaking his head.
Some problems were simply unavoidable.
Fortunately, this particular problem could at least be sent somewhere else.
Returning his attention to the room, Knox found that Gideon had nearly completed his preparations. The man was currently gathering the last of the documents he intended to take before fleeing through the hidden passage.
Unfortunately for him, Knox had other plans.
A thin thread silently extended from Knox's fingertips, followed by another and then several more. None of the people inside the room noticed a thing, their attention still firmly fixed on the attack unfolding elsewhere in the ruins.
By the time Gideon finally reached the hidden exit, the trap was already complete.
The threads moved at once, wrapping around his ankle, wrist, and waist before he even realized what was happening.
"What—"
The sentence never finished.
Dozens of threads tightened at once, violently yanking Gideon off the ground before he could even react. His eyes widened in shock as the floor suddenly disappeared beneath his feet.
And before anyone could process what had happened, the unfortunate man shot upward like a fish caught on an invisible hook.
Panic erupted throughout the room as the guards immediately drew their weapons, their eyes darting in every direction in search of the attacker. Several tried to follow the nearly invisible threads back to their source, but none of them could keep up with their movements.
They were simply too fast.
One after another, they wrapped around Gideon's body, binding his arms, legs, and torso with frightening efficiency.
Within seconds, the man resembled an oversized cocoon suspended from the ceiling.
Knox observed his handiwork for a moment.
Then nodded.
Not bad.
A few extra layers wrapped around Gideon's mouth.
Just in case.
"MMPH!"
Knox glanced upward.
"Sorry."
The apology sounded entirely insincere.
"You strike me as the type who'd start saying inconvenient things."
"MMPH!!"
"See?"
Knox nodded thoughtfully.
"Exactly."
Before the increasingly furious Gideon could continue his protest, a particularly powerful explosion shook the surrounding area.
The hidden passage collapsed, throwing several guards off their feet as dust and debris scattered throughout the room.
Meanwhile, the sounds of battle outside were growing louder by the second. Judging by how close they sounded, whoever had started this mess was apparently heading straight toward them.
Knox slowly lowered his hand and waited.
Because unlike Gideon, he wasn't planning to leave.
In fact, he had been looking forward to this part.
After all, opportunities to observe future monsters in action didn't come around every day.
The sounds of battle continued drawing closer.
By now, the fighting had clearly moved beyond the outer sections of the ruins. The occasional explosion was accompanied by collapsing stone, bursts of holy power, and the increasingly desperate shouts of defenders attempting to slow the attackers down.
Unfortunately for them, slowing down and stopping were two very different things.
A particularly loud crash echoed from somewhere nearby, followed by a terrified scream.
"THE UNDEAD AREN'T WORKING!"
Another voice shouted back.
"OF COURSE THEY AREN'T WORKING! THEY'RE PRIESTS!"
"THEN DO SOMETHING!"
"I AM DOING SOMETHING!"
"DO SOMETHING BETTER!"
The argument abruptly ended with what sounded suspiciously like a wall exploding.
Knox's mouth twitched beneath the mask.
Sounds lively.
For some reason, the chaos reminded him of the average voice chat in CS2, Valorant, Dota 2, COD, and countless other games from his previous life. Screaming, insults, accusations, and several people talking over each other at once.
Truly, a place overflowing with colorful personalities.
Meanwhile, the atmosphere inside the command room had become considerably less lively.
The moment Gideon had been converted into a decorative ceiling ornament, any remaining sense of organization completely collapsed. Several guards continued searching for the mysterious attacker, despite the fact that none of them had actually seen him. Others were trying to free Gideon while simultaneously preparing an evacuation.
Needless to say, neither effort was progressing particularly well.
A thread wrapped around one guard's wrist the instant he reached for Gideon.
The man yelped.
A moment later, he found himself dangling upside down beside his boss.
Another thread snagged a second guard by the ankle and promptly deposited him on the opposite side of the room.
A third guard attempted to cast a spell, only for the incantation to end before it could properly begin. His wand vanished from his hand so quickly that nobody even realized where it had gone, including the unfortunate owner himself.
For the record, it was currently embedded in the ceiling.
At this point, the entire situation could only be described as humiliating.
Knox, meanwhile, had quietly relocated to the center of the room. His right hand lazily manipulated dozens of nearly invisible threads stretching throughout the chamber, while the dagger in his left hand rotated between his fingers with effortless familiarity.
The reverse grip never changed. Knox spun the dagger once, caught it effortlessly, then sent it spinning again. The movement came so naturally that the weapon looked less like something he wielded and more like an old habit.
A rather dangerous habit.
The first time one of the remaining guards noticed the threads also became the last time he tried moving forward. A thin wire wrapped around his leg and robbed him of his balance before he could take another step.
Gravity handled the rest.
The floor won.
Hard.
Today's result: The floor's victory.
By now, most of the guards had begun treating the empty space around them as a mortal enemy.
Which, honestly, wasn't entirely inaccurate.
Then another explosion rocked the room, much closer than the previous ones. Cracks raced across the walls while dust and small fragments of debris rained from the ceiling.
And for the first time since the assault began, Knox sensed three familiar mana signatures approaching at remarkable speed.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
They're almost here.
A moment later, a nearby corridor erupted.
Stone fragments scattered in every direction as a section of wall collapsed inward. A wave of holy power swept through the passage, accompanied by the sounds of panicked footsteps rapidly retreating in the opposite direction.
Apparently, the defenders had finally decided that running away was considerably healthier than continuing the fight.
A wise decision, admittedly.
Unfortunately, they had reached it far too late.
The first person to emerge from the corridor was Lethe.
A faint golden glow still lingered around her body from Holy Enchant, and judging from the cracks covering the walls behind her, she had been making full use of it.
The expression on her face suggested she was having an exceptionally bad day.
To be fair, encountering multiple necromancers would do that.
The moment her gaze landed on several undead remains scattered throughout the corridor, her expression darkened even further.
"Disgusting."
The word came out cold.
A nearby skeleton that somehow still possessed enough structural integrity to stand immediately received a divine-powered punch to the face.
The skeleton ceased being a skeleton.
It also ceased being recognizable.
A loud explosion followed as fragments vanished into the distance.
Behind her, Hamiel lowered her trumpet.
"...You know, most people just hit monsters normally."
"They're necromancers."
"And?"
"They're necromancers."
"...Ah."
Hamiel nodded.
"Fair enough."
Moses walked past them with the air of someone who had already accepted that arguing was pointless.
The priest's uniform remained remarkably clean despite the battle. If anything, he looked mildly annoyed that the defenders had failed to provide a more meaningful challenge.
Several unconscious enemies lay scattered behind him.
Judging from their condition, they had learned an important lesson regarding the dangers of underestimating Efnel students.
A lesson they unfortunately wouldn't remember anytime soon.
"They retreated toward this room."
Moses glanced toward the damaged doorway ahead.
"Which means the target should be inside."
"Finally."
Lethe cracked her knuckles.
A faint pulse of holy power ran across her fists.
"I've had enough of this place."
"Agreed."
Hamiel raised her trumpet.
"Stop doing that."
"I haven't even done anything!"
"Then don't."
While the two girls continued their familiar argument, Moses simply reached for the damaged door and pushed it open.
The room beyond immediately fell silent. For several seconds, everyone simply stood there without moving or speaking, seemingly too stunned by the bizarre sight before them to even blink.
Gideon was there.
Technically.
The problem was that he wasn't standing or sitting.
He certainly wasn't escaping either.
Instead, the man hung upside down from the ceiling, completely wrapped in layer after layer of thread until he resembled some unfortunate insect waiting to emerge from a cocoon.
Only his eyes remained visible.
Everything else had disappeared beneath the bindings.
"MMPH! MMPH!"
Gideon immediately began struggling the moment he saw them.
The result was approximately zero progress.
Below him stood a lone figure wearing a familiar mask. Thin threads danced between the fingers of one hand, stretching upward toward the cocooned Gideon, while a dagger spun lazily in the other.
The masked figure slowly turned toward the newcomers, revealing the familiar mask and that equally familiar, infuriatingly relaxed posture.
And unfortunately...
The familiar attitude.
A smile could practically be heard in his voice.
"Oh?"
The dagger completed another rotation before settling comfortably into his reverse grip.
"What a coincidence~"
For the second time that day, silence descended upon the group.
Hamiel blinked once, then twice, before suddenly pointing at the masked man with all the drama of someone who had just uncovered the greatest conspiracy of the century.
"EH?!"
Moses narrowed his eyes, quietly studying the bizarre scene before them.
Lethe, however, needed considerably less time.
Gideon hanging from the ceiling was strange, and the countless threads stretching across the room were hardly normal either. Yet her attention quickly settled on the familiar mask, the ridiculously relaxed posture, and perhaps most importantly, that irritatingly cheerful voice.
Lethe's expression immediately darkened.
"...Char."
The smile beneath the mask widened.