Chapter 20 - —20: Infiltration in the Shadows.
Chapter —20: Infiltration in the Shadows.
The night air was bitterly cold. Wisps of pale fog drifted across the paved courtyards of the academy, clinging to the towering stone statues of past Archmagi. Following the arrival of the Capital Delegation, the campus grounds had been placed under an intricate net of detection barriers and roaming patrols of heavily armored Enforcers.
Deep within the shadows of central administrative archives, two figures melted into the darkness.
Tsubaki’s breath came in hushed, nervous gasps. His hand hovered over the hilt of his rapier, his knuckles pale. Beside him, Kaelen moved with absolute silence, his dark eyes tracking the sweeping arc of a glowing mana lantern being carried by an Enforcer fifty paces away.
"This is madness, Kaelen," Tsubaki whispered, his voice trembling under the sheer pressure of committing treason against the imperial crown.
"The vault of lineages is guarded by a level 4 blood seal. Even if we bypass the guards, the moment I touch the rune without my ancestral core, the alarm will alert the entire spire."
Kaelen didn’t even turn his head.
"Keep your voice down and move."
They slipped through the heavy mahogany doors leading into the subterranean wing of the archives. The ambient mana here was heavy, suffocating, and scented with ancient parchment and cold copper.
At the end of the vaulted corridor stood the entrance: a massive double door forged from enchanted black iron etched with glowing crimson runes that pulsed like a living artery—the Vault of Lineages.
This was where the high-ranking noble families stored their classified registries, bloodline contracts, and emergency mana reserves.
"Do it," Kaelen commanded quietly.
Tsubaki swallowed hard. Step by step, he approached the central pedestal. He raised his trembling hand and pressed his palm against the sharp crimson runes at the center of the iron doors.
BZZZT !
The crimson runes flared violently, turning into an unstable, jagged, violent hue. The ward rejected the signature without the ancestral core Kaelen had devoured in the infirmary; Tsubaki’s bloodline resonance was fragmented.
A low, mechanical hum began to resonate through the stone walls. The emergency alarm protocol was engaging.
"It’s rejecting me!" Tsubaki panicked, trying to pull his hand back.
"The ward knows the core is gone! We have to run..."
GRAB !
Kaelen’s hand shot forward, clamping down firmly over Tsubaki’s wrist, pinning his palm back against the glowing pedestal.
[WARNING: Imperial Blood-Seal Alarm Triggered.]
[ SYSTEM INTERACTION: Deploying Passive skill—Spatial Bloodline Distortion.]
[ Consommation/Consumption: -50 Raw Energy Points.]
A thin thread of dark violet energy oozed from Kaelen’s skin, flowing directly into Tsubaki’s veins and through his palm into the pedestal.
The system actively took the residual bloodline frequency Kaelen had absorbed from the Iwanome core, amplified it, and injected it back into the loop.
The violent violet glow instantly stabilized into a calm, deep crimson.
CLICK !
The heavy iron mechanism groaned, and the massive double doors slowly swung inward without making a single sound. The alarm hum died down completely.
Tsubaki stared at his hand, then at Kaelen, his eyes wide with absolute horror and awe.
"You...you didn’t just absorb my core... you can simulate my entire family’s bloodline magic..."
" I told you," Kaelen said coldly, stepping past him into the pitch-black vault.
"You just need to follow orders."
Inside, the vault was lined with rows of crystalline cabinets and locked obsidian chests. Kaelen ignored the racks filled with gold coins and mid-tier elemental gems. He headed straight for the central archive pedestal, the restricted intelligence dossiers of the High Council.
He placed his hand over the leather-bound ledger marked with the emblem of The Obsidian Rose.
[ SYSTEM SCAN COMPLETE: Unencrypted Document Acquired. ]
[ EXPOSED DATA: Rylan’s Syndicate Contacts Identified. ]
[ TARGETS IDENTIFIED: High Inquisitor Malakor (Capital Delegation Jury Member). ]
Kaelen’s lips curled into a sharp, lethal smirk. High Inquisitor Malakor, the very man sent by the Capital to "audit " the academy’s security, was actually a high-ranking mole for the assassin syndicate.
Beside the ledger rested a large, pulsating mana crystal used to stabilize the Vault’s defensive barrier, a high-grade Imperial Core Fragment.
" Kaelen, we need to leave!" Tsubaki urged, glancing nervously back toward the hallway.
"The patrol changes in two minutes!"
"Give me ten seconds," Kaelen murmured.
He reached out and touched the pulsing crystal.
[ SYSTEM HARVEST: Siphoning Unstable Imperial Energy... ]
[ RAW ENERGY ACQUIRED: +180 Points! ] ]
[ CURRENT RAW ENERGY TOTAL: 500/500 (MAX CAPACITY REACHED). ]
The crystal dimmed slightly as heavy, armored footsteps echoed from the top of the subterranean stairs. Someone was descending toward the vault.
"Someone’s coming." Tsubaki choked out, his hand flying to his sword.
Kaelen smoothly tucked the stolen intelligence scroll into his inner coat, his dark eyes gleaming in the shadows of the vault.
"Calm down, puppet," Kaelen whispered, stepping back into the dark recess behind the heavy iron doors.
" It’s time to see how good our new High Inquisitor really is."
The sounds of boots against cold stone echoed closer, measured and unhurried.
Through the narrow gap of the vault doors, a tall figure stepped into the subterranean corridor.
It was High Inquisitor Malakor. He wore the dark crimson mantle of the Capital Delegation, his face framed by a sharp grey beard and eyes that glittered with cold, ruthless intellect.
A floating mana lamp drifted beside his shoulder, casting long, dancing shadows across the ancient walls.
Tsubaki’s heart hammered against his ribs like a trapped bird. He pressed his back tightly against the obsidian cabinet, his breath completely held.
[ TARGET ANALYZED: High Inquisitor Malakor.]
[REAL ALIGNMENT: The Obsidian Rose (Commander Rank). ]
[ MANA LEVEL: Rank 4 High Elementalist ]
[ ACTIVE STATE: Inspecting Vault Security / Retrieving Syndicate Logs.]
Malakor stepped inside the vault, his crimson eyes sweeping across the room.
He walked directly toward the Central archive pedestal where the ledger of The Obsidian Rose had been kept.
When he reached out his gloved hand and touched empty air, his eyes narrowed into razor-thin slits.
" Missing..." Malakor muttered, his voice a low, raspy growl.
"The primary ledger... someone breached the ward."
He turned sharply, his hand instantly igniting with a swirl of destructive blood-red fire. "Show yourself! "Instead of hiding further, Kaelen tapped Tsubaki’s shoulder and stepped out from the shadows into the faint light of the mana lamp.
Tsubaki had no choice but to follow, his sword half-drawn, trembling violently.
"Hold your flame, High Inquisitor," Kaelen spoke smoothly, keeping his posture bowed in a respectful, humble stance.
Malakor’s fiery gaze locked onto the two academy students.
"Lord Iwanome? And a commoner? What are you doing in the restricted vault at this hour?"
Tsubaki opened his mouth, but the sheer terror of facing an imperial Inquisitor choked the words in his throat.
Kaelen stepped forward, taking the lead naturally.
"The head instructor sent us, my Lord. Following the spatial breach at the infirmary, Lord Tsubaki noticed an abnormal resonance in his bloodline ward. We can verify if the Vault’s core had been tampered with by the assassin Rylan."
Malakor stared down at Kaelen, his mana-fire flickering dangerously.
"Vance sent you? A talentless commoner and a wounded noble?"
"Lord Tsubaki required someone to carry the heavy warding crystals, my Lord,"
Kaelen replied with a sheepish, innocent smile, rubbing the back of his neck.
"And as you can see... the central crystal has indeed suffered a minor energy drain. Lord Tsubaki was just about to report it to the delegation. "Malakor looked toward the large crystal on the pedestal. It was indeed slightly dimmed—exactly as Kaelen had manipulated it earlier.
But more importantly, Malakor realized that if Tsubaki and Kaelen were here under ’official orders,’ blaming them for the missing ledger without exposing his syndicate connection would be tricky.
Malakor slowly extinguished the red flame in his hand, though his eyes remained dangerously cold.
"You are playing a dangerous game, commoner," Malakor said, his voice laced with a hidden, lethal threat.
"The archives are off-limits to students, regardless of what Vance instructed. Leave now before I have the Enforcers lock you in the lower dungeons."
"At once, the High Inquisitor," Kaelen bowed deeply.
[ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ]
[ Tracking Marker Placed: High Inquisitor Malakor. ]
[ Distance Limit: 5 kilometers. ]
Once they reached the safety of the upper gardens and dissolved into the foggy darkness, Tsubaki collapsed against a stone wall, gasping for air as if he had just escaped the jaws of a dragon.
"We almost died!" Tsubaki hissed, clutching his chest.
"Malakor is a Rank 4 mage! If he had realized you stole the ledger."
"He didn’t," Kaelen interrupted calmly, pulling the thick, leather-bound scroll from his inner coat.
"And now we have the complete list of Syndicate members inside the academy... including Malakor himself."
Tsubaki stared at the ledger, then looked at Kaelen with absolute disbelief.
"You... you knew he was part of The Obsidian Rose before we even entered?"
"Information is power, Tsubaki," Kaelen said, his dark eyes reflecting the cold moonlight.
"Now, the Capital Delegation thinks they are auditing us. But in reality, we are hunting them."
[ QUEST UPDATE: Shadow Infiltration (Completed). ]
[ REWARD UNLOCKED: Skill Upgrade. Token x1, +150 System Energy.]
[CURRENT STATUS: Ready for Core Rank Evolution.]