Dark Magus Returns

Chapter 1555: Breaking Out (Part 1)

A flood of thoughts tore through Beatrix and Alen’s minds as they stood frozen in the dimly lit chamber. The air itself felt heavy, charged with the presence of danger. Slowly, carefully, they backed away from the one-way window, each step measured.

Maybe, just maybe, the guild members would assume the staff had stepped out for a break. Perhaps the communicators had malfunctioned. If they could buy even a few seconds of confusion, it might be enough to disappear.

But what if the Cerebus Guild decided to act first? What if they didn’t wait?

Inside the chamber, the five guild members remained perfectly composed, exchanging calm, knowing looks.

“Well, this is a first, don’t you think?” said Tonto, the youngest among them. His scalp was cleanly shaved except for three jagged streaks of hair that stood upright like horns.

“Exactly,” Yellum replied, her tone cool yet sharp. “In all the time we’ve been assigned to this facility, the staff have never failed to alert us. Not once.”

Her short, angled black hair brushed just against her ears as she tilted her head. She radiated quiet authority, command that needed no shouting.

This was the Cerebus Guild’s elite squad, mages trained to handle the most dangerous operations in Alterian. Their names were whispered in military reports and political briefings alike. Each of them had earned notoriety for surviving missions that should have been impossible.

From where they stood, Alen recognized them instantly. Yellum and Tonto were infamous even among his own ranks, mages responsible for quelling uprisings and hunting rogue spellcasters who had turned on the Grand Magus.

If these five were here, this wasn’t just another experiment. It was something far bigger.

There were rumors, of course, of another unit, the masked squad, those who wore pure white masks that covered their entire faces. They appeared only beside Gizin himself, silent and untouchable.

But these five were terrifying enough.

Gizin, to the public eye, was a respected Grand Magus, the face of the largest pharmaceutical company in Alterian. People saw him as a genius, a savior of the sick, a man who had elevated medicine through magic. Few ever questioned what went on in his laboratories or who his guild really served.

The reality was far darker.

Yellum raised her hand and aimed it toward the one-way glass.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Tonto asked, alarmed.

“We can always pay for a new window,” Yellum said flatly. Her mana surged, white and violent. “Don’t worry about it.”

A roaring blast of energy exploded from her palm, pure mana condensed into a single destructive pulse. It smashed into the glass wall with a deafening crash, fracturing it into a thousand glittering shards that scattered across the tiles.

The others stepped back in surprise. To them, it seemed excessive. Surely, someone from the control room would appear at any second. But when the dust settled and the smoke cleared, the truth stared them in the face.

Three bodies.

The researchers lay sprawled across the floor, blood soaking into their coats.

“They’re dead,” Tonto muttered.

He vaulted cleanly over the broken frame and landed inside the control area, checking the bodies. After a moment, his voice echoed out, sharp and certain.

“They’re gone! Whoever did this, there’s no trace of them.”

Yellum’s eyes narrowed. “Then they can’t have gone far.” Her tone darkened. “Someone saw everything that happened in this room. This entire operation was targeted from the start.”

Mana pulsed around her like heat waves. “Burn this place to the ground if you have to. Find them!”

The command was immediate.

Without hesitation, the five elite mages split up, their magic auras flaring as they began their search. The air itself trembled from the energy they released, sealing off corridors and echoing through the halls like a growing storm.

They began with the lowest level, certain that intruders couldn’t have escaped upward. No one could move through solid walls, they thought, no one but Beatrix.

Up on the second floor, Beatrix and Alen emerged silently from beneath the ground. They had chosen a random spot far from the laboratory, pushing upward through the foundation with her staff’s Qi-infused power. When the stone gave way, they found themselves inside another holding cell, dark, narrow, and lined with reinforced steel.

“Do we hide here?” Beatrix whispered, her breathing shallow. “Or will they find us anyway?”

“They’ll find us,” Alen said grimly. “And when they do, they’ll chase us until one of us is dead.”

He was already weaving a small spell, his fingers flickering with blue light. “I’ve contacted the others. My team should be on their way. The ones outside will move in the moment they sense fighting. Until then, all we can do is hold out.”

Beatrix nodded. She had already accepted it, they were past the point of escape. “Then we fight.”

Alen hesitated for half a second, then gave a firm nod. “We fight.”

He didn’t want to. Not against this kind of enemy. But dragging his allies into this was unavoidable now.

He lifted his hand higher. “Clear the ceiling. I’ll signal them.”

Beatrix spun her staff and slammed its base into the floor. The ground groaned as it shifted, her Qi bending stone and steel like clay. A vertical shaft opened above them, stretching through the floors like a tunnel of air.

“Now!” Alen shouted.

Mana burst from his arm in a torrent of flame. A massive fire blast surged upward, cutting through the ceiling and every level above. It erupted out into the night sky like a beacon, bright, violent, unmistakable.

The explosion sent a shockwave through the entire facility. Dust rained down. The floor vibrated beneath their feet.

Every mage in the building would have felt it.

Outside, the crimson flare painted the clouds, scattering embers across the dark sky.

The signal was sent.

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