Chapter 307 - 305 : A Reckless Plan (2)

Chapter 307: Chapter 305 : A Reckless Plan (2)

Max grabbed Arthur by the shoulder.

"Now," Max urged.

Arthur turned toward him.

"The temple guards will come out to reinforce the perimeter. You have five minutes before they reorganize and seal the entrances," Max warned.

Already, the service doors were swinging open.

More armed figures poured out of the temple.

Arthur looked from the approaching guards to the four surviving S-rankers.

Then he glanced at Max’s companions.

Eight masked figures.

A narrow lane.

Too many enemies converging on the same location.

’This is not a diversion.’

Not the kind anyone could walk away from easily.

It was an invitation to be surrounded.

Max knew it.

So did the people standing behind him.

Arthur could see that now.

He pulled the white robe over his clothes and slipped the false identification card around his neck.

There were other things he needed to reach.

The temple.

The missing people.

Whatever had spoken to him in his sleep.

He could not accomplish everything from here.

Max would have to handle his own part of the plan.

Arthur looked at him one last time.

"Best of luck," Arthur said.

Max let out a short laugh.

"Thank you. I suspect I will need it," he replied.

His hand fell from Arthur’s shoulder.

"Do not forget your promise," Max reminded him.

Arthur’s expression remained unchanged.

Then he moved.

One moment, he stood beside the broken wall.

The next, he had vanished into the darkness between the buildings.

Max stared at the empty space Arthur had left behind before clicking his tongue.

"What a heartless bastard," he muttered.

Nyra rose beside him.

"Max," she called.

He turned toward her.

A strand of blue hair had slipped loose beside her mask.

"You know we might die here," Nyra warned him.

Max glanced toward the ruined road.

"I noticed," he replied.

Nyra hesitated before asking her next question.

"Then why trust someone we barely know?"

For a moment, Max remained silent.

Beneath his clothes, the broken crescent pendant rested against his chest.

He looked toward the narrow lane Arthur had taken.

"People have called my talent useless for as long as I can remember," Max admitted.

Nyra said nothing.

"Money Maker. A wonderful name for a man who spends half his life wondering how he will afford enough food," Max continued bitterly.

A faint smile touched his eyes.

"But it has kept me alive."

His hand tightened around the haft of his axe.

"When I could not trust a priest, a contract, or a friendly face, I could still trust that feeling," Max explained.

He pulled the weapon from his back.

"So I trusted it again," he concluded.

A voice suddenly sounded from above them.

"How touching."

Max’s head snapped upward.

One of the S-rankers stood atop the broken wall.

Another blocked the far end of the lane.

The remaining two had appeared behind them.

Max and his seven companions were surrounded.

One of the guards glanced at the axe in Max’s hands.

"You realize you have earned something worse than death," he warned.

His voice trembled with anger.

"You killed people who had families. Children waiting for them to come home!"

Max slowly looked around at his companions.

Not one lowered their weapon.

Not one flinched.

Then he turned back toward the guard.

"Innocent people?" Max asked quietly.

His gaze shifted toward the ruined temple.

"Is that what we are calling them?"

The guard’s expression tightened.

"Every one of you protects what happens in that building," he accused.

Max raised his axe.

"And tonight, we are answering for the children you dragged inside it," he declared.

For a heartbeat, silence settled over the lane, broken only by the distant wail of the alarm.

Then the composed S-ranker smiled.

He stood closest to the temple, his uniform dust-covered but otherwise untouched.

"So you know," he remarked.

Max’s grip tightened around his weapon.

The man studied the masked figures one by one.

"Then none of you can be permitted to leave," he declared.

He took a step forward.

"My name is Amil," he announced.

His smile never wavered.

"And in the name of our Goddess and Lord Raphael, I will deliver your punishment."

Max did not answer.

Instead, he reached into his storage space.

A vial appeared in his hand.

Red liquid swirled inside the glass.

Around him, his seven companions reached into their own storage spaces and produced identical vials.

Amil’s eyes narrowed as he recognized them.

Max pulled out the stopper.

Then he drank.

His seven companions followed suit.

Eight empty vials struck the ground.

For an instant, nothing happened.

Then the power hit them.

Max staggered as heat tore through his body, flooding his muscles and forcing his mana through channels that suddenly seemed too narrow to contain it.

Beside him, one of his companions gasped.

Another dropped to one knee before forcing himself upright.

Nyra gripped the wall, struggling to remain steady.

The pressure radiating from all eight of them began to climb.

The limits of their A-ranks shattered.

Their auras surged.

S-rank.

Tier Three.

Max drew a ragged breath.

His axe felt lighter in his hands.

The world around him seemed sharper.

He could hear the scrape of a boot against stone at the far end of the lane, the crackling of burning wreckage beyond the wall, and the uneven breathing of his companions.

Amil’s smile finally disappeared.

"Temporary Rank Elevators?" he exclaimed.

His gaze snapped toward the empty vials scattered across the ground.

"Those are still being tested by the Church!"

Disbelief colored his voice.

No one answered him.

Amil stepped forward, his expression hardening.

"Where did you get them?" he demanded.

Max lifted his axe.

"Everyone, attack!" he shouted.

His companions sprang into motion.

"If we can break through these four, we can—"

A wet sound cut through his words.

Nyra’s body jerked.

For one impossible instant, Max could not understand what he was seeing.

Then her head struck the stone.

Her body crumpled beside it.

Amil stood behind her.

Blood stained his hand.

He looked toward Max with cold indifference.

"Did you say something?" Amil asked.

The world narrowed.

Max stared at Nyra.

At the loose strand of blue hair beside her mask.

At the hand that had been holding a vial only seconds earlier.

A scream tore through the silence.

"Nyra!"

One of Max’s companions rushed toward her, his voice breaking with desperation.

Max’s face darkened.

Grief struck first.

Then rage swallowed everything else.

He raised his axe with both hands.

"YOU BASTARD!" Max roared.

Amil smiled.

Max lunged at him.

His remaining six companions surged forward alongside him.

And beneath the relentless scream of the alarm, the narrow lane descended into chaos.

_________________________

Arthur entered the Temple of Moonlight through the service corridor.

He kept his head slightly lowered as he walked.

The white robe swayed around his legs, and the false identification card hanging from his neck tapped softly against his chest with each step.

Guards rushed past him in both directions.

"Secure the lower entrances!" one shouted.

"How many attackers are outside?" another demanded.

Arthur stepped aside to let them pass.

Not one of them stopped him.

For the moment, every guard’s attention was fixed on the explosion outside.

Exactly as Max had intended.

Arthur continued deeper into the temple.

The air grew colder with every step.

Ancient stone walls surrounded him, but much of the interior had been modified. New security doors had been installed within centuries-old archways, while bright surveillance lights illuminated carvings that had been scraped almost smooth.

High on one wall, a damaged crescent symbol remained.

Someone had tried to chisel it away.

They had not quite succeeded.

Arthur glanced at it as he passed.

Then the woman’s voice returned to his mind.

’Do not let them be eaten.’

His fingers curled beneath the sleeves of his robe.

Somewhere outside, another violent impact shook the corridor, sending dust drifting from the ceiling.

Arthur did not look back.

He continued down the passage, moving farther into the temple.

Unnoticed by him, a small surveillance lens rotated above the next doorway, silently tracking his movements.

_______________________

In a room far removed from the alarms and fighting, Arthur’s image filled a massive holographic screen.

A dozen smaller displays surrounded it, each showing a different part of the temple complex.

Corridors.

Entrances.

Sealed stairways.

The ruined road outside.

On the largest screen, a white-robed figure walked beneath the temple’s defaced carvings.

Raphael sat beside Ariala.

Her gaze remained fixed on the screen.

For a moment, the sounds of the fighting outside carried through one of the surveillance feeds.

Then Ariala broke the silence.

"He is here," she announced.

Raphael said nothing.

Ariala turned slightly toward him.

"Just as you predicted," she added.

On the screen, Arthur reached an intersection.

He paused, glanced down one passage, and then chose another.

Raphael watched his movements with quiet interest.

Slowly, a smile spread across his face.

"Arthur," he murmured.

He leaned forward, his eyes never leaving the screen.

"It seems it is finally time for us to meet face-to-face," Raphael declared.