Chapter 79: The Syndicate’s Hijack

Chapter 79: Chapter 79: The Syndicate’s Hijack

"This was the most unkindest cut of all." — William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

•••

The third day followed a schedule only the Tenth Stratum seemed to understand.

The meridian tide had carried the expedition through the darkness.

By dawn, the final causeway ended at the edge of a black stone platform.

Beyond it stretched forty kilometers of open sky.

And at the far end, surrounded by a ring of violent storms, floated their destination.

An upside-down temple.

The enormous cathedral hung in the darkness, its towers pointing downward.

Frozen lightning covered its walls and supports, while a strange gray light shone through its great circular window.

Every magical instrument aboard reacted to its presence, turning toward the temple and glowing.

During the night, Marshal Halden had ordered the two siege lifts to connect the floating rocks into a large, flat raft.

Official reports called it the transport.

The soldiers simply called it Deck One.

It carried forty escorts, twelve elite students, a siege ballista, and the expedition’s official charter.

Proctor Harrison had also joined the expedition, bringing a chest of documents.

Under the charter, he held authority wherever Marshal Halden’s military command ended.

According to the academy’s paperwork, that boundary was the front of the raft.

It was a neat division of authority, although the Tenth Stratum clearly cared nothing about their rules.

Still, the arrangement had brought them this far.

Harrison stood at the front of Deck One, facing the wind.

"Progress goes into the official report," he announced.

Then he looked toward the distant temple.

"So does everything else."

[Ding!]

[Landmark registered: the central temple. Containment claim: the Apex Tear. Local designation: none. No one has ever stood close enough to name it.]

[Note: the grey light is watching the ledger, not the party. Probably.]

Joel stood beside the starboard railing, checking his remaining resources.

Seventeen sealed beacons.

One deadly knot-breaking hex in his breast pocket.

Twelve stored charges of kinetic energy.

And fifty-two people safely within his fifty-meter Domain.

The escorts had stopped wandering outside his protection two islands ago.

Whenever the meridian tide rocked the raft, the soldiers repeated their familiar chant.

"The floor holds!"

But something on Deck One bothered Joel.

Valerius had been standing at the front of the raft since dawn.

His mana was down to fifty percent, and he hadn’t said a word.

For someone who had spent four semesters as the academy’s top student, that was unusual.

Even stranger was his aura.

The golden light surrounding him had developed a thin black ring around its edges.

It looked almost like an eclipse.

Nyx emerged from Joel’s collar, appearing as a thin ribbon of darkness.

"The legend talks in his sleep," she whispered. "Since the second night, something has been answering him."

Joel glanced toward Valerius.

"What does it say?"

"Numbers. Yesterday, it counted all fifty-two of us. This morning, it started counting the spaces between us."

"Calculations," Joel muttered. "Not just numbers."

He quietly recorded the information.

Something was clearly wrong, but suspicion alone wasn’t enough to act.

Neither was a strange-looking aura.

The island above them suddenly opened its eyes.

They had learned that clouds could be monsters on the second day.

But nobody had considered that the floating islands themselves might be alive.

Deck One was passing beneath a massive island that had remained suspended above the meridian for ages.

Then rows of enormous black eyes opened across its rocky underside.

A moment later, something resembling teeth appeared between the rocks.

Those weren’t ordinary stone formations.

BWOOM!

An explosion suddenly erupted beneath the front siege lifts.

The blast tore through the raft’s supports.

At the same moment, gravity shifted.

The deck began splitting apart, and forty tons of wood, equipment, arrows, and supplies rose into the air.

Even the soldiers’ breakfasts went flying.

Then came the grappling hooks.

THWANG! THWANG! THWANG!

TCHAK! TCHAK!

Heavy metal hooks struck the wooden deck and locked into place.

The attached ropes tightened.

Masked figures began sliding down them.

They wore dull gray clothing and black circular masks that seemed to absorb the surrounding light.

Their cuffs were perfectly clean.

Joel recognized what they represented.

The Eclipse Syndicate had followed them into the Tenth Stratum.

And they had come to settle an account.

[Ding!]

[Hostile organization identified: the Eclipse Syndicate.]

[Note: they are here to retire every hand that touched the folio. Party eligibility: high.]

"Form a ring!" Marshal Halden roared.

KRUNCH!

The soldiers immediately locked their shields together. Despite the damaged raft, the deck remained stable.

Joel had already activated his Domain.

WHUMM!

Without drawing attention, he kept the floor steady beneath everyone’s feet.

The soldiers began chanting.

"The floor holds! The floor holds!"

Their voices helped steady their spears as the enemy continued attacking.

Meanwhile, the elite fighters battled the collectors wherever the shield formation had openings.

The Sky-Lancer charged along one of the boarding ropes and stabbed its owner, sending the masked attacker falling into the darkness.

SHNK!

The Spell-Colonel released one final white spell.

Two collectors were instantly torn apart, their bodies glowing briefly before disappearing.

The Warden twins raised their shields together, forming a defensive corridor that prevented enemies from breaking through.

Victor Kole had tied himself to the mast ring after the first explosion.

He remained there, keeping his head down and avoiding attention.

The siege engineer operated the ballista.

THOOM!

A powerful shot struck several collectors at once, sending them flying.

But more enemies continued arriving.

The Eclipse Syndicate had clearly prepared for the expedition’s weapons.

Then the collectors began throwing acid.

TSSSS!

The liquid splashed across the wooden deck, weakening everything it touched.

Several attackers charged forward with chain-blades.

Some of their attacks struck Joel, who stood calmly near the edge of the formation.

TAK! TAK-TAK!

The blades bounced off his armor.

Each impact added a small amount of kinetic energy to his reserves.

Joel didn’t fight back.

Instead, he studied the battle.

Something wasn’t right.

The Syndicate was losing too many collectors, yet the attacks continued.

They were sacrificing their own people without hesitation.

’They’re not trying to win here.’ Joel narrowed his eyes.

’They’re buying time for something else.’ Then he noticed another strange detail.

Valerius still hadn’t drawn his weapon.

The rank-one student stood near the front of the raft, his golden aura barely glowing.

Instead of watching the battle, he was staring at the distant temple.

Beside him, Proctor Harrison continued recording the counterattack in his official report.

The two men stood barely an arm’s length apart.

And one of them had already been paid.

Then the fourth wave arrived.

Crimson smoke suddenly poured from a collector’s shattered mask.

Instead of disappearing into the air, the smoke gathered together.

A familiar figure began taking shape.

Gideon Vane.

He appeared on the broken bow, standing calmly amid the destruction.

But he no longer looked entirely human.

His body had undergone a terrible transformation.

His spotless cuffs were gone.

His arms now had far too many joints, with numerous sharp blades growing from them.

Each weapon looked carefully shaped and arranged.

One of his eyes had turned permanently dark rose.

And beneath the familiar smell of old iron, Gideon now carried the overwhelming scent of stored blood.

The Blood-Alchemist had returned.

[Ding!]

[Threat updated: Gideon Vane. Level 61. Class: [Blood-Alchemist], corrupted.]

[Note: the account has been restructured in kind. When a cleaner’s coin runs out, the table pays in flesh.]

"There he is," Gideon Vane announced, looking across the deck.

His dark rose eye found Joel standing by the starboard railing. The blades growing from his arms immediately rose.

"One drop of blood, little vintage. I tasted it at noon, on the training floor. I kept the receipt, and I’ve been looking forward to collecting."

"Your account is overdue," Joel replied. "Three walls, remember?"

"Then today, the Syndicate collects interest."

But instead of attacking Joel, the Level 61 Blood-Alchemist turned toward the front of the raft.

Joel immediately noticed something strange.

"Paid in full, Aura-Knight," Gideon called pleasantly. "Settle it."

Beside Valerius, Proctor Harrison was still writing his report.

"Elite Valerius, hold the front position," he ordered without looking up.

He began writing another line.

SHLK!

A golden blade suddenly pierced Harrison beneath his collarbone and emerged through his back, just below the shoulder blade.

It had missed his heart.

Whether that was deliberate, nobody knew.

The golden light surrounding Valerius suddenly faded.

Only the thin black ring remained, spreading across his aura.

The battlefield fell silent.

Forty escorts froze in the middle of their attacks.

Marshal Halden stopped speaking.

Even the Warden twins paused.

In the distance, the enormous stained-glass temple stood against the darkness.

And on the broken deck, the academy’s rank-one student held his own proctor suspended on a golden blade.

"Four semesters!" Valerius shouted.

"Four semesters of being number one!"

His voice carried across the battlefield.

"And what do I get? The Marshal complains about my aura. The army marches at that nobody’s pace. And the official reports barely mention me!"

He placed one boot on the charter chest.

"The Syndicate offered me the sun!"

His expression twisted with anger.

"And what did the academy offer? A chance to stand in someone else’s shadow?"

He slowly pulled his blade from Harrison’s body.

"The choice was simple. I’ve changed sides."

Harrison slid down against the railing and collapsed into a sitting position.

Blood dripped onto the wooden deck.

PLIP! PLIP!

His face had grown pale, but his expression remained as calm as ever.

He looked up at Valerius.

"Noted," he said.

[Ding!]

[Betrayal logged: party member Valerius. Hostile action against expedition command.]

[Reclassification filed: luggage to hostile asset. The appraisal is closed.]

Far above them, beyond the hole the explosion had torn through the clouds, lightning suddenly shifted aside.

Something enormous was descending toward the battlefield, drawn by the noise.

At the same time, the strange gray light shining through the temple’s massive circular window suddenly went dark, as though something had covered it.

And just like that, an unnatural eclipse spread across the Tenth Stratum.