Ascension of the elder

Chapter 99: Operation starts

"You don't need luck but do come back as you still need to take my virginity."

Kyle wondered that if during Elena's possession and healing if her brain wasn't healed correctly. He was sure she understood the meaning of her words and the cultural implication from the memories of the previous Elena but she didn't seem to care.

"I'm a going to be a bit busy so we'll talk about it again in a few years okay?"

Kyle responded with a deadpan look while Clara and Miranda only watched, they seemed to be dead to the things Elena said now and only watched on in silence. Elena smiled at Kyle before she jumped into his bed and burrowed down evidently planning on sleeping here.

Kyle gave up and just looked at himself in the mirror checking everything was in place before putting his mask on. He used a magic from the darkness branch and phased into the shadows. The protection arrays around the bastion let him through as he was cleared to pass through like the others of his forces but if anyone else tried to enter they would be forcefully rejected.

Sticking to the shadows Kyle made his way to the rendezvous point to wait for the coming of 'steel lotus'. While he was waiting Kyle looked through the archers redoubts at the Miles family estate. He could see people moving around but as time passed they became fewer in number while darkness began to encroach upon the city.

The members of 'steel lotus' began to arrive in small groups of 2-3 people until there were 30 people present plus Kyle and Faye. Faye was standing behind Kyle waiting for his orders as he was still watching the estate.

Finally Kyle looked away and turned to 'steel lotus', he switched his view between them and saw that these were the ladies who had largely been involved in the espionage and assassination campaign he had been waging in the last year.

After his existential crisis when he had first tortured and put a dead body on display Kyle had taken on a different mindset. Because of what he had been through including his death he had a stronger mentality and after thinking about his actions he had finally formalised his feelings into a philosophy of 'I will protect what's mine'. He would follow his morality for those who are innocent and those who aren't evil in his view. This made him more like a vigilante rather than some paragon of justice.

With a plan in mind Kyle used 'soul shaping' to project an image of the exterior of the compound they were going to attack. Like his bastion there were various protection arrays laid out so before they could enter these would need to be disabled.

"Faye I want you and 5 of your ladies to be ready at this point on the south wall. There is a protection array without any alarm arrays around it so when I drop the protection array you'll be able to get in fast. The rest of you should range out in a rough encirclement and take out any incoming or stray guards outside the walls. I'll be hitting the north wall here, there are several protection arrays overlapping at this point so if I break it here it'll cause a large breach so if the detect it they won't know exactly where I'm passing through. If no one had anything to say let's get moving."

As Kyle had been laying out his plan of action he was indicating the points on the projection letting everyone know where they needed to be. Faye indicated who she wanted on her team before assigning one of her trainees as the leader of the outside team. Once they were ready they all phased into the shadows before heading to the compound.

As they approached Kyle could feel the various members peeling away to their assigned tasks before he was left on his own. Approaching the wall Kyle saw two guards walking along the outer boundary so Kyle pulled one of his knives free and waited for the right moment. As they walked past his hidden location Kyle pushed his mana into the blade and threw it with force.

The blade cut through the air without any sound and in a second it sliced through the neck of the first guard before it stuck in the neck of the second. The first guard was down without have a chance to even realise what had happen while the second had enough time to place his hand to his neck where the blade was sticking out from before he also collapsed.

Kyle walked over and looked down at them for a moment before he retrieved his blade and wiped the blade on their clothes before replacing the blade in his belt. He continued to the wall and used his soul sight to see the full layout of the arrays he would need to break.

It looked as though he had overestimated the protection that was present at this compound. Even though the arrays matched what was in the letter he had received from his spy they weren't connected to the alarm arrays. This was like having a house alarm which would go off if the door was opened but wouldn't if it was a window.

Seeing as Kyle didn't need to worry about the alarms rather than slowly break the array while separating the alarm he just used his OP soul force and shattered the protection arrays. The glyphs glowed brightly for a second due to the sudden influx of soul energy before they overloaded and fused. This caused feedback to the mana crystal present in the compound which disrupted the other arrays causing them to fail leaving the compound completely open.

Faye was waiting at the south wall and when she saw all the arrays collapse simultaneously she was shocked. During her time training Kyle had taught her about arrays and the ways to break them, from her understanding she was expecting Kyle to create a small opening in the protection array on his side so he could enter before going to the mana crystal and disable it. For the arrays to collapse like this and for it to happen so fast meant that the people who created this place were useless at best and intentionally trying to screw this family at worst. But hey ho it worked for them so Faye waved her people forward to begin the attack.

Faye and her girls used their enhanced physiques to jump to a second floor window without the use of mana reaching the window Faye used her tanto blade infused with mana to simply cut away the iron bars before entering. The room they were in appeared to be a bedroom of 'interesting' properties. There were various implements strewn around and the bed and a wall mounted device had cuffs and straps fixed to their frames. It was obvious what the intent for this room was so the girls quickly moved to the door. As they stacked up to the side of the door Faye used a sense magic from the life branch to see if there was anyone around. There was no one close by but about 20 meters along she could sense someone slowly moving away.

Using hand signals she ordered 2 members to head that way to capture or kill whoever was there while she and the other 3 would try to see where the other targets may be. In 3, 2, 1 they moved opening the door quietly the 2 rushed down the hall on silent feet while Faye and the others ranged out to see what was around.

The sense magic Faye used only had a limited range so even though she knew there was no one close by they still needed to be careful. In short order the 2 who had gone after the target returned, they had the target in their hands and it turned out to be a girl of around 16-17 years old. When she saw Faye and her girls in full armoured ninja gear she was scared but after the abuse she had suffered she could tell from their eyes that they didn't mean to hurt her so she calmed slightly.

Faye looked at this girl for a second and could see the involuntary flinch when the girls got to close or moved a hand too quickly. After spending so much time dealing with slaves she could tell this girl had been beaten and hurt to the point her reaction were autonomic. Slowly Faye pulled down her mask before she spoke to the girl.

"We're here to help, can you let me know how many guards are around and where they usually are located?"

The girl looked at them with questions but as she was about to say something she gasped before clutching her stomach. Faye recognised this reaction; it was caused by a slave contract triggering and causing pain to the contracted person and if it wasn't released it would lead to death. Faye pulled out a round golden charm and placed it over the girl's chest before putting her mana into it.

After a small buzzing sound the girl looked up with a surprised expression, the pain she feared was gone. What Faye had done was to use an etched seal to supersede the seal which was inside the girl. Due to Kyle having prepared this for her previously it was far stronger than the seal the girl had placed upon her.

"Now dear can you let me know about the guards?" Faye coaxed her once again as she had a job to do.

"Yes benefactor there are 40 guards in the compound, they are usually within the guard room on the first floor at this time with a few checking the halls once in a while. They'll usually walked in teams of 2 along the main throughways and they aren't permitted to come up here without a reason."

"Good and where would the other "residents" be at this time?"

"They should be in the baths but some may be in their rooms."

"Okay can you hide in that room behind us? We'll need to move fast and I can't guarantee we can protect you."

"Of course that room doesn't bother me I've been in there too many times to care anymore."