Chapter 269: TakeDown!
Chapter 269: TakeDown!
Once the trio finished talking, they refocused their attention towards the facility, and the wind around them shifted as they got ready to begin their assault on this facility, and rescue those captured.
Naturally, Jax stepped forward first, leading the charge as the Demon King.
The moment his foot left the ridge, the world seemed to bend around him. Space didn’t crack or shatter, instead it yielded, folding obediently as he descended down the mountainside like a shadow slipping through reality itself.
Nulissa followed without a word, her form dissolving into a thin veil of darkness that trailed behind him like living silk.
Alexi came last.
Unlike the two of them, her descent wasn’t effortless, but it was controlled. Mana gathered beneath her feet, forming faint platforms of compressed energy as she moved downward with precision, her eyes locked on the target below.
The closer they got, the clearer their target became. The terrain all around them that once looked abandoned, had increasing signs of being maintained secretly.
Jax slowed slightly mid-descent, his golden eyes narrowing.
"...There it is."
He said, pointing in a visible direction for the duo to direct their senses.
Once she had a precise location to focus on, Alexi quickly felt it too, a special kind of distortion in that environment.
It wasn’t visual, more like wrongness.
A subtle dissonance in the flow of mana itself. Like a section of the world had been stitched over with something artificial.
"Light-based concealment," she murmured, "But it’s layered with suppression arrays too..."
Nulissa’s voice came from just behind them, calm and cold, "To mask their presence."
Jax’s smirk returned faintly, "Yeah."
They landed silently at the edge of the hidden perimeter. Up close, the illusion was almost perfect, almost...
Jax raised his hand slightly.
"Watch closely," he said, his fingers moved, just a small motion, and the space in front of them warped.
Not violently, but precisely. The illusion peeled back like a thin veil being lifted, and what lay beneath it...
Alexi’s breath caught.
"...That’s not—"
"It is," Nulissa said quietly.
Where there should have been empty land... stood a facility.
Stone and steel, reinforced with layers of holy enchantments. Towers etched with glowing runes. Walls lined with defensive arrays that pulsed faintly with divine mana.
And surrounding it were guards. Armored figures bearing the insignia of the Holy Church, moving in calculated patrols.
But that wasn’t what made Alexi’s expression harden. It was the various cages. Even from this distance... she could see them.
Dark shapes with lots of movement inside, the sound of chains continuously being rattled echoed all throughout.
"...They’re really doing this," she whispered.
Jax’s aura dropped another degree.
"Yeah," he said.
There was no hesitation after that. He stepped forward, nd the moment he crossed the threshold, he illusion shattered completely.
~RING~RING~RING~RING!~
Alarms rang out instantly, blaring all throughout the entire facility to alert everyone of the intrusion.
"INTRUDERS!"
"DEFENSIVE POSITIONS!"
"HOLD YOUR GROUND!"
Light flared across the facility as the enchantments activated, radiant barriers snapping into place along the walls.
But it didn’t matter as Jax was already moving. His presence alone distorted the battlefield.
The first group of guards barely had time to react before he raised his hand and gravity folded all around them, an an invisible force crushing downward—
~BOOM!~
The ground cratered as their bodies were driven into it, armor crumpling like paper under impossible pressure.
Silence followed for half a second.
Then chaos erupted.
Nulissa moved next, vanishing into the darkness as the shadows beneath the guards twisted violently, stretching upward like claws.
Screams and screeches of pain followed, but they were all short, immediately cut off as vicious blades of darkness pierced through their armor and sliced through their bodies, sending them to the afterlife.
She reappeared behind them, her expression unchanged as their bodies collapsed in unison.
"Perimeter cleared," she said calmly.
Alexi stood still for just a moment. Then, she clenched her fists.
"...I’m going in."
Jax glanced at her briefly.
"Stick to the plan."
She nodded.
"Rescue first."
And then she was gone too, darting forward toward the inner sections of the facility, her mana flaring as she prepared to break through whatever barriers stood in her way.
***
Inside the facility, it was even worst than Alexi initially expected, her eyes widening as she burst through the first interior chamber.
Containment cells lined the walls, dozens of them, with iron bars reinforced with holy sigils and chains enchanted with suppression magic.
Inside all of these cells were demons.
Some of whom were unconscious, some barely moving, and some staring blankly ahead as if they’d already given up.
"...No," she whispered.
Her chest tightened and anger surged, remembering all the sweet words the Church had given her and the other heroes, while hiding all of these atrocities.
Her hand shot forward, "Break."
The sigils shattered instantly under the force of her magic, the chains snapping apart like brittle glass.
The nearest prisoner collapsed forward and she caught them immediately.
"It’s okay," she said quickly. "You’re safe now."
Their eyes barely focused on her.
"...Demon...?"
"Yeah," she said firmly. "You’re going home."
Behind her, explosions rocked the facility.
***
Outside, Jax was walking around leisurely, but every step he took brought mass destruction.
Holy barriers shattered the moment his presence touched them, divine mana dispersing like mist against something far greater.
A group of elite knights charged him, weapons glowing with radiant energy.
"FOR THE LIGHT—"
They never finished as Jax’s eyes flickered, and pure, suffocating fear slammed into these Elite Knights mid-charge.
Pure, overwhelming, suffocating fear slammed into them mid-charge.
Their bodies locked, their minds fractured, and then, with a single gesture from Jax, they were gone...erased.
Nulissa meanwhile moved through the battlefield like a phantom beside him, efficient and precise.
Every strike she made was lethal and every movement was very deliberate.
"They’re trying to regroup on the eastern side, seems like they’re protecting something," she said, her voice calm as she stepped over another fallen soldier.
"Then let’s go check that out," Jax said, and he began moving in that direction.
***
Meanwhile, Alexi was working fast.
Cell after cell. Barrier after barrier. Each one falling faster than the last.
"You’re safe."
"We’re getting you out."
"Stay with me, "
Her voice didn’t waver even as she saw the worst of it and even as rage burned in her chest.
She kept moving, because that was her role given by Jax, and she needed to do her best.
***
"Well what do we have here," Jax said as he saw what was on the Eastern part of the facilitiy.
"This is shocking," Nulissa added.
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