Chapter 183 183 - To Infiltrate
If anyone else on Earth could do magic right now, they were certainly weaker and less knowledgeable than him. And that was a big if. The main thing the Dark One had managed to accomplish was sending infinitesimally small fragments of its power through to parasitize a handful of directors.
Those fragments granted some awareness, some influence, and some connection to the Dark One's will. But they didn't grant magical ability. The parasitized directors were still fundamentally human, still operating within the normal limits of physical reality.
If Renan couldn't handle a few mundane security measures, if he couldn't evade detection by people who had no magical capabilities whatsoever, then he didn't deserve to be a reincarnator.
He pulled into a parking garage several blocks away from his actual destination. He immediately set off on foot, acting as just another person going about their business in the early afternoon.
He'd driven off to an office he had previously scouted, a mid-sized Nexarch Technologies facility where he knew a parasitized director stayed.
His mission was simple.
Primary Objective: Kill the director.
The thought was cold, but Renan didn't flinch from it. He'd already made his peace with this necessity weeks ago.
The reasoning was straightforward. While the director was technically innocent, given that he did not choose to be parasitized by the Dark One, the outcome had already been decided.
That man's life, unfortunately, was already forfeit.
The fragment of the Dark One's power inside him wasn't something that could be removed safely. Renan didn't have the knowledge, the tools, or the power to perform that kind of extraction. Maybe a high level magician from Masteria could do it, such as Merath. But was Merath here? No.
Renan wasn't that powerful, either. Not yet. Maybe not ever.
And even if he could theoretically save the director, there wasn't time. The man was actively working to advance the Dark One's plans right now, this very moment. Every day he remained alive and in control of his facility, he pushed the invasion of Earth closer to reality.
Given that he was one of the few people actively in the know regarding the Dark One's plans and actively seeking to advance them, he had to go.
Once he was removed, all his projects and subordinates would naturally shift to more benign activities. The researchers working under him had no idea what they were really building. They thought they were developing cutting edge VR technology. Without the director's corrupted guidance, without someone pushing them toward specific configurations that would enable interdimensional portals, the projects would drift off course.
Secondary Objective: Collect information on his projects and shut them down.
This was important, but not critical. Whilst important, it wasn't the key objective.
Projects would fail, deviate, and be halted naturally without a strong driving force. One could not rely on regular contracted employees to do something as complicated as creating a portal between dimensions without a driving force pushing them in exactly the right direction.
Kill the director, and the entire operation would collapse on its own. The research would continue for a while with momentum carrying it forward, but without someone who understood the true purpose steering it, the work would eventually peter out into nothing.
Still, if he could grab documentation, it would be for the best. It was better to be thorough.
As he arrived at the office building, he took in a deep breath, taking in the fresh air, feeling the weight of what he was about to do settle in his chest. Strangely enough, he didn't feel particularly worried, despite the stakes of his mission.
Good.
Then he focused, drawing on the mana reserves he'd carefully conserved, and sneaked in.
It was easy.
He raised his wand and whispered the incantation. "Invisibility."
The spell settled over him, bending light around his body and rendering him invisible. He walked through the front entrance of the building, passing within feet of the security guard at the desk. The man didn't even glance in his direction.
Renan moved deeper into the facility, navigating the hallways with ease. He'd been here before, weeks ago. There was no need to look around. He had a mission, and he would not waste time.
He directly headed to the second floor, taking the stairs. He moved towards the closed doors where the executives stayed, eyeing the door.
He wouldn't bother trying to get inside physically. The door was locked, obviously, and trying to find a keycard or pick the lock wasn't exactly impossible, but stupid.
At the closed doors, he simply teleported in.
The spell drained more mana than he'd have liked, but it worked. One moment he was standing in the hallway, the next he was inside the office.
It wasn't as if they had magic detection. He didn't need to be careful about being caught casting.
He looked around quickly, taking in the space.
It was a high class office, exactly what you'd expect for a director. But the only person he saw inside at the moment was a secretary, a young woman sitting at a desk outside another set of doors, typing on a computer.
He noticed a closed passageway off to the side with a guard standing by, however. There was a key difference between this guard and the rest of them outside, however. Perhaps it was his expression, but Renan could see that the man was much more serious about his role than the others.
It didn't matter. He was invisible, anyway. Renan followed that passageway, moving silently past the guard who had no idea he was there. He teleported through the inner door as well as soon as he reached it. He'd already used about a fifth of his mana, but Renan found it acceptable.
It shouldn't take more than a single spell to kill anything, anyways.
Making his way down a narrow staircase, he descended into what appeared to be a basement level. The lights grew dimmer the further he went, then he noticed the faint scent of blood was in the air…