Chapter : 154
Chapter : 154
"I am not moving!" O'Brian yelled back, squeezing his eyes shut as he tried to find the courage to pull the trigger. "You will never get into this vault! I will die before I let you take the Doctor's prize!"
"Yeah, see, that is exactly the kind of dramatic talk I am trying to avoid," Ken mumbled, scratching the back of his messy black hair.
Ken didn't get into a combat stance. He didn't shout a cool attack name. He just let out another tired sigh and lazily waved his right hand through the air, acting exactly like a guy trying to swat a highly annoying mosquito away from his face.
It was a tiny, effortless motion. But the absolute second his hand moved, a blinding, roaring burst of overwhelming fire magic exploded forward.
The heat was so intense that the air in the corridor completely warped and shimmered. The massive wave of flames slammed directly into O'Brian before the assistant could even blink. There was no scream. There was no struggle. The sheer, overwhelming temperature of the fire magic instantly incinerated the assistant, turning him into a pile of gray ash that drifted harmlessly to the metal floor.
The fire vanished just as quickly as it had appeared, leaving the hallway completely quiet once again.
Ken dropped his hand and blinked his sleepy eyes. He waved his hand in front of his nose to clear away a tiny puff of smoke.
"Whoops. Maybe that was a little too warm," Ken mumbled to himself, stepping casually over the small pile of falling ash. "I really hope that didn't set off any smoke detectors. Loud sirens give me a terrible headache."
He walked right up to the massive, heavy blast doors. He didn't try to kick them open. He just placed his hand on the metal wheel and pushed. The heavy doors glided open on their well-oiled tracks, revealing the highly secure, brightly lit vault room inside.
The room was clean, sterile, and filled with humming computer servers. Right in the absolute center of the vault, resting on top of a steel pedestal, was a high-tech glass containment unit. And locked safely inside that thick glass box was Ken’s dirty, fake cave rock. Because the illusion from his lucky blue ring was still somewhat active in this room, the useless piece of gravel still looked like it was glowing with a brilliant, blinding white light.
Ken walked over to the pedestal and leaned against it. He looked at the heavy glass case. There was a glowing digital keypad attached to the front, blinking with a harsh red light.
"Great. Passwords," Ken complained loudly, crossing his arms over his chest. "Why does everything need a password? People always make them way too complicated. It is probably something super dramatic, like 'EvilGenius123' or 'DominateTheEmpire'."
Ken didn't want to spend ten minutes trying to guess the code. Instead, he simply tapped into his omniscient "Anime Logic" mana. He didn't use a massive, flashy spell. He just let his dark eyes focus on the glowing keypad. Because magic always leaves a trace, Ken could easily see the invisible, residual heat signatures of the exact buttons Augusto had pressed when he locked the case earlier.
"Let's see here," Ken mumbled, tracing the invisible magical smudges with his finger. He lazily typed the letters into the keypad. "P-R-O-J-E-C-T-F-I-N-A-L-K-E-Y. Wow, 'ProjectFinalKey'. That is a terrible password. He definitely should have used some numbers or a special character."
The digital keypad beeped cheerfully, turning a bright, friendly green. The heavy glass container hissed loudly, depressurizing, and slowly slid open.
"Finally," Ken smiled.
He quickly reached deep into the pocket of his tailored navy blue suit. He pulled out the genuine, incredibly ancient, and absolutely priceless Core of Luminus. The real artifact hummed with a beautiful, freezing, holy white light that made the entire vault feel instantly fresh and clean. Ken carefully placed the genuine Core back onto the steel pedestal. Then, he quickly snatched his dirty, fake piece of cave gravel out of the display, canceled the illusion spell, and shoved the useless rock back into his pocket.
"There we go," Ken nodded approvingly, looking at the real artifact resting on the pedestal. "The delivery is complete. Now the fancy Royals can come in here, grab their prize, and we can all finally go home and eat dinner."
But just as Ken turned around to walk out of the room, the loud, chaotic sound of heavy, rushing footsteps echoed from the metal hallway outside. It sounded like an entire army was running toward the vault. He could hear people shouting, armor clanking, and the distinct sound of Naomi yelling at someone to move faster.
"Ah, the cavalry is here," Ken noted casually. "Time to disappear."
With a lazy snap of his fingers, Ken instantly turned himself completely invisible. He casually strolled over to the far corner of the vault room, leaned his back comfortably against the cold metal wall, and waited to watch the show.
Three seconds later, the heavy blast doors were thrown completely open.
Princess Iris, Princess Hestia, and Prince Hephaestus burst into the vault room at the exact same time. They were surrounded by their elite vanguards. Naomi, Elma, Laxmi, Sayma, Zaima, Zinia, Luna, Ira, and Heart all rushed into the room, their weapons fully drawn and their magic flaring. They looked bruised, battered, and completely exhausted from fighting their way through the endless swarms of mutated guards and desperate scientists.
They stormed the room, completely ready for the absolute fight of their lives. They expected to see Augusto standing behind a massive laser cannon. They expected a final boss battle.
Instead, they found a totally empty room.
Laxmi lowered her flaming fists, looking around the quiet vault in total confusion. "Wait, where is the bad guy? The crazy scientist from the hallway said the doctor was down here!"
Sayma pushed her thick glasses up the bridge of her nose. She walked over to the entrance and knelt down, inspecting the small pile of gray ash sitting just outside the blast doors. Her highly analytical mind instantly recognized the signature.
"Someone was here," Sayma announced, her voice filled with polite surprise. "There is a massive amount of residual heat magic lingering in the air. The guard outside the door wasn't just defeated; he was completely incinerated in a fraction of a second. Whoever did this possessed an absolutely overwhelming amount of raw power."
Heart, the tough engineer from the 9th Unit, jogged over to the central pedestal. She looked at the open glass case. "Hey, look at this! The containment unit is already unlocked! Someone hacked the keypad!"
Princess Hestia did not care about the ash, and she certainly did not care about who hacked the door. The moment her perfectly styled auburn hair entered the room, her eyes locked entirely onto the glowing, beautiful white stone resting on the pedestal.
Hestia’s haughty, elegant smile returned in full force. She completely ignored the safety protocols. She marched right past her elite servants, her white silk dress swishing behind her, and stepped directly up to the pedestal.