The rain was still pouring heavily, washing the blood stuck to the street tiles. Kanos stood in front of the first executioner’s mangled body. His black golem stood quietly behind him, waiting for orders. There was no killing intent from the golem, just a pure nothingness that made anyone feel deeply uncomfortable standing near it.
Sili jogged across the iron bridge. The skinny guy immediately squatted next to the executioner’s corpse, ignoring the mud and blood staining the knees of his pants. His hands moved incredibly fast, feeling around the gaps in the silver armor.
"Got it," Sili forcefully yanked a palm sized circular metal plate from the chest armor. The object was still blinking a faint red light. Sili wiped the small screen on the plate with his sleeve. "This is a local tracking beacon. They do not report directly to the central headquarters in the upper city. They have a temporary command post around here to gather field data."
Papuyu caught up from behind. The girl observed the metal plate in Sili’s hand with a flat gaze. "The Bureau often uses the old water treatment station at the edge of this sector for emergency posts. It is enclosed, has easy sewage access to dump bodies, and the system signal is strong."
"Are you sure the post is there?" Kanos asked. His voice was quiet, trying to regulate his breathing so his head would not throb harder.
"Ninety percent," Papuyu answered quickly. "If this executioner dies, this beacon stops transmitting a heartbeat. The commander at that post definitely knows his patrol team got wiped. They will send a much larger unit to this exact spot in under five minutes."
Belida rolled his wrists, warming up his tree trunk sized arm muscles. "We run again?"
Kanos slowly shook his head. His eyes stared at the beacon plate in Sili’s hand. If they kept running, these Bureau dogs would chase them endlessly. They had unlimited resources. Kanos only had a thinning reserve of stamina. He needed to flip the board. He needed to strike fear into the system that had always felt untouchable.
"We are not running," Kanos pulled the edge of his wet cloak. He glanced at Papuyu. "Show the way to that command post. We are going to them."
Sili immediately choked on his own spit. "Boss! Are you serious? There has to be at least two executioner squads there. You have this crazy stone monster, sure, but your physical body is about to collapse!"
"I can still walk," Kanos answered briefly. There was absolutely zero room for argument in his tone.
Ten minutes later, the four of them arrived in front of a giant concrete building half submerged in a pool of toxic waste. The old water treatment station. The iron door was shut tight, but bright blue light from magic lamps leaked through the second floor ventilation slits. Papuyu gave a hand signal. There were two guards on the roof, wearing the same silver armor, holding long barrel weapons that looked like magic rifles.
"I will handle the ones up top," Papuyu whispered. The girl instantly vanished into the dark shadows of the concrete wall. It only took two minutes before the two executioners on the roof dropped without making a single sound. Papuyu was a true professional when it came to taking lives quietly.
Kanos walked up to the main iron door. He did not tell Belida to break it down. Kanos stared at the door, then issued a mental command. The black golem stepped forward. Without winding up, the golem punched the thick iron door with its right hand.
BAM!
The iron door ripped off its hinges, flying into the room and smashing into a pile of wooden desks until they splintered apart. Blaring warning sirens instantly roared inside the station.
Kanos walked in casually, stepping through the gaping entrance. His black golem walked in front serving as an absolute shield. Belida followed close behind Kanos, his greatsword ready to slice anything that slipped past the golem.
Inside, the wide room was filled with transparent blue screens displaying maps of the lower district. Eight executioners were frantically drawing their weapons. In the center of the room, there was a giant red communication crystal currently connected to the central headquarters in the upper city.
"Kill the anomaly!" the executioner commander shouted from across the room.
Various magic attacks were fired all at once. Ice, fire, purple lightning. Everything streaked brightly through the air, aiming straight for Kanos’s position.
Kanos did not blink. His black golem instantly took the hits. All those lethal magic spells crashed into the golem’s empty stone chest and arms. The result was exactly the same as before. The magic simply vanished, swallowed by the void. No deflections, no explosions. Just gone. The executioners stood completely dumbfounded seeing their best attacks doing absolutely nothing.
"Sweep them," Kanos ordered coldly.
The golem moved brutally. It charged into the executioner formation like a bowling ball smashing pins. The silver armored men flew in every direction. Some crashed into concrete pillars, others fell into the toxic water pools. Belida did not stay idle. The knight moved forward, exploiting the openings created by the golem. His black sword swung fast, slashing the necks and waists of executioners trying to stand back up. Blood splattered, staining the white station tiles.
Papuyu appeared from the second floor stairs, her dagger sinking smoothly into the back of the last executioner trying to sprint for the exit. The girl pulled her dagger out calmly, letting the corpse drop heavily to the floor.
Kanos walked past the dead bodies. His legs felt incredibly heavy. His nose started dripping fresh blood again. Controlling the golem for complex attacks like that thoroughly squeezed out the last drops of his focus. But he was not done yet.
Kanos stopped right in front of the giant red communication crystal in the center of the room. The crystal was still active, showing the silhouette of a Sensor Bureau official from the upper city screaming for a situation report.
Kanos dipped his left index finger into the remaining shadow ink inside his bottle. He stared at the silhouette in the crystal with empty eyes.
"The report is simple," Kanos spoke quietly toward the crystal. His voice definitely echoed clearly on the other side. "Starting tonight, the lower district has new rules."
Kanos flicked his finger fast. One thick line of shadow ink shot through the air, taking the form of a long black iron nail. The nail struck hard, piercing dead center into the red communication crystal. Massive cracks instantly webbed across the crystal’s surface. The red light flickered wildly, before finally dying completely with a harsh buzzing sound.
Message sent. The Sensor Bureau was definitely scrambling right now, watching their communication device get destroyed by an energy the system could not recognize.
"Let’s move," Kanos turned around, wiping the blood from his nose. "I need a bed before I actually pass out right here."