Ch.215Chapter 215: Dark Ash (4).

# Chapter 215: Dark Assembly (4)

At the entrance to the central research facility in Geruntia Fortress.

Quan’s forces and the Dark Assembly’s elite units were engaged in a literal bloodbath, locked in desperate combat.

It was absolute chaos—flashes of aura and magi, magic and magitek weapons illuminating the battlefield.

In the midst of this pandemonium, Valt’s team charged toward the research facility entrance at his command.

Rather than engaging in a frontal assault, they used the chaos itself to their advantage.

Quan’s forces and Dark Assembly agents were completely focused on each other.

Valt’s group moved like small fish darting between the waves of that massive collision.

Leading the charge, Valt swiftly subdued or pushed aside any soldiers or agents blocking their path with powerful strikes.

His attacks, combining aura and physical force, were precise and efficient. He controlled his strength, focusing solely on clearing a path without killing.

Each of his movements was short and explosive.

His teammates followed behind him like shadows.

Solphin used her massive claymore to widen gaps between opposing forces or clear obstacles like fallen magitek golem debris.

The sound of her claymore cutting through the air echoed eerily amid the screams and thunderous noise.

Yuria moved with beast-like agility, climbing over soldiers’ heads or scaling walls, calling out the safest and fastest infiltration routes.

She avoided fortress troops and Dark Assembly agents who had mutated into grotesque forms due to magi contamination, occasionally tearing through obstacles with her claws.

Aileen precisely deflected incoming magic bullets and aura attacks with her sword strikes, protecting the team’s flanks and rear.

The aura fragments flying from the tip of her sword traced precise trajectories through the chaos.

Lati and Liris used magic to conceal the team’s movements or set up magical traps that diverted attention, dispersing the focus of both forces.

Lati’s ice magic momentarily froze spaces, while Liris’s shadow magic created instantaneous blind spots.

Lamrpo was terrified but desperately kept pace with the team under Liris’s protection. Though his eyes trembled with fear, he gritted his teeth, determined not to become a burden.

The influence of magi made the battle even more unpredictable.

The air itself twisted, creating illusions and auditory hallucinations that disoriented vision and mind, while sinister forces interfered with techniques and magic.

Malfunctioning magitek defenses fired randomly, and magi-contaminated soldiers rampaged wildly, attacking friend and foe alike.

The aura and magic emitted by combatants mixed with magi, causing explosions of ominous colors.

Collision points between powerful fighters like Great Warriors and Obscurants created massive energy waves that blasted away everything nearby.

Valt’s group barely avoided these enormous energy storms, focusing solely on reaching the research facility entrance.

Their objective was breakthrough, not combat. Not a moment could be wasted. The situation inside the research facility was even more urgent.

“Over there! The research facility entrance is right ahead! We’re almost there!”

Yuria shouted, her voice filled with urgency.

Cutting through the hellish scene covered in blood, magi, metal fragments, and fallen bodies, they finally reached the blast door of the research facility.

The door was already half-destroyed, with ominous magi still pouring violently through the gaps.

When the dense magi energy touched their skin, they felt a stabbing pain.

‘Ugh! This is worse than the Death Knight.’

In front of the door, a few of Quan’s remaining forces and Dark Assembly agents trying to break through were engaged in a final, desperate struggle.

Fallen bodies seemed to grab at their ankles.

“This is it! Break through!”

Valt shouted as he charged toward the blast door.

Physical and magical power concentrated to the extreme in his fist.

After subduing the last few of Quan’s forces and blocking Dark Assembly agents rushing through the gap, he completely shattered the damaged blast door.

The special alloy door where his fist connected screamed as it completely detached and crashed inside.

KWAAAANG!!!

With a shock wave incomparable to the hangar entrance—like suppressed energy finally exploding—the massive blast door completely detached, opening the way into the research facility.

The chaotic battle noise from outside faded away as if it were a lie, and the magi energy enveloped them more intensely and purely.

“Inside! Quickly!”

Valt shouted.

His teammates followed him into the research facility. The sight that greeted them as soon as the door opened was as horrific as the battle outside.

Inside the magical engineering research facility, a terrible and grotesque scene awaited them.

The chaos inside the fortress was mild compared to this.

The magical circuits on the walls were completely corrupted by dark red magi, glowing like bizarre patterns, and destroyed devices and experimental tools were scattered everywhere.

The floor was littered with Southern Alliance experts and soldiers who had fallen in horrific states, either corrupted by magi or attacked.

Some corpses seemed frozen by magi, while others had transformed into dark red crystals and shattered.

The air was so thick with magi it was difficult to breathe, and along with a fishy smell came unknown curse-like whispers, more vivid now, as if the magi itself were speaking directly.

And at the center of the research facility, where the five components had been assembled—the massive circular device was shattered, but there were clear traces that something had been at its center.

Powerful energy still emitting ominous magi was distorting the space. Like a severed monster’s heart still beating. But… the target, the assembled components that were the source of magi, were nowhere to be seen.

Valt’s eyes desperately scanned the surroundings.

His heart seemed to drop to the floor. He was too late.

And then… he saw them.

Next to the destroyed device at the center of the research facility stood three Dark Assembly elite agents in black robes.

All of them emanated powerful magi energy.

One of them had a familiar face. It was Morbis, the Obscurant Sixth Seat whom they had encountered at the Fifth Workshop.

His cold, eerie gaze turned toward Valt and his team members who had just entered the research facility.

“Kuk kuk, you’re too late, fledglings. You must have felt good in Duron? Not even realizing I was going easy on you.”

A slight mockery appeared at the corners of his mouth. And in his hand…

A small, worn-looking but strangely glowing yellow pouch.

A seemingly ordinary pouch. It didn’t emit magi itself, but the space around it was subtly distorted, and the magi energy filling the entire research facility seemed to converge toward that pouch.

That’s when Lati, knowledgeable about artifacts, shouted:

“That! That’s Golden Goblin Kereac’s Pouch!!”

Yuria immediately yelled:

“What is that! It’s not something you eat, is it?!”

Lati replied as if dumbfounded:

“It’s just a subspace artifact that can hold anything!”

A subspace storage that could contain any object regardless of size, infinitely.

The Dark Assembly had planned to use exactly that to steal this massive device.

At that moment, they saw the magi energy residue at the center of the research facility being sucked into that small pouch like smoke.

The sight of the components, the source of the great ominousness, being sucked into and isolated within that small pouch.

‘Damn it…! The components…!’

A cold smile spread across Morbis’s lips.

“We’ll put this device to good use and return it. Kuk kuk, though I’m not sure if you’ll be able to handle Quan’s wrath before then.”

His voice was quiet but filled with the leisure and mockery of a victor.

“Thanks to you lot, we’ve recovered the components more smoothly than planned. I should thank you.”

“Damn it all…!”

Valt clenched his fist tightly. His nails dug into his palm.

The goal of destroying the components had evaporated before his eyes. Now those components were in the Dark Assembly’s hands.

He wasn’t sure what they planned to do, but it was clear they weren’t people who would use it for anything good.

Morbis and his agents didn’t delay any further. The shadows around them began to ripple more intensely.

It wasn’t simple shadow movement, but rather dimensional transfer magic or advanced spatial movement techniques. Their eyes reflected only one clear intention: ‘to escape safely with the secured target.’

“Stop them! Take the pouch!”

Valt shouted almost in desperation. Even in the shock of failure, the instinct to act moved him.

The team members immediately assumed combat stances.

Solphin charged toward Morbis with her massive claymore, while Yuria targeted his flank with beast-like speed.

Professor Leman drew his sword, and Aileen, Lati, and Liris prepared magical attacks and support.

But the movements of the Dark Assembly elite agents were much faster than expected, and faster than Valt’s group could react.

They gathered at the center of the spatial transfer magic they had already activated, just before Valt’s group’s attacks could reach them.

Shwiiik—!

“Until we meet again. Khaha! Khahahahaha!!”

Morbis and the two agents, holding the “Golden Goblin Kereac’s Pouch,” disappeared completely into the shadows within the research facility.

All that remained where they had stood was the dense residual magi energy, collapsed devices, and Valt’s group’s dejected figures.

Valt’s group slashed at empty air in frustration.

The target was gone, and the Dark Assembly agents had escaped with ease. The chaos at the entrance, the confusion covering the entire fortress, the outbreak of magi… all of this had flowed according to the Dark Assembly’s plan for this moment, this theft.

Above all, the terrible reality that Valt himself had performed the most important part of that plan weighed heavily on him.

Outside, the sounds of battle and screams could still be heard.

Geruntia was not such an easy place.

The Dark Assembly forces outside would now be suppressed by Gerunt warriors.

But the problem was what would come next.

The Dark Assembly’s next move and Quan’s next action.

It was impossible to predict which way things would flow.

“Damn it all…”

The other companions were also dumbfounded by the situation.

“What? Did they really just escape? Is this how it ends? What the hell is their purpose?”

“This is bad, really bad. Now that they’ve stolen that thing, will there really be a war?”

Just then, Valt felt a pain on one side of his head.

Throb—

It was a headache he hadn’t felt in a long time.