chsdbacks Chapter 21: Deploy and evacuate immediately!
Chapter 21: Deploy and evacuate immediately!
"It turns out to be the ability that's hardest to kill first..." Sharon was filled with resentment. She had actually suffered such a big setback during an operation to retrieve Abyss items.
More importantly, her strongest defensive abyss item was taken away, and a "bomb" that could explode at any time was planted in her soul.
In this situation, Sharon wished she could get rid of Luo Tian immediately.
However, she highly suspected that Luo Tian possessed the ability to foresee the future. Regardless of how far he could foresee, this ability made it extremely difficult for Luo Tian to be assassinated.
Thinking of Luo Tian's abilities, Sharon also thought of another person who made her feel frustrated, Nangong Nayue, the "witch" who exuded a strange aura.
"Time-based and space-based ability users are indeed very troublesome." But if we're talking about the most troublesome one, Sharon still thinks that Nangong Nayue is even more troublesome, after all, she is a witch who has made a pact with a demon on the surface.
If it weren't for Nangong Nayue's immense reputation in the industry, she would have suspected that the other party was a high-ranking executive at Truth Astronomy.
"Beep—" The specially made cell phone next to her suddenly rang a notification sound, interrupting Sharon's thoughts.
Without hesitation, she picked up her phone and opened the message. The short line of text made her pupils shrink instantly.
[SDS deployed, evacuate immediately!]
"SDS? That's the special data processing center that was recently established in Japan?" Upon seeing the message from their partner, Sharon's expression changed drastically. "Oh no!"
She quickly tidied up the props at the scene, used a potion to erase the traces on the ground, changed into the specially made bulletproof nun's uniform hidden in the stronghold, put on a headscarf, and then took out a miniature submachine gun and three magazines from another room.
After making all the preparations, Sharon pressed her ear against the wall and, with her superhuman hearing, detected the subtle vibrations of the crowd moving.
"Fifteen people towards the stairs... Is that a special operations team?" Sharon instantly realized she was surrounded, gritting her teeth and cursing under her breath, "It's these reckless bastards!"
She should have realized long ago that the fact that they dared to retrieve the Abyss artifacts by sending only two people, and even dispatched a young sorcerer with special abilities, meant that the organization that made this arrangement must be a special official department of each country that specializes in handling Abyss artifacts.
Only specialized prop handling organizations would send so few people to carry out the mission.
As a member of the clandestine organization Demon Hunters, Sharon rarely clashed with official special departments.
What these departments are most feared by secret organizations is their almost insane thirst for revenge.
If the loss is caused by uncontrollable abyss items, that's fine. But if it's determined to be human-caused harm, even if only one person dies, it will trigger retaliation from the entire department.
As an official organization, they have no shortage of all sorts of bizarre and powerful abyssal items, as well as the support of national-level forces.
Once they set their sights on you, what awaits you is an endless barrage of attacks using props and a crackdown by state power.
"But I'm the one who's suffering losses, so why are they targeting me?" Sharon, who was being targeted by SDS, looked completely bewildered.
She knew she had suffered a great loss in her battle with SDS, but SDS's mobilization was completely different from what she had previously known.
Suddenly, Sharon realized a possibility she had overlooked: "Could it be that the man lied to the department?"
If Luo Tian had reported the true battle situation, the level-three abyss items, the Holy Remains Robe and the Demonic Spell, as well as the level-two abyss item, the Eye of the Mist, which he had seized from her, would never have remained in his possession.
Therefore, it is highly likely that Luo Tian deliberately lied about the situation in order to keep the items for himself.
What concerned Sharon even more was that when Luo Tian fought her, he could speak demonic words, use demonic spells, and control her body, which meant there was definitely something serious going on behind the scenes.
As is well known, technologies and abyssal items related to demons have always been the exclusive domain of Truth Astronomy.
Thinking about it this way, that man might be a spy planted in SDS by Truth Astronomy!
He's lying about the situation now because he wants to use SDS to kill me and silence me!
At that moment, Sharon seemed to have pierced through the fog and seen the truth of the matter.
"You wretched bastard! I'll remember you!" Sharon was furious, having never suffered such a loss before.
Even more tragically, if she were to report it to SDS, she would only be accused of malicious slander.
Sharon picked up her gun, her face grim, and stuffed the remaining medicine into her nun's habit. Her only thought at that moment was to break through.
Revenge is for later; the most urgent task is to break out of the encirclement and save my life!
In a small refrigerated truck parked in the parking lot of Beika Town 3-cho, Tachibana Kirika sat in the passenger seat. The laptop screen in front of her displayed six surveillance feeds: street surveillance, satellite overhead view, and first-person view of the special operations team's advance.
"Group A, fifteen men, continue the advance, searching each room in groups of three, pushing the target up to the upper floors; Group B, fifteen men, block all exits, including the sewers; Group C, report immediately upon reaching the designated sniper positions."
After outlining the tactics, Tachibana Kirika looked at Nakahara Mizuki, who was wearing headphones beside her: "How's the traffic control setup going?"
Mizuki Nakahara immediately responded: "We have coordinated with the transportation department to close all nearby roads."
"Very good." Tachibana Kirika nodded, then rolled down the car window and looked at Nishiki Chizuka and Inoue Takina, who were stretching in the parking lot. "Are you two ready?"
"OK~" Chizuka Nishiki gave an OK sign and asked with a bright smile, "Can we set off now?"
Tachibana Kisame gripped the car window, gazing at the buildings enveloped in green safety netting in the distance: "Wait a little longer, until the special operations team forces them out."
As soon as she finished speaking, a calm male voice from her team member came through her earpiece, followed by a barrage of gunfire.
"A7 has located the target, second room on the right on the third floor... Ah!"
"A7, report! A7, report immediately!" Mizuki Nakahara shouted twice into her earpiece, but received no response. She immediately yelled, "Kurumi!"
"Here it comes!" Kurumi's voice came through the earpiece, and the surveillance footage in front of Tachibana Kirika quickly switched, soon bringing up three on-site perspectives.
In the slowed-down surveillance footage, Sharon suddenly rushed out of the room, dodging several feints and easily avoiding the machine gun fire of three team members.
She closed in with lightning speed, punching one of her teammates in the stomach, sending him flying. She then swung her leg and swept another teammate in the head, before landing and knocking out a third teammate.
After eliminating the three, Sharon quickly withdrew and disappeared from the surveillance footage.
"Wow!" Chizuka Nishiki, who had somehow ended up hanging outside the car door, couldn't help but exclaim as she watched the surveillance footage.
"Her skills are quite impressive." Tachibana Kirika watched the replay with a slight smile. "Her physical abilities far exceed those of ordinary people, and her fighting skills are also very proficient. The concrete ground is like tofu in front of her, completely crushing the special operations team members."
"However, this witcher prefers close combat. Strangely, Natsuki's ability should have countered her, so why didn't she take her down? Could it be that Sharon has some special Abyss artifact that makes it difficult for Natsuki to make a move?" Thinking of this, Kirigaya narrowed her eyes, feeling suspicious.
"Should we request intelligence support from the Metropolitan Police Department?" Mizuki Nakahara asked, looking at her computer.
Kikumi Kaori said casually, "Go ahead and ask. Right now, they're just hoping we can get rid of this trouble quickly."
Nakahara Mizuki immediately contacted Maki Shiro's superior through an internal channel and quickly obtained the information. She frowned and reported: "It has been confirmed that Sharon has a holy mark engraved on a certain part of her body, which has the effect of countering demons."
Simply put, once Sharon activates her demonic powers, she can take advantage of the situation…
The Stigmata can forcibly imprison demonic power and can also strip it away for a short period of time.
Tachibana Kirika finally realized why Sharon was able to escape from Nagisa Minamiya.
As someone in the know, she understood that Nangong Nayue's power came from a demonic contract, and that her power carried a strong demonic attribute. If Sharon seized the opportunity to activate the Holy Mark, she would likely suffer severe damage.