“Between black and white, the light of the deep sea… the rest omitted!”
Clara hastily called out the transformation spell in the tight space behind a closed door of a certain building.
She summoned the Inkstained Staff, sprayed herself with black to complete the transformation, and put on a gas mask.
Then she straddled the highly recognizable “Flying Squid Broom” and shot up into the night sky from behind the building.
Actually, Clara didn’t need any incantation to transform. That was just Nyx’s strange insistence.
“Tsk, it’s so cold tonight… Nyx, scan quickly!”
To avoid detection, she also borrowed Psycho’s invisibility ability.
Clara flew to the floor indicated by the coordinates, allowing Nyx to scan the interior of the building.
[Hacking into surveillance network… Complete… Generating visual map…]
Not much time passed before Nyx used the building’s internal cameras to project an image onto Clara’s retina.
A certain floor of the building was highlighted, and a detailed map was drawn.
“Tch, an Evil Organization infiltrated and attacked all the way up there?”
But the actual destination seemed to be higher than Clara’s current altitude.
[If the positioning data is correct, the lab is on this floor.]
“Even though the security downstairs didn’t seem to react?”
Looking down from above, the security guards at the building’s entrance showed no signs of activity.
If the Evil Organization had truly attacked, those guards should have been buying time—that was their job: to engage and resist the Mutants before a Hero arrived, even if they couldn’t win…
[No signs detected.]
[Perhaps the enemy hasn’t triggered the alarm yet.]
“What about Divine Might? Did the scan spot her?”
Nyx used the building’s internal cameras to search for Magical Girl Divine Might, but found nothing.
[She may have temporarily left the scene, or there may be other areas not yet investigated.]
Nyx explained, then asked:
[Clara, do you need to contact Miss Lucia or Dr. Fran?]
“No need. They should be off work by now.”
She’d handle this overtime alone.
After all, this was the Central City’s downtown area, surrounded by hundreds of skyscrapers. The lab’s building was no exception. Entering from inside would be troublesome…
So Clara planned to crash in directly from the high altitude.
She climbed higher, approaching the floor where the lab was located.
The one-way glass windows obscured the interior, but Nyx could mark the moving figures inside through the walls.
“They all look like ordinary people?”
Was this place not attacked at all? Had she just misunderstood?
[Some of them could be Mimic Monsters. Hard to distinguish through surveillance alone.]
“Come to think of it, what does this lab research? What are the attackers after? Miss Nangong only gave us a set of coordinates… Too little information.”
Usually, criminal companies attacked such research institutes to steal scientific achievements. They could keep the results for themselves or sell them at a high price.
[Once inside, the easiest way to investigate is to physically hack into their internal network. The building’s network and the lab’s intranet aren’t connected.]
So it was necessary to find out what they were researching here…
[There’s also very little information online. This is a corporate lab with high confidentiality.]
“If the confidentiality is that high, how did the ‘Hero Network’ know a crime was happening here? Is it a system that can predict the future? What the hell is the ‘Hero Network’ anyway?”
Just as Clara was pondering how to sneak into the lab unnoticed, a whistling wind suddenly came from behind her.
Magical Girl Divine Might was riding a gleaming golden Spiked Mace, its tip aimed at the building’s curtain wall. She slammed through the window and crashed into the room.
So she only came now? And just barged in like that!
***
Since Clara was invisible, Divine Might didn’t see her. Clara, using the window Divine Might had shattered, poked her head in by grabbing the edges with her hands and feet.
Inside was a corridor.
Divine Might’s sudden intrusion immediately drew the attention of several security guards.
“Who are you! Do you know what this place is!?”
They cursed and moved to block her, but didn’t dare approach recklessly.
Divine Might pulled out her phone and stated her identity.
“Magical Girl Divine Might, here on a commission from the Association to provide support. Intelligence indicates this lab has been infiltrated by the Evil Organization. Please cooperate with my investigation!”
“Infiltrated? You’ve got the wrong place!”
“Nothing’s going on here. This is illegal entry—”
Before the guard could finish his accusation, a violent burst of flames erupted from the corridor behind them.
A wave of intense heat rushed forward. Divine Might immediately grabbed the guard’s vest and dropped to the ground.
Then, the lab’s alarms began to wail.
“I suppose the alarm wasn’t triggered because of me?”
As Divine Might said this, the guards who had scrambled back to their feet now respectfully cleared the way for her.
They carried weapons that might not be effective and followed her toward the area where the attack had occurred.
So when Divine Might broke in, the attack had just started?
That was strange. The Hero Association’s commission had been issued before that.
Could the Hero Network really predict the future?
Clara couldn’t figure it out, but Nyx urged her.
[With insufficient clues, thinking about this is meaningless. It’s better to hurry and catch up to see the situation.]”
“Fair enough…”
Clara slipped into the room. Researchers in white lab coats were fleeing toward the lab’s exit. Since they couldn’t see her, they almost bumped into her.
The explosion had occurred at the other end of the long corridor.
According to the map Nyx projected, that side was the center of the lab.
That meant the Evil Organization’s Mutant had probably already accomplished his mission and was simply clashing with the lab’s security on his way out?
Come to think of it, stealing the target was definitely harder than sneaking in and staying close to it.
When Clara crept into the central laboratory, the scene before her left her at a loss.
She had followed Divine Might inside, only a minute behind—but all the security guards who had charged in with Divine Might were already lying on the floor.
Observing their wounds, they had been killed by various piercing strikes from behind.
Ahead of them, Divine Might was also wounded in the lower back. She was locked in a standoff with a four-armed Mutant, clad in a hooded trench coat, pitch-black, holding a bright lantern in one hand.
In his other hand, he carried an opaque glass jar.
“Huh?!”
The reason Clara was at a loss wasn’t because the enemy had easily taken down the mooks.
It was because she recognized him.
Shadow Guest—she remembered that name.
A cadre under Naitemel, the Minister of the Intelligence Department.
This was trouble.
[Clara, what do you intend to do?]