Search & Destroy(1)

"So, how is the situation?"

Hearing Marcel's question, Sherene shook her head with a grave face, "Bad. We never expected the Duke to take such a drastic measure, so he caught us unprepared."

"I can't believe the duke is crazy enough to do this," Matilda said as she gritted her teeth in rage, "Does he think the churches will let something like this pass? He will be hanged like the criminal he is!"

As everyone has enraged thoughts on the Duke, meanwhile, Nogla at the background scooping his nose with his index finger like an idiot spoke.

"Probably quite the opposite. I think the duke will end like a hero after everything ends."

Sherene, Matilda, his friends and the others were startled and looked at Nogla without understanding what he was speaking about.

"Nogla, what the fuck are you talking about?" Basically asked his green friend.

"Marcel, I think his character affects his mental state. I think we lost the real Nogla we knew. What a shame," Vanoss said looking down.

Sherene realized something, "No wait, I think he has something."

"Huh?" Everyone was perplexed.

"Mister Nagle, can you please continue?"

"Well, I have been thinking about it for a few second. I thought that no matter what the goal of these Duke guy is, using people as sacrifices will turn him into the enemy of the world. I don't think he is idiotic enough to do something like that. Thus, he must surely have something he is relying on."

Delirious widened his eyes in shock, "Holy shit... that is the smartest thing I ever heard from you, Nogla."

"Is he a genius this whole time and we never knew it?" Wildcat said as he walled up to Nogla and gripped his shirt, "Speak you dumb fuck! Tell us what are you hiding!? What did you do to our Nogla!!?"

While Wildcat grabbed Nogla's collar and shook him aggressively, Sherene, Matilda, and Julian furrowed their brows in thoughts, but they were unable to connect the dots so quickly.

Instead, it was Vanoss who seemed to have noticed something.

"Was it those Church of Carnage assholes?"

Hearing Vanoss' words, Marcel immediately reacted to it and realized something.

"Maybe you and Nogla are right. Guys, think about it. We know that the Duke and the church of Carnage are allies, but the duke will never admit something like that. If my guess is not wrong after the duke accomplishes his goal, he will send his men to kill the members of the church of Carnage, he probably will go to the frontlines personally, fighting heroically and ending like a hero."

"Are you saying that the duke is planning to betray the Church of Carnage? But these crazy terrorist bastards are not that stupid, how can they be fooled so easily?" Julian asked.

Listening to their conversation, Sherene shook her head with an expression of realization, "I think not, the church of Carnage knows about the duke's plan. In fact, they agreed to it."

"Huh?"

"Think about it, Mr. Julian," Sherene said as she smiled softly, but an ice-cold rage was burning behind her smile. "Why would the church of carnage agree to cooperate with the duke? What did the duke offer to them?"

"You can't mean...!" Matilda and Julian were aghast.

Sherene nodded, "The duke offered his citizens and the destruction of the city as payment. After everything ends, the duke will end like a hero, while the church of the carnage will retreat with few casualties and its name will resound through the continent as one of the biggest dens of criminals, growing quickly in power. It's a win-win situation for both of them."

Vanoss nodded her theory. In front of him were still several parts of the puzzle is missing, suddenly he now found a few pieces!

Pok!

Finally putting the puzzle piece down, Vanoss needs to find the 2000th one to complete it.

"Hey guys, have you seen the last one?"

Back to Sherene's theory, everybody realized something, both the duke and the church of carnage were acting in a sick play where only the innocent citizens will suffer.

That was so...

"Repugnant." Delirious finished their thoughts.

Still, there was something none of them did not understand.

What is the duke planning to get with all of this? Why did he do something so cold-blooded and risky?

Why did he need so many sacrifices?

No matter how much they thought about it, this plan was not something someone sane would agree to. It could go wrong in many ways.

And how Barney and the other people in Auspicious Night fit in this plan?

Probably with the same doubts than everybody, Sherene sighed, "Unfortunately, we did not manage to get any information from Barney. So we will have to do with what we have now."

"What is the plan then?" Matilda stared at Sherene. Noticing her gaze, she waved her hand softly, creating a magic circle that turned into a miniature tridimensional image of the city and the tall tower of the dungeon.

And within the projection of the city shows the giant magic circle above the entire city itself.

"We are not sure about the duke's plans, but it's obvious the giant magic circles is the key. This large magic circle has covered the entire city, therefore, it needs a very powerful source of power. According to my calculations, the main node of the spell should be here." Sherene pointed to the 1st City Section, where the City Hall was located. "If we destroy it, the spell should stop."

Behind her, Marcel thought for a moment and looked at Sherene, "Can you show me the spell they are using?"

Hearing his request, Sherene immediately agreed. With a wave of her hand, the projection of the city vanished and was replaced by a tridimensional image of a magic circle.

"According to my observations, this should be the spell they are using. I have seen this spell several times before, so I'm almost one hundred percent sure."

Marcel frowned briefly. He had been analyzing the spell since it appeared, and if he was not mistaken...

"Brian, did you remember we did some experiments about your cyborg powers and we did that. Secondly, did you analyse and scan the magic circle right now? If so, can you do the same thing?"

"Oh? Okay." Terroriser said before extending his hand. Instantly, a scientific holographic image of the magic circle appeared over his hand. But the group noticed that although this magic circle was similar to the one Sherene showed, it was slightly more complex.

"Perfect." Marcel nodded and observed the spell fixedly. The next instant, his activate his ability, [Thought Acceleration] was put into action.

Then, what the others see next is Marcel's expression began to show a void of emotions.

"What are you doing?" Sherene wanted to ask, but she was stopped by Wildcat and Delirious.

The scene shifts towards Marcel's mind, it shows him surrounded by a void, then countless projections of some sort of calculations all around him.

"Ahhhhh fuck me, this is gonna take a while.

Cracking his knuckles, Marcel began to do some math for a while, with a help of some advance AI supporting him.

Three hours has passed and Marcel was currently sitting a chair with a desk in the void, surrounded by countless papers and a board with numerous theories behind him.

Sip! Sip! Sip!

Siping with a bit of coffee, Marcel lit up his eyes as he finally got his answer.

"I think this is enough."

Now back to the real world, not even three seconds has passed, Marcel's eyes returned to normal.

He then asked Terrorisee to make a map of the city and pointed to three places. one was at the 1st City Section which is where the City Hall was located. The second magic circle was located south east, the 4th City Section, then finallt the third magic circle was located at the 6th City Section, south west of the city.

"Sherene is right. The magic circle that is being used was the one she showed us, butithasbeenmodifiedslightly... *Inhale*... Ithasthreemainnodesinsteadofone... *Inhale*... Ifwedestroyonlyoneortwoofthemtheremainingonewillstillkeepthespellworking... *Inhale!*...fruelingthespellwithouta problem!"

"..."

"Jesus brother, calm down. What were you doing in your deep of thought for the last several seconds?" Wildcat asked with a raised eyebrow.

"You kinda look like you just use whole pack cocaines without us knowing." Vanoss joked.

"Yeah, Marcel definitely needs some help." Delirious added.

"GUYS I'M FINE! We have more important... time."

"Mister Cunningham, your theory, are you sure about that?"

"Ah ha! I've studied magic circles for the past month although I can't use magic but I can use a skill to know at a fast rate!"

The group looked at Marcel in astonishment. Whatever skill he uses, what he just did was beyond just 'first-class'.

He literally decoded a spell he saw for the first time and found its weakness in just three seconds!

However, something like that was so difficult for Marcel. His ability was perfectly suited for this kind of analysis, [Thoughts Acceleration] helps him to train his battle IQ and let him learn about the battles he faced. There is also an ability to make him calculate the circumstances of his situation, creating a dimensional void in his mind to do some planning time, it is kinda like entering a dream. Morever, time is different compare to his dream and reality, an hour in the dream is one second has passed in the real world.

However, Terroriser could analyse and get the answer immediately than Marcel, however, it is his first time and it will take more than five seconds to complete on scanning it.

In truth, a week ago, they did a competition who will solve something first and Marcel won that competition.

Now back to the story. Normally, Sherene and the others would have found it hard to believe that someone like Marcel who isn't look smart but could do something like this, but they had already gotten used to the group's unusualness. Moreover, someone who possessed hundreds of demigod weapons like Wildcat surely must have one or two things they were exceptional at.

"So in other words, we need to destroy the three nodes if we wish to stop everything, huh." Sherene frowned briefly.

Obviously, the three nodes would be strongly protected. Destroying the three was going to be a difficult task.

Fortunately, the number of demigods in this place matched the targets.

"Mister Cunningham, Mister Fong, your group will take care of the node in the 4th City section, south east of the city. Mister Sebastian, miss Zabrina, miss Sara, you three and the forces of Midnight Order will destroy the node in the 6th City Section at south west of the city."

"Are you not afraid of us betraying you guys?" Sara, who had been silent until now, stared at Sherene coldly.

"Yeah, what if we stab you in the backs if you let your guard down for a split second~?"

"You can try," Sherene smiled gently, "But I hope you are prepared to bear the consequences. Especially you mister Sebastian.

Slightly opening her eyes at the imperial bulter codly. Noticing the cold glare, Sebastian grunted, reluctantly accepting Sherene's orders.

"Then, the church of the golden dawn will take care of the node in the city hall," Sherene said, "Any objection?"

When she saw nobody objecting, Sherene nodded.

"Then, let us start moving! We can't let these lawless bastards succeed."

With these words, the operation tonight started.