Chapter 29 – Lingering Smell

A commotion happened in the area near the explosion, inside the Alpha Mall. It was the second time the alarm blared loudly and the holograms turned red today.

First was because of the strange Glitches and Invaders, and now was an explosion caused by an anonymous individual.

The people around the mall were running to safety, afraid that there was a following explosion. There was no sign of a portal from the evil organization, so the alarm was late and only rang after the explosion.

"Look at those people, running around like scared sheep."

On the side, within a dark alleyway, Rai watched the spectacle while sitting on a trash bin with his right leg raised. He had a smile on his face, and then he turned to his partner standing beside him.

They were only here because Ami suggested looking at the situation first, something that Rai thought was useless. They were part of an evil organization, and adding more chaos was something he would do right now instead of hiding.

But to respect his partner's decision in fear of getting caught in a following explosion, Rai decided to follow her suggestion and waited for a minute. However, that was enough.

"There seems to be no following explosion. Do you want to go in right now?"

"How about seeing the situation first? Like, entering without transforming to see what caused the expl–"

*Boom! Boom!*

Two following explosions stopped Ami from speaking further. A pillar of fire rose from the left and right side of the mall, burning everything inside. It rose to the sky, creating three clouds of black smoke.

The ground shook and cracked from the explosion. Street lamps fell to the ground, and dust rained down on Rai and Ami from the roof of the buildings. But he didn't care and laughed.

"Hahahaha. It seems that every time you speak, something explodes. Are you a harbinger of bad luck?" He smirked at his partner, looking at her grimacing after being given a bad nickname.

"That was not funny." She narrowed her eyes in displeasure. "Anyway, it seems there will be the following explosions again. Whoever did that may want to destroy Alpha Mall."

"Isn't that obvious?" Rai asked, tilting his head a little. "I don't really care about their motives. I just hope they don't destroy the lobby." He added, turning to the mall.

His smile widened, turning into an evil grin.

"Well… It will be good if they can get Magical Girls' attention. We can use that as your debut and steal their credit for destroying the Alpha Mall."

At that moment, Rai heard a siren sound from a distance. He looked around curiously, jumping from the trash bin to look at the street without being covered by the walls of the alleyway.

"It seems the police have arrived first." Ami followed beside him and mentioned.

"Hmm." He hummed and looked at three flying cars the size of a jeep stopping in front of the mall entrance.

From inside, four people dressed in black and holding normal rifles, each getting out and storming into the mall without fear. They moved with a trained movement, making a team of four, and pointed the muzzle at the mall without letting their guard down.

"It seems they think this is just a normal terrorist attack because the system didn't detect any Magicule," Ami commented, letting out a sigh. "What are we doing now? The Guardians won't arrive if there is no Magicule involved."

"Is that even a question?" Rai sounded disappointed. He stepped out of the alleyway, raised his hand, activated the transformation application, and turned it into his transformed form.

A luxurious cane spun in his hand as he grinned.

"If there is no Magicule involved, I just need to make the System detect it, no?"

At that moment, Ami understood that her partner wasn't a sane man. They still had a mission, but he was distracted because he wanted to meet Guardians! No sane man, even in an evil organization, would think of that!

However, she couldn't help but follow him. Rai mentioned that it would be her transformation debut. Although she was a bit afraid after hearing from Ossa that she could lose control, at least there was her partner who was strong enough to stop her.

"Fine, I will follow you." She stepped out from the alleyway and put on a pure white mask she brought in her inner pocket. It was the minion mask to hide her identity, blessed by the Leader's magic to disturb other people's perceptions.

"That's my partner." Rai crackled, laughing loudly as he walked toward the mall casually.

The police had already entered, only leaving two people behind to guard the entrance. They saw Rai and Ami stepping out from the darkness and pointed their rifles at them.

From the description they got from their HQ about the potential attacker, there was written a black-haired man wearing a luxurious suit and holding a cane. The person who had just appeared was just like the man in the description. That man was called Devourer!

"Stop!"

"Please send Guardians to Alpha Mall! We found a member of Extity, the Devourer. Once again, please send Guardians!"

One police officer shouted while the other used his communication device to call for reinforcement.

Rai didn't stop them as he wanted to lure Guardians here. He hoped it would be Ahri and her team. Or better yet, Team Luminesce the 3 Magical Girls. Both teams had people he was interested in and wanted to play with.

'The girl from this afternoon is not half bad. But I doubt she can move. She should be in a hospital right now, thinking about me.'

They stopped before the long elevator that stopped working, leading to the entrance of the mall. It wasn't because they were scared, but Rai had something in mind.

"Do you have your dagger with you?" Rai asked Ami without fearing the rifles.

They weren't the Magicule-based rifle like what Ciel and her team had, but normal ones with a physical bullet. His barrier would stop those bullets without any problem.

Ami looked confused but nodded, unsheathing a small dagger from her inner pocket.

"Techwear is really convenient, isn't it?" Rai chirped happily, taking the dagger from Ami's hand. She didn't want to release it. "Don't worry. I will just make it into a magic weapon you can use. It's better than just a normal weapon, no?"

Hearing him, the dark-haired minion nodded and released her grip on the weapon. Rai nodded back and began to transform it, making it sharper and gaining an essence of Magicule. Thus, if a Demon or Invader appeared in the Glitches, Ami could use the dagger to defeat them.

While doing so, he observed the mall, and his nose moved slightly.

'Now I understand why Ossa wanted me to stop by the mall again. There is still a lingering coffee smell from inside.'

Maybe the Glitches left something special, considering that there was no record of the Invader's Level increasing in the middle of a battle.

'Maybe the terrorist who created that explosion wanted to cover their real goal. If that's the case, then we need to hurry inside.'

"Let's go." Rai tossed back the black metal dagger to Ami. He only used around 1000 Magicule because he didn't add any special effects to the magic weapon, just making it sharper, unlike the ribbon he had in his pocket.

"It's your debut time. Let's make it flashy." He declared with a wide grin.