The reactions to Yoshika’s plan were mixed to say the least. Harada laughed, and expressed his absolute approval, Dae shook his head and chuckled, Ishihara didn’t care, and poor Ja Yun looked like she was going to end up with an ulcer. To summarize—Yoshika’s plan was that there was no plan. She was going to walk in the front door of the gang’s headquarters, crush anyone who opposed her, then deliver Boss Lee to Ishihara’s tender care. She wasn’t sure what exactly his interpretation of the Melody of the Dreaming Moon technique did, but if it was anywhere near as nightmarish as the woman he learned it from, Yoshika was sure that the crime lord would be in good hands. It was better than he deserved.

As they walked across the street—undisguised and in full view of everyone—Dae looked askance at Yoshika.

“What are you going to do if they have a xiantian level mage in there? If you can’t see past the wards, you could be walking into anything.”

“They won’t.”

“How can you be so sure?”

In response to his question, Yoshika nodded both of her heads in Ja Yun’s direction, who let out a squeak of surprise at being the sudden center of attention.

“U-um, she’s right. With the military in town, a xiantian level rogue mage wouldn’t dare get within a mile of this place. If anyone spotted them, they’d have half the high magi in the country after them within the hour.”

Dae nodded slowly.

“Ah, yes. I suppose that makes sense.”

Harada Jun laughed.

“I doubt it would stop them anyway. They were already monsters back at the academy—I almost can’t wait to see them in action now. Do you even need us?”

Yoshika shook both her heads.

“Not really, no. Your technique will come in handy when it’s time to raze the building, though.”

Ja Yun giggled manically.

“Ahaha! That—that’s funny! You—you’re joking right? Ancestors, please tell me you’re joking.”

“We’re here.”

Yoshika threw the doors open and strode inside. She was met by a small lobby—still maintaining the facade of a regular apartment building. The only hint that it was more than it seemed was a pair of rough looking men smoking next to a second set of doors—the real entrance. They were both mortals, and to their credit, they didn’t waste any time once they spotted Yoshika and her friends entering. They both stood up immediately, one of them turning to flee through the door, while the other stepped forward and opened his mouth to address them. Yoshika’s domain crashed down against their fragile mortal souls, and the two of them instantly dropped unconscious before they could finish.

“Dae, where are the wards?”

Dae shook his head.

“I can’t tell from here—they are presumably further in. I would also assume that any mages in the building now know you are here. They’ll be keyed against the wards.”

Yoshika nodded and strode forward, trying the door that the unfortunate thug had been going for before she’d knocked him out. She sensed a surge of mana and accelerated her thoughts—a trap formation. It was a simple explosive rune—the kind of thing Do Hye had taught in the introductory classes back at the academy. Yoshika dismissed the trap as a threat and threw up a simple mana shield formation before dropping Absolute Awareness and resuming her perception of time.

The explosion reduced the entire wall to rubble and sent stoney shrapnel hurtling through the corridor. Dae and Ja Yun cast mana shields of their own, while Harada simply blocked the debris with his arms. For Yoshika’s part, she tossed the shredded remains of the door to the side and strode through the cloud of debris as if nothing had happened. The two mortal men on the floor had been reduced to smoldering corpses by their own trap, while Yoshika had been left completely unscathed. Yoshika found herself unable to care about the two deaths—they had made their choice when they sided with the gang.

The building erupted in commotion like a disturbed beehive. The inside didn’t look like an apartment building anymore—it was built like a fortress. The center of the building was open, with a single staircase circling the layout, leading to the floors above. The entire first floor was a killbox designed to funnel attackers into the open and rain spells down on them from the balconies above. Nearly a dozen mages were already manning static formations that could channel their mana into more powerful effects than they could manage through their own talismans.

The mortals had already abandoned various gambling tables and begun to flee to safety—wisely staying well away from a fight between immortal practitioners. Though Yoshika’s domain was still somewhat restricted by the wards, she was still able to sense the auras of the mages surrounding her on the floors above. Only one of them was above the first stage. The mage stood across from Yoshika on the second floor, shouting down at her with a commanding tone.

“Don’t move! Identify yourselves immediately! Do you have any idea what this place is?”

Yoshika ignored him, probing the area with her domain, analyzing the artillery formations and searching for any sign of the source of the wards that were restricting her. Behind her, Harada, Dae, and Ja Yun got into a defensive formation. Ja Yun and Dae had both undergone a complete transformation in demeanor. As if they had both forgotten about their usual awkwardness the instant it was no longer convenient for them. Dae had once explained to Jia that he had a mental technique for that, and she wondered if it was something common among mages—she’d have to ask about it later.

Ja Yun spoke so quietly as to be almost subvocal, so that only the mages in her immediate vicinity would hear.

“Those are the same types of artillery formations used to defend the city walls. Don’t underestimate them—a first stage mage can punch well above their weight using those formations.”

Yoshika nodded. She had no intention of underestimating her opponents. They’d even elected to leave Ishihara behind, since his abilities weren’t well suited to combat and he was only in the second stage. Harada had apparently broken through to the third stage of spiritual cultivation last year, so he was allowed to join. Yoshika still thought she could take the entire place on her own, but that didn’t mean she was going to forgo the aid of her friends.

The mage leader didn’t appreciate being ignored, and cast a deadly blast of water towards Ja Yun. Yoshika raised a hand to defend her, but it was unnecessary—Ja Yun’s reaction was faster. The spell she cast formed a wedge of solid iron around her fist that she used to redirect the spell away from her and the rest of the group. The mage sneered down at them but didn’t move to attack again—a warning shot.

“Don’t make me repeat myself! Who are you and what are you doing here?!”

Yoshika glared up at him, but decided to buy herself a bit of time while she searched for the source of the wards. Crossing Jia’s arms across her chest she scowled up at the man.

“My name is Lee Jia. I’m here to speak to the boss.”

The man’s eyes lit up with understanding.

“Lee—? Ahhh, haha. Oh, you’re one of those, are you? Slipped the yoke, lucked your way into an apprenticeship—or maybe even a college, judging from your company—and decided to come back for revenge, did you? You aren’t the first, and you won’t be the last. We have enough firepower trained on you to put down even a high magus. Coming here was a mistake. Kill them!”

So much for stalling. Yoshika hadn’t been able to find the wards, but she did complete her analysis of the formations, and the mage’s boast wasn’t entirely without merit. While the explosive trap from earlier was a haphazard thing—likely set up by one of the mages here—the artillery formations were far more advanced. As the attack spells flared to life, Yoshika concentrated her essence and used the Body Lightening technique to reduce her weight as much as possible to leap out of the way, directly towards the leader—trusting her friends to be able to defend themselves.

The mage’s eyes widened in surprise as Yoshika scaled the entire floor with a single bound, but reacted in time to block her with a wall of ice that flashed into existence in front of him. Channelling the destructive force of the Six Arms of Asura through both of her bodies, Yoshika smashed through the wall of ice as if it had never been there, landing gracefully among the shattered shards of ice in front of the stunned mage.

He turned to flee, but Eui’s rat-like tail whipped out and caught his leg, severing it entirely as Yoshika infused it with the essence of destruction. Jia’s body caught the mage as he collapsed, his face ashen as he stared up at her in terror. Yoshika focused her domain on the man, suppressing his aura until she could find every talisman hidden on his person and burn them away with lightning. At the same time, she healed him just enough to stop his leg from bleeding out, regarding him coldly as she spoke with both voices.

“Where is Boss Lee?”

Before the man could answer, they were interrupted by an explosion from below. Back on the first floor, the first volley of attacks had been stopped by an enormous dome of rock—most likely Dae’s handiwork—which Harada had started to use as ammunition, hurling chunks of the shield back at their assailants as globs of molten stone. Unfortunately, the mages must have been able to adjust for the defensive spell, because the second volley caused the dome of rock to explode, sending stone shrapnel everywhere.

Yoshika couldn’t see what he had done, exactly, but Dae had somehow cushioned them from the worst of the explosion with an air-element nova spell to counteract it. However, they were now exposed completely and not entirely without injury despite their best efforts. Yoshika abandoned the mage she was questioning for now, and moved to aid her friends.

Pulling Eui’s sword from her dimensional ring, Yoshika slashed in the air, unleashing waves of cutting energy that caused one of the balconies on the third floor to collapse, dropping it—and the mages manning the formation there—down onto the mages below. That got the attention of the rest of the artillery, who immediately shifted their focus to her, buying her friends more time. She picked up the injured mage who had been leading them and used him like a shield, forcing the artillery mages to hesitate before unleashing their spells on her.

“Answer the question before your friends decide that you’re an acceptable loss.”

The mage struggled in her grip, choking on his response as he tried to get away from her in a panic. He’d come to the same conclusion that she had—the artillery mages were absolutely going to fire on them in a moment. Yoshika just stood there, as if she didn’t expect that the artillery would be able to do her any harm, and as the mages came to their decision, so did the leader.

“The—the vaults. He’ll have escaped to the vaults!”

“Thank you.”

Yoshika tossed the mage over the balcony just in time to get him out of the way of the artillery barrage. He’d survive the fall, probably. He was at least more likely to survive that than the magic that was now coming Yoshika’s way. She had to accelerate her thoughts to figure out a way out, the repeated use of Absolute Awareness causing her to develop a dull pain behind her eyes.

There was no single element or attack pattern for her to counter—the formations had a wide variety of spells and each mage had their own preferred methods of attack. A spell would take too long to cast, and she’d been caught a little too flat-footed to simply dodge as she had before—she’d tried a little too hard to sell her invulnerability to intimidate the leader. An idea came to her at that thought—a terrible bit of mischief that might end this fight without any more collateral damage.

Shadow essence surged through Yoshika’s bodies as Heian emerged from her soulscape and merged with her. In an instant, she stepped out of the physical world entirely, her spirit form hovering in midair as she sensed the magic pass through her harmlessly. A moment later, she stepped back, and as she returned to the physical realm she was met by an enormous cloud of dust and debris where the floor she’d been standing on used to be.

Using Eui’s Path of Heavenly Ascension to remain hovering in the air, Yoshika infused her bodies with lightning essence, causing her eyes to glow and arcs of electricity to crackle around her, discharging against the falling debris. As the dust settled, she used a bit of ki to empower her voice and shouted.

“Surrender now and take us to the vaults, or you will all be annihilated!”

Everyone stared up at Yoshika in awe—even her allies looked terrified by her imposing visage. It had been an enormous waste of essence—Steps of the Stalker and Heavenly Ascension were her two most costly techniques by far—but her attempt at intimidation had worked flawlessly. The mages abandoned their formations and held their hands up in surrender. A few tried to hold out, but once they realized they were outnumbered, they too capitulated.

Yoshika slowly descended to the ground while her friends set about subduing the rogue mages and getting directions to the vaults. The mage that she had tossed over the edge had survived the fall, though he had a few broken bones to show for it. He tried to scramble away desperately as Yoshika approached him.

“W-who the hell are you?! You—you won’t get away with this, you know!”

Yoshika shrugged and picked him up by the collar of his robes.

“I told you. I’m Lee Jia. I am also An Eui, and your gang has given both of our families quite a bit of trouble. I’d like to have a discussion with your boss about that, so you’re going to lead me to him, understood?”

The mage swallowed nervously and nodded his head urgently.

“F-fine! It’s your funeral.”