บท 114: Coordinated Attacks (2)
"Our priority is the citizen's lives! You three, take this flare."
Amy took her flare and tossed it to one of the three.
"All of you, support starting from the right. I'll start from the left. You three, if in ten minutes, there are still no attacks here, head over to the center."
Amy pointed at the various spots and after confirming with everyone if they understood her instructions, she left after using Wings of Light.
Once she got to the first squad, she saw three Adepts causing chaos. Like before, they weren't very strong, however, they were more than enough to handle Apprentices.
Amy took out her sword and struck down the three before they could react. By now, around three minutes had passed. Though her wings made her many times faster, in the end, she still wasn't capable of traversing great distances in one leap.
"A few of you, stay to restrain these ones, I'll head over to the next spot!"
It was a battle against time.
If she were to slow down, then lives would be lost. Although they might eventually be able to quell the Adepts, there was no guarantee they could win without losing anyone.
In the past three months, with her intensive training, though she had only just become an Adept, her power was already comparable to a mid-rank Adept.
If she were to fight the Adept that had attacked them in Tidas again, she had absolute confidence in her victory.
Amy flapped her wings and flew into the air. Though there were quite a few abilities that allowed flight, Amy was particularly fast even among them.
The House of Luna's light gave them superior speed.
"Crescent Light!"
Amy swung her sword. The ground in front of the three Adepts currently engaged in combat with one of the squads was broken.
She used the time that they were covered by the dust to swoop in and knock them all out in an instant.
As Amy looked over at the remainings spots to cover, she couldn't help but click her tongue. After resigning herself, she flapped her wings once again and flew.
…
In the end, they managed to make it in time.
Nobody had lost their life. Though there were some who got injured, there wasn't anything major.
"I'll be heading back immediately."
After informing the knights and the Inheritors, she went back to the House of Luna.
She took out a map of the city and quickly marked out the areas that had been attacked just now and then scanned it for patterns.
While it would've been better to interrogate the Adepts, previous attempts revealed that they didn't know anything, not even their own names. It didn't seem as if their memories were tampered so that could only mean that they all had amnesia.
"What kind of thing had they all experienced to have amnesia?"
And not just that, the only emotions left behind were emotions that made them go on a rampage.
"Young miss, there's a visitor."
Deimos came inside the room with someone in tow.
"Doctor Nightingale?"
Amy was surprised to see the person who had just entered. The last time she had seen her was when Clarice had a baby.
"I'm not a doctor."
"...Then, Miss Nightingale. To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"I encountered an Adept rampaging and had to put a stop to him."
"..."
Amy wanted to ask if Nightingale was the one who took care of the Adept but stopped herself. As far as she knew, Nightingale was just a normal person, it should be physically impossible for her to stop an Adept.
Not to mention that she most likely didn't weigh a lot. A grown man would be able to shake her off pretty easily.
Even the knights and two Inheritors ganging up on three Adepts weren't enough to take them down, but Nightingale took one alone?
"I saw that he had amnesia, but I had no way to figure out how he had gotten it with the person himself being unable to recall what had happened to him."
Nightingale neared Amy's desk and dropped a paper in front of her.
"There are records of patients getting amnesia as a way to cope with traumatic memories. And, judging by what I had seen, if it isn't an intervention done by an ability to manipulate memories, their bodies were most likely tampered with involuntarily. Though, since I don't see any scars or marks on their bodies, I can't tell how.
"As a medical professional, this is all I can do to help. And, you should have more ideas than me as to what is happening."
Nightingale didn't wait for Amy's response and left the room.
"...I see!"
Amy finally understood.
"If we can just write off the reason they aren't registered is because they were smuggled from different kingdoms, then it's possible! Deimos, get me the book of known abilities from the library!"
"Understood."
Deimos left the room and around ten minutes later, she came back with a big book. It looked fairly old but it didn't seem as if the words would fade anytime soon.
Amy took the book and after scanning the glossary for a little, she swiftly began scanning the pages that had been marked.
"This is it!"
It only took around three minutes for her to find something that matched.
"Emotion Manipulation and Fear!"
New abilities didn't just sprout out of nowhere, there were a limited number of them and a single lineage dying out would mean that the particular ability would become extinct.
The House of Luna's ability is called "The Moon" while the House of Sol's ability is called "The Sun". Out of the thousands of named abilities, having the names of celestial bodies was something reserved only for the strongest abilities.
"These two match the possibility that Miss Nightingale had spoken about. Emotion Manipulation would allow them to amplify the emotions of the target while Fear would have them relive nightmares and experience new ones. These two would match what Miss Nightingale had said."
Excluding the ones that could manipulate memories because it could easily be sensed, these two were the only viable ones.
She quickly looked at the lineages that held the abilities and was shocked.
"Deimos, get the carriage ready at once."
…
"Miss Luna!"
A few of the knights greeted her as she entered the bar.
However, after spotting her target, she ignored them and swiftly took out her sword and pointed it at a young knight sitting on the stool.
"Are you going to surrender, or do you want me to cut you down?"
"..."
The bar went silent.
"M-miss Luna, what is the meaning of this?"
The young knight turned around and asked in fear.
"Don't think you can fool me. You were the one who created these attacks in the first place, weren't you?"
"I wouldn't!"
It was the young knight who had spoken to her earlier. He was the one who asked how Amy found out about the attacks' locations.
One of the knights approached them.
"Miss Luna, I don't think it is him! I've trained him personally and he's a very well-behaved boy!"
"Then did this well-behaved boy tell you all that he's an Inheritor?"
"?!"
The knight who had just spoken out widened his eyes and the young knight's eyes changed.
"I don't have enough patience to accomodate you, either give up or I'll make you bleed like a pig right here."
"How would I be able to do something like this?"
The young knight asked in a cold voice. By now, most of the other knights had already taken a few steps back.
"I don't care about your motive, what matters to me is that you did it. You kidnapped Adepts and smuggled them into the country using the influence of your father, Earl Victor Cunningham who is the border guard to the north."
"And, how would I be able to set an Adept on a rampage?"
"Simple. It seems as if your father doesn't know of it, but I do. Your bloodline is that of an Inheritor's, a criminal that had been sentenced to death years ago. Looks like he managed to plant his wild oats before he was incarcerated."
Amy had read through a lot of records before, and the story about how the only remaining person of a lineage abused his power of Fear and was captured was one she had seen before. He was executed without ever seeing the light of day a second time and his motive was unknown.
However, Amy's curiosity had been piqued. She remembered the image that was attached to the report and confirmed Earl Victor's face before making her move.
It was a vague guess, however, it was the best one she had.
The reason that the Adepts had all attacked at the same time and the reason that they knew the locations is because someone had leaked information.
"I don't know how many helpers you have, but I'll get all of them. Now, another word and I'll be forced to cut you down. Someone, restrain him."
The knights had been listening and quickly followed her orders. It didn't matter if the one being suspected was their colleague, they were knights, it was their duty to protect the kingdom.
"Haha… HAHAHAHA!"
The young knight suddenly laughed.
"That's right, I did it! And you want to know why?! Those jealous bastards sent my father to guard the borders! The border that had nothing in it, it was drowned in famine! We've suffered for more than a decade!"
The knights came behind him and were just about to restrain his arms but the young knight suddenly held their heads and activated his ability.
The knights dropped down onto the floor with foam coming out of their mouths.
"I'll have my revenge!"
Amy stepped forward and the young knight did the same. He outstretched his hand and managed to touch Amy's hand before his body was cut.
Amy felt her sword make contact and she could feel blood splashing on her. But, she couldn't see anything. Her vision had faded into darkness.
'This is bad…'
It was the last thought in her head before she lost consciousness.
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