Kill The Old Ones!
Chapter 120: Rescue Failed
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If they could successfully put a spy this deep into the enemy territory, what’s stopping them from sending another?
Why not double down when the method was effective? Hell, which rivaling force would not be tempted at the chance to put as many sleeper agents and spies in enemy territory as they could? If they could completely replace everybody with their own men, why not do it?
Terrence wasn’t the only spy. That much was clear. And the Azure Saint knows this too. That’s why she stayed hidden even though she had seen how their enemies staged an incident to save their comrade.
And now, she’s watching an idiot wade through the rooms of the upper floors, utilizing a skill set that he’d never displayed before but performed with such skill and mastery as if he’d been using since he was born.
The sleeper agents that were activated once trouble came, the same ones who sabotaged the generators and caused a chain explosion that tore off a huge chunk of the building, the others that are now skillfully taking advantage of the chaos to not only steal important info and resources from the GMU...
And now this guy, who used something to eliminate an elite warrior squad that was clearly not martial arts at all, was now doing his best to see where Terrence was being imprisoned... 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮
All of this was reflected before her senses. She marked every single one of them and remembered their names, faces, information, habits, and so on. She memorized them all so thoroughly that even if they somehow manage to escape her today and try to infiltrate again using other identities under layers upon layers of disguises, she will still see them through.
There are at least fifty such people like this. Most of them were sleeper agents hiding a second persona that was triggered once they learned about the general situation.
She watched how they communicated. She saw how and learned in a single glance. She could’ve hi-jacked it, but she didn’t because she wanted to see more.
She also watches what kind of intel and resources they’re trying to steal; she’s cross-referencing them from what she’s learned so far, trying to connect them to learn the goal of the cult.
The more she watched, the more solemn she felt.
She realized that all of them, she and her fellow martial gods included, have severely underestimated the lengths these lunatics will go to reach their goals.
She realized how naive they’ve all been. The cult must’ve been laughing behind their backs because they manage to put in so many people within their ranks without being detected.
None of the security measures they put in place worked. They had means she doesn’t fully understand yet that could bypass that.
Beyond this, she’s fuming.
It had to be a whistleblower who could force the cult to expose themselves. Not them. A stranger.
How insulting was that? It’s like telling them that all their hard work and pride in the past few decades had been nothing but a waste and an utter lie.
It’s not an easy thing to swallow. But that’s the ugly truth she’s witnessing right now.
As much as she was angry, the Azure Radiance Saint was afraid, too.
She’s catching glimpses of the whole picture that the cult wanted to paint, and it certainly wasn’t looking good.
They, the Grand Martial Union, had been careless. Incredibly so. And the enemy took full advantage of that.
"Damn it! Where is it? Where the fuck are you, Terrence!?"
"No, no! Not here either! Damned building! Have I been lied to?"
"No, that can’t be! She said that the high-security prisons were up here! That woman is so proud of her work that she wouldn’t lie about that, so it must be here! I’m just not finding it, that’s all! Maybe I should try looking for secret entrances?"
She was shaken out of her reverie when she heard the man nearly having a mental breakdown after failing to discover the passage that leads to where his comrade was imprisoned.
Inwardly, she felt a bit bad, because the ’she’ he was referring to was her.
She, the Azure Radiance Saint, was the prideful person who slightly bragged about the security of the prisons. She casually let it slip that it’s somewhere up the building, somewhere near the rooftops.
She had no idea that the cultists among them learned about it and held onto that tiny detail. They even took her pride into consideration, too! She doesn’t know if she should feel flattered or creeped out.
’Oh, dear. If that’s the case, then wouldn’t you be stuck here searching for forever? Because I lied about that,’ she inwardly mused to herself.
Yes. That little slip she let out in the past was, in truth, intentional. She’s not so stupid as to casually reveal the location of a goddamn private prison within this building to some strangers.
The truth is, the prison wasn’t here. Not even close. There are no passages that lead there from here, either.
This prison that he’s looking for was underground. It’s beneath the lowest floor of this building, and it’s only accessible to a select few. Ones that are handpicked by the martial gods themselves.
Those who wanted to be there but had no clearance must be escorted there with someone who does. They are led to the upper floors of the building as a way of deception, to make them think that the prisons are up there instead of down. Those who are taken to the prisons are brought in completely unconscious or blindfolded to prevent them from knowing how to get there.
So, yes. It was all a ruse. And the cult took the bait.
This made her feel a little bit better because at least the cult couldn’t completely get a clear read on her intentions.
Even though this was more than enough evidence for her to capture this man and the other agents in the building. She still didn’t do so right away.
She was still waiting...waiting for more sleeper agents to be triggered, just in case.
Truthfully, she had no idea how many of them are in here. He’d seen the ones who immediately woke up once the chance arrived, but what if there were more?
She wants to capture all of them in one fell swoop, cleaning up as many of them as there were.
And she was right to do this since even after an hour passed, some sleeper agents were still being triggered to awaken.
From fifty, their numbers doubled.
There were a little more than a hundred sleeper agents planted within GMU. And none of them had any idea about them until now.
All of this was happening while the whole skyscraper was in peril. It’s practically groaning dangerously, trying to remain standing after the explosion took a huge chunk out of it.
But the Azure Saint wasn’t worried at all. In fact, she wasn’t even the slightest bit concerned. Why? Because she’s here.
Her mere presence was enough to keep this whole building standing. If she weren’t here, this building would’ve already been reduced to rubble after that explosion.
She was essentially propping it up without even straining. To her, this whole building was light as a feather. She could keep holding it up for an indefinite period of time, so there’s no need to worry.
’Okay, I think I got it,’ she mused to herself. ’I should be able to discover who the sleeper agents are even without them being triggered awake.’
I’ve allowed more than enough time to cause as much havoc as they wanted. It’s about time they stopped.’
Without exiting her cover, she waved her hand, and instantly, the man who was still searching for the passage to the prison on the upper floors and all of the sleeper agents promptly lost consciousness, collapsing on the floor like they were puppets with their strings cut.
She captured them all with another wave and locked them behind bars. She made sure that they’re safe and won’t be waking up anytime soon.
Although they might not know as much as Terrence does, any morsel of intel is still valuable.
Besides, because of this incident, she had learned how to identify the sleeper agents without them being awake. She’s taking that as a win since it couldn’t have been easy or cheap to raise and train as many of them as they sent here.
The cult should feel this pinch, and if she could, she would want to make it even more painful for them.
With new prisoners behind bars, she began stabilizing the building. She repaired a good chunk of the damaged portion of the building, making sure that it would hold up even without her help.
This wasn’t hard for her either. She’s a martial god, after all.
She then began relaying orders to the security teams, the ones that didn’t abandon their post and tried to quell the chaos despite its difficulty.
As for those who deserted their post and those who disobeyed and escaped. She remembered all of them. Their names were flagged, and they will be receiving their punishment very soon.
Once she took control, it didn’t take long before order was restored.