In a completely different part of the slums, at the same time as Elena flashed away—
Remel landed lightly on a rooftop, her big eyes narrowing as she scanned the constricting district.
"Found you…" she muttered, then raised her hand.
A magic flare rose into the air, signaling that the target had been spotted! At the same time, hundreds of people all looked this way. Their eyes locked onto the small vice captain standing on the rooftop, then, following her hand, she pointed towards a part of the city.
Next, the logistics teams managing the encirclement received the signal, and they began calculating a series of perfect adjustments into the formation. Half the encirclement had already closed, but following the signal, the large circle began to change and reform, breaking off a section to immediately close an extra twenty percent all at once!
These twenty percent of people, now free, all turned inwards, beginning an aggressive search.
Remel didn't hesitate in the slightest!
Even though she had only spotted the target for a split second, that was enough to warrant this change!
As the encirclement began its transformation, Remel looked around one last time.
"Elena's gone again… figures," she sighed, then straightened up and joined the hunt.
"It doesn't matter, as long as we…" Her words trailed off.
Remel's eyes sharpened, then she shook her head.
"…Everyone, converge!" Her roar shook the surrounding slums, frightening a pack of nearby recruits…
* * *
The City Guard began closing the net.
The 'red shadow' spotted by Remel flickered through the alleyways. It was fast, too fast, seeming almost inhuman in its agility! It dashed over crates, beneath carts, and weaved in and out of the idle slumdwellers like slippery smoke. Its speed, despite the aggressive pursuit from all sides, was completely unimpeded, easily escaping those pouncing hands and restraining spells.
She dropped down from a rooftop, landing lightly despite her frail frame, then darted forward, slipping between two collapsed buildings, before disappearing into the darkness.
Behind her—
"Left side! Cut her off!"
"The footing ahead is too unstable, be careful!"
"There should be a team ahead, what happened?"
"Hay, where did these people come from?"
"What the hell! Why is the Grumpy Grabbers Gang so crazy! They're blocking our path!"
Team One, a specialized unit for tracking targets, surged forward, their special scouts locking onto her movement despite constantly being impeded. They followed her from the side, like silent shadows, each holding a variety of things, weather it was communication tools, tracking tools, or even spells that cleared the path forward for the others, they refused to let her go, only focusing on keeping track of her.
She turned sharply—
Vanished into a dark side alley—
And reappeared on a rooftop a few moments later!
The red light that was reflected off her tightly tied cloak rippled in the wind as a pair of empty eyes stared down, filled with malice. As she looked down at the City Guard, she seemed to sneer, then in a flicker of red light, she flashed away with a step, then continued their game of cat and mouse.
Team Two intercepted following the information provided by Team One! Team two, unlike the support-focused team one, was trained completely for the sole purpose of capturing a target! They held a number of special magic tools, all meant to restrain escaped prisoners. These were simple things like binding talismans, hunting-type magic beasts, magic tools like Immortal Binding Rope and Soul Restraining Chains, and of course, magic shackles!
Swoosh!
The red shadow twisted through the air as she shot through the slums, her spiritual energy flared, then she kicked off a wall, launching herself ahead at a terrifying speed—
Soon, she was not only gone again, but even the magic compasses that had locked onto her aura were beginning to malfunction, spinning in place and failing to lock onto a target!
This caused many people to frown.
One should know that these compasses were a particularly effective tool for tracking a target! As long as that person didn't die or advance in realm, it was uncommon for their aura to change to a point where the magic compass couldn't find them!
Frowning, they sent back the news, then quietly awaited a response.
BOOM—!
But before they could receive it, a sudden and violent explosion shook the slums!
They all turned their heads, finding a huge cloud of smoke rising into the air a short distance away!
Their eyes widened, and they all looked at one another!
Around the site of the explosion, a massive building burned…
"She's above—!"
"No, below—!"
"She's—what? How did she get there!"
Countless voices, mixed between the City Guard, the Local Gangs, and a small number of Slum Lords, all echoed together. The chaos caused by this short chase had exceeded everyone's expectations, and many people from the City Guard, Remel and Appal included, all felt that things were beginning to get out of hand! None of them had expected that their target, a poor and helpless little girl, was capable of such large-scale destruction! How was this any different from those large terrorists that were under constant surveillance from the people in the palace!
Appals felt his face darken.
For the first time, he felt as if Elena might have tricked them!
This little girl definitely had a much larger background than they initially thought! There was no way that a small orphan from a lower-class family could produce so much destruction in one attack!
Thinking about it, they had the full life story of their target, but nothing was out of the ordinary…
Appal's mind turned, and suddenly, he thought back to the man who had changed the records from her initial three crimes. Something seemed to click, but instead of a burst of inspiration, a strong chill suddenly shot through his body! If her real past couldn't be tracked, then it could only mean one of two things. First, the capital could have a very troublesome sky helping her in the dark, but this was unlikely, because they had already investigated the man from back then!
Second—!
Either one or both of her parents had very, very 'special backgrounds!'
They already knew that the target's father worked in the laboratory that had built the Sun Cannon, but from the information they gathered, he was only an external engineer, one who compiled parts and brought them in to be assembled. He was nothing special, just a background character that couldn't be any more normal in the eyes of a reader!
Thinking back, he was one of the people who were sacrificed during the First Calamity when firing the sun cannon at the Ice Titan! Because of this, his family, their target, and her mother were given a large amount of money after his death, and he was proclaimed one of the fallen heroes of the First Calamity!
His name was even engraved on a memorial stone to commemorate and forever remember his sacrifice!
Appal still remembered his earlier conversation about how the young girl ended up in her current situation! Not only was her father dead, but her mother also seemed to be dead, or at least missing! He had overlooked this because, like Remel, he was distracted by the background of her father!
He suddenly realized that there was almost no information on their target's mother!
They had originally thought that she was a simple mortal woman, the kind that stayed home to cook and clean all day, but now…
What if, in theory, the target had somehow obtained 'restricted technology' from her father, who may or may not have had a much larger, much more classified background, and if, just what if… her mother also had an equally mysterious, or even an even more classified background, what did that mean…?
It meant that it was impossible to predict just what kind of artifacts their target was carrying!
How Elena knew about it could be put aside for now, but even the Captain of the City Guard didn't warn them in advance, so it could only mean that he didn't know, or it went far, far above his head!
It might even involve those people from the palace!
Thinking this far, Appal's face turned black!
He finally understood the strange look the Guard Captain gave him before leaving that day!
Gritting his teeth, he roared out a command, his attitude changing in an instant. If before he was a bristling bear, now he was like a growling grizzly, violent and terrifying, ready to truly begin the hunt!
* * *
At the same time, near the far edge of the slums—
A red cloaked figure, distinctly different from the one Appal was chasing, had already reached the outer area of the encirclement and 'silently escaped', then stumbled onto a narrow rooftop with uneven breaths. Her body swayed slightly as she looked around, the vigilance in her eyes was a sharp contrast to the hollow emptiness of the figure being pursued by the City Guard.
Behind her, there was nothing, not even a single footstep!
There was no pursuit, she had already escaped!
She had done it!
Her eyes flickered with a strange light, as if waiting for something…
She slowly straightened her back, clutching a strange black rod at her side, red sparks flickering faintly across its surface. Instead of relaxing, she seemed even more tense, as if whatever came next was far more terrifying than what had already happened.
After a long time, her shoulders started to relax…
Could she have been wrong?
A slight frown formed on her face.
No, she shouldn't have been, but perhaps she had just overestimated the other party…
Just then—
She froze!!
She felt all the hairs on her neck stand up at once, and she instinctively turned around!
A shadow sat ahead, with bright eyes looking at her with equal parts amusement and reminiscence.
The two girls, one with long golden hair and green eyes, and the other with twin-toned, red hair with a white interior, stared at each other, their gaze seeming to create ripples in the wind.
Elena smirked, then stood up from where she had been sitting…
* * *
Returning to the side of the City Guard—
Boots slammed against the uneven stone of the slums, echoing through the narrow alleyways. Torches flickered and mixed with magic light as team after team split and reformed, their movements all controlled by a series of high-level commands meant to optimize their positioning.
They were efficient, almost mechanical in their methods.
The slums twisted around them as they all rushed forward, broken walls and failing roofs cast long shadows that stretched and warped with each of their steps.
"Trackers, report the situation! Will there be another problem like before?" a captain barked!
"The target is confirmed to be ahead!" came a sharp reply.
"I see the red cloak, it's moving across that rooftop!" A third voice called out from the distance.
Above them, a flash of crimson light slipped between two chimneys.
The guards surged forward.
On the rooftop, the red-cloaked figure moved unnaturally fast. It didn't run, instead, it almost glided through the air, its cloak dragging behind it like liquid light in the dark night sky. It folded and unfolded in ways that normal cloth shouldn't, but every time a scout thought they had lost it, it shifted, re-announcing its position. There were naturally people who found this suspicious, but orders were orders, and nothing could be done!
"Cut it off!"
"Don't even let it reach the outer ring!"
Arrows flew as magic intertwined! One finally struck, and the red cloak jerked mid-motion, then collapsed against a rooftop with a dull thud.
Bang!
Silence hit everyone's heart like a deep drum.
Whether it was the people from the City Guard, the local gangs, the slum lords, the eyes in the shadows, or even the people from the palace who were secretly preparing, none of them could believe that the chase had ended in such an anti-climactic way…
The guards surrounded the building within seconds.
"Careful," Appal muttered! "Something's wrong, something definitely wrong!"
They climbed up, all eager to see what had happened.
Step by step, they closed in.
The rooftop was still, and the red cloak lay crumpled at the center, twitching faintly.
There was no breathing, no, there was barely any sound!
"On three," the captain muttered...
One…
Two…
Three—
They all lunged together! It was quite comical…
At the same time, the cloak flipped up in the wind!
What they saw was not a man, not even close! It was something small and twisted, sitting beneath the fabric with an innocent and naive expression.
It looked like a harmless little animal!
It was no larger than a cat, its fur thin and uneven, like it had been stretched and folded too many times. Its limbs didn't match any known animal, but it had an almost cute sense of disorder, like a tabby with no front legs. Its 'head' tilted, revealing a surface that looked almost smooth, until it rippled, forming and unforming shallow features that never settled into a normal face.
It looked at them.
No… it noticed them.
A low sound escaped its 'mouth', not quite a growl, but also not quite a whimper…
A guard staggered and stopped. "What… is that thing? Is that, the target, or…?"
No one answered him...
The creature twitched, and its body collapsed inward, compressing like it had lost all its bones.
Then—
It exploded into a plume of smoke!
The rooftop fell silent again, and only the red cloak remained, empty, lifeless, as if it had never held anything at all from beginning to end.
The guards stood frozen in place.
"…What," one muttered, his voice hoarse, "was that supposed to be? Did we… win?"
No one had an answer.
Appal slowly lowered his weapon.
"… Let's just report it as it is," he said at last. "All of it, from start to end…"
There was a pause.
"…And don't leave anything out, especially the individual actions of Elena, she should know what's going on..." But even as he spoke these words, all of them understood the same thing.
Whatever they had just chased—
Was never something that they could have caught...
* * *