East Coast of the Preet Kingdom, outskirts of Tivian.
Between the woods outside Cold Cliff Prison, a sudden violent explosion resounded through the sky. On the originally narrow and remote forest path, a fierce shockwave and scorching flames swept out together, affecting a large area at once. Countless towering trees were engulfed, and the ground trembled.
When the explosion ended, amidst the diffused smoke and dust, the overturned vehicle that was originally at the center of the explosion had disappeared. In its place was a pitch-black pit, and around the pit, large areas of trees were scattered in a radiating pattern, the entire scene a mess.
Outside the explosion site, in an area that was not affected, several figures were gathered behind a large rock shelter under the shade of trees, looking at the distant explosion site. These were the guards from Cold Cliff Prison who had just been escorting the exploded vehicle, as well as Grego, who had gone to pursue them.
The two sides that were supposed to be pursuing and being pursued were now standing together, looking at the direction of the explosion in the distance without any signs of conflict between them. Everyone's eyes were filled with serious expressions.
"It has exploded, I wonder what the situation is?"
"I don't know, we must confirm it. We need to see the person alive or the corpse dead."
Looking at the fallen trees in the distance, the men dressed as prison guards exchanged glances and said with serious expressions. Then these disguised Eight-Pointed Nest members prepared to go forward to check the explosion site specifically. When Grego wanted to follow, he was stopped by the leader among them.
"Wait, don't go yet. To be safe, it's best not to let her see you again."
"Mm... Okay." Hearing the words of these Eight-Pointed Nest members in front of him, Grego also nodded and said, then stayed where he was, no longer following them out. He just silently watched as those guards quickly took off their disguises, put on cloaks, picked up their weapons, and hurried towards the direction of the explosion.
At this moment, on the periphery of the explosion site, a figure was lying in a pool of blood. It was none other than Northben, who had transformed into Misha. At this moment, because he was affected by the explosion, he was covered in blood, with cracks all over his skin, and he was lying on the ground with a ferocious expression.
At this moment, Northben, having reacted in time to escape a little further away in the last moments before the explosion, although not directly blown to pieces, was directly blown and severely injured, falling to the ground and unable to get up. He could only widen his eyes and struggle to move his body.
"Ugh... Woo woo woo!!!"
Just as the severely injured Northben was struggling to crawl away, a piercing, numb, stinging pain suddenly flowed through his entire body. His whole body couldn't help but twitch and tremble, and then he directly fainted and lost consciousness. However, after a few seconds, he opened his eyes again, but this time there was no fear in his eyes like before he fainted, replaced by a calm indifference.
The newly awakened "Northben" struggled to sit up in the pool of blood, panting, and looking into the distance with a solemn gaze. What he saw was several men wearing cloaks and masks rushing out of the woods at high speed, arriving on the path and seeing the injured Northben, who had transformed into Misha. Then everyone couldn't help but frown slightly.
"Who... cough cough... are you?! How dare you..." Facing the scene before him, Northben coughed up blood while asking the men, and after the masked men exchanged glances, one of them gave a look to another, and the one who was given the look immediately reacted and said,
"Boss, what do we do if she's not dead? Our mission is to save people, she's not in our plan."
"Never mind that, let's kill this Black Dog first to avoid future trouble."
After this conversation, the masked men, holding weapons, rushed towards the injured Northben who had fallen to the ground. Seeing this, Northben, with Misha's face, waved his hand, and a strong wind immediately swept through the area, whistling towards the approaching masked men. For a moment, they were blown and covered their faces with their hands, while Northben was blown up from the pool of blood by another gust of wind and carried away into the distance. One of the masked men, seeing this scene, couldn't help but exclaim loudly.
"She can still use her ability! Don't let her escape!"
Saying that, several of the masked men raised their firearms and aimed and fired at Northben, who was being blown away by the wind. Amidst a series of fierce gunshots and diffused smoke, bullets flew out of the gun barrels, and several of them directly hit Northben, causing him to fall from mid-air with a scream and crash heavily onto the ground.
Seeing that escape was impossible, Northben, with Misha's face, showed despair in his expression. Lying on the ground, he looked at the enemies rushing towards him, and with his last strength, took out a talisman from his body. Upon seeing the talisman, the masked men immediately became alert. However, at this moment, Northben pasted the talisman on his body, and finally shouted loudly at the pursuing masked men with a sharp voice.
"I curse you forever! Dirty bastards from the Shadow!"
Northben used the talisman, but this talisman did not give Northben any enhancement effect, nor did it create any anomaly that could assist Northben in escaping. Instead, from where the talisman was pasted, scorching flames suddenly burned, instantly engulfing Northben completely. He instantly turned into a man of fire, and screams of agony came from the flames.
"Body Burning Talisman..."
Seeing this scene, the Eight-Pointed Nest masked men immediately stopped in their tracks, looking at the target who had fallen motionless in the flames. The leader among them couldn't help but murmur, knowing what this talisman was.
In the dark and cruel struggle of the hidden world, countless official and unofficial Extraordinaries fiercely kill each other in the dark. And in the struggle of these Extraordinary organizations, death is often not the end. After an Extraordinary dies in a hidden struggle, their remaining flesh, bones, and even soul may become trophies of their enemies, to be desecrated and used again in various ways. The Body Burning Talisman is an item that can preserve an Extraordinary's dignity and even save their soul in desperate moments.
The function of the Body Burning Talisman is very simple. It can only be used on people who have no intention of resisting. When the Body Burning Talisman is used on a person, their entire body will turn into flammable fuel, quickly burning up completely in a very short time, burning up their flesh and bones, and even all items they carry, into ashes and smoke.
If the body is burned, it cannot be served on a table or made into a puppet. If the bones are burned, they cannot be processed into handicrafts. The bones of the newly dead are the best mediums for channeling spirits. Without a corpse as a medium, the difficulty of channeling a person will greatly increase. At the same time, some items on the body will also be burned, preventing the enemy from obtaining powerful trophies or any useful information.
Because of these various benefits, the Body Burning Talisman is distributed in many large Extraordinary organizations, especially official Extraordinary organizations, to middle-level cadres and members performing special tasks, to give themselves a dignified end when they reach a dead end. And obviously, in the eyes of these masked men, Northben... or rather, "Misha"'s situation at this moment is like this.
Just like that, under the attention of the Eight-Pointed Nest masked men, the burning flames quickly extinguished after rapidly burning everything that could be burned, turning into blue smoke and dissipating. Seeing this scene, the masked men exchanged glances, then silently nodded. Then, after looking at the noisy and chaotic Cold Cliff Prison in the distance, which seemed to be in a state of confusion, they quickly left the scene.
After the masked men had all withdrawn, in the distance from the scene, in the canopy of a dense tree, on a certain branch, the Royal Knight, wearing a coat and closely watching the situation in the distance, slightly breathed a sigh of relief. Not far from her, the man referred to as the "Detective" spoke with a smile.
"They've left. Congratulations, Miss Misha. Now, whether in the eyes of the Eight Point Nest or the An Yin Bureau, you are dead. You are truly free."
With a slight smile, Detective Ed said to Misha, and after gazing into the distance, she slowly said.
"They won't find any problems, right?"
"Hehe... Since things have progressed to this point... then no. Let's leave quickly. Someone will come over as soon as the chaos at the prison subsides. We still have a lot of follow-up work to do after we go back."
Maintaining the smile on his lips, Ed continued to say to Misha. After listening to Ed's words, Misha paused slightly, then nodded, and began to truly withdraw with Ed.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the woods, after the masked Eight-Pointed Nest members had successfully retreated to a safe place, the leader among them summoned a Spider-Man from his clothes, letting it crawl onto the back of his hand. Then he slowly spoke to the abstract pattern on the Spider-Man's face.
"The plan is successful. Misha Devonshire is confirmed dead. We have successfully withdrawn, and the operation at the prison can be terminated."
After speaking, the leading masked man let the spider on his hand crawl back into his clothes, and then he led his subordinates to continue withdrawing in the direction away from Cold Cliff Prison.
...
Some time later, in another direction on the outskirts of Tivian, in Gale Fortress, where the An Yin Bureau headquarters is located.
In the core area of Gale Fortress, in a spacious and luxuriously decorated office, Harold, in a formal suit, was sitting in his seat, concentrating on reviewing the official documents placed on his desk. Suddenly, there was a slightly hurried knock on the door. Hearing this sound, Harold was slightly startled, then looked towards the door of his office and said.
"Come in."
As soon as Harold finished speaking, the office door was opened, and a slightly overweight man walked in quickly, walking in front of Harold with a serious expression, and then said.
"Your Highness, something big has happened. There was a prisoner riot at Cold Cliff. Someone inside and outside attacked Cold Cliff, even using explosives. Part of the city wall was blown open, and some prisoners escaped."
"What..." Listening to the man in front of him, Harold frowned slightly, stopped writing, and then looked at the man in front of him and said.
"Who came to break the prison?"
"It's unclear at the moment. There have been quite a few prisoners locked up in Cold Cliff recently. The dozen or so prisoners who escaped belong to various societies, so we cannot determine who made the move for now. Further investigation is needed.
"Another point is that it is said that when the riot started, Madam Devonshire happened to be doing business at the prison, but after the riot, she disappeared and her whereabouts have not been found yet." The man continued to report to Harold in a serious tone. Harold was startled after listening to it, his eyes widened slightly.
"Misha... disappeared? Something like this happened? This..."
Harold was just about to say something, then his face tightened, and a look of pain appeared in his expression. He couldn't help but cover his forehead, as if enduring some kind of pain. Seeing this scene, the man in front of Harold immediately said with concern.
"What's wrong, Prince Harold? Are you not feeling well?"
"It's nothing... just a slight headache recently. I've already been checked, it's nothing serious..."
Harold said this, then picked up the cup next to him and took a sip of tea. Then he looked at the man in front of him and said, "You go down first and have Edmund and Duke take people to Cold Cliff. I'll be there later."
"Yes!"
Following Harold's words, the man turned and retreated, while Harold continued to sit in his seat, covering his forehead, wondering what he was thinking.
...
On a suburban street a considerable distance from Cold Cliff Prison, a black carriage was moving along the muddy path. Inside the carriage, Dorothy, who had returned to Tivian, sat within, remotely controlling the situation in the distance.
'The plan went fairly smoothly... With this kind of death in front of those people from the Eight-Pointed Nest, they have no reason to doubt anything...
'The exact same body shape, clothing, and face as the target, the cracks on the body after being affected by the explosion, the ability to control wind, the unyielding attitude. If they still don't believe it... then it's unreasonable.'
Sitting in the slightly swaying carriage, Dorothy thought to herself. In this play she directed, although the actor seemed perfect to the audience, the actor was ultimately just an actor, a false impersonator, not the real one.
The identical appearance and body shape were transformed by the actor's own abilities. The cracks after being injured came from the Stone Skin Talisman provided by the real Misha. Dorothy had seen this kind of talisman when fighting against the Eight-Pointed Nest cadres. When Grego changed clothes for the actor named Northben, he inadvertently imprinted Dorothy's puppet mark on him, allowing Dorothy to transmit the effect of the talisman through invisible spirits.
And the wind at the scene came from Misha herself, who was watching from a distance. The unyielding will shown by the actor at the end came from Dorothy's direct manipulation. The prop used for the curtain call, the Body Burning Talisman, was also originally Misha's, distributed to her by the An Yin Bureau.
'First, replace the prisoners who are out for labor reform, create a riot inside the prison, then organize people to directly attack the prison, and while restraining the extraordinary forces inside the prison, attack Misha on her way back. Heh... The Eight-Pointed Nest's calculations are also quite good. This way, they not only prevent the people inside the prison from supporting Misha, but after Misha's death... the cause of death may be directly attributed to being caught in the riot, making it difficult for people to realize that this was a conspiracy specifically targeting Misha, thereby paralyzing the An Yin Bureau...
'From the current situation, they are still a little wary of the An Yin Bureau knowing the whole truth... Although their influence has increased, it has not reached the point of controlling everything...'
Dorothy continued to think this in her heart, and with it, a sense of urgency also arose in her heart.