“So how’d ya kids manage to get this gig anyway?” The person who was not mind-controlled finally spoke up.
They had been sitting in silence for at least a couple of hours, even Elizabeth who usually runs her mouth was quiet.
Everyone felt equally as uncomfortable, well except for Kevin, who was still idly swiping on his phone.
Michael spoke up since the others did not seem keen on talking “It was an assignment directly from the academy.”
“Is that so? Do you know who these people are?” The man pointed at the inmates, who by now, were all staring at Michael with their unnerving blank eyes.
“No, we were only informed that they were high-value inmates, that’s all”
“High value? That’s pretty accurate, all 4 of them committed horrid acts that no human should ever even think about.”
The air grew chilly as the man looked at all 4 of the inmates with disgust, it seemed that whatever they did, was worse than Michael had imagined.
“I see… good riddance then”
The man nodded and the silence once again returned, it seemed he was just bored and wanted to strike up a conversation.
‘I don’t blam-hm?’ He noticed another gaze and saw the second guard who was mind-controlled, looking at him, that made 5 in total now.
‘Are they going to pull some shit soon? They are completely ignoring the others, Chloe was even peacefully dozing off..’
I can’t feel any fluctuations, it seems like they are simply observing you.
‘Why would they observe me? Aren’t they mind-controlled into completing a task and that’s all?’ Michael was a bit confused by the system’s words.
Yes, and you are an obstacle to their plan, if they have a chance, they will attempt to kill you, so yeah, don’t let your guard down.
‘How annoying..’ Michael recast Shield of Nourishment on each of his party members, as well as the only guard that was not mind-controlled.
Kevin stopped scrolling through his phone and looked directly at him, it seemed he noticed something was wrong.
Michael shook his head slightly and gestured with his hand to back down, he didn’t want to start a fight just yet.
‘I wonder if we are close.. too bad this van doesn’t have any windows’ The ominous feeling continued growing until finally, something out of the ordinary happened.
The once steady road turned bumpy, it was enough to move them around the van and even made Chloe finally stop dozing off.
Michael turned to the only guard that was not mind-controlled, seeing a confused expression on his face “Tell me.. was a road like this supposed to appear?”
Just as the man was about to speak up, the armored van suddenly stopped, sending the cuffed inmates flying to the very front.
‘Feel anything now?’
It’s an ambush.
The system’s voice descended and Michael immediately reacted, sending multiple Swords of Light right at the mind-controlled guard.
He was not able to react and was pierced through all of his vitals, this one was not extremely strong, just barely stronger than his 3 party members.
However, strength in number was a thing, even if Michael could potentially kill them all, there’s always a worst-case scenario in which he can’t.
The man tried moving around his limbs but failing, it seemed like some sort of a marionette with its strings cut off.
And then finally, all movement ceased as its eyes regained a bit of color before he finally collapsed, his body lying lifeless.
‘Did he regain control at the very end..?’
Michael looked on confused, however, the stares of everyone present were starting to become uncomfortable.
Especially the other guard’s who just witnessed his friend suddenly die.
He stood up and shouted “You fuc-” But was interrupted by the very back being opened up, a bunch of people appearing in their line of sight.
Kevin was the first one to react, sending out a wave of shadow, absorbing a few of the people and turning them into his underlings.
The enemies were switched with their own shadows, it looked freaky but the effectiveness was great.
It was an ability he had shown Michael a few times, he said that currently, it was only temporary, however, in the future, he would be able to control others for as long as he wanted to.
Immediately, they began slashing at each other and missing, it seemed Kevin got the weakest of the bunch.
“Tch” He clicked his tongue and made half of the bodies appear out of their own shadows, slicing their own throats.
Michael was not idling by either as he instructed Elizabeth to guard the inmates with the guard, she was the least versatile out of the bunch, he didn’t want to risk her dying from an unknown attack.
Chloe and Kevin on the other hand, had great survivability, even if the worst comes, they can easily escape.
But just to be safe, he instructed them to not stray too far away from the armored van, as much as he trusted in their capabilities, the 4 inmates were still people with mana cores.
Elizabeth alone would not be enough to defend against them all.
‘Please act as a team this time..’ Michael put his hopes on them and got out of the van, unleashing a torrent of swords, penetrating everyone in his sight.
He looked around and noticed they somehow ended up on a mountain, the driver must have been mind-controlled as well if he managed to drive smoothly enough to mask going up a mountain.
It was the first time he saw snow in this world, it didn’t snow in his previous continent and Vivum had some sort of a field blocking it from landing on the ground.
‘Would have been a really beautiful sight..’ He sighed and looked at the pools of blood scattered all around the snow.
It looked like they were close to the peak, he could see the very peak not too far away.
And he could also feel someone stronger than the people around him currently, it was at least someone as strong as Michael himself.
‘Is that the mastermind?’ Just as he thought that, the presence disappeared, it seemed whoever it was, realized he had been found.
‘Still.. he’s probably at the very peak’ Michael thought and glanced around, another wave of people began rushing at him.
They were pretty low-leveled, it seemed half of them might even be simple civilians.
The highest level out of all of the ones he had killed so far, was probably around level 60.
Casting Swords of Light a few times, he killed more of them, from what he could see, none of them were mind-controlled or brainwashed, they were rushing at him of their own volition.
It made the kills not feel as impactful, however, it still made him uncomfortable.
‘It’s like some sort of a cult..’ No matter how many of them he killed, more kept coming.
“Kevin” He called out to him while he was fending off the others with his army of shadow-possessed cultists.
“What’s up?” Kevin asked calmly, it seemed the sight before him did not phase him in the slightest.
“I am going to go up the mountain to deal with the person behind this, keep the others safe, alright?”
As much as he didn’t like Kevin, his skills were the real deal.
There was Chloe as well, however, she seemed to not be in the best condition, she was holding back.
If this was her from the dungeon, she would have gone in and killed most of these cultists, instead, she was sitting by the van, not using her spatial affinity at all.
‘Elizabeth seems to be at least doing her job’ He noticed her holding a sword up to their necks.
Michael finally decided to go up, he trusted his unorthodox party to handle themselves and prioritize the inmates’ lives, even as unexpected as this situation was, they could still complete the assignment.
Be careful, the one up there is a bit stronger than you.
‘Don’t worry, I am not going to be careless.’
