Chapter 51:

Lust

I was just trying to watch fights to stave off boredom, but that didn't last long!


The Vice Chairman is sitting on the Chairman's chair as she stands over her, the black sleeve in front of her on top of the table.

"For a moment I thought he had gone bad..."
I look at Gaia as she continues.
"But this is the sleeve from the jacket he was wearing right? He must be helping us. I wonder why he's with them though..."

"Please close the windows. I focus better in the dark."
"I will!"
The Chairman quickly runs to the giant windows and presses a button near them, causing huge shutters to start dropping, soon leaving the room in complete darkness.

'...?
Is that... A light?'
I had never noticed before in the light, but now with the room in pitch black darkness, there was a faint golden glow around the Vice Chairman, as if to indicate purity. I can't help but think.
'Divinity? Is her magic so strong that she constantly has this glow?'

"I'll begin tracing now."
For almost an hour she keeps at it, total silence as we all waited in the darkness, only faintly illuminated by her, until finally she lets out a deep breath.
"I have it."
Chairman suddenly hugs her as Gaia asks.
"You do? Where?"
"It took me a while as there were a bunch of areas with the same feeling, they seemed like throwaways so I decided to ignore them, focusing only what is the strongest signal. It's coming from the city of Furano to the west."

The Chairman quickly opens the window shutters again as Gaia stands up.
"Got it, we'll gather some people and plan out a day-"
Before she can finish, the Chairman suddenly approaches with a suggestion.
"Plan out a day? How about now instead?"
Gaia is surprise and she continues.
"I don't know how many will be there or if it is even their main base. But we can't let this opportunity go to waste. I'll send some heroes with you. Take the Vice Chairman here too."
'...!'
"But... What about their leader?"
I cautiously ask, only for the Vice Chairman to say.
"Do not worry. If we come across him I will simply do what I have needed to do for a while."
I nod as the Chairman brings up her phone, sending a message.

...

It took us almost two hours to arrive at the spot. A bunch of heroes were gathered, with Gaia standing next to the Vice Chairman, ready to protect her.
One of the heroes ahead nods towards us, and blasts the door open as we all rush in.

From room to room we clear the building, fighting and arresting everyone we saw, along with teleporting away any suspicious materials to Headquarters. Finally we clear the first floor and join the group heading towards the second. We go up the stairs and see the hero in front has just entered the second floor before getting immediately launched back, smashing through the wall and landing outside.
"Kazu, stay behind me next to the Vice Chairman."
I do as Gaia instructed as slowly one by one we flow into the second floor as more and more heroes keep getting launched through that same hole until finally it's our turn, quickly rushing in, joining the few that haven't lost, surrounding a woman. She had serious look on her face with shoulder length violet hair and a bombshell body. She wore a purple turtleneck shirt, and black pants.

She notices the Vice Chairman and looks towards us.
"Well, well, well. I didn't expect this outcome."
"You didn't expect your base to be raided after you attacked our Headquarters?!"
Gaia is quick to shout that, to which she slowly shakes her head, and still with a serious face she always seems to have on, she says.
"I did not expect our objective to come running to us.
If all it was going to take was to sacrifice a couple of useless vermin that were getting antsy thinking their leaders didn't know what they were doing. I would have done it ages ago."
She looks around, and then continues.
"Though for you to find our secret base so easily... It looks like we've been betrayed. By someone immune to my magic at that to be able rat the location out."

Gaia lunges at her, readying a punch as she says.
"There's more ways to find a base than just talking!"
Before it can connect however she stops mid air as the woman then says.
"Tsk. Tsk. Your strength means nothing if you can't land anything."
With that she gets launched back, crashing through the wall.
Before she can land on the ground however, she summons a pillar bringing her back up to us.
"Telekinesis. Now I understand."
Suddenly a bunch of heroes around lunge at her, but all of them get frozen in the air before they all got sent crashing through a wall.
"The most powerful Telekinesis I've seen.
...What is your name?"
She turns her full attention to us, the last ones still in the floor while the others attempt to get back.
"Lust. A disgusting name. As for my magic, it does help when you know flesh magic too."

"Holy Command, Drop."
Gravity around Lust suddenly increases bringing her to her knees.
"I was analysing her full strength, along with checking if there was anyone else in the area."

'Checking for friendly fire.'

However, before she can get up she quickly fires another.
"Holy Command, Drop."
The moment she says that the floor and ceiling around her quickly collapse to the ground below.
"Holy Command, Cease."
When she says that, the magic circles increasing the gravity disappear, and we jump down towards her.
The moment we do however, all the rubble that had been on top of her suddenly shoots outwards. Quickly I grab onto the Vice Chairman and Gaia and teleport us back up, before we notice as she suddenly blasts off at incredible speed, with a few heroes giving chase.
"Tsk. Floating away."

Gaia turns away from the window and continues.
"Right, everyone!"
Quickly she gives an order to search the whole building, with everyone giving her a nod before starting.
She gives a satisfied nod back as she turns towards us.
"Vice Chairman, little Kazu. Please help too."

...

We spend some time searching the building, when one of the heroes was quick to find a jacket with a missing sleeve, which the Vice Chairman took.
Gaia approaches her before saying.
"He really was helping us here..."

I leave them while they talk, and check one of the rooms in the top floor, passing by a strange symbol on the wall.

'A sigil.'

I enter the room and see nothing but random papers, books on magic, and other stuff detailing organization members and contributions, documents that will likely be helpful to put all the people we arrested here in jail.

'Must have been a library.'

I walk over to a nearby table and notice a strange and suspicious book, sitting on top of it.
I grab it and take a look inside. It was filled with all sorts of ways to use flesh magic. From the most mundane, if you can call any of it that, to the most extreme.
I flip through the pages randomly, looking at each one until stopping on one particular entry near the start as I read it.

'"Each part of the human body contains life force. If you know how to harvest it, you will be able to accomplish a great many things..."

..."Transfer...", "Extend life...".'

I keep reading, clutching my necklace through my shirt with my eyes wide open from this new information until I finally stop and close the book, teleporting it away.

...

I climb back down the stairs and meet back up with the Vice Chairman and Gaia before asking.
"Did we find anything?"
Gaia looks back at me before shaking her head slowly.
"Nothing..."
The Vice Chairman walks towards the window and peers outside, looking at everyone they have arrested, before saying.
"We will keep looking. With everyone we have arrested, we are bound to find something."

I nod and follow Gaia as she heads outside with the Vice Chairman, when she continues.
"You two are free to stay in some of our housing around here."
Gaia turns to her with a big smile.
"Really?! That'd be great to help get information out of these guys. Oh! I'll invite some people I trust too, is that fine?"
"Of course."

We finally reach outside and join the others as Gaia splits off and helps some of the downed heroes up.
I look over at all the arrested people as some heroes slowly grab them, bringing them to nearby vehicles.
'This wasn't a total loss, despite Lust escaping.'

Rex
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