OLD-WORLD EXTRA-Chapter 109: Shadow Binder

Not wasting a second, Emir's Aetherstorm Launcher locked on Henry's head.

Noah joined the trend as he aimed his weapon at Emir from behind, and Lyra did the same to him, forming a train.

Emir chuckled as he said, "Calm down, Henry. If you are so hot-headed that you would involve yourself in the endangerment of Madam Kiera, an Elite mind you, then you are simply out of your mind."

Henry didn't respond, as he was seething with anger, barely able to control himself.

Emir pressed on, "Any movement and your head would be blown off. Calm yourself and allow me to take Madam Kiera to safety, then we can discuss what you want to do with this kid." Noah chimed in, "Do as he says, Henry, you don't want to die in ruin like this, do you?"

Henry let out a deep breath as he lowered his weapon, and Emir did the same after confirming that he had calmed down.

"Good, now Amanda, lead Madam Kiera to safety while we discuss what to do with this kid over here."

Leo, who was still feeling confused about what was happening, was suddenly put at ease as he caught a small wink from Lyra as she walked past him with Kiera in tow.

[Group up all of her gang and hide them away, make sure that these guys can't reach them.] [What will you do with them? Do we scrap the previous plan?]

[No, we can improvise, instead of you hacking their terminals, I can play for time until the acid rain jams their connections and information gathering devices, then you'll start by killing them one by one.]

[You're getting better at this, dear.]

[Look at you, trying to make me embarrassed in a situation like this quite fitting for an expert memory manipulator.]

[...]

[Too far?]

[Too far...]

[My bad... Well... Good luck and have fun because I sure will.]

[You too.]

Ending their conversation in a few hundred milliseconds, Emir turned his attention to Henry. He walked up to him and patted his back.

"Were you seriously trying to woo an Elite? You know that they aren't anything but trouble, right?"

Henry sighed, "Sorry for that man, I get agitated quite easily. I know, not fit for a hunter, but that is what so many years on the job do to you."

"I get it, got some problems myself. Anyways, now that you've calmed down, can you spare this kid? He didn't mean anything by it, Madam Kiera told them to call her that, they don't even know that she is an Elite."

Noah joined in their conversation, saying, "I know that, but because of the jamming caused by the acid rain, we all didn't pick up on him approaching us, who knows, he might've listened to us talking and picked up on things he shouldn't know."

"I see... That is a serious problem indeed. Actually, let me just check my range on my device, we can see if he could listen to us or not."

Emir pulled out his small S-rank information gathering device and quickly checked the range. He wanted to determine whether Henry and Noah would detect their group's signal if they were to eliminate them at that moment.

He clumsily fiddled with his device as he said, [Start now.]

***

While Emir kept delaying and saying anything that came to his mind to delay them from killing Leo, Lyra walked with Kiera, followed by the rest of the gang.

"Okay guys, listen up. Me and Emir will kill all of them. I will leave you guys here for now. Kiera brief them on the current situation. I will come back here when everything is over. So wait quietly. Those hunters are above your pay grade."

They understood that they couldn't do anything, so they simply nodded.

Lyra smiled and headed towards the Templar's faction group of five hunters.

While she did so, she couldn't help but think back to what Emir had joked previously.

'Mean, He's so mean, he knows how guilty it makes me feel every time he mentions it, but he still jokes about it, stupid Emir.'

If anyone saw Lyra pouting so cutely, they wouldn't equate her next actions with silently and brutally killing people with no care in the world.

Lyra only cared for three people, one being Emir, and the next being his family, Laura, and Lily.

She literally wouldn't mind if the entirety of the Earth burned to the ground if Emir and his family were unharmed.

Guilt for what she was about to do never crossed her mind. Emir asked her for something, and she complied like she always did, never questioning his actions.

She wouldn't care if they killed Leo, all that mattered was her perfectly completing the task Emir assigned her.

Lyra unsheathed an electric knife that she got from Emir's leftover weapons and hid it behind her back as she stepped forward, now facing the group of five.

A knife such as this could be customized to increase in power for a moment, increasing the beam's length and strength, resulting in a devastating weapon that could slice through an augmented suit ranked A and below like butter.

The group noticed Lyra approaching, so she waved at them with her left hand, and thinking that she wanted to talk, they got closer.

Just as they stepped into her range, Lyra swung the knife, and a sharp laser emerged from the blade, slicing through the air with deadly precision.

The hunters had no time to react as the laser cut through their bodies.

Their eyes widened in terror as their upper torsos separated from their lower halves, their bodies falling to the ground in a grotesque display of death.

Contorted with pain and shock, they gazed down at their entrails spilling out onto the library floor, the horrifying scene unfolding before their bloodshot eyes as they reflected their agony while their hands trembled, futilely trying to hold their innards in place.

The laser had cauterized their wounds, preventing immediate blood loss but leaving them writhing in agonizing torment until their inevitable deaths.

Their desperate and muffled cries for help filled the air, transforming the once peaceful

library into a chamber of horror.

Lyra didn't flinch at the gruesome scene, and calmly waited for them to die.

Once they had all passed away, she proceeded to search through their gear for another melee

weapon, as her previous one had depleted all its energy with that one attack.

After rummaging through four bodies, she finally found a set of daggers on the fifth.

Although they were simple black daggers, they were perfect for her needs. freewёbnoνel.com

She took them from the hunter and unsheathed them, feeling their weight and balance before

equipping them at her side.

She continued walking, heading in the direction that the other group went.

[Five Templar hunters are down, the other five Liberation hunters are left.]

[Great work, Lyra, but I'm running out of excuses here, so hurry up.]

Lyra blossomed an incredibly beautiful smile as she said:

[Thank you, I'm already closing in on them, so I will be done shortly. Keep fighting.]

[HA! Sure, I will. I might even become an expert at excuses after this.]

Lyra giggled as she took cover behind a shelf.

She eyed the group, four of them were chatting in the middle, and she instantly went after the

one that stood alone.

She hid as she saw him smoking in a corner, his back supported by a shelf.

She then imbued Aether into her steps, making them completely silent as she stepped

towards him.

Now reaching right behind him, a single shelf separated her from her victim.

She silently activated Aetheric Blades ability and stealthily cut through the material

separating them.

Taking out the piece she had just cut, she swiftly plunged the knife into the hunter's neck, the

blade slicing through, severing his head in one swift stroke.

She pulled out the knife and headed towards her next victims.

[You can start the fight in the next thirty seconds, Emir.] She informed him as she activated

her ability.

"Shadow Meld," Lyra chanted, and her body immediately mixed into the ground.

She moved as a shadow, invincible to the naked eye.

And as she closed in on the four hunters, her eyes keenly scanned them, searching for the

perfect opportunity to strike.

Lyra's abilities were suited for assassinations as she unlocked Aetheric Blades as an ability

too.

The third and last ability she possessed was Shadow Step, which granted her the power to teleport from one shadow to another.

So despite lacking an ability to dispatch them all at once, she meticulously planned her next moves, aiming to eliminate them in a single, decisive swoop.

Just as a cyborg or automata needed to go through specific steps to rank up, she couldn't

acquire abilities instantaneously.

Since her body functioned similarly to how a human body operates with Aether.

Lyra's Aether Core, like an organ, would grow and fully integrate with her robotic body as she advanced, resembling a Seraphim's organic growth within a human body.

And as she cultivated and practiced her skills, she kept Emir's abilities in mind.

He would serve as the main firepower, excelling in direct combat and overall strength, while she specialized in espionage, stealth, and lethality.

So her best bet would be to opt for the Shadow Binder specialization while carefully selecting

a few abilities from other specializations since being an automata allowed that. Unlike those of the flesh, her ability to wield a wider deck of cards didn't greatly affect her,

although it still influenced their efficiency, albeit not to the extent it would in a human

celestial.

Though her uniqueness extended beyond being an automata; she possessed a distinctive body, much like Emir.

However, she lacked the higher amount of Aether reserves, as her Aether core remained normal, akin to any other cyborg or automata.

This was the main reason why many high-ranking hunters preferred switching their bodies

for robotic ones, becoming cyborgs.

Still, this practice wasn't widely adopted, as most humans were hesitant to sacrifice human

pleasures for only a slight increase in strength.

Cutting off her spiraling thoughts, she heard Emir screaming in her mind:

[LYRA, I CAN'T DO THIRTY SECONDS, THEY ARE ABOUT TO ATTACK!]

[Understood.] She replied simply.

Now knowing that all caution was thrown to the wind, she rushed forward and chanted:

"Aetheric Blades."