(So about 80 meters to the top with a completely smooth surface and completely covered in detection spells… Using any kind of magic, or just jumping the wall wouldn't keep me hidden… But still, it shouldn't be that hard.)

Looking at the wall with his cybernetic eye Dax clearly saw the tiny gaps in between the formations, approaching the wall the qiton put in a bit of strength into his hand and pressed it into the stone wall to create a foothold. Starting his climb up the wall the qiton made no sound even as he jumped serval meters between increasingly spa.r.s.e gaps in the detection spells as he neared the top. Waiting for a s.h.i.+ft change Dax snuck past the guards and entered the castle grounds, finding a surprisingly s.p.a.cious and luxurious garden surrounding the castle proper.

(So this is where the emperor lives with all his guards and the most important families of the Empire… They really need to improve their security, too bad I'm not available for consultations~)

Moving through the garden and entering the castle Dax was nothing but a pa.s.sing shadow to the sleepy guards and maids still working at that hour as he moved throughout the imperial castle, following the mana signature which un doughtily had something to do with whoever was responsible for attacking him.

(Well, this is slightly different… What's up with the guard's patrol route?)

Noticing a distinct lack of wear on the rug which was created by guards with their distinctive boots in the path ahead, Dax felt like there was something wrong. So far as he had observed, the guards patrolled all the hallways without exception and even the less used parts of the castle had those marks, except for the one he had just come across. 

(No radiation or thermal signatures… But EMF? That's strange… ICI I'm playing a hunch, send out master authentication code BETA 03-22019501.)

(LOADING AUTHENTICATION CODE PACKAGE BETA 03-22019501 TRANSMITTING, STAND BY… TRANSMISSION COMPLETE, RESPONSE AS FOLLOWS: OMEGA 00-00000.)

"I knew it."

Wearing a grim expression, Dax completely threw away his earlier persona and once more became a commander of the 125th combined ops...o...b..tal drop troopers, there was no more need to hide.

"Look at how they butchered my units…"

Coming across serval figures completely encased in solid looking armour, Dax was tempted to outright destroy them as he realized their true ident.i.ty, but he barely managed to contain himself. The reason Dax wasn't attacked by his former drones was that whoever had reconfigured them to work for the Empire didn't quite know what they were doing, not yet at least. Still, it was not a completely botched job, even as Dax could interfere with their pa.s.sive detection he couldn't outright control them.

"So they did manage to break the Reaper command and control encryption, but they still some of the subroutines are still in place… What a sloppy f.u.c.king refit, but that workes to my advantage."

Going through an area that was only protected by drones Dax made quick progress and went down approximately 50 levels as the mana signature he was tracing only got stronger.

(Any second now…)

Hearing the faint sound of people once more Dax figured he was getting closer to his target and so he disabled the safety on his gauss PDW. From observing the guards, Dax knew that as soon as his cover was blown he would only have about 5 minutes to escape from the castle before it was completely locked down.

(At that point I would have to call for reinforcements and there would no way to leave with a clean exfill… Which would mean I would be leaving a lot of equipment behind for them to use against me in the future. Of course, I could just enact the denial protocol but that would mean that most of the imperial capital will end up a smoking crater, which would mean war with all the sanctuaries.)

Even with an armoured expeditionary brigade standing by and ready for deployment Dax didn't have confidence in beating the multiple hostile sanctuaries without igniting the atmosphere, which was the only reason why he didn't outright target the emperor himself. 

(Here we go.)

Breaching the first room he found with a possible match on the mana signature, Dax shattered the thick wooden door as he scanned the inside area, finding multiple robed figures which he targeted with lethal precision. Before anyone of the mages knew what was going on, they had been gunned down without exception.

"ICI secure the area, initiate intel scan."

[DIRECTIVE CONFIRMED.]

Like flipping a switch Dax's mind went into overdrive as the Hawk drone who had been following him over the last months detached from his back and starting to scan the numerous bookshelves and doc.u.ments. Meanwhile, Dax went trough each of the corpses while they still had some brain activity and forcefully ripped out their cerebral data for further a.n.a.lysis.

"WHAT IS!-"

But alas his first breach brought an unwanted amount of attention to himself, and so he started dealing with other mages more than collecting intelligence. Busting through a wall Dax got the jump on a group of mages and quickly depleted his magazine, but still some of them managed to survive as they were far more quick witted than the other mages he had run into beforehand.

"DIE!"

Before Dax could reload one of the mages managed to complete his reactive spell, sending out a blade of highly compressed air that aimed to cleave his target in half.

(What a hothead…)

Sliding under the blade of air Dax instantly closed the range as he drew his bayonet and clearly targeted the gaps in between the mages ribs underneath his robe, stabbing directly into the heart before twisting and forcing the wound to open up.

"Next."

As the mage bled to death on the floor Dax quickly made his way through the others as he forced himself further into the castle underground.

-

Deep inside the imperial castle, a robed old man was entirely occupied with precisely engraving a magic formation into a blue crystal. The mage barely had any hair left on his head, his eyes had mostly sunken into his head and his skin was wrinkled like an old tree. But even as his age was clearly showing and his body was starting to break down, lifeforce was still clearly visible in his eyes like a single undying lantern in the middle of a tropic storm. Having lived longer than any other humankin of the empire, the people who served under him referred to him as grand elder, or the immortal. A leader of a secret research division within the Empire, their single objective was obtaining a method to infinitely sustaining one's life trough human modification and understanding the true meaning of magic, he and his direct disciples had made a lot of headway, as a result, each of them were each over 500 years old.

"Elder!"

"What is it?"

With a slight bit of annoyance in his voice, the elder put down the tool he was using to engrave the crystal with, in a slow and controlled fas.h.i.+on before looking at the mage who had burst into his private workshop. 

"Elder, there's an intruder! He's!-"

Being cut short by strange sound the mage suddenly looked like he had trouble breathing and felt over dead with blood flowing from his back.

"Hmm…"

Getting up from his desk the elder waved his hand as runes spread out around him, forming into a s.h.i.+eld just as he was also targeted. Watching bullets. .h.i.t and be slowed down by his s.h.i.+elding formation the elder barely bat an eye as he rubbed two of the countless rings he wore on his hands together, compleating a circuit and forming a spell formation which he put mana into. The result of that simple motion was immediate as about 50 golden crystals formed in front of his hand, shaping themselves into arrows before they shoot off towards his still unknown attacker. Hearing the unmistakable sound of his spell burrowing into flesh the elder formed a slight smile as he tapped his foot on the ground, creating a wall of compressed rock which shoot up in front of him and blocked another round of shots.

"What a surprisingly resourceful rat. Time to die, you're interrupting my work."

Touching two other rings a small fireball formed in front of the elder's hand, switching from a yellow to completely blue colour as it was shot off into the hallway and explored.

"Is that all?"

"Wha!-"

Not expecting someone to have survived that attack unscathed the elder was caught slightly off guard as his a.s.sailant charged him. Immediately as he had come within range Dax activated a trump card he had kept under wraps so far, sealing all forms of magic with a miniaturized version of the prototype he had used to threaten a certain spirt. 

"There we are, now let's have a nice chat."

"W-what did you do!? Who are you!?"

Finding himself unable to use magic, the old mage lost his confidence as he slowly backed off away from Dax who approached without a care in the world.

"Why how nice of you to ask me those questions, if you would have just done that before attacking me we wouldn't need to have this conversation in the first place."

Drawing attention to his own hand which had been greatly burned by the old mage's spell, activating the auto repair function as to introduce himself. Looking dead centre into the mage's eyes Dax saw when the realization hit, turning his surprised look into one of horror.

"Y-you are!-"

"Yeah, I would be 'the outsider', as you call me. Why are you messing with stuff that's no yours?"

"For the greatest propose of all, to create everlasting life! To become immortal! Surely you must understand!?"

In response to the mages desperate question Dax stopped moving as he trough about it for a few moments.

"Not really no, why would I be interested in obtaining something I was born with?"

"W-what do you-"

"Have you ever seen someone heal their body this fast? An everlasting body is no good if it can't repair itself."

Suddenly the elder was faced with what he had been striving for doing most of his long life, as he had theorized it was not only G.o.ds and the highest of the archangels who obtained an immortal body.

"Please teach me how, in return, I will offer you everything!"

Falling to his knees the elder abanded his pride in search of his goal, he had never gotten this close to it before.

"Hmm… I could do that, after all, immortality was one of the things I offered in return for cooperation."

"Then!-"

Looking up hopefully at the creature in front of him, the elder's words were cut short as the demonkin grasped his face.

"But why would I do that? I don't take kindly to people who attack me, let alone take my possessions. Besides, I made a promise with my partner to hand your soul over to it."

Activating a slower and considerably more painful cerebral extraction method, the workshop was quickly filled with the screams of the mage.

"Now, now. Don't be a wuss. This is not the time for suffering, that comes later."