"Shun Yin! Are you all right?"
s.h.i.+n Yin raised his head and glanced up when he heard his name being called. The fog was slowly dissipating, and he spotted Glen running toward him, followed by Henry Porter and a small squad of soldiers.
"Yeah." Shun Yin rose to his feet unsteadily. "What about you? Where did you go?"
"He came to find me," Henry answered in Glen"s stead when the latter paused to catch his breath. "Informed me of the attack…though we detected it a few minutes before he burst into the office. Still appreciate it, though," he added with a pat on Glen"s shoulder.
"I thought that the traitor and the a.s.sa.s.sins might be aiming for my dad," Glen explained breathlessly as he looked around in dismay at the ma.s.sacre. Many of the students were lying on the ground, motionless and lifeless.
"Turns out that they weren"t," Henry remarked with a complicated expression, as if he wasn"t sure whether to feel relieved or bitter over the loss of his students. "n.o.body attacked us."
"Was the traitor really…Angelica?" Glen demanded as he approached Shun Yin. The latter lowered his head, not sure how to answer. He didn"t have to. The moment Glen saw his crestfallen expression, he understood.
"…is that true?"
Henry"s tone was urgent. Shun Yin slowly nodded. There was no point denying it.
"That"s right, sir." One of the soldiers was listening to the com bead in his ear. "It seems that Angelica Porter has gone missing. She"s not among the dead, the wounded or the survivors. There are Porter clan servants frantically searching for her, but she"s nowhere to be found."
"Just what was her goal?" Glen growled, punching his palm angrily. "Why did she launch an attack on the school? She has no reason to attack us! This doesn"t make sense!"
"If their target wasn"t me, then perhaps it was something else at the school." Henry was pondering thoughtfully. "Was there anything in particular that they were after?" he turned to Shun Yin. "I"m a.s.suming you met Angelica and saw her collaborating with the enemy, otherwise you wouldn"t be so sure she is the traitor."
Shun Yin hesitated for a moment, and then nodded. "That is correct."
"What did she say?" Henry grabbed his shoulders urgently. "Did she mention anything about her goals? Why they attacked our school?"
"Something about destroying the Porter clan…"
"That"s why I went to find you first," Glen joined in, staring at his father. "I was so sure that her aim would be you."
"Thank you, my son." Henry nodded distractedly, his attention still on Shun Yin. "Did Angelica say anything else? Was she targeting someone else? Perhaps…my wife?"
"No, she didn"t say anything about that." Shun Yin frowned, trying to remember his conversation with her. His mind was still in a daze. It felt like an eternity since they last talked, even though it was mere minutes ago.
"Reporting on that…Charles Porter is dead." One of the soldiers looked up and reported gloomily. Henry, Glen and Shun Yin turned to stare at him. The soldier shrugged helplessly. "He was killed by one of the a.s.sa.s.sins. His throat was slit.""So Charles was her target all along." Glen"s shoulders slumped. "I should have known."
"That makes no sense, though." Henry was troubled. "If Charles was her target, why would she need to launch an attack on school and make such a big fuss? Why would she need to kill so many of the other students?"
The princ.i.p.al gazed over the corpses of his students and sighed.
"The reason why I believed you, Glen, was because it seemed to make sense. We believed the attack on the students was a diversion, and that they were planning a hit on me. Draw the main forces of the school toward the courtyard to suppress the a.s.sailants…thus leaving me open and vulnerable. But if her target wasn"t me…if it was Charles, then there was no need to launch such a ma.s.sive attack and kill so many students."
"Diversion…"
There was something scratching incessantly at the back of Shun Yin"s mind, but he couldn"t place his finger on what he should be thinking about.
Then, unbidden, a memory surfaced in his mind.
"Spirit weapons."
"I beg your pardon?" Henry turned to stare at Shun Yin, puzzled. Glen shared the same bewildered look.
"Spirit weapons. When Angelica showed up and attacked, she was wielding this new spirit weapon, which she claimed to have created by sealing a spirit inside the weapon." Shun Yin held up his broken sword thoughtfully. "It was so powerful that she could easily cut my sword into two, and reduced the casting time of an extremely powerful spell drastically."
Henry turned extremely pale.
"So that"s it…" he muttered so softly that Shun Yin and Glen almost couldn"t hear him. Glen frowned.
"What is it, Dad?"
However, Henry didn"t respond. Instead, he turned toward the soldiers and began gesticulating frantically.
"You, and you! Follow me! And hurry!"
The Federation soldiers followed without question. Shun Yin and Glen exchanged a glance, and then hurried after the adults. To their surprise, Henry was running straight for the research division of the campus.
"Did Angelica and the a.s.sa.s.sins stage a diversion to steal…research material from the university division?" Glen asked, bemused. Shun Yin shrugged.
"It"s not just the university division. The high school division also shares the building…"
"What is it?"
Glen glanced at Shun Yin when the latter trailed off. The dark-haired guy"s eyes widened in horror when he remembered something.
His friends. Tens.h.i.+. Rebecca. Gabriel. They were all in the research division, working on their spirit project. And they were most likely still in the building when the a.s.sault from the a.s.sa.s.sins Guild occurred.
"d.a.m.n it!"
Summoning spirits and allowing them to manifest in this world. Sealing spirits into weapons to allow them to manifest in this world. Why didn"t he see the connection?
Feeling an icy chill surge through the mounting horror that filled his chest, Shun Yin increased his pace.
"Everyone! Are you all right?!"
Henry shouted the moment he burst into the building. At first, he was afraid that he was too late. The corridors were deserted, there was no sign of any living person inside the building.
And then…one of the doors opened.
"Princ.i.p.al Porter?"
"Is it over?"
Henry stared at the pockets of students emerging from their labs, small groups who had been hiding inside their labs the entire time. Most of them seemed unscathed, just shaken and frightened. Breathing a sigh of relief, he nodded.
"Yes. It"s over."
There was an audible sound as the students exhaled in relief and joy. Some of the girls began hugging each other, tears streaming from their eyes when they realized their ordeal was over. A few of the guys dropped down to sit on the ground, their legs unable to hold themselves up. They exchanged high fives and grins.
"We survived!"
"I was so sure we were a goner!"
"Can somebody tell me what happened here?" Henry asked calmly, trying to be gentle. He didn"t want to scare the students back into a panic.
"We aren"t sure." One of the male students approached wearily. "We heard the alarms and the noise of fighting – we can hear the battle outside even from inside here. We didn"t dare to go out and check what was happening, and the security cameras weren"t showing anything except fog and shadows. But the screams…we heard so many screams…!"
Glen and Shun Yin exchanged dark glances. They were there firsthand when the ma.s.sacre occurred, and they witnessed their schoolmates dying.
"So you all decided to take cover in your labs?" Henry nodded and smiled. "Good choice. I"m glad that you"re all safe. I"m also relieved that none of you did anything reckless."
"Well, actually…" the guy scratched his head. "Lady Angelica dropped by."
Shun Yin froze. He was sure Glen and Henry did so too, but the princ.i.p.al was adept at covering up his reaction. Taking a deep breath, he forced a gentle smile.
"What did she do or say?"
"She told us to hide in the labs. Said it was extremely dangerous outside, and we should wait until help arrived. So we obeyed her."
"Wise choice." Despite putting on an expression of approval, there was an anxious glint in Henry"s blue eyes. "She certainly has a good head on her shoulders. Where did she go after that?"
"We don"t know. We went back to the labs and locked the doors as she told us to, and waited for help."
"I see."
"Dad was right. Whatever Angelica was planning, this building was her target. Or at least something inside this building."
Shun Yin nodded at Glen"s whisper and glanced around, but he could see no sign of Angelica. There was still something nagging at him, but he wasn"t able to figure out why he was so uneasy and unsettled.
Then he realized that he didn"t see his friends here.
"Where"s Tens.h.i.+, Rebecca and Gabriel?"
"Eh?"
The other students turned to stare at him, dumbfounded.
"Maybe they"re still in their lab," one of the guys suggested and pointed right at the end of the corridor. Shun Yin began to have an ominous feeling in his chest. Judging from his expression, so did Henry.
"Let"s go!" he ordered the two soldiers accompanying him, and the three adults surged toward the end of the corridor. Shun Yin and Glen followed, hot on their heels, with the former particularly concerned.
He almost collided with the soldiers who stopped right at the door, s.h.i.+fting their weapons up as they swept through the room to check if it was clear. Then he heard a whimper.
"Rebecca?"
"Shun Yin?"
The soldier to the left stepped aside as Shun Yin rushed forward. Rebecca and Gabriel were crouching behind a broken bench, the electronic system sparking and cracking from damage. The entire lab had been thrashed, equipment destroyed and computers crushed. The holographic screens were flickering on and off, their screens showing nothing but eerie static.
"You are all right!" Gabriel looked relieved as he clasped Shun Yin"s hand. "I"m so glad you"re all right!"
"I"m more worried about you guys!" Shun Yin tried not to laugh from the sheer joy and relief that filled him. "I"m glad to see you guys are okay!"
"What happened here?" Henry asked, striding forward and dropping to a knee. The two research students were taken aback by the princ.i.p.al"s presence.
"S…sir!" they sat upright, trying to hide their nervousness. The both of them glanced at each other for a second, their faces pale and their bodies trembling, but they weren"t able to utter even a single word.
That was when Shun Yin noticed something was amiss.
"W...where is Tens.h.i.+?"
The two of them lowered their heads, unable to meet his eyes. His heart thumping faster, Shun Yin rose and glanced around.
A pool of blood at the corner of the room caught his attention. Dread swelling up inside his chest, he hurried over.
Lying spread-eagled across a broken piece of machinery, her body almost cut into several pieces, the corpse of Tens.h.i.+ stared lifelessly back up at him.