Chapter 389: So Close
(Vault Chamber, Twin Fang Planet)
*VREEEEEEEEE*
The alarms were deafening now. Red lights flashed like blood veins pulsing across the walls, bathing the once-pristine vault in a hellish glow. The temperature felt like it had risen by ten degrees, and the air inside tasted like static.
Officer Jayden’s heart pounded against his ribs as he gave another sharp hand signal.
The cult operatives moved with manic efficiency, their boots thundering across the polished floor as they grabbed the last of the treasures floating in their stasis fields.
Storage rings flickered, locking down weaponry, rare minerals, ceremonial relics—anything they could grab.
They had mentally prepared for this operation for the past 10 days. And for the first sixty seconds after the alarm began to ring, it almost seemed like the team would pull the heist off without any fatality or consequence.
But then came the glass panels built around the scroll.
Jayden wiped sweat off his brow as he turned back toward the pedestal. Three layers of the reinforced security casing had been shattered already. Poison, brute force, even a few mana based spells had helped.
But the fourth layer? It wasn’t budging at all.
No matter how hard they hit it, sprayed it, or tried to smash it, that fourth layer simply did not break.
"Move, let me hit it with all my strength," One soldier shouted, jabbing his blade forward with [Kill Thrust].
But although the point of contact sparked violently against the casing, the glass did not so much as crack, as all it did instead was send a tremor through the cult operatives wrist.
"If you can’t stab through it. You might wanna slice it," Another grunted and brought his longsword down in an overhead arc, a heavy slash that should have cleaved through steel. However, the glass still refused to break.
"It won’t hold forever," Jayden muttered under his breath, though he wasn’t sure if he believed it himself.
Seconds felt like hours.
The air inside the vault grew thinner as the automated defense systems began to partially depressurize the chamber.
A low hiss filled the room, and the lights began to flicker.
Then, the sound they had all been dreading could be heard down the corridor.
Footsteps.
And not the clumsy kind. These were measured, militarized. Boots with weight, discipline, and fury behind them.
"Go! Go! Go!" Jayden barked, waving his hand frantically as the remaining members of the looting squad sprinted toward the still-active dimensional portal.
One by one, they disappeared into the gate, their armor and gear flashing in the strobe-like red light of the vault.
While Jayden himself turned back to the scroll.
"Enough of this!" He said to himself, as he stopped trying to crack the protective glass and focused on the base supporting the whole damn thing instead.
If he couldn’t have the scroll directly, then he decided to take the entire goddamn pedestal with him instead.
*CLANG*
His blade sang through the steel beneath the pedestal. It wasn’t clean. Sparks flew everywhere. The runes protecting the base screamed in protest. But the structure wobbled.
Another slash. Then another.
But by the time he was done slashing just halfway through the base, the vault door finally opened, as Black Serpent guards started to pour through.
*CHING*
*CHING*
*CLANG*
The sound of clashing metal and missed attack spells filled the chamber, as the two remaining Cult Operatives guarding the vault entrance tried their best to buy time for their commanding officer to escape.
"Come on! Come on! Come on!"
Jayden said to himself as he sliced the pedestal clean off with one last full powered slash, before lifting it over his shoulder in a full-bodied heave.
"HAIYAAAHH–"
His bones strained, muscles screamed, but adrenaline carried him.
He ran.
Each step felt like a mile. The weight slowed him, but he didn’t let go.
He could see the gate now. Just a dozen more strides and he would make it. He would bring the scroll home.
But then.
A shadow moved.
A shadow of a man running on all fours. A beastly man. One that had not even been within the vault a second ago.
Jayden barely had time to react.
In a blur of motion, he felt an icy pain explode through his chest. His body convulsed. His knees gave way.
His eyes widened as he looked into the face of Dupravel Nuna, the Guildmaster of the Black Serpents who looked furious to see that some rats had managed to infiltrate his vault.
"You, rat.... You? Think you can steal from me?" Dupravel mouthed in fury, as he tried to tear Jayden’s body in half.
Blood poured out from Jayden’s mouth as he tried to say something—anything—but nothing came out.
The pedestal slipped from his grip and landed with a heavy thud behind him, rolling once before stopping just short of the portal.
There was no way in hell he could fight against a Monarch like Dupravel with a hole in his chest, and hence he did not even try.
However, looking at how the Dimensional Portal was still active and how Dupravel could probably get to his team if it was left open, Jayden took a last breath and pointed his fingers towards the portal frame.
Mana gathered at his fingertips.
And in one final act of heroism, he sent out a razor-sharp [Wind Blade] from his fingertips, as it sliced through the air before slamming into the outer rim of the portal frame.
*SZZZZT*
The frame crackled violently, the damaged conduction circuit losing power, as the connection collapsed and the portal vanished.
*Tear*
Dupravel tore Jayden in half like an animal, splitting him down the middle like he was made of play dough rather than bones and muscles, as his blood splattered everywhere.
The last thought that passed through Jayden’s fading mind was not of failure or regret, but a quiet relief.
’At least the others escaped—’ he thought dying with a small smile, as his torn body was left with a half grin on both sides.
His blood pooled beneath, as Dupravel stepped over his body and picked up the fallen pedestal.
"What mine! No-one take!." He declared, as by now the other Black Serpent security guards managed to take down the other two Cult members as well.
As in the end, the mission to steal the scroll ended in a failure.
—---------
Meanwhile, on the other side of the portal, the rest of Jayden’s team eagerly awaited his return with bated breaths, until the portal connection collapsed—and he still did not show up.
For a while, nobody spoke, as nobody could believe that even after everything, they had still failed.
However, in the end, no matter how much they wanted to deny it, the truth of the matter was that they had failed—despite the Dragon opening a clear route for them to get the scroll back.
Despite the days of planning, the disguised courier ship, the dimensional portal made by Master Argo, and the perfect breach... they had still failed.
"Well fuck! We were so fucking close! How can we even fuck this mission up?" The youngest in the squad finally spoke up, as he threw up his hands in frustration.
However, although everyone in the squad mirrored his emotion, nobody really had the answer to how they could fail, as every single one of them was asking themselves the same damn thing right now.