Chapter 179: Unleashing The Lake

Together, the Ashcrofts rushed after the Collectors, deeper into the failing facility. Another tremor shook the corridor behind them, and the geometric markings ahead began glowing one after another, guiding them toward the Heart.

They had barely reached the next junction when a Collector came stumbling through a side door, pursued by three Baal guards. The guards raised their weapons as soon as they spotted the Ashcrofts, and gunfire erupted from the passage ahead before Reinhard could decide which direction posed the greater threat.

A relic projectile struck the wall beside them, scattering fragments across the corridor. Reinhard pulled Emily aside, and she deflected a second attack with Aeon. Across the junction, the Collectors returned fire against Baal while shouting at one another over the explosions.

"Your family is in the way!" one Collector yelled at Reinhard.

"Your people blew up a wall to enter the building. I think we’re past discussing proper hallway etiquette."

The Collector fired at him.

Reinhard tilted his head, letting the projectile pass and strike a Baal barrier behind him. The barrier shattered, and the guards immediately redirected their attacks toward the Collectors.

"Wonderful," Reinhard muttered. "Now we’re everyone’s problem."

He studied the battlefield through Emperor’s Insight. More enemies were approaching from behind, while several A-Rank Baal Awakeners coordinated their attacks near the center. Fighting everyone would waste too much time, especially with the facility continuing to shake around them.

"Yuna, hold the rear. Maki, find us an opening. Lily, protect the flank. Emily, stay with me."

Yuna turned toward the pursuing guards.

She raised a hand and seized several of them with telekinesis, smashing two into the ceiling before throwing them into a group of Collectors.

When the remaining enemies tried to push through, she swept her arm across the corridor and set the floor ablaze. The advancing guards scattered behind their barriers, while the Collectors found themselves arguing over who had been responsible for bringing them into the fire.

"Everyone who wants to chase us can come together," Yuna called. "It saves me the trouble of dealing with you individually."

Maki had already moved toward a damaged section of wall overlooking the main chamber. She distorted the space between two groups of Baal guards, cutting off their line of support just as several soldiers raised their rifles toward the Ashcrofts.

Her Sealing Gnosis activated. The weapons stopped working.

One guard pulled the trigger twice before looking down at his rifle in disbelief. Another tried to strike his weapon against his palm, apparently hoping that would fix it. Maki drew her sword and advanced before they could reach their secondary weapons, knocking a rifle aside and forcing its owner to retreat.

A Collector noticed her disabling the guns. "Can you do that to mine?"

"Probably."

He immediately raised his shotgun toward her.

Maki sealed it.

The Collector stared at his weapon. "That’s cheating!"

"You asked."

He threw the shotgun at her and reached for another gun, only for Maki to seal that one too. He retreated, shouting complaints about how nobody respected honest criminal work anymore, while Maki turned back toward the chamber.

Lily had three Collectors attempting to flank her.

Rather than let them reach Maki, she planted her feet and summoned six small swords made entirely of magic. The blades formed around her, glowing with concentrated Mana, before shooting toward the approaching men.

The Collectors scattered.

The swords knocked their weapons aside and forced them to stumble backward, giving Lily enough room to rush forward and slash through their exposed defenses. Two fell, and the third retreated behind a damaged console.

Emily glanced over in surprise. "Lily can do that now?"

Reinhard chuckled as Lily recalled her remaining magical swords. "Seems someone has gotten better at controlling her Mana."

"I could always do it!" Lily shouted.

"Of course. You were simply saving it for a special occasion."

"I was practicing!"

"And now your practice has become very dangerous. I’m proud of you."

"Stop talking and help!"

Reinhard raised a hand, and Magic Pressure struck the Baal guards closing in on Lily. Their advance faltered long enough for her to return to Maki’s side, keeping the flank clear.

The family’s movements had begun to fit together. Yuna prevented the pursuers from closing in behind them, Maki disrupted Baal’s formation, and Lily kept the side passage clear. But they still needed a route through the main chamber, where both factions were converging on a large research apparatus beside the inner passage.

The Baal commander saw the Collectors approaching it and abandoned his defensive position.

"Protect the apparatus! Do not let them touch it!"

The Collectors immediately interpreted the order as proof that the device was valuable.

"Look at that!" one shouted. "They’re hiding something expensive!"

"That’s not what he said!"

"Why else would he be shouting?"

They charged the apparatus, forcing the Baal guards to turn away from the Ashcrofts. The organized defensive line broke apart as soldiers rushed to protect the equipment, leaving a gap along the right side of the chamber.

Maki spotted it first. "There! Their formation is open!"

"Yuna, keep the rear clear!" Reinhard called. "Everyone else, move!"

Yuna extended her telekinetic grip, dragging two pursuing guards away from the opening before another wave of flames forced the remaining enemies to retreat.

Maki used her spatial ability to keep the nearest Baal squad separated from its commander, while Lily intercepted a Collector who tried to cut across their path.

The opening was narrow, but it was enough.

Reinhard and Emily led the advance together.

A Baal Awakener rushed to intercept them, swinging a reinforced weapon toward Emily, but she bent the space between them and made the strike overshoot. Reinhard opened a Space Tear behind the man and another near Emily.

She understood immediately.

Emily rushed through the first tear and emerged behind the defender.

Her blade flashed across his back before he could turn. Reinhard opened another tear beside a second opponent, allowing her to appear beyond his guard and cut across his weapon arm.

A third attack came toward her, but she activated Time Stop, freezing the strike before blitzing past her opponent and cutting him down.

When time resumed, his weapon clattered to the floor.

Reinhard followed with a Spatial Step and struck another Awakener with his Right Hand of God, sending him crashing into a barrier. Emily landed beside him, breathing steadily as the two moved toward the next group of defenders.

"You could have warned me before opening that second tear," she said.

"You looked like you were having fun."

"I was fighting."

"Those things aren’t mutually exclusive."

She gave him a look, but the corner of her mouth lifted. They continued forward, Emily deflecting an incoming strike with Aeon while Reinhard pulled the attacker off balance. She finished the exchange with a slash that forced him to retreat, and they passed through the gap before Baal could close it.

Behind them, the Collectors had reached the apparatus. Several were already attempting to detach its outer components while Baal guards fought desperately to stop them. The chamber shook again, and a section of the ceiling collapsed near the device.

Neither faction backed down.

Then Reinhard’s Danger Intuition flared.

"Behind us!"

The pursuers had found another route around Yuna’s flames. Collectors and Baal guards charged into the corridor together, firing relic projectiles and trying to overwhelm the family with numbers. The Ashcrofts had reached the far side of the passage, but the enemies were closing too quickly for them to outrun the attack.

Reinhard glanced at the approaching crowd and reached into his inventory. He produced a relic marked Mana Flood.

"Honestly, can’t anyone in this building take a hint?"

He threw it into the center of the corridor.

The relic shattered, releasing an enormous quantity of Mana-infused water. The flood surged outward with the force of a lake breaking through a dam, swallowing the pursuers before they could escape. Water slammed into the walls, filled the corridor, and swept weapons, debris, and combatants along with it.

One Collector managed to grab a railing.

"WHO BROUGHT A LAKE?"

His companion swept past him in the current. "YOU DID!"

"I DIDN’T BRING A LAKE!"

"You brought the relic case!"

"THAT ISN’T THE SAME THING!"

The railing tore free, and both men disappeared into the torrent.

Reinhard watched the flood rush toward the lower section of the corridor. Before using his next ability, he checked his family. Yuna had withdrawn beyond the water’s path, while Maki and Lily stood beside Emily on the dry section of the passage. None of them remained in contact with the flood.

"Everyone clear?" he asked.

Yuna nodded. "We’re clear."

"Excellent."

Reinhard raised his hand. Lightning gathered around his fingers before he released his Shock skill into the water.

The corridor flashed blue-white.

Electricity spread through the flood, striking the enemies caught in the current. Several convulsed before losing consciousness, while the remaining pursuers scrambled toward higher ground. Whatever interest they had in chasing the Ashcrofts had become much less important than escaping the water.

Emily stared at the flood rushing past them. "You had that the entire time?"

"Of course."

"And you waited until now?"

"I was hoping they’d develop better manners."

She looked at the wreckage, then back at him. "Your standards for education are unusual."

"I’ve had a difficult life."

The flood continued down the corridor, carrying the last of the pursuing enemies away from their route. Yuna rejoined the others, and Reinhard checked their Mana signatures to make certain everyone was accounted for. They were all safe, although the facility had suffered considerably more damage than before.

"The same cannot be said for the building," Reinhard remarked.

"The building doesn’t have plumbing that can handle a lake," Maki replied.

"Then perhaps they should have invested in better infrastructure."

A deep tremor interrupted them. Water sloshed against the walls, and the geometric markings farther down the corridor brightened until they cast a pale glow across the wreckage.

The jokes faded.

Reinhard felt the Mana gathering below them. It was much stronger than the scattered disturbances they had encountered on the upper levels, and its concentration continued to increase with every passing second. The energy seemed to draw everything toward a single point beneath the facility.

Emily looked toward the glowing markings. She didn’t need to explain what she felt; the pressure was growing too strong for any of them to mistake it for an ordinary disturbance.

Reinhard tightened his grip on her hand and looked at the passage descending ahead.

"We’re close," he said. "Keep moving. Whatever is happening down there, we stop it before this place comes apart."

The Ashcrofts hurried onward, leaving the flood and the fighting behind them as the geometric markings continued to illuminate the way toward the Heart.