The guard glanced back when he heard the sound of Hugo walking, but then turned away as if it was nothing. The runes were working. Hugo adjusted his bag of bombs and quickly walked down the stairs. There were two flights of stairs, ending with a locked door. Hugo frowned. He didn’t have a lot of time, and picking this lock wouldn’t be easy with unlimited time. It was a mana lock, the advanced kind they had installed after the alchemy building burnt down.

He raced back up the stairs and looked at the guard’s waist. Just as he expected, the guard had a key. Hugo just walked up and snagged the key and raced back down. The guard noticed him taking it, but then ignored Hugo as he walked away.

Thankfully, the guard’s key did work at the base of the stairs and Hugo walked in. There were two guards stationed on the other side of the stairs. They ignored him as he walked in and shut the door behind himself. Hugo kept the key, planning on using it on his way out.

It was much busier down here. There were a dozen soldiers walking around, placing candles in the wall sconces where the dead mana lights stood. They must have known that something like this might happen. Hugo walked the hallways, not sure what he was looking for. It had to be a ritual or a runic creation of some kind.

He made a point of saluting the majors he saw down here. Even though they just ignored him, he knew that some of the ritualists could see him. He wanted to blend in as much as possible. After two turns, he walked into a large room. The city’s shimmer vein dominated the middle of the room, the soft glow meant that no lights were needed in here. There were floor to ceiling glass windows of an unusually high quality.

A contraption straddled the shimmer vein. It was mostly scaffolding with glowing cables snaking throughout and connecting them to something on the vein. The various cables were connecting several different objects. Some of them looked like standard ritual circles, others were strange collections of runes, there were even a few bubbling potions with cables set inside.

There were a half dozen golems standing motionless near the shimmer vein. There was a no man zone surrounding the contraption, and several people were pointing at various parts and quietly discussing things. As Hugo watched, one of the soldiers called a golem forward and gave him some instructions. Then the golem went to the contraption and adjusted something.

It was an interesting way to get around the fact that shimmer was toxic. The scientist soldiers didn’t have to even touch the rituals or alchemy to adjust them. They could stay safe out here, while the golems did the dangerous work.

That would make planting the bombs problematic. He couldn’t go in there, that close to the vein. Even if the shimmer didn’t kill him, he couldn’t risk the high concentration sending him back in time.

He wandered around the room. He saw the other half of the contraption, with another set of soldier scientists discussing changes to the ritual. He did see how they put materials in the sealed room. There was a sliding box they would pull from the wall, place a reagent or chemical inside and then slide it forward. That would open the box on the other side and the golems would take them out.

These golems must have been insanely expensive. They were the most advanced ones he had ever seen. They could hear and follow verbal commands, they walked with a natural gait. They had four fingers that could manipulate things precisely. The life mage that created these golems must have given up years of his life to imbue them with those capabilities.

Hugo’s time was running out, he needed to think of a plan and get going. He estimated that he had about six more minutes on his disregard rune suit before everyone could see him and he would get caught. He needed to act while no one was paying attention.

Although, come to think of it. The golems probably weren’t affected. They didn’t have a mind for the shadow rune to work on, so they probably wouldn’t ignore him. Maybe he could use that to his advantage.

He waited a few moments for the sliding box to be free. Then he activated all of this bombs and placed them inside. He called over a few golems and said. “Place one of these in the center of each ritual circle.”

An older soldier walked up to Hugo and said, “What are those things you have them placing?”

It took everything Hugo had not to jump in fright. He had gotten used to being invisible, this soldier must have a high enough wisdom to see through his disregard rune.

“I don’t really know,” Hugo said and shrugged, “Just following orders. I think it is something Marshal Botha came up with.”

“I will have to take it up with him,” the soldier said.

“Yes sir,” Hugo said and saluted. He didn’t see any chevrons on his uniform, but he was probably highly ranked in more ways than one. The runist ignored him and stared at the bombs the golems were placing.

The bomb’s candles were lit and would go off in about twenty minutes, and Hugo had to get out of here in less than four minutes.

He was only halfway done with his plan though. He had to make sure they wouldn’t recreate the machine and still cause the cascade failure. He had to take care of the soldiers working on this project.

His plan to deal with them had to do with a story he read in a book. It was the book covering the dangers of using a black bolt, how it could go through objects and still kill someone with a indirect shot.

First making sure that the runist from earlier wasn’t looking at him, Hugo started. He crouched on the floor and pointed his hand across the soldier’s legs. He fired black bolt, using up a third of his mana pool. The shot made several of them shiver, but didn’t kill any of them right away. Within the next few hours and days, all of them would be dead.

Next, he walked to the other side of the vein. The runist followed him, and Hugo stepped to the side to let him pass. Then he shot another row of soldiers. A few of these ones looked around and rubbed their legs, but didn’t see Hugo there.

Finally, Hugo turned and followed after the first ritualist. He hadn’t hit him earlier because he didn’t want to get caught, but now Hugo could shoot and duck behind a corner. It would use most of the rest of his mana pool, but it was the final loose end he needed to wrap up.

He didn’t see the runist anymore and he jogged down the hallway after him. He was cutting things close. If he didn’t see him soon, Hugo would just run away. He could just try again another night because no one knew who he was. He only had one person left to eliminate, so he would...

His thoughts ground to a halt. He had just turned the corner and saw the runist from earlier. Walking and talking with him was the Black Marshal. Marshal Botha. Hugo ducked back around the corner before either of them could see him. As much as he wanted to see these two, he couldn’t covertly take them both out without raising an alarm.

Running back down the hallway was out as well, he couldn’t be nearby when the bombs went off. Instead, he positioned himself on the outside of the hallway. He would walk by them as they turned the corner, hopefully unobserved.

He overheard them talking as they got closer “... and you promised me you wouldn’t interfere with my work. I am only lending my considerable talents to this effort because you promised me autonomy,” the runist was saying.

“As I said, I did not order any additions. We will get to the bottom of this,” the marshall said.

Swearing to himself, Hugo thought frantically. He needed to kill both of the people coming down that hallway. But he didn’t feel confident in taking them both on at once. He wished he had thought to bring weapons along, more than just the bombs. He had wanted to be incognito and a weapon might have blown his cover sooner.

It would be better to just leave and try again on a different day. Hugo started walking around the corner just as they came around. Thankfully, he timed it just right, slipping past them as they walked on by. When they were out of sight, Hugo allowed himself a sigh.

“You there! Stop!” the marshal yelled.

They were onto him. Hugo broke out in a run. Or at least, he tried to. He found himself unable to move. The marshal’s shadow magic imbued his yell with a command.

Hugo could fight against it, but it was hard. He pushed against the magic, using every ounce of his willpower and wisdom stat. He screamed internally, and was able to move his left foot forward.

It was too late.

Marshal Botha stepped forward and said, “Stop trying to run away.”

Hugo felt like he could keep resisting this command, but he didn’t bother. He had felt like he was running through molasses. He didn’t have a chance of outrunning the marshal and ritualist.

The marshal said, “Why are you using shadow magic here, and why did you run?”

Hugo found it easier to resist this command and only answered his second question, “I didn’t want to get in trouble.”

The ritualist stepped forward and said, “He is the same one I was telling you about.”

Marshal Botha held him at arms length and said, “Who sent you here?”

“No one,” Hugo blurted out before he could stop himself.

“No one? Then why are you here? Who is your commanding officer?”

“Major Ahmed,” said Hugo. He counted it a minor victory that he didn’t blurt out why he was here too.

The marshal turned to the ritualist and said, “I didn’t approve any new majors. Is he one of yours?”

“No, he is not one of mine. You would have to approve of anyone even if I did want more ritualists,” the older man said.

Hugo turned to the ritualist. He tried to memorize his face. This man seemed to be leading the project on the marshal’s orders. If he wanted to stop this cascade failure, he was the man he would have to kill.

He was an older human, gray hair cut close to his head. He was short and had a small scar below his nose to his lip. Hugo was fairly sure he was a ritualist since he could see through Hugo’s disregard runes.

Glancing around, Hugo didn’t see anyone else in the hallway. The ritualist didn’t seem that strong, so if he wanted to get away, he needed to attack the marshal first. It wouldn’t be quiet, but the conversation with the marshal wasn’t going well. He needed to act before the marshal commanded him not to attack.

Hugo slowly angled his hands towards the marshal's face and shot a pair of mana darts right at his eyes.

A blue barrier sprung up between them and blocked both shots. The marshal swore at him and the barrier rushed forward slamming Hugo up against the wall. The impact was brutal, jarring him to his bones.

Before Hugo could recover, Marshal Botha already had this shimmer caster out and fired a shot at him. Hugo tried to create a shield to block it, but he was too rattled. The shimmer hit him and he could almost feel his soul trying to leave his body before he snapped back. The pain was excruciating.

Hugo slumped to the floor, motionless and manaless. Distantly, he could hear them talking, shouting for guards. Moments later, Hugo was dragged across the floor. There was a long tunnel connecting this complex to the military base, and he didn’t regain control of his body until he was halfway across.

Keeping his eyes closed, Hugo tried to think of something. He was weak without the system boosting him, so he couldn’t overpower the guards even if they were only mundane. Judging by the footsteps, there were at least three people surrounding him.

Suddenly they stopped, one of them said, “We have a dangerous prisoner, need to take him to the stockades. Marshal’s orders.”

“Alright, you know the drill. I have to ask for off shift access,” someone new said. There was knocking on the door behind him. They all stood around waiting for a response on the other side of the door. The guards shifted and one stepped on Hugo’s hand.

Hugo let out an involuntary groan, but tried to act like he was still out of it. He kept his eyes shut and his body limp.

The door guard said, “Oh! This is the perfect situation to try this out. Let me.”

Something cracked near Hugo’s face and he caught a whiff of something strange. Quickly, Hugo felt his consciousness leaving him until he knew nothing.