With every minute passing, the fight in the tunnel grew in intensity. The strength of the attackers increased over time in a supernatural way until their bodies couldn’t handle the power anymore and one by one, they fell down on their own or exploded at first touch like the first one did.

After the fight was over, Arn was cleaning the blood off himself while Rayne observed the dead bodies. Arn joined him and saw that the bodies looked dried up and drained of vitality.

“Rayne, I know what this is. At least I think I do.” Arn said, a genuine worry showing on his face.

“You saw something like this before? What happened to them?” Rayne asked, sharing the same look of worry.

“These are…soul puppets. I don’t know how they’re here but I’ve seen something similar before. Any form of self-consciousness and reason is removed from them and the only thing left is the primal urge for violence. They behave like rabid dogs, relentlessly attacking anyone in sight.”

“Rabid dogs…” Rayne muttered. “Why were they so strong? They were close to the second tier in power at the beginning and close to a gold rank in strength at the end. And it seemed like their strength wouldn’t stop increasing!”

Arn nodded. “I felt the same. They were using life force to empower their attacks until they used it all up! That’s why their bodies look like dried up human shells.”

“Gods…I didn’t know soul puppets were this revolting.” Rayne said in disgust.

“Aye. The poor souls…something truly foul was done to their bodies!”

Ranye was lost for words. He turned to the silver rankers and asked if anyone was injured. A few agents suffered light injuries but overall, their attackers didn’t pose real danger.

“Is that so? Then let’s move on. We wasted enough time as is.”

The group rushed down the tunnel until an intersection where they picked a direction and continued. They engaged another group of puppets before they reached another barrier.

“So this is their plan.” Rayne said and smashed his fist into the wall next to him. “They're trying to slow us down, biding their time.”

“Speaking of time boss. Isn’t it about time for the opening ceremony to start?” One of the agents asked. It was true. The opening ceremony should’ve started by now. Rayne didn’t know why it hadn't started yet but knew they were given more time.

While they were stuck in the sewers chasing after the bomb; the prince, guild leader Frose along with a vice-guild leader Glem and a gold ranker Vog, devised their options in the royal palace. The prince delayed the opening ceremony by an hour, giving a bit more time for Rayne to find the bombs and himself to decide what to do about the festival.

So far, while the threat of an attack was acknowledged, there still wasn’t any concrete evidence of a bomb threat.

"If the goal is to simply harm the kingdom doing the most damage, then the time of the attack should be obvious!" The prince said, looking out the window of the palace. His left arm was missing, replaced by the stump that slowly regrew.

"Your plan is to be the bait!" Frose stated, stroking his beard and continued. "At this time, the biggest impact on the kingdom would be if any harm comes to you…If the royal guards heard you speak like that, they would lock you up in the palace."

"That's why it's just us here. People have come from afar to enjoy the festival and I'm not going to take it away from them. Besides, you'll be at my side won't you?"

"Ho ho ho. You're placing too much trust in this old man. Very well, I'll stay by your side. Glem, I need you back at The Guild to keep a handle on things. Issue a contract on short notice for every free and willing adventurer to go and help patrol the area. You know the drill."

Glem nodded and left at once. Vog said his abilities are best used in the crowd so he excused himself and went to patrol on his own.

Once they were alone, the prince spoke freely. "Am I endangering everyone by not canceling the festival? There were only a few times in history the festival was canceled and it was only because of an inevitable threat like a dungeon break."

"I can't make that decision for you Tristan. There are many factors to consider but I don't think you're in the wrong here. If something does happen, we will be there and ready to act in time!" The guild leader smiled and reassured the prince.

Meanwhile, Rayne's unit fought off another group of puppets. For the past hour, they've encountered more of them and more frequently. In front of them was another dead end which meant a concealment barrier one of the agents dispelled. The wall in front of them dissipated into a smoke of mana and once the view cleared, they saw a transport trolley with a spherical container fixed in place. Just when Rayne exclaimed “Finally!”, they heard the sound of trumpets and cheering coming from above. The opening ceremony has officially started.

Rayne's team carefully approached the bomb and the same agent that dispelled the barrier - Marcel, stepped closer and circled the container making an observation.

"Boss, the bomb is inscribed! Empowered most likely. The problem is the trolley the bomb is sitting on. From what I can tell, there's a formation engraved on it. Probably to hide the bomb's mana signature, but I can't deactivate the bomb without disabling the formation first."

Rayne listened and watched at the pulse of blue going through the engravings on the bomb." The bomb is activated?" He asked and Marcel confirmed it was. "You can deactivate the bomb, can't you?"

"I believe so, but I'd like for everyone to put some distance first. Just in case."

Rayne reluctantly nodded and the rest of the team watched Marcel work from a distance. After a minute Marcel called out to Rayne. He approached and listened to Marcel instructing on how to turn off the formation and disable the bomb. Rayne was puzzled and couldn't help but to be dubious after hearing the instructions. "It can't be that easy can it?"

"I don't know what to tell you. I observed the pattern in the formation in detail and I can say with certainty that I can easily turn it off! It will take time though."

"How long?" Rayne asked, dreading the worst. Time is the one thing they can't afford to waste.

"Roughly ten minutes." Marcel replied. He laid down on his back, crawled under the trolley and started working on nullifying the runes, one by one. Ten minutes later, the formation was disabled and the bomb deactivated. "I don't think there's more to it. It seems like rushed work and they prioritised it to get the job done."

Rayne wasn't convinced, but nonetheless, the first bomb was found and deactivated. "Great work! We'll see if the next one will be the same. Let's go."

An hour later, Marcel had deactivated another bomb. "Same pattern, same process. About ten minutes of work. What now boss?"

"It takes too long to find each bomb! We're going to have to split up so we can cover more ground. I doubt there are puppets awaiting us behind every concealment barrier." Rayne said and turned and looked at the shriveled dead bodies behind them. "We must've dealt with at least forty of them by now. What the fuck they have done to all those people…?"

Arn agreed with Rayne and took a knee next to one of the puppets, inspecting the body. Something he should've done the first time they encountered soul puppets.

"What is it?" Rayne asked. Arn didn't reply immediately. He leaned closer and could barely make out a faded ink on the shriveled arm. "These are locals, Rayne. Like the thugs we apprehended and questioned yesterday."

Rayne nodded. "There are many small local groups in the Underground. Not many would care if a hundred people disappeared…I don't know if it was Silva or there's someone else capable of doing…all of this!" Rayne finished, gesturing at all the dead bodies with his hands.

"Arndell, take Marcel and the three that came with you and head east, toward the next square on the map. The rest will come with me. We'll head west and hopefully, we'll meet back in the middle and head toward the main square together."

Rayne grabbed Arndell's hand in a handshake and before parting ways said to them: "Good luck and may the fortune favor the bold!" Arndell added "the brave!", and Rayne finished with, "and the strong!"

Many long tunnels and intersections away, Silva stood beneath the manhole, talking to Clover and a small group of Hound members. "Things aren't exactly proceeding as planned, but we reckon they wouldn't and came prepared."

"Varia sure made quite a number of puppets…Clover, I need you to do something for me."

"Sure, sup?" Clover said while chewing on something.

"Is that candy? Nevermind, I need you to tamper with one of the formations on the trolleys beneath the main square."

"Umm I can do that, but the formation won't work properly then. They'll sense the mana sign-"

"Doesn't matter! I need the bomb to go off when they try to temper with the formation." Silva mischievously said, sporting a wide grin.

"But then the bomb would go off ahead of the schedule!" Clover stated.

"Yes Clover, I know how the schedule works. We have no choice. By the time of the prince's speech all our bombs could be found and deactivated. I've marked the location of the bomb for you at the east side of the main square. Don't dawdle after you finish! Get out and head north toward the safehouse…Directly toward the safehouse! Understand?" Silva warned, emphasising his words.

Clover rolled her eyes, but nodded.

"-and Fidref, Grir. Go with Clover and make sure no harm comes to her! The rest of you will follow me. There's a group of pests that need to be exterminated."

Silva's plan was to concentrate most of the explosion on the main square where the prince would give the speech after the ceremony, so he had four out of ten bombs placed at each corner of the square. The four surrounding squares weren't the targets, but he had bombs to spare and planned to use them as a contingency or a failsafe in case their main target is compromised.

Rayne and a group of operatives came from the south and dismantled the first two bombs. If they continued clearing the sewers at the same pace, they might have time to dismantle two more bombs, three at most, which was at the max limit Silva found acceptable for the mission to be considered a success. Still…he wouldn't just sit idly by and let their efforts be diminished. He headed southwest and prepared to meet the guildies head on.

Meanwhile, in the east wing of the sewers, Arndell and his team demolished another smaller group of puppets and after dispelling the barrier, they've found another bomb. The noise coming from above was getting louder and Arndell felt pressed for time. They all did. The ceremony went on for a while now and Arndell estimated it would last another hour or so. Not enough time to deactive every bomb. They would fail. Some of the bombs would go off and…he didn't dare to think further.

"Done Marcel?"

"In a minute. I'm trying as fast as I can."

"I know I know. Take your time." Arndell said but nervousness could be felt in his voice. Marcel successfully deactivated the second bomb, the fourth bomb overall, and the team was about to start running ahead when Arndell stop them.

"We won't be going forward. We're turning back and heading directly toward the main square." The rest of the team became flustered, knowing that they would leave the potential bomb undiscovered and activated.

"I know…I don't like it either. Can't you hear them? Up above. The crowd is getting louder which means the entertainers will pass by this square in minutes and head toward the main square, finishing the opening ceremony. We don't know the exact number of bombs they have but intel said eight at minimum. So let's pick up pace and get the rest of the bombs within an hour!"

"Yes boss!" The men replied, steeling their resolve. They rushed back, but not all the way back where they split with Rayne. One of the intersections they passed led toward the main square and that's where the Arndell's team headed.

On the other side, Rayne's team was ambushed while they were dealing with the puppets. Silva's men employed guerilla warfare tactics to stall and disorganise their opponents and quickly fled down the tunnel and disappear into the next one. Rayne was appalled by/at the brazen tactics but the rage quickly took over after he saw that one of his agents fell during the initial ambush. He directed the rest of his men to search for the bombs while he rushed after them.

Rayne was fast, much faster then the assailants and quickly caught up with them. He counted four people but Silva wasn't among them. The assailants put up a fight but Rayne dealt with them in a matter of seconds.

He was enraged and winded after the brief exchange. He knew finding bombs took priority but…Silva was here, somewhere!

"My oh my. You seem out of breath kid! Is this old man too fast for you?"

Rayne froze, hearing a voice coming from behind. The voice he dreamt of hearing so many times…He straightened up, took a deep breath and slowly turned until he was sideways looking at Silva down the tunnel. Silva cocked his head and sported a teasing grin.

"Haah…I'm fine. I'm just not used to dealing with cowards running away so much."

Silva's grin disappeared and he slowly extended his hand toward Rayne. Rayne narrowed his eyes, wondering what Silva was about to do. He focused on sensing the mana around Silva and expected a soul attack, even a mind attack, but his eyes widened and he took a step backwards while jerking his head back.

In a spot his head had just been, a concentrated bubble of mana exploded, causing a loud booming sound to reverberate through the tunnel.

Rayne immediately sent Ice Spear which Silva easily dodged.

*hmph* "Weak! TOO WEAK RAYNE!!"

Silva shouted and repeated his previous action. He raised his arm, then snapped his finger. Another bubble of highly concentrated mana exploded next to Rayne as he sidestepped the attack and moved forward into motion. Silva grinned, turned to the tunnel to his side and started running. Rayne watched Silva turn and run, bewildered. He couldn't believe the audacity of the old man. He turned at the bend at the end of the tunnel and ran after Silva.