The heavy, jarring scrape of iron-rimmed wheels grinding against the gravel of the Lulu City outer boundary brought the carriage to a sudden, absolute halt.
"End of the line! Everyone out! We've reached the Lulu gates!" the merchant driver bellowed from the front seat, his voice cutting sharply through the thick, stagnant air of the carriage.
I was jolted instantly awake, my S-rank vanguard reflexes snapping my focus back into alignment. But the moment my eyes opened beneath the shadow of my canvas hood, a sudden, cold wave of alarm hit my chest. My face felt completely bare. The cool night air was brushing against the scarred skin of my cheeks.
My Leech's Hollow Mask was gone.
I turned my head instantly, my single jade-green eye locking onto the passenger seat right beside me. There, sitting in the lap of a fast-asleep migrant woman, was a tiny baby girl. The infant was wide awake, staring up at me with big, innocent eyes while happily munching and drooling on the edge of my high-tier alchemical mask, treating the specialized leather and bone plating like a teething toy.
Before I could even process the absolute absurdity of an S-rank bounty hunter getting effortlessly pickpocketed by an infant, the sudden shifting of the carriage woke the mother. She blinked, rubbed her eyes, and then looked down. The moment she realized her baby was actively chewing on the terrifying, monstrous facepiece of a heavily armed vanguard dressed in a crimson trench coat, her face turned entirely pale with sheer terror.
"Oh my gods! I am so, so incredibly sorry, ma'am!" the mother gasped frantically, quickly snatching the mask away from her baby's grip and wiping her sleeve across the drool-stained surface.
She held it out to me with trembling hands, bowing her head repeatedly.
"She grabs everything when she's teething, please forgive her!"
I merely shrugged it off beneath the deep shadow of my hood, refusing to terrify the poor woman any further. I took the mask back with a gentle nod of thanks, stepped over the cluttered baggage, and exited the wooden wagon alongside the rest of the shuffling migrants.
Standing in the dim, flickering lamplight of the Lulu City outskirts, I used a clean cloth from my pocket to thoroughly wipe down the alchemical plating before placing the Leech's Hollow Mask firmly back over my face. The comfortable, sealing pressure of the mask locked into place, restoring my anonymity.
Midnight had officially arrived. The sky above was a vast, pitch-black void, but I didn't deploy my wings just yet. Even in the dead of night, there were still stray guards and late-night laborers moving around the city gates. I kept my head down and marched quickly away from the settlement, navigating the rocky, twisting crossroads that led far out into the unpopulated wilderness.
After ten minutes of maintaining a rapid, S-rank stride, the ambient lights of Lulu City completely faded behind the ridges. I finally arrived at a desolate, wind-swept clearing surrounded by jagged boulders and dead trees. My analytical eye scanned the perimeter… there was absolutely no one in sight.
Moving with deliberate precision, I reached up and unbuttoned the front of Olive's fire-resistant crimson trench coat. With a sharp, internal flex of my demonic core, the flesh along my shoulder blades rippled, and my massive, translucent blood wings erupted from my back, expanding into the cold night air with a soft, shifting hum.
Without the burning constraints of the sunlight or the prying eyes of the Bureau scouts, my full evolutionary power was completely unchained. I bent my knees, tensed my muscles, and kicked off the ground with explosive kinetic force.
BOOM.
The dirt beneath my boots shattered as I launched myself straight into the midnight sky, my blood wings beating with immense, silent power as I soared over the tree line, flying at breakneck speed toward the dark, menacing peaks of the Lulu Mountains. With exactly 7 silver pieces left in my purse, my level 8 mana pool burning bright, and my alchemical weapons primed, the Crimson Phantom was descending upon Vanessa Katt's camp like a shadow of absolute death.
The cold mountain air whistled sharply against the reinforced leather of my Leech's Hollow Mask as I cut through the pitch-black sky. Beneath my massive, translucent blood wings, the jagged topography of the Lulu Mountain range stretched out like a sleeping beast. Based on the stolen syndicate records I had thoroughly memorized back in Caria, the rogue faction's encampment was explicitly marked on the second peak of the range. Because it was a massive, sprawling mountain network, finding a needle in this rocky haystack would have been a nightmare for a standard tracker, but my elevated demonic perception gave me the ultimate tactical edge.
Then, cutting through the dense alpine gloom, I saw it… a flicker of warm, orange light.
I tilted my wings, shifting my trajectory into a silent, banking glide toward a steep crag directly overlooking the source of the glow. Landing weightlessly on the rocky vantage point, I crouched low, letting the hem of my crimson trench coat break my silhouette against the stone. I narrowed my single jade-green eye to analyze the layout.
It was indeed Vanessa Katt's camp.
This hidden outpost was my definitive gateway to securing the primary bounty on her husband, Cameron Gal. Down in the clearing, a network of hide tents and reinforced wooden barricades surrounded a central bonfire. My tactical appraisal of the targets was instantaneous: the bulk of the forces down there were low-to-mid-tier mercenary grunts brought in for cheap muscle. There was only one actual Immoral Knight present in the entire camp… Vanessa herself, recognizable by her heavy, dark-iron vanguard armor and the distinct, corrupted mana radiating from her frame.
Sitting on this vantage point, my mind formulated a ruthless, flawless operational plan:
Total Extermination and systematically eliminate every single mercenary grunt in the camp to isolate the target.
High-Value Capture and keep Vanessa Katt alive, incapacitating her through absolute physical dominance.
Interrogation and infiltration interrogate her on the spot to extract the secure defensive codes and layout of the main Immoral Knight stronghold.
Shapeshift and Execute and utilize my advanced demonic shapeshifting to take on her exact physical form and voice, allowing me to infiltrate their main base completely undetected, bypass their vards, and personally claim Cameron Gal's head for the ultimate payout.
But an infiltration of this scale required an explosive, disorienting opening move.
I raised my single right hand, the newly forged Level 8 Mana Pool, Level 6 Magic Enhancement, and Level 5 Healing rings catching the faint reflection of the distant bonfire. I locked my focus onto my golden Inventory Ring on my ring finger, immediately tapping into the weightless pocket dimension.
Pop. Pop. Pop.
Moving with blinding, S-rank fluid speed, I pulled the ten custom-crafted flasks of weaponized alchemical tear gas from the void, cradling them perfectly against my chest.
I kicked off the rocky ledge, my blood wings snapping open as I dove silently through the midnight air, tracing a low, precise bombing vector directly over the encampment. As I soared a mere twenty feet above the tents, I began systematically shattering the flasks one by one, dropping them with calculated spacing across the entire perimeter.
SMASH. SMASH. SMASH.
The glass vessels imploded against the rocky ground, instantly unleashing a massive, hyper-concentrated torrent of dense, billowing white vapor. Amplified by the ambient residual mana of the peak, the weaponized alchemical tear gas didn't just drift… it exploded outward in a violent, localized shockwave, curling rapidly through the tents, barricades, and trenches.
Within seconds, a suffocating, blinding cloud of toxic gas completely encircled the base. Panic erupted instantly. The mercenaries didn't even have time to reach for their blades before the severe, burning poison hit their lungs and eyes, throwing the entire camp into absolute, chaotic darkness. The Crimson Phantom had officially descended.