The Master of Cards Chapter 83: Infiltration

After what seemed like half an hour, Alex finally managed to get up. He looked at the battle scene and shook his head. He had to eliminate all traces of the battle, but first he began eating all the food he had.

He activated his Light Aura to heal his body. Then he searched the belongings of the third officer and discovered a few documents and a key, that he thought might be useful.

He burned off the corpse and hid all the trails of conflict. Then he took rags of clothes and began masking himself to look like a Ninja, inspired by Nia. He took a roundabout way to return to the shelter at night from the southern end instead of the western end where he had initially left with the group.

It was night, and while there are many lights made from burning torch sticks, there are many shadows as well. Within those shadows, a person kept disappearing and reappearing in other areas like a black cat at night, undetectable.

Alex quietly made his way to the Negima headquarters. Obviously, the headquarters had a defensive card activated that would alert them about intruders. However, Alex had prepared, for he had acquired a card on the Third Officer. The card literally was a rank 1 card - Identification Key.

It was a card used to make the defensive card acknowledge the user's identity and let them enter the defended area.

Alex quietly crept into the Negima headquarters. At this moment, Alex could only appreciate that this world didn't allow electric objects to work and that the Negima corporation didn't wish to waste resources on illuminating their base with illumination cards at night and resorted to torch lights.

Alex crept past the entry and found himself on the first floor, quietly entering a conference room he had visited before.

"The second place of interest was activated, but the mission seems to still be a failure?" A voice spoke in exasperation.

"Officer, in the previous instance, it seems that the internal object caused some kind of interference and collapse of command within the team, leading to failure." A person said. "This time around we ensured a fail safe mechanism to ensure the sacrifice of all the participants except Officer Ming, and according to analysis of the scene, Officer Ming seems to have succeeded."

"Are you suggesting Officer Ming betrayed Negima for that item? Just what exactly is hidden within those special ruins?" The Officer slammed his hand on the table.

"Officer, the mysterious cube is asking us if we have managed to find the two objects." The person said with a bit of fear in its voice.

"That cube... it wants to turn this Shelter into a haven for the darkness attribute. We must follow its instructions and obtain both the items so that it can cast a shadow over the shelter." The officer said matter of factly, however at that moment, his eyes bulged in shock and terror as he saw a spike of light come out of his chest, bursting through his heart before he had any chance to retaliate.

The person who was speaking to the officer was paralyzed in fear. He didn't see what happened, but he saw that the officer had died. There were only five officers in the Highland Shelter's Negima Corporation. Officer Ming had disappeared, third officer had gone out investigating, second officer just suddenly died now.

From the darkness a voice spoke up. "Don't be so scared. Explain the business of the mysterious cube. And where are your two remaining officers?"

The person was paralyzed by fear and couldn't identify where the voice was coming from at all. Soon Alex learned what was going on. Negima wanted to become the second Black Marlet and had obtained a mysterious item with a consciousness. The mysterious cube with darkness attribute, that lured Negima around to collect fragments of the Higher Entities.

As for the remaining two officers belonging to the Highland Shelter, they were back on Earth. However, on Earth, all the members of Negima could collect together from other shelters and higher card dimensions, which would be a bad idea for Alex.

Alex quietly made his way through the Negima Corporations corridors until it arrived at the sealed area where the person told him the mysterious cube was inside.

Alex deactivated Dark Shadow and entered the room to find a cube floating in the air, a vapor of darkness emitting out of it.

"Oh? Did they send a new person?" The voice in the cube asked.

Alex covered his body in Light Aura. He then held the cube using his Light Aura, but the cube laughed.

"Your Light Attribute Card is most unique. But I am a higher entity. A mere human trying to control me?" The cube snorted and tried to emit darkness to counter the Light attribute.

Alex was nonchalant. He sat down with the cube in his aura covered hand. "Why are you looking for other fragments? They aren't even of your attribute."

"Oh? You know more than you should. Did you absorb a fragment?" The cube asked.

Alex snorted and began forcing his light aura to enter the cube, trying to dominate the darkness aura of the cube. The cube continued to resist, but the Light Aura was its nemesis. The pressure from the aura was burning it, as it felt a terrifying purification force within the Light Aura.

"If you act smart again, I'll simply purify you." Alex calmly threatened. "So you are also a fragment yes? What is your specialty?"

The cube's voice trembled. "How do you know so much? My s-speciality is to infuse others with darkness."

"Doesn't sound too different from the blood attribute fragment you sent Negima on a searching trip for." Alex asked as the light aura continued to burn into the cube. "Only difference is you seem to be so much weaker than them."

Chapter end