After waiting another three to four minutes, Auran finally saw Henry, Marian, and Nimuk running toward him. Behind them came Octo, carrying a few explosions in his hands.
"Let's go, quickly!" Auran shouted with urgency, directing them past the main gate and into the headquarters. The others followed without hesitation.
"Auran, where do we go now?" Henry asked once they were inside.
Looking around, Auran spotted an officer running away in the distance.
"Get him," he said. Though the others were startled at first, they quickly reacted, chased down the officer, and caught him.
"If you don't want to die, tell us where the two twins—the grand technician's sons—are kept."
To Auran's words, the guard nodded obediently, and afterward, they followed him deeper into the headquarters until they stopped, facing a large number of officers.
"Get them," Auran said simply, and the warriors behind him jumped forward.
The officers, armed with mana blasters, pointed them toward the group and prepared to fire—but suddenly hesitated, confused by a massive burst of black air that clouded their vision.
{Wicked Eyes}
Henry muttered the name of the curse spell he cast. The moment he used it, his eyes glowed red and turned sharp, while the area around his body darkened slightly.
"I missed this look," Henry said to himself, pleased. Once someone bonds with their magic field, there are usually some physical changes—this was Henry's true form as a curse user.
The hesitation it caused was all the opportunity they needed. Before the officers could pull their triggers, they lost the upper hand. Marian, Nimuk, and Octo quickly defeated all the guards stationed in front of a specific room some using there own magic and one using the mana blaster auran handed them.
Pointing at the door, the captured guard looked at Auran.
"Is this the room?" Auran asked, and the officer nodded.
"Good." Auran signaled Marian, who was holding the officer. She struck him unconscious and tossed him aside.
"Why are the twins so important?" she asked.
"Let's just say they're the ticket to our escape," Auran replied.
Standing at the door, he knocked.
"Did anybody order a prisoner?" he said loudly. Marian and Nimuk barely held in their laughter at his tone, and even Octo began to question his choice to join them.
After a moment, they heard the sound of a lock clicking from the other side, and the door opened.
"What?" It was Galric. But upon seeing the very man he and Alric had ordered to be chained to the experiment table standing right in front of him, he was stunned.
Auran wasted no time. He kicked Galric between the legs, causing him to drop to his knees. Bursting into the room, Auran quickly located Alric, who was reaching for a mana blaster inside a drawer, alarmed by Galric's sudden collapse.
"Let me get him!" Marian stepped in front of Auran just as Alric pointed his mana blaster at them. But before he could pull the trigger, the mana blaster was sliced cleanly—like paper—by a Blade of Time spell Auran had cast.
"What kind of spell was that?"
Seeing a spell so incredibly fast and deadly in action, Marian asked with wide-eyed curiosity.
However, Auran showed no interest in answering her. Instead, it was Henry who spoke up.
"Unbelievable... a spell from the Time attribute."
Hearing him, Marian's eyes widened in shock, and even Nimuk and Octo were taken aback.
Though they weren't experts in the magical arts—being mostly body-enhancing warriors who sought glory through battle—they still possessed common knowledge about the magical society. And one of the most well-known facts was about the rarest and hardest fields of study in magic.
Among those top fields, Time Magic stood at the peak.
To them, seeing a magician who could use time magic was like witnessing an impossibly rare creature—something that appeared once in a thousand years.
"I... I touched a time magician... haha, Lady Luck must've blessed me!" Octo muttered, frantically looking at his hand in disbelief.
Nimuk and Marian were speechless for a while.
"So that explains it... the reason he was so sure he could break out of here," Marian finally said after a moment of silence.
"Get the twins, let's head to the top." Auran walked past them, grabbing a few explosives along the way.
Marian and Nimuk grabbed the two twins and knocked them unconscious before following Auran.
While on the move, Auran stored another Blade of Time in his vault. The path was not clear, and the group had to stay alert, watching out for any officers they might encounter along the way.
"Since the Inescapable Veil has been activated, how do you plan to get past that?" Marian asked, referring to the shielding protocol the warden had activated.
"Are you talking about that thing shining in the sky?"
"Yes. I haven't seen it before, but I've heard stories about it. That thing has been in place since before the new mana suppression systems were introduced. It's said that no one can break through the Inescapable Net because it's tied to the very foundation of this prison," Marian explained.
"Is that so? It's a barrier I haven't seen before. Let's hope my original plan won't be affected by this thing," Auran said as they eventually reached the top layer of the headquarters.
After dealing with the few officers who had stayed behind to guard the upper floors, they quickly changed into officer uniforms under Auran's instruction. Then, they finally stepped onto the rooftop of the headquarters, where the large ships usually landed.
Once outside, Auran looked up at the sky but didn't see what he was expecting.
"It should be here by now."
"What are we looking for?" Heby asked.
RAGHH!
Suddenly, a loud, roaring sound echoed through the entire prison.
All their attention was immediately drawn toward the direction of the sound—Section Two. From where they stood, they could only make out vague outlines of the prison yard and the officers engaged in combat, but one thing was clearly visible: a massive figure rampaging through the chaos like a bloodthirsty, wild beast.
"Who's that guy? I've never seen him before," Auran asked, narrowing his eyes at the towering figure.
"That's the boss of Section Two—otherwise known as the strongest prisoner in this entire prison," Marian revealed.