The Villainess Returns with a System-Chapter 123: Mirror’s Edge

That wasn’t an ordinary blast; it was something powerful, shocking, and concussive.

A large chunk of the room was hit, but rubble blocked the way, as it seemed that a different part of the building complex had been hit. Still, the room was sprayed with debris, and somehow, it was Vivian who had grown a sense for it.

This was none of her skills or abilities; it was rather the System giving her a heads up, specifically, Combat Mode, which suddenly initiated itself and marked a large portion of the room red. This meant that an area would be hit, and Vivian swiftly avoided that place.

The disciples guarding the room all flowed in; some were injured and being supported by the others, and one was even maimed.

"Sirs! This is bad..." A disciple spoke, "All our defenses are down."

Amidst the chaos, Woodman stood unfazed.

"Did they use a cannon in the middle of the city?" He asked.

"It would seem so, sir. They have something like a cannon fixed inside a wagon," the disciple replied.

"So our information was right. The Crown Prince is more determined than before to eradicate us all," Woodman said before giving orders, "Move everyone to the secure room. Our escape is now safe."

Vivian walked out from her spot, inspected the place, and even helped one of the Kabalists up. She then walked closer to Woodman, who was done giving orders.

"You ruffled Liam’s feathers, huh?" She asked with a mocking hint.

"That would be courtesy of the Bloody Swan. The moment she ambushed an illegal Treasury Convoy conducted by the Prince a few nights ago, his Nibs has been rather put out, hasn’t he? Now he’s just trying to claw back some reputation after that blunder."

Hearing that, Vivian tried to hide her stupefied expression as she turned away. Good job, me, she thought. Now what she did is coming back at her to bite her in her cute little butt.

"Let’s get moving."

Woodman started to finally take the lead after this whole situation with the traitor, as it was now safe to escape with the group. They all entered the Chamber of the Automaton like the flow of water from a dam’s gate, spread around the room, getting the wounded in the center, and picking up the last few artifacts they needed to grab before their escape.

Vivian discovered that the group had many ledgers, documents, and even Fire Vouchers, which were used as bonds of credit by the Moore Conglomerate. A dangerous thing to be circulated in a secret society, but there are many worse places these vouchers have gone.

But still, the most important thing the Kabalists seemed focused on transporting was the automaton they called the Projector. Four disciples carried it from all sides very carefully and brought it to the center of the group.

"Miss Vivian, would you please get closer to the center?" Woodman said, inviting Vivian to join him.

She followed suit, while still keeping her guard and watching out for any problem to arise, but then, two disciples started to drag in a large mirror that was fixed on wheels. Once they did so, they made it face the group before joining them.

Almost everyone appeared in the mirror’s reflection, and they all looked rather dashing, but after admiring themselves for a second, Amos Morgan raised his hand and started muttering a series of words that caught Vivian’s attention.

He was casting magic, and unlike anything she had seen before, this was Amos Morgan of the great house of Morgan, the strongest family of sorcerers since the age of Merlin. Witnessing such a spell can open Vivian’s mind to her dilemma: the faulty magic ring stuck on her finger.

Still, as the spell’s preparation progressed, somehow Amos seemed disturbed, and even Woodman had to voice his concerns.

"... What is taking you this long?" He asked.

"I... I am not sure, Lord Woodman. It appears that something is interfering with my magic," Amos replied, with beads of sweat forming on his hand that had a transparent, glass-like ring.

"From outside?" Woodman asked, "Do they have a sorcerer of your caliber?"

The question seemed grim as the people around started to turn to each other with worry. Even Vivian was narrowing her eyes as she understood that Amos’s magic was supposed to somehow move them to another location through a mirror, but it was not working.

Amos then stopped channeling his magic and looked at the group with frustration:

"The interference is coming from our midst," he spoke.

"Another traitor?" Someone asked.

Terror was now seeping into the hearts of everyone, but Woodman immediately controlled the panic.

"Silence!" He spoke angrily, "Amos, what are we looking for? What can halt your spell?"

"Anything," Amos replied, "A scroll, a symbol, a quirky ring, even."

As he said so, an "Oh!" escaped Vivian’s mouth, making her the center of attention right away. She looked around her with careful eyes, took in a breath, and exhaled through her nose, before asking the men to make way.

"Vivian?"

"I believe it is me," Vivian replied with a heavy voice, "I am carrying a Spellring."

Almost everyone was taken aback behind their masks by what she just stated.

"But you are... a Moore," one spoke.

"You can’t have a magic ring," and another.

Seeing the curious eyes behind the mask, Vivian shrugged.

"I stumbled upon one. None of your business, but..." She let out a long sigh, "You guys go ahead without me."

"No. That’s not an option," Amos said.

"We have no other choice," Woodman spoke morbidly.

It was a real mess this time. The only way out was with magic, and Vivian is cursed in that department, even more so after she got her faulty ring.

"Vivian, you must mute the ring," Amos instructed her.

"I don’t know how. I literally just stumbled upon it, and it is not coming off," she replied.

"You didn’t go through a divining ritual? You don’t even know its name?" Amos was holding his head, facepalming, and almost slapping Vivian at the same time.

"I literally have no idea what you are talking about. It was all a mistake," she said.

"Fuck!"

For the first time, Vivian saw the calm and collected Professor Amos curse at the top of his lungs.

"We can’t delay any further, Amos," Woodman said.

"Just take them and go. Hurry! I’ll figure something out," Vivian said.

Amos was so annoyed he almost stomped the floor before pointing at Vivian.

"Don’t go anywhere. I’ll get them to the other side and come back for you," he said, and immediately started working his spell again.

This time, with Vivian out of the way, the mirror he was casting at reacted, and the appearance of it started to shift, reflecting a dark corridor in a place far from here.

Mirror Portal?!

Vivian was envious in her heart; she wanted to take her ring and stomp on it, but it seemed stuck on her until some ritual happened. At least she got a clue on where to start regarding that.

Still, as the group started readying themselves to jump through the portal, Vivian’s eyes sharpened and readied something behind her back.

As for Amos, he cast another spell that didn’t take him half a second, and a large hand appeared behind the Mirror, pushing it at them. For some reason, the magic of Amos needed its targets to be still as they went through the portal, forcing him to go through with them before he got back to her.

Vivian immediately acted.

With the new item Voros had made for her, she aimed it at the Projector Automaton carried by the four disciples and squeezed the trigger. A rope was launched, and two grappling hooks started rotating around the body of the automaton.

With her other hand, Vivian hit the red button on top of her new crossbow-like contraption, and with a power that couldn’t be explained either by science or magic, a rotor in the rear part of the contraption started rotating fast, pulling the Automaton toward Vivian.

A disciple, desperate and clinging, was dragged along as his knuckles turned white while fighting to maintain his grip. Vivian, her face a mask of determination, delivered a strong kick to sever his hold, sending him tumbling backward, hitting his fellow Kabalists as the mirror pulsed with an ethereal light, consuming them all and transporting them to their destination, leaving only the lingering echo of their passage.

Holding the bronze automaton in her hand, Vivian immediately decided to dump it into her storage bag, making it get swallowed within the large bag with a strong magical current.

"Vivian! What are you doing?"

Amos’s voice echoed from behind the mirror as he looked at her from wherever he was.

"Sorry, professor," Vivian replied, "This is just a guarantee. If you want it back, visit me."

"Wait!"

Vivian acted quickly, shoving the mirror backward and disrupting its wheels, causing it to tumble backward and crash into smithereens.

She needed leverage against those Kabalists, and now she has it. They know of her identity, they know that she has an illegal spellring, they can easily try to extort her with that knowledge, since her family is absolutely forbidden from having such items.

Now, as she was left all alone, Vivian had one last thing to do.

Opening her system, she chose the Bloody Swan outfit from her outfit list, and in a second, she was enveloped by a flash as all her clothes were changed into the red-trimmed, grim-faced, ominous-looking, lightly-armored outfit of the Bloody Swan.

Romeo and Juliet in hand, Vivian stepped out from the chamber of the automaton back to the lobby, which was covered in rubble. She navigated back to the secret corridor she had come from before finding herself in a hallway with windows letting in the moonlight on her right, and multiple other hallways on her left.

She didn’t remember coming from here, but the fact that there are windows meant that she could get out and escape very easily.

However, it seemed that someone else shared her very same thoughts, just the other way around.

CRASH!

She immediately ducked and back-flipped a couple of times as the glass window on her right was destroyed, with one lean young man coming through with a flying kick.

"Oh... you dodged that... sigh!"

Disappointed, the man landed on his feet and looked at her, who was around 30 feet away from him. The two looked at each other, and an instant flash of recognition struck them.

"Bloody Swan!"

"Edmond Black!"

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