Chapter 525: Late arrival?
The group consisting of the members of the Queens Guild, having successfully completed their mission, went back to the Guild headquarters. Their goal was to deal with the restaurant, capture all its employees and bring them to the headquarters.
This order was given by Queen Irene herself, and Nayla, one of her confidants, personally led the group. However, she had no idea that their movements were being closely monitored by a mysterious group.
"The targets have been captured and taken away by a group of the Queens Guild," a dark silhouette, barely visible in the night alley, said through a communication device. There were several other dark figures standing behind him, watching the departure of the Guild group.
"Okay, accepted," the silhouette replied, signaling with a hand gesture to retreat, and the figures disappeared into the darkness.
At the same time, another group of this mysterious force, which was awaiting orders, received a command to take certain actions against the group of the Queens Guild.
***
By this time, the remaining units of the two Guilds that had been dispatched to various areas of the capital had also completed their tasks. During the operation, they encountered little resistance, but, being Awakened, they easily defeated ordinary mortal men.
However, several Awakened Ones from both Guilds were slightly injured when the criminals used firearms during their resistance.
As a result of the entire operation, several dozen young girls were saved.
***
Irene, Arslan, and Bera were the first to reach one of the two large shelters they learned about from the men’s memories.
The shelter was disguised as one of the many storage rooms. Part of the warehouse was filled with various goods, and the other part was equipped as a shelter.
According to the men’s recollections, there were those who were responsible for a certain area of the capital and managed everything. All the abducted girls in the area sooner or later passed through this shelter.
The second shelter, to which Esma, Yulaya and Hazel went, was similar and was responsible for another area of the capital.
Everyone understood that there were many more such shelters in the capital, but at the moment they were only able to find out the location of these two places.
Irene and her companions hoped to find clues and learn about the location of other similar points in these places. Or they wanted to catch the leaders of this organization and, by reading their memoirs, get more information about criminal activities related to the sale of girls.
The presence of Bera in the image of Elsa gave Irene and Arslan confidence. They both knew how strong Bera was, especially in this form, when she could transform into a Dark Valkyrie and use concealment to sneak inside.
After passing through the warehouse and passing through the maze of goods, they found themselves in the shelter itself. Irene, who had read the men’s memories, expected to see guards and other people, but to her surprise, they did not meet a single living person.
They were surrounded by darkness and dead silence.
Arslan asked, looking at the almost empty dark shelter.
Irene didn’t answer. She tried to match the surroundings with what she saw in the men’s memories, and soon became convinced that they had arrived at the right place. However, unlike the picture she had seen, the current shelter seemed deserted.
"There." Suddenly, Bera, who had been silent until then, raised her hand and pointed in a certain direction.
Bera pointed to a large room that turned out to be locked.
When Irene and Arslan opened the door, their faces immediately changed.
Inside, they saw more than a dozen young girls lying unconscious and locked in small cages.
The discovery of so many live girls only increased their confusion. They did not immediately release the captives, deciding to investigate what was happening first.
However, after examining all the rooms, they did not find a single living person or even a body.
After carefully examining the place, Irene and Arslan noticed faint signs of a struggle, drops of fresh blood, and, what surprised them most, bullet holes.
They came to the conclusion that there had been a clash before their arrival, as a result of which everyone in the shelter had probably been killed, and the corpses had been put into something similar to magic bags.
This was the only way they could explain the absence of corpses and traces of body movements.
And most importantly, the attackers acted so carefully that they left barely noticeable traces. However, it was clear from the traces that they had used firearms.
The thought sent a chill down the backs of Irene and Arslan.
After being Awakened, they still weren’t fully protected from firearms.
Therefore, a potential encounter with professionally trained military personnel armed with such weapons could pose a danger to them.
"Yes, it looks like we’re really late," Irene said with disappointment, realizing that they hadn’t made it in time.
"I hope Yulaya and the others will be more successful," she added.
"Bera, tell your Mistress what we found here," Irene asked, taking out her smartphone to call for help to evacuate the found girls.
Bera nodded and, using the contract with Arabel, shared with her what they had discovered.
***
"Okay, Bera, just in case, stay with Irene and my brother. If something happens, I’ll call you," Arabel said, and Bera agreed without hesitation.
"Irene’s group is late," Arabel whispered to Idan, and then shared the news with the second group, which was just approaching the second shelter.
Idan didn’t know all the details yet, but he was amazed at how quickly the organization took action. He understood that the bigger the organization, the more difficult it was to manage, especially such a criminal organization.
"What?!" — Arabel suddenly exclaimed.
While talking to Esma through her contract, she unexpectedly received a message from Bera saying that Irene had received a request for help from her guild’s group sent to deal with the restaurant.
Arabel broke off the conversation with Esma and quickly shared this information with Idan.
"Okay, I’ll go there, and you stay here and stay in touch with the others so that if anything happens, you can take action," Idan said.
"Okay," Arabel agreed, and then added, "Be careful out there."
"And you should be careful too," having said that, Idan, having turned into the Alpha of Madness, rushed with great speed to the location of the group of the Guild of Queens who sent a request for help.