We arrived in the underground facility and a shadow connected to us and forcefully [Shadow melded] us.

  Stop being so reckless and coming here without… wait why are you guys disguised like that?

  Long story, what did you find?

  Well, the magic they are weaving is related to brainwashing.

  So, it’s charm magic?

  No, it’s black magic… it forces [Mind Manipulation] and [Obedience]. I assume to whoever put this plan in motion.

  So, this is our zombie arc?

  Ooh! You might be right! We’ve fought so many things but we haven’t fought zombies yet!

  But there are no zombies… they will just be mind controlled…

  How is that different from being zombies?

  I agree with Raishin!

  Either way, this is bad news. I tried to reach the section where the black magic is weaved but it was heavily guarded by anti-shadow magic guards.

  Oh, those guys. It has been a while. I will deal with them.

  Wait! How will we reach you if you go off?

  This facility had some strange structures which made it hard to look into their super-secret section. Extremely fishy. Maybe they also have their secrets stored here.

  I will disable every guard and leave an illusion in its place to make sure that nobody notices.

  Be careful.

  Greg released me from his shadow… Wow that sounds edgy!

  I entered stealth the moment I got out and started layering illusions. They didn’t had measures against illusionists the last time but they might now. Let’s see if I still know how to ‘assassin’ as I haven’t acted like a proper one for almost 7 years.

  Yet again their complicated buddy system. It looked slightly different as some individuals in this network seemed out of place. I bet my tail that those are illusionists.

  Too bad for them that they’re dealing with the race that occupies #1 on the list of best illusionists. Dream on guys, you’re not catching me!

  The problem is however that I need to assassinate them so that Raishin and Greg can pass.

  Raishin has no sense for stealth and Greg radiates darkness, they will be easy to find out even if they keep quiet and act stealthily.

  I got a sudden realization. Greg told me that it feels as if my presence becomes extremely thin when I act as a 9t. surely…

  All my tails popped out and my stealth dropped, just one illusion layer covered me.

  I stretched as it felt great to have them out in the open.

  Nobody noticed. Let’s see, what is the most 9t thing I could do right now? Create a pocket dimension identical to this and place them in it!

  I sat down and scanned the area and every guard. They truly had no idea that I was just sitting here with my tails out. I feel like a fool for training to be an assassin now.

  Creating the pocket dimension was easy but I got another idea. My tails had been sitting on some sort of seal for a long time but it was unfinished. They had been tasked on creating a seal that would work on gods when Hablena appeared.

  I didn’t get anything out of it in the end but now I could as I also have a good idea how the seal would look like.

  To make this seal, I created multiple identical dimensional pocket rooms and folded them into each other. The creation doesn’t need to make sense as the seal doesn’t make any sense, which is one of my race’s specialties. Doing things that don’t make sense.

  I shoved furniture, food, clothing etc. into it as the inside of the seal needs to seem normal from the inside. Synthesizing the magic circle came next. Spatiotemporal magic is fickle so a mistake could wipe out this whole city.

  My tails were assisting in making this as perfect as possible. Most of the conditions and parameters had been set when they were originally tasked with creating a seal.

  It took 4 hours but it was done! My seal looked like a cup! I love to create things that don’t make any sense! The next time tomato bitch appears is when she will get sealed away in a cup! Although I would probably have to make her expend a lot of divine energy for this seal to work

  Divine energy is one of the many strange things gods have going on as it makes them preform bullshit or how the humans call them ‘miracles’. Best to make them use up a lot of it so they can’t cheat their way out of my seal.

  I got up and moved the guards and illusionists to the pocket dimension where they would do their things until we were done here.

  I looked proudly at the cup in my hand while I gave Greg the ‘ok’ sign.

  A shadow approached me and Greg and Raishin popped out.

  That took forever… may I ask what you did?

  Hmm well you told me that my presence gets thin when I act like a 9t so that’s what I did, the guards are in a pocket dimension that looks like this place, they will return when we’re done and look! I made a seal!

  A cup? I don’t get it. How does it work?

  Well, this seal is quite easy to break actually but that makes it extremely strong.

  Let me hear it, what kind of sadistic seal have you created?

  The inside of this seal is a large room. It looks completely normal; it has anything anyone could need to live a normal and comfy life. A massive amount of food, furniture, comfortable couches a tv, everything. The room has 9 doors however, every door leads to the same room but the room changes whenever someone goes through a door making the one sealed to think they entered a different room. It required a lot of dimensional pocket folding.

  So far it doesn’t seem like an awful seal, how does one get out? Take the correct door?

  Oh no, taking doors will not get you anywhere in this seal. Most items in this room don’t adhere to logic. An apple on the table in the distance will stay as small as you initially saw it when you approach, space and time are detached from reality, besides that it would be comfortable to live there, to get out, they have to climb through a specific window.

  A specific window?

  Well, some rooms show all the windows and doors but others don’t and this window also stays the same size as you initially see it as the doors are far from the windows… so one has to climb through a post-stamp-sized window to get out. This is possible as space doesn’t adhere to logic but if you don’t know that…

  You’re stuck there forever either forced to live a comfortable life in the seal or stressed out by going through door after door, expecting it to lead somewhere…

  Yup! Also, the shortest amount of time that someone can break out is 5 minutes! But that’s 5 minutes inside the seal, it will be 3 years for us!

  Whoa! So sadistic! But why is it a cup?

  Well, I needed the seal to turn into something portable so that I could leave it behind in my Nightmare dungeon.

  So, after breaking out of the seal they have to do your sadistic dungeon?

  Yup! Aren’t I great?!

  Why is your race nearing extinction again?

  Because of those stupid gods!

  Yup! Well, go hide in another shadow, the next section also has heavy security.

  I already knew what to do so this infiltration was quite easy. Navigating wasn’t, so Greg used his [Shadow network] to find out.

  We found a suspicious room after sneaking around for an hour. Hiding secrets from 9t is ineffective! And well Greg also helped.

  Hmm this looks like an extremely modern gaming room; I assume they’re not gaming in this room but storing secrets.

  Yeah… I don’t see any controllers.

  This thing seems even more advanced than the AA terminals.

  Hmm well this country is rich as fuck so they could certainly afford it. Do you know how to navigate this electromagical not-gaming console?

  You do realize that electromagical equipment gets used for other things and not just gaming, right?

  I shrugged. Whatever.

  Hmm I can’t navigate this, I apologize.

  So, this is it eh? 3 mythical beasts getting walled by a not-gaming console.

  It sounds silly if you word it like that but… yeah…

  Let me try!

  Raishin this is not a gaming console!

  Wait! This thing runs off lightning magic, right?

  Yeh.

  And lightning magic is a 6t thing, right? Surely, he might be too stupid to navigate this.

  Hey!

  But maybe his intuition and feel for lightning could do something!

  Greg had a doubtful look.

  My intuition tells me that I need my [Dynamo Clouds]!

  Raishin put his hands on this modern piece of junk and his tiger clouds appeared. So, they were called [Dynamo Clouds] eh?

  I prefer books over digital information as books are easier to steal but I suppose that the point of this machine is to make it hard to steal its information.

  Raishin poured lightning in the machine and it didn’t break down.

  Wait it’s working?

  Dunno! I have no idea what I’m doing! Oh, what is this?

  Screens popped up and disappeared.

  Wow 6t are so OP! you might be able to hack this piece of junk! Try to find out what they need black magic for and the secrets to their clothing.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Uhh how do I do that?

  Look for the part that’s the hardest to get into. I still can’t believe this…

  Heh, jealous that Raishin is more useful than you?

  Dream on. I will prepare for unexpected situations, which happen a lot around you two.

  I kept an eye out on this machine that Raishin was hacking. It wasn’t doing anything funny yet. I can only recognize magical circuits but not electrical circuits but Raishin might know how to deal with those.

  Raishin there is a part where your lightning is heading too, the part where you just had a lot of electrical resistance, not too far from it is a magical circuit that will screw us over, avoid it or let me deal with it.

  This one?

  Raishin made the end of the electrical current flicker as an indication.

  Yeah.

  Ok. We’re so OP! I get the electrical stuff and you get the magical stuff!

  It was difficult to communicate locations so Raishin had a lightning color for every electrical current he sent out.

  So, at first, magic was useless against team Hourai and now anything electric or running on lightning magic is useless against us.

  It took us 20 minutes to reach a part that was nearly impossible to get through. The screen showed various strange windows.

  Ugh, it’s as if they’re hiding the queen’s nude pictures behind this wall of bullshit!

  I surely hope not. It must be the secret to their textile. The first wave consists of magic circuits. Let me knock out runes that make it function.

  Whoever made this machine was skilled. He wasn’t skilled in magical circuits and I don’t know about the electric circuits but many interdisciplinary skills were needed, a bit like when I made spirit vessels. The creator knew enough of every part to make this nightmare for information thieves.

  The magical protection was primitive and I broke through it in 10 minutes. Raishin struggled with his part but he had no clue what he was doing and it’s his first time, yet he hadn’t made a single mistake.

  Hey Agnis, this part near my dark blue lightning feels like a trap.

  I’m going to flash some frost magic on it, and push through it when I do, your mana control allows for it, right?

  My lightning just follows the channels in this machine so I don’t need mana control.

  Oh, I guess that makes sense, I need quite the mana control to have my mana follow your lightning. We would have failed if this required you to be proficient in controlling mana.

  The screen changed as Raishin broke through. The third wave was magic again so my tail dealt with that while my Elgards eyes archived anything that appeared on the screen.

  It showed the structure of the mana circles used for the black magic. Now that I’ve seen them, they won’t work on me. well, they will but I’ll know how to disarm them enough so that Greg can remove its intent.

  My tail broke through and another wave of magic circuits appeared. More information appeared but this was about how they made their textile so good. I didn’t understand any of it but someone else might.

  My tail broke through and Raishin had to deal with a bulky electrical barrier in the system.

  Guys, I think we need to hurry up. Your deception hasn’t been found out but it seems the queen has come down to this facility.

  Oh shit! Maybe she wants her cape back!

  Her cape? What did you guys do?! I leave you alone and you harass royalty?!

  Sshht Greg! I need to focus!

  Yeah! Let’s focus on the important parts!

  Ugh, my head.

  Greg took out his anti-headache potion and chugged it.

  I was impressed, I've never seen Raishin this focused before. Well, that’s untrue, he is this focused when he’s staring at a woman’s ass… but that doesn’t count.

  Ugh! Yes! Finally, did it!

  Raishin took his hands of the machine and laid down on his back.

  Whew, that was fun!

  A lot of information was flashing by, which I all archived.

  Guys? How long?

  Until this screen stops scrolling, why is it so slow? Can you speed it up Raishin?

  Raishin put his hands on the machine, ran lightning through it and the scrolling speed improved drastically. It stopped after 30 seconds but my eyes don’t care about how fast something is, all got archived.

  Oof, that’s a lot of information. Time to get the fuck out of here!

  Raishin and Greg gathered.

  Raishin, to you the honor of teleporting us to the surface.

  Aye!

  Raishin didn’t mess up and we appeared in a dark alley on the surface. Quite far from the museum even.

  That was… a surprising turn of events…

  I made the magic circles of the black magic appear for Greg to study.

  This is what they were using, they mentioned some variants but I assume that you can deal with them.

  Give me a second.

  Greg studied the magic circles closely and even made a speed drawing.

  To make sure I don’t make any mistakes. You guys did well, nothing got blown up.

  Yet!

  Why would you say that? What did you guys do?

  I put my hands up and backed off. Hey I didn’t do anything this time!

  Both of us looked at Raishin. Raishin… what did you do?

  Well, they are using that machine for evil right? So, I activated a self-destruct system!

  Silence fell. How long…

  2 hours! Raishin said while he made a proud ‘peace ‘sign’.

  So, we shop for 1.5 hours and get the fuck out of here?

  No sense of urgency as usual… but fine, this country might turn into a mess again so might as well…

  We strolled through the Silk Road, the largest street in Zilk. The street had places selling different types of textile and clothing but it also had a large section where a market was selling imported food and spices.

  There was a lot that had been imported from other continents. It wasn’t often that I got this opportunity so I did my best to buy up as much as I could without standing out.

  Of course, this was impossible as the vendors of the spice stalls noticed and tried to draw my attention.

  I can't help but notice but you either make friends or enemies wherever you go, it’s never neutral.

  I’m just that likable!

  Or an asshole, but I have a theory for that. I’ve been paying closer attention to you after all those stunts you pulled.

  Uhh please don’t make it weird…

  Greg bought a strange melon, bit into it and continued after he cleared his mouth of melon. He should work to get a different melon in his mouth.

  You’re doing it again, thinking of something rude!

  Ugh, tell me what is your baseless theory.

  So 9t are known for charm magic besides foxfires and illusions, right?

  Just the vixens yeh.

  But charm magic in general doesn’t seem to manifest in men, why is that?

  Isn’t that logical? We’re not sexy in the seductive kind and it suits women more.

  Greg pointed his half-eaten melon at me.

  What if charm magic has different effects between gender? The word ‘charismatic’ exists. The male version of charm magic might be able to easily create friends or allies.

  So?

  What this means is that you might also be oozing charm magic like the vixens but for you it either easily makes friends or enemies I guess, it might even be the reason why you keep getting into trouble.

  So, you’re telling me that I now have more reasons to hate charm magic?

  Uhh possibly. I have nothing to base this theory of, if I just had a friend that has studied magic.

  Yeah, would be nice! Tell me if you find him! Imma make sure Raishin doesn’t do stupid shit!

  I abducted Raishin who asked a female fruit vendor if he could physically inspect her melons. I’m sure she didn’t understand what he meant but I do.

  You did so well with that machine and you had to go back to idiot mode!

  But I couldn’t resist the urge! What were you and Greg talking about?

  Something about the curse named ‘charm magic’ let’s go, it’s almost time, right?

  Yeh, where is Greg actually?

  We looked around and Greg was nowhere to be seen.

  Ugh, can you stop letting me babysit you two?

  I activated my Elgards eyes and swiftly found Greg. He was talking to a vendor that was selling some strange creatures. Are those bugs? Yuck!

  We walked over to Greg when we overheard their conversation,

  You can’t just sell this! Can’t you see that this creature isn’t supposed to exist?

  Greg was pointing at a sea star-shaped earthworm it had 5 heads and they were connected by their tails. I was unsure if it was 1 creature or 5. My eyes told me that it was a finch. What the fuck is going on in this world?

  “How about it 5 tasty earthworms for the price of 1!”

  I’m sorry dude, that’s not an earthworm nor a sea star it’s a finch, Greg we need to go unless you want to stick around for an ‘explosive performance’

  Greg nodded and we ran into an alley. Raishin grabbed our shoulders and chain teleported us east and far from the capital.

  That thing was a finch you said? Is it like those horse-duck creatures?

  You mean the Bukkers?

  They were bats…

  Yeah those… what could mutate them to that point?

  Dunno, the humans can deal with this problem. We need to get far from here as I don’t know how big that explosion is going to be.

  It already went off.

  Greg and I looked at Raishin.

  But there are still 12 minutes left…

  Well, I might have messed up as it went off 5 minutes ago, sorry hahaha!

  Why didn’t we feel anything?

  It just exploded and took out the room we found it in, that’s all…

  More silence…

  We assumed… never mind, it’s a good thing that it wasn’t a big explosion. Well done, Raishin!

  Heh thanks! Yeh, I’m surprised, well done!

  I patted his back, got my tails out and picked them up with Gavin as destination.