The Ancient Genes

Express Station, Ishtar..

Two days before the beginning of the competition…

"We are finally here.." Bahamut muttered with a calm look on his face. He was currently in a disguise. He didn't look like a child, and was in the appearance of a 17 year old boy.

To his left was Victor, the guy probably didn't need any disguise. As he was already hard to identify after his transformation. And, towards his right, was another giant man. No matter what they did, this guy would definitely stand out.

"Your brother will be upset on finding out about this.." Uncle giant suddenly spoke as he looked at Bahamut.

The Kid hadn't even informed his brother about his arrival. This was definitely going to piss Faryl off.

"Why should I? It's not like they asked me to do so." Bahamut shook his head.

"But isn't it something obvious?" Uncle Giant asked with a sigh.

"It's their fault for expecting something so complicated from a child. I don't understand stuff like that. Besides, I just said that I wanted to see my brother in action and not in person," Bahamut replied indifferently.

"Let's go to our Mercenary Base here. Since I am here in person, it's obvious for me to give it a look.." He said it as if it was something very obvious.

"I will take my leave," Victor suddenly said as he looked at Bahamut.

Bahamut nodded and asked him for one last thing, "Report me if you find something interesting.."

With that, they parted ways.

…

Bahamut spent his first day in the Mercenary Guild. And, he was not very satisfied with it. After all, it was just an average sized group here. And, his aim was for it to be in the top 3 mercenary groups in every city.

Hence, he spend some of his time tidying things up there.

…

Victor on the other side, had cleverly planned his next move.

He spent all his day scouring for information. And, it seemed that Arnold had been cooped up inside the House. He had also searched around a bit hoping to find if James had come to Ishtar, but it didn't seem to be the case.

Soon, the sky turned dark. And, the busy streets seemed to quiet the town a bit.

….

Eastern Boundary, Barnes House.

Time slowly tickled, and soon it was somewhere around three in the morning…

It was the time when the guards would change their shifts.

On the other side of the boundary walls, a figure could be seen loitering around the streets in the dark.

It was Victor.

"It's time.." He muttered seeing the time, and with a couple of steps, he easily leapt over the wall.

"Thud!"

As soon as his figure landed inside, he was discovered. There was no scope of him escaping as the place was heavily guarded.

"Don't move!!"

A voice entered Victor's ear, and he found himself surrounded. Hell, there was even a blade on his neck.

Victor obviously didn't want his neck sliced, and hence calmly raised his hand without any shred of resistance.

And, soon he was down on the ground on his knees, surrounded by all sides.

"Who are you?" The guard asked with a frown as they finally apprehended Victor.

"Don't you know already?" Victor asked with a smile. "You haven't passed on the information about the intruder, isn't it because of the timing and place?"

The guard's face finally had a change.

"Why don't you check my pocket? Or am I allowed to move on my own?" He asked with raised brows before pointing towards his pocket.

The guards looked at each other, and then the one who looked to be the leader asked another to check Victor's pocket.

One of the guards did as asked, and pulled out a crest from Victor's pocket. As soon as that thing came out, the leader's face changed, and the vigilance in his eye died down.

He then waved his hand and asked everyone to disperse, and act as if this never happened.

"So you were indeed a messenger…" The leader of the guards asked Victor with a calm look on his face. And Victor just nodded.

These people were actually the ones who were under Arnold.

Victor knew about this too.

When he was with James, they all had set up different methods to seek out each other in different kinds of situations, and one of them was this.

He knew that at this time, the people who guarded this part of the boundary were Arnold's men, and they were also aware about this point of contact. Hence, they hadn't directly informed the higher ups about an intruder. And, waited to confirm his identity first.

"If you are done, can we get onto the main job?" Victor asked with a frown when this guy began to inquire about things. It was as if he was the Master and not Arnold.

The leader of the guard was around the Expert Tier, so he obviously looked down on Victor who was weaker than him. But, he had to hold his haughtiness as the Victor was probably here on some important matter, and it was very likely that the person above him wasn't someone that the guard could mess with.

"I will take you to my quarters for now. The guards around the mansion at this time are not our people. So you won't be able to meet my master." The person informed Victor. "You will have to wait until the morning.."

Victor didn't say anything, and quietly followed the guy with the cover of darkness.

Soon, they reached the quarters.

"Don't make any disturbances, and quietly stay her-"

"Shnk!"

Before the man could complete his sentence, a thin bladed of white slashed through the back of his neck at a terrifying speed.

"Uh-"

The guy immediately turned around in surprise and confusion, when a hand quickly came towards his mouth and held it tight, before another blade of light stabbed right through his heart.

The man could only stare at Victor in shock, anger and confusion as his vision turned dark, and his body collapsed onto the ground with a thud.

"Phew! That went well.." Victor brethren in relief, and after taking a good look at the man who had just died, his figure began to change shape. And, soon he had taken the appearance of the dead man.

"This skill of Zen is really handy…" He couldn't help but praise after looking at his appearance in the mirror.