Chapter 161: Retrieval

Filmos couldn’t believe his eyes. He was seeing Terrence in the flesh!

But why on earth did he look like that? He didn’t match what was physically described of him in the brief history Filmos had studied before this mission.

Before being deployed, Filmos had received a thorough briefing on the Beast Shop and its enigmatic owner. By the looks of it now, Terrence was absolutely furious that his shop had been seized without his knowledge.

In the files, he was mostly described as a rational, cool-minded person who calculated every move. But seeing him now, it was entirely reasonable that he wasn’t acting like his usual profile. Anyone in his shoes had every right to be enraged.

And despite the guards’ high status and how comfortable they had grown once the Lee Family disappeared, they were still deathly wary of a former Lee.

Terrence was known across the region as a late-blooming genius from that terrifying clan. Although he had been kicked out, he was undeniably powerful.

Even after the mysterious downfall of the Lee Family, the sheer weight of being associated with that surname still carried an intimidating, heavy presence.

The swarming guards leveled their spears and drawn swords at Terrence, but none dared to take a single step up the marble stairs. Their hands trembled against their weapons.

"Stand down! All of you, hold your ground!"

A high-ranking enforcement officer, clad in sleek black scale-fused tactical, pushed his way through the dense ranks of guards. His forehead was slick with sweat, his sharp eyes fixed nervously on Terrence.

Terrence didn’t even draw a weapon. He stood at the top of the steps, his tattered hood blown back by the wind, looking down at the army with icy, hollow eyes.

"I will ask this only once," Terrence said, his voice quiet yet carrying an oppressive weight that silenced the entire square. "Who gave the order to seize my property and imprison my staff?"

The high-ranking officer swallowed hard, adjusting his grip on his sword hilt. "Terrence... you disappeared for months without notice! The city council deemed the shop abandoned under emergency economic statutes!"

"Abandoned?" Terrence scoffed, taking one slow, deliberate step down the stairs. The cobblestones cracked beneath his boot from the sudden flare of spiritual pressure. "My master control crystal was active. My manager was running the counter. You didn’t deem it abandoned—you stole it."

The officer backed up half a step, his face pale. "It wasn’t just Suran City! The administrators of Hibiscus City and the Hanging City signed the joint seizure decree! They claimed your shop was distributing unregistered high-tier beasts that threatened regional stability!"

Terrence’s eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. "Spill everything you know. Right now. Where is Stan Visor? Where are my employees being held?"

"I—I don’t know the exact prison facility!" the officer stammered, raising his hands in a frantic gesture of self-defense as Terrence took another step closer. "The three administrators handled the transfers personally! They split the shop’s revenue into three separate offshore accounts! I’m just executing security orders!"

Hiding in the nearby alley, Filmos felt his breath hitch in his throat. A sudden, chaotic impulse flared inside his mind, he wanted to step out from the shadows and yell to Terrence that the Lady Commander and Nair were observing everything, that the three administrators were setting a massive political trap for him!

His foot twitched forward, ready to break cover.

Snap.

Trillo’s hand clamped down like an iron lock on Filmos’s arm, dragging him back before he could expose himself.

"What are you doing?" Trillo, for the nth time, asked him with a warn again and a tight grip on his arm. "Remember our mission. This is your first mission and you are already busting it!"

Filmos froze as Nair’s strict, icy warning echoed in his mind: "You will not engage in any direct confrontation with anyone in Suran City. No one should know you are from Nara City at all costs. You are observers."

Filmos clenched his teeth, swallowing his urge to intervene as he watched Terrence loom over the terrified officer.

At the top of the marble steps, Terrence’s expression turned completely hollow. He didn’t raise a weapon, nor activated Skill Share. Instead, the shadow beneath his boots suddenly stretched, writhing like a living predator.

Before the high-ranking officer could even draw his blade, a burst of pitch-black, metallic shadow material erupted from the ground. It moved with terrifying mastery and fluidity, snaking up the officer’s heavy plate armor and coiling tightly around his throat.

"Gah! Erk...!"

The officer was violently lifted two feet off the ground, his legs kicking uselessly in mid-air. The black mist flared with iron-hard density, compressing his neck just enough to cut off his airway without snapping his spine. The surrounding guards gasped, taking three frantic steps back as the oppressive aura radiating from Terrence crushed their remaining resolve.

"I won’t ask a third time," Terrence said, his voice dropping to a whisper that echoed directly inside the officer’s mind. "Where are they? Who ordered this?"

"I’ll talk! I’ll talk!" the officer choked out, tears of absolute panic streaming down his bruised cheeks. "The old city administrator was replaced two weeks ago! The new administrator... he’s Vane Vance! A former rival of the Lee Family!"

Terrence’s eyes flared with a lethal, azure-gold spark. "Vane Vance?"

"Yes! He used his political backing from Hibiscus and Hanging City to oust the old administration!" the officer wheezed frantically, his hands tearing uselessly at the dark mist around his throat. "Vance swore to erase every remaining asset tied to the Lee Family’s name, starting with your shop! He moved your manager and staff to the subterranean holding cells beneath the central citadel! That’s all I know! I swear it!"

In the dark shadows of the alley, Filmos pressed his back hard against the cold stone wall. His skin was pale, drenched in a sudden wave of cold sweat, his entire frame trembling uncontrollably.

He felt an extreme, suffocating worry for what was about to happen to the city, but above all, a deep, paralyzing fear washed over him. The sheer aura emanating from Terrence was unlike anything Filmos had ever felt before, a pitch-black, suffocating weight that made his lungs feel paper-thin.

Beside him, even Trillo held his breath, his eyes wide with absolute dread as they watched the owner of the Beast Shop prepare to tear the city apart.