The Slaughter Operation
While the mafia boss conducted his experiments on Anubis, he made no move to brace against the family. He maintained only the barest minimum of defenses.
In that window of time, Jeong-Hoon summoned the 12 Vassals to Italy and finished a thorough analysis not only of Anubis's true nature but of the mafia itself.
"Chef. Entry prep complete. Check."
Having confirmed the approach routes into the mafia's building, Si-hwan—suited and helmeted—spoke the call sign newly assigned for this operation and surveyed the structure.
It was a modern glass tower that hardly looked like Rome. Rome was the capital of a great power, after all. Cultural relics stood on every side, but that hardly meant modern high-rises were nowhere to be found. Lumen's Rome branch wasn't sitting empty for nothing.
"Lawyer to all units. Deploying the barrier with Ambassador. Check."
Confirming that Si-hwan had taken a position ideal for entry, Ko Yu-Yeon keyed his radio and, together with Park Jin-Yang, unfolded their abilities. Park Jin-Yang's gravity manipulation and Ko Yu-Yeon's hallucinatory power layered over one another, warping human perception around the building and sealing it inside a barrier not even a single rat could slip through.
"Director to Chef. The livestock are off their guard. Check."
Once the barrier was confirmed secure, Han Su-Ho radioed in, calling the mafia livestock. Si-hwan answered by kicking into acceleration and plunging into the building at speed.
An operation to wipe out an organization masquerading as a guild-ified mafia. Jeong-Hoon had named it the Slaughter Operation, drawing inspiration from the dog-headed Anubis. And so it began.
The core of this operation—deploying S-class and higher Awakened including the 12 Vassals—was stealth. That made Si-hwan, the assassin, the natural choice for Stage One: entry.
"……."
Si-hwan swept his dagger. The mafia man on watch collapsed without a sound. He had swung the blade, yet nothing—not even the whisper of flesh parting—broke the silence. That was the nature of the martial art Si-hwan had mastered, and the reason he could lead the family's assassination unit.
"Chef to all units. Entry successful. Check."
With the sentries neutralized, Si-hwan radioed in. The 12 Vassals and Hwa-rim and Min-ha, all of them suited and helmeted, who had been lying in wait around the building, moved in escorting Jeong-Hoon. The vassals had wanted to run the operation without him, but Jeong-Hoon had insisted something felt off and come along.
"Owner to all units. Everything is authorized except collapsing the building. Don't leave a single one alive. Check."
Jeong-Hoon's command came down hard over the radio, and killing intent rose from every person present. Even without the order, the vassals had already intended to leave no one breathing. But when their Gaju declared he would carry the weight of it himself, their resolve sharpened into something colder.
In the building's basement, in a space done up like a fully stocked bar, drug-addled Awakened stared with slack eyes at a door that suddenly burst open. Their gaze was the dull check of who had come looking for another fix—not wariness.
These were drug-dependent Awakened the organization had cultivated as experimental subjects. So thoroughly doped and brainwashed that they possessed no judgment left to find a squad of suited, helmeted vassals suspicious.
"Haa. Same story here. All right—that's far enough!"
Dong Sa-Seong barked the words with open contempt, closing the distance on the addicts in a blink. He seized one in each hand and triggered his ability.
"Gyaaah!!!"
"Aaaah……."
Whoosh! Crack-crack-crack!
Dong Sa-Seong's power over temperature set one body ablaze and froze the other solid. Both met hideous ends. The remaining addicts snapped, for a moment, into something like sanity and bolted for the open door.
"Where do you think you're going? If it's the underworld you're after, I can arrange the trip."
Yeo Tae-Hyeon stepped into the doorway, unfolded his subspace around the fleeing addicts, and snapped it shut.
"Ugh. Still disgusting every time I see it."
Having cleanly disposed of the ones who had tried to run, Yeo Tae-Hyeon stepped inside, looked down at the corpses left by Dong Sa-Seong's ability, and shook his head. Dong Sa-Seong nodded.
"I think the same, which is why I prefer not to leave the lab if I can help it."
"Lab's really where you belong, hyung."
Calling the older man hyung, Yeo Tae-Hyeon nodded, and Dong Sa-Seong agreed with vigorous enthusiasm. Among the 12 Vassals, setting aside the elders—Butler Ju, Fernandez, and Jeong Si-Mun—Dong Sa-Seong was the oldest. A lab recluse and mad scientist, though, his presence among the twelve tended to fade into the background.
"Still, running an op with you again makes me miss those days."
"……You miss the days those traitors were running wild? I still get chills just dreaming about it."
Outside of New York last time, the only other operation the two of them had run together had been the purge of the traitors. Dong Sa-Seong shuddered; Yeo Tae-Hyeon shrugged.
"Geon-woo hyung was still around back then."
"……Yeah. That part I do miss."
He had never expected Yeo Tae-Hyeon to bring up their dead friend—Butler Ju's son, Geon-woo. Dong Sa-Seong shook his head and conceded the point.
"By now Geon-woo hyung's probably thrashing Yong-ha around in the afterlife, right?"
"More than that—I still haven't recovered from the shock that the chief butler's grandson, Geon-woo's own son, was the head of the Organization."
Yeo Tae-Hyeon rarely got the chance to see Dong Sa-Seong and meant to catch up while they worked, but Dong Sa-Seong had already begun answering half-heartedly, as if he had nothing more to say.
Less than an hour after the family went in, fewer than half the people inside the building were still alive.
"Damn it—where the hell is he at a time like this?!"
The organization's researchers, finally realizing the family had stormed the place, abandoned the bound and restrained Anubis and dissolved into pure pandemonium trying to flee. With the mafia boss who had subdued Anubis nowhere to be found, there was no control at all. One thought ruled their minds: survive this, and continue the research. To realize the Organization's ideal. They were not running from fear.
"Oh my. I assumed a laboratory would be buried deep underground. Surprising."
"I had a feeling this would be the place—and it really was……."
"As expected of the Gaju. Extraordinary. At this point it may as well be a superpower."
Jeong-Hoon, having brought Butler Ju and Hwa-rim up to the top floor, scratched his head in mild embarrassment when an actual laboratory spread out before them.
"No, I just had a hunch that if he was anywhere, he'd be here—and it turned out to be true."
He pointed with the dagger in his hand toward Anubis beyond the glass wall, draped in restraint after restraint. Hwa-rim nodded.
"Ah. So that's how it was."
"Have you figured something out?"
"Of course. But Uncle—I'll explain in detail once this is finished."
As Hwa-rim moved to eliminate the Organization members frozen by the three's sudden appearance, the agents scrambled and hauled up their abilities.
"Gyaaah!!!"
Hwa-rim's dagger cut them down first. The pristine white laboratory was painted red in an instant.
"Hmm? Looks like my edge has dulled a bit. There's still one left alive."
A man who looked like the research lead lay trembling in a pool of his own blood. Hwa-rim clicked her tongue. Even for her, wiping out everyone up through A-class in a single sweep had been a stretch.
"Keh-heh-heh! If it's come to this—then all of you die!!!"
The researcher jammed something hidden in his coat. Butler Ju lunged and took his head clean off—but the man had already pressed the button while pretending to shake.
"……Butler Ju? This building isn't about to explode, is it?"
"The Head Maid and Vassal Han Su-Ho already completed a magical scan. There are no explosives."
Jeong-Hoon had asked out of concern that the button might bring the building down. Butler Ju shook his head and looked through the glass at Anubis. Mana the restraints had been suppressing was beginning to pour off him.
"It seems we underestimated the Organization's technology."
"What does that mean?"
"He clearly never reached SS-class—yet this mana……."
"KHAHAHA!!! It's coming back! This body's divine power is returning! It's overflowing!!!"
Crash!
Before Butler Ju could finish, Anubis's mana detonated and shattered the glass wall. The restraint suit tore apart under the force of the mana and reshaped itself into something like a toga out of ancient Rome. Broken glass gathered into Anubis's hand and became a gleaming spear.
"Gaju. The opponent is SSS-class. You should withdraw."
Butler Ju had gauged the grade in an instant from the mana flooding off Anubis—but Jeong-Hoon shook his head instead.
"No. This looks more important than running."
He pointed at the massive monitor mounted on one wall of the laboratory. Butler Ju nodded.
"Indeed. We need to secure the Organization's data. I'll buy time. Secretary Kang—go with the Gaju and recover the materials."
"Got it, Uncle."
Butler Ju charged the toga-clad, spear-bearing Anubis, whose expression had gone solemn and lofty.
"Hoh. You would challenge this body, now that it has awakened a god's power? Servant of a false king!"
Anubis adjusted his grip and thrust for Butler Ju's head. Butler Ju tilted his face just enough to slip the spear, then raised a fist and drove it toward the wall behind Anubis.
BOOOOM!
Butler Ju's Paseong did not merely smash the wall—it kept going, carving a passage from the laboratory hidden in the deepest corner of the top floor straight out of the building. In that same motion he seized Anubis and leapt outside with him.
Just because Butler Ju was careful not to wreck the building did not mean Anubis would show the same restraint. That was why he had dragged the god outside. And once a certain amount of noise erupted beyond the walls, Fernandez or Jeong Si-Mun—or any of the other 12 Vassals still sweeping other floors—would be far more likely to join them. For an operation that demanded maximum stealth, the 12 Vassals needed to finish this in a coordinated assault: fast, and with as little collateral damage as possible.
"Haha. Servant. You want a fight without restraint? Then I will gladly oblige."
Freed from his bonds and restored—no, elevated to SSS-class by the very experience of having his power suppressed—Anubis laughed in high spirits and drove his spear forward. Falling from the top of the building should have made balance difficult, but gravity meant nothing to an SSS-class Anubis.
Swish!
The spear, thrust as if it were cutting the wind itself, aimed for Butler Ju's heart. But Anubis was not the only one free in the air. Butler Ju kicked off empty space, twisted his body past the spear, and drove a fist straight in.
Thud—!
Anubis yanked the spear back and blocked the punch with the shaft, then put strength into his body and shoved Butler Ju hard toward the building.
CRASH!!!
Butler Ju's body slammed into the tower. Glass sprayed in every direction. Anubis bore down, and glass burst in sequence as the building's face was gouged open.
"Hup!"
Butler Ju drew up his mana, drove strength into his legs, and planted them into the concrete that divided the floors. Then he seized the Anubis who had been shoving him and hurled him straight toward the ground.
Pop!
The air cracked as Anubis fell.
Bang!
Butler Ju kicked off, leaving an ugly crater in the building's wall, and dropped after him. Anubis bounced himself upward, surging to meet the falling butler.
Thud! Crash! Boom! KRAKOOM—!
In an instant Anubis and Butler Ju traded blow after blow as they plummeted toward the earth.
BOOOOM!
They hit the ground together, and a massive shockwave ripped through the surroundings.