Sacred Sorcerers of Virtue Vault
Chapter 42 –– Battle of the Royal Palace part I: Chief Bataar's Trio

Inside the throne room, the rest of the Sacred Guards were fighting 3 members of the Stainless Syndicate. The Sacred Guards fought in pairs, working together to defeat the enemies.

Arudo and Zum fought against Four. As three of the longest standing members of Garuda Squad, this was a situation they never thought would ever happen.

“Why are you doing this, Chief Saaya?” Zum asked her.

Unlike Arudo who already made up his mind to defeat her, Zum was still hesitating on whether he should hold back or not.

Four remained silent, not answering Zum’s question. The three of them exchanged blows on a close range combat.

“After all that we’ve been through, did it mean nothing to you at all?”

Four stopped for a second. Zum’s words moved her heart a little.

Arudo and Zum also stopped the moment Four stopped, giving her time to process her thoughts. They noticed that even she remembered all those moments when the three of them were together.

“What you said at Chief Bataar’s funeral.....was it all a lie?”

Zum confronted her head on. He wanted a clear explanation about everything that she did to the squad.

In the end, Four spoke her mind.

“I.....” Saaya began recounting the story of the past, back when Chief Bataar passed away.

Around a decade ago, during Bataar’s tenure as Chief of Garuda Squad, Four–– formerly known as Saaya–– was his right-hand. She was the person that Bataar trusted the most in the squad. He assigned her to the most confidential missions that he believed only she could accomplish.

One day, Bataar saw her acting weird and decided to investigate further without asking her directly. He then conducted the investigation all by himself, without any assistance from anyone. He noticed that Saaya had been hiding something from him, something big that even he could not get his mind off of it.

Later on, he found out that Saaya was working with another organisation outside of the government. He was not sure what organisation it was, but he figured out that it was some kind of criminal organisation after the investigation that he did on his own.

Bataar then confronted her about it, wanting to confirm his suspicion. Saaya denied it all she could, trying to manipulate him into thinking that it was all in his mind. After Bataar’s relentless arguments, Saaya decided that there was no going way around it and she decided to face him head on.

The two of them clashed in a serious fight. That day, Bataar witnessed Four’s true powers that she’d been hiding and holding back this whole time. In the middle of the battle, he finally realised that he could not win against her, and tried to escape to warn the others about her identity. Before he could get away, Four decided that she needed to do something to ensure the safety of her identity. She then decided to silence him for all eternity.

“....I killed him,” Four confessed to Zum and Arudo.

Zum and Arudo were stunned to the point that their brains stopped processing the information that they just received. They could nnot put their head around it.

“Wh....what?”

Zum was even more confused than he was before questioning her. The information that he received the past few days overwhelmed him, taking away his will to fight.

“He found out about my true identity and was about to reveal it to the others. I didn’t want to kill him, but I had no other choice,” Four explained about what happened.

During the day of Bataar’s death, the healers announced that Bataar got a heart attack that stopped his fyx flow to support his body. As the core of human’s source of fyx was broken, his organs malfunctioned and he died.

However, what truly happened was, Four injected a syringe filled with a potent curse that could kill someone in an instant on the day of her fight with Bataar. Due to the curse’s Forbidden Oath, it took several years of Four’s lifespan in exchange. She deliberately killed him this way to make it look like he died of natural causes.

“That’s.....”

Zum was too overwhelmed by the situation that he deactivated his fyx subconsciously. Seeing him on a moment of weakness, Four decided to attack him while he was taken off guard.

Four transformed her arm into a drill made of light using her Transflage ability. She then shoved it towards Zum to pierce him through his heart.

Right before Four’s attack landed on Zum, Arudo appeared in front of Zum to shield him from the attack. Arudo pushed Zum and swapped his position with him, protecting him from Four’s attack. Arudo then got his heart pierced through by Four. She retracted her arm afterwards and made Arudo fall to the floor.

“Arudo!!”

Zum caught him right before falling to the floor. He embraced him on his lap, trying to heal him.

Arudo got a fatal blow that stopped his fyx flow, just like what she did to Bataar. As the fourth strongest person of the most wanted criminal organisation in the world, Four proved to be an undoubtedly dangerous individual that could kill anyone that she wished.

“Zum.....I leave the team......to you....”

Upon his last breath, Arudo announced Zum as the new Chief of Garuda Squad. His heart then stopped, closing his age.

“NOOOO!!!”

Zum bawled on the floor, witnessing someone he’d worked with for more than a decade die in front of him, by another person that they’d also been working together with. Words could describe the feelings he was experiencing at the moment he felt Arudo’s last breath.

Four lett Zum have his final moments with Arudo. Unlike what she imagined, she felt a little bit of remorse for killing Arudo in front of Zum. She thought that she was not going to feel anything about it, but turned out she was more human than she thought she was.

Zum put away Arudo’s body behind the throne, to let him rest in peace, outside of the fight. He then confronted Four to pay back for what she did to Arudo and Bataar.

The looks in Zum’s eyes changed. His eyes looked dreadful, like he was possessed by something.

“Special Technique: Garuda Mode!”

Zum exuded a vast amount of fyx energy coating around his body that immediately converted into light. It slowly formed a shape, a bird shape. The size got bigger and bigger, with his height almost reaching the ceiling of the throne room. Zum floated mid air, with a thick Garuda-shaped light coating his body.

First time seeing this form, Four was thrilled. She never expected him to have this kind of fyx technique up in his sleeve. She expected him to give her a good fight that she’d been seeking for.

The two of them got more serious in their fight.

Garuda Mode was Zum’s most powerful fyx technique. It acted both as defence that could shield him from attacks as well as offence that could attack to a wide range of area. As it consumed a lot of fyx energy, Zum could only hold on to this form for around 10 minutes.

“Huh, I guess I misjudged––”

Before Four could finish her sentence, Zum’s wing slapped her hard and threw her to the other side of the room. She then got back up immediately after.

Consumed by rage, Zum flapped his Garuda wings which sent light sparrows towards her. The sparrows flew like bullets, relentlessly attacking her.

Four raised her hands towards the sparrows. Upon contact with her palms, the sparrows permeated into her skin. Four absorbed all of the sparrows sent by Zum.

“Thanks for the meal.”

Four then leaped towards Zum. She then transformed her right arm into a gigantic fist made of light and punched Zum with it. Luckily, Zum managed to cover his main body using his wings. Nonetheless, Four packed a much more punch than he expected and pushed him a few steps away.

The two of them exchanged blows. Unlike what Zum previously predicted, Four was putting up a better fight than he ever expected. In fact, Zum was slowly getting overwhelmed by Four’s attacks.

Even though Zum had been sending powerful attacks towards Four, she didn’t seem to be taking any serious damage. Unlike Zum who was slowly getting worn out, Four was somehow looking more lively the longer the fight went on.

Suddenly, Four latched onto Zum. She then inhaled his Garuda Mode and slowly sucked his lumina sorcery.

"What's going on.....?" Zum thought to himself.

As Zum was lost in his thought, Four kept gnawing on his Garuda Mode, unbothered.