Chapter 129: Lannis’s Explosive Abode
Titus was now fully committed to a confrontation with the Goat Eyes Gang. Their previous conflicts had been mostly covert, each side occasionally hiring Lannis or sending thugs to disrupt the other’s operations, vying for market share. This had been going on for years. The Pike Gang had once been a contender in this three-way struggle, but they had eventually been pushed out of the combat potion market, forced to focus on luxury goods.
This time, the Goat Eyes Gang’s losses were significant. Their main factory had been infiltrated, their foreman was missing, their child laborers had vanished without a trace, and most importantly, their prized possession, the Spatiotemporal Solvent Machine, had been dismantled. It was as if someone had drugged and surgically removed both of the Goat Eyes Gang’s kidneys.
There was no way to downplay this attack. The rivalry between the Goat Eyes Gang and the Black Hats was fierce. Titus, who had been planning this for a long time, was ready for their retaliation.
He could already imagine Eugene’s reaction in the morning, discovering his biggest factory ransacked, his money-making machine destroyed. It would be a sight to behold.
After leaving the factory, passing by the Goat Eyes gang members, now more docile than sheep thanks to Abyss’s illusion magic, Titus met up with his men, who had successfully completed their tasks. The children were safe, hidden away from any potential gang war. He briefly announced his intention to confront the Goat Eyes Gang, and his men, instead of showing any fear, were excited. It seemed they had been itching for a fight.
Titus didn’t accompany Abyss and Lannis to her house. He had more preparations to make. Thanks to Abyss’s magic, none of the nearby Goat Eyes gang members had raised the alarm. It was still late at night. The enemy wouldn’t discover the attack until morning. Titus had several hours to minimize casualties and bribe the city guards to turn a blind eye, ensuring a favorable outcome for his gang.
Abyss, meanwhile, followed Lannis to her home.
Despite her simple clothes, her rough speech, and her seemingly meager lifestyle, Lannis had amassed a considerable fortune through her explosives expertise. Her house was large and heavily fortified, resembling a fortress.
She activated a magic crystal switch, deactivating the magic arrays surrounding her property. Even from outside the walls, Abyss could smell the potent explosives within. Anyone trespassing without permission would likely be vaporized within minutes.
“Come in, boy. I’ve deactivated the explosives—as long as you don’t touch anything!” Lannis said, unlocking the iron gate with a key, leading Abyss inside.
The house reeked of explosives. Despite its tidy exterior, the interior was scarred by numerous explosions, walls scorched and furniture shattered, resembling a potion factory after a catastrophic accident.
Abyss had sensed a deep basement beneath the house, and as expected, Lannis led him directly to a trapdoor, descending a ladder into the darkness. They climbed down for about ten meters before reaching the bottom, where a thick metal door led to a well-equipped laboratory.
“This is my laboratory. Half of my inventions were created here,” Lannis said, chuckling. “The other half were concocted while I was eating.”
“You have everything here,” Abyss said, looking around with curiosity. “I know a bit about alchemy. You could create any potion in this lab—as long as you have the ingredients.”
“Of course. Some of this equipment is incredibly rare. They’re Miss Rebecca’s legacy,” Lannis said, walking further into the lab. “Don’t touch anything. If you damage any of her belongings, I’ll skin you alive.”
“You were very close to Miss Rebecca,” Abyss said.
“Before I met her, I was just a lowly alchemist, hired to get rid of rats for wealthy families. One day, I was caught in a gang war while working. Miss Rebecca appeared out of nowhere, single-handedly defeating all the thugs and saving me. She was very young at the time, but she already possessed extraordinary talent,” Lannis said, retrieving a glass vial filled with a yellow oily substance from her person and approaching a statue in the lab.
It was a statue of Lannis, but three times her size. It seemed odd to have a statue of herself in her own laboratory.
But Abyss didn’t question her. He understood what was about to happen—Lannis smashed the vial against the statue.
The vial shattered, the potion coating the statue’s surface. The surrounding air shimmered from the intense heat as the potion bubbled and exploded, corroding the statue. Thick steam rose from the melting figure, sucked away by the lab’s ventilation system.
Within minutes, the statue was reduced to a pile of rubble, revealing what lay hidden within.
“Miss Rebecca wasn’t just a brilliant alchemist. She was also a master of spatial magic,” Lannis said, turning to face Abyss, a smile playing on her lips. “Can you imagine? This device, crafted by Miss Rebecca, is a spatial magic artifact, built using alchemical techniques. This is how she transported herself to another world and activated the ‘Spatiotemporal Solvent Machine.’ Spatial magic is considered a useless field, even most mages ignore it. But a genius like Miss Rebecca mastered it at the age of seventeen.”
Abyss stared at the metal archway hidden within the statue, realizing once again that he had underestimated Rebecca Viper.
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