Psychic Overlord

The room was silent as the party began their rest. It was already nighttime when they arrived and landed in the target area, so they first had to set up and rest before beginning the scouting tomorrow.

As such, with the lights off and everyone lying within their sleeping tents in the upstairs living room that Kaizer cleared out, the room was deathly silent, save for soft breathing and the sound of the ceiling fan spinning rather quickly to dispel the heat.

It was in this silence that a strange shadow emerged within the alley behind the house, which seemed to burn with ethereal fire, revealing a pair of eyes that stared at the building coldly.

The shadow did not move immediately, as Malek knew better than to rush.

The building before him was just another house in Al-Rafid’s dense sprawl, worn by heat and time, indistinct in the eyes of anyone passing by.

However, within the darkened room upstairs, lay one of the most dangerous parties currently deployed in this city. He had spent the last hour confirming their positions, listening to their movements, mapping their breathing patterns.

His patience was unshakable, his presence reduced to nothing more than the intangible shadow marked at the alley’s cracked pavement.

Malek had already assessed that the entire team was a bunch of young women fighting for favor, as their earlier argument had not escaped him, making his lips twitch.

To come into a warzone and have the presence of mind to argue about where to sleep in terms of proximity to the male of their collective affection, there could only be one reason for that, and it was confidence.

And the only source of their confidence, minus their own powers, was the power of their leader... Overlord.

Malek had studied his abilities carefully, especially apprehensive about his Telesthesia, which had an overwhelming field of awareness that stretched in all directions, piercing even the ground itself.

It made most infiltration tactics useless, as the moment one stepped within range, they risked detection. It was not a question of whether Kaizer would notice him, but when.

And the difference between those two outcomes determined if he left this mission successful, or as a mangled corpse. Malek was selected for this mission because out of their group, only his ability could somewhat fool the Overlord’s domain.

Malek chose the window as his entry point eventually.

As a master assassin, Malek instantly noticed a minor detail that would normally be ignored, but was crucially important when dealing with a domain holder.

The glass of the window had a thin layer of dust on the frame, undisturbed since the arrival of the Federation espers. Kaizer’s attention, for all its terrifying reach, was still anchored to conscious thought.

Overlord could not possibly scan for anomalies of such a small scale, rather looking for actual presences rather than mere dust. Could his mind even handle such volumes of useless information?

Knowing this, Malek understood that this was his window of opportunity... literally.

Malek moved, taking a step forward that signified the start of this operation and the initiation of events that would decide whether he would live past tonight or not.

The ethereal fire that had burned around his form dimmed, folding into him like a spark swallowed by the void. He did not crouch or dart forward in a sprint, rather opting to walk in a slow and measured manner, a phantom of shadow slipping through the alley towards the building.

His esper ability, rated A, made it such that the very air around him seemed reluctant to acknowledge his presence.

With fluid precision, Malek scaled the wall, fingers finding purchase in the minute cracks of the aged stone. The ascent was slow and long, each movement calculated, each pause lengthy in order to avoid unnecessary noise.

After a few minutes, Malek was level with the window, relaxing slightly as his mind was more fatigued than his body due to the tension. He decided to perform a simple test before going forward lest he be walking into a trap.

Malek exhaled lightly, letting the warmth of his breath drift towards the opening of the window, rustling the dust there.

After about 5 minutes of patient waiting, he detected not a single change from within the room, not even a hitched breath or tense movements. Malek’s eyes flickered as he extended a hand, pressing against the latch, which was unlocked, exactly as he expected given that Overlord and his group broke into the house similarly.

The window eased open without a whisper.

The room was steeped in shadows, only faint streaks of moonlight slipping through the blinds, while the air was thick with barely removed heat, the scent of dust and worn fabric mingling with the faint trace of sweat.

The Overlord’s team lay in their sleeping bags, their faces different as they slept. Apart from the woman who slept near Overlord, his sister, whose esper name was not yet known, the rest were spread out in a triangle shape around their leader.

Malek focused on the target closest to the window, a beautiful woman with azure-colored hair that curled upward around her neck and vampire-level pasty white skin, her purple-colored lips curled into a tiny frown as she slept.

Julia Bergkoff, esper name Crystal Ice. She had the A-class esper ability of Pervasive Frost, which gave her the elemental manipulation of ice with the added effect of being able to affect energy and non-tangible things, like spirits, curses, or the like. She was currently ranked 33rd on the A List.

Eliminating her first made the most sense. Not only was she likely a stabilizing presence between the others thanks to her calm, perceptive, and unshaken demeanor, but her ice posed the most threat to him after Overlord’s power due to its ability to ignore his shadowed state.

Removing her would not only disrupt the cohesion of the group but also reduce his difficulty later on when Overlord eventually met them head-on in battle. It would be a minor advantage, but one he intended to exploit since they had already decided not to kill Overlord because that would likely summon his mentor over.

Light espers were even more shameless than the dark espers because, unlike dark espers who mostly worked alone, light espers had tangible relationships that meant in the situation where you beat the young one, the older one would rush over for revenge.

Clearing his mind, Malek moved without sound. His blade, a slender length of highly expensive alloy, slid free from its sheath while his breathing slowed, his pulse steadying, the world around him shrinking to this single moment of execution.

The focus of an elite assassin, removing killing intent, thought, and senses from their heart, only focused on the execution of their target.

And then—

A slight shift.

It was not a sound, not a movement, nor was it anything tangible that Malek could detect.

Rather, it was instinct honed by years of killing and walking in the shadows, a raw yet unexplainable feeling that caused his movement to stop.

Malek had survived countless missions by trusting his senses, by listening to the slight tremors in his surroundings that others would dismiss.

And right now, something was wrong.

Malek glanced over with the corner of his eyes at Overlord, fearing that he had noticed.

However, he relaxed slightly when he realized that Overlord had not detected him, not fully at least. As it were, he was a rat trapped in a cage, Overlord did not need to pretend anymore if he was aware, as a single flick of his great power and Malek would be turned into meat paste.

Still, something in the air had shifted... like a predator catching the faintest scent of a foreign presence in its territory. Even if Overlord was asleep and unaware, his subconscious had likely detected something and would soon bring him to wakefulness.

As such, Malek had two options, one being to go ahead and complete the strike while risking full engagement when the squad awakened due to the death of their comrade.

Or Malek could beat a hasty retreat, withdrawing back to base and explaining the reason for his failure to his allies who would likely extract a pound of flesh for it.

His fingers flexed around the hilt of his blade as his mind whirred, his tension growing as that sense of shifting in the air grew with each millisecond.

In the end, Malek made a decision as his eyes glinted, his muscles coiling in preparation for a decisive motion.

And then, a single breath—sharp and sudden—Malek’s dagger cut through the silence as it was aimed at Julia’s forehead, aiming for an absolute killing blow by destroying her brain rather than slashing the throat, which could be healed under certain circumstances.

Nothing stopped Malek, and even Julia beneath him was unaware of the death about to befall her until Malek’s dagger struck!

CLINK!!

However, rather than hit the skull of her head and pierce through, the dagger bounced off as a lattice network of blue lights emerged around Julia, which repelled the dagger.

Julia and the others still didn’t react, but Malek could no longer remain calm, because a horrible pressure swept over him, making him tremble on the spot.

Overlord had awoken.