Eternal Thief

“Alchemy Guardian, what happened?”

The moment Master Bellamy’s polite question left his lips—

BOOOOOOOM!

A crushing burst of abyssal pressure exploded from the Alchemy Guardian like a detonation of a volcano. The luxurious hall groaned and then shrieked under the sudden weight of a Half-Abyssal Grand Lord’s unchecked might.

The very air turned solid, and the three vice leaders didn’t even manage to stand.

CRAAACK—CRUSH!

Their chairs, crafted from Abyssal Grade-5 ironwood, shattered like brittle shells. All three Abyssal Alchemists were slammed into the ground with bone-splintering force, their limbs bent at unnatural angles.

Their eyes bulged; no scream escaped their throats as the pressure didn’t even allow breath, let alone sound. Blood began to leak from their noses, ears, and mouths…their Abyssal bodies trembling like insects under an Abyssal Half-Grand Lord’s foot.

Master Bellamy barely remained upright, but only just as his knees had long since bent, his spine arched, and cracking sounds from his bones echoed like breaking twigs.

His face was deathly pale, and his mind was blank while his heart numbed from sheer shock and disbelief.

’D-Did he… go mad? Rebellion? Qi deviation!? No…no, he can’t be rebelling, and there’s no sign of Qi deviation either! But then why would he…!?’

But the murderous glare directed at him was nothing short of personal hatred.

The Alchemy Guardian’s usually sleepy eyes were now bloodshot, burning with insanity and brutality, as if he were one breath away from devouring the entire room.

His voice grated out like rusted metal scraping stone, and every syllable dripping with killing intent, “WHICH ONE OF YOU DID IT?!”

His voice made the walls tremble, the ceiling shake, and the floor crack from the sheer vibration of his rage.

Bellamy opened his mouth, but all that came out was blood. He spat crimson on the floor and coughed violently, struggling to breathe under the oppressive might.

“W-What…!?” He barely forced out before his ribs creaked again, and his vision blurred.

The three crushed vice leaders were worse off, all on the verge of passing out but unable to, because the Alchemy Guardian wasn’t letting them.

His abyssal pressure pinned their consciousness in a cruel vice grip, keeping their minds awake, forcing them to feel every moment of agony without escape.

The Guardian’s law sense swept through them all like a blade, detecting even the faintest twitch of guilt, anxiety, or deception.

But he didn’t like what he found, which was…nothing!

Bellamy’s confusion was genuine, and the vice leaders’ fear was raw, unfeigned.

None of them had the mental flicker of someone who had been caught doing something forbidden. But this only enraged him further.

“DON’T YOU DARE LIE TO ME…!”

His killing aura surged, and the floor cratered beneath their bodies!

BOOM!!

Another shock wave sent cracks across the hall like a spiderweb, and the vice leaders vomited blood in unison.

Master Bellamy’s legs finally buckled, and he dropped to one knee, cold sweat pouring down his back.

The Alchemy Guardian’s eyes twisted with desperation, fury… and dread.

His voice roared like thunder, “THE TREASURY VAULT IS EMPTY! WHO TOOK EVERYTHING!?”

The words slammed into the hall harder than the pressure, and Bellamy’s mind blanked when he heard those words, and at that moment, realization dawned on him about the Alchemy Guardian’s lunatic like behavior.

As for the vice leaders, their eyes went wide despite the pain, as a single word buzzed in their minds like a ghostly whisper.

’Empty?!’

The treasury vault of the Eden Alchemy Trove could be considered one of the safest, most heavily guarded vaults in the entire territory, yet it was now emptied?

Bellamy’s breath hitched as he couldn’t believe it, but because of his current situation, he couldn’t show his anger either.

“That’s… that’s impossible…” He barely whispered in a trembling voice.

At that moment, the Alchemy Guardian stepped forward, and the ground dented beneath each step. His rage swelled again, almost choking the air.

“DON’T YOU DARE TELL ME IT’S IMPOSSIBLE!” He snarled, veins bulging along his neck, making his demonic visage even more horrifying, “I SAW IT WITH MY OWN EYES! EVERY GEM, EVERY HERB, EVERY ELIXIR, EVERY ARTIFACT, EVERY ABYSSAL TALISMAN, and EVEN THAT SEALED ITEM…!”

His aura flared savagely as he gritted his teeth while uttering those final words…

“ALL OF IT! GONE!”

The entire hall erupted in a suffocating silence of shock, denial, and terror.

Master Bellamy felt the blood drain from his face altogether, and the three vice leaders shivered uncontrollably.

But the Guardian wasn’t done as he leaned forward, murderous intent filling every inch of the space.

His voice was a growl of despair, “If none of you took them, and I don’t find the thieves, and retrieve that sealed item…the Scarlet Vice President will use my head as an alchemy ingredient!”

At that moment, Master Bellamy thought the Alchemy Guardian would use another, more ’persuasive’ method to make them talk since he didn’t seem to believe them, nor was he in his right mind to hear their explanations, and they would all die under this lunatic’s hands.

But to everyone’s shock and great relief, the crushing abyssal pressure on them suddenly vanished, and the Guardian silently glared at Master Bellamy.

Although Master Bellamy and others were relieved, they had almost touched the gates of hell just now. However, their relieved expression turned grim and anxious when they remembered the reason behind Alchemy Guardian’s rampage.

“I-is it really true?”

Master Bellamy couldn’t help but question weakly, as he didn’t seem to hate the Alchemy Guardian for what he did because he knew he might’ve done the same thing if he were in the Guardian’s shoes.

The Alchemy Guardian could sense Master Bellamy’s rising anxiety and nervousness, similar to his own, and his doubt lessened even further.

He nodded solemnly before gritting his teeth as he said, “I won’t joke about something like this! When you received the message and sealed item from the headquarters, I took the item to the treasury vault for storage.

“However, I don’t know how or why, but the master lock on the treasury vault actually malfunctioned at that time. So, I activated all the other formations and went to the contact room to request an Abyssal Master Locksmith…”

At this moment, Alchemy Guardian’s expression twisted with hatred and venomous fury as he gnashed his teeth in indignation, a hint of disbelief in his eyes, “I think it only took me about six minutes or even less when I returned, and I saw the formations disabled, and everything was gone. But something new was there!”

Suddenly, a shining Abyss Gem appeared on the Alchemy Guardian’s palm.

However, instead of the usual spherical shape, it was carved into an exquisite pentagon coin, with unique carvings on both sides.

On one side was a symbol of a slender cat wrapping its tail around a coin, and on the other side was a name, ’Unlucky Boss’!