My Bugged System Made Me Too OP!

Chapter 92: Lunge

"Wait... there’s one thing I remember though..." she managed to choke out, her voice rising in pitch as a forgotten fragment of her past surfaced through the murky void of her mind. "That... that may help you. I can see it now."

Noah and Yuan’s ears perked up instantly, the atmosphere in the room turning electric with a new sense of urgency.

The competitive tension and the frustration of the last hour vanished, replaced by a singular, laser-like focus on the woman suspended before them.

"What... is that?" Noah asked, his voice a deep, metallic rumble that vibrated through the chamber.

Tara’s breathing became shallow and rapid, her eyes darting as she fixated on a mental image that was finally beginning to sharpen into a tangible reality.

The shivers that had plagued her earlier were replaced by a rigid, terrifying stillness.

"The face... of the one giving us orders," she whispered, her lips trembling as the memory coalesced into a sharp, jagged truth. "The same one who oversaw the ritual, ’.. it’s—"

Just as the name or description was about to escape her lips, the heavy black door of the cell suddenly bursted open.

The sound was like a cannon blast, the reinforced wood and iron hinges groaning as the door was blasted open with violent force.

The sudden intrusion sent a gust of cold air and dust swirling through the room, extinguishing several of the magical candles and plunging the corners of the chamber back into a deep, oppressive gloom.

A man walked in through the settling dust, his presence so overwhelming that it felt like the very gravity in the room had increased.

He was exceptionally tall, his frame lean and powerful, moving with a predatory grace that commanded immediate attention.

He had jet-black hair that was swept back from a sharp, aristocratic forehead, and his eyes—piercing, obsidian black—seemed to absorb the remaining candlelight, reflecting nothing but a cold, clinical authority.

He wore the ornate, flowing robes of a high-ranking official, the silver embroidery tracing the sigils of the continent’s supreme magical authority.

He clapped his hands together twice, the sound sharp and echoing like a gunshot in the small space.

"That’s enough," the man said, his voice smooth, deep, and carrying an effortless weight of command that left no room for argument.

He didn’t even look at the prisoner or the scorched floor; his gaze swept across Yuan and the masked figure of Noah with a dismissive indifference.

"The Magus Order will take things from here. This interrogation is officially concluded under the mandate of the High Council."

Yuan almost exploded in anger. The guild master’s face turned a deep, mottled red, his chest heaving as the intrusion struck at the very heart of his pride.

He had compromised his own protocols to secure this lead, only to have it snatched away at the final moment.

He took a step forward, his mouth opening to unleash a torrent of protest, but he forcefully calmed himself at the last possible second.

He clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles whitened as he fought to keep his mana from erupting.

’An Arch Magus...’ Yuan thought, his mind reeling as he recognized the insignia on the man’s cloak. ’The Magus Order sent a freaking Arch Magus?!’

The realization was a crushing weight. An Arch Magus was a tier of power that stood far above a standard Master; they were living legends, individuals whose personal strength could rival entire armies.

For the Order to deploy such a high-ranking asset for a single prisoner transfer meant that they were fully aware of the stakes involved—and that they had no intention of letting the Adventurer Guild keep control of the narrative.

He glanced at Noah who was by his side, searching for any sign of a reaction from the masked powerhouse.

Noah remained as still as a statue, the white demon mask providing no hint of his thoughts, though the air around him seemed to hum with a suppressed tension.

Yuan then looked back at the man who had just walked in, the Arch Magus standing there with an aura of unshakable superiority.

’If... only,’ Yuan thought to himself, a bitter, stinging regret blooming in his chest. He bit his lips hard enough to draw blood, the metallic taste filling his mouth.

Deep down, Yuan had known that as soon as word of a "Shadow Assassin" getting caught reached the higher-ups in the capital, the Order would move to consolidate the evidence.

The Adventurer Guild was a private entity, a collection of mercenaries and treasure hunters, but the Magus Order was the law.

They held the legal rights to oversee any threat that classified as a " Magical Anomaly," and a woman turned into a shadow certainly fit that description.

From the woman’s own earlier explanation, it was clear that this type of matter—one involving dark rituals—was more in the hands of the Magus Order to settle.

They had the specialized divisions, the ancient archives, and the legal jurisdiction to handle the case in a way the guild simply couldn’t.

Nonetheless, their intrusion was a calculated power move, a blatant disregard for the work the Adventurer Guild had put into tracking down the shadow assassin.

The particular person they had sent to ensure this transition was not a mere representative or a high-ranking officer; he was an Arch Magus, and one of the heads of the Magus Order itself.

In the hierarchy of the continent, he was a pillar of the magical establishment, a man whose name was whispered with equal parts reverence and dread in the halls of the academy.

By sending one of their most powerful leaders, they were signaling that they were prepared to use any level of force necessary to seize the assets and the information within this room.

Under normal circumstances, even the Magus Order wouldn’t be able to act like this.

Usually, there were treaties, checks and balances, and a delicate web of diplomacy that kept the Order and the Adventurer Guild from stepping on each other’s toes.

However, in recent months, the political landscape had shifted.

Since the power had tipped over to their side due to the death of one of the guild’s most powerful adventurers, they could press more against the guild easily now.

They were exploiting a moment of guild weakness to reassert their dominance, using Tara’s case as a legal battering ram to break through the guild’s remaining autonomy.

Yuan, realizing the futility of resistance in the face of an Arch Magus, reluctantly bowed to the man.

The gesture was stiff, his back straining with the effort of swallowing his pride.

"What a pleasure to have you here, Mr. Lunge," Yuan said, his voice forced into a tone of hollow politeness.

He kept his eyes lowered, but the tension in his jaw was visible even in the dim candlelight.

Lunge didn’t even acknowledge the bow. He simply scoffed at Yuan, a sound of pure, unadulterated dismissal that echoed through the stone chamber.

In his eyes, Yuan was nothing more than a glorified mercenary.

He turned his back on the guild master and focused back to Noah instead.

A smile appeared on Lunge’s face—a sharp, thin curve that didn’t reach his piercing black eyes.

"I’m not here for small fry as yourself, Tuan," Lunge said, making sure that everyone in the room heard the slight.

Yuan gnashed his teeth at those words, clenching his fists so tightly that his knuckles cracked like dry wood.

’It’s Yuan... Yuan,’ he thought in anger, but couldn’t even expression that frustration.

This wasn’t the first time they were meeting, so the man certainly knew his name.

Lunge was intimately familiar with Yuan’s history and his standing in the guild.

He only chose to call him the wrong name just because he didn’t want to acknowledge him.

This wasn’t the first time he was doing so also as it was a recurring game Lunge played, a petty but effective method of asserting his superiority.

Noah, on the other hand, narrowed his eyes at the man who had just entered.

While Yuan was drowning in a sea of personal offense and resentment, Noah’s focus was entirely on the threat Lunge represented.

’So this is what it feels like to stand before an Arch Magus,’ he thought, the realization anchoring deep in his chest.

It was fundamentally different from facing a Master Magus or any ordinary adventurer.

There was a strange air to the air around this man, a sense that the world itself was bowing in his presence.

Even though Lunge was just standing there, seemingly relaxed with his hands behind his back, Noah could feel the power radiating from him in thick waves.

The Arch Magus’s presence was a suffocating shroud, a silent declaration that in this room, his will was the only law that mattered.

Not even the fake arch magus aura from his skill could compare.

Lunge’s black eyes, which had been scanning Noah with a mixture of curiosity and disdain, suddenly darkened.

Then without a single word or gesture, an intense pressure burst out of his body.

It wasn’t a physical blast, but a massive surge of spiritual and elemental mana that acted like an invisible hammer.

The air in the room seemed to solidify, turning into a crushing weight that sought to bring everything to its knees.

The candles flickered violently, but strangely enough, they weren’t snuffed out, mainly due to the fact that they weren’t normal candles and were instead fueled by artifacts.

Yuan, despite being a high-level Master Magus himself, was caught completely off guard by the sheer magnitude of the assault.