Taking action against Jude wasn't a job just anyone dared to accept.
After all, anyone with half a brain knew who stood behind Jude now.
If you moved against Jude, weren't you slapping the face of the person backing him?
If that person got angry, you will be annihilated!
Eisenwald served as an example for this!
Although Dark Guild members were all criminals, they weren't complete fools.
This job involved considerable risk.
But where there's a high reward, there will always be brave souls.
Duke Savalu had staked everything to capture Jude, and in the end, some fearless individuals did take the job.
While not all criminals were stupid, there were plenty of fools among them—those who'd risk their lives for money or believed they could evade subsequent investigations.
Before accepting the mission, these people had conducted on-site inspections, observing Jude's security arrangements.
They certainly wouldn't trust Duke Savalu's one-sided account.
For such a high-risk mission, preliminary reconnaissance was essential—one misstep could mean annihilation.
At the newly constructed Balerona Station, a pair of utterly unremarkable-looking twins stood together, their eyes fixed on the golden-haired man at the podium.
Today marked the official opening of Balerona Station, and Jude himself had come to preside over the ceremony.
"Looking at it this way, the mission doesn't seem too difficult," one of the twins slowly remarked.
"Then let's just kill him outright," the other replied with a grin, revealing a mouthful of slyre teeth.
The brothers exchanged a glance, magical energy surging around them as their figures vanished in an instant, charging straight towards Jude at the podium.
"Caw!"
Above them, the hoarse cry of a crow rang out.
Countless black feathers drifted down, falling upon the twins.
"What the—?! Lil bro, I'll hold them off!"
The twins worked in tandem—the elder brother stayed behind to deal with the falling feathers while giving his charging sibling an extra magical push.
"Whoosh!"
The elder twin took a deep breath and exhaled a gust of wind, accelerating his brother's forward momentum.
In the blink of an eye, the younger twin was upon Jude, baring his fangs as his arms transformed into bestial claws.
"Caw!"
Yet several crows swooped down from above, diving towards him with talons and beaks glinting coldly as they aimed for his vitals.
Forced to abandon his attack, the younger twin—who had used a Take Over magic—leapt aside to evade the diving crows.
"Where did these crows come from?! Where were they hiding?!"
Staring at the twenty-plus large crows in the sky, the younger twin was dumbfounded.
How had so many massive crows appeared out of nowhere?!
During their earlier reconnaissance, they'd noticed a few regular-sized crows nearby, but crows of this size would have been impossible to miss unless they were blind.
"Caw!"
The crows gave him no time to ponder, diving toward him once more and fueling his fury.
"Just a bunch of flying magical beasts! You really think you can stop me?!"
The younger twin swung his clawed arms at the attacking crows—he'd see what these birds were truly capable of!
"Clang!"
Claws clashed against claws, producing metallic clangs that made the younger twin narrow his eyes.
These crows were brimming with magical energy—his strike hadn't even managed to disperse the magic enveloping their talons, which far exceeded his expectations.
"CAWWWW!"
While one crow's attack was blocked, several others swooped in.
The younger twin struggled to fend them off, taking multiple hits from their slyre talons.
His magic surged outward in waves to defend against the crows' assault, but their claws still managed to tear through in several places.
"Brother! Come help me!"
Trapped in the swarm of crows, the younger twin shouted for aid—but no response came.
He glanced back towards his brother, only to find him completely buried under a pile of black feathers.
Though the older twin still writhed in resistance, the feathers bound him like a mummy, his struggles growing weaker by the second.
"How?!"
The sight made the younger twin's eyes widen in shock.
The sheer dominance of those black feathers was something he hadn't anticipated—and likely, neither had his brother.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have recklessly endured them just to lend a hand earlier.
"Caw!"
Amid the crows' shrieks, another storm of black feathers descended, this time aimed at the younger twin.
Having witnessed his brother's fate, he no longer dared to underestimate them.
He quickly dodged backward.
The feathers released by the crows themselves were clearly inferior to those Marco directly controlled.
For one, their speed was slightly slower—enough to overwhelm an ordinary person, but insufficient against a combat-focused mage.
The flurry of black feathers forced the younger twin into retreat, and the crows seized the chance to swarm him again.
Their talons raked his body, leaving him bloodied and battered.
At this point, being wrapped in feathers might have been preferable—at least it would've spared him some pain.
"So they finally made their move, huh?"
On the podium, Jude, after his initial surprise, calmed down.
If anything, he felt a sense of relief.
At last, these people finally show themself!
"Caw!"
A few large crows pulled a glider through the air and Marco, riding it, released his grip and landed smoothly on the ground.
"Looks like the fight's already over."
Marco grinned at the sight of the two Dark Mages—one cocooned in black feathers, the other collapsed in a pool of blood.
With evidence in hand, it was time to stir up some trouble.
"They held out longer than I expected. Only now, after this railway section was completed and opened, did they strike. Did they really think we'd let our guard down?" Jude sighed.
The waiting had been the hardest part.
He had known Duke Savalu would come for him, and he'd been bracing for it.
The sooner it happened, the sooner he could be free of the tension.
Even with Marco's crows protecting him, Jude had never felt entirely secure.
The crows, shrunken to normal size, had hidden all around him, watching from every corner.
Jude himself couldn't tell which crow was Marco's and which were ordinary ones, so it was only natural for him to feel uneasy.
As for the normal crows that occasionally appeared around Jude, Duke Savalu and the twins had their suspicions, but they didn't pay much attention to them.
Clearly, they didn't think a few small crows could pose any threat or have the ability to protect Jude.