Incubus Living In A World Of Superpower Users
Chapter 275: Because They Touched The Wrong Child (Golden Ticket 3/3)

Chapter 275: Because They Touched The Wrong Child (Golden Ticket 3/3)

Lilith offered a slight smile as she saw the box in Elowen’s hands. "Elven blend?"

Elowen nodded gently. "Tea first. Then answers."

Liliana didn’t wait for instructions. She stepped forward and took the box without a word, her hands already in motion, clean, efficient.

She broke the seal with a flick of her thumb, measured out the leaves by feel alone, then set the pot to steep with practiced calm.

Every movement was precise. Nothing wasted. Nothing rushed.

The scent filled the room within moments—sharp citrus at the surface, clean oil from pressed leaves rising just behind it, and then something darker and softer underneath, like warm bark that had soaked in sunlight.

Elowen walked to the seat across from Lilith and folded her hands in her lap. She didn’t lounge. She didn’t lean forward. She just sat firm, focused, but calm.

"You didn’t write the reports," she said.

Lilith didn’t deny it. "No. We let the Crescent file them."

"I want your version."

Seraphina didn’t raise her head from the thin report in her hand. Her voice carried flat across the room, stripped of emotion. "They thought the Academy would stay out."

Liliana let out a breath of a laugh, barely more than a scoff. "They thought we would stay out."

Elowen’s gaze didn’t shift from Lilith. "You called the Silent Crescent and dealt with the cult in person?"

"I did," Lilith replied, voice steady.

"No losses?"

"None."

"And the cult node?"

"Removed," Isabella said from where she sat curled sideways in her chair. She didn’t even straighten up—just rolled her blade lazily between her fingers and caught it without looking.

"One was under a fake shelter in the outer ring. We dropped the whole thing into the sea."

Elowen raised a brow—not in judgment, but curiosity. "Any innocents?"

Lilith shook her head. "We cleared the building first. Triple-checked. Then, they made sure no one would ever use it again."

There was a pause.

Elowen tilted her head slightly. "That wasn’t just elimination."

"No," Seraphina said. "It was a message."

The air in the room didn’t get heavier.

It got firmer.

Solid. Like the foundations of something unshakable had just been laid.

Because this time, they hadn’t reacted.

They’d moved first.

And they hadn’t whispered. NovelFire

They’d spoken clearly.

It had started clean.

Seraphina handled the money. The cult’s funding tree wasn’t just complicated—it was buried.

Seven shell layers, three languages across the documents, all wrapped inside organizations masquerading as disaster relief firms.

To the surface world, they looked like recovery projects—helping people rebuild homes in Forbidden Zones, restoring lost digital archives, and providing health support.

Underneath?

Laundered assets. Black-market cores. Encrypted comms.

Seraphina didn’t bother unraveling it all.

She cut it.

Froze the outer layer with a high-security red tag, then rewrote the underlying chains with false trails that contradicted each other.

Finally, she leaked the files—anonymously—to two of the largest underground banks in direct opposition to each other.

By the time those two networks began their investigations, they were already accusing one another of betrayal.

Six hours later, every cult-linked account was dead.

Not locked—burned.

No one could reclaim them without triggering red-flag death warrants across every known trade hub.

It wasn’t just financial warfare.

It was information weaponry.

Liliana took the physical route.

One of the cult’s safer sites—on paper—was labeled a civilian healing zone near the outer crater regions.

Donations flowed easily. Goodwill programs ran openly. No one asked questions.

Until Liliana did.

She went in with ten Crescent operatives.

No visible markings. Standard field gear. Silent protocols.

They entered at dawn.

No mercy. No delay.

Three elder-class cultists were inside.

They didn’t get out.

Twelve minutes. That’s all it took.

She stripped the ritual centers and dismantled every archive. Then, the entire place was flooded with misfire—volatile, hungry, and designed to consume everything organic.

Nothing remained. Not even bone.

There was no press statement. No claim.

Just... silence.

Where once something dangerous had grown, now there was only ash.

Isabella didn’t bother with strategy.

One of the cult’s regional lieutenants was stationed in a port-side warehouse near the old coastal nodes.

Cover story? Logistics manager. Real job? Overseer of teleportation smuggling and body-embedding rituals.

She walked in alone.

Twenty-three men inside.

Only one walked out.

Barely.

His back was carved with a symbol no one dared wear.

He didn’t talk. Couldn’t. But he limped through three streets until someone found him.

Word spread fast.

And by morning, three minor cult branches had disbanded entirely.

Not due to exposure.

But fear.

Isabella hadn’t infiltrated.

She’d declared war.

And they heard her.

Elowen didn’t comment during any of it. She just drank her tea. Slowly. Steadily. Her fingers curled around the cup, the other resting in her lap, relaxed but alert.

Then she looked back at Lilith. "And the city node?"

Lilith leaned back slightly, silver-white hair catching the fading light. Her voice dropped just a little.

"They thought hiding under a concert hall I once performed at would help them. The illusions were clever. But not flawless."

"You rewrote the map," Elowen said.

Lilith nodded. "Closed the gates. Nobody got out."

"You sent in the Crescent?"

"With silent marks, yes."

"How long?"

"Four minutes."

Elowen took a breath. "No survivors?"

"Only those we wanted to live. Just enough to whisper what they saw. Or what they think they saw."

"That wasn’t retaliation," Elowen said. "That was control."

Lilith didn’t respond.

She didn’t need to.

The parlor stayed still.

The shadows lengthened slightly across the rug.

Isabella flipped her blade in her fingers once more, letting it land with a soft clink against the ceramic saucer beside her. "That wasn’t the cleanup."

Seraphina closed the file. "No."

"That was the warning." NovelFire

Liliana leaned her shoulder to the wall, arms crossed, the edges of her crimson uniform catching the last line of sunlight. "And we didn’t even call in the full roster."

Elowen tilted her head. "Why now?"

Lilith stirred her tea once more, slow and unhurried. "Because they touched the wrong child."

Silence.

Then Isabella added, "It wasn’t just Ethan."

Elowen didn’t flinch. "What else?"

"They wanted to prove they could slip beneath us," Seraphina said.

Liliana nodded slightly. "They wanted to test the walls. See if we’d respond."

"And?" Elowen asked.

"We did," Lilith said quietly. "With finality."