Blessed By A Yandere Goddess

Chapter 32: Brute Force Is Often The Best Method

Ronan and Sarael arrived in an alley two blocks from the target building, the darkness folding inward and spitting them back out. His boots hit damp asphalt, and he stumbled forward a step before catching himself against a brick wall, the cold seeping through his gloves and grounding him in the present.

Sarael materialized beside him without any of the disorientation. She looked perfectly composed, her shadows settled, her violet eyes already scanning the alley’s exits.

"Nobody saw us," she murmured. "I checked before we landed."

"Good."

Between the mask, the hood, and the shadows that clung to him, he was functionally invisible even without his skills. Just another shape in the darkness. Another nobody in a city full of them.

He pulled up the mental map he’d memorized back at the shack. The guild building was two blocks north. A converted warehouse with a few offices on the upper floor and a storage vault in the basement.

The sword was in the vault. The guild members would be asleep or out on jobs. Basic security, nothing he couldn’t handle.

"Sarael, scout ahead. Tell me if there’s anyone inside."

Her shadows uncoiled from her feet and slithered across the alley floor, slipping through cracks in the pavement and disappearing into the darkness beyond. She closed her eyes, her brow furrowing slightly in concentration.

"The building has three people inside."

She said after a moment.

"Two on the ground floor, one in the basement. The ones on the ground floor are awake. Playing cards, I think. The one in the basement is asleep."

"Guard or guild member?"

"I can’t tell. But the ones playing cards have weapons nearby. The one in the basement doesn’t."

Ronan nodded. Two awake, one asleep. That was manageable. The fixer had said the guild was small-time, but Ronan had assumed the building would be empty.

Apparently, someone had decided to stay late. Or maybe they lived there. It didn’t matter. Two awake guards just meant he needed to be more careful.

"Then let’s get going."

***

It didn’t take long to reach the building. It sat right on a busy commercial street, but with midnight approaching, the area was nearly empty. A few stragglers lounged outside cafes, and the occasional car drifted past, but the real problem was the streetlights.

They were everywhere, flooding the sidewalks with pools of harsh yellow light that made his shadow skills harder to use.

Still, it was night. As long as the moonlight touched him, even indirectly, his skills would hold. That was the rule. Moonlight meant power. Darkness meant safety.

But using his skills at all was a last resort. He’d rather not leave a trail, not after the interrogation room.

The Association was already hunting him.

The last thing he needed was footage of a man with shadow abilities getting leaked to every news outlet in the country. So he’d stick to traditional stealth for now.

Stay quiet.

Stay unseen.

The old-fashioned way.

The warehouse itself was lit up more than he’d expected. A few windows glowed faintly, and a light above the main entrance buzzed like an insect. But the side of the building was darker, and that was where he spotted the window.

Three floors up. No ladder and no fire escape.

Ronan pointed.

"Let’s go through that one."

Sarael followed his gaze. Normally, a three-story jump with no footholds would be impossible. But Ronan had the golem’s inheritance active, and a hundred strength didn’t care much about normal rules.

The jump would be nothing. A single push off the ground, and he’d be through.

"You want me to carry you, or are you coming on your own?"

"Carry me?"

Sarael paused, and Ronan could practically see the gears turning in her head.

"Uhm... how do I say this..."

"Is something wrong?"

"No, it’s just..."

She fidgeted with her fingers.

"I can follow you up there without it. But..."

"You still want me to carry you?"

"Mhm."

Ronan let out a short chuckle. Of course she did. He could’ve made her float up on her own, or just let her shadows do the work, but that wasn’t the point. The point was being carried by him. That was the whole appeal.

"Okay, fine. Come here."

Sarael stepped into his arms without a second of hesitation, pressing herself against his chest like she’d been waiting for permission. Her shadows curled around both of them, cool and weightless, and her heart-shaped pupils were already fixed on his face.

"Ready?"

"Always."

Ronan bent his knees and jumped. The golem’s inheritance made it feel like pushing off a diving board, easy, almost weightless. He shot up three stories in a single arc, his free hand catching the windowsill before gravity could remember it existed.

But the window was locked.

Of course it was.

"Sarael, can you—"

Her shadows were already sliding through the gap between the frame and the glass, working the latch from the inside with a soft click. The window swung inward without a sound. Ronan pulled them both through and landed in a low crouch on the third-floor hallway.

The corridor stretched ahead of him, dark and narrow, lined with doors that probably led to offices or storage rooms. And somewhere below, muffled voices drifted up through the floorboards. The card players, still awake, still unaware.

"Anything new on the scan?"

"Same as before. Two on the ground floor, one in the basement. The one in the basement hasn’t moved."

"Good. Let’s find the vault."

They moved through the hallway in silence, Ronan’s boots barely whispering against the worn carpet. Most of the doors were unlocked, and the rooms behind them were nothing special.

Desks, filing cabinets, the usual from a guild that didn’t have the budget for anything fancy.

The stairs to the basement were tucked behind an unmarked door at the end of the hall on the ground floor. Ronan eased it open and peered down into the darkness.

No lights, and no sounds except the faint hum of a ventilation system. He descended first, Sarael a shadow at his back. freeweɓnovel.cѳm

The basement was a single large room divided by metal shelving units loaded with crates and equipment. Most of it looked like standard guild supplies. Spare weapons, armor pieces, boxes of potion ingredients.

But against the far wall, half-hidden behind a stack of old shields, was a heavy steel door. The vault.

And curled up on a cot three feet from that door was the sleeping guard.

He was young. Early twenties, maybe. Dressed in casual clothes, with a half-eaten sandwich sitting on a crate next to his cot. Not a serious guard. Just some low-rank guild member who’d drawn the short straw and decided to nap through his shift.

Ronan raised a hand to tell Sarael to be quiet, then crept toward the vault door.

The vault itself was less impressive up close. The steel door was thick, but the locking mechanism was basic. A keypad. Probably installed a decade ago and never updated.

Too bad he didn’t know the code. Didn’t matter if the mechanism was basic; it was still effective.

And while he could rip the door off its hinges with his bare hands, that would wake the guard and possibly alert the card players upstairs. He needed to be quieter.

"Sarael, can you teleport us inside?"

She shook her head, her shadows pressing against the vault door like curious fingers before recoiling.

"I can’t. The inside is lit up. There aren’t any shadows I can use."

Ronan scanned the room again, looking for another way in. A vent, a gap in the wall, anything. But there was nothing. The vault was the only entrance, and the vault was bathed in light.

"Can you break the lights inside?"

"No."

Her voice carried a note of frustration that mirrored his own.

"The light is stopping my shadows from working effectively in there. And I’d need them to be inside to break them, but I can’t get inside because of the light, so..."

She trailed off, and Ronan clicked his tongue.

A circular problem with no clean solution. He looked toward the sleeping guard again, completely unaware that two intruders were debating how to crack his employer’s vault.

Guess he’d have to get his hands dirty after all.

"Sarael, knock him out with your shadows. Make sure he stays unconscious. And soundproof the room as best you can."

She tilted her head.

"Soundproof?"

"Yeah."

Ronan rolled his shoulders and stepped toward the vault door, his fingers already curling around the edge of the reinforced steel.

"Because I’m ripping this thing off its hinges."