All Chapters of Marseille Harbor Labyrinth Mystery: Chapter 11
- Chapter 15
15 chapters
Transmutation
The steel briefcase in Jean's hand hissed, alchemical acid searing its surface.Jean didn't have time to assess the damage. The Neptune drone, with its single, viscous eye, fired a second blast of acid. If he used the briefcase again, the minerals inside might dissolve entirely."I can't let you win," Jean hissed.He channeled pure alchemical energy into the air, but this time he wasn't looking for water. He was looking for cold. The room was an ice warehouse, and its cooling machinery was the perfect weapon.Jean focused his mind on the freon pipes circling the ceiling. Transmutation. Rapid freeze.The pipes screamed, and in an instant, all the coolant inside them flash-froze into solid ice crystals. Internal pressure exploded, not with fire, but with a sharp spray of ice shards.*Pshhht!*The ice shards rained down at lethal speed, impacting the mining drone. The first shard pierced its lens eye; the second shattered its muzzle. The drone shuddered violently, discharging thick black
Sending Reinforcements
Jean didn't use the salt shield; it was too slow. He used the residue of Salty Mist Potion remaining in his body to accelerate his perception, grinding time into fine powder.The bullet Le Requin fired sliced through the air, seeming to move in syrup. Jean didn't have time to retrieve a new Potion bottle. He had to use what was in his hand: a transmuted silver screwdriver.He swung the screwdriver upward, hitting the bullet dead center.*Clang!*The screwdriver didn't stop the bullet, but deflected it a fraction of a degree. The bullet missed Jean's ear and slammed into the crystal chandelier above Le Requin's head.The chandelier shattered, and a rain of crystal shards fell.Le Requin, physically strong but slow to react, was momentarily stunned. Jean seized this split-second advantage."You won't shoot me again," Jean said, his voice as cold as the ice he had just broken.Le Requin snarled. "Damn it! You're the dead Valéry! How are you that fast?""I told you, I'm not the Valéry you
The Septic Sludge
Or he would die here, trapped in the city he had just liberated from one tyrant, only to fall into the hands of a greater one.Jean did not stop running. The black liquid spreading across the Vieux-Port was not just oil. It was alchemical death. Every step he took felt like dancing on the edge of an abyss.He leaped onto the deck of the Triton. The wreck of a ship that was now his fortress felt like the only safe place.“They know, they know exactly how to stop me,” Jean hissed, leaning against the cabin, his breath ragged. He looked out the window. The ocean around the main pier was now completely black, viscous, and motionless.He grabbed the case of rare stolen minerals. Its blue light felt warm, a contrast to the deadly chill of the Anti-Transmutation Elixir.“Ancient mineral,” Jean whispered to the case, placing it on the table. “You are the catalyst for purity. But what good is purity if the enemy can turn the entire battlefield into sludge?”He paced the cabin. “I relied too he
Cold War
The coral began to melt, and Jean quickly pulled his hand back from the hovering iron transmutation needle. The Level 2 Potion energy had overreacted, transforming the protective coral barrier he had constructed into a sizzling chalk slurry.Jean retracted the dark silver Potion, sealing the bottle with an alchemical stopper lined with an anti-corrosive membrane. He submerged the Potion into a bucket of pure brine in the corner of the lab.“Too strong,” he hissed, stabilizing the melting coral with an injection of concentrated saltwater. The ship groaned but held steady. “Non-organic transmutation requires insane precision.”He stared at the iron needle still suspended in the air, a perfect manifestation of controlled chaos. “I could turn steel into dust. I could bring an entire fleet to a standstill.”But he couldn't use this Potion in a direct confrontation in the middle of the harbor. The force of its energy release would destroy the Triton and himself. He had to use it secretly, t
The Eel’s Back
The sound wasn't merely noise; it was the groan of a sick alchemy. The Anti-Transmutation Elixir (ATE) that Neptune injected into *Triton's* hull worked fast, reducing the ship's already fragile coral defenses into a hissing lime slurry. Jean, still in the water, felt the energy of his derelict vessel dampen, as if swallowed by endless mud.He swam as fast as he could, his muscles screaming for rest. The mass transmutation he performed at Dock D had drained him to his limit.“Damn it,” Jean hissed, kicking the murky water. He had to reach the *Triton* before it sank, or worse, before the ATE breached his lab and neutralized the stolen minerals—his only purification catalyst.As he reached the shallows, where the water was only waist-deep, he sensed a subtle movement. Not the current, but deliberate motion. Jean stopped, gathering the remnants of his awareness.“A tenacious swimmer,” the voice drifted from the darkness beneath one of the moored tugboats. The voice was slick, like water