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- Hmm, don’t you think we should first catch those trying to get away?
“...!” Joshua's eyes widened. He eventually shook his head and made the decision to leave Duke Altsma and the Dullahan Lord to their own devices. In addition, they were simply conducting a slaughter, so there wasn’t really a need to supervise them.
Of course, this was a decision that Joshua made out of the blue.
It was a decision that came out of the blue, and each step he took became bigger with every step. Somewhere along the way, Joshua simply vanished. He didn’t become too fast to be seen, he simply disappeared into thin air.
The rocks, trees, and grass remained undisturbed.
This meant that Joshua had melted into the shadows to disappear.
“Riding the shadows…?” The distant observer was startled.
Those were his last words, though nobody witnessed them. The beautiful old tree was sheared in two by a bright red curve, and the three assassins hiding in it were put down by Joshua’s spear.
“Get into Kill Formation!” the oldest assassin yelled.
In spite of their deeply rooted pride, the assassins of the Dark Sunset had to admit that Joshua Sanders was a monster beyond common sense.
The assassins slipped through the shadows in an impossibly stealthy manner; the only sign of the entire group’s movement was the faintest hiss, like a snake slithering through the grass. Seen from above, their formation was a decagon with ten layers of defenses. However, with 2 units down, it was now an octagon.
The assassins gripped their daggers with grim faces.
“Formation!”
They let loose a mana that suited their profession perfectly. It was a technique that the King of Darkness made, and it was known as ‘Darkshot’.
“Group One: Flying Dragon’s Beard!”
About a dozen assassins in the deepest part of the formation spread their fingers, embroidering the air with silvery lines.
“Group Two: Poison Dragon’s Fog!”
The next two layers threw fingernail-sized beads on the ground, which exploded into a cloud of thick purple smoke.
It looked exactly what one would expect poisonous fog would be like.
The oldest assassin couldn’t help but smile. Their formation was already complete, so there was no way that their opponent could still take a single step, not to mention make a move.
He couldn’t possibly move. A single step meant that he would be cut into ribbons by the razor-sharp wires that they had used to surround him.
“Group Three: Dark Dragon’s Thorn!”
The ground underneath Joshua’s feet cracked open, and the third and fourth layers of assassins dove into the ground. The fifth and sixth layers of assassins occupied their former places.
“Group Four: Battle Dragon’s Claw!”
The seventh and eighth layers leaped into the air, their daggers ready to strike at the slightest opportunity.
“It’s done.” The oldest assassin smiled. It was over, and he was satisfied with how they had done this job and with the outcome.
Actually, there weren’t many chances to use this technique, as such an obvious formation ran opposite to the essentials of assassination. In addition, simply killing the target was easier than setting up these elaborate formations.
‘The common understanding is that an assassin can never beat a knight in a head-to-head fight. And ‘he’ was unsatisfied about it. This formation was one of his works to overcome that weakness.’
The oldest assassin raised his weapon. It was strange, but he was wielding a sword rather than a dagger. Still, the oldest assassin was confident that he could kill his target without the advantages of using a dagger.
“Master!”
A man’s voice could be heard outside the formation.
“It’s useless,” the oldest assassin grinned. Once the formation has been set up, the inside and outside of the formation were like two different worlds.
In addition, the sheer amount of mana they had to use to create this formation meant that one’s mana would have to exceed that amount for one to even try and break the formation.
‘In other words, no one can possibly—’
“Is this it?” asked Joshua in a low voice.
“Huh?” The oldest assassin stared at Joshua blankly.
“There is no greater despair than witnessing the collapse of something you have absolute belief in.”
Joshua looked like a fool in the oldest assassin’s eyes. What the hell was he even saying? Was he really thinking that he could get out of this formation on his own?
All of a sudden, the oldest assassin’s brows twitched.
‘Now that I think about it…’ It took them quite a while to assemble the formation, but their opponent didn’t even make a move, not to mention resist. In that case, if Joshua wasn’t a fool, then his inaction only meant one thing.
The oldest assassin’s eyes widened.
“...Something’s wrong!” he exclaimed in a hurry.
“It’s too late,” said Joshua.
“...!”
Joshua’s crimson spear started spinning along with a resonant hum. If one wanted to break through an elaborate formation, one would usually have to disassemble it piece by piece, but Joshua didn’t feel like doing something like that today.
“The outcome should be the same if I cut everything down.”
Joshua brandished Lugia in a perfect sphere, and the humming intensified.
“Kill him, now!” the oldest assassin shouted.
The assassins decisively abandoned their formation. They were smart, so they knew what Joshua was trying to do. Therefore, they immediately swarmed Joshua in hopes of stopping the latter’s plan.
Joshua’s eyes widened when he saw the decision they had taken.
‘I don’t think this will get any easier…’
A burst of bright light illuminated the entire forest. The light was reminiscent of the days during time immemorial when the light itself was evil. The burst of bright light was similar to the disaster of light that struck the Human Realm back then.
“Magic Spear Arts Level 5: Day…”
It was unknown if Joshua had tapped into Magma’s power, but when he brandished Lugia once more, the crimson spear erupted into a burst of brilliant light that burned as hot as the sun itself.
The following scene barely burned itself into the retina of one of the assassin’s eyes, while the others didn’t even have enough time to process the scene itself as the burning sun that Lugia had turned into exploded in a stellar explosion.
***
Time seemed to have stopped. The masked assassins had been reduced to ashes, while Cain was frozen stiff like a soulless husk, and he had only been watching from the sidelines.
The forest around them had become a desert of gray.
‘Where have you been? Why are you only appearing now?’ Joshua muttered to himself.
Strangely enough, he received an answer.
- It took me a while to remember what I had forgotten.
‘Remember?’
- Surely that isn’t important, is it? Your goal is to get revenge on your murderers. It’s been a few years since you took that first step, but your second target is already right in front of you. That’s good news.
Lugia’s voice sounded strange and frightening.
Joshua’s eyes drifted to a nearby tree.
- Why are you hesitating?
‘I’m hesitating?’
- Do you want to have the same regrets again?
‘No, never…’
- Then, go ahead and kill her.
Joshua’s eyes flickered. He could feel his murderer trying her best to escape as the voice in his head urged him to kill.
- There is only emptiness after revenge? Bullshit! Revenge is beauty itself!
‘Revenge…’
- Yes! Revenge! It’s beautiful! Go and rip that bitch to pieces! Make sure she dies a painful death…!
Step!
Joshua started walking in a daze. His movements were strangely mechanical, and he looked as if he was being possessed.
- Kill! Kill! Kill! KILL!
“Kill…” Joshua muttered briefly, and when he took his next step, the ground beneath him shattered as he shot forward.
It can be hard to make great work when its stolen from "pawread dot com".
“...!”
His target inhaled sharply as she saw and felt the incoming danger. She was covered from head to toe, but Joshua could never mistake her for someone else.
Her body, her smell, and even her mana signature…
She was definitely Evangeline Crepot.
“Hah!”
A storm of demonic raged around Joshua, and it tore Evangeline’s mask off of her face. Beneath the mask was a beautiful face with shoulder-length blonde hair and blue eyes.
Joshua opened his mouth, and a strange voice came out. “Do you really think that you can get away?!”
Joshua’s body swelled explosively as even more demonic power emerged from his figure. The sight of Joshua’s abnormal figure alone would make anyone say that he was a…
“...monster! You’re a monster! Get off me, you monster…!” Evangeline cried out in a trembling voice. She was also trembling in fear.
Joshua was overjoyed at the sight, and he grinned. “You’re the monster here!”
Evangeline's slender figure quivered incessantly as she stammered. “W-w-why…”
“Why?” Joshua grinned even wider as he stared into Evangeline’s terrified eyes and muttered, “I want to know why as well. I was alone. I died alone in that damned forest without even knowing what mistake I had committed for me to deserve that kind of death!”
“W-what…? What are you—”
“You have to experience the same pain I had to go through that day…!” Joshua interrupted Evangeline’s muttering by grabbing her neck. The veins on his hand bulged as he squeezed. Evangeline struggled and tried her best to break free, but Joshua’s hand remained unmoving.
Evangeline struggled with all her might, but Joshua’s hand seemed like it was made out of a boulder.
Joshua cackled madly while looking into Evangeline’s bloodshot eyes.
“Haha… hahaha…! HAHAHA…!”
‘Revenge… It feels so good I’m going crazy…!’
Just as Joshua was about to tighten his grip…
“You can’t kill me…!” Evangeline barely managed to squeeze these words out.
“Master, no…!”
Two voices sounded out at the same time, and soon after, two figures swiftly stood in Joshua’s way while he was drowning in the sea of madness.