I let him walk in front of , the rope of my weapon coiling tightly around his neck. We moved through a cramped hallway, the floor and walls thick with dust.
A small bronze-rank artifact hovered above , casting a soft yellow light. I growled. "If you dare lead to the wrong place, your death..."
Kim raised his hand. "I’ve lost, completely. I don’t think and my plan turns in its head to bite . Most of our forces are not here anyway, and if they were..."
"I would have killed all of them if they were here," I said calmly and It was the truth, all of them had been infected by the poison. And they would as well.
Kim gritted his teeth. ’Just as I suspected, but how had we managed to poison everyone? And what of the Black Axe?’
"How do you do it? How do you poison us?"
I shrugged casually. "By putting it in sothing you all take every day, your drinking water. The two gangs are too arrogant. You think any enemies will only attack through your gates? You don’t even have standards set in place for things like that!"
It had taken and my partner ti to co up with the plan, and it was born out of pure desperation and urgency.
"That’s very disappointing for a gang of assassins."
Kim flinched, his eyes rumpling with anger. He hadn’t felt this much humiliation in his life. He wanted to lash out and attack, but his head won the debate. "Haha, but how do you put it? I believe it’s easier for you to do with the Black Axe, but Torvan can’t have been able..."
"Do you forget my power?" I didn’t say more. The onus had shrunk to the little monsters, putting the poison in the water, they had to starve it of food and water for a week.
Kim paused and stopped walking. "Necromancer! But, just what kind of poison is that? It’s mana-eating poison, but not one I recognize..."
I stopped walking as well. We halted in front of a wooden door. "Arcanixir."
Kim flinched. Arcanixir? How do they get their hands on sothing like that? Sothing so powerful and so expensive. So they’ve been planning this from the beginning and I’m just a fool.
"Hohoahaha, that kind of thing. Arcanixir is a slow-working poison. You’re smarter than you look."
I jerked the rope, and Kim hesitated just once before opening the door. What lay behind it was pure darkness, reeking of blood and rot.
It reminded of the Chaos Cult’s base on the previous floor; I agreed with my plan that they had to be cut from the root. I sent my light into the room and wasn’t surprised.
Bodies littered the ground, at least seven of them, decapitated in different ways. Blood ran free, most dried, but a fresh one still dripped from a body hanging from the ceiling.
And sitting in a lotus position in the middle of the room was Arkin.
"You bastard, did you help him set this up?"
Kim shrugged. "He has a peculiar taste and they are all slaves...not worth it..."
I was imdiately beside the man, slapping him on the neck, spinning him, and slamming his head into the door fra with a solid tweak!
I entered the room and the light shone brighter, driving back the suffocating darkness. I looked at Arkin, who sat calm as if a murderous aura emanated from , the one who had just broken in.
"Arkin of the Chaos Cult, Iron rank," I said, then waited for him to speak or acknowledge , but nothing. My eyes flashed and I scanned the room.
It was brief; in those two seconds, I noticed the room was a solid block of stone, no windows, no furniture.
In that ti, Arkin moved; he blurred forward and was suddenly in front of , thrusting his dagger without a sound.
Crack! My tal whip snapped through the air and slapped him across the face, sending him flying back. He crashed into the stone wall and bounced onto the floor, landing on one of the rotted bodies.
"Huh," I said. Even with my eyes away from my target, my senses never left him. "So you’ve been watching and waiting for to make a mistake—but you should know you won’t be able to do that."
Arkin stood; the cloth mask on his face had been ripped away by the force of the attack. His right cheek was bloodied as the whip stripped away a layer of flesh—it healed, forming a new scar, adding to the nurous already there—and it stung.
He raised his hand. "I’m assuming you have sothing to do with why my body is suddenly bronze rank," he said, his voice rough from misuse.
I shrugged. "You are not wrong."
When I heard the one I wanted was here, I couldn’t believe my ears. My summoned monster would finally get into my hands! But they were supposed to bring the boy’s body. What was this buffoon doing here instead?
Arkin wasn’t a high priest because he was stupid after all. Imdiately, sothing felt wrong when he sensed two people outside the door, and he tried to prepare himself—but that was when he realized his power was reduced.
He had barely been able to use the artifact he wore as a shoe, which grants the power of ’haste.’ But this is not the person he wanted to et. "Where is the Necromancer?"
"With the Black Axe. He’s killing them...or killed them."
Arkin laughed, his face twisting with dark glee. "You see! You see! You are not all different from us! You kill to get what you want, and we do the sa!"
"Ah...maybe you are right. I don’t have ti to talk about morals between a Chaos Cult mber who kills as part of their ritualistic obligation and a regular Average Climber caught in their shitty plans!"
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