"So, how should I find their headquarters?"
"Well, it’s simple, I an... kind of simple, I guess?"
The two of us sat cross-legged on the bed at her insistence. She just didn’t like talking about important things in chairs when there was a perfectly comfortable bed right next to us.
Calling it ’impractical’ or ’bad for comfort’ if we do.
But if I have to be honest... she probably just wants to lower my guard using the bed’s softness.
Too bad that isn’t going to work.
"Just tell already..."
"Okay, okay, fine~."
She was clearly padding this interaction out for longer than necessary, okay... maybe I wasn’t that bad when I was interacting with Evelina after all.
At least I was straight to the point.
"I can simply recomnd you to the shadow society, they get so of their recruits from us after all~."
"Won’t they find that suspicious?"
"Oh, they absolutely will! They’ll imdiately send in their top dogs to assassinate for treason as soon as I do."
"So...?"
"Their top-dogs don’t have the magic binding that explodes their heads. Basically, if you can defeat them, it’s your key straight to their heart!"
"Then do it then."
Fiona crossed her arms again, shaking her head in furious refusal.
"Nope, not happening, I’d rather not send assassins to you or ! Even I don’t think we can beat them!"
Fiona... an S-Rank herself, and soone who saw fight back in the tournant and had likely heard all the rumours about . Yet she still doesn’t think I could beat the shadow society’s assassins in a fight?
I don’t bla her; she probably doesn’t even know how capable they are.
Her family is the society’s strongest backer, but that doesn’t an they know all of their cards. It’s good that I know, though, and as long as I know they aren’t close to Corvus in terms of magical dominance.
They were absolutely child’s play.
"Do it, I can handle myself."
I said smugly, summoning [Endless Fang] out of thin air as I licked the edge of the blade, more to show off and look big than anything practical.
And...
"Damn... that’s hot."
It absolutely worked. Damn, it’s easy to manipulate people who already like you.
***
"I sent them a call through a transceiver and all the obvious questions and stuff, they all probably think I’ve gone crazy or sothing~."
She laughed, lunging across the bed to hug tight. I didn’t really resist; she was being helpful for the mont, and rewarding her would only make her more loyal. Besides, Evelina is still very far away.
No way I would bump into her. I’d just wash myself clean the mont I return ho, better yet, burn myself with profaned fire until none of the scent remains.
And it wasn’t like I was going to eventually reciprocate her feelings. Even Fiona knows it...
"I’m not going to like you like that, y’know?"
"Don’t care."
CRACK!
[Light Guardian]
"They’re here!"
Fiona reacted instantly. Her light magic flashed to life the mont even the faintest strange sound reached her ears. Living in the underbelly of society and managing its inner workings had honed her senses far more than I expected.
BOOM!
A bullet pierced through the tinted window but was quickly intercepted by [Light Guardian] before it could reach . The barrier didn’t just protect the room.
It wrapped around .
I could feel her protectiveness in the way she held , her arms tightening like she was ready to shield with her own body if the magic failed.
"Don’t worry."
I placed my hand over hers, catching her slightly off guard. Once she saw it was , she relaxed and let brush her arm aside as I stood up from the bed.
I didn’t want to gather that much attention.
Gunshots were loud, but not that uncommon in this part of the city.
I couldn’t just cast Oblivion Rain and be done with it. I needed to make sure the building I was standing on didn’t collapse.
Destroying one of Fiona’s family businesses was sothing I needed to avoid.
BOOM!
Another bullet tore through the hole in the window, this ti breaking past Fiona’s light guardian.
But—
FWOOSH!
It flickered out once it reached the radius of mine.
Looked like I was right—or at least half-right. They were definitely strong enough to beat Fiona, but they definitely weren’t strong enough to beat .
[Dark Step]
[Speed Boost]
Two charged at : one bursting from the wall at the head of the bed, the other teleporting beside Fiona.
A two-pronged assault. One ant to distract, the other to deliver the killing blow.
Amateurs.
[Profaned Serpent]
[Endless Fang]
The serpent handled the one close to Fiona, unwrapping from my body as it lunged forward and swallowed the assassin’s head. As for the other—
FWOOSH-BOOM!
I threw the sword hard enough to obliterate the second one’s head. The explosion looked eerily similar to the one from back then.
Neat.
[Fire Brigade]
The water vapor in the room suddenly turned deadly. My lungs felt the slight burn as the air itself threatened to incinerate everything around us.
[Chaos Manipulation]
Too bad that wasn’t happening. A simple surge of chaos magic, and every single one of those water vapors just turns to normal!
BANG! BANG!
More bullets, this ti piercing the wall, while my [Profaned Guardian] had things handled, I still needed to be careful.
"Co here!"
I pulled Fiona closer to , covering her with my wings as the bullets fizzled just like the rest. Seems like they didn’t increase the caliber from the previous shots yet.
"Don’t leave my side unless you want to die!" I grinned wildly, already preparing for a counter-attack.
[Endless Fang] x [Profaned Serpent]
Never tried this, but better late than never: an endless fang guided by a heat-seeking serpent. What more could a killer want?
"Sick ’em, boy!"
I just needed one survivor anyway.
The rest could die for all I care.
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