119 Array of Illusions (3)

"… Two hearts connected… Two hearts connected…" Lena held her chin while thinking about the meaning of the words in the door. Claire was beside her, but she could not also think of anything.

Giving a glance to the two girls, Louise carefully approached me without letting the girls realize that something was wrong.

When the distance between us was almost zero, she opened her lips.

"… Assassins?" She asked with a whisper.

I smiled softly. "How did you realize?"

"… The monsters here don't emit killing intent."

I shot Louise a brief look of admiration and chuckled. "Smart."

Louise rolled her eyes, but she quickly returned to an expression of seriousness. "How many? I can detect only two."

"Five, one in the tenth layer, two in the ninth layer and the last two in the eight-layer."

Louise's expression fell. She tightened her hands into fists and heaved a sigh to control her emotions.

"Damn, we are fucked."

I looked at her with mild amusement. "Scared?"

Louise rolled her eyes again, but when she saw my relaxed expression, she calmed down. "… Do you have a plan?"

"Of course. Do you want to hear it?"

"Tell me."

"if they bleed, we can kill them."

"…"

I chuckled seeing Louise's exasperated look and unsheathed my sword. "Just focus on protecting the girls. I'll take care of the rest."

Louise put on an are-you-crazy expression and grabbed my hand worriedly. I smiled and touched her cheek. "Don't worry, your man will take care of them."

"… who is my man?" Louise blushed, but for some reason, she felt much more relaxed now.

At that moment, Claire turned around and looked at us suspiciously.

"What are you two whispering about?"

I grinned and pointed to the darkness. "We can feel some enemies. I'm going to take care of them."

"Do you need help?" Lena asked, but I shook my head with a smile. "No need, I'm enough alone. Just focus on opening the door."

Knowing the strength of the monsters we have faced until now, the two younger sisters did not find anything wrong with my proposal and nodded. I then looked at Louise and gestured her to protect the girls.

"… Be careful." Louise whispered.

"If I die today, remember to bring flowers to my tomb every year." I joked. "But if I survive, instead of flowers, I want kisses."

"… Fool." A smile appeared on Louise's face. The next second, she looked at the ground with an embarrassed expression. "... I'll think about it."

Sweet.

Looking at the charming expression on Louise's face, I took a step forward while holding my sword. "Off I go!" I said and waved towards the girls.

"… How cool." Claire whispered from behind.

"Yeah. But he is too much into the hero role. The enemies are not even real..." Lena shook her head.

"Mm Mm." Nodded Claire.

… Now I'm embarrassed.

Louise looked at the girls helplessly before watching my back with a worried expression. She unconsciously tightened her fist and prayed the goddess to protect me.

I looked towards the darkness and smiled. Eldest brother sure is decisive. Although Alice was the one that provoked him, she just gave him the last push. The fact that he did not hesitate to send assassins against me means that he had been thinking about it for a long time.

But I had to admit that Alice's manipulation is impressive. Just a few days ago I created the impression that I have a super powerful master that is protecting me from the shadows, but under Alice's influence, eldest brother seemed to forget about it.

At least, these assassins look stronger than last time's ones.

Of course, they are just slightly bigger ants.

The assassins were a bit surprised when they saw me walk forward. They instantly realized that I had discovered them.

However, they did not panic. As assassins, they were conscious of the possibility of being discovered. They quickly calmed down and decided to proceed with the plan.

The leader of the assassins, a tenth-layer man, used his gaze to signal something to the two weakest assassins. He probably thought that I detected only the weakest pair.

The two eighth-layer assassins nodded and crawled silently towards me.

I smirked and took a step forward. Before the assassins could react, my figure disappeared and appeared in front of one of them.

The assassin panicked. Instantly, he jumped aside and slashed towards my neck. At the same time, the second assassin moved.

But instead of attacking me, he rushed towards the girls.

I frowned. My sword moved upwards and blocked the assassin's dagger. Then, I took a deep breath.

Even for me, defeating this group of enemies using fourth-layer strength is very hard.

Thus, I released the mana hidden inside my body.

In one second, my strength surged powerfully.

Under the assassins and Louise's stunned gazes, my fourth-layer mana increased.

First, it climbed to the fifth layer, then to the sixth and the seventh. When it reached the eighth layer, it finally stopped.

"Hmmm, it will be enough." I curved my lips up.

A terrifying chill assaulted the assassin's neck. Feeling the powerful mana coursing through my body, the assassin instinctively jumped back.

However, distance is not an impediment to my sword.

With a thrust, my sword advanced straight towards the assassin's neck. The sword thrust seemed slow, but in truth, it was incredibly fast.

Neither the assassin's evasive measures nor his fellow assassins attempts to save him were able to change his fate.

Less than one second from the start of the battle, the first assassin was dead.

I pulled back my sword from the assassin's neck and pointed it down. Crimson red blood flowed on the metallic blade and fell to the ground.

Then, I looked at the four remaining assassins and chuckled.

"You're gonna need a few coffins."

...

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