1 The Last Mission

Grand Desolate Continent, Country of Teng Yun, Barrier City.

Currently at the mansion of the City Lord where a party was being held.

Looking over all the members in attendance from a corner with a glass of wine in his hand we find an average looking man in a sharp suit. Unlike the rest of the members in the hall, this man's presence was for something else entirely.

Slowly as the hour grew late we find more and more people are starting to say their farewells to the host before heading out. As he noticed his target taking their leave, the average looking man in the sharp suit finished the remainder of his wine then placed the empty glass on a nearby table before walking back to the corner he was originally in where he disappeared into the shadows as if he was never there, unseen by anyone.

Outside.

Currently, the average looking man was tailing his target for the evening, a man in his late 50's who was currently being accompanied by a young woman who appeared to be in her late 20's and a few armed guards at a distance to give the couple some space. His name is Lord Stevens Von Earshire and he is a Viscount for this country. The man was following these people at a distance to keep them from picking up on his trail while thinking about the events that lead to him even being in that mansion that night.

'.....If only I didn't owe him that favor, I wouldn't have been forced to do this crap job.'

After a few minutes of walking the couple stopped outside of their carriage, following which the old man helped the lady up before entering himself. The guards then took up their positions around the carriage before it started moving off, leaving the City Lord's mansion and the average looking man behind. Seeing that they have left the safety of the mansion, the average looking man unknowingly released a sigh before he once again disappeared into the darkness of the night.

*******

Roughly half an hour later...

In the wilderness outside of Barrier City on the main road leading towards Lord Earshire's territory. Currently, the carriage being pulled by a few horses flanked by a few guards were speeding their way towards the viscount's territory. This continued for another ten minutes before things started to go bad for the Viscount and his entourage.

The horses of the guards leading the entourage suddenly tripped, throwing the guards on their backs forward without any means of safely breaking their falls. Seeing this, the others tried to slow down but it was too late as a few more guards joined. When the guards at the back dismounted their horses and went to check what caused this incident, they noticed that a thick rope had been raised just high enough to trip the horses in passing.

Seeing this, the guards instantly took out their weapons and went to surround the carriage to protect their lord. This was a smart move as it showed that they were able to pick up on who was being targeted. Unfortunately for them, however, was that they started moving too late. Before they could get into position, guards started falling one by one.

Only one guard managed to make it back to the carriage unharmed but just as he was about to warn the occupants inside about what transpired, he too fell to the ground, no longer breathing. If one took a look at the necks of all the fallen guards, they would notice that each guard had a thin knife penetrating their spinal cords at the back of the neck.

At the front of the group that had tripped over the thick rope, we find a man wearing black clothing that blended into the darkness walking by the downed guards, finishing them off one by one. After taking care of the guards, he made his way towards the carriage.

As soon as the man got within two meters of the carriage, however, he immediately dodged to his right. Just as he dodged, three blades passed by where his head was just a second ago, one of them even nicking his face, causing the mask on it to come undone.

The face of the man in black was revealed to be the average looking man from the party earlier. As for his current course of action, he retreated a few meters while keeping his eyes on the carriage before pulling out a few thin knives in his left hand and a short sword in his right.

The staredown with the carriage lasted a few seconds until the man in black spoke out loud, "To what do I owe the pleasure of meeting such a renowned figure such as yourself, Lady Shiva?"

Silence hung in the air for a few seconds before the sounds of soft laughter drifted out from the carriage. The door to the carriage was then opened and out came the woman who was accompanying the Viscount during the party dressed in dark violet garbs, now identified as Lady Shiva.

"How did I give myself away?"

"Your disguise itself is perfect. I never noticed while we were at the party. It was only when I was moving in to finish off my target did I pick up on that faint trace of killing intent you were releasing and why I managed to dodge in time. Had I gotten closer before I noticed then we wouldn't be having this conversation."

"Very good, Kirou. But that only answered half of my question," said Lady Shiva with a smile that wasn't a smile and her eyes slightly narrowing.

The average faced man, now identified as Kirou, shrugged before giving his response, "Simple really. There exist only two people alive who can hide their killing intent from me at such a close distance and the other guy was the one who sent me on this shitty mission."

Lady Shiva nodded in understanding before looking around and surveying Kirou's work. Even she had to admit to herself that she wouldn't be able to pull off such clean and efficient work in such a short amount of time. She then turned her eyes back to the man himself.

"I heard a really interesting rumor lately. Would you mine verifying it for me?"

Kirou narrowed his eyes slightly before nodding, prompting the woman to continue with her question.

"There is this strange rumor floating around that this is supposed to be your last mission and after today you will be disappearing for good. Tell me it isn't so."

After hearing her question, Kirou immediately cursed under his breath as he now realized why such an infamous woman just so happened to show up in the middle of his mission. Taking a deep breath, Kirou then retreated another meter before looking the woman dead in the eyes.

"Let me guess, a certain bastard from my organization called in a favor and asked you to take me out, is that it?"

"Bingo!"

Kirou sighed before putting away his throwing knives and taking out another short sword. He immediately discarded all thoughts of retreating and was preparing to fight this dangerous woman up close.

After preparing himself he spoke up one last time, "I guess this is where one legend dies while another is created."

"That is correct, Shadow Fiend Kirou," said the woman with a smile before she brandished her short knives and rushed at Kirou.

Kirou in turn rushed at Lady Shiva as well and both started thrusting and slashing their respective weapons at each other. Had another person been there alive, they would have noticed that both fighters were moving so fast that neither of their weapons was visible and most of their movements were just shadows. Besides telling the general location of the fight, they wouldn't be able to follow it with their eyes.

....

Currently, we find Kirou looking over the body of the recently deceased Lady Shiva. Their fight lasted roughly an incense stick worth of time and we now find Lady Shiva leaning against a tree with two short swords pinning her to said tree. On the other hand, we find him standing over her with multiple cuts over his body and a few knives in both his legs and torso. Looking at the body, Kirou released another sigh before shaking his head and making his way towards the carriage from earlier.

Kirou's mission for the night was split into two parts; to kill the viscount and to retrieve a certain item from his body. The injuries he sustained made moving hurt like hell but all he did was grit his teeth powered through it. After he got to the carriage, he spent a minute or two searching the body for the item before he found it. Said item just so happened to be a bead.

Kirou didn't know what the item was or why it was wanted but he didn't care. The rule of thumb in his line of work is that the less one knows about such items, the better off they are in the long run. This is especially so for him who's been in the game for so long.

After securing the bead, Kirou started making his way away from the scene. He only made it as far as a river, roughly two miles away from the ambush site before he was attacked once again. This time, due to his many injuries, he was unable to dodge properly.

Instead of dodging, he made use of threads he had under his gear to stop the attack. Due to his injuries, this made it much harder to guard against but it still worked as it stopped his assailant from stabbing him in the heart. When he saw the face of his assailant, Kirou couldn't help but scowl at him.

"You are such a hard bastard to kill. Did you know that Kirou?' {???}

"Why am I not surprised to see you Alladin? Were you that afraid of me that you had to send in Lady Shiva first to soften me up?" {Kirou}

"She would have been the end of it if you had just died under her hands but you just refuse to follow the script," said the now identified Alladin, followed by him kicking Kirou in the midsection, sending him flying a few meters closer to the river.

Kirou got to his feet before spitting out a glob of blood before retorting, "Well, you know me Alladin. I don't go down without a fight."

Kirou then started manipulating the threads in his arms to surround him while looking at Alladin warily. Alladin in turn smirked before taking out a second knife and lunging at Kirou. It turned into a melee which looked as if both fighters were dancing on the edge of the river bank.

Things quickly turned for the worse for Kirou as his injuries from his previous fight were acting up and his opponent wasn't holding anything back in his assault. It more or less dawned on him that this truly was his last mission, not because he finishes it and then retires but due to the very real possibility that he will die in Alladin's hands if he doesn't do something and quick.

Thinking up to here, Kirou unknowingly released a sigh before steeling his resolve and abandoned all thoughts of defending himself in order to land one final attack. Seeing that Kirou was no longer using his threads for defense, Alladin became emboldened with his attacks. It wasn't until he finally managed to sink his knives in Kirou's torso that he realized that he made a very big mistake.

Taking advantage of the close proximity of Alladin's body with his, Kirou unleashed all the threads on his body to wrap around the various joints on Alladin, which included his neck. Alladin used all his strength to try and forcefully break out of the restraints, but alas, they never budged. Using the remainder of his strength for one final act, Kirou manipulated the threads into tightening around their respective targets. This eventually led to the threads digging into Alladin's body, causing him to struggle with all his might and his eyes to roll back into his head. Eventually, his head along with his various limbs was separated from his body, leaving only the torso and the legs down to the knees in one piece.

With the last of his strength gone, Kirou fell back first into the river. The river may not have been surging but due to his complete lack of strength, Kirou found it hard to even float, much less swim to safety. He eventually settled at the bottom of the riverbed he finally closed his eyes for the final time and released the last sigh in this life.

Unknown to him, however, was that as he died, the bead in his possession, which was now covered in blood due to his latest injuries, was glowing in a bright scarlet color that radiated out from the river. This lasted a good hour before the light finally disappeared, along with the mysterious bead.