Chapter 5- The traitors punishment

Frederic entered his home and kissed his wife, Annabelle. She was holding her newly born son in one arm, and their 3 year old daughter in the other.

Tears flowed down her face and he hugged both of them, and expressed his gratitude.

"I cannot be thankful enough for you, Annabelle. You accepted me into this society, despite my shady background as a surfacer, and now we have 2 lovely children, Marie, and our newly born son."

Annabelle smiled at Frederic and stated "We will call him Dubiliaris, Dubs for short."

Frederic nodded, but his face turned gray when he realized how much he had to lose at this point.

"I wish to quit my duties as a surfacer, and to continue to live a peaceful life here in the empire. The surface guild will not sit down and take this loss quietly, and I also risk being discovered by the empire. My wife, should anything ever happen I don't know where you will be safe. There is nowhere safe in the outside world, and yet if the empire discovers my affiliation with the surface there will be nowhere safe within here, so I plan to cut all ties."

She nodded, and her face also turned gray, scared for the children.

"I only want us to live a peaceful life here with our children, and I will give anything to do that".

They blew out the flame of the oil lamp and went to sleep in the darkness.

Frederic awoke to a sinister presence making itself wildly obvious, as if someone had set off an alarm in a magical sense.

He jumped out of bed, and grabbed his dagger, and burst open the wooden door leading to the outside.

He gazed behind him, and on the roof, a man clad in black thin cloth with a satchel and a ski mask sat on the door mantle, waiting for him.

"So you've finally decided, Frederic. I've been on this job for six long years, waiting to see if you would make a move against the guild, and here we are. " Frederic smirked, and wielded his dagger.

"And what of it? I only wish to live a peaceful life. I have no desire for power, like that of my father. I only wish to protect myself and my family. Is that so wrong?"

The assassin jumped down and paced around him, clicking his tongue. "Tch Tch Tch... your work has been lacking in the past few months, and we were beginning to get suspicious of whether you really intend to help us take down the empires experiments. Now that we know what has been stopping you, I'll give you a choice. Either you surrender to us and continue your work as before, and we will spare your life, or we will attack you on the spot."

A group of 20 assassins all jumped out of the shadows surrounding Frederic, and he realized that he was gravely outnumbered. Even as the assassin with the highest skills in the clan, he wouldn't be able to take on 20 of them unscathed. He would almost certainly perish.

"What of my wife and children? If I surrender will you spare them?"

The lead assassin let out a loud laugh.

"Ahahaha! What makes you think we would allow the very people who caused your betrayal of the surface dwellers to continue living? Of course they will die either way."

Frederic's face blackened with anger.

"I see, so that's how it is. Well, I suppose I have no choice now."

He took out his dagger and disappeared in a mist, and two assassins fell from where they were standing, with holes gauged into their necks. Blood spurted out and their bodies made a plopping sound as they hit the ground, and the lead assassin made his move.

All 18 remaining assassins disappeared from sight as a black mist filled the air, and one after another assassins kept dropping to the ground.

The lead assassin swirled around behind Frederic while he was taking two others on, and took a stab at his neck. Frederic reacted in time, but only was able to redirect the blow right into his arm, where the dagger caught into his flesh and tore up his right shoulder.

Frederic flipped the dagger over to his left hand, and jumped up into the air to attack the lead on his way back down. The lead assassin was able to take a stab at Frederic's left leg before Frederic stuck his dagger into the assassins back, however this rendered Frederic crippled, with only one leg usable and a dagger in the other.

The remaining assassins converged towards him in a single swift attack from all directions, and Frederic made one last attack in order to finish them off.

"Rotational Saw-blade!" He called out as he began to spin on one leg like a ballerina, slicing open the throats of all who came near him.

The remaining assassins dropped to the ground, however Frederic was left out of energy, and barely able to move.

"I.. need to move... I cant.. stay here.." he pressed forward, crawling towards his home, hoping that his wife and children were safe in bed.

Frederic then passed out from blood loss in his shoulder.

Moments later, a scream was heard in the streets of Frederic's home, as a passing woman saw the bloody scene. over 20 assassins lay dead on the ground, and Frederic, injured lay next to them.

"Guards! Guards! There's been a fight!" She screamed, as a military platoon of knights rushed to the scene. The captain looked at the scene and fell back, astounded that such a massacre had taken place.

"Who on earth could have done this.." He looked at the uniforms and noticed that all of them were similar aside from one man, Frederic, and the captain walked over to him and felt his throat.

"This man is still breathing! Bring him to the military hospital and when he wakes up have him questioned thoroughly. You there, do you know who this man is?" The guard questioned the passing woman, who was panicked.

"Y-yes... that is Frederic, the man who lives in this home with his wife and children.. I.. I don't know what could have happened here.."

The guard was confused. There was no way an ordinary man could be involved in a fight of this scale, something fishy had to be going on.

"Men! Take the wife and children into custody as well, and have the wife thoroughly questioned. We have no time to lose, there might be even more events on the horizon!"

The men responded "Yes Sir!" and barged into the house to get the suspects.

Three guards busted into the bedroom and two of them grabbed the children to take away. The mother, waking up from the racket began to scream.

"What are you doing with my children!? Where is my husband!? What is going on!?"

The guards, holding the crying children, responded, "You are under arrest for suspicious activity regarding the slaughter of around 20 men of unknown affiliation."

The woman grabbed the guards and tried to take back her children, but the one who wasn't holding either of them took the hilt of his sword and knocked her unconscious, and proceeded to drag her out.

The four of them were taken to the empire jail, deep within the castle, and the wife was brought in for questioning, while the children were put into care of the castle nurses.

"What do you know about your husbands affiliations with these black clothed assassins?", the torture guard demanded Annabelle to answer his question.

"I have no idea what you're talking of! My husband and I only wished to live a peaceful life with our children!"

The torture guard smirked, almost giddy that the wife refused to tell him. His crooked face let out a toothless smile, and he reached for a pair of pliers. "We will see how much longer you can continue to lie to me, Mrs. Ruffield".

Both hands full of fingernails had been torn off, as Annabelle was completely loyal to her husband.

He had always been there for her, and had taken her out of the life in the slums. He had given her a position in society, and brought happiness to her, and there was no way she could rat him out for being a surfacer. Especially after he decided to cut ties with them, there was no reason why their family should have to go through such a cruel endeavor.

"Where are my children!?"

She had cried over and over, and the torturer continued to question her until she had no nails left on her fingers.

Frederic woke in a concrete cell, that smelled of sweat and dampness.

Rusted iron bars were in front of him, and he lay on a concrete slab for a bed.

"Where.. where am I?" He looked over to his side and saw his leg and shoulder had been patched up, however on his hands, handcuffs binded him. He tried to use his stealth magic to conceal himself, but it was blocked by a barrier that had been placed on the cell.

"Well, Freddy, looks like you've been hiding something from us..."

The captain of the squad Frederic had been placed in when he joined the empire as a covert operative was in front of him.

"Well, don't worry too much Freddy. We'll give you a chance to explain yourself at the court hearing tomorrow. Sleep tight."

The captain walked off, whistling