Heart-Stopping Moment

'What will you do now?' 

I woke up to a familiar voice in my head, a voice that I have not heard in a long time after stepping out of the world that I have called home. 'I hear you and my answer is still the same.' I said to myself pulling my sleeves to finish the job I started.

'Shall I start again?' I asked the person lying on the ground beside me. His lips I have sown after finding him too loud while trying to take him down silently, 'Sometimes things don't go as you planned. Is this what he meant by these words?' 

Seeing how he drifts in and out of consciousness makes me think that he is reaching his limit. After cutting his tongue away, I thought he would go silent. But I was wrong. 'Life is shitty, right Franz?' I asked and he just glared at me. 'Well, I guess you feel really shitty right now. After all, you have seen a friend you have not seen in a long time.' I was just talking to myself and dragged him to a corner to continue my work.

'I dragged him all the way to this secluded place in the city, but that would not matter because soon enough, the others would arrive here.' With that in mind, I proceed with what I came here to do. 'It's time for you to pay for your sins, old friend.' 

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Devian and the other heroes arrive at the brothel where Franz was last seen and what welcomed them are the wailing of people who contracted the poison after entering the room he used.

Shelly immediately went to heal everyone who contracted the poison, while Rona put up a barrier to prevent anyone from spreading the poison throughout the city.

'What in the world happened here?' Devian thinks to himself after seeing the chaos created by Franz's poison, 'Captain, some people claimed that Franz fought with someone,' Arche reported.

'Someone fought with Franz? Where is that person now?' He asked and Arche shook his head, 'They don't know either. When someone checked on Franz's room, they said they did not find anyone. They also said that Franz had killed that person, and gave them the order to clean the body up.' Arche added.

'Then they must have only heard the commotion.' Devian figured and looked around and then approached one of the bystanders and asked, 'Did any of you see where Franz went?' 

All of them pointed in the same direction, it is the same direction where they came from. This came to them as a shock since they have not encountered Franz on their way to the brothel.

Devian's expression immediately turns grim along with his allies. 'Arche, let's leave the others here for now. We'll go search for Franz ourselves. You get what I feel, right?' In response to his captain's words, Arche took out his bow and firmly said, 'I understand, captain.' 

'We'll leave this place to you guys. We will be back immediately after finding that guy,' Devian says with a stern tone and leaves with Arche. 

'You guys, be careful. You know what it means when Franz is forced to use his poison, right?' 

Devian waves his hand to Rona's words and without looking back, he replies; 'I know.' 

The two searched all the places where they could think of and even split up to cover more ground, but their effort proved to be useless as they failed to find Franz.

'It has been half an hour and we have yet to find that guy. This is frustrating and scary at the same time,' Devian says to himself while stopping at the corner of the street where he meets Arche, 'How is it? Did you find him?' he asked.

Arche immediately shakes his head, 'I used my sensory skill to find anything strange in this part of the city, but nothing came up.' Devian is disheartened to hear that even their best tracker would fail to find Franz. And just as they are about to give up and regroup with the others, they detected a sudden explosion of aura. 

They turned to their right and grind their teeth at the same time, 'That direction..... don't tell me.' Without hesitation, the two run towards the direction where the aura came from and find themselves standing a few meters away from the church of the Goddess Peita, and right in front of the church lies a body.

Arche immediately recognized the person as their comrade, Franz. He wanted to go to his side, but Devian stopped him. 'What are you doing!? We found him! What's stopping you now?!' Arche barked unknowingly, 'Can't you see him?' Devian asked as he pointed at the top of the church.

As the clouds slowly give way to the moon to light the surroundings, Arche sees a silhouette of a person standing atop the rooftop.

'Who in the world is that?' He asked, 'That's why you can't just approach Franz carelessly. I know that we have to save Franz, but we have to look after our lives as well.' Devian suggested, making Arche powerless and infuriated.

'If that's the case, then the best thing to do is find out for ourselves, right?' Arche says with a furious smile on his face and shoots three arrows in an instant while Devian draws his sword and charges up to the person standing on top of the rooftop.

'Whoever you are, I will be sure to punish you for what you have done!' Devian thinks to himself as he furiously swings his sword as follow up.

[FWOOM!] [FWOOM!] [FWOOM!]

It all happened in an instant. Arche's arrows struck the person on the chest, and as the Devian charged towards the person falling from the rooftop, he made a heart-stopping realization.

[FLUTTER!] 

Devian's eyes widened as he realizes the person he is about to attack, he immediately cancels swinging his sword but it was already too late and managed to cut the person's arm despite his efforts to stop his attack. Arche sees his hesitation and wonders why. Just then he felt a sudden chill running down his spine, his eyes widened after seeing the body lying on the ground suddenly stood up.

[SHHHLK!]

'Huh?' Arche turns to his right and finds his right arm completely obliterated, leaving only his hand holding his bow suspended in the air. Devian witnessed all these as if the time significantly slowed down to show him everything. 

'ARCHE! FRANZ!' Devian called out to his comrades' names. As soon as he gazed at the person's face, his heart suddenly sank after knowing that the person they attacked was in the end their friend and comrade. With his heart filled with fury and rage, Devian hurriedly turned to the other body and realized it's gone.

At the same time, Arche, who is still conscious after his right arm got obliterated, pointed at the rooftop. Devian slowly looks up and sees something dropping from the sky, it was a part of Franz's face that the person used to trick them into thinking that the body on the ground was their comrade.

'I missed, what a shame.' the person said with a cold tone while looking down on Devian.