#11 What happened?

"Although I never liked you because of your attitude, I will still make it easy for you..." Silver said and draw his hand with a dagger in it, ready to slash my neck at any second.

"Really? Was it my attitude or my talent?" I raised my head and looked at him with a face full of sweat but I was still smiling.

"You-! Just die!" He said and slashed his dagger.

I moved my head down and only thing he slashed was a few strands of my hair.

"What?!" He was shocked by my sudden evade even though I should be extremely exhausted.

I used this chance that he was surprised and threw a punch towards his heart.

"Heh, what are try-" He smiled at my futile attempt but when he saw my smile he sensed something bad.

The hidden blade came from within my sleeve and he tried to dodge. He was able to evade so none of his vitals got hit but the blade still pierced through his shoulder.

"Agh! Go away!" He shouted with a pained expression and tried to kick me away by kicking me into the stomach. However, before his kick connecter with me, I already retreated far enough.

"Haah. I guess you have some skill or you wouldn't be able to get into violet ranks." I said with a ragged breath but I was still smiling.

"What was that?!" He asked me, glaring at me while holding his shoulder where my blade created a small hole.

"Hm? You have never played Assassin's Creed? That's kinda shame...I would recommend it to you but I guess you won't have a chance of playing it. It was always fun playing with these hidden blades." I asked him with a weird expression and then said with a regret visible in my face.

"What the fuck are you talking about? Of course, I know what that thing is but why are you able to move so much?!" He shouted at me with a pained expression while gritting his teeth.

"Well...only Raksaya and Arno know this but I guess it won't hurt to tell you when one of us will die here. Either you will die and that information will be useless or you will win and you can consider it as a reward...My body is much more immune to poisons than it should be possible for humans." I answered with a light smile.

---

'What the hell? Is he even human?! ...Those eyes again!!! Like everything in front of him is boring. Looking at me like I am just a bother and he would rather go sleep instead of dealing with me!!!' Silver thought when he saw Akashi's half-open eyes, he was so angered that he was tightening his grip at his own wound, making more blood gushed out of the wound.

---

"Judging by how fast you have moved...you were mostly only acting. How were you able to act even though you had no idea what kind of poison it is?" Silver asked me with a darkened expression.

"You don't believe in my words, right? You are just stalling for time to see if poison will still take an effect...but I don't mind, you are bleeding, so let's chat." I said with an amused expression and when he heard my words he narrowed his eyes.

"I actually let someone secretly follow you and they already informed me of your snooping around the black market. What else would you want to buy on the black market except for poison? I just had to go there myself and ask around for the most potent poisons. There were a lot of them but most of them were already in the organization's market while the most potent one was unknown to me so I took the gamble." I said with a smile.

To be honest, I have never ordered anyone to follow Silver. I just felt my energy slowly leaving my body so I figured that it was quite potent poison that caused exhaustion. I just needed to imagine what would it do to me if I didn't have such immunity against it.

---

'What? I was...followed the entire time? No! That's bullshit, I would have noticed it...but how else would he know this information?' Silver was thinking hard about Akashi's words with wide-open eyes. He was thinking so hard that he didn't even notice that Akashi already moved.

---

When I was Silver daze out, I threw at him one of my longer daggers.

"Hm?!" Silver noticed something nearing him so he quickly tried to jump to the side but when he tried to kick off the ground with his right leg, it was too slow and weak.

Resulting in dagger to create larger cut right next to his ribs.

"Agh! What kind of dirty move was that? Weren't we talking to each other?" He said while hatefully glaring at me.

"There isn't a thing called a dirty move when you are an assassin. Was I complaining when you forced me to get rid of all men while you also sneak attacked me from behind? No...actually, I want to praise you for that flawless strategy. You even believed in my ability to deal with those men." I said while shrugging my shoulders.

---

'Tch, what he is saying is the truth but why were my movements so sluggish? Plus I thought that I actually dodged the dagger enough to leave a small cut and not a large one like this! ?! Was that hidden blade actually poisoned?! How much does he like to play with poison?!!' Silver thought and his eyes widened once again and an expression of realization appeared on his face.

---

"Yep, that hidden blade was poisoned to slow down your movements a bit but I have never thought that it would be so effective. It seems that you have skipped a lot of training for resistance against poisons." I nodded at him once I saw his expression.

...I am starting to feel that "unbearable pain" but thanks to my superior immunity I only feel like something is stinging me from inside at regular intervals. It's not exactly a pleasant feeling but definitely not an unbearable one. It shouldn't be able to kill me, not with how weak it is.

"Silver, I think that both of us are tired enough from today's events. So let's end it once and for all!" I shouted at him and kicked off the ground with all my strength. I appeared in front of Silver extremely quickly.

---

'?! How did he appear in front of me so suddenly?! Fuck, I see him blurred, fucking poison. I can't stay on the defensive since my vision is too blurred to defend against his "small" dagger' Silver thought with a shocked expression and kicked out towards Akashi's chest.

---

As I thought, he even has problems with his vision. His resistance against poison is really mediocre.

I thought and dodged his kick that was actually coming at my right side of my stomach which made it even easier for me to dodge just by shifting my body to the left. When he had yet to recover his balance I slashed my dagger at his neck.

---

'FUCK! I can't block it with this blurred vision!!' Silver thought and took a gamble by slashing his dagger at Akashi's neck too. Believing that Akashi would stop to defend himself.

---

Hm? ...I narrowed my eyes when I saw what he was trying to do.

If you think that I am the same coward as you then you are mistaken!

I shouted inside my mind and used my empty hand to block the incoming dagger by letting it pierce through my entire hand. Silver got the same idea, or maybe he just wanted to protect his neck out of instinct, however, due to his blurred vision from poison plus blood loss, he was able only to push dragger slightly away, ultimately making a large cut across his entire palm while smaller cut on his neck. Unfortunately, even that small cut on his neck would make him bleed out if he wouldn't receive the 1st aid in a few minutes, not to mention his previous wounds.

*Thud* He let of his dagger that pierced through my hand and his body hit the ground as he was holding his neck.

"*Cough* I never imagined that *Cough* I would lose because of poison. *Cough* Should have listened more to that old man, Arno" He started to speak while watching the stars in the sky and every time he coughed, blood came out of his mouth.

...It actually hurts less than that poison. I thought while looking at the dagger stuck in my hand.

*sigh* I sighed and dropped down on my ass. I also started to watch the stars brightly shining in the sky with tired eyes.

"...How about we forget about everything that happened today and you help bandage me?" Silver said with a forced smile.

"Sorry Silver but the moment you tried to target me was the moment I have declared you as a dead man inside my head." I replied to him with a small smile after seeing his forced smile.

"What about the lea- mother? How do you think she will react?" He tried to convince me through Raksaya.

"It's futile Silver, I have recorded our entire conversation on my phone and even if I had no evidence...She would trust me since I already informed her more than a year ago that you will try to target me one day. Have a good rest, I will help you out so you don't have to suffer" I said and went for his heart with my dagger.

"Wai-!" I didn't let him talk any more nonsense and pierced his heart, instantly killing him. I closed his eyelids to hide his shocked wide-open eyes.

*sigh* ...Now I want to go to sleep too... I thought while looking at Silver's closed eyes.

"Anyway, even though you didn't have as good talent as me, you were able to come up with good strategies. Overall, you were a worthy opponent." I muttered and got up from the ground.

I took out Silver's dagger from my hand and blood immediately started to pour from the wound.

I quickly took out a vial with high concentrated alcohol in it and poured it on my hand and my shoulder.

"Mm!" I slightly groaned and after I was done cleaning the wounds, I quickly took out bandages to take care of both of my wounds.

I took out my phone and sent the recording to Raksaya, thankfully, the signal was good enough even though I was in the middle of nowhere.

Now...let's have a look at what's inside.

I went inside the "temple" while keeping my guard up. When I walked through the entrance I arrived at the big room filled with sealed crates.

I saw a crowbar lying on the ground nearby crates so I used it to unseal one of the crates.

...Shit, are all those crates loaded with explosives?

*Bzz*

My phone vibrated and when I looked at the display, I noticed that it was Raksaya.

[Good job, can you bury him before you leave? Even though he tried to kill you...as a member of our organization, he deserves a proper burial.]

[Sure, I will take care of it later when I am done with exploring those ruins. Look at what I have found right in the first room.] I answered and took a picture of explosives and all crates, however, when I sent the message, the signal started to fail. But seeing that my message was delivered I didn't care about it.

I looked around the room and noticed another door leading deeper into the temple.

When I opened the door, the staircase leading down revealed itself and even though I am relatively able to see in the dark, I was unable to see the end.

...

It looks more like a tomb...

I thought after a while of walking around and when I finally arrived at the lower floor which should be around more than 100 meters under the ground. On the lower floor, there was nothing except for a relatively short hallway, there were no decorations on it or whatsoever. And the hallway was ending with the entrance to some small room with something that looked like an altar in the middle.

I entered the small room where there was nothing else except for the altar, goblet and some kind of sealed scroll on each side of the altar.

I quickly inspected the entrance but when I noticed that there was nothing extraordinary about those stone walls I approached the altar.

"Heh" What the hell is this? Was this terrorist organization into satanism or some shit?

I couldn't help but chuckle.

I touched and inspected altar but I couldn't read a shit written on it.

"Fucking zig-zags, what kind of language is that?" I couldn't help but mutter with a frustrated expression and since I couldn't read it, I at least took a photo of it.

I grabbed the goblet with a red liquid inside it and I also grabbed the scroll before I felt something move which made me snap my head towards the entrance.

Fuu...that was kind of reckless from me...I guess it's due to that poison that's still inside my body. Anyway, nothing bad happened.

I thought when I saw that the entrance was still open.

However...when I tried to walk out of there, I hit my face.

Huh? Did I just hit my face against...nothing? I thought and extended my hand towards the entrance and when I tried to walk out, I was stopped by some kind of invisible wall.

What the fuck...I guess I shouldn't have dissed their satanism. I joked a bit and put back the items on the altar before inspecting the wall once again but I found nothing yet the invisible wall was still there...

I don't have any supplies with me and there is no signal here...

Whelp, I guess I will take a nap.

I shrugged my shoulders and went to lie down next to the altar.

"Good night, Satan-sama" I said and closed my eyes.

...

When I woke up I had no idea how much time passed by but I was already incredibly thirsty and hungry. Not to mention that my appetite was big due to my daily training. When I tried to walk out of the room, the invisible wall was still there.

...

After numerous hours of sleeping or inspecting walls and altar, I sat down in front of the altar.

...I couldn't find any hidden button or anything plus this invisible wall is simply too ridiculous...how is that even possible? Now, my only clues on how to get outside are those two things.

I thought while looking at the goblet and scroll in my hands with narrowed eyes.

But what should I do first? Open the scroll and look if there is anything written there or drink that weird red liquid and then open the scroll? I have played a lot of games where you have to drink something before opening some kind of sacred scroll but...what if I don't have to drink anything and way how to escape is written here?

...

I closed my eyes and for more than an hour, I was thinking about all kinds of possibilities.

...If this is the poison then I should be able to survive and if I will really find a way out by drinking it, I will be able to survive as long as I will fill my stomach to reduce the poison's effect. I won't be able to resist it with an empty stomach, even if it would be weaker poison. On the other hand...what can happen if I will open the scroll...alright, I don't even want to know what can happen.

This invisible wall is too scary for me to think about it...I guess I will go for a drink first and then scroll. I am thirsty anyway...

I thought and drank from the goblet, the liquid was extremely warm but it wasn't an unpleasant feeling. After I gulped down the entire content of the goblet, I threw it away and opened the scroll.

Now!!! The way out is...empty? I tilted my head to the side while looking at the scroll, I tried to look at it from different angles but nothing appeared.

"Shit! Don't tell me that I was supposed to pour the liquid on the scroll!" I exclaimed and put my hand into my mouth, trying to make the liquid go back. But out of nowhere I appeared somewhere else, in...nowhere. It was extremely dark and even though I was able to see in the dark, there was nothing around me. I also felt like I was unable to move at all, I was able to only slightly move with my legs.

---Inside the same room after Akashi disappeared---

"Hehe, what an interesting human. Joking even in the face of death. He is indeed worthy of my legacy, the legacy of the Fire Monarch. Treading forward with no fear, that's what's required to become true monarch of fire...Who knows, maybe he will also surpass me, hehe" Deep voice resounded inside the room.

"It's too sad that I can't follow him and watch his progress as he will set the entire world on fire during his journey towards the invincibility. Anyway, that lazy human made me want to go to sleep." The deep voice resounded once again but this time it sounded lazy and tired.