Chapter 6

Eric walks to Isla, goes on one knee and takes her hand saying; 'I'll be done in two minutes.'

Isla looks at him and smiles lightly; 'Don't disappoint me, Eric.'

Eric kisses the back of her hand and walks up to the man. He points his sword at the man and says; 'You already know my name, what's yours?'

'Why do you need to know?'; he asks while smirking.

'Won't you give your name to the person that kills you?'; Eric asks bluntly.

The man bursts out laughing at Eric's surprisingly honest response as he replies; 'You're pissing me off for some reason. Alright, I'll tell you, but this will be the last name you learn of.' He says as he puts his sword down.

'My name is Jack.'

Eric continues; 'Alright, Jack. Two minutes is almost up, so I'll finish this in one move.' As he says this, a bright red aura envelopes him and covers his sword. Isla takes many steps back as the windows start rattling.

Jack smiles brightly as he cracks his neck. 'Alright, I'm starting to like this already. I'll go all out with [Berserk].' At that word, a huge burst of purple energy comes out of him as his hair and eyes become flaming purple and his veins and muscles bulge with a purple colour. He then roars as a huge force comes out of him and cracks the walls and floor in the hallway as the windows explode simultaneously.

Eric looks at the transformation in slight surprise as he takes his stance and takes a deep breath as the aura revolves around him and flows into his sword making it shine brighter.

Jack roars again and charges at Eric as the purple energy envelopes his sword. Eric takes a deep breath as his eyes shine red for an instant[Final Strike]. He takes a step forward as the wood breaks under his foot; he then appears behind Jack and his aura disappears. He sheaths his sword as Jack stops in his tracks and splits in half horizontally as a huge, long horizontal mark appears across the wall.

Eric looks back at Isla. 'Let's go princess.' He says as he holds out his hand. She walks up to him and takes his hand as they continue towards the king's chamber.

Arato had already rendered a lot of assassins unconscious since they were too weak to put up a fight. He checked for other survivors but he saw none, no servants or knights were found. He believed they were still alive since no bodies were in sight, this made him somewhat relieved because no one was hurt.

He knew what the assassins were after, which was the king's life. So he went quickly towards his chamber.

As Arato got closer to the chamber, he saw multiple dead knights. He stops in front of the door and sees the two guards dead on the floor. He clenches his teeth as he immediately opens the door to see the room thoroughly trashed and Mask standing over the king's dead body.

Mask looks at Arato and says in a casual tone; 'He was pretty strong for a dying man you know?'

Arato balls his fist in anger as he's about to draw his sword. He then notices a maid unconscious at the edge of the room close to him, so he immediately goes to her side and draws his sword.

'Don't worry, I'll save you.'; he says while still looking at Mask. Arato knew he was in trouble, deep trouble actually, and that was for two reasons. The first reason was that he is stronger than the king since he is unharmed after their fight; the second reason was because of his blue status window.

[Name-Drake Ryker

Age-28

Race-Human(Male)

Class-Magic Swordsman

Titles-Mask, The Shadow, The Completionist, 0th Rank

Level-526

Mana-SSS; Magic-SS; Casting-SS; Stamina-SS; Dual Wielding Swordsmanship-SS; Speed-SS; Prodigy-SS; Fortitude-SS; Aura-SS; Durability-S; Agility-AAA; Strength-AAA; Martial Arts-A;....]

Sweat trickles down Arato's forehead as he takes his stance.

Mask starts walking casually towards him as the sword he was holding disappears. 'The fact that you could get here means you're no ordinary knight.'; he says as he stops in front of Arato's sword.

'But upon closer inspection, you're not that impressive. You're stronger than the Mid-Ranks at best, so how did you get here? Perhaps you were lucky?'; he says as he thinks to himself; 'The High-Ranked seem to have been taken out by one person. And Jack has also been defeated; I guess I underestimated the Knight King's apprentice, but it's not something I can't handle.'

Mask grumbles in annoyance as his mission wouldn't be as simple as anticipated. He would also have to get new members for the Black Lotus. He found it difficult to control a rapidly collapsing organisation, especially one that depends heavily on its members' numbers.

The organisation had become extremely weak since most of its members were killed by one person, an 'absolute monster' as people called him, was a member turned rogue. Mask became the head since there was no one else as a candidate and all the organisation had left to its name was the remaining members that were not present that day and its reputation.

Mask sighs wearily as he decides for this to be his last job, but he needed to concentrate on his current victims.

Arato notices that Mask is distracted and immediately swings his sword with all his strength but it hits an invisible barrier and breaks as he looks in surprise.

Mask chuckles as he says casually; 'You think it's that easy?' He then grabs Arato by the neck and throws him across the room to where the king's corpse lay.

He looks at the unconscious maid and says; 'Don't worry, you won't suffer.' As he says this, a sword appears in his hand.

Arato immediately tries to get up as he sees the sword but Mask stretches his hand in his direction as 4 swords appear and pierce his limbs into the floor causing him to shout in pain.

Mask immediately beheads the maid as Arato screams in pain and anger.

'Why are you making such a fuss? Do you know her or something?'; Mask asks in slight confusion.

'You killed people. Why wouldn't I be angry? That girl did nothing to you, but you killed her in cold blood.'; Arato responds angrily despite the pain.

Mask stares at Arato for some time then he continues; 'You talk as if you're the hero..' He suddenly stops as he looks at Arato in realisation.

'You're the hero. Aren't you.'

Arato doesn't answer his question but just glares at him and says; 'You'll pay for what you did.'

Mask shrugs at his statement as a sword appears above Arato's back.

'Don't worry kid, I already plan to redeem myself after this, and I'll start by killing the person that sent me here. Take it as an apology of sorts.'; Mask replies casually.

'You're crazy.'; Arato says silently.

'Maybe, maybe not. Anyway, it's time to die. I'll make it as painless as possible.'; he replies as he looks at the entrance to the room to see someone in the hallway walking towards the room. 'I don't sense that person at all.'; Mask thinks to himself.

The person stops at the entrance as Arato and Mask look at the person in surprise.

Mask immediately moves a distance away as the swords on Arato disappear and two swords appear in his hands as he takes a defensive stance. 'It seems that today isn't my day. For me to meet you here.'

Arato looks at the person in surprise and says; 'Fei? What are you doing here?'

Fei slowly walks towards Arato and kneels in front of him. 'I'm sorry this happened to you Arato.'; she says as tears gather in her eyes.

Arato ignores her statement and shouts at her instead.'Why did you come here? Run away now!'; he says as he attempts to get up. 'I'll stall him for as long as I can. In the meantime, go and find Eric, he'll protect you.'

Fei smiles at Arato's words as tears roll down her eyes. She bends down to peck his forehead and slowly stands up. 'You're too kind Arato, and that's what I like about you. Don't lose your conviction because of this and continue protecting everyone.; she says. Her voice suddenly becomes cold as she continues. 'But as of now, you're not close to being strong enough to protect me.'

Arato stares at her in confusion. As he's about to speak, a red status window appears as he stares in shock.

[Name-Fei Fierra

Age-17

Race-Demi Human(Female)

Class-Assassin King

Titles-The Silent Death, The Monster, Grim Reaper, 0th Rank

Job-Maid

Level-802

Stealth-SSS; Speed-SSS; Stamina-SSS; Prodigy-SSS; Agility-SS; Scythe Mastery-SS; Dagger Mastery-SS; Aura-SS; Durability- SS; Poison Resistance-SS; Strength-S; Fortitude-S; Swordsmanship-S; Dexterity-A; Cleaning-B; Cooking-D;...]

Arato's consciousness slowly fades as he says; 'Be careful.'

Mask could only watch silently as Fei and Arato spoke. The reason why he didn't try to escape was that he couldn't. If he moved an inch, he would be dead in an instant. To make matters worse, he had already pissed her off so his chances of survival were extremely low.

He had already analysed the different ways he could escape but most of them resulted in his death. The only available options allowed him to escape but not with his whole body intact.

'Hello Reaper, or should I call you Fei now? How has it been?'; Mask asks calmly.

Fei looks at Mask with an eerily calm face as she replies; 'Hello Mask, or should I call you Drake now? Since you'll be dead soon.'

Mask chuckles as he raises his hand in defeat; 'What if I just give up?'

'Then you die without making a fuss.'; she replies calmly as a dark purple aura covers her right hand.

'What if I fight back?'

'You still die.'

'Will it be painless?'

'No.'

Mask chuckles again as he mumbles to himself; 'Unforgiving as always.' [Physical Enhance×10] He takes a deep breath as ten magic circles pass through his body.

'Well, I don't plan on dying here, unfortunately, but I have one question. Why did you let me live?'; he asks as he takes his stance.

'I just didn't notice you, that's all.'; she answers calmly.

Mask looks at the floor in silence. After some seconds, he finally speaks; 'I guess I was just lucky then.'

Mask disappears and suddenly appears behind Fei. He swings his sword aimed at her neck but she deflects his attack easily. He then disappears again and appears above her and gives an overhead kick but she grabs his leg and attempts to cut it off. Mask immediately shoots a fireball at her face causing her to let go of his leg as he lands a little distance away. Fei suddenly appears behind him and attempts to cut him in half but he quickly rolls away as the spot where he was gets destroyed.

Mask gets on his feet and attempts to gain some distance but notices Fei is already behind him with her hand raised. She swings downwards as Mask immediately dodges to the side.

'Shit.'; Mask says as he holds the place where his left hand was supposed to be. He gets on his feet and snaps his finger causing multiple magic circles to appear around the room and on his severed hand as he says. 'This should do a little bit of damage to you at least.'

Fei immediately grabs Arato and the King's corpse and dashes out of the room as the circles glow and explode destroying that section of the palace.

Eric and Isla arrive at the scene to see Fei sitting on the floor beside Arato's unconscious body and the king's corpse. Arato's bleeding had been stopped and his wounds were bandaged. He hadn't been affected by the explosion, but Fei hadn't been so lucky, her whole right hand and back had been burned badly.

Isla walked towards her father's body and kneels to hug him as Fei and Eric watch silently.

Fei looks at Eric and asks; 'Why didn't you come sooner?'

'The princess decided we should save the servants and some knights that were held hostage.'; he replies with sadness in his voice. 'It seems the person you fought was strong.'; he continues while looking at her burns.

'I just made a mistake, that's all.'; she replies calmly.

Isla gets on her feet and cleans her tears as she looks at Fei and asks; 'How's the pain?'

'Bearable.'; Fei replies.

'Can you search for any remaining intruders and capture them?'; Isla asks.

'Yes.'; she replies while getting up.

Isla hugs Fei and whispers in her ear; 'Thanks for all you've done tonight. Get some treatment after this Fei.'

Fei nods as Isla lets go. She looks at Arato with a relieved face and disappears.

Eric walks up to Arato and carries him on his shoulder. 'Get some rest princess. We need you at your best mental state tomorrow.'; he says as he starts walking away. He stops some distance away and says without looking back; 'I promise I'll never fail you again princess.' After saying those words, he leaves.

Isla looks at her father and says to herself; 'You didn't fail me, Eric. You did your best and that's what matters.' She then covers her father's corpse and goes to her chamber.

Mask sits beside Lucius' corpse as he thinks back to his escape. He knew Fei was going easy on him, easy enough to let him escape with enough of his limbs intact.

'I know you knew I was hiding under those corpses at that time, Fei. To think you'd spare my life twice because I helped you a little from time to time when you were just a kid.'; he says as he chuckles to himself. 'Well, I've returned the favour at least.'; he continues.

Mask gets on his feet and removes his mask to reveal a very handsome face with white hair and blue eyes. 'I guess I don't need this anymore.'; he says as he puts the mask on Lucius' head and starts walking away.

'Maybe I'll become an adventurer or something.'; he says as he disappears into the darkness.

Writer's Note- This chapter if you guys noticed was longer than normal. Well, that's because I regard it as a special chapter of sorts and more of this will occur in the future. I also want to thank you guys for reading my book and I would like to ask you to show your support by commenting and rating if possible. For those that are wondering, I'm writing this novel as a hobby of sorts (even though I don't know how to write a proper book) so I don't release chapters consistently(you guys should have noticed that already anyway). Anyway, that's all I have to say for now. Bye.