17, Month Fall-Quatre, Year 2763 B.A.

09:00, Leogella tribe - Halamar Mansion

 

 

“What is it that you want to talk about, Halamar? Don’t you know that I am busy right now?” Isabella asked the old man in a black robe in front of her with an annoyed voice. At the same time, she tidied her orange hair that was unkempt from running busily around the town for a while.

“A preparation for war?” Halamar shook his head slightly, with his black tail swayed at the same motion. “I already told you it was pointless, isn’t it? Our troop can not contend against them at all.”

“And you want us to back down!?” Isabella snarled. Her ears and tail, raised in anger. “How could a member of Leogella give in that easily? Aren’t you ashamed of yourself!?”

Halamar sighed. “I just don’t want any of our tribe waste their life pointlessly. Even princess Aila also agrees with me, isn’t she?”

“…”

Talking about Aila made Isabella quieted down somewhat. But she still didn’t agree with the old man in front of her. There was a difference between Halamar and Aila, after all. She knew that Halamar only thought that way because he was afraid while Aila was genuinely concerned about her tribe men.

And the thought of him advising Aila to agree to Yao’s demand simply agitated her even more.

“If there is nothing else, I will leave then.” Aila said while turning around to go out of the room. Only to be stopped once more by his next word.

“Actually, I have something else that might interest you.” Halamar said. “My prophecy physique sensed something yesterday. Something that might be the key to defeat Yao Umbra.”

“…” Aila stopped her track. Her hand paused above the handle of the door. “Go on then.”

“Have you heard about the purgatory flame?” said the old man mysteriously.

 

 

---

2, Month Fall-Amberine, Year 2763 B.A.

22:00, Yao’s Hidden Villa

 

Isabella, stood on the top of the roof, was looking down on the patrol routes of the guards in the mansion. The wind was freezing cold, but she paid no attention to it. She didn’t need to. The body of the perfect circle level mage was the highest point that a mortal could achieve. With such powerful body, she could be naked in the freezing temperature and she wouldn’t even notice it.

There were 4 guards in the courtyard and 10 more in the mansion itself.

Of course, these guards would never be a problem for her. The guard with the highest level only reached octagon-level while the others were most only at the hexagon-level.

The later stage of magic cultivation, the more gap there was between the level. The difference between Isabella and these guys was so much that even if they were 10 more of these guys, they still couldn’t take a single hit from her at all.

It was like stacking ants against an elephant.

10 ants or 20 ants. There were all the same, insignificant.

The only problem of Isabella was her target of tonight—Yao Umbra. Not only he was a perfect circle level mage like her. He also had a unique physique that was very troublesome to deal with—an undying physique.

Literally, as the name implied, the owner of this physique was almost impossible to die. As long as they had even a little bit of their body left, they could regenerate back to full body as if nothing had ever happened to them.

That was why Yao Umbra could successfully stage a rebellion in his own tribe and took control of it at the tender age of 18. After that, he began his reign of terror in the east part of the Beast Alliance. Not only he seized the control of his own tribe, but he absorbed all the surrounding tribes into his own as well. His tribe now, numbered millions of beastmen, was one of the strongest tribes in the alliance—if not strongest already.

There were even some saying in the Beast Alliance that he would be the first one in the history to unify the beastmen under his own rule.

Leogella tribe, the next one in the path of his conquered, got a demand to total submission around a month ago. Not only that, he even demanded that the sole princess of the tribe to serve him and become the concubine of his.

But there was no other option for the Leogella tribe at all. While they could still try to fight it out with them, their number compared to them was only just a fifth of them.

And there was still their leader, which said to be the most powerful beastmen in the Alliance right now.

Not only was he strong, he was also immortal.

Or that was what everyone had believed.

Around 2 weeks before this, Halamar—another aide of Aila—had sensed the awakening of a powerful force from the eastern direction. An awakening of the purgatory flame.

Undying physique while seemingly defied the nature of the world was, actually, still a part of it. The way this physique worked relied on the principle of death—a subset of darkness—element. This meant that Yao Umbra could still be killed. Either by eliminating his entire existence in a single blow or to restrict the regeneration of his physique.

And what could be better to interfere with that than the purgatory flame, the flame that exist to purify darkness?

After some journey in the general direction that Halamar sensed the force, Isabella came across an adventurer that just finished her expedition to an ancient ruin. And what actually surprised Isabella was that this adventurer had uncovered a magic orb from the said ruin.

So, Isabella bought the orb and brought it back to had Halamar appraised it. He later confirmed that this orb indeed contained the purgatory flame he sensed. Not only that, but she also went back home and retrieved a manual from the heirloom: Path of Killing. It was a manual that was passed down in her family. It was said to grant the one who mastered it the power to even kill the immortal.

This was her backup method.

Too bad the manual was too complicated for her. She failed to learn it even when 2 weeks had passed. That was why she could only come back to Aila around 2 days ago, only to find that she had already decided to surrender.

That was why Isabella started to plan something on her own.

I have a way to kill you now…

Isabella drove her consciousness into her spatial ring to confirm the existence of the orb once more to reassure herself. This orb was her only solution to this situation.

After all, this was the orb that contained the legendary flame that dispelled all darkness—the purgatory flame.

 

---

Isabella slowed her breath down and her heart began to beat slower. The metabolism in her body started to slow down to almost a standstill. Her body became one with the wind and disappeared into the night.

This was the spell that most mages in the assassin archetype learned—Wind Blinding. It allowed the user to take the cover of the wind and became invisible to naked eyes. The more powerful mage was, the more invisible they became.

With someone as powerful as she was, Isabella completely disappeared, as if she ceased to exist.

She slowly walked toward her target, locating on the northern side of the mansion. It was probably because of his arrogance that there was no guard in the vicinity of his private area at all. The fact that he actually stayed in this villa—which was at the north border of the Leogella tribe—was already arrogant enough in Isabella’s opinion.

When she approached the door and extend her sensory, she could faintly “see” two people in the bedroom. They were one man and one woman, engaging in a dirty activity.

They don’t even care if there is a war brewing at all…

The catgirl’s face darkened. She kicked the door opened that instant. At the same time, Isabella flicked her right hand and two throwing knives appeared in her hand.

Die! You filthy bastard! She yelled—only in her mind, of course. As a well-trained assassin, catching your opponent in a compromising situation like this was her goal. She wouldn’t let it go to waste by warning them at all.

The two knives flashed. They changed into two beams of light, heading toward the man on the bed.

Unlucky for her, Yao was actually in a position that allowed him to see toward the door. This meant he already saw her the instant the door opened. His face flashed a sneer. He kicked the woman in front of him away and simply lifted his hand up toward the upcoming knives.

Clang!

As if they were hitting a wall. Two knives bounced away powerlessly. Yao then got into a fighting position. The bearman stood tall at 3 meters. His black fur was dark, filled the room with oppressive feeling.

His red eyes looked toward the intruder at the door but—

There was no one at the door.

After she threw the knives, Isabella also sprinted out. She circled around in Yao’s blind spot while he was focusing on the projectiles. When he had done dealing with them, she was already behind him, readying a black short sword in her hand.

“Ugh!”

People may see assassins as coward who relied on speed and trickery to get their target. But there was one thing they couldn’t deny.

Their attack power was the real deal.

Caught off guard like this, Yao couldn’t defend the attack at all. He couldn’t even circulate his mana to soften the attack. The sword penetrated straight from his back and all the way through his thorax cavity.

“You—”

Even when receiving such a deadly strike, Yao was unfazed. He simply smiled at the death door. As undying, he never feared death. Isabella could only laugh coldly inside her heart at his cockiness. But it will end now. She retrieved the orb from her spatial ring and crushed it with her right hand.

A shining golden flame broke out.

It coiled around her right arm like a golden serpent. It got bigger and bigger until it was enormous enough to swallow its target whole. Then it darted toward the Yao that was currently dying from the blade.

“Argh!”

As he got enveloped by the golden flame, Yao howled miserably. He danced around pathetically until he collapsed to the ground. Dead. The flame still remained though, as if it wanted to burn his entire corpse down.

“...”

It succeeded…? It was too easy that Isabella couldn’t help but felt let down a little.

But she would not complain much.

With this, we will have a chance.

While the troop still remained, without the powerful leader they once have, the morale would surely drop. Taking care of that troop wouldn’t be a problem for the Leogella tribe at all.

“Hmm?”

Isabella looked at the golden flame once more, before she felt that something was amiss—

But it was all too late.

An ax flashed, it was so fast and so instant that she couldn’t prepare for it at all. While she could avoid the fatal injury by twisting her body slightly, her entire left arm got cut off completely. The place where her arm once was now empty and blood spurted profusely from it.

“How…?”

That was the only thing she could say as she looked in front.

In front of her, Yao was still standing. He was fine and intact. His injury was already healed by his undying physique.

The purgatory flame isn’t working…?

“The purgatory flame isn’t working…? That is what you are thinking, right?” Yao sneered. He echoed the question that floated in Isabella’s mind perfectly. “Well, I would probably die then if it was truly the real purgatory flame.”

The real…?

Her face paled. Then, as if something clicked inside her head, the catgirl’s eyes darted toward the other woman in the room.

She was the one that sold the orb.

But how…? It wasn’t as if she wasn’t taking any precautions at all. Isabella even brought the orb back to let Halamar appraised…

Halamar...

And it was then that she knew.

It was all a setup.

She was just dancing around in the palms of them the entire time.