Chapter 9

THE NUMBER ON MY HEAD (1)

 

“Master Zehn what are you doing? What is the meaning of this?” Prowl exclaimed, shouting at his master, who had raised his sword against his subordinates.

“Prowl, I thought you would be the smart one to keep the group under the strict principles of the organization. But I see you have miserably failed.” Master Zehn answered as if he had already lost all interest in his subordinates.

“But how could you have known.” Nia sneered after hearing that she had been betrayed by his leader. The idea of her younger sister being transformed into an assassin had robbed her of all reason, leaving her filled with anger.

“I have no reason to answer a traitor. Nia, are you prepared to die? Come my most applauded student. Let us enjoy a fight to the death.” The seventh Zehn master, Sieb, extended his hands widely as if announcing the commencement of a war.

“Nia don’t listen to him.” Prowl forewarned Nia realising how Sieb was provoking her.

“Damn you,” Nia screamed as she had already unsheathed her sword and rushed towards Sieb without thinking.

Sieb on the other hand welcomes Nia’s blade as he fashionable drags his long sword against the ground producing more sparks and completely throws Nia off balance by parrying her strike in the opposite direction.

While Nia’s sword was deflected away, Sieb bluntly smiled as he without any hesitation was about to bring down the full weight of his sword on her.

“Nia.” Prowl shouts as he decides to interfere. “Binding Technique. ⸺Fangshadow Bind.”

Four eerie shadowy hands sprout around the Zehn master's body and coil tightly around him, restraining him.

“Nia get back now.” Prowl shouted knowing the danger to directly engage fighting with a Zehn master without any plan.

“So, you do understand Prowl who is really in danger here.” Saying that Sieb suddenly freed his arm like playing an escape trick he grabs the physical body of the shadow by encapsulating his own hands in a dark aura.

Sieb breaking the grip of the bind, and tearing it with his full strength throws Prowl away who was directly attached to the shadow.

Nia who was about to make a move, suddenly felt a stare from Sieb and froze.

“Nia what happened.” Ivy shouted.

But before Nia could move again. Sieb suddenly moved away from Nia and ran past her.

“What? No.” Nia shouts as she suddenly realizes her fault.

“Aren’t these your very precious comrades you once pledged to protect? Fighting me without guarding them was a bad move, Nia.” Sieb called out as he stood exactly behind Mars and Ivy.

“No, don’t do it.” Nia and Prowl together screamed standing helpless.

Ivy and Mars couldn’t move as Sieb gripped their heads with his hand.

The pair was terrified, feeling an overwhelming pressure around their heads, as though Sieb was about to crush their skulls with his bare hands.

“Now it’s time I give out your punishment for the mistakes you have made.” The serious look on Sieb’s face was more than enough to tell Nia and Prowl that he wasn’t joking because this wasn’t the first time they would be watching it.

The fear within them unfurled gradually, akin to a poisonous vine taking root. Every time someone betrayed or failed to complete their mission, the Zehn Master would make sure to make a show of their execution and brutally kill them.

And right now, Nia’s own comrades were about to get killed in front of her because of her mistake.

“I am glad I decided to come here early. But this wasn’t the part of the plan.” A voice echoed through the spacious room, despite its childishly shrill tone.

And for the second that Sieb lost his concentration, the next moment he noticed, that the two kids in his capture were missing as he simply grabbed empty air.

The shock on his face was viable, but later in front of him, his four subordinates were standing together unharmed.

⸺And there was someone else standing in between them.

A girl dressed in white, having black hair, and wore a typical white mask to conceal her face.

***

 

ALICIA ASCALON ASHBORN

Maybe it was good that I came early.

So, this is their leader, the seventh Zehn master of the Belladonna organization.

And before I even asked, out of habit Al was displaying all the information about his status to me, but what I was most curious was about his blessing skill which Nia talked about.

“You are here.” Nia took a sigh of relief and then felt disgusted by herself for acting out selflessly and not thinking about her teammates.

The depressed look on her face told me something bad had happened to her. But since no harm came to anyone, it shouldn’t be a problem anymore.

Ivy and Nia quickly stick close to Prowl narrowly escaping death.

“And who might you be?” The Zehn leader who had quickly gained his composure asked me.

“My name is Alicia.”

“How did you get in here?” The Zehn leader particularly looked disappointed as if he did not notice me coming.

“I came through the front door.” I answered confidently. After all, finding a secret passage to a hidden lair like this is not one of my forte anyway.

“So, did my other subordinates betray me too by letting a child come in.” The Zehn leader laughed as if he was mocking me.

“No, they were in fact too rude that each of them attacked me with poisonous daggers without saying anything. Even though I wanted to ask them not to fight. But since the poison they had been using was too weak to harm anyone, I decided to show them what real poison tastes like.” I explained to him since he was their leader, he should have used particularly strong poison if they really wanted to hurt me.

The Zehn leader did not react, as he tried to pique through the front entrance hoping he might see or hear some of his subordinates. The words of a small girl like me made little sense to him. Because in his knowledge even a small scratch from their dagger was supposedly more than enough to kill anyone.

Of course, right now all of them would be lying lifeless stuck in my webs and the poison would have penetrated from the webs into their skin. I hate prolonging pain, so I made sure to use an instant death poison for them.

An enigmatic quiet followed and the Zehn leader, waiting for someone to appear.

“So, are you the one who instigated my valuable subordinates to defy me.” Their leader asked me as if unaffected by the fact he was just about to kill exactly those subordinates.

“No. They chose it themselves. Maybe you are just a bad teacher and leader so they decided to show their rebellious side to you.”

“Defy me… it was most certainly they were here to do more than that. Do you really think I should keep still while I watch them kill me?” The Zehn leader raised his concern in a sarcastic manner.

I was pretty sure by now that he was trying to buy some time to understand my powers but it would be useless at his level to even pique at my status.

“I know you can stop yourself from being killed by freeing all the prisoners and closing down the organization for good. If you do this I will let you go.” I suggested to him an easy way out of this and to stop beating around the bush.

“Haa… Haaa… Nia, did you really place your trust in such naivety? I can’t believe you would fall for a fool’s dream. I wish I would have been more strict when disciplining you. Maybe I should have controlled you just like other Zehns do instead of giving you free will after all.” The Zehn leader only scoffed at my proposal, even though I only laid out a deal completely in his favor.

“Nia is not your tool to kill people. We won’t let you do as you please anymore.” Ivy shouted at her full strength to the point she coughed at the end.

“So, you do realize your place as tools. And tools can always be replaced after all. There is always an abundance of kids like you who will do our bidding. But before that I will make sure that I give a gruesome death to all your precious ones who are in my captive.” The Zehn leader made his intentions clear.

I suppose our words fell only on deaf ears.

I looked back at the four and could tell that they were scared of him.

At this rate, they were only going to be a hindrance to me and delay things.

“Not if they escape first.” I raised my hand at them and a flickering blue circular light surrounded them.

“Why don’t you all go and lend Regis and Hana a hand in rescuing everyone? I will be back soon.”

As the magic circle completed the four were supposed to disappear from there.

***

 

BELLADONNA ORGANISATION BASE

“I know we came here using teleportation magic. But it feels weird every time I pass through it.” Mars recounted how they got to the base in little to no time by teleporting several times through long distances.

“I am glad I was not the only one who thought that.” Regis was relieved to hear views similar to her own. Hana and Alicia had no trouble whenever they teleported out of the blue.

“Nia… Nia. Why isn’t she here?” Ivy shouted as she looked around.

Regis, Hana, Prowl, and Mars searched but Nia was nowhere to be found.

“Did she by mistake get teleported to somewhere else.” Mars wondered. In their eyes, teleportation was a difficult magic to cast by a single user or without an artifact. At the same time, it was a risky magic if not performed without preparations.

“Knowing Alicia, I am not surprised she might, but I will believe she would not make a mistake in such a scenario.” Regis contemplated.

“That’s not much reassuring,” Mars commented.

“I think I saw her use her sword just when miss Alicia was about to teleport us for some reason. So, I think Nia wanted to stay there.” Prowl enumerated what he saw before Alicia’s magic teleported them.

“I'm thankful that master didn't witness the conversation.” Hana knew for sure Alicia would have been heartbroken if she had heard such a comment pass on her magical supremacy.

“But wouldn’t Sieb harm her again and miss Alicia is also alone there.” Ivy was still concerned.

“If she is there then I would be more worried about ourselves. I just hope she doesn’t collapse this place and bury us. If your leader doesn’t comply with her demands straightaway I doubt we are going to hear about him again.” Regis assured Ivy leaving her speechless.

Mars who just doubted Alicia’s skills couldn’t help but gulp on Regis showing such faith in her. Perhaps he was still unsure what to feel about the first part Regis said.

“As planned our job is to rescue the prisoners. Let’s not deviate from that.” Regis brought everyone under one banner.

“I can find the prisoners with my search magic. But it will also trigger the alarm and the guards who would be guarding the prisoners will know that we would be coming.” Ivy explained the risk.

The place was laced with several magical alarms and traps. If any intruder was to use search magic the alarm would activate warning everyone of their presence. This way the Zehn master could keep an eye on everyone for suspicious activities.

“Let’s do this.”

….

On the dimly lighted staircase going downward, two guards suddenly heard some noise from up.

As soon as they were about to turn, the two hit their heads together and slumped to the ground.

When an elf girl, none other than Regis, stepped forward to check she found that the guards were asleep.

“Sleep magic really makes things so easy.” Regis praises Ivy by patting her head.

Ivy felt happy and wanted to prove herself to be of help.

“Don’t let your guard down. The stronger ones always hide in the shadow.” Prowl quickly takes a stance as he senses some movement in the darkness that was ahead of them in the underground tunnel they just entered.

Most probably they were using some shadow-hiding skill to attack inconspicuously.

“I think I can get rid of them.” Saying that Regis quickly knocks an arrow to her bow and charges it magically. Without even worrying about the power, she infused in it. Regis releases the arrow from the bow.

A fast blue paced light pierces through the darkness, and in a second the magic discharged from the arrow forms cracks in the walls and on the ground of the tunnel.

Krrr….Krr…BOOOMMM.

In the blink of an eye the walls and the ground shatter, and the assassins hiding in the darkness were forced to appear while also sustaining heavy injury.

It was only a matter of seconds after Prowl used his binding technique to restrain them quickly.

Mars and Hana then took them all down with their punches.

“Wait but I was the one who was supposed to beat them?” Regis protested that her prey had been snatched from her. She might have wanted to use this opportunity to practice rapidly shooting in the dark at the enemy's head.

“I don’t want to get buried in this tunnel this way either!” Mars retorted as if he had finally taken Regis’s previous words of getting buried here to heart.

“It's not like that.” Regis had no argument realising she could have possibly caused the tunnel to collapse as well. And she couldn’t even stop Hana from taking a laugh as well.

“Let’s hurry. Everyone trapped should be beyond this tunnel.”

“But there were fewer guards than the normal routine.” Prowl was hesitant, but now the vision of rescuing all the prisoners was clear in front of him.

Unfortunately, Prowl did not have anyone, but was merely a pawn in the hands of Zehn master and was dependent on them for his survival. The same went for Nia, but her sister was captured and kept in a different place.

As for Mars and Ivy, their families could have still been here.

The tunnel led to a bigger inner compound with various prison cells. Several families and children were kept in the prison. Mostly malnourished and unattended.

Regis was more angry rather than feeling upset. Fortunately, these people seemed to recognize Prowl, Ivy, and Mars and did not make a fuss on hearing the sounds.

“Why would the organization go this far to assert its authority?” Regis did not believe a person could act so cruelly against someone else for no reason but just to blackmail others.

“That’s how the Belladonna organization works. And those who defy are slaughtered immediately.” Prowl answered.

Prowl tried to touch the bars and tried to break them free but instantly pulled back his hands.

“I knew it wouldn’t be so easy. They are not just normal bars. They will absorb our magical energy if we try to break them.” Prowl warned.

“I can use my magical arrows, but what if I end up…” Regis was concerned that her magical arrows could be too powerful that it might hurt even the people inside the prison if the impact was too big.

Grrr…..rrr…

The voice of metal creaking caught everyone’s attention, but they only found Hana pulling the prison bars apart with ease.

“Are you really a human.” Mars chided Hana since he could not win in a one-on-one fistfight against her.

And this display of Hana’s strength only put a much bigger gap in their strengths.

“Do you have a problem?” Hana looked at Mars with a sharp eye for making fun of her.

It was also the first time Regis saw Hana expressing such emotions so vividly.

“I will break free everyone so don’t worry.” Hana claimed.

For Hana whose strength occurred naturally and did not rely on any magic. The bars were too weak to absorb Alicia’s magic that flowed inside her body so she was not much affected.

Prowl quickly managed everyone who broke free from the prisons. Whether it was the children who were going to be sold into slavery or become assassins under the organization.

All of them were happy to meet with their captured families and reunite. Mars too found his grandparents.

“Mother… mother..?” Ivy did not make much noise but Regis was quick to notice her anxiety.

“Did you find your mom?” Regis asked getting close to her eye level.

“She is not here.” Ivy said suppressing her sob. She did not want to put a damper on the reunion of others over her own grief.

“I promise you we will find her.” Regis said at the same time rubbing Ivy’s head just like her mother did when she felt down.

Prowl quickly noticed this and also knew it would be unsafe to take these people outside without knowing the current situation. They were unaware of Nia’s condition and what happened to the Zehn master.

He talked to the people and assured them that they would be rescued soon and for everyone to corporate.

On asking around about Ivy’s mother, people were quick to notice about the details of an elf woman.

From the information Prowl collected, it became evident that Ivy’s mother was taken away by someone only a few minutes back before they got here.

“Its possible they were planning on selling off Ivy’s mother from the start and it just happened to be today.” Prowl extrapolated from the facts.

Ivy on listening to this fell on her knees.

“I am sure they must have not gone far from here.” Regis assured.

According to the layout of this place, the tunnel further went downwards and would later open to an outside cave.

“All we need to do is catch up with them before they escape.” Regis looked at Ivy even though she herself could not be sure. However, Regis did not want to give up on trying and think optimistically until the end.

For a moment Ivy felt a ray of hope on seeing Regis’s face.

“But we can’t leave Nia there alone.” Ivy was a kind-hearted girl and leaving without Nia felt to her like betraying her.

Regis was just about to help Ivy pick her up from the ground. But then as if the entire place was engulfed in a strong magic field.

The field itself did not appear to have an effect but the sudden rise of magical pressure they felt for an instant brought the place to a stillness.

“There, you have your answer. I think Alicia has finally made her move and it will be over soon.”

Ivy too could tell that the magic she felt just now was similar to the magic she sensed in her dream. Ivy who was sensitive to magic could not deny its overwhelming presence.

“Let’s rescue your mother now.”

***

 

ALICIA ASCALON ASHBORN

I was planning to quickly finish dealing with the Master of the Belladonna organization. Either he complied with my demand or else I had no choice if he decided to continue harassing Nia and others.

For that matter, I teleported them to Regis's location, where they could work together to rescue the people he had held hostage.

“I am not leaving I am still not done.” Exceptionally Nia’s voice remained.

Even though the teleportation magic worked and others were successfully transferred as confirmed by Al, Nia still stood there.

Here katana sword covered in a black thin aura, pierced directly into the ground where the teleportation magic circle was placed.

Even though I have the power to manifest and control the natural magic of the world and without using circles or chants. I still preferred using this to keep suspicions away from me. It’s not like I was trying to say, that only a magical genius can hide away their genius so flawlessly.

But from Al and my magic analysis, it was not just her ordinary dark magic reinforcing her body or sword. From what I inferred her dark magic, just now absorbed my magic into her darkness.

In other terms, it was a magic that could affect other magic. Leading to my current thought that for some reason, she was already in the initial stage of manifesting her aural arts.

According to mother, aural arts can only be used by those who are gifted with a constitution to use them. But even then several conditions need to be met which can be unique to everyone. After all, aural-arts were a manifestation of their own soul core.

In other words, Nia was a prodigy who could do it without realizing what she was actually feeling.

But unlike her, I could also tell by looking at their leader that he too recognized her skills. Although he himself could not use aural arts, he was not surprised to see Nia using it like this.

The disgruntled look on his face pointed to one thing that he was jealous of Nia’s skills.

“You had such a good chance to escape Nia. How unkind of you to refuse your friend’s sacrifice.” The leader of the assassin spoke unaffected by his subordinates escaping right in front of his eyes.

Wait! Is he mocking my magic? Maybe I should just get done with him.

“You will return my sister and then I will make you pay by my own hands for all the grief you have caused us.” Nia spoke holding her sword with both hands. An obsidian glow demarcated its sharp edge.

For a moment she looked in my direction. And because I was already interested in seeing her use her newfound magic. I had no qualms in her carrying on the fight and so I simply smiled at her to cheer her up.

Do your best.

I could still intervene if she got hurt. There was no need to play fair and I could overpower the assassin Zehn master anytime.

“So, the student has finally decided to rebel against her master. I knew this day would eventually come when you betrayed my expectations. But I still taught you everything hoping that one day I would be able to give my position to you and you make me proud.” Sieb said to Nia as if a bond existed between them.

But Nia only stared back at him with empty eyes. As if all her emotions were just now bubbling up to the surface.

“I have always felt disgusted, whenever you ordered me around. But the blood I have spilled and the crimes I have committed will not justify me killing you. That’s why I will purely carry it out for revenge.” Nia proclaimed as she took her stance ready to engage with her sword.

The moment Nia’s anger became one with her instinct, her speedy advance put Sieb on guard.

The two swords clashed at eye height, sending sparks everywhere. The pressure from Nia’s sword pushed Sieb back but at the same time, it rocked Nia’s left arm put up to defend her from the recoil.

There was no doubt, that Sieb’s swordsmanship simply relied on his brute strength and elaborate movement of his heavy long sword. And he had still not strengthened his body with his magic until now that is.

And now Sieb only stared at her with bloodshot eyes.

“Now, I won’t have any guilt killing you.” Nia said with relief as if she wanted to do it for a long time.

For, Nia she felt that if she kept on trying hard enough. If she keeps swinging that sword, then one day she might overpower Sieb in a fight.

Because it was not only a fight for revenge; the price at stake was her long-lost freedom.

Another clash of blades and the results were the same. Nia was gaining ground with her speedy double attack slashes but in the exchange, she was getting hurt as well.

Maybe she had already fractured a small part of her elbow too. But that did not stop her from swinging her sword.

There was something else that was driving her to go even further.

“Did you really think you could escape from the organization? Even if you would have run away with that girl at that time. We would have hunted you like dogs.” Sieb said while blowing Nia away with another of his blows.

“Threats won’t work on me anymore because I have already steeled myself to face all consequences when I decided to fight you.” Nia answered strongly bouncing back with another attack.

CLANG…CLANG. CLANG.

“Didn’t you have enough already Nia? You know you cannot defeat me.” Sieb pointed his long blade at Nia who was now breathing heavily from exhaustion.

Not only had Nia been out on a mission that day, but she was also already tired from the continuous missions she had undertaken.

Sieb did not possess any strong magic attribute, but he had honed his body-strengthening skills over years of training. And there was still the thought that he had not used his blessing skill yet.

On the other hand, Nia had the advantage of superior reflexes and skills. In the end, her sword skills were passed down to her from Sieb, who was aware of all her moves.

So, until Nia, pulled out a new card it would be difficult for her to secure a winning strike.

***

 

NIA

Throughout my life, until now I have relied on my instinct and intuition rather than common sense. When others picked prison, or death I chose to lift a weapon to kill others and keep myself alive.

That is what made me who I am today.

“This time I will not put down my head out of fear. You taught me the only way to survive is to kill the enemy in front of me.” I inhaled deeply to steady my breathing.

“Such simpleton thoughts would only lead you to your doom. Only I can put your skills to good use, so there is still time that I will forgive you so come back to me.” Sieb responded as if looking down at a child.

“Even so. Right now, my enemy is you. I kill my enemy and survive.” I no longer felt fear from his words.

As if suddenly my own words became one with me, right now my magic power felt like it was changing in form. Somehow I could reach deeper as I focused.

My katana now glowed with translucent black lightning magic and I realized my newly acquired strength.

Circulating magic through my katana, I focused on finding out the true nature of this magic aura.

It was only an instant thought but I lunged forward and so did he as if anticipating my growing energy, making a beeline for each other. The blades distinctly crashed together with a flash of metal on metal.

My struggle lasted only for a moment, as my momentum carried me forward.

As a result, Sieb’s blade got sliced through.

This was the chance I had been waiting for. I still did not understand, what my new magic did to chop Sieb’s blade. But I could figure that out later.

All my thoughts were now fixated at one point to just move my blade again and kill this guy.

I had only barely lifted my katana while still having my speed and momentum to carry me forward to cleanly chop through his neck.

But then instead of seeing Sieb frightened for his life or trying to dodge, he fixated his eyes on me and all the magical power I had gathered suddenly vanished.

Or rather the level dropped so low that I became unable to use them.

The surprise withheld me, just like the last time. Strangely my legs and hands felt weak.

Sieb grabbed my sword along with me and threw me on the ground.

From a dimensional bag of his, he took out another sword and looked me straight in the eye. A menacing anger taking over him.

“Let’s finish this little mutt. I think I no longer need a dog that bites its own master’s hands.” Sieb no longer showed any attachment, he planned to thoroughly destroy me.

But I was not the type to suddenly give up over one failure. I still had to find my little sister and save her.

And he was the only one in the way.

Every time I tried to manifest my aura sword and hit him. It deliberately vanished the moment he gazed at me and I would end up receiving a knockout blow.

My nose was bruised, and my cheeks were cut. Every incision I received burned through my body.

As if my vitality was dropping too and the rate with which I was bleeding, I was sure to faint.

The only time I felt my strength returning was when he blinked his eyes or did not directly observe. I am sure he was still calculating why miss Alicia had not made a move.

I am glad she was still waiting and letting me fight for myself. And that’s why I want to give it my all. So, that I no longer lose anything.

Before Sieb could use his unconventional method of making a move. I knew I needed to put my everything in this one move.

It was evident that his petty trick only worked when he observed someone. But that too in itself could be a feint, but my gut is telling me he has been continuously trying to keep me in front of himself even while parrying.

Without lifting a word and slowly raising my sword. I forced all my magic power and along with it something additional was added to my sword as it burst into a fury of black aura.

After concentrating on it, the chaotic aura then gradually settled into the calm shape of the sword. From its tip, a faint, smoky aura emanated, resembling the gentle wisps that rise when an incense stick is burned.

“I see you have made a breakthrough in your swordsmanship which even I could not do. But that’s just the difference in our talent, but you will still not be able to beat me. Let me give you your final lesson, the strong always survive while the weak die.” Sieb prepared himself to take me on.

I ran towards Sieb feeling confident, but also knowing that once he finds me in the range of his blade. He would use his trick, which was most probably his blessing to make me feel weak and overwhelmed.

And that’s when he will strike.

If I make a move before, he will just activate his blessing before to stop me. And not doing anything will still lead to my death.

All, I needed was only a moment, to bring down my blade on him. That’s why I needed to have my own wings to fly, so high that no one could reach to trap me again.

Sieb looked pleased as he knew a sure-shot strategy to his victory and my death.

So, just when I was about to get in his strike range and he would blink to use his blessing on me.

That’s when I will make my move.

“Sword Technique. ⸺Riftblade.”

***

 

ALICIA ASCALON ASHBORN

Nia slashes her sword in thin air, taking Sieb by surprise as he couldn’t reason with Nia’s action.

But then a black hazy apparition clouded the space and in a second Nia vanished right in front of him.

Simultaneously unbeknownst to Sieb, another black hazy-like apparition in space appeared behind him, and from the top Nia descended holding her sword vertically aimed right at Sieb’s neck.

Could it be possible that Nia, derived inspiration from my teleportation magic and made it into an aural art of her own? But honestly, I felt it could do more than that and the move she just made was more than shifting positions in space.

The victory was straight in her sight.

Sieb was too late to take notice and turn back to make a move.

It was only then a red beam of light lasered on Nia’s belly and a dense light travel passed right through her.

“Ahhhhhh…ahhhhh…” Nia screams as she is thrown from her trajectory and hits the wall.

It was definitely a trap magic set to activate when someone tried to attack Sieb from behind.

“Did you really think I would be so vulnerable while you could act smart and try to figure out my weakness? This entire place is my territory and is lashed with hundreds of death traps and I could activate them all at once.” Sieb laughed over his assured victory over Nia.

The red laser beam of magic was so strong that it drilled a deep hole in Nia’s abdomen.

Blood oozed out, staining her surroundings. Beneath her tousled hair, her vision blurred, and she teetered on the edge of unconsciousness.

Sieb then turned to me as if already done with Nia.

“So, young lady, was your name Alicia. I am really enamored by seeing you use teleportation magic. That’s some high-spec magic. Nia would be dead soon and so will her comrades. How about I give you the offer to join our organization. Work for me and I will make sure it will be worth your time.”

Sieb offered me and I had an inkling as to why he was making this offer.

“Sorry, but a magical genius does not alight herself with an assassin organization.” I straightaway refused.

“What a shame?” Sieb sighed.

“Are you by any chance afraid of my teleportation magic? After all, it’s a magic that is a bad match against your blessing.” I stated.

“How did you know?” Sieb grumbled as if just now realizing that I had been watching Nia and his fight way more closely.

Of course, I was more interested in Nia’s magic, and finding the weakness of his blessing is no big deal.

“If you still think by stalling you can come up with a way to let my guard down. Or have thoughts that I might have wasted a lot of my magic in casting the first teleportation and that’s why I did not make a move to help Nia all this time.” I explained.

By the looks of Sieb, I was right in my assumption as he could not feel any magic coming from me. He still harbored doubts that the teleportation could be the work of an artifact I might possess and so he needed to tread carefully.

“Let me make one thing clear. You see in order to kill you I do not need to rely on my teleportation magic at all.” I did my best to assure him that his fears were totally unfounded.

“Why you little? How dare you look down on me!” Sieb howled at me.

“You see your blessing, ⸺ Soul Tally. Has just too many weaknesses.”

“My blessing has weaknesses…?” Sieb repeated after me and paused as if confused.

Did I say something too difficult for him to follow?

“For a kid, you spew some utter nonsense. You just saw how your new friend got defeated. But I see you must also have a high-level analysis skill to come to know of my blessing. So, you would also know what it can do to you.” Sieb tries to scare me only to realise that he failed miserably.

Soul Tally was a blessing skill, that allowed Sieb to see the number of souls that were offered by the person to the world core. In a way, it told him the number of kills made by someone.

That’s how he instantly knew that Nia had failed her mission because her kill count did not increase at all when she returned.

But there is one additional effect to this blessing that gives its users a huge advantage. If the number of kills of the user is more than the target. Then the blessing would divide all the statuses of the target by the difference of the kill count of the user and the target.

“While you need to keep observing the target to keep the blessing activated. There is one other big flaw.” I mentioned as if explaining something trivial to a kid.

“Don’t belittle me. There’s absolutely no other weakness to my strength. And I know I can still be faster than you and finish you in a blink of an eye.” Sieb insisted on his strength.

Blessings unlike the word, are in fact more like contracts. So, while it gives its user an extreme advantage, at the same time if the conditions are not met or become unfavorable it could have adverse effects.

Making it a double-edged sword.

“Have you ever wondered, what if your target’s kill count turned out to be more than yours?” I asked.

“Are you in any way implying that somehow you have killed more people than me the seventh Zehn master of the Belladonna top assassin organization? I can hardly believe you can even hurt a small monster with your  physique.”

Lifting my finger and pointing at my head I finally asked, “I know why don't we test it out? Why don’t you tell me what number do you see on my head?”

***

 

 

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