Chapter 43:- Assassin Base [I]
"How is everything?"
"Everything is going according to the plan."
"When will the secret item arrive?"
"It shouldn't take too long. I have sent that guy with teleportation skill to get the item."
"Alright. After getting the secret item, our plan will officially enter into its 3rd and final phase. Order all assassins squads to return to the base for new orders."
Unknown to them, a group of 5,000 elite soldiers silently approached the assassin base in the darkness of the night. All the 5,000 elite soldiers were currently in black uniform, making them almost invisible in the darkness of the night. They looked like wolves who had come out to hunt.
It was not easy to bring 5,000 elite soldiers near the assassin base without alarming the enemy. Laura had to use her authority to divert everyone's attention to something else. For that, she purposely carried out a large military drill which diverted the attention of the public while she and others used the darkness of the night to move.
Laura stopped in front of a giant tree. For this mission, she was also wearing a tight black outfit that perfectly highlighted her curves. Her white silver long hair that she had tied in a ponytail seemed to shine even in the darkness.
"This way." It's unfortunate that the current situation did not allow William to enjoy appreciating the beauty in front of him. Since William had a natural affinity with darkness and with the night, it was his responsibility to take the safest routes.
William realized that being the ruler of Night, his night vision was better than his day vision. If during the daytime he can see up to 100 meters range, then during nighttime, he can see everything around 200 meters. High-ranked elite soldiers had a hard time seeing anything beyond 50 to 80 meters.
Naturally, William and Laura took the lead. While Laura used her heightened senses to keep watch of the enemy, William's night vision greatly helped the elite soldiers in moving through the thick mountain forest.
William, Laura, and 5000 elite soldiers had started their journey about 5 hours ago. In order to avoid attracting attention, the elite soldiers had to slow down. Along the way, the army faced some Gold rank monsters and mountain bandits who were easily killed by elite soldiers.
"I can see the assassin base." 200 meters away from them, William can see a man in black cloth standing outside a cave while holding two pairs of daggers.
Laura raised her hand and signaled the soldiers behind her to stop. Moving such 5,000 troops can easily alert the enemy. So every elite soldier had to be extra careful. They tried to make as little noise as possible.
"I can also sense the presence of a strong Black gold rank assassin." Laura was entirely relying on her senses. Even without looking, she can tell if any powerful beings are near them. If it was not for Laura's high senses, the elite soldiers would have met a few groups of adventurers on their way. This made William wonder just how strong Laura's senses were.
Normally, her power would be more than enough to take care of all the assassins. But she bought an entire army just to ensure that nothing unexpected happens. "It seems some kind of barrier has been placed around the base. The barrier is blocking my senses."
It was already past midnight. In 2 or 3 hours, the first ray of the sunlight will brighten the mountain forest. Laura and William did not have much time with them. They have to finish this before the night passes. Otherwise, during day time it wouldn't be much difficult for the assassins to find them.
"When are we going to attack?" William curiously asked.
Instead of answering, Laura took out 4 gold orbs from her storage ring. Each golden crystal orbs were the size of William's fist.
"Do it." 4 elite soldiers stepped out and took one of the golden orbs and then disappeared.
"What are you planning?" The future ruler of the Sithen Empire asked.
"You will know soon." Laura mysterious smiled.
The four elite soldiers had gone in 4 directions. About a minute later, 4 intense bright golden lights brightened the mountain ranges.
Swoosh!!!!
The assassin who was guarding the base saw this and hurriedly run inside the cave. Meanwhile, the 4 golden lights were coming from 4 directions around the assassin base. The 4 golden lights then started taking a golden transparent shape.
William was shocked to find the golden transparent lights forming a giant square-shaped barrier trapping the assassin base from 4 directions. "What is that?"
"This is a star-blaze artifact that mom found inside a Labyrinth. These 4 golden orbs can form a powerful barrier that can trap even Platinum and Ace rank beings."
Laura smiled as she elegantly stepped forward. "While being trapped in that barrier, any type of teleportation or space elemental skills or artifacts will be useless. The barrier won't allow anyone to escape. Unfortunately, the barrier can only last up to 30 minutes." A barrier that is strong enough to keep platinum and Ace rank beings trapped for 30 minutes was simply too broken.
"Boss, something really bad happened?"
"What happened? And why are you shouting?"
"We have been surrounded. A mysterious square-shaped barrier has trapped us."
"Zain, what are you talking about?" Hearing the voice of the third party, everyone stopped talking and looked at their leader.
The assassin leader was a man in his 90s. Despite being 90 he still looked very young and also handsome. He had short black hair. His face, hair, and rest of the body parts were hidden under black assassin clothes.
"Leader let me explain everything" After a minute the whole base had fallen into silence. It was like the calm before the storm. Everyone was silently looking at their leader whose name was Tomas Bailey. Only the captain-ranked assassins knew their leader's name.
Tomas did not say a single word. He took out a white star-shaped crystal. Without saying any words he poured his mana into the white star-shaped crystal causing the crystal to start glowing in dark blue.
Every assassin inside the base was staring at the white crystal with hope. Even though they were assassins and they kill people in the dark, they did not wish to die like this.
Crack!
Everyone clearly heard the cracking sound. Tomas widened his eyes in absolute shock, his pupils contracted to the size of a needle seeing the teleportation orb not working anymore.
Crack!
Bang!
A few seconds later the crystal shattered into countless small and tiny pieces and fell to the ground.
"It looks like the enemy has blocked our escape routes." The atmosphere inside turned heavy. It was either do or die situation. Except that they had no idea just how powerful the enemy was.
"Who is it?" Thomas's eyes turned red.
His body trembled in anger. He roared in loud voice. "I asked who is it? Who betrayed us?" Unfortunately for him, no one was going to answer that question.
Boooom!
The next second, instead of getting any answer, Thomas got a loud explosion sound. Before anyone could even react, the next second a figure came entered the assassin base and sat on the throne.
"Two hundred and twenty-one...twenty-two" Thomas's entire body stiffened seeing a woman with white silver hair and cold eyes sitting on the throne that was meant for him.
"Empress, how did you?" Who wouldn't recognize those trademark white silver hair that only the Empress and the royal family of the Sithen Empire had? Thomas closed his eyes for a second knowing that there was no more hope left. Now that the Empress herself was here, there was not even a small percentage of hope left for them.
"I always wondered when will this cat and mouse chasing game will end." Everyone knew what the Empress meant.
"These last few years, there has been a sharp increase in crime rates around the Sithen Empire. The number of people who died in the last 3 years is more than the total number of people who died in the last two decades combined." Thomas's entire body started shaking under the Empress's cold and sharp gaze. He felt as if the Goddess of death was staring at his soul.
"In the three last 3 years, the crime rate has reached the highest peak. Every day I was getting constant reports of people dying here and there. Because of the sudden rise in criminal activities, the tourist number also dropped significantly. Because of you people, The Empire's revenue has decreased." The more Thomas heard, the more he and his underlings realized that they were screwed for sure.
Meanwhile, William walked inside the assassin base while everyone was looking at the Empress. Maybe some assassin has noticed his presence and decided to ignore him. Since in front of the Empress they were already dead. The Empress was someone who stood at the top of the world. In a second, she had to power to slice each of their necks. In front of a second person who held this kind of power, no cheap tricks will ever work.
Following William, the elite soldiers of 5,000 also arrived inside and started surrounding the assassins from all 3 sides.
"Now, I will give you two choices. The first option, you answer my question and I will give you instant and painless deaths."
[Ding, trigger the option event, please choose one of the following options: