Chapter 7: Two Faces_5

A cold chill slithered down my spine.

I am no stranger to darkness, nor unfamiliar with the weight of death clinging to the air. And yet, as I stood in the decaying ruins of the citadel, watching the silver-haired boy bathed in the moonlight, I felt something I hadn't in a long time—uncertainty.

My mind raced. -Damn I should have listened to Argent. Nobles always carry drama with them-

The boy—Ken Ariake—was suppressing his mana signals, making it impossible for me to determine his exact capabilities. I am quite certain if I couldn't tell his exact ability, those stuck-up assassins definitely could not. They are going to attack him. That was a problem. Most beings, no matter how skilled, exuded a presence that an experienced mage could read. Ken was an abyss. Even if they could, they couldn't hide their essence.

Yet, his form, the way the shadows coiled around his frame, suggested four possibilities:

A Black Mage, Dangerous. Unstable. Where they walked, death followed.

A shadow mage like myself, tho Feared, but not absolute. And he was one of the strongest. A Baron-class mage, capable of leveling cities if he wished.

An Unholy Knight, also known as a Black Knight, Cursed warrior, empowered by dark mana. Just as problematic as black mages.

A Shadow Knight, Dangerous, but beatable. He had bested several in his lifetime.

But something about Ken—about the way the shadows clung to him, the way his red eyes burned like embers in a dying world—felt… wrong.

I gritted my teeth.

There were only two real options.

Either Ken was a Baron-class Black Mage, or he was a Marquis-class mage. Both were problematic

And that was not a battle I could afford in the slums.

I am not going to lose everything to test my luck against an unknown threat. One I am sure would wipe us out in seconds.

Just as I finalized my decision to retreat, I felt something shifting, a change in the atmosphere. Wind blowing everywhere, an Erie presence, One that was old and powerful.

The twenty assassins surrounding Ken suddenly stiffened, their posture eerily synchronized. Their eyes—once calculating and sharp—glowed an obsessive pink, like enchanted gemstones reflecting an unnatural light.

They were not merely entranced.

They were puppets.

My stomach twisted, Fate was definitely against me this evening.

Impossible.

Puppeteering magic?

Not just forbidden—it was an abomination.

A quiet laugh broke the silence.

Vivienne stood behind them, her frame shaking with unhinged amusement, her eyes alight with something twisted and fanatical.

My hand hovering over the hilt of my sword, my instincts screaming at him to strike her down.

"You…" I muttered, my voice barely above a whisper. "You dabble in forbidden magic?"

Vivienne's smile widened, an unnatural stretch of lips that shouldn't be possible. "Dabble?" She giggled. "Oh, Phantom Slayer. I embrace it."

HThe assassins did not move. They stood perfectly still, breathing in sync, their expressions blank yet brimming with a horrifying devotion.

Ken, standing in the middle of it all, tilted his head. His glowing red eyes flickered to Vivienne, amusement dancing in them.

"That's some repugnant medicine you've used," he remarked casually, tapping his scythe against the stone floor, the sound echoing through the ruins.

"I heard that it was banned ever since the cleansing". Ken said amused beyond belief. The being before me, had shifted from a being of total fear and danger to that of an excited puppy.

Vivienne's grin twitched.

Ken's eyes narrowed. His smile chilling.

"Where did you get it?" he asked, his voice carrying a dangerous lull, like a beast crouched before the kill.

My breath caught in my throat.

I understood this implication. The Duke, Vivienne's father, was the man who led the Cleansing. The destruction of the Guardians—the supremacist faction that sought to push science and magic to their extremes.

They were worse than the Imperium.

They slaughtered entire cities.

They experimented on the living.

They butchered, raped, and cannibalized the innocent. They had another name the demonized human.

And now, **Vivienne—**the Duke's daughter—stood before me, grinning like the spawn of a nightmare.

I felt my hands tremble slightly as he reached for my sword.

A horrible sound echoed interrupting me.

The assassins—still motionless—began convulsing.

Blood leaked from their eyes.

From their noses.

From their pores.

The pink glow flickered out.

Then—

They collapsed.

A collective squelch as twenty bodies hit the ground simultaneously, their blood pouring out in a grotesque flood, pooling toward Ken's feet.

But the blood did not stop.

It moved.

Like a living thing, it slithered across the stone floor, gathering itself into a pulsating mass—an unnatural entity made of flesh and death.

Then—it attacked.

I took a step back trying my best to stay away from the grotesque liquid slithering on the ground, but Ken…

Ken did not move.

The blood surged toward him like a hungry beast, reaching out with twisted tendrils.

Ken simply raised his scythe.

A single pulse of light shimmered from its blade.

The blood froze mid-air—then exploded, disintegrating into nothing.

A sigh.

Ken exhaled, shaking his head.

"I've done some pretty bad things in my life," he murmured. "But you?"

His red eyes flickered to Vivienne.

"This is worse than anything I've ever done."

Vivienne twitched.

Then—she laughed.

It was wrong. Deep, guttural.

Her body convulsed, her skin bubbling as something unnatural pushed its way out.

A lump formed on her forehead.

The skin split open, revealing a third eye, its sclera black, its pupils multiplying, shifting endlessly in a grotesque display.

Blood poured from the sockets, staining her once beautiful face into something inhuman.

I didn't move, no, not didn't, I could not move.

Something about that thing that was Vivienne now—froze me, I wasn't going to die here but there was no guaranteed survival.

My breath came ragged, sweat dripping down his brow.

And then— ashes rose from the ground, light particles clinging to each other, forming into some type of substance. That's when I realized, the grosteque fluid was back. The wind stirred, shadows moving close to the blood puddle forcing it's life to return to it. The puddle them spread onto the floor of the church, forming into a blood mana circuit.

A blood cage rose around Ken.

It closed in, swallowing him whole.

Vivienne's voice rang sharp and euphoric.

"One of the strongest techniques the Guardians used, by the torturing and killing of 20 virgin women or children . Their pure energy gives birth to a karmic entity, a being filled with their resentment set out to carry out their last will " she purred. "By compressing the being in a cauldron and turning it into a pill, if could build a cage of certain death. Only those of King-class or higher could escape."

I stared at the forming cage shuddering at what I was seeing. It surface was filled with the faces of women. They had no mouths and eyes, each woman had a different mode of death, and torture. One was hunged on a cross, a man on a ladder by the cross pouring molten liquid in her mouth. Another ganged raped by masked men they filled all her holes that were useable. A mn cut out her nose creating a hole for him to use. More grotesque deaths ensued as the cube formed, One was tied hands and legs to four horses dividing them to pieces, another was hunged on a tree pierced to death with an absurd amount of spears, Another death showed then another. The last thing I saw before the cage sealed shut, were Ken's glowing red eyes fading into the abyss?

Silence.

I forced myself to breathe.

Then, slowly, I turned to Vivienne.

"You wanted him for the Guardians?", my voice was hoarse. I was buying time as I was trying to figure out a way to escape.

"Why?",Vivienne chuckled. "Not him, but you Ren Ariake was just a test, To see your capabilities " she admitted. "I wasn't expecting this development." She sighed apathetically. My heart pounded.

"By who?". A new voice echoed through the chamber.

Rough. Low. Familiar.

"I thought you were assigned to test out the recruits. I am quite curious as to why they are dead and you are trying to steal my assignment?" the voice said. As a wave moved through the area. Another Baron-level? What is with today and Baron-levels appearing like flies. The figure then looks around his blood lust making it hard to breathe.

My stomach dropped as my head snapped to the side revealing a truth, that will tilt my world forever.

A silhouette stood there, shrouded in the ruins' dim glow. Releasing a familiar, dark brown aura that caused the cathedral to shake uncrotrollably.

A man I knew too well. One who had supported my journey, a friend, no, he was family, my throat went dry with despair, my fingers trembling. And when I finally found my voice, I couldn't speak. The shock too much for me to handle. I whispered the name like a broken prayer.

"Argent?"