Lycan stood motionless, his gaze fixed on the blackened patches on the back of the heads of his targets. He had killed Lord Trinitas first. Lady Trinitas had walked in during an inopportune moment. Now, she lay motionless alongside her husband in their bed chamber. He felt sick.

Lycan had killed plenty of times before. Even before he joined the academy, his parents had seen to it that he did so. They were criminals and prisoners on death row. He had not felt sick then. So why did he do so now?

"Finish up," Alez's voice said in his mind.

Lycan did not reply. His fist clenched on the documents he had found in the drawers. Skimming through the first page, he knew these were the documents Alez was looking for. Tucking the papers into his sack, he began arranging the bodies. Once finished, it looked like the pair had been crawling towards the door.

Lycan transmuted fire and began burning the bed. He took the decanter from the desk and poured the wine in a line leading from the bed to the bodies. It did not take long for the fire to begin spreading. He controlled the fire to remain in the room, not to alert the rest of the manse.

Lycan escaped through the window and made his way to the pond nearby. There, Alez was waiting for him. She wore the same black outfit he wore, blending into the darkness of the night.

"Here," Lycan handed her the documents he stole.

Alez accepted the papers and began reading. She nodded at him.

Lycan released his transmutation, and the bed chamber exploded. Bells and alarms began ringing throughout the manse. He watched the Trinitas butlers and maids rushed out of the burning building. He released his breath when he saw a butler and a maid carrying the Trinitas children out.

"What will happen to them, ma'am?" Lycan asked.

"They will be fine," Alez replied. "The Trinitas heir will be called back from the front lines to sort out her family."

"Was it necessary? To kill them, I mean."

"Killing is rarely necessary. But, yes. It was." Alez answered and began walking away. "We dive into the filth so others can focus on the big picture."

"I don't understand. We are fighting for the same goal. They know what we are fighting for. Why would they sabotage our efforts?"

"Greed.Fear. Foolishness most of the time," Alez explained.

Lycan made his way to walk next to her. He saw Alez's sneer growing more severe every second. "This is bigger than we thought, is it?" he asked.

Alez sighed. "Yes," she hissed. "It seems so."

"What is it?" Lycan asked, hearing the venom in her voice.

"I sometimes wonder why people like these exist," she huffed. "They're never satisfied with the power and wealth they already have. Always seeking more no matter the cost."

Lycan gulped and waited for her to continue.

"There are highborns involved," Alez explained.

They had been following local activities in the area, raiding one warehouse to another. Lycan had thought they were acts of bandits and desperate citizens and was surprised at the mention of highborns.

"It can't be?" he choked out.

"Oh, yes," she spat, her scowl growing more intense as she continued reading. "They're still far from reaching their goal, but their plans had already been set."

"What is their goal? What are in those papers that I can't seem to comprehend?" He thought the documents were only locations of the Trinitas's warehouses, but something in Alez's tone made him wary.

"Marriage alliances and business deals," Alez drawled. "Read between the lines, Lycan. They're planning to replace our monarchy with their corporatocracy." She began to bolt through the air, and Lycan ran to keep up.

"Heads will roll tonight," she stated. "I'll give you our targets once we're in HQ."

-------------

Once they were back in Alez's office, she began jutting down names on a large piece of paper. "These are the highborns involved."

Lycan's eyes grew wide as he read through the names. "This....," he muttered. "How can it be?"

He exhaled when he saw his family's name missing. His family was not a merchant but a military house, so he had not expected their names. He felt relief nonetheless at the confirmation.

"As you can see, some of them are here in Sunda. We're killing them tonight." Alez grimaced as she stared down at the list.

"Surely they would know the Empire wouldn't stand still while they enact their plans?" Lycan asked.

"They would," she concurred. "But they would not have expected the monarch to accelerate our unification efforts suddenly. This forced them to rush and enact their plans. They got sloppy, and that's how we caught wind. And neither would they expect how we will deal with them."

Lycan clenched his hands into fists. So many things were happening, and he felt overwhelmed: the acceleration of Akar's unification efforts, the mobilisation of millions of citizens, the theft of supplies, their assassinations, the priestess's words when she spoke to him, and now a conspiracy.

He had many questions that he would like answered. But sensing the urgency, he boiled his frustrations to a single question. "What do you need me to do?"

-------------

The night of burning blades. That was the name history would give it, as Lycan would one day learn. On that fateful night, the highborns in Sunda went to their beds comfortably, only to wake to fire and steel—a reckoning etched in blood and ash.

Lycan set fire to the house he stood before in the dead of night. The moon was nowhere to be seen tonight. He controlled the fire, ensuring a safe path from the servants' quarters to the back door. Bells rang soon after, and he could hear servants' footsteps escaping.

He entered through the front entrance, the door having collapsed from the fire. The inside of the house was beautifully decorated with ornate statues and paintings from all over the empire. There were footsteps above him, and he climbed the marble stairs.

"Help!" a man yelled.

It came from one of the rooms on the left. The door was made of metal, and based on the decorations, Lycan reckoned a metal sorcerer spent months designing it.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Help!" the man yelled again, followed by coughs as he choked on the smoke.

Lycan transmuted tenaga and began melting the hinges of the door. Melting metal was difficult, and he felt his nose began to bleed. The door slammed inwards as the hinges failed. The man inside yelped in surprise.

"Oh, bless Iblis," the man thanked in relief, coughing as he knelt on the ground.

Lycan raised an eyebrow at the mention of the deity. He never met a cultist of Iblis before.

"Please, help me," the man begged, crawling to Lycan. The man's eyes widened as he got close and saw the sword in Lycan's hand through the smoke.

The man jumped and instinctively kicked at Lycan's sword, but to no avail. Lycan caught the man's leg in his armpit and snapped it. The man screamed in pain as Lycan let go, and he crumbled to the marble floor. The man dragged himself further into the burning room towards a dresser. Lycan looked around. There were no windows for the man to escape through.

The house shook before the man could reach the dresser, and a support beam collapsed, blocking his path. Lycan walked through the inferno, transmuting what little tenaga he had left to keep himself from getting burned. He felt numb. This was the sixth name on his list, and it was the third family he would wipe out from history.

Realising that his path was blocked, the man stopped. He turned to face Lycan, his eyes pleading. "Whatever they are paying you, I'll double it," the man tried to bribe him.

Lycan did not reply. He strolled almost leisurely, his black balaclava covering the tension in his expression. His hands were shivering despite the temperature. He wanted to transmute and make it quick, but he had reached his limits.

"Why?" the man croaked. "I deserve to know."

Lycan clenched his free hand into a fist, his nails digging into his palms. Why? he thought bitterly. This man was unlike the others who had accepted their fate once beaten. None had bothered to ask 'why?'

"For the crimes against the Empire and humanity," Lycan rasped, his throat dry due to the heat. He did not know why he answered. Caught unprepared, he answered the first thing that came to mind.

"The monarch has too much power," replied the man. "Constantly sending our children to die. We did what we must to save them."

Bile and fury rose in Lycan's stomach, and he pointed the tip of his sword at the man. "You know what we are fighting for!" he yelled, causing the man to flinch. "Evil is coming, and you are ruining us!"

The man spat at Lycan. "The only evil I see is the monarch. And you!"

Lycan staggered at the man's words. The man's eyes gleamed like an archer's when their arrow found its mark.

"I have fought for what I believed and lost," the man continued. "I am at peace. Something that you will never find under the current monarch."

The man unsheathed a hidden dagger from inside the folds of his clothes. In the state that he was in, he stood no chance against Lycan. So Lycan watched. The man cut his palm and used the blood to draw a cross on his forehead.

"I sacrifice my life to Iblis," the man stated. Then he stabbed himself through the chest.

Lycan watched the body fall to the burning ground. Kraton was the last name on his list tonight. The man was part of the cult of Iblis. It made sense why they would defy the Garuda. He sighed.

He returned to HQ, using the secret entrance Alez had told him to enter the second layer of walls. The guards at the Bhayangkara's office nodded at him when he saluted to them.

Lycan stood in the lobby unmoving. His clothes were crusty from the dried blood. His mind raced, filled with the haunting images of wide, terrified eyes. It did not take long for his thoughts to be interrupted by the sound of the door opening, followed by footsteps. He felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Are you alright, squire?" Alez asked him.

"Yes, ma'am," Lycan replied. He turned around to see her. Her black clothes were similarly covered with clotted blood.

She eyed him, and Lycan thought he saw pity.

"You've taken your first step," she said.

The first step to what? He thought bitterly but did not voice them. "Yes, ma'am," he said.

Her gaze softened, but her words were the opposite. "You said that you wanted to be a Bhayangkara. To be one comes with choices. Hard ones."

"Why did it feel like I never had a choice, ma'am," he retorted. He tried to mask the venom in his voice, but it seeped through, sharp and unmistakable, even to his own ears.

He thought she would reprimand him, scold him, or send his head screaming. Instead, she began heading back to her office and signalled him to follow.

Once inside, Alez slumped on her chair and looked at the ceiling. "I was hard on you," she began with a grimace. "I thought it would be best to introduce you to the harshness of what we do immediately."

Lycan had not expected her to be so open. He looked up at her, tongue-tied by her tiredness and her scorn. "You hadn't," he stated. "I appreciate that you let me know immediately."

Alez lowered her eyes at her squire. "I wouldn't have done it under different circumstances. I hope you know that," she informed him.

Lycan's thoughts itched at the front of his mind.

"Ask away," the knight said. She pointed a finger at her head, reminding Lycan of her abilities. "I know when something is bothering you. We won't have much time for questions in the future."

"What is happening, ma'am?" He asked earnestly. "I need to know if I am going to keep slaughtering people like pigs."

Alez sighed. "I kept it from you on purpose. Most people find it easier to blindly follow orders and not question them. This knowledge comes with its own burden."

"I have followed orders," Lycan replied. "Blindly following them as you said. I would like some clarity, ma'am?" he added the last word after a moment.

Alez nodded. "Alright," she said. She opened her drawer and pulled out a flask. She unscrewed the cap and drank the contents. Lycan could smell the alcohol from across her desk.

Alez grimaced as she swallowed. "The priestess," she began but paused and shook her head. "Our timeline has gone short. The demons can come to our doorstep anytime soon. We don't know exactly when, but our monarch has decided to act with great urgency," she explained.

It was worse than Lycan had thought. "I thought we were-."

"Expanding our efforts to stop the Western Alliance from finishing their wall," Alez finished his sentence. "That is true," she clarified. "But not the full truth."

"Why not announce it?" Lycan asked. "It could prevent this," he pointed at the list of names. "It could unite our people."

Alez scowled. "Rumors had already begun spreading. They have no idea how right it is. Telling our people will only cause panic and unrest."

"You agree with me, though," Lycan stated, noticing the impassive manner in which Alez had spoken. "If you could tell the monarch or the priestess, surely they will see reason. It can also make the Western Alliance more cooperative."

"You sound naive," Alez replied to her squire. "The whole world knows what we are fighting for. Those who saw and accepted the truth have already joined our Akar Empire. The Western Alliance? Foolishness is my best guess," she shrugged.

"Shouldn't you at least try?" Lycan asked his knight.

Her eyes were distant as she stared at the ceiling as if listening to words beyond the walls. "Our Monarch has her reasons. She doesn't tell us everything. And neither do we."

"What do you mean? Doesn't the Bhayangkara answer directly to the monarch?"

"We do," the Bhayangkara replied. "But our monarch does not have the will to hurt her people, no matter how dross they are. That's why we are here—to do the atrocities that she couldn't," she said with reverence at the mention of the monarch.

"She's a coward," Lycan accused. "She sends us to do the dirty work that she wouldn't do herself." He remembered the wide, teary eyes of the prisoners he had first killed when he joined. How young they were. How afraid they were.

"She has sacrificed more than you can ever do in a lifetime!" Alez roared, standing up from her seat, her voice tinged with rage that Lycan had never seen.

He flinched.

"Don't ever talk about our monarch in such a manner. Do you understand me, squire?" she hissed, her eyes blazing with fury.

"Yes, ma'am," Lycan gulped. Under her enraged gaze, Lycan felt vulnerable. Like a prey locking eyes with a predator. Like the people he had killed when he stood before them. Alez could kill him here and now with a simple transmutation if she wished.

"I see them too," she breathed, returning to her seat. "The people I've murdered. They're the first thing I see in the morning and the last before I sleep." She looked down at her hands, clenching and unclenching them. "I can feel their thoughts even now."

"Does it get easier, ma'am?" Lycan asked softly.

"Yes," she replied with an exhale. "Once I reminded myself who I was fighting to save, it became simple. I kill to save."

Lycan's jaw tightened.

Seeing that he had nothing to say or any further questions, Alez continued. "We are blessed to be part of the strong, Lycan," she uttered. "And if the strong don't act, the weak will die. Are you content that our soldiers are dying in the front lines and beyond while you hesitate to act in safety?"

She knew Lycan's answer, but she wanted to hear it.

"No, ma'am," he answered with renewed vigour. "Never."

Alez smirked for the first time. "Good. Because we're leaving tomorrow. There are more names we need to kill outside of Sunda." She handed her squire a new list of names.

Lycan accepted it and began reading through. He recognised the family of a few of the highborns. The last one caused him to shiver. 'Lord and Lady Anishi."

He shifted his eyes to meet his knight's. She stared at him knowingly.

"Yes, ma'am," he said without hesitation. "May I retire for the night, ma'am?" he asked.

Alez raised an eyebrow. "Where are you going?"

"To train, ma'am," he answered. "I would like to be prepared if we are going to face master sorcerers."

Alez's smirk stretched. "There are power stones in the crate behind me. You may use them for your training."

"Yes, ma'am," he nodded.