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Allen Family Manor

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Dining room

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The Allen family's dining room was a grand but cosy space. The long wooden table, covered with a deep red velvet cloth, stretches through the centre of the room. Large chandeliers hang from the ceiling, casting a soft glow over everything. Tall windows with stained glass let in the moonlight, creating patterns on the stone floor. The chairs around the table were tall and soft, perfect for the host and his guests. Silver cups and fine plates were neatly arranged, with a variety of different dishes served neatly.

I was sitting at my usual seat beside the farthest right and silently cutting my steak savouring its salty flavour in my mouth, and Alfred stood by my side to attend to me if the need arose when, all of a sudden, the alarm went off.

They are here.

"Shall I call them in now, young master?" Alfred asked, looking out the window.

"Yes, call in every staff member and tell them to enter their quarters," I answered, trying to appear calm on the outside.

"As you wish, but a little advice before I leave, what you are doing is good. The fear that you have is good as well; we have fear for a reason; it keeps us safe, but it also holds us back. If we listened to our fears we would never learn how to take risks," said Alfred, before walking out of the room.

"... Thank you, Alfred," I spoke, hesitantly. "Wally, show me the status outside."

A blue-coloured hologram showing the map of our manor and every being or object present in it appeared in front of me; it was being projected from my cane.

The one right outside the doors of the manor, guiding every one of the staff members inside, was Alfred, and the ones who were walking closer to the manor step by step were the two assassins.

One of them wore a full cloak and held a wooden staff; the other wore normal clothing.

Although I can't see their faces, it's obvious that the cloaked figure is the mage and the other is the shape-shifter type metahuman.

The shape-shifter is a newbie in the Assassins Syndicate, so he is easy to deal with, the main problem is the wizard.

The Assassin's Syndicate sent these two to assassinate me, knowing that they would die, but that was a necessary price for them to pay as long as I was dead and Thomas Allen was weakened emotionally.

They should have sent more...

***

Ryuk's perspective:

Outside the Allen family manor, two figures were walking towards the gates.

"You remember the plan, right? I will go in and kill one of the servants, transform into them and when I am ready, I will give you a signal," the man dressed in a normal outfit asked, looking at the cloaked person.

"Yes, I know, I will set up a barrier to stop the signals and buy you enough time to kill the kid," the cloaked person nodded. "But are you sure you can handle it? As far as I know, the head butler is a resilient one. He won't let you kill the kid unless he dies."

"Then I will just have to kill the butler as well."

"Sigh... Young people nowadays... Why are these people so bloodthirsty," the cloaked figure sighed. "Fine, do what you want, but remember we need to get out as soon as possible. None of us can take on Thomas Allen; he is a Planetary Rank Threat; we need to retreat as soon as the mission is over."

"Yeah, yeah, unless he can track us down, we will be safe."

"Let's go now; we don't have all night," the cloaked figure said before chanting in old Latin. "Evoco spiritum fraudis, responde vocationi meae et dona tibi invisibilitatem!"

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All of a sudden, a blinding light enveloped the man in the normal outfit as he disappeared from his place, all that remained was a small gust of wind in his place.

However, before that strong wind could make it far within the manor's outer part, it stopped at the garden.

"Hm? Why did he stop?" the cloaked figure wondered, sensing his mana stop at the garden.

***

Ray's perspective:

"Roselet-Runa flowers, open bloom under the full moon for five hours, they release a fragrance that can captivate the very mind of a person if they were to get close to it without a mask or any protection, this effect can last for five to ten hours minimum, their blooming can be easily controlled manually with the correct equipment."

"Basically, that shape-shifter is now useless for five hours," I explained. "Contain him."

As soon as I spoke those words, a silver light enveloped the entire garden and disappeared in the very instant.

"Why are you stopping there when you can kill him right here?" Ryuk asked, confused by my actions.

"That's easy for you to say, asking someone to kill a person and doing it are different things, and I need him alive so that uncle can interrogate him. Also, having a shape-shifter's DNA for the replacement of a Zygon's DNA is not a bad choice; I can use him in the future," I explained.

"A live test subject, I think according to humans, that is considered worse than death," Ryuk commented.

"It's his fault for trying to come kill me," I shrugged.

Confused by the silver light and his mana connection cut off, the mage thought of retreating immediately, due to his experience he knew that confronting an unknown entity or element would always result disastrously, without any information or data about a target he couldn't proceed with his assassination, but as soon as he had that thought a red line on his neck shined brightly holding him down in his position and making him suffocate.

Every Assasin's Syndicate members have a curse of binding imbued on their necks, it takes away their free will in return for helping them grow faster with each mission.

These things are the very reason people still join that faction even if they have to give away their free will because power is one of the main factors for survival in a world like this.

"This is just a suicide mission for them, and the wizard is aware of it now. However, because of the curse of binding, he can't even think of escaping. Looks like you already won," Ryuk commented.

"I wouldn't consider this winning, my goal is the Cyrus stone, not his life. If he considers detonating himself right here, that would be my loss," I explained, getting up from my seat and walking out of the room. "It's time for the second part of the plan, my favourite part."

"Mind games?" Ryuk asked, following behind closely.

"Yes, mind games, although it would be too short for me to enjoy the fun of it," I answered, opening the main door of the manor.

The wizard, who had almost lost himself for a moment, looked at the open door of the manor and found me standing right in front of his eyes; the eyes that had once lost all hope for a moment shined brightly as he gathered up his courage and walked forward.

"Evoco spiritum venti, me dirige et impedimenta mea remove!" the mage shouted at the top of his lungs, as a strong gust of wind opened the outer gates and blew away all the Roselet-Runa flowers of the garden. "Roselet-Runa... And here I thought it was something grand, looks like my caution was unnecessary. Evoco spiritum ignis, furere quantum vis et adferre cladem inimicis meis!"

As he continued to chant, a red light shined brightly in the sky as it slowly came down aiming to destroy the manor entirely and devour it in a single strike.

The light shined brighter as it got closer and enveloped the entire manor in its fiery energy as it split into smaller parts and rained down in succession.

BOOM

The wizard smiled in happiness, thinking that he had completed his purpose, but as soon as he turned his back, an agonizing pain took over his mind as he looked down at his left leg, only to see a hole in the place of his knee.

ARGH!

The wizard screamed in pain while trying to cast a barrier spell without trying to see where the shot came from.

"Cautious one, isn't he?" I spoke, surprising the wizard who thought I was dead.

The wizard slowly looked back in horror at the manor that he thought he had destroyed; his eyes widened in shock when he found an energy barrier covering the entire manor, which seemed completely new.

He couldn't believe his eyes, the one spell that he thought could destroy a mountain, couldn't even scratch a measly energy barrier.

The worst part was that he couldn't even sense the energy barrier beforehand!

The very moment a low-rank wizard or witch starts casting a spell, they become senseless to the mana and energy around them, and even if someone were to use mana or energy near them, they wouldn't be able to feel it.

He is experienced, but that's all there is to it; having experience and having knowledge of your opponents are two different things; he has the first but lacks the second.

I had deployed the barrier as soon as he finished casting his spell, but with his eyes closed during the chanting, he couldn't even bother to look in the direction of his victim.

His small circular dome-like barrier protected him from the energy blasts of the invisible drones, but he failed to account for a penetration-type spell or something like my hydrocannons.

And by the time he realised that... It was already too late for him.

He tried to stand up from the ground with the support of his staff, but as soon as he did, another agonizing pain took over his right leg as he felt a gush of water pass through his knee, leaving behind a hole for the blood to fall steadily and his barrier broken.

ARGH!

At that very moment, my nanobots had already made their way into his bloodstream and started to spread out in his body slowly, taking over his vital organs.

Tap Tap!

After a second had passed and the nanobots were in position, I tapped my cane on the ground two times simultaneously giving the signal to the nanobots to paralyze him completely.

Bzzt!

Argh...

Although the wizard had no clue about the nanobots, he was aware that something in his body had changed as he completely lost control of it and fell on the ground face flat, leaving only his head in his control.

"YOU..." the wizard shouted in agony. "What did you do to me?!"

"What you couldn't do to me," I answered, walking up to him while tapping my cane rhythmically. "It's a simple paralysis effect, although it won't last long... It's enough for me to kill you."

"Wa-Wait! Yo-You don't wanna do this, kid! You don't want to be a killer like me!" the wizard screamed, trying to bargain with me for his life.

"You are right; I don't," I answered, which made his eyes glow with hope. "I wanted to negotiate with you, I wanted to understand why you took those lives, I wanted to know why you tried to take mine... But then I realised that from the view of humans; a person like you does things without a reason, a serial killer like you doesn't need a valid or lawful reason to kill others. You do what you do because you think it's right."

"N-no! I didn't do this because of that; I was forced to kill them against my will!" the wizard panicked; he was trying to desperately buy time to get rid of the paralysis, but unfortunately for him, I caught onto his act.

"Your facial expressions are enough for me to understand if you are lying or not, I already understand your perception of the world; I will treat your last speech as your last words. Tonight in the honour of your victims I shall let one of them decide your fate," I said, pointing my cane at his head which slowly transformed into a energy blaster connected to my hand and started to generate a small light in front of its muzzle. I slowly closed my eyes and continued, "You can take over now, Ray."

Boom

All of a sudden, the energy blast shot out of the muzzle without my interference, that was when I knew that Ray had already pulled the trigger and enacted his revenge.

The wizard's head had already melted by the time I opened my eyes, and by his dead body stood a complete replica of my body, it was the original Ray Allen, phasing in and out of existence again and again.

"Hello, Ray," I spoke, looking at my doppelganger.