"There's quite a lot of people to spot in there."

On top of a tree, Nylon was looking over Haravel, situated between two hills. He was on top of one of those hills, hidden in the foliage of a pine tree.

Waiting at the bottom in the shadows, Orion waited until Nylon made his assessment on how to tackle the task at hand.

'More than half of the citizens have fled the city after the southern invasion. We should have no problem avoiding the remaining, and since we will move during the night, there is less chance to stumble on one of them.'

The plan was divided in two phases, as to avoid bringing harm to whoever was left in the city.

The first part was killing all soldiers of Haravel. Orion knew they were partially corrupted. Some soldiers reacted to him approaching stealthily near the gate, as their stare blinked red toward his direction.

He used his curse to get an idea about the level of corruption in the city, as just a slight reaction would indicate it being present. And if corruption was developed in a human, it was already too late, since a core would have formed in their body.

Orion still wondered how no one managed to notice this plague until now.

In the end, it also signified that Kelvin had indeed been corrupted at some point, which made him a target to remove before Elliot returns.

With Kelvin alive, there was still five threats alive. Twenty days was way to short to kill them all. Even if he could travel half of the continent in half a day, he couldn't enter their cities and just battle them in broad daylight.

Because his plan to avoid getting found out worked until now. Kamala hid the fact that Ivan died, and Florian still heard nothing from Layla, which meant she was unknowing of the recent events.

So, the Apostles on Elliot's side were oblivious to what was happening, or they knew, but didn't care enough, as his actions were hidden by what seemed like conflicts between Apostles.

Getting back to the mission, Orion knew what had to be done. His plan was clear, precise, and most of all, safe for Nylon unless he was found out.

The second and most troublesome part, was against Kelvin himself. But first, they had to remove anything capable of hindering their fight. They needed to isolate Kelvin, to destroy the pride that was maintained since the Dragon's Rampage.

...

Nylon dropped down of the tree after an hour of surveillance over Haravel.

"I'm done learning about the enemy's routes. It should be easy to break them one by one, as there's not many crossing paths."

Orion brought his hand to his chin.

"Does that Apostle never realized that he could one day be attacked? His defenses are quite lacking if the soldiers don't cross paths often. That's a good news for us, but still..."

"There was no signs of a powerful unit either. There's pretty much only soldiers on the roads, so unless I find myself on an open main road, I should remain unnoticed."

"Alright. Where do we start? Let's forget about the main gate for now, and leave it for last. Can you enter without being noticed?"

Nylon nodded with a dark smile on his face.

"I'm an assassin, I know a few ways to enter a city without taking the front door."

"Great, I'm counting on you. I'll be monitoring you from here. Don't forget, pierce them around here."

Pointing right below the ribcage, Orion told Nylon to crush the dark cores, as it was a surefire way to kill the corrupted.

"I'll do that. Well then."

'I'm counting on you... brother.'

Orion watched Nylon slide down the hill from tree trunk to tree trunk. Once Nylon was at the bottom, Orion slammed a few snowball on the snow around him, before an avalanche happened, covering the tracks.

The soldiers looked at the direction of the sudden noise, unfazed. This was something usual for them, as they were located between two very high hills in an area constantly under lots of snow.

They returned to their duties without noticing the shadow lurking near the walls on the right side of the city, and the one on top of the rightmost hill.

Orion climbed the tree Nylon came down from, and began to watch over his beastman brother, silently.

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~

'My mission today is to kill around a thousand persons in an afternoon. That is quite the task my father and Orion gave me.'

Nylon had infiltrated the city by cutting a part of the wall with his claw like weapons, and placing it back so it wasn't suspicious to look at.

His back on a house wall, he peaked from the corner.

'This sure will be a long afternoon, but if I can make it...'

-

"If you manage to perfectly complete this order, while remaining a ghost until the very end..."

"You will inherit my title of 'Savior'."

-

'Dad is getting old, and there's not much to do for him anymore besides training me. I want to make it, and relieve him of this burden.'

'I want to prove I am ready. Let's put everything I've learned to good use.'

His eyes were full of determination. A smile hidden by the darkness caused by his hood appeared.

Quietly, he moved around the house to one of the first patrol routes he observed. One where only one soldier walked in dark alleys, unknowing to his fate.

"What a stupid day, as always. What are we even patrolling for?"

The man walked past the alley Nylon was hiding in, leaving his back entirely open.

'!'

Nylon carefully hastened his feet, before stabbing his left claw in the man's chest. It pierced the thick armor from the back to the front, causing a few drops of blood to fall in the snow.

"G-Gah..."

The man spat saliva, trying to say something, but Nylon successfully pierced the dark cores inside him, giving only a few seconds for the man to survive.

A portal opened in front of him. He kicked the man's back and sent him through the portal. He crouched, cupped the bloodied snow, and threw it through the portal too.

It then closed, leaving Nylon to continue on his mission.

'The next patrol route is this way. There's two soldiers patrolling...'

He continued through the alleys of the cold city, having memorized the pattern of the routes, and the city itself.

Sniffing the air, he noticed that they had already went ahead.

'What do I do? Do I wait, or do I follow?'

With the map in his mind, he chose to follow.

Silently, without causing the snow to crackle under his steps, he closed on the two unaware soldiers, and pierced both of their chest at the same time. Once dead, a portal opened to take the corpses out of sight, with any evidences capable of pointing at their disappearance.

This continued for three hours.

Jumping on unsuspecting soldiers, slamming them on the walls before taking their lives, kicking the back of their knees to make them kneel, ...

Whatever could be used to silently take them down was used. And each time, a portal opened to take the bodies away.

On the other side of the hill Orion was standing at, a pile of bodies was slowly growing. He looked back the amount, and realized that the mission was almost done. There was maybe a hundred or two remaining soldiers.

But this was getting to a dangerous point. There was no more patrols, and only the soldiers in barracks and the ones posted at various facilities remained.

Time went by quickly. One more hundred soldiers' breath stopped, with Nylon finally feeling the exhaustion settle in his muscles. Infiltrating buildings was another story compared to following individuals outside.

The smell of blood had infiltrated his nostrils, the blood on his claws began to coagulate into a red slime mixture, but his eyes said that he wasn't done yet.

'There's only a few places, but the barracks are a dangerous area...'

He recovered his breath for a minute, and peaked at the soldiers' facility.

'Alright!'

With a heavy sigh, he walked forward.

"You rat!"

Nylon stopped in his track when he heard a voice booming from further in the city. The voice seemed to be coming toward him, so he hid himself.

*BOOM*

A body crashed on the barracks, lighting it on fire, burning everyone inside.

Screams of terror and pain invaded the city as a bright fire engulfed everything around it.

"I should have known! That one day, someone would dare try to take this city away from my grasp! But never was I expecting a sneaky assassin to kill my soldiers!"

The voice filled of wrath echoed from the barracks. Sounds of footsteps echoed, until a figure emerged from the fire.

'That's... Kelvin Dellthord. The Apostle of Haravel.'

Nylon moved quietly around so that he wasn't found out.

"Posting my aid on the patrol staff was a good thing. If not for his disappearance, I would have never known about this whole ordeal. But looking from the window, it was easy to notice that there was no more soldiers patrolling the city."

"What did you take me for?! Am I an easy target for you?!"

"I will make you regret that choice of yours!"

Kelvin began to walk toward the houses where Nylon was hiding behind. With a swipe of his hand, he erased the houses from their spot, leaving only fuming rubble as remains.

'What a monster. I would have no hesitation in burning his own citizens. At least these houses were not inhabited.'

A portal opened next to him.

'Job's done, I guess.'

Disappearing in the portal, Nylon left Haravel and joined Orion on top of the hill.

"Sorry, there's still a few soldiers alive."

Nylon apologized to Orion, as his mission wasn't perfectly finished. But Orion shook his head.

"That is plenty enough. I might say, it is even better than I was expecting."

"How so?"

Surprised, he looked at Orion, who had a very bright smile on his face.

"Even if involuntarily, you've managed to bait him to destroy his own forces, and to attract his somewhere appropriate for the second part of the plan."

Orion released his magic.

'Taygeta, Alcyone, time to work.'

His crossbows formed in his hands, before Orion pushed Taygeta's trigger to launch himself in the air with a 'Pulse Arrow'.

Repeating this multiple times, he began to accumulate speed at a scary rate. Nylon watched as Orion closed on Haravel at high-speed, before he pushed himself at an angle toward the giant fire in the city.

"Crazy man."

Nylon smiled.

'I'll finish the other soldiers when he's gone.'

Putting his back on the tree trunk, he began to rest for a bit.

~

"Damn it! Where is he?!"

Kelvin was thrashing his city in the search of the assassin, who already left.

*Fwoosh*

His ears caught on the sound of something approaching him, so he look above him.

"Wha-"

His reaction was to create a fire shield to defend himself. He braced for the impact.

*BAM*

Orion's left foot slammed Kelvin's shield with tremendous force, making him fly away backward.

He rolled on the ground multiple times, before forcing himself to a stop.

"The snow..."

Looking around him, he noticed that the snow had disappeared. Instead, he recognized the place immediately.

"Bandir..."

"Yes, the place where you will die."

His eyes fell on a young woman that resembled the woman he loved in the past.

"Henrietta..."