Chapter 10: Putting ‘Ass’ In Assassination

- Arch-Mage Lumal has been assassinated a week after closing off wizard’s tower! Culprits still at large! -

Nile put down the newspaper.

‘What insane bastard has the balls to assassinate the world’s most influential man, surrounded by some of the most powerful magic… not only that, but to succeed as well!’

Even Nile, a top tier assassin who had never failed an assassination attempt thus far, was in awe of this feat.

Nile is skilled. Very Skilled.

But he knows his limits.

Nile is calculative.

He would never attempt an assassination he didn’t think he would succeed.

He trains his abilities with those slightly below his maximum capabilities and avoids those far above it.

He basically overthinks everything to ensure all goes as planned.

Combine this cautious nature with his inability to feel pain, he’s the ideal perfect assassin.

Even then, Arch-Mage Lumal was far above his level.

That’s why he’s so impressed by someone actually succeeding since they’d have to be significantly stronger than he is.

Nile stood up and stared back down at the corpse that he was sitting on as he was reading the newspaper.

He pulled out a scroll from his pocket and threw it on the body causing it to immediately combust before it got quickly consumed by the flames and burned to nothingness.

‘Well… I guess I should head back now.’

As he thought that, he vanished from his spot and reappeared right in front of the entrance to the secret organization base.

After saying the secret passcode, the door opened, and he headed inside where he was greeted with a lot of commotion.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

An alarm blared loudly.

Nile felt his energy levels abruptly drop and he let out a mental sigh as he went to go check out the source of the trouble.

Nile already had a sneaking suspicion of what… or who it was that was causing this commotion.

Suddenly, an assassin was flung backwards and crashed into the wall next to Nile.

“What’s the issue here?”

“U-urgh! It’s that brat again! Lenier! That kid is throwing a temper tantrum again!!”

‘Damn it, I can’t let him ruin my reputation… I was the one who brought him in after all.’

Nile walked past the crowd of assassins gathered around and put his hand on Lenier’s shoulder, who was at the center of the attention.

“Nile! Ah, finally, someone reasonable!”

“What’s the issue here?”

“Oh! Well, I was about to get hurt…”

Nile looked over and saw one of the senior assassin’s severed upper body lying lifelessly on the ground, and looked to the other side of the room to see the other half of the body.

Nile closed his eyes and groaned just quietly enough for no one to hear him.

He pretty much understood the gist of what happened.

This was not the first time this had happened.

Since coming here, Lenier had repeatedly avoided anything that would even potentially hurt him.

If they tried to punish him, he’d simply refuse and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

Still, this was the first time that there were casualties.

“Can you tell me what happened? Did you kill him?”

“It was an accident! It’s just that the teachers kept trying to give me a good time, but when I turned down their offers, they got mad! I’m resisting the sweet temptation to give in… but it’s not helping that they keep insisting!”

Since Lenier made the promise to live a pain free life, he could not allow himself to get hurt.

So far it had been pretty easy, but since coming here, these people around him kept tempting him, making it hard to resist.

He remembered how good it felt to just let himself indulge in that sweet sweet pain… but Lenier was strong willed and didn’t allow himself to break his promise.

Lenier’s situation was equivalent to someone’s friend offering them some very delicious food. But since the person is on a diet, they refuse and as a result, the friend gets mad for turning down their offer.

At least, from Lenier’s perspective, that’s what the situation seemed like.

From everyone else’s perspective, this monstrous kid just ripped someone in half.

‘I don’t understand what is wrong with this kid… he joyfully lets himself get kidnapped by the organization, but then does everything he can to avoid getting hurt? But then he says he’s resisting the temptation? What is going on in this kid’s head?’

Nile’s mind was swirling, he had never been so confused in his life.

But he remained calm on the outside.

“I’m sorry Nile. I hope you’re not mad…”

“I do not care. However, you have caused a lot of trouble today. The higher ups won’t let you go unpunished.”

“Oh, I completely understand… but at this rate, I won’t be able to avoid feeling pain, so I guess I’ll need to find a solution to this… hm…”

Nile abruptly grabbed Lenier’s hand and started dragging him along.

“Don’t worry about this. I’ll deal with him. Make sure to clean everything up and report this to the higher ups.”

Upon Nile’s orders, all the gathered assassins skittered off to do their own thing.

However, they quietly whispered to each other and gossiped amongst themselves.

“Who is that freaky kid?”

“He was brought in by Nile!”

“Nile? Do you think he knew about this?”

“I don’t know, but he seemed unfazed…”

“That’s no surprise! Nile isn’t fazed by anything!”

Despite being able to hear all of this, Nile ignored it as if he heard nothing and left the area with Lenier following behind.

‘Urgh… why’d this kid have to go and cause so much trouble? He was… obedient, for lack of better words, when he first came here. Now, he’s causing trouble almost everyday. Something doesn’t feel right. This is just… too convenient… as soon as I start my plans, he appears and creates distractions for me… it’s too suspiciously convenient.’

Nile continued contemplating his situation in silence as the only noise were the sounds of their footsteps on the cold stone floor.

After a while, Lenier decided to break this silence.

“Hey Nile, where are we going?”

“You’re going to the punishment ward… at least, you’ll have to stay there for a while until the higher ups figure out what to do with you.”

“Ohhh, I don’t think I’ve ever been there.”

Indeed Lenier hadn’t. It was one of the few places Lenier had not been to in the organization.

The punishment ward was reserved as a place to discipline disobedience, but pre-regression, Lenier was very obedient.

The assassin organization gave him everything he ever wanted: Pain. Why would he ever be disobedient?

As such, this would be his first time going to the punishment ward.

“Wow, it sounds like a fun place. But it’s too bad I can’t enjoy it because of my promise.”

‘Promise?’

What Lenier said slightly piqued Nile’s interest.

However, Nile knew better to ask pointless questions and suppressed his curiosity.

“Well, you’ll be staying here for a while.”

As they came to a stop, in front of them stood two massive doors on each side of the hallway.

Above those two doors were signs that read; “torture chamber” and “the empty room.”

The torture chamber room is self explanatory, but then there’s the empty room.

Despite its plain name, the empty room is not as nice as it seems.

It’s a sensory deprivation chamber.

Absolute darkness.

Complete silence.

Lack of any temperature.

Magic that removes all your physical sense of touch.

At first, it may actually be quite calming and relaxing… but slowly overtime, one will start feeling its true effects.

A way of describing it would be that… It feels like you’re being suffocated by nothing.

Floating through an endless void of emptiness, where no matter how much you struggle, you are unable to move whatsoever.

Even if you scream, even if you struggle, even if you resist, even if you gouged out your own eyeball… you would not hear nor feel anything.

A complete and utter lack of any response.

At some point, you start going insane.

You stop realizing if you’re awake or asleep, moving or still, alive or even dead and time comes to a complete halt.

There are many who have accidentally killed themselves while in the empty room.

They wiggle and squirm on the ground, repeatedly bashing their heads on the floor until they eventually die without realizing it.

Since they can’t feel anything, they don’t know that their skulls have been crushed.

For most people, this would be enough to mentally destroy someone. Completely change them as a person, leaving them with permanent mental damage.

Unbeknownst to everyone else though, it was not only an ineffective torture, it would also end up being a blessing for Lenier.

“Well, I guess I’ll go in then. See you later Nile.”

Lenier waved Nile goodbye with a smile on his face as he walked into “the empty room”.

As Lenier passed through the double metal sliding doors, he felt his body slowly go numb until he couldn’t feel anything anymore.

His vision went black, and everything went silent…

But Lenier’s perception extended far beyond the five basic senses.

He could still clearly feel the entire world around him.

“Hm, is it just me or is time moving a little bit faster in here than on the outside? Well, none of my concern. I can spend some time thinking!”

Lenier walked deeper into “the empty room” which was surprisingly pretty big.

This is the place where he’d be spending the next couple days in, so Lenier figured he might as well get comfy.

That was when he noticed something, more specifically, someone, shivering in the corner of the room.

Walking a bit closer, Lenier realized that it was a little girl, maybe around his age or a bit older.

She was heavily injured though.

Wearing nothing but dirty rags that looked like it had been torn apart by wolves, her body was covered in dried blood and wounds.

The little girl looked like she was on the verge of death as her body kept convulsing.

Whatever she was subjected to, it was something that a child her age should never have had to endure (unless it’s Lenier, who enjoys it).

Lenier bent down to get a good look at her as he slightly envied the pain she was feeling, when suddenly something about the girl stood out to him.

“Wait a second… she seems… familiar…?”

Lenier closed his eyes and tilted his head back to think for a moment.

“Where… have… I… seen… her…?”

Suddenly, his eyes popped open as a magic lightbulb literally appeared over his head.

“Lyla! Hex Mania Lyla! She’s one of the heroes!”

Although significantly younger, and looking a lot different, Lenier was still able to recognize this girl as one of the legendary heroes who defeated him; Hex Mania Lyla.

Physically, she looked very different as a child, but Lenier was still able to recognize her soul.

“What a small world it is, for me to not only meet one, but two of the legendary heroes so soon… and so close to each other too, what are the chances of that?”

Lenier stared at Lyla’s face.

There were bags under her eyes, and she was profusely sweating.

Her body kept twitching, almost as if to struggle against the world.

“She doesn’t look too good, I should probably help her. The thing she wants most would probably be to escape from here… but if I break her out, then I would be bothering Nile again…”

Lenier was not used to thinking a lot.

He usually never had to worry about consequences or upsetting others, so this complicated things for him a bit. Just a tiny bit.

After a small bit of contemplation, Lenier decided now wasn’t the time to save her.

He’ll free Lyla when the time is right.

However, leaving her in pain like this would bother Lenier, so he decided to do her a temporary favor.

Lenier wrapped his fingers around Lyla’s neck and gently squeezed, causing her body to abruptly go limp.

She is not dead.

Merely unconscious.

Sent to a wonderful world of dreams, free of any pain.

Lenier made sure of it.

“Good night little one.”

He softly whispered as he patted her head.

“All right, I guess I should find a way to kill some time. I should probably figure out a way to make sure I don’t break my promise. Not feeling pain is harder than I thought it’d be.”

Lenier stood up and stretched his limbs, loosening up his body before he sat back down, leaning against a wall comfortably.

He closed his eyes and just relaxed, allowing his mind to wander and find a solution.

“What can I do to avoid pain? How can I keep my promise?”

These were his goals that he would meditate on.

Feeling pain would break his promise, so in order to not break his promise, he’d have to not feel pain.

Although it may sound like an obvious statement, it was exactly what Lenier needed to realize.

In this moment, Lenier was not in pain.

He focused on this feeling of being not in pain.

How does it feel to not be in pain? What causes his feeling? Why does he feel this way?

After one deep breath in, and a long breath out, Lenier stopped breathing.

He immersed himself with the world around him.

His body, mind, and soul all started to become one with his surroundings.

The absence of pain.

Nothing itself.

This is what his mind focused on.

Nothing.

Nothing = no pain.

Lenier achieved the pinnacle of nothing.

And for a fraction of a split second, Lenier himself became nothing.

He completely vanished.

His very existence was erased and ceased to exist.

He disappeared from everyone’s memories as the universe itself forgot he ever existed.

It was almost as if he was never real.

But just as soon as he disappeared, he reappeared.

And Lenier opened his eyes.

He was done.

As he stood up, Lenier felt something was different.

His body and mind felt different.

Something had changed.

It was time for him to test the results.

Just as Lenier snapped his fingers, the “empty room’s” sensory deprivation magic instantly dispersed, restoring all his physical senses.

Lenier raised his leg and then smashed his foot into the wall, completely shattering the bone in his toes.

“…”

Lenier smiled.

“Perfect.”

Despite what he just did, Lenier felt no pain.

He had found a solution to his problem.

A loophole, one might say.

Lenier’s promise to the old man was that he would live a pain free life, so as long as he didn’t feel any pain, his promise would be valid, regardless of any physical injuries.

Now, he felt nothing. No pain.

“The solution was right next to me this whole time, it’s a surprise I didn’t realize it sooner. First, I meet Nile, the only hero who was incapable of feeling pain. Then I get sent to this empty room, which takes away my ability to feel pain as well. It’s almost as if the solution was given to me on a silver platter. This is honestly all so convenient, it almost feels like this was all planned out by some form of higher being!”

And almost as if to prove this point, it was at this exact moment that the metal sliding doors leading into the “empty room” opened with a fshhhh sound.

“…”

Nile stared deep into the pitch-black darkness of the room, directly at Lenier who stood at the centre staring back.

“Oh. Perfect timing. Just as I finished problem solving, you’re here to pick me up.”

“…”

‘Holy shit, I almost had a fucking heart attack. The moment I open the door, that kid’s staring right at me. How long has he been standing there??? I wouldn’t be surprised if the empty room didn’t affect him, but it’s been days! Surely, he didn’t stand there this whole time waiting for me to come back…’

Despite Nile’s rapidly beating heart due to the minor surprise, his face and composure did not waver.

“Your time in here is done. Follow me.”

Lenier calmly nodded and elegantly walked out of the room.

Nile’s eyes narrowed.

‘Something feels different about him… it’s not strange that a person changes after spending some time in the empty room. Most people go insane in fact, but this kid… he gives off the vibe of a man coming back from a long vacation…’

“I am going to have to warn you, the higher ups are not pleased. You may want to reconsider what you are going to do… or else your life may have to be cut short.”

Lenier smiled and bowed.

“Of course, I wouldn’t dare to disobey.”

Nile didn’t respond and pressed a button on the walls to close the doors to the empty room.

However, as the doors were closing, instead of leaving, Nile just stood there blankly staring into the empty room.

“Nile? Is something wrong?”

“…no… let’s go.”

Nile turned away, dismissing Lenier’s concern.

“You’ll be going back to the nurturing ward to be… rehabilitated. I will warn one final time, the higher ups will be carefully watching you.”

Nile was serious, he’d seen what the organization did to those who didn’t obey.

But Lenier just gave a very reassuring thumbs up.

“Don’t worry, I already solved my problem! There won’t be any more issues! Thanks for all the help, Nile!”

Then Lenier waddled away, leaving Nile there all alone with his thoughts.

‘Thanks… for the help…? Did I help him? Why’d he thank me? Huh? No ones ever thanked me before…’

And for the next couple days, what the kid had said remained in Nile’s head.

However, there were more important things Nile had to worry about.

Nile continued doing his job as an assassin as usual, nothing out of the ordinary and with minimal contact with others.

One day though, as Nile was walking back to the organization after finishing a mission, he noticed a homeless looking hooded man sitting on the ground.

Nile slowed his steps as he got closer.

“How are our plans going?” Nile asked without making eye contact.

“Surprisingly, things have gone very smoothly… it seems that luck is on our side. Apparently there has been quite a lot of commotion from inside the organization, so they’ve been distracted. One of their torture rooms, something by the name of…. the empty room I think, suddenly turned off and wouldn’t activate so they had to send quite a number of people to fix it, diverting their attention away from us.”

‘Hm. No doubt that it’s that kid’s doing…’

“So, is everything ready? Can we begin the operation?” The man asked.

Nile stayed silent for a moment.

“Not yet, there is… one more loose end I need to tie up before we can do anything. I’ll let you know in a couple days.”

“Sounds good. Anything else?”

“No.”

Upon hearing this, the hooded man silently stood up and left.

“…”

‘Now… to deal with the loose end…’

Nile sighed and disappeared from his spot.

“Welcome back Nile,” a voice greeted as Nile returned to the organization base.

However, Nile just continued walking towards his destination, ignoring everything else around him.

An assassin dressed up in a special instructor uniform who seemed to be writing something on a clipboard noticed Nile approaching.

“Oh, Nile. You’re here to check up on Lenier again?”

Nile nodded.

“How is he doing? No issues?”

“Well, yes. He’s… no longer acting up anymore. But he’s a little weird. No matter what we do to him, he never reacts. We’ve tried punishing him, but he just seemed… bored. It’s like he doesn’t feel anything. Still, he’s been obedient, so that’s that.”

‘Doesn’t feel anything…? Like me? Hm…’

“If he is progressing well, move him to the next stage. He’s a special case so he doesn’t need as much time being nurtured. I may bring him along for a mission to show him how things are done.”

“Alright, I’ll write that down. You seem to be paying a lot of attention to him, aren’t you. That kids got a lot of potential and real lucky to be personally trained by Nile himself, so he’s sure to go far.”

“The higher ups have ordered me to watch over him, I am simply doing that.”

“Okay then, well, when’s your next mission? I’ll sign him out so you guys can go together.”

“Today. In a couple hours.”

“Alright. Wish you could’ve told me earlier in advance, but it’s fine. He’ll be ready to go in an hour or so.”

Nile nodded and left to go kill time for a bit.

His body submerged into the shadow as he swam through the darkness, reappearing in a small room, isolated from everything else.

‘I’ll have to get ready and make sure everything is set up properly, so nothing goes wrong.’

A few hours passed by as Nile finished up his prep work before he went back to the organization base.

“Well, where are we going Nile?”

Lenier asked with a smile as Nile came to pick him up.

“You’ll see.”

“Okay then!”

The two of them swiftly left the organization base and travelled far away.

As to Nile’s expectation, Lenier was able to easily keep up with his travel speed.

Within a few minutes, they both appeared on the rooftop of a relatively large city building.

“Today’s going to be a test mission for you. But that doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy. You’re going to kill someone. I will watch and see how you do.”

“Who’s the target?”

Nile pointed at a fancy looking establishment, crowded with people walking in and out.

“The head of the merchant’s guild. Not an easy target since he’s under constant surveillance, and full of bodyguards.”

“I see. Do you guys usually give such important missions to newbies?”

“If it’s too difficult for you, then I’ll report your failure.”

Lenier chuckled.

“How could I dare to disappoint you like that! Of course, I’ll do it! How flashy you want it to be?”

“We’re… assassins. We would preferably not be noticed.”

“That makes sense,” Lenier said with a nod.

Lenier then closed his eyes and crossed his arms, brainstorming how he would pull off this assassination.

‘I am quite curious to see what the kid does…’

Nile leaned against a chimney and watched carefully.

‘This kid definitely has something up his sleeves, it’d be good if I could see what he’s capable of so I can plan ahead.’

“Hm. Ok. I got it.”

Lenier reopened his eyes and extended his arm forward, forming a finger pistol with his hand.

“Bang.”

‘…’

Lenier then dropped his hand and turned to Nile.

“Ok. It’s done, he’s dead.”

“What…?”

“He’s dead.”

Nile quickly turned over, focusing his eyes to zoom into the merchant guild building and saw that there was some sort of commotion.

His ears twitched as he tried to listen in on what was being said.

“What’s going on!”

“We don’t know, Sir Sabastian just collapsed! We don’t know why!”

“Is he okay?!”

“H-hes… not breathing! He’s dead!”

“WHAT?!?! Was he assassinated? Poisoned?? Secure the area! HURRY! Don’t let anyone leave!”

“There are no traces of any injuries or wounds! We don’t know what happened, he just collapsed!”

Nile’s eyes widened as he turned back to look at Lenier.

‘He’s… actually dead.’

“You actually did it.”

“Of course! Aren’t you proud of me?”

“I… guess so…”

‘How? I didn’t see anything at all. He formed some sort of gun with his hand and all, but I didn’t feel any magic come out. Was it some sort of weapon? But I would’ve noticed! I don’t know what he did, but… that was impressive though…’

“Good job. I suppose we’re done for today then.”

“So are we heading back to base?”

“No. Not yet. There’s somewhere we need to go first.”

Nile turned away, making sure the kid couldn’t see his eyes that were now glowing sharply.

‘It’s now or never, I either kill the kid, or I bring him onto my side.’

“Follow me.” Nile said as he leapt down from the rooftop into a dark alleyway with Lenier following close behind.

Despite it being a seemingly normal alleyway, it was eerily quiet, and the more they walked into it, the darker it became.

The shadows in the alleyway started growing around them, turning darker and darker until it became pitch black.

Soon, they were surrounded by an empty void.

Nile reached forward and grabbed the darkness itself, and pulled it open like a door, revealing a well-lit room.

“Go inside.”

Lenier nodded and without hesitation, walked right in.

“Cozy place you got here Nile. Secret little base?”

“You could call it something like that.”

The room itself wasn’t massive, but it was filled with decorations and furniture that really warmed up the place, including bookshelves, paintings and a large table with two chairs on both sides.

“Have a seat.”

Nile instructed as he pulled out one of the chairs to sit down himself.

He stared at Lenier as he too did the same and sat down.

“How loyal are you to the organization?” Nile abruptly asked seemingly out of nowhere.

“I’m only loyal to you, but you’re loyal to the organization so I’m also loyal to the organization.”

“…”

‘Why is he loyal to me though? I don’t even know who he is…’

“Let me get straight to the point. Who exactly are you? Don’t bullshit with me, I know you aren’t some random kid. Are you a spy? A higher up? Are you… the organization leader?”

Lenier blankly stared at Nile’s face for a moment.

“Me? Leader? Haha, no, of course not silly. You and your imaginations! I’m from the future.”

This time, Nile stared blankly at Lenier’s face.

“You’re… from the future?”

Lenier nodded.

‘Well, that sounds like a huge pile of shit, if you ask me. However… that actually would explain everything… if anyone else had said it, I would think they were crazy, but he’s pretty convincing… even though he didn’t really say all that much.’

“If you’re really from the future, then why are you here?”

Lenier shrugged.

“I’m not quite sure myself, but I do know it involves my magic somehow. Probably one of the other heroes reversed time or something.”

“Other heroes?”

“Yeah, there were a bunch of heroes, in fact, you were one of them.”

“Me? A hero?”

‘What? I became a fucking hero in the future? Holy shit, that’s… crazy. I’ve always loved reading about heroes, they’re epic.’

Nile’s face became more serious, almost as if to mask out his thoughts.

“If you’re going to lie, at least come up with a better one. An assassin like me becoming a hero? You must be joking.”

“It’s fine if you don’t want to believe me.”

“Assuming I believe you, well then, are you also a hero? I can only imagine so with your strength.”

Lenier chuckled and shook his head.

“No, I was the demon lord.”

Nile froze.

‘A demon lord…? Demon lords are… also pretty cool, not going to lie…’

“You’re saying that you, some random kid, will become the demon lord? And somehow the mighty demon lord, is loyal to me, an assassin, who later becomes a hero?”

“Precisely.”

“…”

At this point, Nile didn’t know what to believe.

Nile’s pretty confident in his ability to read whether someone’s lying or not, and right now the kid didn’t seem like he was lying… but what he’s saying can’t be true… can it?

Like, that’s absolutely crazy.

Time traveling, an assassin like him becoming a god damn hero, the kid is actually a motherfucking demon lord… that sounds like the rambling of a crazy man.

Yet these ramblings were so convincing…

‘Regardless though, that isn’t what matters here. What matters is he’s not against me…’

“Ok then, if I’m getting this correct… you’re more loyal to me than the organization?”

Lenier nodded without hesitation.

“Hypothetically, what would you think if I told you… purely hypothetical by the way… I was planning on… betraying the organization?” Nile asked, very slowly, and very cautiously.

“My answer doesn’t change.”

Nile’s eyes narrowed at Lenier’s flat response.

Revealing such a thing was very risky.

He said it was a hypothetical question, but obviously saying such a thing would be considered treason if any higher up had heard him say it.

He needed to confirm Lenier’s reaction to make sure he truly wasn’t against him.

“Good, because that’s what I intend on doing. I intend on overthrowing the organization. I will destroy it completely. And it is… beneficial, to both of us, that you are not against me.”

Lenier nodded his head as he glanced around the room.

“I see. That would explain why you set up so many traps in this room. Must’ve been to silence me if you thought I was going to be a threat, am I right?”

Nile’s body immediately tensed up as his grip on the dagger in his pocket tightened.

“You noticed…”

‘Shit! He fucking noticed!?! It was my one advantage I thought I had over him, I spent hours making sure each and every trap was undetectable!’

“Haha, don’t worry Nile, like I said, I’m not against ya!”

“…”

‘Fuck it… I’ve gone this far. It’s too late to stop now, I’ll tell him everything…’

“Okay… so…. like I said earlier, I intend to destroy the assassin organization. However, it’s not going to be easy. The assassin’s organization we are a part of is actually working directly under the king himself. We were created and trained to serve the king from the shadows. Whenever I have referred to ‘higher ups’, I meant the royals. This means that by rebelling against the organization, we also have no choice but to fight the entire kingdom.

Luckily, the king isn’t exactly the most well liked of people. I’m not going to bore you with the details but quite a while ago, there was a tyrant king who decided to invade a neighboring kingdom and succeeded in doing so, thus creating our current kingdom. Our current ruler is the son of the tyrant king. There’s been ‘peace,’ if you could call it that, for a while, but the bitter feelings remained. The common people have secretly formed a rebel group, and I’ve managed to team up with their leader. Together, we plan on revolting against the king and at the same time, destroying the organization.”

“I see. So basically, we just need to destroy the entire kingdom? Sounds easy enough.”

“Um, no… ideally, we want as little casualties as possible… of course, some deaths are inevitable, but most of the soldiers haven’t done anything wrong. Even within the organization, most of the assassins working for the king are like you and me, kidnapped orphans and brainwashed into loyal servants. Some of them are too far gone and can’t be saved, but I’d like to try to save as many as possible.”

“You’re… surprisingly very kind Nile.”

“What? Me, kind? That’s by far the most unbelievable thing you’ve said so far. If the countless number of people I’ve killed heard you say that, they’d try to strangle you from the graves.”

Lenier just laughed when hearing this.

“Oh Nile, you don’t have to be so shy.”

‘…’

“We’re getting off topic again. So back to the plan, we intend on raiding the royal castle and taking the king hostage, creating a large commotion. This will no doubt draw out all of the assassins to try and rescue the king, and during this time, one of us will sneak into the organization base, destroying everything and free all the assassins who haven’t been fully converted. As for the assassins who have been fully brainwashed, they’ll have to die. We’ll set up traps for them and take them out when they least expect it. Even if the raid on the castle fails, the organization will go down, the people will riot, and the king’s forces will weaken.

This is where you come in. If you agree to our plans, you will be the perfect candidate to stay behind in the organization base as the attack happens. You’re new, they won’t expect you to go. So while we’re gone, you’ll wreck shit up and free everyone. Since it’s you, it shouldn’t be too difficult. I think you’ll be able to handle any assassins who come back. But your role is very important. I would do it myself, but it’ll increase our chances of success if a skilled assassin like myself participates in capturing the king. It’s also suspicious if I don’t go help the king while he’s in danger. Basically, you’re the best candidate I could find.”

‘And now, for the moment of truth…’

“What do you think of my plans?” Nile asked.

He was nervous, but he didn’t show it. Not a single bead of sweat rolled down his face despite the nuclear shitshow that was happening inside of his head.

Lenier deviously grinned.

“I’ll agree on two conditions.”

Nile almost felt his heart stop.

‘I… I should’ve expected that… of course he wouldn’t help me without anything in return… what does he want though?’

“State your conditions.”

“You know that girl who was in the empty room with me? Her name’s Lyla. I want her to go free and become happy.”

‘…her name’s Lyla…?’

“…”

“She’s important to me. I owe a huge debt to her.”

“I… of course. I’ll make sure she’s freed. In fact, this works out perfectly, I had plans to save her for a while now, just haven’t had the opportunity to.”

“Oh wow, you really are a nice person Nile. Didn’t think you’d care so much about a random girl.”

“It’s not that I care for her… it’s only because she is an important piece of my plan.”

Nile could tell Lenier didn’t believe him.

“You probably could already tell, but she’s special. Literally. She’s hellspawn. A cursed child. Back during the war, the kingdom being invaded became desperate. Their king decided to make a deal with the devil. They sacrificed and tortured hundreds of people in exchange for power. The power needed a vessel though, so the king chose his only daughter. Her. The one you call Lyla. For a while, Lyla wrecked havoc upon the battlefield at her father’s orders, destroying her enemies. But her powers required constant sacrifice, which the king fulfilled. These actions caused his own people to revolt against him, thus leading to his downfall and the entire kingdom’s loss.

After the royal family fell, Lyla remained as the target of vengeance for both kingdoms. She was despised. She probably caused more deaths than me. As such, when her father died, she was captured and was tortured by everyone… until she eventually died. But her lingering powers didn’t allow her to pass on, so she came back…. and they continued torturing her… and she died… and she continued to be tortured… burning at the stake… drowning… whipping… stabbing… you name it, she’s had every execution possible. Eventually, the tyrant king took notice of her, and took her into the organization. He too despised the hellspawn, the one who caused the death of so many of his pawns. He experimented on her. Figuring out the origin of her powers. Her strengths. Her weaknesses. Where she feels the most pain. She’s been tortured for longer than I’ve been here… despite how she looks, she’s older than even me. It’s probably that her cursed body doesn’t allow her to age anymore.

She is special. Her body is special. It contains powers unknown to me. Unknown to the king as well, that’s why he hasn’t disposed of her yet. He seems to be using her to develop new types of magic and weapons, using her bones and flesh as materials for tools. Her blood as poison. If I managed to free her… the king won’t be able to use her to get stronger. And I may gain a new weapon. That’s why I wanted to ‘save her.’ It was only part of my plan, she wouldn’t have been free, she would’ve been under new management is all.”

“That’s a nice story. You’re such a good person to want to help her.”

Nile slammed his hand onto the table and leaned forward.

“Did you listen to what I just told you? Are you deaf? If I was a fucking good person, I wouldn’t have let her get tortured for the last decade. I would’ve done something. So now tell me, do I seem like a nice person to you?”

Lenier didn’t say anything back so there was a moment of silence, he just stared deep into Nile’s eyes.

Feeling a little uncomfortable with the direct eye contact, Nile slowly sat back down onto his chair.

Nile felt awkward suddenly getting so worked up, he honestly didn’t know why he got so worked up in the first place.

“I agree with your first condition. What’s your second.”

Lenier smiled again, before he stated his second condition.

“I want you to be able to feel pain.”

“What?”

Nile just blinked.

“You heard me right; I want you to be able to feel things. So my second condition is that after we take down the organization, you’ll let me turn on your pain receptors.”

“I won’t refuse, but… why? Of all the things you could’ve asked for, why that?”

Lenier shrugged.

“I have a feeling that it’ll make you happier if you could feel.”

‘Make me happy…?’

“Are you even able to do it? I’ve tried before, but it never worked. It’s hard to believe you could do it so easily.”

“I don’t see why I can’t. I was able to turn off my senses, so it should be easy to do the reverse and turn it back on,” Lenier answered with another shrug.

‘Ah, so that explains why he was suddenly so cooperative to get tortured.’

“Yep, you sure are sharp! To be honest, I got the idea from you. You can’t feel pain, so pain doesn’t affect you, so I thought, why not do it to myself? That way I won’t feel it either, even when I’m tortured!”

Nile nodded.

“That makes senses, I guess…”

‘Hm. I don’t remember ever telling him that I can’t feel pain… but if what he said earlier about coming from the future is true, then it could explain why he knows…’

“You’re right again Nile. How else would I have known all this stuff if I wasn’t from the future? I’d never lie to you.”

“Even if you say that, it’s still a ridiculous story. It’ll take more then a coincident for me to believe y-”

Suddenly, Nile froze.

‘Wait a second, I didn’t say my thoughts out loud earlier, did I? Then why’d he respond as if he could hear my thoughts…’

“Did you just…?”

Lenier’s smile grew slightly wider.

“Well Nile, what do you say? Do you agree with my condition?”

‘WAIT WAIT WAIT, YOU CAN’T JUST MOVE ON AFTER DOING THAT?!?! HELLO??? SAY SOMETHING!!!!’

“Fine, I accept your second condition.”

‘COME ON! SAY SOMETHING! DON’T LEAVE ME HANGING HERE! CAN YOU HEAR THIS OR NOT???’

Lenier’s grin got wider.

“Perfect! Then the plan is set. When will it happen?"

‘ARE YOU IGNORING ME ON PURPOSE OR AM I GOING CRAZY???’

“I’ll have to report back to the rebel leader, and then we’ll decide a date. I’ll let you know a few days in advance.”

‘OH FUCK IT! I DON’T EVEN KNOW ANYMORE.’

“Sounds good then Nile!”

‘…’

“Well, then Nile, is that everything you wanted to discuss?”

‘Urgh… I really don’t want to talk to this kid anymore…’

Nile glanced over at Lenier’s smiling face.

‘But, I don’t have much of a choice… I need to do everything to ensure the plan succeeds… the plan… succeed… hm…’

Suddenly, something clicked inside of Nile’s head as he was thinking and he realized something.

“Wait a second. If you’re from the future, then you should know what happens, right? So can’t you just tell me if my plan succeeds or not?” Nile asked.

“Oh, you’re right. I don’t really remember anyone destroying the organization besides me though. Hmmmm…”

Lenier closed his eyes and searched through his memories, trying to remember anything of relevance.

When his eyes opened, he awkwardly smiled and started scratching his head.

“Um… so… I remember now… your plan… it failed. It was my fault. I was the one who stopped you…”

“What?”

“You see, at the time, I didn’t know you. And I really liked the organization, it was… fun. So many different flavours of pain for me to enjoy… I didn’t like that you tried to destroy it, so I stopped you. I’m sorry Nile! I didn’t know it’d turn out like this!”

“I… don’t know if I should be mad or not for something you did in an alternate timeline.”

“I’ll definitely make it up to you! I’ll make sure this time the plan will succeed! You have my word!”

“Okay… you better not betray me, or else…”

As Nile said this, he leaned forward and tried to look as intimidating as possible.

His eyes glowed with malice as the world darkened around his face.

‘…’

“…”

‘The kid’s not scared at all, is he? I’m embarrassing myself.’

“Ahem…”

Nile let out an awkward cough and the world returned to normal.

‘Welp, time to change the subject.’

“Since we’re going to be working together, I might as well ask. What did you do earlier when you assassinated the merchant guild’s head? I didn’t notice anything, and yet… he just died…”

“Oh, that. It’s simple. I did nothing.”

Lenier responded as if it was the most obvious thing ever.

“What do you mean nothing? He clearly died, are you implying it was just a coincidence that he just died as you said bang?”

“No, silly. I meant that I turned his life to nothing.”

Nile tilted his head in confusion.

“Yeah, I get that… but you didn’t answer my question. I want to know how you turned his life to ‘nothing’.”

“You’re overcomplicating it. I meant I liiiiiiiiiiiiiterally turned his life to nothing. I learned how to do nothing while in the empty room. It’s also what I used to turn off my ability to feel pain by turning it into nothing. Then I figured that I could apply nothing onto other things besides me. Ya know what, I’ll just show you.”

Lenier lifted his hand, and gently tapped the table in front of him.

And then there was no more table.

“Poof. It’s gone.”

Nile’s eyes quite literally bulged.

‘The table vanished! The kid’s a fucking magician!’

“Where’d the table go?” Nile asked calmly.

“Nowhere. It never existed. Nothing. That’s what I did, I did nothing to it.”

‘That doesn’t even make sense! He can do that? And from what I saw earlier, his range is quite large as well considering the distance to the merchant’s guild… What the fuck? That’s so broken! God damn cheat ability…’

“Don’t worry Nile! You’ll become quite strong yourself as well! You become so strong, it makes the current you look like a wet noodle!”

“…”

‘…should I feel insulted…?’

“Anyways I think that’s all you want to talk about, right Nile? I’ll head back to base then. You seem tired, so go get some rest.”

“No. I’m fine. I’ll take you back. It’s too risky to leave you by yourself.”

“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine by myself!”

Nile shook his head.

“That’s not the point here, I have to watch over y-”

However, when Nile looked back over, Lenier was already gone.

‘What the fuck? Where the hell did he go?’

This was a dimensional subspace that Nile controlled, no one should be able to enter or leave without his permission.

And yet Lenier just disappeared.

‘…what in the world just happened…? Did that all happen, or did I just hallucinate everything…?’

Seeing as there was no one around, Nile slumped his shoulders and collapsed onto the floor.

What Lenier said was right, Nile really was tired. He was exhausted.

Nile’s eyes grew heavy, and he knew he shouldn’t, but he allowed himself to slowly drift off to sleep.

“Aw, he actually fell asleep.”

Lenier, who hadn’t left yet, patted Nile’s head.

Normally, even an insect’s presence would’ve been able to wake him up as he was always on alert, but Lenier’s presence was on par with nothing, so not even Nile was aware of him.

‘Zzzzz….’

“You know, you’re surprisingly innocent. You’re sleeping like a baby.”

Nile, who was still asleep, didn’t hear a thing.

Lenier smiled.

“Have a good rest. You deserve it. Even if you don’t remember, I still owe you a favor greater than my life could ever offer, after what you’ve done for me. I’ll make sure to repay that debt. Sweet dreams.”

Lenir stood up and created a blanket out of thin air.

After tossing the blanket onto Nile, Lenier once again disappeared.

Several hours later, when Nile woke up, he was very confused as to why there was a blanket on him.

‘I… don’t remember putting this on myself…’

He scanned the room, and it didn’t look like anyone broke in, and there was also no traps or traces.

‘Was it that kid…? Ah whatever, that’s not important now… I need to report to Maxwell that everything is good to go.’

And then Nile submerged himself into the shadows as he went to go initiate the plans.

The plans to overthrow the king and destroy the organization once and for all.

By the time Nile woke up, it was already dark out with only the moon and a few streetlights dispersing the darkness.

Anyone still roaming outside would’ve been seen as suspicious.

However, Nile made sure he wasn’t seen as he moved from shadow to shadow, travelling across the city.

Finally, he made it to where he needed to be, an ordinary looking house.

Nile silently slipped through the cracks of the windows and reemerged from the shadows behind a man sitting in a chair.

“I’m here.”

“Whoa! Intruder?!?!”

The man who was sitting in the chair jumped and pulled out a dagger from his pocket, aiming it at Nile.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Oh… it’s just you Nile. Geez, almost gave me a heart attack.”

‘Heh. I’ll never not find it funny making him jump like that.’

The man sighed as he tossed the dagger onto the ground and sat back down onto his chair.

This was the same man whom Nile had spoke to before and exchanged a few quick words to report progress.

His name was Maxwell, leader of the rebel force planning to overthrow the king.

‘We’ve been working together for the last several years… and finally, it’s time to bring all of our hard work to fruition.’

“Sorry for the late visit. I’m here to report that I’ve found someone for the plan. We’re all good to go. The plan is ready.”

Maxwell stared at Nile.

“Finally, that’s what I’ve been waiting to hear. It’s time to bring that scumbag king down from his throne. I’ll have to tell the others we’re ready, and then we’ll decide a date.”

“Usual meeting place, I’m assuming?”

“Yes. Will you be there?”

“Of course. I’ll be in contact. Farewell for now…”

Upon saying that, Nile once again returned to the shadows and completely disappeared, leaving Maxwell all alone.

“…”

Maxwell stood there in silence for a moment before he quickly grabbed his coat and went out to go deliver the news.

The night passed quickly, but news of revolution spread even quicker.

Quiet whispers were shared amongst the revolutionists from within the shadows, out of reach from any soldiers working under the king.

The sun rose as the next morning came, but none of that light could be seen from deep within the earth underground where the revolution meeting was held.

Maxwell, along with several other men and women who share the same cause, stood around a table.

Maxwell glanced around the room looking for Nile.

Although Nile was nowhere to be seen, some of the shadows did flicker ever so slightly.

“It seems we’re all here then… it has been a while since we have had a meeting. And I have good news. We are ready.”

The room suddenly was filled with a heavy atmosphere, a mixture of tension and excitement.

The eyes of the revolutionists filled with burning determination.

Each one of them held their own personal grudge against the king.

Some had their loved ones taken away.

Some had their lives ruined.

Some had just been tortured by the king for the fun of it.

Regardless of the reason, they all hated the king, and they are here because they want to take him down.

And now, they will finally have the opportunity to.

“I’ll go over the plan one more time. So far, we’ve managed to get around 60% of public support. It was hard as the king’s soldiers and troops would hunt us down, but slowly, we managed to quietly spread the word. When the day comes, the people will riot. Most likely, the royal forces will try to suppress them, as per the king’s orders. As this happens, our army will directly storm the castle. This will cause damage and chaos to the insides of the castle, where Nile and I and a few other trained soldiers will find the king… and capture him. Are there any questions?”

No one spoke up.

This plan had been discussed several times before, there was no more room for uncertainty.

The people were as ready as they’ll ever be.

“Two days. We’ll commence operation in two days, right before the sun rises. It’ll give everyone time to prepare. Fortify yourself, we cannot fail. Everything we’ve worked for is for this. If we fail… you don’t even want to imagine what will happen… so whatever happens, be prepared. And with that, meeting dismissed.”

‘…’

Nile, who had been listening from the corner of the room, silently slithered away.

‘…two days…’

Compared to the amount of time it took for him to prepare for this day, two days was nothing.

Yet at the same time, it felt like an eternity.

The entire day felt like a daze that dragged on.

Nile couldn’t focus on anything he did.

And even after the sun once again hid itself from view, Nile just couldn’t calm down.

The night was excruciatingly long.

Nile could not fall asleep no matter what he did.

His brain just kept buzzing and thinking about everything.

This was what he had been working on for so long, and it’s finally coming true.

His heart just silently pounded inside of him as he stared at the ticking clock on the wall.

Since he had never been this anxious before and he couldn’t physically feel his heart beating, he didn’t even realize how anxious he was.

‘Come on… fall asleep… fall asleep… let it be day already…’

And day did eventually come, albeit excruciatingly slow.

Nile did not manage to get any sleep that night.

He spent the rest of the day zoned out and distracted.

‘This is not good. If I’m this tired tomorrow, I won’t be able to perform at peak condition. And I can’t afford to make any mistakes…’

After sneaking away from any prying eyes, Nile splashed some water onto his face and then quickly shook himself off like a dog shaking itself dry.

‘Phew, ok. I feel a little better now. Lets do some last minute double checking, make sure I haven’t forgotten anything, and nothing has suddenly gone awry.’

He spent the entire evening doing just that.

‘It seems everything is in place… well, except for one thing I haven’t checked…’

That one thing Nile hadn’t checked yet was Lenier.

‘I should probably check up on him… but, for some reason, I don’t want to…’

Nile forcefully dragged his body back to the organization and into the shadows of the room where Lenier was currency being “educated.”

Lenier’s body was being strapped down to a machine, as a constant buzzing noise was being injected into his head.

He seemed to be relaxing and at peace though.

‘…he seems to be doing fine… I think?’

Lenier’s eyes popped open and stared directly at the shadow Nile was hiding in.

‘…’

Lenier winked, which sent shivers down Nile’s spine.

‘…I’m… going to leave…’

And so he did.

Now that he’d checked up on Lenier, everything was now in place.

Everything was ready.

All that needed to be done now was to just wait until tomorrow. Tomorrow, the revolution begins.

The organization will fall.

But first…

Nile needed some sleep.

He was exhausted from his nerves, and from the lack of sleep last night.

Nile submerged himself into a dense subspace of darkness where time flowed at a much slower pace.

He allowed his body to get engulfed by the emptiness and here, he fell asleep peacefully.

By the time he awoken, he was at peak condition, and just in time for an uprising.

Footsteps of dozens of men bravely stomped into the ground as the edge of the rising sun barely shone past the far distant lands.

It was predawn, and it was revolution time.

“DOWN WITHHH THE KINGGGGG!!!!!!”

As the group of revolutionists, or terrorists as the king calls them, marched through the city, it naturally caused a stir in the people.

Although not everyone had been aware of this secret rebellion, the sudden riot caused a domino effect causing even those uninvolved to join in.

The strength in number gave the people courage to participate in this act of defiance against the king that they would not normally have.

Random folks who had woken up, were suddenly now joining in the uproar.

And there were also actors mixed in as well to purposely rile up the crowd, making sure things don’t die down, as well as trained men to protect them when the king will inevitably try to shut them down forcefully.

The plan was going exactly as… well, as it was planned.

Nile watched everything unfold from the nearby shadows.

Behind him, a group of men appeared with Maxwell in the front.

“Are we ready?” Maxwell asked.

Nile nodded.

“Let’s go capture the king.”

As most of the royal forces and soldiers were focused on suppressing the ongoing riot, Nile and the special rebel team snuck into the castle.

Nile’s vision pierced through the walls and scanned the entire building, looking to find the king.

‘Strange, I can’t find him… but then again, the king is in charge of an assassin organization, I wouldn’t be surprised if he had some kind of stealth mechanic.’

“Everyone, spread out. We’re looking for the king’s whereabouts. Don’t go too far and send the signal if anything happens.”

The rebel troops nodded and scattered off.

They snuck around hallways, being on alert and searched through the castle.

Even though most of the soldiers and guards were out suppressing the riot, a few remained to guard and patrol.

As a guard walked by, one of the rebels quietly approached from behind and bashed him in the head, knocking the guard out.

Quietly and stealthily, the rebels spread to every corner of the castle.

Nile on the other hand, operated from the shadows, nonlethally snapping the necks of any assassins he found lurking around.

‘The infiltration’s going well, but the king is still nowhere to be found. I don’t know how much time we have, so I’ll think I’ll have to start searching as well.’

With that in mind, Nile’s body fazed through a wall as he started to traverse the building, ignoring all physical obstacles.

The castle was big, befitting that of a tyrant, but even so, it was strange that Nile hadn’t even found a trace of the king.

Then, Nile noticed it.

A seemingly empty space in the middle of the castle.

This was strange as the entire rest of the castle was packed full of rooms and variety, such a large empty space stood out to him.

As Nile got closer, he could feel a subtle distortion, and as he entered the empty space… the room around him changed.

He was now in a royal bedroom, filled with gold and expensive decorations.

‘No wonder I couldn’t find anything, they had a secret magic barrier set up. Clever.’

And as expected, there was a man in the room.

That man was none other than the target; the king himself.

He looked exactly like what you’d imagine a tyrant king looking like, big and tall, wearing a shiny gold crown, royal red cape and fancy clean clothing, with his pitch-black hair and beard.

He stared out the window, one hand on a sword attached to his waist and the other hand raising a golden cup of wine and taking a nice long sip from it, seemingly oblivious that an assassin lurked in the dark corners of the room.

‘…’

The room looked too ordinary.

The king looked too careless.

It was oddly suspicious to Nile that such a meticulous tyrant king, leader of an assassin organization, would have so many openings.

Scanning the room and the nearby areas, he didn’t sense anyone aside from the king and the other rebels.

Meaning there were no assassins around to protect the king.

‘…it seems that over all these years of his tyranny, and everything going his way… he became a bit too complacent… today will be your downfall.’

After deactivating the magic barrier around the room, Nile sent out a signal to all the rebels in the castle to come to his location.

It didn’t take long before the rebels arrived outside the secret room’s door.

Though no words were spoken, Nile’s gestures towards the door were all that was needed for everyone present to realize that the man they were after was inside this room.

The plan had already been discussed beforehand, Nile was to enter alone and attempt to incapacitate the king, after all, Nile was the professional.

Once things were done or if anything goes wrong, the rebels will come in to provide support.

Nile once again fazed through the walls, peeking his head into the room.

Just like before, the king had not moved.

He remained standing there, silently looking out the window and drinking wine.

Although he had done this hundreds upon hundreds of times before, Nile closed his eyes to mentally prepare himself.

‘It’s time.’

Nile’s body momentarily blurred as he propelled himself forward, dagger in hand.

In an instant, the king was within range, and Nile swung his weapon.

Before his dagger could reach the king though, it clashed against an invisible force and bounced back.

‘…a magic barrier…’

It was no surprise that a king would have some sort of protective artifact.

But such a thing was trivial to Nile.

With another dagger in his other hand, he imbued it with a hyper condensed dark energy and swung once again, slicing through the magic barrier itself.

Upon realizing his barrier was destroyed, the king turned around and instinctively raised his arm to defend himself.

That was a mistake, as the king now no longer has that arm attached to his body.

Nile’s dagger was small, but it was still enough to easily sever a limb.

“GAH!!!!”

The king dropped to the ground, grabbing the area where his arm used to be.

Nile slowly took a step forward and twirled his dagger around as his shadow loomed over the king.

“It’s over.”

Nile stared down as the king glared back up.

His hands shaking, the king slowly reached into his pocket and pulled out a gun.

Nile wasn’t fazed.

A bullet wasn’t fast enough to hit Nile anyways.

But to his surprise, the king didn’t point the gun at Nile, he pointed it at his own head.

The king let out a painful toothy grin before he pulled the trigger and blew out his own head.

“…”

‘Piece of shit. Too much of a fucking coward and just ended it himself.’

Although their original plan was to capture and hold the king hostage, the king killing himself wasn’t unexpected nor would it ruin the plan either.

They were going to publicly execute him for his crimes anyways, so his death just happened earlier than expected.

The door to the room suddenly burst open as the rebels rushed in, weapons in hand.

“Nile! What happened, we heard a gunshot.”

Maxwell rushed over to Nile and looked down at the king’s corpse.

“Bastard took the easy way out, eh. Well, we’ll hang his corpse out in front of the castle.”

Nile nodded and stared at the body for a moment.

The first part of the plan was complete, the king was dead. Now, all that was left to do was to destroy the rest of the organization and free everyone.

But even if they didn’t do so, the organization would scatter as their leader was now gone.

Even though he could see the finish line, Nile felt a weird uneasiness.

Something felt… off…

Nile looked around the room, scanning for anything out of the ordinary, but everything seemed to be normal.

This made Nile more nervous though.

Everything is going… too well.

There weren’t as many assassins guarding the castle as Nile had expected…

And even if the king was being careless, would he have left himself that vulnerable?

Being in an empty room by himself?

But the king is already dead.

So was Nile just overthinking things?

Was Nile just paranoid?

He had never felt this way before since he never doubted his ability to succeed in his missions. And this was also the first time he had ever cared about the actual success of a mission.

Nile decided to ease up a bit.

He’s almost at the finish line already.

Just a bit more and everything will be over.

Nile turned around and began to leave the room.

“Nile, you leaving?”

“Yes. Maxwell, you take care of things here. I’m going to check up on my helper, back at the organization base. He should be taking care of things there and freeing everyone.”

“Ah, one last thing before you go. There’s something important I need to tell you.”

Maxwell walked over to Nile and whispered into his ears.

“I’m the organization’s branch manager.”

‘…what…?’

It was at that moment when suddenly the entire room started to shine brightly.

The room was abruptly filled with a blinding light, almost as if dozens of flashbangs exploded at the same time.

All the darkness and shadows were immediately eviscerated.

Nile, who was by nature, connected to the darkness and shadows, felt himself being washed away by the light.

By the time Nile was able to force open his eyes again, the entire room was illuminated.

In the center of the room were several giant glowing balls of light that looked like miniature suns.

‘…what the fuck…?’

Not only that, but Nile was also surrounded by dozens of black robed men.

Nile immediately recognized the familiar outfit.

‘The organization’s assassins, when the hell did they get here…?’

Nile was certain that he scanned the entire area earlier and saw that they were all taken care of.

He had only closed his eyes for a brief moment, they couldn’t have all arrived within that split second and without him noticing… unless…

That was when Nile noticed it, scattered around the room were piles of clothing… more specifically, the clothing that the rebels were wearing…

Nile didn’t even notice, but he had bitten his lips hard enough to cause it to start bleeding.

‘So this was a trap… and I fell for it.’

“Maxwell…”

“You called?”

Nile turned his head to see Maxwell sitting on the king’s chair and twirling the royal crown around his fingers.

“Me and you Nile, we’ve known each for quite a while now. How many years has it been? Eight? Nine? Not exactly sure. But I’m pleased to finally be able to come out of the closet and formally introduce myself; My name is Maxwell. I am the current manager of this branch of the organization, aka, your direct superior.”

Nile’s brain couldn’t even properly process what he was hearing, or what was even going on, but his body moved instinctively.

He immediately vanished from his spot and reappeared upside down on the ceiling.

Nile naturally gathered energy into his legs and in a blur, he launched himself off the wall, bouncing and ricocheting around the room like a pinball.

Maxwell stood up from his chair, carefully placing the crown on his head and pulled out his sword.

“Stop Nile.”

Maxwell commanded, and the assassins obeyed.

The robed assassins fearlessly lunged towards Nile, weapons in hand and with full intent to kill.

However, even though the lights in the room were bright enough to cast away all the darkness making it hard for Nile to use his magic, even without it, Nile’s ability to kill surpassed all.

With just his physical strength, he blitzed past them before they could even perceive him, cleanly slicing the necks of anyone who stood in his path.

As the heads started falling from the bodies, Nile got a glimpse of their faces causing him to freeze.

‘…these guys… I recognize them…’

They were the same rebels that Nile had seen many times before.

The same ones who were filled with anger and rage at the king, for all the crimes the king had committed.

So why…

‘…why are they attacking me? Why are they wearing the organization’s robes? Was everything… a lie?’

But there was no time to hesitate or think, because despite seeing their comrades die in front of them, the assassins continued rushing towards Nile.

Nile finally realized.

The reason why he couldn’t sense any assassins was because they were literally hiding in plain sight.

They were next to him the whole time, disguised as his allies.

‘…fuck…’

Nile swung his blade, cutting down the people he once considered his allies.

“Oh my Nile. How ruthless of you to kill our friends like that. We’ve worked together for so long, how could you just kill them like that?”

Maxwell said out loud in a pretty clear mocking tone as he walked towards Nile.

“Maxwell…!”

Nile gritted his teeth and charged forward, ignoring everything in his path.

“WAS EVERYTHING A LIE?!?!”

A burst of magic exploded out as they clashed blades.

“Oof! You’re as strong as I expected! Even more so actually… but I knew that, so I made sure to come fully prepared for you!”

As Maxwell pushed Nile away with his sword, a large number of royal guards and soldiers started rushing into the room.

‘There’s more of them? Didn’t we knock them all out earlier… oh wait, all the rebels were organization assassins, so they must’ve only pretended to knock out the guards!’

The room quickly started to fill up.

More and more soldiers poured in, almost like a stream of water, all rushing to attack Nile.

Nile clenched his dagger, and made one big slash, cutting dozens of soldiers in half.

But as soon as they dropped dead, more soldiers continued rushing into the room.

There were even wizards and special knights mixed into the crowd as well.

The wizards continuously casted light into the room, weakening Nile even further.

The knights were big and tough, and their thick armour clogged up the room, leaving little space for Nile to move and bounce around.

‘…I’m at the disadvantage. This is very not good. They know my weakness and came fully prepared, what the hell am I supposed to do in this situation…’

Nile was an assassin, not a warrior.

Even if he was strong, this type of direct confrontational fight was not what he excelled at.

He was an extremely skilled assassin, not a one-man army.

‘I have to end this.’

After cutting down dozens more soldiers, Nile glanced over at Maxwell who was hiding in the shadows in the corner of the room.

That was Nile’s target.

There was no doubt he was the one controlling everything, and the one who needed to be killed.

With some quick thinking, Nile gathered some dead bodies and tossed them in front of the room’s door, blocking the entrance.

It wouldn’t stop the incoming soldiers but slow them down and give Nile some time.

Nile crouched down low, gathering energy into one spot, and in a single explosive moment, he blasted himself towards Maxwell.

Another explosion erupted forth from their blades clashing.

However, Nile didn’t stop at one single strike.

He teleported around Maxwell from all directions, swinging both of his daggers and moved like the wind.

Maxwell was an incredibly skilled swordsman, and an even more skilled assassin considering his position in the organization, but even he struggled to keep up with Nile’s movements.

Blood spurt out from wounds that appear all over his body from seemingly nowhere.

However…

‘…something’s wrong, how is he able to keep up with me this well?’

Nile was using 100% of his abilities right now.

He was not holding back at all.

And yet, Maxwell was able to defend against him?

It wasn’t arrogance that made Nile think this way, Nile simply knew his own abilities very well.

And at this point, he should’ve been able to have killed Maxwell already.

Yet for some reason, no matter how aggressively he attacked, no matter how fast he moved or how hard he swung, he couldn’t land a fatal blow.

Maxwell was indeed strong, but definitely not strong enough to match Nile…

It was at that point that Nile noticed his body moving significantly slower than usual.

Sluggish.

Unresponsive.

Heavy and slow.

It felt like his body was moving on a delay.

Nile temporarily jumped back and stared at his own body.

‘What…. What is this…?’

Looking down, Nile saw a small dagger embedded deep into the side of his rib.

He grabbed and roughly yanked it out causing blood to squirt.

‘This dagger… there’s poison on it! I’ve been poisoned! Since when?’

Nile’s eyes widened as he realized.

‘It must’ve been earlier when he walked up to me and whispered into my ear! He must’ve stabbed me then…’

Despite being heavily injured, Maxwell smiled.

“Oh, you actually noticed? I didn’t think you’d notice at all to be honest, considering you don’t feel pain and all, but I guess it would be obvious if your entire body starts slogging down like that.”

Ironically, Nile’s biggest strength, the fact he couldn’t feel any pain, worked against him in this situation.

Pain hurts, but it’s extremely important to humans as it alerts any abnormalities in the body.

Nile couldn’t feel himself getting stabbed, nor did he feel the poison seeping throughout his body.

And to make matters worse, the body blockade at the entrance was finally pushed aside and more soldiers started rushing into the room again.

They immediately rushed at him, leaving him no time to breath or even react.

If it were any other person, they would’ve collapsed by now, but Nile couldn’t feel the pain nor the fatigue of pushing himself far past his physical limits.

Nile gritted his teeth and stirred up the darkness inside of himself, letting it boil wildly before releasing it all at once, covering himself in a layer of darkness.

A black miasma that was so dense, not even the blinding light could dispel it.

It was extremely risky pushing himself this far, potentially even permanently damaging himself, but at this point, there was no other choice.

Nile’s body turned into a bolt of darkness, flashing through the room, slicing apart everything into pieces.

The soldiers were instantly turned into tofu slices as their chopped-up body parts fell from the sky.

‘I need to end this… Maxwell! FUCKING BASTARD!!!’

Nile internally screamed out in anger, as he converted his silent rage into energy.

‘If it’s the last thing I do, I’m going to fucking kill him…’

The shadows sharpened themselves as Nile brandished his daggers.

Wasting no time, Nile went straight for the kill.

Even if Maxwell tried blocking with a spell or by parrying with his sword, Nile’s pure dark imbued daggers would be able to slice through anything.

There was nothing that he couldn’t cut through.

‘DIE!’

Then Nile’s body suddenly froze midair.

And he collapsed before he could even swing his daggers.

‘H-huh?’

Nile tried to move, but his body didn’t respond.

It just laid stiff and motionless.

“Oh… oh god. That was close! Holy shit, I actually almost died.”

Maxwell staggered forward as he wiped the sweat off his face with his trembling hands.

Nile motionlessly stared up at Maxwell, not able to do anything other than just watch and listen.

‘…what…? What just happened…?’

After a bit of breathing, Maxwell crouched down in front of Nile, waving a small little device in front of his face.

“Good thing I had this little backup device. If not for it, I would’ve died there. Yep, I would’ve been sliced into two.”

Nile’s brain couldn’t even process what was going on.

He wanted to think but his thoughts just couldn’t keep up.

“Don’t try to push yourself. You just got a bit of a… shock, so any unnecessary moving will damage you a lot.”

‘A… shock…?’

Deep inside of Nile’s body was a small little device connected to the device in Maxwell’s hand.

When activated, it’ll release some extremely potent chemicals and even a powerful wave of electricity through the entire body.

Not even Nile’s superhuman body could resist it, especially after being weakened already.

“I must say, I am extremely impressed with your performance. You blew all my expectations. I was expecting to be surprised but you surprised even my surprise! My original plan was to have you collapse after being stabbed by the poisoned dagger, but you managed to resist it! You do realize that the poison was potent enough to immediately sedate even an ogre? And you were still able to move! Of course, I did think that’d happen which is why I set up the magic lights and had my entire army of soldiers ready, but even then, you managed to kill most of them, and almost managed to kill me… Nile, you truly are a monster… even now, I’m scared that you might stand up and shove a dagger through my neck…’

Maxwell shivered and backed away, allowing his troops to restrain Nile with special cuffs and chains.

“But I will say, aside from your physical performance, everything else was… disappointing.”

Maxwell let out a sigh as he collapsed onto a chair.

“Nile… are you stupid? You’re an idiot, aren’t you? How did you not realize this was going to happen? Like, it was actually so obvious. I legit thought you were only pretending to fall for our trap… I was totally expecting you to suddenly backstab me. I left so many hints and clues for you. It’s actually a miracle that you never suspected me.

If the tyrant king was so evil and so powerful, why wouldn’t our puny rebel army have been crushed already? Do you think it’s possible for a rebellion of this size to go completely unnoticed? Did you also think the organization wouldn’t notice your rebellious nature when you’re so open about it? For fucks sake, you knew that we are capable of mind control and other unknown abilities, and you didn’t suspect that maybe, just maybe, we knew? That maybe I wasn’t on the same side as you?”

What Maxwell was saying was starting to slowly seep into Nile’s mind.

His body started to tremble, causing Maxwell to flinch and jump back.

“Hey, soldiers, make sure… he doesn’t suddenly do anything.”

‘…why… Maxwell…?’

“…”

‘…why’d you betray me…?’

Nile wasn’t speaking aloud, but he couldn’t tell since both his body and mind were completely numb.

Regardless, Maxwell could hear his thoughts loud and clear.

“Nile, I’m the organization branch manager. I was never on your side… I was only pretending to be your ally. And you naively believed me. Didn’t suspect me at all. I didn’t even do anything to gain your trust, you just trusted me the moment you heard me say I wanted to take down the king. The funniest part is the organization doesn’t even work for the king… the king works for me. He’s been under my control for a while now. I purposely fed you false information about the king controlling the organization.”

‘But why… why pretend for so long…? Couldn’t you just… have killed me when you found out I was betraying the organization…?’

“…”

‘Tell me… you bastard…’

“Fine. Since I’ve known you for so long, I’ll tell you. I want to mind control you. You are… amazing. So powerful. So strong. So skilled. You can become the greatest assassin to ever exist. You have that potential. I can use psychic magic. Ya know, mind reading and brainwashing people and stuff, that’s how I’ve assured the loyalty of my assassins. But my ability is not as overpowered as it seems, it’s more like a mental suggestion. It only slightly affects the target’s mind.

Might work on a dumb animal like a rat or something, but a human has too much mental consciousness for my mind control to work… that’s why I torture them. When someone is in pain, their mind fades. Their mental willpower weakens. I inject drugs into them, torture their body until they can’t mentally resist… then I slowly apply my mind control on them, until they become my eventual loyal assassin.

But you’re special. I can’t use my mind control on you. Not because you’re strong willed or anything, in fact, you’re pretty mentally weak, it’s just that you can’t feel pain. I can’t use torture to mentally weaken you any further, so my mind control magic doesn’t work. Thus, I needed to find another way to break you down. For a while, I had no idea how I would achieve this. But one day, I created a fake rebellion organization to weed out any potential threats, and then… you showed up. You offered to help take down the king without even realizing I was part of the organization.

And that’s when I realized this was the perfect opportunity. To work with you, to spend years working towards a goal and to get so close to achieving that goal… and then have it all crumble. All of it for nothing.”

And so, Nile finally learned the truth to everything.

Everything he had worked for was all part of Maxwell’s plan.

Everything… was for nothing.

The truth was finally sinking in.

‘It’s over, isn’t it?’

“Yes, Nile. You’re right. It’s over. So, just obediently give yourself to me, ok?”

‘…’

Suddenly, Nile’s eyes started to moisten.

He felt something deep inside of him start to build up and began to spill over…

…and tears started to pour out from his eyes.

“Nile, are you… crying?”

The floodgates had opened, and no matter how hard he tried, Nile just couldn’t stop the tears.

Maxwell stared in shock as he witnessed this.

“Nile! H-hey buddy, come on! Don’t cry! I mean, I know I was trying to mentally break you and stuff but like, I don’t like seeing someone I know cry, especially when it’s a monster like you! You did great! You managed to get this close to killing me despite fighting an uphill battle, you should feel proud of yourself! Come on, you’re making me feel bad.”

Nile couldn’t even hear anything anymore.

He was completely lost in his own head.

And tears continued rampantly flooding out, almost as if to compensate for the lack of crying in his life.

It wasn’t an elegant flow of tears either, he was straight up bawling.

Eyes veiny red and water flooding the floor.

Nile couldn’t keep up his silent calm persona anymore.

This was just too much for him to handle.

All his life, Nile had never failed.

Every mission, every assassination, he always succeeded with ease.

He was too talented.

He didn’t know failure.

Pain and failure create growth, and he didn’t experience either of those.

So Nile never actually grew up.

Sure, he grew stronger physically, got more abilities and more muscle mass, but mentally, he’s the same as he was when he first came to the organization as a kid.

For his whole life, he’s been effortlessly doing things he hasn’t cared about.

And so, when for the first time, he truly found a goal that he wholehearted wished to succeed… it was also the first time where he didn’t succeed.

The first time he failed.

And he didn’t know how to handle it.

It hurt more than anything he ever felt.

Nile closed his eyes and repeatedly slammed his head into the ground, almost as if he was trying to wake himself up from a nightmare.

“Hey, I can’t have you killing yourself now! My entire plan would be for nothing if you die!”

Even Maxwell hadn’t predicted that Nile would be this distraught.

Yeah, his plan was to break Nile, but Maxwell still expected him to keep acting tough.

Nile was too much of a monster to have expected him to cry like this.

“How about this, I’ll make a deal. If you stop crying and let yourself be captured, I’ll…. um… I… won’t kill that kid you were with! Yeah! What’s his name… Lenny? Or something? That kid, I’ll spare him for you! Deal?”

Nile froze upon hearing this.

‘Lenier… that’s right, I forgot about him… if it’s him, then there’s still a chance…’

“Nile, please don’t get your hopes up like that. It’ll only disappoint you further. I knew about your little plan with him a long time ago so I’ve already set up traps for him, even if he were as skilled as you, he still wouldn’t stand a chance… so please, just give up. I promise I’ll spare Len-”

“Oh hey Nile. I finished up freeing everyone at the base, how’s it going with you?”

Everyone’s heads immediately turned towards the person who just walked into the room.

Standing at the doorway, was a kid.

A very familiar kid.

One that we all know.

‘Lenier…’

“Yep. That’s me. Am I interrupting something?”

“How’d you get here?” Maxwell immediately turned serious, readying his sword cautiously.

“I just followed Nile’s scent and walked in.”

“That’s not what I meant! You should’ve been captured already. I sent my best assassins after you. How the hell did you make it here?”

“Oh, that. Well, I can give you a detailed recap if you want.”

“Wha? What are you trying to do here?!”

Maxwell raised his sword as he took a nervous step back, unable to fully understand where this kid came from.

“You ask me how I got here, so I’m answering. Do you want me to answer or not?”

“Speak!”

“Okay, so it began when I woke up…”

Rewind to about an hour prior or so, Lenier was waking up from his nap.

He refreshingly stretched his arms and yawned, hopping off the bed to start the new day.

“Oh right, today’s the day that Nile’s doing his thingy or whatever. If I remember correctly, he told me to wreck shit up and free everyone.”

Lenier grinned, excited to get to work.

He spent around five minutes doing a morning warm up, bending his knees, swinging his body from side to side, making sure all his muscles were ready to go!

Now he was ready to cause some chaos.

His cell was locked by a massive and thick steel door, but Lenier just walked through it like a ghost.

As Lenier was contemplating what to destroy first, he suddenly remembered something important.

“I almost forgot! I need to free Lyla and I guess everyone else as well. If I don’t, they might get hurt when I start breaking things.”

Lenier glanced around, locating Lyla’s location, and went in a straight line directly towards it.

Lenier popped his head into a small room that looked to be some kind of fancy technological room.

Screens plastered the walls, machines and tools and tubes were scattered throughout the room.

In the corner of the room, was a large glass capsule filled with a strange dark liquid… and submerged inside of that liquid, was Lyla.

There were big metallic tubes roughly stabbed into her body and were connected to some other machinery that Lenier didn’t care about.

Her body seemed like it was being weakened and becoming increasingly frail as the energy was forced out of her body.

Her eyes were slightly open as her mind was in a state of half consciousness, unable to rest due to the chemicals in the liquid, but also unable to function properly due to exhaustion.

Lenier flicked his finger, shattering the glass and caused the liquid inside to burst out in an instant.

Lyla immediately flopped down and fell straight into Lenier’s arms.

Her body twitched as the sudden shock seemed to startle her brain back awake.

A dark miasma abruptly burst from her body and tried to suffocate Lenier.

It seemed to have been an uncontrolled automatic reaction from the cursed powers inside of her, trying to harm everyone around.

But obviously, to Lenier, it was nothing more than a puff of smoke.

“There, there… I know you’ve been through a lot, but don’t worry, you’re safe now.”

Lenier spoke in a gentle voice, softer than he had spoken before, soothing the girl in his arms as he stroked her hair.

Lyla’s entire body trembled as she somehow managed to tilt her head upwards to stare at the one holding her.

Her dull murky black eyes stared up at him, devoid of any and all life.

“From now on, you’re free. You won’t be trapped here anymore.”

She had been tortured her entire life by everyone she had ever met, Lenier didn’t expect her to believe him with a few mere words.

But unexpectedly, something seemed to flicker in her eyes as she stared up at him.

Lenier tilted his head.

“Hm. I’m suddenly getting a feeling of déjà vu, have I done this before?”

He didn’t exactly remember the details, but he had a feeling that this had already happened before, or at least something similar.

He shrugged.

“Let’s get you out of here, shall we?”

Even though Lenier had healed her, Lyla still wasn’t in a condition to be able to walk on her own, so he carried her.

While in Lenier’s arms, Lyla felt her consciousness start to slip into a more comfortable place, as her eyes grew heavy and slowly closed.

For the first time in a long time, Lyla naturally and peacefully fell into a deep sleep.

Lenier made sure to not to make any big movements as to not wake her up.

He intended to carry her outside to somewhere safe, before heading back inside and continuing his job.

However, as he walked down the corridor, Lenier suddenly spoke aloud.

“I don’t mind if you try to kill me, but can’t you see she’s sleeping? Would be quite rude to wake her up. Can it wait until later?”

Lenier continued walking for a bit in silence until several assassins appeared around him.

They were wearing the same uniform as Nile, implying that they were of the same rank as him.

“If I had nickel for every time it looked like I was alone, but when I spoke up and assassins suddenly appeared from the darkness, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice.”

The assassins ignored Lenier’s remark.

“Orders from higher ups, we’re here to stop you.”

“We can’t talk this out?”

“Too late for that.”

The assassins stealthily readied their weapons, hidden but ready to use.

They were originally going to ambush Lenier but didn’t expect him to notice their presence.

However, they were confident even in a direct confrontation.

Lenier used some of his magic to allow Lyla to gently float in the air beside him so she wouldn’t be bothered by the fight.

With that taken care of, Lenier took a step forward towards the assassin to initiate combat.

He didn’t move quickly, just at an average walking pace, and when he felt close enough, Lenier raised his hand and swung it at the nearest assassin.

The assassin reacted immediately by leaning back, causing Lenier’s hand to fly through the empty air.

“You think such a slow attack would do anything?”

Lenier giggled and raised something up.

“I got your nose! Haha!”

He wiggled something in between his fingers.

“Why are you joking dur-”

The assassin stopped halfway through his sentence when he felt… strange.

For some reason, he had difficulty breathing.

Like something was obstructing his breathing hole…

The assassin slowly brought his hand up to his face and touched it.

It was completely smooth.

Almost like his nose was gone.

Staring back at Lenier, the assassin realized what was being waved around in his hand... it was a severed nose.

“You wanna see a magic trick?”

Lenier asked but he didn’t wait for a response.

He clenched the nose in one of his hands, and wiggled his other hand in the air randomly as if he was doing a magician’s trick.

“Poof! Tada!”

As Lenier opened up his hand, the nose was gone!

But to replace the nose, there was now a fresh beating heart in his hand.

Ba-bump.

Ba-bump.

Ba-bump.

The heart pulsated inside of Lenier’s hand.

The assassins stared at it in confusion...

And then one of the assassins dropped lifelessly to the ground.

Without any warning, the other assassins pounced forward.

They were the highest class of assassins; they could sense the danger that Lenier posed.

They needed to take him out while he was unprepared.

“!!!”

One of the assassins abruptly stopped as he felt something and yelled out to the others.

“STOP!”

But it was too late for the others.

It was barely noticeable at first, but the closer the assassins got to Lenier, their bodies would melt.

Their flesh and meat liquified.

And as the assassins got too close to Lenier, their bodies couldn’t maintain its solid form anymore and melted onto the ground like paint splattering the floor.

Their bones and clothing fell on top of their liquid flesh.

Only the one assassin who had realized something was wrong, and had stopped before getting too close, now remained.

The assassin did not move, nor say anything.

He didn’t know what to do or what to say.

Within literally just a few seconds of the fight starting, all the other assassins were dead.

He didn’t know what happened, he just knew he was outmatched. Severely.

Even as Lenier started walking towards him, the assassin remained frozen.

With each step Lenier made, the assassin felt death inching closer and closer.

I’m going to die.

The assassin thought to himself.

But to his surprise, Lenier just walked straight past him.

“I’m not gonna kill you if you don’t try to kill me, ya know.”

And Lenier continued walking.

It was as simple as that.

But even given the chance to escape, the chance to live and survive, the assassin had no other choice.

He had spent his entire life in the organization.

Unlike Nile, he could feel pain.

Subjected to years of torture and mind control, he was already fully brainwashed.

He couldn’t disobey his orders even if it meant death.

Even if he was afraid.

Even if he knew this was suicide.

Even if he wanted to live.

The assassin knew what he was, and he knew what he must do.

The assassin turned around to face Lenier.

He ran forward and swung his dagger…

“Connor! What are you doing with that knife!”

Suddenly, a big hand came from above and ripped the weapon out of his hand.

He immediately jumped back and stared up.

In front of him, stood a large woman.

He stared in disbelief as he had not sensed this person this entire time.

Where did she come from?

She looked to be about twice his size, wearing a large apron, and oddly enough… she seemed familiar to him.

“What are you doing Connor? Stop fooling around and set up the table, dinner’s ready.”

The woman turned away from him and walked into another room, presumably the kitchen.

The kitchen?

The assassin frantically looked around him, realizing he was suddenly in a foreign location.

It was a living room.

A house.

A small, cozy, warm, house.

One that he recognizes.

It was no ordinary house… it was home.

He looked at himself, his small childlike hands and his feet dirty playing in the mud with his friends at school.

He slowly walked to the kitchen, where a nostalgic smell of food rushed into his nose.

He sat down, along with the women, and together, they ate dinner.

Mother.

That’s who the woman was.

And the food she made for dinner… it was delicious.

He was stuffed.

It was the best thing he ever had.

After dinner, his mother let him sit on her lap, giving him a spoonful of ice cream to lick.

He felt warm as he buried himself in her lap.

Together, they watched the sun outside the window dipped below the horizon.

In this moment, it felt like all those years being tortured, being brainwashed and working mindlessly as an assassin, it felt like a distant foggy dream.

It was no more than a passing nightmare.

A nightmare that won’t scare him in the embrace of his mother.

He felt sleepy.

He felt warm.

He was happy.

And he closed his eyes to sleep.

“Good night Connor.”

Lenier whispered into the assassin’s ear.

Lenier stared at the assassin’s dead body for a moment, wishing him a happy eternal rest before standing up and leaving.

He moved a large distance away from the organization, finding a safe location and placed Lyla on the ground.

After applying a barrier around Lyla, Lenier travelled back to the organization base to finish what’s been started.

It would be extremely easy for Lenier to destroy the organization in one single attack, but he had to release everyone who wanted to escape first.

Lenier slowly took his time and destroyed most of the cages and walls, allowing the captured orphans and assassin trainees to escape.

Some of them though had already been fully brainwashed and were fully fledged assassins, so Lenier “liberated” them of their duties.

There were also a few traps here and there and a couple dozen more assassins trying to kill him, but overall, there wasn’t any difficulties worth mentioning.

In fact, this was his second time destroying the organization base, so he had experience in doing this too!

Lenier stood there, in front of the rubble that was formerly a massive and highly funded organization base and felt proud of himself.

“Now that that’s done, I guess I should check out how Nile’s doing.”

Lenier raised both his hands 90 degrees, forming a t shaped pose with his arms.

His entire body started to rotate, spinning faster and faster until a circular force of wind was created.

His outstretched arms acted like helicopter blades, spiraling around and around and around, until he was propelled into the air.

Lenier continued spinning and flying until he reached the city where he felt Nile’s presence.

After elegantly landing in the streets, he walked straight into the castle.

Some guards tried to stop him, but Lenier just buried them underground like potatoes, leaving only their heads above to breathe since Nile had told him not to kill unnecessarily.

Well, a few of them did try to resist so Lenier had to confiscate a few of their limbs to ensure they didn’t do anything stupid, but don’t worry, none of them died.

“And so that’s how I got here,” Lenier said as he finished up his explanation.

“You expect me to believe that nonsensical story you just told?”

Maxwell was in disbelief.

However, after checking his mental connection to his assassins, he realized that they were all severed, meaning they were all dead.

Not only that, but he also read Lenier’s mind and there were no lies.

“Nile, what are you doing on the floor?” Lenier ignored the situation and started walking towards Nile.

‘You succeeded in destroying the base…’

“Yes, I did Nile. You don’t seem so good though.”

‘I… failed. I couldn’t complete my part of the plan…’

“That’s okay. You tried your best, and I’m here now. Don’t worry.”

‘I was tricked. These people I thought were my frien-… my compatriots, they turned out to be my enemies. Everything I’ve done…’

“Nile. It’s fine. Don’t forget our deal. I will make sure your plan succeeds. Tell me what to do.”

‘It’s them, the organization, everything is because of them… because of Maxwell…’

Lenier crouched down in front of Nile lying on the ground and stared right into his eyes.

“Nile, I will do anything you ask. What do you want. Just say it.”

‘I…’

Nile tightly closed his eyes.

His body was still unresponsive, but he mustered every ounce of energy left to forcefully move his mouth.

“Kill… kill them all.”

Lenier smile.

“Your wish is my command.”

And the room went dark.

All the lights disappeared.

The sun went black, almost as if it were extinguished.

The door was forcefully shut and the windows were suddenly closed.

“W-wha? Hey! Magic squad, light up the room!” Maxwell shouted out.

But it didn’t work.

When the wizards tried using their light magic, it just fizzled out.

It was almost as if something was suffocating the light itself.

“Kill the kid then!” Maxwell shouted out.

As the assassins moved forward, Lenier said one last thing to Nile.

“Nile, I’ll only do this once, so pay attention.”

At the exact moment a blade was about to touch him, Lenier’s body melted into the ground.

Then, total silence.

Not because everyone was remaining silent, but something was stopping all noise.

And then slowly, darkness began to rise from the ground.

It did not have a physical form, it didn’t feel like anything, nor did it even obstruct movement, but it looked like a pitch-black liquid that was filling up the room.

No matter what was done, it continued rising.

First, it covered their legs, then their bodies, then their head, and then their entire bodies.

Strangely though, they could see their own bodies clearly.

Maxwell looked around, and he could see everyone in the room as if they were properly illuminated.

But the room and everything else was pure black.

“What the hell is this…?”

A pair of glowing white eyes stared at Maxwell from the darkness.

“You!”

Maxwell swung his sword with all his might, but the floating eyes were just a bit too far away.

As Maxwell took a step forward and swung his sword again, the eyes moved away at the exact speed and distance that Maxwell moved.

Frustrated that he couldn’t hit anything, he dashed forward, running as fast as he could.

Yet no matter how far he traveled, the eyes remained the same exact distance away from him.

Just narrowly out of reach.

“Damn it! Men, come help me with this!”

When he looked around though, he realized the number of soldiers and assassins in the room was a lot lower than he expected.

“Where did everyone go?”

Maxwell looked around, carefully examining the remaining people.

Then Maxwell blinked.

“Huh? Where’d that guy go?”

The soldier he was staring at suddenly disappeared, almost as if he never existed.

Maxwell blinked again.

Another person had disappeared.

Maxwell frantically looked around, trying to find at least a body or trace of the person who just vanished.

There was nothing.

Maxwell blinked again.

Another person had disappeared.

Maxwell blinked again.

Another person had disappeared.

Maxwell blinked again.

Another person had disappeared.

Eventually, there was no one left.

Only Maxwell, alone in the infinitely dark abyss with the glowing pair of eyes staring back at him.

Maxwell tightly gripped his sword, uncertain of what was going to happen.

He was prepared to attack anything that came out at him… even though he wasn’t sure if that would even change anything in this situation.

“Come on out, stop hiding.”

Maxwell said this out loud, not expecting anything to happen.

To his surprise though, the floating eyes came out of the darkness into view, revealing Lenier’s dark shadowy body.

In his hands, were a pair of pitch-black daggers, the same type as the ones the organization assassins typically used.

Maxwell could just feel the irony creeping up on him, being killed by the type of weapons that he had trained his minions to use.

“You actually came out, are you going to kill me now?”

“Yes. Are you afraid?”

“Haha… not even going to lie, I am. But I’m not going to just stand here and let you kill me though, I’ll struggle.”

“That is to be expected.”

As Lenier spoke, his words were cold and sharp like a blade’s edge, unlike the casual tone that he spoke earlier.

He felt like a completely different person from before.

If not for his physical appearance, Maxwell would’ve believed that this wasn’t the same being as the kid he spoke to moments ago.

Lenier took a step forward, not even bothering to raise his daggers, letting it rest by his sides.

“Bring it!”

Maxwell roared, unleashing his internal energy and focusing it into his blade as he charged forward!!!

Lenier swung his dagger.

At that moment, Maxwell’s burst of energy completely disappeared.

Lenier remained in front of him, but for some reason, Maxwell felt an unusual calmness inside of him.

He felt peaceful.

All of his motivations, his ambitions, it all felt meaningless now.

All he felt was tranquility.

Why was he trying so hard to create an army of assassins?

Why was he trying so hard to control Nile?

Why did he care about creating the ultimate assassin?

Even as Lenier finally took a step forward, raising his dagger up in front of Maxwell’s eyes, he felt no reason to resist.

“I’m going to kill you now.”

Those words felt so soothing to Maxwell.

In the face of death, Maxwell felt nothing but subtle excitement for what was to come.

And as the dagger inched closer and closer to him, it finally dawned onto Maxwell.

“I see what happened now. You… you’re even more of a monster then Nile. I know what you did there. You cut through my spirit. You sliced apart my motivation and will to live. No easier target to kill than one who doesn’t care enough to live… Ah, damn. Why was I trying so hard to create the ultimate assassin… when you already exist?”

And then Lenier swung his dagger down, slicing Maxwell into two pieces.

Lenier wasn’t done just yet.

He kept on slashing at Maxwell’s body with his daggers.

1 slash.

2 slashes.

4 slashes.

8 slashes.

16 slashes.

32 slashes… 64 slashe… 128 slash… 256 slas… 512 sla… 1,024 sl… 2,048 s… 4,096… 8,192… 16,384… 32,768… 65,536… 131,072… 262,144… 524,288…

One million slashes in a single second.

Maxwell’s body was separated into millions of tiny evenly cut pieces of meat and flesh.

Each piece fell into the darkness, and dissolved into nothingness.

The darkness that had engulfed the room also disappeared as well, returning to normal, except now, there were no traces of the missing assassins and army of soldiers.

Nile, who was watching this entire thing unfold, was simply dumbfounded.

To him, this was the second biggest shock in his life, first being when he was betrayed by Maxwell a few minutes ago, and now as he witnessed this.

‘That… that was my technique! Except, much more potent, and more deadly…’

As Nile was watching Lenier fight, it was almost as if he was looking at himself… an older, more mature and more powerful version of himself…

Lenier turned around and coldly stared at Nile.

Nile couldn’t help but feel fear as Lenier slowly started walking towards him.

‘Is this how it’s like to be on the receiving end of an assassination?’

And almost as if Lenier didn’t just do anything, he smiled, completely removing all tension and seriousness.

“It’s done! You did it Nile! Your plan has succeeded!”

Lenier grabbed Nile’s arm and lifted him into the air.

Suddenly, Nile was able to move again as if he had never been paralyzed or poisoned in the first place.

“What was that just now? It… looked like my ability.”

“Yep, yep! Spot on! It was the same ability you used on me when you fought me, so I thought it was fitting to use it here as well. I figured it might be good to show you now, so you’ll know what you’re capable of in the future.”

“I see… so I’ll be that strong in the future…”

“That’s right! Now that you’ve finished this up, you have a whole future ahead of you. I wonder how much stronger you’ll become. You’ll definitely become stronger than you were in my previous life, maybe you’ll become even stronger than me!”

Despite Lenier’s excitement, Nile remained silent and just slowly walked towards the window.

He stared out and watched the chaos outside.

Despite the king being dead and everything was now resolved, the people outside didn’t know this.

They were still fighting.

Soldiers were arresting and shoving down protesters.

“…”

Nile just stood there, unmoving.

“Nile? Is something wrong?”

Lenier asked, wondering why Nile didn’t seem happy after achieving his life goal.

Nile just responded with a question.

“What am I supposed to do now?”

“You can do anything!”

“No… that’s not it. I don’t even know anymore. I thought… I believed, that once I destroyed the organization, I would be able to do anything, but that was a lie. It turns out, everything I wanted was actually set up. My goal was planned by Maxwell, designed to motivate me, only to later crush me. I trusted him. I believed him. But apparently, my life has always been controlled by someone else. Nothing I did was of my own free will. Did destroying the organization even change anything? Did I do all of this for nothing? This plan I’ve worked so hard for, my ambitions, my goal, the people I trusted and even my own life… it’s all meaningless.”

Nile turned his head, his teary eyes staring at Lenier.

“So what should I do now?”

Lenier didn’t say anything.

Nile felt something build up in his throat as he awaited an answer.

He desperately needed an answer.

It didn’t matter what.

He just needed someone to tell him what to do, how to live his life from now on.

But Lenier remained silent.

He just walked towards Nile.

Lenier gently raised his arm and put it on Nile’s shoulder, with a soft smile on his face.

“Nile, it’s time for you to fulfill your part of the deal.”

And then a sharp pain rushed through Nile’s body.

“?!??!?!?!?!?!?!”

Every single nerve in Nile’s body suddenly was forced awake, as an overwhelming amount of new information started flooding his brain.

He was feeling new sensations he had never felt before and to the very extreme.

His clothing felt like sandpaper that was scraping apart his skin.

His wounds from the previous battle felt like they were being torn open by metal claws and had lava poured into them.

Every heartbeat sent a pulsating wave of pain throughout his body, his lungs struggling to breath as the air inside of him felt both scorching and freezing simultaneously.

Any movement he made only further stimulated the pain.

It was too much for him to process.

Nile dropped to his knees, which felt like his kneecaps had exploded under his weight.

Unable to handle it anymore, Nile dropped onto the floor, falling unconscious, the final thing he saw... was Lenier waving at him.

‘…’

Pitch black.

Nile was surrounded by a familiar darkness, which felt comforting.

This darkness was where he had spent most of his time, the only place where he was ever able to truly relax.

As he was about to close his eyes and let himself melt into the dark, he suddenly saw a small light in the distance.

That was strange.

There isn’t supposed to be any light in this endless void.

Nile was curious what this light was, and started paddling his arms and swam towards it.

The closer he got to it, the bigger the light became until it eventually filled up his vision and all he could see was this white light.

Nile stared deep into the light, almost mesmerized by it.

And then suddenly, from the light, a vision started to form.

At first, it was very blurry. Just a muddle of a bunch of colors.

But he could hear noises and sounds coming from it.

It was faint and soft, but he could just barely hear someone talking.

“Nile… we’ll name him Nile, our precious baby boy.”

The image in the light became clearer, and in the vision was a man’s face.

Nile didn’t recognize the man, but he looked familiar.

Suddenly, the vision shifted to a green field, filled with flowers and trees.

There were a lot of people around, children running around playing, adults sitting on benches and people eating food in the distance.

Once again, this vision seemed familiar to Nile somehow.

The blurry silhouettes of a man and women shouted out Nile’s name from the side, calling out to him while waving a sandwich in the air.

But then the vision shifted again, this time, to a not so pleasant scene.

Fire.

Screams.

Explosions.

There was blood being spilled everywhere.

Soldiers rushed through the destroyed city streets, stabbing other soldiers and fought against some sort of enemy.

This was something Nile remembered. It was a long time ago, but it was not something he could easily forget.

‘Ah. I see now, these are my memories. I’m watching a recap of my life. Is this what people mean when they say their life flashes before my eyes?’

This was his memories during the war as a child.

The Nile in the vision wandered the burning streets, searching for his parents.

He could hear screams from all around him.

People were in so much pain.

And yet, Nile felt fine.

When the vision looked down though, it showed Nile’s body covered in blood and wounds, with pieces of wood stuck into his body.

He didn’t feel anything though, so he continued looking for his parents.

Spoiler alert: he never found them.

The vision changed again.

Several robed figures discovered Nile in the wreckage and aftermaths of the war.

They took him into the organization, and he didn’t resist.

He never resisted, no matter what they did to him.

Inhumane torture.

Experiments.

Extreme training.

Most orphans and kids died during this phase, but Nile breezed through everything.

There was no pain holding him back after all.

The vision fast forwarded several more years.

Nile was now older, stronger, and more capable.

He was also now more rebellious.

He wanted to destroy the organization.

But he alone would not be able to do it.

So sought out others with the same goal… a rebellion group.

Nile heard gossip of a group of people wanting to revolt against the king.

Exactly what he needed.

He found the location of the rebels, and he joined them.

There, he met Maxwell for the first time.

The current Nile watching this clenched his fist as he saw Maxwell enter the vision.

He hated how naïve he was.

He wanted to scream at himself in the vision, telling him that it was all a trap.

The vision once again fast forwards.

Years pass, Nile and Maxwell work together to plan the perfect rebellion.

Gathering people, destroying kingdom property, weakening the organization forces from the shadows.

Then, the time comes to put the plan in action.

The time to finally take down the king and destroy the organization!

And so, Nile, Maxwell and the rebel force begin their plan…

‘Wait a second, something’s wrong here.’

The current Nile frowned as he watched the vision. Something wasn’t adding up.

‘Wasn’t it around this time that I met Lenier? Why did the vision skip my entire conversation with him? That was extremely important and memorable… why’d the vision skip that?’

As the current Nile continued watching, things only became more and more distorted.

The Nile in the vision never went to the castle.

Maxwell and the rebels went to the castle to take down the king themselves, while Nile was tasked with holding back the assassins and destroying the organization base.

This was because he could not find anyone that was capable of doing this aside from himself.

Nile in the vision killed dozens of assassins as he dashed through the organization base.

He needed to make sure to destroy everything from the inside to the outside.

However, as he continued his rampage, he noticed someone standing there blocking his path.

A child.

A child that the current Nile watching recognized, but the Nile in the vision did not.

‘Oh fuck. Stop…. I don’t think you wanna fight that kid Nile… Nile! STOPP!!!!’

That kid was Lenier.

And then vision faded to black.

After a moment, the vision started to show a dungeon room.

The Nile in the vision looked around slowly and saw that his entire body was bounded and chained.

He was in a dark room, filled with corpses of rebels and civilians… and in the corner of the room, was Maxwell.

Maxwell proceeded to explain everything to Nile.

This time, no one came to save him.

And Nile was destroyed.

From here on, it was easy for Maxwell to dominate and mind control Nile.

He was a broken man after all.

The vision shifted to a different scene.

In this scene, it showed a man kneeling on the ground in front of Nile.

Maxwell was in the corner.

“Go on Nile, kill him.”

“Give me a weapon then, it’d be faster with a dagger then if I use my bare fists.”

But Maxwell laughed at Nile’s request.

“No. I want you to beat him to death specifically. Go on, do it.”

Nile was confused, but he did it anyways since he had no choice.

He raised his fist and punched it down with extreme force.

The man flew back and smashed into the floor, injured but not dead.

Nile took a step forward and was about to throw another punch when suddenly the man started begging for his life.

“P-please! Don’t kill me! I’ll do anything! Please… I have a wife… she’s pregnant and I’m expecting a baby boy… I… I can’t die yet!”

Nile froze.

He didn’t know why he was hesitating.

He was an assassin who always killed his targets with ease.

He’s done this hundreds of times.

So why was he now hesitating?

The answer is that he was too skilled of an assassin.

He always killed his target in a single instant.

Painlessly, and effortlessly.

The target didn’t even know they had died.

That meant Nile never experienced his targets begging for their lives.

Never experienced true desperation of the human life.

He never watched someone suffer intense pain at his own hands.

So seeing someone, in such pain, on their knees desperately trying to survive… it frightened Nile.

He was shaken.

And this was what Maxwell wanted.

“Don’t worry. You’ll be joining your wife and baby boy soon enough.”

Maxwell said as he tossed something onto the ground.

It was a bloody fetus.

“Say hello to your child, you’re a father! Congrats. Although it’s too bad the mother didn’t survive the process, truly a pity.”

The man stared at the fetus on the floor.

“Ah… ah…. AHHHHHHH!!!!!”

“Nile. Kill him.”

Nile’s body visibly shook.

“NILE. KILL HIM. THIS IS AN ORDER.”

And Nile’s body moved against his will.

He raised his fist and swung downwards.

The vision dipped to black.

Then silence.

Even after the vision returned, the silence remained.

More time passed.

The Nile in the vision looked around, and there was rubble everywhere.

Everything was destroyed.

At this point, he was already fully under Maxwell’s controls, so he wasn’t restrained.

Nile stood up and walked out where the door used to be.

The entire organization base was… in ruins.

Dead bloody bodies were scattered everywhere.

Nile didn’t have a single thought in his head.

A puppet like him didn’t need to have his own will.

He just roamed the wreckage, looking for his master.

And in a few minutes, he found his master.

Maxwell was laying against a wall.

Well, what remained of Maxwell that is.

It was just a pile of meat.

Nile knew that the flesh pile was Maxwell because of his mental connection to it.

That thing used to be his master.

And now it was dead.

Someone must’ve gone on a rampage and destroyed everything, killing everyone that stopped it.

A very powerful someone.

Nile sat down.

He didn’t do anything.

He wasn’t trained to think for himself.

So, he just sat there.

Days passed.

Weeks passed.

Some more time passed.

He remained there.

One day, robed figures appeared next to him.

They tried speaking to him, asking him things, but Nile did not answer.

They were not his master.

Nile had no reason to interact with them.

These robed figures revealed their identities.

They were also part of the organization. Members of the other branches of the organization.

However, Maxwell specifically only trained Nile to be loyal and obey him and only him.

This did not extend to anyone else.

Upon realizing this, the assassins resorted to force.

But the moments they pulled out their weapons, their heads went flying.

Despite everything, Maxwell extremely valued Nile and one of the many things that were commanded of him was to “never die, no matter the cost.”

Even now, Nile was still obeying what his master instructed of him.

He had to survive no matter the cost.

Not because he possessed his own will, nor felt the instinct to survive, but merely because it was an order to not die.

That meant he can’t stay here.

More organization assassins will no doubt come and check up on the situation.

Nile would be in danger.

So he left.

Didn’t know where to go or what to do, he just simply walked like a machine, following what commands had been left to him by his master.

He didn’t even bother hiding himself.

It wasn’t long before the organization tracked him down and sent more assassins towards him.

They too were killed by Nile.

After being targeted several times, Nile realized that he would continue to be in danger so long as the organization existed.

The next day, the organization was destroyed.

In the several years that Nile had been trained by Maxwell, he truly became the ultimate assassin.

No one could stop him.

In fact, no one even knew he was coming.

With the organization gone, no one posed a threat to Nile anymore.

Nile was now truly lost.

No where to go.

No will of his own.

A puppet with no master.

A tool with no wielder.

Until one day, a man arrived and found Nile within the ruins of the organization that he had destroyed.

This man had no malicious intent and did not intend on harming Nile.

As such, Nile did not attack or respond.

The man did, however, grab Nile and bring him to another location.

Nile was brought to a massive church and was given an extremely grand and lavish room to reside in.

Everyday, he was served the best of the best royal food, they gave him the most expensive and comfortable clothing.

He was treated like a king.

Nile did not know what was going on.

But since he was not harmed, he went along with it.

Then one day, the man who took him came back and spoke to Nile.

“My name is Duras. Paladin Duras of the divine holy church of the gods. I request for you to use your blade in our name.”

Nile was a weapon.

He did not possess a will of his own.

But in the right hands, he can be an extremely powerful tool.

One that can be used for good, or for evil.

The grand popes of the divine holy church wanted to kill Nile, as he was too dangerous and risks of him causing chaos was too high, but Paladin Duras, one of the legendary heroes, was the sole entity that voted against this.

Duras wanted to protect Nile.

He did not know of Nile’s backstory, nor his hardships, nor anything about him, but Duras trusted his own judgment.

And that was enough for Duras to go against the entire holy church.

Using his authority and power of his position, he overrode the vote to put down Nile, and instead, placed Nile under his care.

Duras had employed Nile, giving him a purpose and becoming his new master.

Upon Dura’s orders, Nile would assassinate cult leaders, rampaging monsters, necromancers, corrupt officials and the like.

There was even one time where a former god in the heavens went on a rampage, causing chaos and went into hiding.

Nile was tasked with subduing that god, and the next day, that god no longer existed.

He was the holy church’s hidden blade, one that uses his strengths for the forces of good.

Make no mistake though, he did not do good because he wanted to, but only because he was ordered to.

He would’ve done anything that was ordered of him.

More years passed, and Nile continued his duty as a divine assassin on behalf of Duras.

No mortal on the planet knew of his name as he was too good of an assassin, but he was feared by those few who did know of him.

It seemed that he would continue this job for the rest of his life, until…

The vision exploded.

An epileptic flash of light burst from the vision, shaking the entire space.

Explosion after explosion, waves of energy pulsated throughout the entire planet.

On a peaceful afternoon, at around 2:13pm, in less than a split second, the entire sky collapsed onto the surface of the planet.

Nile was relaxing in his room during this time when everything around him combusted.

He was able to immediately react to the danger and get himself to safety, but the same could not be said for everyone else.

Everything was destroyed.

Nile extended his senses forward, searching for the culprit, when he saw a familiar face.

That figure.

That overwhelming strength.

He looked significantly different from when he last saw him in the organization base, but Nile could never forget that face.

Amidst all the chaos, stepping out of the carnage, was demon lord Lenier.

Nile hadn’t felt anything in a long time, be it physical or mental.

He was supposed to be a tool, something that didn’t need to think or feel, only do what his wielder commands of him.

So why is it now, after so long, Nile felt something stir in his head upon seeing that man?

He didn’t understand this foreign feeling.

What was this feeling trying to tell him?

What did he… want?

Lenier did not stay in one spot for long, he disappeared and continued his chaos elsewhere, leaving Nile alone in the rubble.

After a while, Duras showed up looking for Nile.

“Thank the gods you’re okay Nile. That destruction and power, it was dangerous even for me. I don’t think this is the behavior of the usual demon lord, it seems to be a different one, a second demon lord? I do not know, but I shall get the god’s guidance, and will likely require your assistance. This is not a task I can complete on my own.”

Duras grabbed Nile and a bright light flashed from the sky, enveloping the both of them.

Suddenly, they were surround by unknown entities.

Duras dropped to one knee.

“Oh great gods, I apologize for the rudeness and swiftness of my arrival, but this is an urgent matter.”

Nile remained next to Duras, and listened to this entire conversation, but his mind was elsewhere.

He was in a state of confusion.

Demon lord Lenier’s image remained stuck in Nile’s head.

It was extremely subtle, but the shadows beneath him slightly trembled.

Was it fear?

Was it excitement?

Anticipation?

Hatred?

He didn’t know as he forgot what it felt like to feel emotions.

“Nile. Are you okay?”

Duras shook Nile’s shoulder, snapping his mind back to reality.

“I’ve finished speaking to the gods. The situation is severe, the gods have given me a list of chosen ones. Heroes, you can call them. We are included in this list. We must find the others and work together to take down this threat.”

Nile stared at Duras as the thought of fighting Lenier entered his brain.

The last time they fought, Nile was defeated before the fight even started.

But now, Nile has gotten so much stronger.

He couldn’t imagine himself losing.

And yet at the time, he couldn’t imagine himself winning either.

Regardless, Nile was sent to find the other named heroes chosen by the gods.

These individuals are those who possessed high enough power to be noticed and kept track of by even the gods.

They were the pinnacle of humanity, stepping into the realm of godhood.

The ones chosen to fight the greatest threat.

Upon his travels, Nile saw destruction and ruin.

It was an unbelievable sight.

The planet’s landscape looked like it was torn apart like tissues.

To think such a thing happened in such a short span of time.

Nile went as fast as he could, appearing before every hero, giving them the message of an alliance.

Some of them were a bit stubborn and didn’t want to cooperate, but upon seeing Lenier’s destruction beforehand, they knew teamwork would be the best option here.

Meanwhile, the gods in the heavens contacted leaders and individuals all over, forming a grand unified army.

A meeting was held, the strongest people on the planet showed up and discussed the threat.

Nile did not contribute to the meeting.

Nile was just a tool after all, and tools don’t participate in conversations.

But during the meeting, the face of a certain female caught Nile’s attention.

He had seen her before, Hex Mania Lyla.

Though, it seemed she did not recognize him.

No surprise though, since she spent most of her time being tortured while unaware of her surroundings.

At this moment, Nile had a single thought.

‘…I’m glad she survived…’

And without even noticing he had this thought, he forgot about it and his mentality returned to that of a tool.

The meeting was concluded after some time and a plan was created.

The plan was straightforward, launch a pincer attack on Lenier, one side being the unified army and the other being the party of the 17 heroes.

Thus began the assault on the great demon lord.

The rest of the story, you already know.

The army was wiped out.

The heroes fought the demon lord after teleporting to the underworld.

Chaos ensued.

Nile was not worried, he was surrounded by the greatest warriors combined with his own skills which had never failed him.

No one, not even a god, could do anything aside from instantly die in this situation.

And yet…

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

Nile felt real physical pain for the first time in his life.

The battle was completely one sided, not one sided against Lenier as the heroes had assumed, but Lenier was the one who was one-sidedly shitting on the heroes.

Nile was the first to break down.

He was now a tool that felt extreme pain at even the most subtle touch.

He writhed in pain for a long time, as the heroes continued fighting without him.

His face distorted as it felt like the world was doing horrible things to his body.

But the battle lasted so long, that even Nile was able to slowly adjust to his new senses.

The fight just dragged on and on and on and on for so excruciatingly long.

Why won’t Lenier die?

Just DIE!

DIIEEEE ALREADYYYY!

But he would only die when he’s satisfied, and he wasn’t nearly satisfied just yet.

Nile had no choice but to pick up his dagger again and continue aiding the other heroes, fear now corroding his mind.

His skills and abilities became sloppy, but due to the other hero’s buffs, he became stronger.

Nile wanted to curl up and die, just to give up.

A tool wasn’t meant to feel pain.

A tool isn’t supposed to fear every time he’s used.

Nile didn’t want to be a tool anymore.

He wanted to be anything or anywhere else aside from here.

This was the common thought of all the heroes.

It’s been said before and it’s going to be said once more, the battle was painfully long.

But not even the heroes, with all their fancy buff and cheats, can last forever.

Mentally, they were completely exhausted, and the battle was stopped.

Luckily for them, Lenier was already satisfied by then.

After giving them all a gift, Lenier died, giving the heroes the peace they finally wanted… along with the injuries they will now permanently have.

Nile had shrivelled up.

He had gone far beyond his physical and mental limits.

His body curled up into a ball as he just trembled in the corner, burying himself into the ground.

Everything was a blur from there.

He wasn’t sure what happened.

One day he opened his eyes, and he was in a bed.

A lady slowly staggered over to him with a bowl of soup in her trembling hand.

Upon seeing that Nile had woken up, she grabbed a piece of paper and wrote something down, showing it to Nile.

[ Hello Nile. I’m glad to see you’re awake. I can’t speak anymore, so I’ll have to write everything. In case you forgot, I’m Mary Sue. ]

Nile recognized her from the fight against… Lenier.

The moment the memory of Lenier popped into Nile’s head, he immediately started screaming and convulsing in the bed.

Mary panicked and quickly scribbled something along the lines of ‘don’t cry! It’ll be okay’, but upon seeing Nile break down, Mary Sue also started breaking down as well.

They both cried for hours.

This continued until they became exhausted and fell asleep.

Nile woke up again.

Looking over, Mary Sue was sitting nearby, feeding someone else in another bed.

And just like before, the memory of fighting Lenier entered his head, and he started screaming out.

Mary Sue immediately rushed over to him and calmed him down, this time, successfully.

[ Lenier is DEAD. Dead! Gone! Not coming back. So please don’t cry. ]

Nile took deep breaths as he stared at the ceiling.

Lenier is gone.

Lenier is no more.

Lenier is le’not here.

Nile fell asleep again.

He didn’t know how long he spent his time here.

Days passed, and nights passed, and more days passed.

Nile never felt more empty.

He had felt empty before, but now, it felt more than just simply empty, almost as if there were something sucking everything in his chest.

Nile was no longer even qualified to be a tool anymore.

He’s just a broken tool now.

And he just wanted it to be over.

One night, as Nile was drifting to sleep, through the cracks of his eyes, he saw a woman sitting next to him.

Black hair and murky eyes…

He recognized her as Hex Mania Lyla.

She seemed to be saying something, but Nile couldn’t hear everything properly as his mind drifted back and forth between consciousness and unconsciousness.

“…pitiful… I remember… organization… trying to help… crying for… but… if only you weren’t so hasty… your plan, then he would’ve saved you too… L… n… i… r… would’ve saved you…. just like me…”

When Nile woke up, he just assumed that it was a dream.

On that same day though, Mary Sue came to Nile and asked something.

[ Nile, do you want to die. ]

Nile just stared back.

Although he did not speak, Mary already knew the answer.

She smiled.

[ Don’t worry, I’ll end it. Then we can finally rest. ]

That night, the building burned down.

Even until the last moment, Mary remained smiling, staying side by side with Nile and Niji (who was also there) the whole time, to make sure they remained comfortable.

The burning fire hurt, but it felt so calming at the same time.

It was finally time to rest…

From the corner of his eye, Nile saw a black figure, with a familiar messy black hair who had appeared last time.

Lyla was watching from outside.

As Nile’s eyes momentarily widened, his life came to an end shortly after.

And that’s where the vision stopped, leaving the current Nile speechless.

“What the fuck did I just watch?”

And then Nile woke up, eyes slowly opening to see Lenier staring down at him.

“…”

‘…’

As Nile tried sitting up, he suddenly felt sharp pain all over his body.

The grass under him felt like daggers stabbing into his flesh.

The sun’s rays felt like fire burning his skin.

The wind’s breeze felt like it was slicing his skin.

But those pain were temporary.

Nile closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

‘I’ve been through worse. Or, at least, a version of me has. I’m okay. I’m fine. The pain will go away.’

And it did.

The grass under him suddenly felt soft to the skin.

The sun’s rays felt warm and comforting.

The wind’s breeze felt cool and nice.

Nile felt good.

‘Wow, so this is how it feels to… feel.’

Nile took a deep breath in, feeling his mind go blank as if he were snorting a line of delicious white powder.

“How you feeling big boy?” Lenier asked from the side.

Nile glared over at Lenier.

“You’re a monster.”

Lenier smiled and laughed.

“If I hadn’t already been called that hundreds of times already, I might’ve been hurt by that!”

Despite everything that happened, Nile couldn’t help but laugh as well.

He laughed so much that his stomach started to hurt, but he just kept laughing.

It was also the first time he laughed in his life, so it lasted a long time before he finally stopped.

“Haaaa… oh man. Wow. I can’t believe you were telling the truth about being a demon lord from the future.”

“Oh! Did you regain your memories?”

Nile shook his head.

“I didn’t ‘regain’ it per say, more like I just watched the memories of a different Nile as a spectator. I didn’t experience those memories firsthand. If I had regained my memories, I don’t think I’d be able to talk to you like this.”

Nile looked at his hands and then looked at Lenier before staring back at himself.

“This feels so surreal. I still feel like I’m in a dream right now, like, this can’t be real. Everything that’s happened is just so outlandish, it can’t be real. But now that I can feel, it confirms that this is in fact real. And it’s all because of you. I don’t know whether to thank you… or to fear you, knowing what you did.”

“I won’t blame you if you hate me. Although I don’t really understand why, I know that other people don’t like pain. I knew that and still did what I did.”

Nile remained silent to sort up his thoughts and emotions.

He wanted to fully understand how he felt in order to give a confident response.

Nile took another deep breath in as he rubbed the ground under him, feeling the individual grass in between his fingers.

He could feel these new sensations.

This was proof that he was still alive.

That the current Nile, was a different Nile from the one he had seen in the vision.

“You’re not wrong, but… I just can’t hate you. I know what you did, but I never experienced it myself. The Nile that you hurt… that isn’t me. I don’t intend on letting myself become a tool. I won’t become like that. I don’t care what you did in another timeline, the fact is that you helped me now.”

Even though there were bumps, Nile’s plan was still a success.

The organization was destroyed, and the king is gone.

He felt bad for what the Nile in the vision went through, but that Nile was gone and this Nile is a different man, going down a different path.

With the plan’s success, his future is already going to be vastly different from that of the vision.

Nile clenched his fist, determined to not go through what the Nile did in the vision.

“Lenier, thank you. Without you, I couldn’t have done this.”

This time when Lenier smiled, Nile was able to properly smile back.

“By the way, where are we? The last thing I remember was being inside of the castle.”

“There were some people that were storming the castle, so I just brought you somewhere safe.”

Lenier said as he pointed over to an unconscious girl on the floor.

“Is that… Lyla?”

Lenier nodded as he sheepishly scratched his head.

“I kind of, didn’t think this far ahead… I rescued her, but I don’t think she can survive out here on her own. And I don’t think it’s safe for her to be with me honestly. What do you plan on doing in the future? If you could… do me another favor and um… ya know, take care of Lyla, that’d be great.”

Nile burst out laughing again.

“Yeah! I can do that. Well… I’ll probably leave her somewhere for a few weeks since I still have some unfinished business… I still need to destroy the entire organization. I saw through my memories that this base we destroyed was only one single branch of the organization, I need to finish them off from the roots.”

“If you want, I can destroy it for you. Won’t take much longer than a couple minutes.”

Nile shook his head and refused Lenier’s offer.

“No, this is something I need to finish myself. Thanks for the help until now, but I want to grow stronger… I want to surpass my previous self, this time, with my mind fully intact.”

A single tear rolled down Lenier’s face.

“Children grow up so fast…” Lenier said as he wiped his face.

Lenier was so proud of Nile, he felt like a dad watching his kid take his first step.

“After I destroy the organization, I plan on travelling the world with Lyla. I don’t know what I want to do yet, but I want to make a change… I… want to be a hero.”

Nile’s face turned slightly red saying this, almost embarrassed.

“That’s an amazing dream, nothing to be shy about. Though, I thought you would’ve chosen to retire instead. You’ve been through so much, you don’t need to do more.”

“That’s true, but it’s because of what we’ve been through that we can’t settle down. We can try for a while, but I don’t think we can live a permanent ordinary life. Not after everything we’ve seen and have had done to us… especially Lyla.”

Nile turned over to the child on the ground.

He felt something weighing down on him.

Nile had known what the organization was doing to Lyla for a long time, and he didn’t do anything this entire time.

What she went through was significantly worse than him.

And he just watched.

It was partially his fault that she became like this.

“Lenier, rest easy. I’ll make sure she’s happy. She’s one of the heroes too, isn’t she?”

“Yep. Same reason why I owe you both a massive debt.”

“She’ll likely become a hero even without my assistance then. But I want to make up for my negligence all these years to her. We’ll both become heroes you can be proud of, that make the heroes of your past life pale in comparison!”

Nile finally gathered up the strength in his body and stood up from the ground, body still a little shaky.

He took a big step forward towards Lenier and with confidence and determination in his voice, he declared:

“You are an evil demon lord, and I will become a hero that will destroy evil! Watch your back, because one day, I will assassinate you!”

“Haha, if you think you can… I’d like to see you try.”

Then they both laughed again.

“I’m serious though, I’m going to try to kill you when you least expect it.”

“Good luck. You’ll need it. You could even get Lyla to help you.”

“Yeah…”

Nile looked over and stared at Lyla.

Still a bit unfamiliar with his new senses, he took a few shaky steps forward but managed to stabilize himself.

Nile kneeled down in front of her.

‘…’

It was pretty awkward looking at Lyla like this.

Nile slowly and gently grabbed her shoulder and tried shaking her awake.

“How long has she been asleep? She’s okay right?”

“Yeah, she’s okay. I made sure of it. She’ll probably wake up in a week or so.”

“A week?! That long?”

“Yeah. She hasn’t had a proper rest in a long time so I’d say about a week or two and she’ll be fine.”

“…”

Nile was sort of relieved upon hearing this.

Truth be told, he was scared.

Nile was scared because he didn’t know if Lyla would hate him or not.

After all, Nile is an assassin in the same organization that tortured her.

Would she blame him for not saving her?

At least, this gave Nile a week or so to mentally prepare himself to greet Lyla when she wakes up.

“Well, a week then… that’s the deadline for me to destroy the organization. I’ll destroy the entire organization before she wakes up, and then I’ll meet her.”

Nile grabbed Lyla and put her over his shoulders.

“Lenier, once again, thank you for everything. I only have a week so I’m going to leave now, but one day I will return much stronger, and I will assassinate you. Look forward to it.”

“I sure am excited for that day... one final thing before you go though.”

Lenier raised his hand and stuck out his index finger.

With his other hand, he grabbed the finger and then… snapped the finger off.

Lenier tossed his severed finger over to Nile.

“Wha- what? What is this? Why did you give me this?”

“It’s my finger (duh). Just keep it on you, it’ll give you strength in times of need, and if you’re ever in danger, it’ll save you.”

“You didn’t have to remove your finger though…”

But upon glancing at Lenier’s hands, Nile saw that he still has 10 fingers.

Nile immediately shut up and smiled.

He knew it was pointless to try and understand that thing of a person and decided not to ask.

“Stay safe Nile.”

“I’m the assassin who’s going to kill you, and you want me to stay safe? Weirdo.”

Nile waved his hand and turned away without looking back.

Lenier giggled before also turning away, ready to go on his own way.

He took a few steps forward before stopping as several daggers were suddenly thrown towards his head.

Lenier easily dodged these and turned around again to stare at Nile.

“Already?”

Nile shrugged.

“It was worth a shot.”

This time, for real, both Nile and Lenier turned away, going their separate paths and going on their own different adventures.