“You really think you can take this, Ari?”

The Boss’s voice cut into Ari like a knife, but, it didn’t wound him. Ari sat across from the boss, a blank expression painted over his face, but, he was attentive. He scanned the office. He’d been here a hundred times, but the room’s features still bothered him. It was invasively sophisticated. Vanilla-scented candles, a long desk polished and neat. It reflected the sunlight coming out of the large window. The Boss himself, dressed in a neat suit. The whole thing screamed: Look at me, I’m a CEO!

It annoyed Ari to his core.

“You doubting me?” He asked. Calm, but assertive enough to have The Boss rethink his tone. Rank didn’t matter in this building–not when it was full of people itching to kill.

The boss sighed, covering his face with his palms as if he were suffering the biggest headache of his life. “In all honesty? Yes.” He slammed his fist on his desk as an extra flair and show of power. “Your pride is going to be the death of you. You know that, right?

Ari didn’t flinch at The Boss’s outburst. He slowly stood up from his seat. “You said 200,000, right?”

“Yes–”

“That’s all I needed to hear.”

He reached for his cloak that was hung over his chair. He put it on with a swift, single motion. The Boss’s fist tightened as Ari headed to the door. “Money might be money,” The Boss called out, “but death is still death. Or maybe something worse awaits.”

Ari paused right before the door. He didn’t turn around, didn’t look The Boss in the eye as expected. Instead, he lightly chuckled. A dry, cynical chuckle. “A fate worse than death?” he reaches out and opens the door. “Doesn’t exist.”

He disappears in the darkness of the hallway.

Four hours later, Ari sits on an empty bench on the edge of Market Street, waiting.

The cold winter breeze brushed on his face, tugging at his dark scarf. He sat completely still, idly watching the city die down for the night. Ari always liked this time of night in the Empire. Shopkeepers trying to sell the last of their items, market stalls shutting down– Peaceful enough that he didn’t have to hide in the shadows. Quiet enough that he can think without being on edge.

“You… You’re Ari, right?”

The voice came from behind. It was shaky, intimidated by Ari’s mere presence. Ari didn’t move. “So, you’re the guy?”

He started to turn around, but before he could, a large and cold hand gripped his head, forcing him to face forward. Out of instinct, he almost pulls out a weapon. He doesn’t though. He stays calm and composed. “We don’t need to see each other to talk,” the voice said, trying its best to remain mysterious.

Ari rolled his eyes. “Right. Because this isn’t creepy at all.”

“Just… Listen,” the voice hissed. “I hear you’re one of the best assassins in Morza.”

Ari’s eyes widen. The fact that people were talking about him within the Morza Empire caught him off guard. He always tried to remain off the radar so no one could contact him directly. It became evident that he failed. He went along with the voice.

“Yeah, And where’d you hear that? I’d like to buy ‘em a drink for the pr.”

The voice didn’t laugh or respond. “I have a job for you. Beware, it’s dangerous, but-”

“If you’re going to waste my time–do it faster.” Ari interrupted as he stood up.

The voice was careful with its next few words. Was it really worth testing Ari’s patience?

“I need the emperor’s daughter dead.”

A light chuckle released from Ari. The most emotion he’s shown all night. “Oh?” He said, his voice overflowing with interest.

“Gun, bow, sword… I don’t care how you do it–get it done!”

Ari sat back down on the bench. He took a few seconds to adjust his scarf. The tension rose as neither of them spoke. Finally, Ari’s dry voice responds. “200k?”

“Yes, yes. All upon completion”

“Half now,” Ari said, rising again, his hand entering his cloak as if he was reaching for something. “Half later.”

“I... I can’t do that,” the voice stammered.

Ari released an exaggerated sigh as he shook his head. “Guess you’ll have to find another idiot to do this.” He said as he took a few steps away from the bench.

“N-Now hold on!” The voice followed him, putting his hand on Ari’s shoulder.

Just like this, his patience wore out.

He finally removed his hand from his cloak. A long, sharp sword revealed itself as Ari spun and slashed down. Fortunately for the voice, the blade barely missed. “You wanna keep wasting my time?” His voice was low and cold. More than normal. He slashed once again. This time he caught a piece of fabric from The Voice, which finally spooked him enough.

“W-Wait!” the voice sputtered, his voice trembling and high. “I can give you fifty now! Will that work?”

Ari paused, contemplating the proposition.

“Fifty-five,” he said finally, lowering the weapon.

“Deal.” The voice said sheepishly after a long silence.

Before anything else was said, Ari dashed towards the nearest building. The gust of wind caused by the sprint was enough to cause the leaves on nearby trees to rustle. Putting one foot on the wall, he launches himself up to the roof.

He jumps from roof to roof, dodging birds as they fly in the direction opposite his. Some citizens see him, but they don’t pay much mind. It’s just another event in the empire. Something that you have to get used to if you want to live in Morza.

“Hm…” Ari questioned as he walked into the lobby of an apartment building. He looks over at the receptionist. Her normal cheery and upbeat greeting was replaced by a nervous and sweaty nod. In fact, it wasn’t just the receptionist. He took notice of the entire lobby–everyone seemed frozen–as if they were afraid to make the slightest movement.

Just then, Ari senses something behind him. Quickly, he ducked, dodging the hammer that would’ve bashed his head. “You are fast!” The unknown attacker said.

Ari jumps further into the lobby, turning around to see a group of people dressed in all-black suits blocking the entrance. “All of this for me?” He asked, reaching into his cloak. “You shouldn’t have.”

He swings his arm out of his coat, revealing a scythe almost as long as him. The silver blade was perfectly cleaned and shining. His attacks fan out, leaving some on his left, some on his right, and some in the center directly in front of him.

He dashes to the left side of the lobby, using the scythe to slash through two of his attackers. He landed horizontally on the wall–then pushed off the wall to go to the right side of the lobby. He stabs the ground with his scythe and stands on the handle. One of the assailants panics and pulls out a pistol. If there’s anything that annoyed Ari, it’s fighters who use guns as their main weapon. Ari scoffs and pulls a knife out from his cloak–throwing it at the wrist of the man holding him at gunpoint.

“Where the hell did that even come from!?” The attacker asked, but, Ari kicked the end of the scythe handle, causing it to lift and slash the opponent.

Finally realizing the one-on-one approach wouldn’t work, six attackers jump at Ari from behind. He swiftly grabs the body of the man he just slashed and turns around, using the corpse as a shield from the incoming attacks. He picks the scythe back up and slashes horizontally, ending the ambush.

Expect, there was one person left. Back on the left side of the lobby. Ari turned to look at him. “You’re not really a threat,” He said as he put the scythe back into his cloak and walked towards the subdued attacker. “Who the hell are you people, and who sent you after me?”

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The attacker abruptly puts his gun up to his own head, but Ari’s knife is faster. It lodged into the attacker’s stomach, forcing him to drop the weapon as he held the womb. “Don’t be like that, I wanna talk.” He said as he kneeled to his attacker's level.

“The mission that you’re about to embark on…” The man said, his voice giving out. “We were sent to make sure you don’t make it.”

“By who”

The man bleeds out before giving Ari an answer.

Ari scoffs and stands up straight. Returning to the corpses of his fallen attacks and checking their pockets. He doesn’t know what he wants to find, but he wants something. Money, an item, anything to make up for his wasted time. As he’s looting, someone at the entrance of the building catches his eye. They were holding a suitcase. The person notices Ari staring at them and walks into the lobby. “Are… Are you Ariama?” Ari nods and catches the suitcase as it’s thrown at him.

“Ten… Twenty… Fifty… Fifty-five!” He exclaimed as his smile grew. He closes the suitcase and throws it at the receptionist. “Put that in my room. And don’t you dare take any.” He turns towards the entrance. “Oh, yeah, thanks for the heads-up on the attack, by the way.” He said in an annoyed tone. As he dashes out of the lobby, everyone gets back to what they were doing. Again, just another event in the empire of Morza.

“He really took the job?”

The boss spins a pen in his hands, watching its movement closely to not mess up. “The kid will do anything for the right price. It’s sad, really. Though, he reminds me of you when we first started, Tomura.”

Tomura leans back against the wall. He’s a tall, young man in a suit. His sleek silver hair made him stand out in the basic office of the boss–which Tomura hated almost as much as Ari. He pulled out a cigarette. “You don’t feel bad at all?”

The Boss leans back in his chair, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I… I tried to tell him not to take it. He wanted the damn job, though.” He opens one eye and looks at Tomura. “Hey, hand me one of those.”

Tomura throws a cigarette at The Boss and walks toward him with a lighter. The once traditional and villain-smelling office was now saturated in the scent of chemicals. The sun was set, leaving the office in dim light. Tomura takes a drag of his cigarette as he speaks.

“Though, the paranoia of the empire has been on full display as of late. Why do you think that is?”

The Boss groans. “With the price recently being assassinated in the Tracer Empire, I guess Morza is on high alert. After all, most civs wouldn’t mind a regime change.”

“Ari always interested me,” Tomura says, his tone was strange to the boss. He was speaking as if Ari had already died. Hope was low in the room.

“The last time someone entered the palace without authorization– he was hanging in the town square for five days straight.” The Boss recalled. “If Ari’s lucky, he’ll be killed on sight instead of being subject to a public execution.”

“I have to admit, I’d be interested in seeing the cocky bastard finally being humbled publicly.” Tomura chuckles.

“I don’t know… I kinda like the kid. Been givin’ him jobs since he was young.”

After a final exhale, Tomura throws the cigarette on the ground. “I’ll go on the hunt for his replacement. We might be able to take a bigger cut out of the next sucker." He said as he stomped on the cigarette.

As Tomura walked out, The Boss opened a drawer on his desk, pulling a piece of paper out of it. He sat the paper on his desk. It was a file on Ari, an old, wrinkled one. It looked almost identical to Ari’s current wanted poster sprinkled over the Empire. After a bit of looking at it, The Boss rips the page and throws it in the trash.

“I won’t forget you, Ariama.”

Blood sprays across the walls, ruining the polish and sleek interior. The guard’s face twisted. “Who the hell are-” That’s all that managed to escape his lips before he was hit on the skull by Ari’s bat. Ari paused and looked out of one of the enormous windows of the palace.

The city of Morza stretched for miles upon miles. The furthest point of Morza, the walls, isn’t even visible from the palace, which lies at the center of the city and empire. Ari rolls his eyes at the sight of the city. “They’ve got this view?” He says as he loots the body of the guard he knocked out. “No wonder the family never leaves this place.”

“Two lone guards?” He questioned. Instead of taking the win of an easy mission, he begins to doubt. The ease bothered him more than he was willing to admit.

The hallway led into a grand dining room. The type that can fit hundreds of people–more than it will ever need to truly fit. At the end of the room, a lone maid wipes down a table. Is she just cleaning?

Ari puts his suspicions to the side and approaches the maid, putting a small blade at her neck. He pressed it against her skin. “The hair,” he muttered in her ear, “Where is she?

The maid’s panic was delayed. At first, she didn’t really flinch. But suddenly, she was trembling. Almost like she had to remind herself of the danger she was in. “Fourth floor… the elevator in the lounge will take you there.” She said.

Her panic felt rehearsed, her trembling almost deliberate, but Ari shoved the thought aside. There wasn’t time for doubt. He pushed her into the table and began a sprint towards the lounge.

He moved too quickly to see the malicious grin that painted itself on the maid’s face.

“The lounge,” Ari muttered to himself. “Why didn’t I think about that first?”

The lounge was empty of life. Ari scanned for threats, yet, none presented themselves. “Nothing?” He groaned, walking to the elevator. He didn’t take note of anything in the room. The smell, look, color–the atmosphere didn’t matter to him.

A faint ding was heard as the elevator opened its doors. Ari walked in, his hand in his cloak, ready for anything that awaited him. “A fate worse than death…” Ari recalled The Boss’s words. He played the sentence over and over again in his head, trying to make sense of it. Eventually, he shook his head, ignoring the thought.

Ding, The elevator went as it passed another floor. At last, the night began to grow interesting.

As the elevator went higher, the temperature plummeted lower. Frost began creeping up the walls of the elevator. “An Ice Skill user,” Ari said under his breath, bracing himself.

As his body slowly left the elevator and into the dark room, a sudden pain shot through Ari’s arm. He moved instinctively, dashing to the side and looking at his arm. A blade made of ice was stabbed deep into his shoulder.

Across the room, a shirtless man stood. His white hair defined him in the darkness. Freezing mist oozed out of his hands. “Not good…” Ari commented to himself.

Ari disappeared into a blur, reappearing behind the man almost instantaneously. He attempted to thrust his blade into the heart of the man, but-

It froze before even making contact.

The man’s freezing hands gripped Ari’s head. After a brief pause, he slammed Ari’s face into the now-closed elevator doors. The icy man attempted to land an attack on Ari’s stomach, but Ari twisted in between the man’s legs, narrowly escaping.

Ari landed a few feet behind the man. He was in one piece, but now defenseless as his sword was left at the man's feet. From his cloak, he pulled out a combat battleaxe. He ran at the man, stabbing the axe into his chest, but,

The man didn’t bleed.

“For real? You're not even gonna bleed?” Ari said as he attempted to pull his axe out of his opponent's chest. Ice had formed over the wound, sealing Ari’s weapon in place.

The man yanked the axe and swung it down, causing Ari to perform a backflip to get out of the way. He watched as his axe’s handle froze in the grip of the man.

Ari attempted to sweep the ice user off his feet, but he vaulted into the air–shoving the axe into the ceiling to remain suspended.

"What good does that do for either of us?" Ari said, pulling a sickle from his cloak. He placed the curved blade against the man’s foot.

The ice user suddenly dropped to the ground, knocking the sickle out of Ari’s hands. They briefly exchanged blows, but Ari quickly gained the upper hand. Knowing that playing fair wouldn’t get him anywhere, the man grabbed one of Ari’s fists mid-punch. Frost began overtaking Ari’s hand.

Before he could react to his freezing hand, a violent kick to his stomach forced him to cough up blood. A follow-up kick to the face knocks Ari on his back.

The ice user stood over Ari–cold mist radiating out of his icy blade. Ari seemed annoyed. Not at the man who was seemingly about to kill him, but rather, at the action he had to take to escape. “This feels cheap,” he muttered. “But—”

Bang

The ice user covered up the bullet hole now in his chest. Now both men were on their backs. The man groaned in pain as he used ice to cover the hole. Ari took a few deep breaths before his next words.

“So,” he grumbled, “Know where the heir is?”

No answer.

Ari shook his head. “Fine. I’ll regen and keep searching in a few minutes.”

Before either man could stand–ding–The elevator had opened again. The opening doors revealed two figures: an older man, and a younger woman.

Ari looked at the younger women. Despite it being dark, he knew who it was. It was none other than his target. He quickly reached for a weapon in his cloak, but the man spoke before he could take one out.

“The job is done, both of you. You don’t need to fight anymore.” The older man said.

Ari froze. That voice–it had been only hours since he last heard it. It was the clients, the very same person who gave him the job.

The older man walks up to the ice user with an extended hand. “I see you and Blake have met.” He said to Ari as the ice user, Blake, stood up. He pushed the older man away, mumbling something under his breath.

With a clap of the young woman’s hands, the lights of the room turned on. For the first time, they can all see each other. Ari analyzed the people in front of him. Blake, who was still bleeding from Ari’s gun. The butler-looking older man, and the young woman. The heir to the Morza Empire. The target he was hired to kill. He watched in frozen shock as the heir walked past him and to a bed, making him realize they were in a bedroom the entire time. A smug grin takes over her face as she sits at the edge of a large bed.

“The hell is the big idea, Madam Azrael?” Blake snapped.

Azrael Odon, the emperor's daughter. A name everyone in the empire was familiar with. Ari sighed, pulling his gun and pointing it at her. “Sorry, but I’m getting paid to take you out.”

Azrael tilted her head slightly, never breaking eye contact with Ari. “No need. I'm the one who paid you to take me out”

Ari blinked, his confusion mirroring Blake’s. He lowers his gun slightly. “You… what?”

Azrael clapped as if she was celebrating. “I put a hit out on myself to see who was dumb enough to take the bait. And you did!”

The older man nodded. “It’s true. We spoke on the street mere hours ago, Ari. Surely, you remember.”

Azrael slowly rose from her bed. Taking small yet powerful steps toward Ari. She examined him closely, leaning in until their faces were basically touching. “Fascinating,” she whispered before stepping back.

“Madam!” Blake yelled from behind Ari, “Just what the hell is happening!”

Azrael disregarded him and clapped her hands together, beaming with happiness. “It’s confirmed!”

“Confirmed?” Ari’s confusion was replaced by discomfort.

“From now on, you’re going to be my personal servant!”