Dyne expertly threw Grim, who destroyed the chain holding the Heart of Darkness.

Dyne could feel powerful dark energy appearing out of the heart.

“What a strange power. So this is how the Darkness cultivates!” Dyne praised.

“Oh? Can you feel it? Yes. That is another path of cultivation. Instead of purifying the body to have a body of Light, this is seeking eternity through a body of Death. Devils, vampires, and various undead use this as a means to cultivate.”

“Hmm… Then going with your words… I think I have an idea of how they cultivate!” Dyne smiled.

“Amaze me.” Strafe challenged.

“The cultivation that I am going through is a type of cultivation that is trying to unite all aspects of my body. You are trying to turn my body into light, and so, I go through this process of absorbing life energy, purging the impurities out of my body, mind, and soul. This is completed through the Severing. You want me to sever all death energy from my body. Am I right?”

“Correct. That is the focus of the Severing process and your cultivation.”

“This is obviously the path you set for me to become an immortal. But looking at this heart and recalling the Afarit, I think I get it. The way they cultivate is a totally different process. They are trying to turn their entire body into death energy instead of life. And the reason they don’t decay is that they consume, devour and absorb other death bodies to strengthen their own resist the decay.”

“You are surprisingly accurate.” Strafe praised.

“So this is why the devils go through the process of fighting each other! It is to create one powerful cultivator. Then the balance of Life and Death in Eternity is very important. One is a Devourer, and the other is an Abstainer. So this is why there needs to be a balance. The more death and despair that gives birth to darkness, the stronger one side will be.”

“Correct. Devils are easier to produce, but this requires the death of many. However, cultivators of the light are harder, but there could be more of them. The truth is, there is at least a three-to-one ratio. For every three powerful light cultivators, there is one powerful dark cultivator. But the three light cultivators can only fight equally against that one dark. Of course, there are exceptions, especially for some powerful Light cultivators. Me and Calamitus are light cultivators, but we can equally fight against the dark cultivators that could defeat those of our level.”

“But now this balance is being tipped. Someone wants to make the universe create more depth so that it can be devoured. Your enemies want to devour it all and challenge Basileus Basileon.” Dyne realized the plan.

“And he sent you here to handle this mess.” Strafe laughed.

“Yeah. It’s alright. He gave me quite a number of good games to play.” Dyne laughed.

Dyne then began to observe the items he received.

“While these items are awesome, this orb ought to be the best.” Dyne withdrew it. But he was stunned.

The Mana inside the orb was full.

“What happened?” Dyne was surprised.

“When you sent it in, it absorbed the mana out of the soldiers you killed,” Jedo explained as he saw the process.

“Woah. That’s amazing! How many soldiers?”

“The mana from one soldier filled it out.”

“Just one? Amazing! This means… I can finally use the power of the Imaginarium Bond easier!” Dyne laughed.

“The Imaginarium Bond? You can’t access much of it. At most, you can only create images and hallucinations.”

“Yes! And that is very powerful for someone like me! I’ve studied the art of cold reading and warm reading. With this, I can easily confuse and beguile my enemies!” Dyne laughed.

“You mean like a magician?” Strafe was confused. He had seen Dyne’s memories and knew of the many illusionists, mentalists, and magicians that used laughable means to fool others. But how could it be used for battle?

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“Just watch! I was preserving my man

Dyne looked at the heart and then at Arya.

“Hmm… Maybe I can think of a way of balancing death and life. This heart could be something like Jedo. I just need to create another life source to balance the two.”

“You're insane! That’s not possible!”

“I’m just casually thinking of things.” Dyne shook his head.

“Arya. Let’s go. We have more to assassinate.” Dyne ordered.

“Ye-Yes, my Lord!” Arya stood up, and the two went away to search for their next targets.

Dyne was very happy that night as he went around the rooftops to kill people.

He was reliving the game Tenchu: Assassin. And his perfections and desires of the game were rather formidable. So he was going for a no-item challenge and simply used his grappling hook.

Arya was also amazed at the wit of his new master as he continued to show her the art of killing.

Soon, they reached the house of another of Dyne’s targets.

“Arya, you have to learn how to kill. I can’t dirty my hands all the time for the most trivial people. So you will have to do it for me.”

“Even if it costs me my life, I will be your blade.”

“No-no! You can’t waste your life like that! It’s not that I… care for you or anything! Baka. But a broken blade cannot be used anymore. Yeah! It’s like that!”

“Did he just say… baka?” Strafe was amazed at Dyne’s awkwardness.

“Listen, Arya… An assassin has to kill their enemy and not get seen and use the least strength. You just barged into the room and fought. So I showed you how to make some easy kills. But what if the enemy is stronger than you? Like that wizard?”

“Someone like the Wizard Abrellam? Please teach my, my Lord.”

“Well… As an assassin, knowledge is the most important. We need to know as much as we can from the enemy. Let's see… Here… Usserfer the Berskerer. Oh? Berserker? Does he have that ability to go wild?” Dyne asked Arya.

“Yes. He uses a strange ability to draw out his power. But he fights alone because he becomes so wild that he is unable to control his anger.”

“Anger, huh? So tell me, what do you think is the best way to kill this Berserker?”

“I don’t know. Berserkers have very strong bodies that even most knights with strong armors can’t compare to!” Arya frowned.

“Well… Let’s play things by ear. For characters like this, we could poison them, paralyze them, or do other things to them. Let’s go.” Dyne then continued to move according to the location of where this Berserker stayed.

They arrived at the location where several monk-like characters, which Arya called Brawlers. There were also various ax-wielding warriors.

“Barbarians and Brawlers, huh? Sounds like Brigandine.”

“Lord Dyne… How can we get past the gates?”

“That’s why you need to think. If a spy is here in this place, will That Berserker join in on the search? There are other people around, and he can’t just recklessly activate his berserk mode.”

“That’s true.”

“That means the Berserker will stay back and observe the battle. So our goal right now is to draw out all these men. What do you think we can do?”

“We can throw one of the dead bodies of the people you just killed.”

“That’s a good idea. But it can be better. We show dead bodies and claim that we found Nabal. That way, the Berserker, who is an ally of the group, will ask them to chase him! Berserker needs weapons, right? Nabal ought to be his provider.” Dyne explained.

Arya nodded, and the pair proceeded to do just that.

“AHH! Help me!” Arya shouted as she rushed and stumbled into the courtyard where all the warriors gathered.

“Corros! He kidnapped Nabal! Help!” Arya shouted. This time she was wearing the previous archer appearance she had when Dyne saw her the first time.

The many warriors were suddenly alerted. They moved into the alley, where they found Arya running out. There were three dead soldiers and one of which was a barbarian!

The guards were alerted.

Arya had blood on her chest, and she kept pressing her stomach.

“Out of the way! Out of the way! Priest coming through!” Dyne appeared wearing a Priest’s attire. But this time, instead of the unranked outfit, he was now wearing a high-ranking priest, which Chantel gave him right before they parted ways.

“What happened?!” Dyne asked. Because of his robe and his outfit, it was hard to tell his age.

“Corros! He betrayed his master! He kidnapped Nabal and took the Flamberege on his own! He also had a powerful gauntlet that Nabal had just procured! He’s gone crazy!” Arya shouted.

“A gauntlet?” A voice was heard in the room above.

Usserfer the Berskerer appeared, and everyone was astonished.

“Men… Find Corros and kill him! Whoever succeeds will get a sack of gold as heavy as Corros!” Usserfer declared.

The greed in the eyes of the various groups could be seen as they moved out.

Dyne had already carried Arya under the excuse of saving her.

In those quick moments, the soldiers immediately dispersed, and Dyne and Arya had also disappeared and emerged on the many rooftops in their dark attires.

“Now we know where Usserfer’s room is.” Dyne smiled.

“But my Lord… Even without those men, even my blade can’t cut Usserfer! I fear that my Lord’s ability that he displayed against Wizard Abrellam the black will prove useless to this man!”

“When there’s a will, there’s away. That’s why we need more information.” Dyne smiled.

The two disappeared and moved towards the room of the Berserker.