Before Sid exited the alley, he had turned his head to look behind him and saw that Scarlet had decided to escape through the rooftops.
He thought that it was a brilliant move, and even wished that he had done the same. Unfortunately, he didn't have his acquaintance's ability to climb walls.
As soon as he left the alley, he immediately chose to run in the direction of one of the escape routes that he had planned beforehand just in case his assasination attempt failed.
Without feeling any disgust in regards to his surroundings, Sid decisively went to the sewers as an escape route out of the city.
Only the sploshing sounds of his traveling boots echoed throughout the underground as he hurried to his destination. Sid had planned all of this beforehand, and he was confident that he would be able to shrug off any pursuers that would try to go after him.
There were many twists and turns in the sewers, and the murky waters would erase his footprints. Even if the guards were bold enough to follow him there, they would soon be lost in the many intertwining pathways that led to the different areas of the city.
It took Sid an hour to reach his destination. The first thing he did was to listen to his surroundings for any signs of trouble. He didn't dare to leave the sewers until he was sure that the coast was clear.
After a few minutes, Sid deemed that there was no threat in his immediate surroundings, so he decisively got out of the sewers and appeared near a small river that was right outside the city's walls.
He then ran towards the nearby forest with all of his might, and only stopped when he could no longer see the city walls.
As soon as he felt safe, Sid leaned against a tree and panted for breath. He had been running non-stop and was now very tired.
The distant sounds of beast roaring, squawking, howling, and chirping of insects could be heard all around him.
These sounds allowed Sid to relax because he knew that he was safe.
'I underestimated him,' Sid thought as he recalled the expression on the clone's face before it disappeared. 'He already knew that Twilight Rain was targeting him, and had made preparations beforehand. I wonder if Scarlet escaped.'
After catching his breath, Sid analyzed the Half-Elf's behavior for the past few days and realized that the other party's actions had indeed been odd.
Lux never left his room and holed up inside it for several days. Then, one day, he left, but he just randomly strolled around town with no destination in sight, as if he was just sightseeing.
Only when the sun had set, and the surroundings had turned dark, did he choose to go into an alley that was perfect for an assassination attempt.
'He goaded us to attack him,' Sid mused after he connected the dots of the recent events. 'Perhaps, staying inside his room for a few days was a way for us to make us feel a bit impatient. This is why when he left, it gave us a sense of urgency to finish our mission, while we still had the opportunity to do so.'
Actually, he was right. However, there were also things that he didn't know about.
Just like Twilight Rain had spies inside the officials of the Kingdom of Gweliven, the Kingdom also had spies in Twilight Rain.
After Lux contacted Nevreal, the latter told him about the identity of the two Assassins that were after his life.
This allowed Lux to formulate a plan, and use the Assassin's competition to his advantage.
In truth, if Scarlet and Sid were operating on their own and were not forced to compete with each other, they would have planned more thoroughly before they made their move.
However, since the two of them were wary about their competitor's action, they were unable to take it easy, so they had been less patient and were forced to take action.
The Slayer Candidate position was truly too tempting for them to pass up, so they had no choice but to deal Lux the killing blow the moment an opportunity presented itself. This was the loophole that Twilight Rain didn't think of when they decided to let their two top Reapers compete against each other.
"Next time, I'll make sure that I won't make any mistakes," Sid muttered.
"Well, that is all well and good. But do you think you will have a 'next time'?"
Sid immediately stood up with his weapon drawn. He didn't sense anyone approaching him, so he was surprised to find out that someone had gotten so close to him without his detection.
It was at this moment when he realized that the sound of the forest had quieted down.
No roars, howling, chirping, nor squawking could be heard. The only thing he could hear was the beating of his heart. Having realized this, Sid cursed himself for letting his guard down. He had been so engrossed in dissecting what went wrong, that he had forgotten that he was still in the vicinity of Whitebridge City.
"I admire your tenacity, but this game ends here."
A gust of wind descended from the sky, and a Crystal Dragon appeared in front of Sid, which made all the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.
"D-Dragon," Sid stuttered. "But how?"
"How?" the Crystal Dragon, Keoza, smiled. "Well, I'm not the one you should ask, but the one on my back."
The Dwarf looked behind the Crystal Dragon and saw a red-headed teenager with a blue slime on his head looking down on him.
"You don't need to know how," Lux answered. "Any last words?"
Lux's words made Sid's heart tremble. He knew that the Half-Elf had no intention of letting him live. Even so, he still decided to negotiate because if he died here, his two sisters would be left to fend for themselves.
"I know that you have every right to kill me, and I understand that," Sid said in a steady voice. "However, I have two little sisters that are waiting for me back home. If I die, they will no longer have someone to support them."
Lux looked down on the Dwarf who had stabbed his clone with a sneer.
"Did you ever wonder if the people you have killed had little brothers and sisters?" Lux asked. "Did you care if they were the only ones supporting their family? What about the fathers and mothers that you have killed? Did you think about whether or not their children would suffer after they were gone?"
"In order to support your sisters, you made others suffer. As someone who kills people, you should be ready to be killed as well. I have heard your last words. You can die now."
A crystal shard jutted up from the ground and pierced through Sid's chest, breaking past his defensive equipment and dealing him a killing blow.
As he felt his life force getting slowly drained from his body, the faces of his two sisters flashed across his mind.
"Laura, Livia… I'm sorry," Sid said softly as darkness slowly descended on his vision. "I will not be able to go home… and see the two of you… again."
Sid's short sword made a clunking sound on the ground as his arm fell to his side. A tear escaped his eye as he drew his last breath while thinking of his sisters.
"Why didn't you torture him like you did to that girl earlier?" Keoza asked. "Did his story about his sisters move you?"
"Perhaps," Lux neither confirmed nor denied Keoza's question. "Take him in."
The Black Cross on the Half-Elf's back transformed into a coffin and sucked Sid's body into it. He didn't regret killing the two assassins. After all, the one who could have died, if ample preparations hadn't been made, would have been him.
Nevreal had made sure that no guards were stationed around the vicinity of the alley earlier, to prevent the two assassins from being on their guard. Only after Lux had given them the signal, did they close off the perimeter to prevent any innocent pedestrians from getting involved with the battle that was about to start.
Originally, Lux's plan was to ask for some Initiates or even Rankers, to deal with the two assassins while he set up his trap. However, Nevreal advised him that there might still be some collaborators of Twilight Rain inside the city that might tip the assassins off about his plan.
Because of this, Lux had no choice but to use one of his three opportunities to summon Keoza in order to deal with Sid and Scarlet.
An Argonaut Ranked Crystal Dragon was more than enough to deal with two Initiate Ranked Assassins since only high-leveled Rankers would be capable enough to subdue it.
Now that the threat to Lux's life was gone, he ordered Keoza to return him to the city, so he could meet with Nevreal in the place they had agreed upon.
A few minutes later, the Crystal Dragon landed in a deserted plaza. The middle-aged Dwarf was already there. Nevreal wasn't able to hide the look of admiration in his face after seeing the Argonaut Ranked Crystal Dragon, which was a very rare species of Dragon inside Whitebridge City.
"Do you have the things I requested?" Lux asked as he approached his collaborator in today's incident.
"Yes," Nevreal replied as he opened a wooden box and showed two beast cores to the Half-Elf. "Two Deimos Beast Cores like you asked. However, you need to show me proof that you have indeed defeated the two Reapers of Twilight Rain before you get them."
Lux nodded and a black coffin appeared behind him. Nevreal gasped in surprise as he subconsciously took a step back because the coffin was giving off an eerie aura.
A moment later, two corpses floated in front of Lux. They were none other than Sid and Scarlet, who had come to assassinate him earlier.
Nevreal moved to the two corpses and placed a blue gem against their forehead. A few seconds later, the names and aliases of the two dead Dwarves appeared on the crystal's surface.
"You've caught two big shots," Nevreal looked at the two corpses in disbelief. "Sid and Scarlet. They are the two most promising Reapers in Twilight Rain. If they were allowed to live, I'm sure that both of them would have become Slayers after a few years. You have done well, Lux. With this, we have eliminated two future rankers from Twilight Rain."
Nevreal was very satisfied with Lux's performance and handed the two Deimos Beast Cores to him as a reward. This was the thing that Lux requested from Nevreal, but the latter only agreed to give it to him if he managed to defeat the assassins from Twilight Rain.
"I will make sure to report this to his Majesty," Nevreal commented. "I'm sure that he will be very pleased as well."
"I don't mind if you report this incident, but can you not mention anything about him?" Lux asked as he used his thumb to point at the dragon behind him.
"Very well. I will not include this in my report."
"Thank you."
After they parted from each other, Lux unsummoned Keoza because having a Crystal Dragon appear in the city would only stir panic. Fortunately, Keoza had the ability to turn invisible for a period of time, allowing him to fly inside the city undetected.
After returning to the inn, he was welcomed by the anxious Emma, who was waiting for his arrival.
"Did you succeed?" Emma asked right after Lux closed the door of his room.
Lux nodded with a smile. "The assassins are dead. For now, I am safe."
Emma breathed a sigh of relief after hearing Lux's reply. She was the one that had been communicating directly with Nevreal as per Lux's orders, and was also responsible in looking for a suitable place to trap the two assassins.
She had been on edge ever since Lux left the inn to carry out the plan, but the latter had told her to stay inside the room and wait for his return. Lux was afraid that Emma might recklessly put herself in harm's way in order to save Lux's life, so he decided to let her stay inside the inn for her own good.
"For now, you should return to your room and get some rest," Lux said. "I am also tired and I want to rest early."
"Of course." Emma nodded her head in understanding. "Well then, I'll see you and Eiko tomorrow. Goodnight."
"Goodnight."
"Night!"
The moment Emma left his room, Eiko jumped towards the bed and yawned. Although the baby slime didn't do anything important, she still felt exhausted, so she decided to sleep right away.
Lux, on the other hand, had no plan to sleep anytime soon.
He opened the wooden box which contained the two Deimos-Ranked Beast Cores he got as a reward and looked at the Black Cross in front of him.
"Well then, here goes nothing," Lux said before using the two Beast Cores as offering.
The Black Cross glowed crimson red as a great amount of magic power surrounded its body.
Lux waited with bated breath for the result of this experiment that he was trying to execute for the first time.
