"Haah! Your act was flawless, Shali. It's just that I had the unfair advantage of seeing the trap from miles away because it was initiated by you."
Shalen was still subjected to Eren's Ability when he pierced and destroyed her heart. As a result, she couldn't even contact the joint force and inform them of her dire situation.
The assassin was most shocked by Eren's way of addressing her. Reva Rain sometimes refers to her as Shali. She didn't think even most members of the Escalon guild would know about the fact.
Eren read her emotions and smiled mildly. He wiped her dagger on her floral dress and tainted the floral pattern over it with her blood before commenting.
"Don't worry. Soon, I'll send all those who are involved with you your way. So that you have some company. And when the time comes, I'll even send your mentor to accompany you. So that you can carry on with your training in the afterlife.
Is that enough? Lights out then!"
Eren let his injected mana turn into ice shards and pierce Shalen's internal organs. At the same time, he healed Shalen's wound using a healing potion and closed it for good.
Shalen died with her eyes wide open.
With no signs of injury on her body. No mangling of organs. No chopping off limbs. Just a simple and relatively peaceful death. She died with such serenity that her mana circuits were still active and alive. Her body was passively trying to heal the damaged organs even though there was no soul left in the body anymore.
"Kiyeeh!"
Argo reappeared on Eren's bed and let out a joyful eagle cry. He flapped his wings and was about to yank Shalen's eyes out when he was stopped by Eren.
"Don't. We have some use for her. Alephee, are you free?"
Eren called out to Alephee. And the latter appeared in the room a moment afterward. The butcher knew what she was working on. So he decided to test the brand-new spell she had added to her grimoire.
***
Under the guise of an isolation array, various groups of the joint force silently followed the caravan. By this point, they had been following Eren for well over an hour.
"Why is she taking this long? Is she doing her job or enjoying herself?"
Sienna commented as she watched the spectral display that showed the caravan traversing the forest at a rapid pace. She felt irritated that she had to do this kind of menial work to please Sebastian Slughorn.
Furthermore, there was no update from Shalen after she had been invited inside the caravan by Eren. It was almost like she had forgotten about the mission after getting in.
Regan was about to say something to Sienna when he saw that the caravan was coming to a halt on the spectral screen floating in front of him. He coordinated with the rest of the members of the joint force and confirmed that Shalen hadn't contacted any of them regarding the update.
"Hm? She got out?"
Regan raised his eyebrows when he saw Shalen and Eren coming out of the caravan. He saw that Shalen got hugged by Eren the next moment. He then planted a peck on her cheek and said a few things to her before boarding the caravan once again.
"What the fuck is going on? Why is she coming out? The plan was to injure him in the caravan and then attack him along with the entire caravan?"
Sienna registered her complaint about Shalen's abrupt plan change. Regan had a frown on his face as well. However, he decided to figure things out before passing judgment. And since he was nearer to Shalen than the other groups, he decided to approach and get things straight from the horse's mouth.
The caravan sped away. Regan waited for a few more moments before breaking the isolation barrier and approaching Shalen.
"Miss Shalen, what happened? We were waiting for you to give us a sign.."
As he walked towards Shalen, Regan complained to her. Shalen turned towards him and looked at him with deadpan expressions and lifeless eyes.
Regan's first thought was that Shalen had heard something very grim from Eren that made her reconsider attacking him. Maybe she had learned about the security detail he was carrying and wanted to call off the attack on Eren.
However, in the next moment, he felt two distinct mana pulses getting spread at the same time. Two spells were executed in tandem at that time. One belonged to Shalen and the other had a mysterious origin.
Regan processed this information subconsciously in his head. But his tactical brain was slow to catch up. And he was about to pay the price for letting his guard down around Shalen just because she was supposed to be his ally.
Swoosh. Zoom. Pierce.
Regan found his vision obstructed because Shalen suddenly appeared in front of him. Then he noticed a sharp pain in his chest. He didn't understand what had transpired. So he looked below him where his heart was and found out that it had been pierced by Shalen's dagger.
Another distinct mana pulse spread as Shalen's dead body cast another assassination-related spell. Her hand blurred and the weapon she was holding turned into smoke.
"You…"
Regan couldn't even register the shock and horror he felt at the time. Shalen's agile attack severed his head from his body before he could do so.
Regan was killed by Shalen's corpse just like that. This was the second prominent casualty the joint force had among its members.
Shalen didn't stop there. She had already disappeared from her position before Regan's chopped head fell to the ground.
"Aaaaaargh!"
"Why…"
"Heeeeeeeek"
As Shalen chopped the members of House Slughorn, cries erupted around Sienna. The assassin killed everyone she came into contact with using her assassination skills and spells. She didn't care about the attacks she received in the process.
"What… what the fuck is happening?"
Sienna mumbled to herself grimly as the rankers around her started dropping on the floor like flies. She turned around and saw a fountain of blood everywhere.
