The plan was to flush out Eren and his security detail from the caravan.
Instead, what came out was a nightmare nobody was expecting. At least not Sienna who hadn't seen anyone fight this seriously on the battlefield before.
"Aaaaaaaaah!"
Sienna cried in horror when she saw the rankers under her control getting butchered by Shalen. But her cries were halted midway and she turned silent. In the next moment, her vision darkened and she lost consciousness.
The butcher had appeared at the crime scene. He raised his arm and grabbed Sienna's shoulder before she could drop to the ground.
"Who let this bitch on the battlefield? Are they trying to get rid of her?"
Eren said as he manifested Rigor Mortis in his free hand. He also felt that it was downright insulting for him to battle someone like Sienna who was nothing but a mass of everything that was wrong with rankers' society. One could say that he was lowkey trying to get better rankers for his own ambush.
Eren charged lightning-element Shamshir with his mana before swinging it in front of him. Some more blood work ensued as the sword cut through flesh and bones without any resistance. Like a hot knife cutting through butter.
The butcher chopped off Sienna's limbs casually. He overwhelmed her panicked and horrified consciousness with his soul sense and forced her to lose consciousness once again. The lightning mana also cauterized the wounds right away.
"Why not set her free from the world of the living?"
Alephee appeared beside Eren and asked. The latter pointed at the tattoo below her neck on her back. Alephee raised her eyebrows before nodding her head.
By the time a limbless Sienna was taken hostage by Eren, Shalen had killed the rest of the rankers from House Slughorn. She had done this with extreme precision and minimal mess.
Eren smirked when Shalen's corpse stood in front of him and Alephee. It was as if the dead assassin was waiting for her next command. She was injured a bit by the Slughorn rankers' retaliation. But overall she was fine.
Eren threw another healing potion toward Shalen and let the vial burst before it could hit her. The healing potion was administered to the corpse in spray form, allowing the dead body to recover from the wounds it had received.
"You have made a perfect killing machine with your new spell, Alephee."
Eren looked at Shalen's corpse standing in front of him like a mindless android and commented. The homunculus wasn't too happy with the results she had gotten on her first try though.
"Hmm. Corpse Dance is still not as effective as I wanted it to be for my vessel's current rank. You can tell something's wrong with her by looking at her face.
I tried rewinding time to see her expressions when she smiled or felt stressed. But such minute actions were taxing on my consciousness to perform while operating on her body. So I had to let go of controlling her facial expressions."
Alephee commented before controlling her human doll using her grimoire. In the next moment, Shalen channeled her mana and got rid of the blood on her weapon and her body.
Corpse Dance was Alephee's time-element spell that allowed her to take control of the corpse that had just died. It allowed her to rewind and replay the actions the person had performed in their life at least once.
The corpse was able to perform any action it had previously performed at least once while it was alive. This spell's action rewind had its limitations, however. And the limitations would increase over time after the corpse's death. But nobody cared about a corpse's well-being anyway.
Shalen had performed a lot of assassinations in her life. Thus, Alephee was able to use her corpse for their work. She wasn't completely satisfied with the results she had obtained. But for now, she gave herself a passing grade.
Alphee's spell only worked so well because of Eren's way of killing Shalen. Most of her body was preserved, and the homunculus was able to perform pre-spell work on it.
The butcher let Sienna fall to the ground when he realized that the Slughorn group was done for. He then gestured at Alephee without saying a word.
The homunculus understood her assignment right away. She bent down and placed her hand over the tattoo Sienna had on her back. She then woke the potioner up and forcefully controlled her consciousness to activate the tattoo.
In the next moment, the isolation array around the surrounding region was manifested once again. The ethereal dome masked the view, mana signatures, mana fluctuations, and even the smell of blood in the surrounding area. The outsider couldn't see, smell, or feel anything from outside the isolation array. Nothing but an unobstructed view of the surroundings greeted potential onlookers.
The butcher had used the joint force's tools against them. He covered up the crime scene with little effort. All so that he could make more of them with greater ease.
***
"Something is wrong. I can't contact Shalen, Sienna, or Regan."
Oslo told the members of his team. The Escalon guild members were also following his lead in Shalen's absence.
The Escalon guild members looked at each other before shrugging their shoulders. They just kept following Oslo who was now approaching Regan's group from a different direction. The moving caravan could always be followed afterward. So he wasn't too worried about Eren getting away from their trap.
Just when Oslo thought of reorganizing the entire joint force in one place and deciding the next course of action, he saw Shalen standing in the middle of nowhere. She was all by herself.
Oslo decided to quickly approach the assassin to find out what was going on at the time.
"Shalen, can you tell me what's wrong? Why aren't you answering your voice communication? Regan and Sienna have also dropped off the grid. We don't even know where they are anymore."
Oslo asked in a concerned voice. He wore serious expressions and a vigilant gaze as he asked the question. However, all he received in response was a life-threatening attack aimed at him. That too by some from the same team as him.
