Theia's order, "Come out, all of you!" echoed through the empty mine.
But aside from the subtle noises she made while restraining Caesar, there was no other response.
The shadows remained silent, as if Viper and Black Scorpion had never existed.
The assassination attempt from moments ago felt like an illusion.
Theia clicked her tongue, though she wasn't surprised.
She knew the creed of this group of assassins well.
The mission was above all else; the lives of their companions were considered expendable once exposed.
An attempt at rescue would only lead to greater losses, or even the total annihilation of the unit.
They were certainly hiding in the darkness right now, lurking like venomous snakes.
They were waiting for any possible opening to launch a fatal strike.
From above, Lin Gui saw the situation.
He was preparing to use the Shroud of the Gloomy Night again to envelop both Theia and Caesar.
He needed to isolate them from any potential ambush.
However, Caesar, with a dagger pressed against his throat, suddenly spoke.
He forced himself to endure the intense pain of his broken arm and the damage done to his internal organs by Theia's battle force.
His voice was hoarse but carried a strange sense of calm.
Speaking to the surrounding shadows, he said, "Come out, all of you."
Viper and Black Scorpion, who were preparing to gather their strength and find an opportunity for a second assassination—attempting to save their leader or at least reclaim the artifact—both froze mid-motion.
Even their hidden presences experienced a momentary lapse of focus.
This went against all the rules.
When an assassin is exposed, especially when the leader is captured...
The most correct course of action is to retreat immediately or find an opportunity to silence the witness. There was no reason to reveal themselves voluntarily.
Except for auxiliary classes like priests, anyone could easily pick off an assassin once they were revealed in the open.
Caesar knew their doubts. He took a breath and emphasized his command.
"There's someone behind them! If you don't want the whole group to be wiped out, come out... and receive our guests!"
"There's someone behind them?"
Viper and Black Scorpion frowned.
But then, as if they had realized something, their pupils constricted slightly.
This wasn't a simple order; this was a code.
It was the code to activate the "final plan," a plan whose specific details were known only to Caesar and Cold Face.
Caesar had hinted at it once.
He had said that once this plan was activated, it would surely kill the Saintess and turn the world upside down!
Although their hearts were filled with doubt and unease...
Their long-standing habit of obedience and their nearly blind trust in Caesar led them to comply.
Two figures emerged from the corners of the shadows.
They were Viper and Black Scorpion.
Their expressions were solemn, and their eyes vigilantly scanned the surroundings.
In particular, they watched Theia and the empty space behind her.
Almost at the same time Viper and Black Scorpion appeared...
Elvia's figure also appeared out of thin air beside Theia.
Moving with extreme speed, she snatched the black wooden box containing the so-called "artifact" from beneath Theia's feet.
Elvia cradled the wooden box.
Coldly laughing, she gave the kneeling Caesar a light kick with her toe.
"Caesar, even at this point, you're still trying to play tricks? Where is Cold Face? Make him crawl out here too!"
Caesar showed no fear on his face.
Instead, he pulled a distorted smile and said submissively,
"Fine, as you wish, Princess Elvia."
This attitude caused a wave of intense unease to rise in Elvia's heart.
The box for the artifact had been taken, so why was he still so composed?
Without hesitation, she suddenly flipped open the lid!
Inside, there was no runed dagger radiating terrifying energy as she had expected.
There was only a small knife that looked ordinary, even possessing some rust.
The moment the lid was opened, Caesar used every bit of his strength to scream at the top of his lungs.
"Cold Face! Quickly, activate the Soul-Slaying Blade!!"
"Theia! Kill him, quickly!"
Realizing she had been tricked, Elvia's expression changed drastically as she barked at Theia.
However, Theia's hand holding the dagger was as steady as a rock.
She showed no intention of cutting his throat.
Her gaze continued to sweep coldly across the surroundings.
She seemed to be on guard against the "Cold Face" who had yet to reveal himself.
Theia's lack of action made Elvia both anxious and furious.
She couldn't help but push Theia, whispering urgently.
"What are you doing?! The artifact isn't on him! We've been played! Kill him quickly so we can hide and escape!"
Although Elvia didn't know exactly what the Soul-Slaying Blade was...
As long as it was a divine artifact, its power was something they definitely couldn't withstand head-on.
Theia remained unmoved, only offering a faint reply.
"It's fine. Lin Gui anticipated this."
"Huh???"
Elvia's eyes widened, a look of utter disbelief on her face.
"He anticipated it? Why didn't I know? Why didn't he tell me?!"
Theia shot her a wordless glance.
"Why would important information be shared with someone who encourages stabbing others in the back?"
Elvia: "..."
She felt as if she had been invisibly stabbed in the chest. After being choked up for a long time, she finally said indignantly,
"Has your trust in me really hit rock bottom?!"
Meanwhile, the captive Caesar, upon hearing Theia mention that "Lin Gui anticipated this," felt a chill in his heart, followed by a surge of anger at being underestimated.
He suddenly let out a hoarse, cold laugh.
"Anticipated this?"
"Arrogant! You have no idea what the Soul-Slaying Blade is! You don't know the kind of power it possesses!"
He tried to turn his head to look at Theia and Elvia.
His eyes were filled with mockery and a nearly insane level of confidence.
"Do you know how the Legendary Duke guarding the Twilight Fortress was crippled?"
"It was because of this! A single strike!"
"A single strike shattered his Legendary protective qi and heavily damaged his soul!"
"Even if he isn't dead now, he's become a useless wreck gasping for his final breaths!"
"You...!"
Elvia gasped in shock at the information Caesar revealed, followed by a surge of towering rage.
"Do you even know what you've done?!"
"The Twilight Fortress guarded by that duke is the key gateway to resisting the demon tide from the northwestern coast!"
"With him fallen, how long can the fortress hold?"
"Once the demon tide breaks through, it won't be long before they reach the outskirts of the Royal Capital!"
"Do you have any idea how many people will die?!"
"I know! Of course I know!"
It was as if all of Caesar's suppressed rage and despair had been ignited.
He no longer looked at Elvia but roared at the dim ceiling.
It was as if he were questioning the injustice of the world.
"But so what?!!"
"Do you know what we've been through?! Do you know what true despair is?!"
"The feeling of slowly starving to death! You high-and-mighty nobles will never understand!"
His voice carried the weight of a blood-and-tear-stained accusation.
"Ten years ago! That winter!"
"The distributaries of the Dark Tide had just receded when the borderlands were hit by a drought not seen in a hundred years!"
"The fields yielded nothing. Swapping children to eat was no mere legend!"
"My father, my sister... they starved to death right before my eyes! They were so thin they were nothing but a pile of bones!"
"And what about you?!" He suddenly glared at Elvia, his eyes like those of a vengeful ghost.
"The Royal Capital's granaries were overflowing with grain, while the slops left over from noble banquets were sold outside for a gold coin per pound!"
"Those knights riding tall horses... their swords weren't pointed at demons, but at commoners who only wanted a mouthful of food!"
"The gutters were clogged with the corpses of infants who had starved to death, while the refugees in the Seventh Ring barely clung to life by gnawing on tree bark and eating inedible clay!"
"Even then, you were unwilling to share your overflowing grain!"
"Why? Because you were afraid!"
"You were afraid of how long the disaster would last, afraid that if you shared the grain, you wouldn't have enough for yourselves!"
"You would rather let the grain rot in the warehouses than use it to save even a single person!"
"A Royal Capital like this! Nobles like this! A world like this! What would be the loss if it were destroyed?!"
Caesar shrieked like a madman.
"As long as I can tear those blood-sucking parasites to pieces, as long as I can make them taste the despair we endured..."
"Even if I have to make everyone in the Royal Capital be buried with us, I won't hesitate for a second!!"
Elvia was left speechless by this bloody accusation.
That winter ten years ago... she knew of it, of course.
It was the most painful year for the Carter Kingdom in nearly a thousand years.
The wounds of war had not yet healed when natural disasters struck one after another.
The royal family and the nobles had chosen self-preservation and indifference.
And it was at that very time...
Using her limited resources, she had provided some meager charity in the lower districts of the Royal Capital.
She had won her reputation and the initial loyalty of the people, building her own intelligence network.
Now, listening to Caesar's accusation...
Recalling the scenes of those years...
A wave of unprecedented shame washed over her.
She had always known about the coldness of the noble class.
But never had she felt the weight of the despair pressing down on the commoners' backs as clearly or as deeply as she did now.
She could even imagine...
What kind of cold and contemptuous gaze Lin Gui would use to look at her if he heard this.
Filthy, foul...
Through a pair of invisible eyes belonging to Lin Gui, she seemed to see her own deep-rooted, ugly essence as a member of the nobility beneath her glamorous exterior.
This caused her, the Seventh Princess who had always prided herself on being the most beautiful woman in the Royal Capital, to feel a deep sense of horror and trembling.
On the other side, as they listened to Caesar's frantic accusations, Viper and Black Scorpion fell into even deeper confusion.
Crippling a Legendary Duke in a single strike?
If the Soul-Slaying Blade truly possessed such power...
Then what was the meaning of Caesar's earlier statement that the "other brothers died in the duke's final death throes"?
Before they could resolve this contradiction...
A very faint, strange smell—carrying a hint of sweet blood—silently drifted into their nostrils.
Immediately after...
Pfft!
"Argh!"
Viper and Black Scorpion both felt an unbearable surge of pain in their chests at the same time.
It was as if their hearts were being violently squeezed by an invisible hand!
They suddenly fell to their knees, uncontrollably opening their mouths.
They vomited up large mouthfuls of dark, discolored blood!
Clutching their chests, the two of them struggled to look up, their faces filled with disbelief and horror.
It was poison! The poison in their bodies had erupted.
Was it Caesar who poisoned them?! But why would he choose this critical moment...
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