The demon, One, stared at Ner, maddened by how such a simple operation could be ruined by an armoured nobody who he couldn’t get a reading on.

‘It just goes to show that one couldn’t let their guard down,’ One sighed at his mistake. He stared at the foot that pressed down at the now decapitated comrade with a bit of regret before it turned into rage as he glared back at Ner.

Ner and his new opponent met eyes, instantly becoming wary of each other. From his experiences, Ner could determine that this new demon wasn’t that simple.

The situation was turning for the worse by the second. They were trapped inside of a barrier alongside with any other innocent victims in the region with no signs of hope. Three invaders outside of the bar with an unknown agenda. And of the six sent to deal with them, only one had fallen, four were out of breath, and the last one poised to strike.

The outlook was grim. Their fates were sealed if any of the other demons were to come back.

‘Things haven’t been going well ever since I met up with Luon,’ but they were much better than having to survive on an Inzektor infested planet for the rest of his life, Ner thought as he recalls those lonesome days.

Although things are different now, the danger factor hasn’t changed, at least not yet.

“Luon, go get some help.”

“But-”

“Look. You’re no use here. For the both of us to get out of this situation, we need to get some help. Someone has to go. Go.”

Ner’s words were like daggers stabbing to his heart. His hands trembled as he felt the powerful auras around him. Luon had stayed behind to support Ner if he had needed it, but the man himself declared that his presence was useless.

Luon grit his teeth and gave a brief nod before leaving through the exit he opened up. He can only pray that Ner would be okay.

“You guys get out of my sight. Remember. No survivors.”

Intimidated by One’s aura, the surviving demons bowed to him before they jumped outside.

Their operation today was to eliminate the members of the other organization resisting their expansion, Luon was only a bonus and a potential threat. If they were to succeed, then taking care of odd elements would make taking over Alpha Hideout become several times easier.

“Now there goes all of those pests, shall we get started? Scum.” One said as he tossed aside his robe revealing his muscular devilish features, his race being a greater demon.

“Scum? How mean of you when I was waiting for a smart remark and some action. I guess intelligence isn’t part of your domain.”

“Whatever, bring it on,” One replied, unsheathing his sword as if it were a fine lady ready to be plucked as he tossed aside the scabbard.

Ner smiled at his remark, not intimidated at all by One’s muscular form, aura and harsh tone. Kicking aside the corpse of the demon he slew as if it were a pebble on the road, he replied, “Sure, let’s see if you can make things more interesting.”

The battle started with no pretense said as their blades spoke for themselves.

…

“Looks like they started. I need to act fast,” Luon muttered as he dashed out of the building.

Powerful fluctuations pulsated behind him, almost knocking him down as he ran. He didn’t know what kind of battle was unfolding, all he knew right now is that he had to get out of this mess.

Afraid of being found by his foes, Luon ran into the dark parts of these streets, the smelly deserted alleyways.

“Think. How do I disable this barrier? An inscribed magical array or device? Doesn’t seem like it. If I didn’t know any better than Lord Zero guy was being honest at how Eight was the spell caster of this barrier. Most likely powering a device. If so, then the only way to break it is to kill the caster and the device or cause enough havoc to distort the magical energy supporting it.” Luon muttered as he dashed around piles of garbage while hiding the signs he passed by.

“And if you distort the magical energy by spamming random magical spells, then you’ll be dead,” Thanatos added on.

The way Thanatos, his other self, said it irked him. A tone as if his death was of no importance, rather he found the situation to be rather entertaining. Luon’s personality rubbed off on him as he seemed more playful and filled with more emotions than just pure negativity.

The playful remark didn’t help with the situation though, Luon knew he was right. If he wanted to escape this predicament, he needed to kill the caster before the eyes of this Lord Zero and Eight, and any other enemies he could meet. A playful array of magic would just make him lose his initial ambush element.

“Hide. There’s someone following us.” Lost in his thoughts, Thanatos reminded Luon that it wasn’t time to think. Without a moment to lose, Luon dove into the closest thing that could hide his entire body.

A few moments later, a demon ran past his location and stopped a few meters away at a four-way intersection. There was no need for Luon to do anything special to hear what the demon was saying as he yelled while puking, “Ag-st-stupid streets! How are people supposed to get anywhere! There’s so much garba- agh, it smells so bad. Aghhh, wh-where is Lord Zero?”

The demon was Four, the demon that had made a few comments about adapting to the shabby and dirty life of Alpha Hideout. After exiting the building, the four remaining demons split themselves up to find Luon and any other humans that were let go earlier on. Although confident about their chances of success, they were still time-restricted.

Their job was to eliminate the targets and all the members of the opposing faction. Their forces should have been more than enough to deal with the people inside of the building even when accounting for Luon’s weird widgets. The person they didn’t account for, Ner, caused their chances of success to drop a bit.

Their superior One had to clean up their mess for them. If they couldn’t catch Luon, then how could they redeem themselves? If they couldn’t deal with the other escapees, what could they say about their performance? With one dead, their record was already looking dim.

As soon as they exited the building, they were disappointed to find themselves in the middle of an empty street, zero traces of where Luon or any other targets could have gone.

“I know you’re here! Come on out now!”

‘Did he notice me? No… he wouldn’t have wasted any time by saying that. He would’ve just attacked me on the spot instead.’ Luon thought as he observed Four from his position.

“Tch, if you won’t come out I’ll make you come out!” Four bellowed as he channelled mana.

“Idiot. Don’t add any more trouble. It’s just me. Remember what Zero said? We need to conserve our energy for the second act,” said Three, who had appeared out of nowhere.

“As expected from someone who has no taste, to take for the dirty alleyways as the first place to go. What do you want?”

“Can you say that when you also came here? Nevermind, the path I took just met your path. The city is complex, so it shouldn’t be surprising to see anyone else. Look, I’ll go this way, and you can do… whatever you want to do…” said Three. She then left, leaving the annoyed Four behind.

“Whatever. Ordering me around like this, does she think I’m a fool? As if I’d listen to you.” Four took at a glance at the path she directed to him.

“Well… no point in going down the path she came from or where I came from… it’s not like I am listening to her or anything. It’s the only logical direction to go to. This city is making me insane, this stink is making me insane. Gotta get out of here now before it gets any worse. Only idiots would die in a city like this.”

“Not going to follow him?” Thanatos asked as Luon felt relief wash over him as Four left through the path she directed him to go, not noticing that one of his targets had been just within his reach.

“Uhh, why?” Luon said as he left his hiding place. A nasty smell became more prevalent in the alleyway. Armed with trash over his body Luon had adapted to the area. Should he be glad that Four wasn’t swinging a sword because of his desire to stay clean?

The trade-off between staying safe and dirty versus straight-up fighting and somewhat clean, it was a difficult decision to make but if he were to attack Four, then he wouldn’t be able to win without alerting the others...

The trash bin wasn’t the best place to hide in as Luon couldn’t help to hurl to the side.

“There is no way you can eliminate the demon managing the barrier without removing the other demons that would come to his aid. While they are all separated wouldn’t it be better for you to take them down one by one?”

“You make it sound easy. How could you assassinate a level 80’s just like that? They may have some kind of protective or life-saving items on them.” Luon commented on Thanatos’s remark. Assassination? It was not his strong suit. Attacking someone above level 80? The chance of him succeeding is low.

“I guess that’s true for you, you’re not ready yet.”

“Thanks for stating the obvious. Uhh, let’s just go. I need to find some time to think about what to do.” Luon said as he finished cleaning up the mess he had made due to his action of taking refuge in the garbage tin.

“But what about me? Lend me your body, I’ll give you a lesson on how to kill your targets with no one else noticing.” As Thanatos uttered these words, the inner darkness took over Luon, his eyes became black and his aura darkened.

“Wai-” Luon’s words cut off as the darkness came. He thought, ‘Weren’t you just a commander and swordsman? That isn’t anything close to being an Assassin!’

“This physique is closer to what I had before. That’s some improvement.” Thanatos said as he stretched his body a bit.

Pulling a dagger out and giving it a whirl, he said, “It’s time to hunt.”

His body vanished from the deserted alleyway as if no one had been there.

…

“Good job Shade. The target has bitten the bait. Focus on your squadron’s safety. Give us 20 minutes and we'll clean up the resistance. The Black Hand is giving us a bit of trouble, but it shouldn’t be a problem.”

“What about Luon and his friend?” Shade asked. Shade and his squad had hidden underground in a building nearby. The payphone like device has a special communication mechanism to bypass the barrier.

“They can stall more time for us. Just think of it as a way to make sure you’re still alive by the end of this. Sorry, going to cut the line now. We’ll be done soon.”

“But... He cut the line.” Shade sighed as all he could hear was the beeping sounds from the phone.

“What do we do now?” Asked one of his teammates.

“Just wait for help and pray.” Shade replied, hoping that things would go as planned.

…

“This is strange. Not a single soul in sight, ” Zero said as he observed the environment.

For the last few minutes, he had been going through building to building, only to find that they were all empty. The complex structural design only delayed his process.

“Something is wrong is happening. It’s as if we’re dancing upon the palm of someone's hand.”

“Should I disable the barrier?” Asked Eight, with him the other demon, Seven were aiding in the search for prey. Their job was to eliminate everyone inside the barrier, yet no oddity of having no one to kill made Zero fear that something was going wrong with their plans.

“No, keep it up. I’ll leave for whoever is inside the barrier to you guys. I’ll look outside. Don’t let any rats escape,” Zero replied.

The two nodded as Zero departed. Only one fact didn’t change. In the next few hours, the blood of many inside and outside of the barrier drowned the city.