The blonde girl leapt down from the wall, breathing hard as her boots hit the cobblestone street. "I have to get out of here. If they catch me again... I'll die for sure."
But—
"Uh..."
Her escape came to a sudden halt as she found herself face-to-face with a formation of Imperial soldiers. The golden insignia on their uniforms made her heart sink into despair.
The Imperial Guard—here, in the Upper City.
Of course. This was the Upper City. These soldiers existed only to protect the rich and powerful.
In the slums of Sram, when her people were dragged away by slave traders, the city patrols didn't even look their way. And the Imperial Guard? They would never intervene. They only protected the high walls and noble estates.
Am I going to die here? she thought bitterly. My revenge hasn't even begun... No! I can't die yet. I still haven't avenged everyone in Sram!
"I won't surrender, you damned—"
Before she could finish her defiant cry, a cold, commanding female voice cut through the night.
"Stand down."
"Yes, General!" ×N
The armored soldiers immediately dispersed at the order, stepping aside in perfect unison. Though stunned, the blonde girl's survival instincts kicked in, and she bolted down the street.
Only then did she realize—those weren't ordinary troops. They were officers.
"Troublesome interruption. Let's go," the same voice said casually.
Glancing back as she turned a corner, the girl caught a glimpse of the woman who had spoken—an ethereal figure in silver and white, bathed in moonlight. That image burned itself deep into her mind.
"...Thank you," she whispered softly, realizing that the high-ranking officer had spared her. Then, with the faintest smile, she vanished into the depths of the night.
"Damn it! Where's that damn slave?!"
A loud crash echoed as the mansion gates burst open. A rotund man in gold-trimmed clothes stormed out, cursing furiously while a group of thugs scrambled behind him.
When his eyes caught the group of Imperial soldiers standing not far away, they lit up. Puffing up his chest, he shouted arrogantly, "Hey! You there! Have you seen my slave girl? Blonde hair, about this tall—"
"Hey! I'm talking to you! Are you deaf?! Answer me when I'm addressing you! You useless dogs! Do you even know who I am?!"
His voice grew louder and shriller as the soldiers ignored him completely. Humiliated and furious, the man bellowed again.
"Idiots! Do you know who I am?! I'm the Minister Honest's own—" Splat—!
Before he could finish, a towering officer in an iron-gray Imperial Guard uniform appeared before him like a shadow. Kinshasa's massive eyes glinted with a flash of murderous intent.
A sandbag-sized fist shot forward, tearing through the air with a sonic boom.
BANG!
The impact landed squarely on the man's face. A sickening crack echoed as his nose shattered, his entire skull caving inward like wet clay. Bone fragments split and splintered; blood, brain, and shattered teeth sprayed into the air in a grotesque mix of red, white, and black.
He was dead before his body hit the ground.
"The Imperial Guard will not tolerate insults from worms like you," Kinshasa said coldly, his arm still extended from the blow.
With a twist of his wrist, the man's corpse was flung backward, crashing into the stone wall with explosive force.
BOOM—!
The sheer power of the strike rippled outward, cracking the ground and fracturing the wall in a spiderweb of black fissures before it finally collapsed with a thunderous crash.
For a moment, the thugs stared in stunned silence. Then, the leader, his face twisted with rage and fear, stammered, "Do you... do you even know who he was?! You just killed the Minister's kin! You'll—"
"Kill them all," Selene's cold voice cut him off.
"Yes, General!" ×N
Blades sang through the air, and screams filled the night.
The courtyard erupted into a storm of blood and steel. Under the crimson glow of the setting sun, the slaughter painted the scene in shades of horror.
...
Meanwhile, in the southern mountain range of the Empire—
"Lord Gozuki, our scouts have confirmed it. Near the basin ahead, there are clear traces of human activity. The wildfires in the surrounding area were only extinguished after the heavy rains a few days ago."
"Furthermore, during our search around the basin, we encountered several outer bases belonging to the rebel army. They form a ring around the basin, maintaining a vigilant perimeter," a masked member of the Imperial Assassination Unit reported, kneeling on one knee in the mud.
Planting his crimson-edged blade into the ground, the blonde man known as Gozuki asked calmly, "Oh? Any survivors?"
"There are... but..." The assassin's voice faltered. A visible tremor ran through his body, and his tone wavered with unease.
"Hm?" Gozuki's eyes narrowed. The man's stammering irritated him. As commander of the Imperial Assassination Unit, he had grown increasingly dissatisfied with the decline in their discipline. Perhaps it was time to form an elite subgroup within the unit.
Still, he reminded himself that Minister Honest's orders came first. He let out a cold snort. "You call yourself an Imperial elite, and yet you tremble like a child? Speak clearly! Dead or alive?!"
"Alive, sir... but you should see it yourself. I can't properly describe it," the assassin replied, his voice trembling. Whatever he had witnessed clearly still haunted him.
"Show me." Gozuki frowned. Something unusual must have happened.
"Yes, sir."
As they approached one of the rebels' outlying posts, the stench of blood and decay grew increasingly thick in the air.
"Rotting corpses?" Gozuki muttered.
He stepped into the small outpost—and froze.
Even as a senior officer of the Assassination Unit, accustomed to corpses and death, what he saw made his skin crawl and his breath catch.
A sharp hiss escaped his lips. Compared to these rebels' corpses, the torturers in the Imperial Prison suddenly seemed like saints.
"What... in the world happened here..." he murmured, his voice trembling.
The small outpost—barely a hundred square meters—was piled high with rebel corpses, stacked layer upon layer. Most had died horrifically. Severed limbs and crushed bones were the least of it. The true horror lay in those that no longer resembled humans at all—bodies fused together, twisted into grotesque abominations.
Their forms were unnatural—indescribable.
There were no signs of animal bites, nor even the maggots that should have accompanied human decay. It was as though their bodies had melted from within, leaving behind a nightmarish stillness that chilled the air.
Even worse, from the positioning and state of the corpses, it was clear they hadn't all died at once. They must have entered the outpost at different times—yet somehow, all met the same horrific end.
Swallowing hard, the assassin forced himself to speak. "Sir... the only survivor is inside."
"I see." This time, Gozuki didn't scold him. The sight had drained his irritation completely.
Carefully stepping through the mound of bodies, he made his way to the small building at the center of the outpost.
"Ah... kill me... please... just kill me..."
A faint, broken voice came from within. Lying in a pool of blood was a man dressed in a rebel officer's uniform. He struggled to speak, only to let out a pained scream as his voice triggered another surge of agony.
He lay sprawled on the ground, clawing at his own body as his skin split open, muscles swelled and tore, and pus-mixed blood poured across the floor.
The sight made Gozuki's scalp prickle. His entire body tensed instinctively, a cold shiver running down his spine.
At this point, life was no blessing—it was a curse. The man's body clung stubbornly to existence, yet death refused to claim him. He writhed in agony, experiencing every second of his own decay—feeling each cell rupture, each organ collapse, each bone turn brittle and crumble from within.
Watching himself rot alive.
Gathering the last of his strength, the rebel officer looked up at Gozuki, his voice wet with blood and pleading desperation. "Please... end it... kill me... please..."
Gozuki said nothing.
Wordlessly, he drew the pistol from his waist.
The dying man managed one final, broken whisper. "...Thank you."
BANG!
The single gunshot echoed through the desolate outpost, and silence fell once more.