The week passed quickly, Mike and Julie spent it being intimate with each other as all new couples would, but alas the time was up and Mike had to report to Ø where he was handed his next assignment, a [Paladin] that had taken his new position as a place to exploit the citizens of his city and eventually he had racked up quite the bounty on his head which Ø then took an interest in
'And thus here I am, choking the life out this poor soul…'
The [Paladin]'s arms and legs were broken, twisted in weird ways by Julie that stood and watched Mike that held a robe that was around the neck of the still struggling [Paladin] as for why he didn't just stab him and get it over with the contract specified that he should choke the life out of him as he had done with countless others, as Mike held the robe he suddenly shuddered and looked towards the south, then a cold light flashed in his eyes before he tightened the grip he had on the robe and suddenly twisted it to the side breaking the [Paladin]'s neck with a snap, Julie was confused and asked him
"Wait, Mike didn't you need to choke him to death?"
Mike didn't answer straight away as he now saw the world through Rebecca's eyes…
Turning time back a bit Rebecca was training in the underground facility, ever since Mike had upgraded her skill to [Etiquette of the blood soaked battlefield] she had found herself being proficient with all weapons, that along with her being strengthened to level 2 (even though she was level 1 still) mean that she was crushing basic training and was way ahead of the other recruits except Elina that she felt a unique connection to, when she had seen her first she knew that this was another one of her lord's blood and thus the two of them quickly became friends and right now they were training together, as Ø required their assassins to be proficient with all weapons they were using daggers today and not wooden ones either
*CLANG*
Metal sparks flew as their daggers clashed with each other at high speed, as always there were people watching them with awe, one of the instructors even asked another
"Have they really only been in basic training for 1 month?"
"Yeah, Elina has been here less time even"
"... Ø has a bright future"
"That it has, as long as we train them with care"
As the two instructors talked a group of people suddenly walked into the underground training hall, when the instructors noticed who was among them they kneeled down on one knee at once and spoke in a loud voice
"We pay respect to the elder!"
The other people in the room also kneeled down when they heard the instructors speak, that of course included Rebecca and Elina that stopped training and knelled down, the instructors were confused however, how come the esteemed elder was acting like a mere guide to the rest of the people? The elder stepped out and spoke out
"I am looking for Rebecca and Elina!"
Rebecca and Elina looked down and called out
""We're here esteemed elder""
The elder looked over at the two of them and gave a nod before she turned to the rest of the group and spoke
"According to my sources they were brought here by vampire blade"
The man she was speaking too gave a nod and looked over at the two women before he called out to his four subordinates
"Interrogate them, I want to know everything about vampire blade"
""""Yes lord""""
At this point Rebecca's heart sank, she could clearly see that this was bad, not only was the esteemed elder clearly subservient to these men and would likely throw them under in order to save her own skin and how right Rebecca was, what followed was several days of grizzly torture, her nails were ripped off, her fingers and toes were broken but still she remained silent about Mike and so did Elina, it was only on the third day that their interrogators seemed to have grown tired of tormenting them and slit their throats, thus life ended for Rebecca and Elina, or so you would be forgiven for thinking
"Hmm..?"
The executioner of Rebecca turned around and looked at her corpse that still was stabbed to the chair where she had been tortured for the past three days, he clearly felt like something was wrong, he just didn't know what it was
"Well whatever, not like I actually have to clean my own mess up…"
He then turned around and was about to walk out the door when he heard a sound from behind and turned around and stared right into Rebecca's empty eyes, her face was inches from his before he had a chance to scream something sharp stabbed his heart, when he looked down he saw a blood red crystal that seemed to have grown out of Rebecca's hand, no that was wrong it was not merely blood red it was crystallized blood, her own crystallized blood
"De...Mon…"
With that as his last words he went limp only carried up by the blood crystal that had pierced his heart, then Rebecca's eyes twitched slightly as the light returned to them while the person in front of her gradually turned into a dried up corpse, meanwhile her broken fingers seemed to straighten out and the cuts on her naked body began healing at a visible speed, meanwhile her spilled blood formed into sinister runes before suddenly her crystallized blood liquefied again and flowed back into her hand before the wound closed again, meanwhile the dried up corpse fell to the ground before Rebecca suddenly felt a presence and knelled down before she spoke out loud
"Forgive me for my unsightly appearance my lord"
Then after a few seconds of silence Mike's voice rang out inside her head
"What's the situation?"
Rebecca paused before she tried to explain what had happened to her
"Well… I have been reborn by your grace"
Another few seconds of silence followed before Rebbeca spoke again
"My lord?"
"Oh… Sorry about that… Then who killed you?"
"The scumbag that has been torturing me the past three days---"
Rebecca filled in Mike on the situation at Ø, Mike's voice then rang out in her head again
"I see… Do your best to escape along with Elina, if you do I'll have other orders for you"
"Yes my lord"
Rebecca waited a bit and felt the presence of her lord disappear, then she looked around the room and picked up a knife she had been tortured with before she stipped the robe of the [Mage] that had tortured her and wore it before she sneaked out of the room, as soon as she left the room the door to the room next to hers also opened and Elina walked out, she was also wearing a robe, Rebbeca exchanged a glance with her and noticed that their were sinister runes that now covered her face and her pupils had turned red, then the two of them nodded at each other before they began sneaking out of Ø's underground headquarters
"Mike? Mike!"
"Oh sorry about that Julie…"
Julie gave a sigh, then she asked him
"What happened just then, weren't you supposed to choke him to death?"
Mike gave a wry smile
"Well that hardly matters now, Ø has given us up"
Mike filled in Julie that some people had arrived at Ø's headquarters three days ago followed by the elder, then they had interrogated Rebbeca and Elina and killed them, they had then risen from the dead and killed their interrogators and were now making their escape from Ø, Julie massaged her temples before she asked again to be sure
"Wait… You said they died?"
"Yep"
"And now they have risen from the grave?"
"Yep… Well technically they were never buried but… Yep"
Julie gave a deep sigh before she muttered
"So I am immortal now… That'll take some time to get used to…"
Mike gave a wry smile before he stabbed the dead [Paladin] with the knife and drained his blood before he turned to Julie that still looked a little taken aback and spoke
"Well if you're immortal then I definitely am, so don't worry I'll accompany you until the sun dies"
Julie showed a sweet smile and gave a nod
"Okay"
Then the two of them left the temple silently, when they arrived at the street outside Julie asked Mike
"What should we do now?"
A cold light flashed through Mike's eyes before he spoke
"Well I have never liked being on the defensive so I say we take the fight to the ones that want to kill me"
"...And how are we going to do that?"
"Well by getting stronger first and fast… Let's start wiping out villages"
Julie gave a sweet smile as a red light flashed through her eyes and took Mike's hand in hers
"Sure Mike"