The man did not answer him as his black eyes were only focused wholly on Qianna.
Mirage's emerald green eyes turned cold and he was about to open his mouth to ask another question when he suddenly noticed the woman's twisted face while her body violently shook at the same, her face was deathly pale and she wore an expression of terror and panic.
Then she opened her mouth while looking at Mirage and said to him in a pleading yet fearful voice.
"Please, don't kill me! Please, spare me, please! I beg of you to let me go!"
Mirage and the man in black were taken aback by her sudden changes and neither of them had an idea of what had happened to her.
She was just near him so he walked towards her and tried to shake her, he hoped that this would at least wake her up.
He shook her shoulders vigorously, his face was filled with concern and confusion so he asked.
"Hey, wake up! What's going on with you all of a sudden?"
She did not answer his questions, she had instead become even more frantic and restless.
Her body shook violently, her irises could no longer be seen, red blood had trickled down from her nose and mouth, she fearfully shrieked and fiercely struggled out of his grip.
He looked at the man in black and he saw that was confused by this as well, so he helplessly turned his attention back to the violently shaking girl.
He reached out his hand and did a quick chop on her neck to knock her out, she slowly calmed down and finally passed out.
He sighed in relief after seeing her soundly sleeping on the ground.
The man in black had recovered from his shock and talked to him first, his voice was calm as if his bloodthirst from earlier was a lie.
"Now that the nuisance is asleep, we can now talk peacefully, isn't that so?"
He slightly smiled after saying this.
Mirage was vigilant but still replied in a calm manner.
"Indeed. Now can I ask you for your name? This way, we can address each other easier than calling each other you or me."
He squinted his eyes and gave a gentle smile towards the man who gave him an odd look.
The man in black took a deep breath and stiffly said.
"You can call me Aaron."
Mirage was about to introduce himself when Aaron continued.
"As you can see, I am an assassin. I have been assigned to kill that girl you are protecting. I don't know why you're protecting her when she had tried to kill you earlier, but I must finish this mission today and no one can stop me from doing that." he said this in a firm voice, he sounded bent on killing her.
Mirage heard what he said and belatedly remembered that the girl had indeed tried to kill him when he first entered the temple.
He had somehow forgotten of this fact because of the distraction that she had caused to him when he had restrained her from earlier.
It was because he had suddenly felt a strange feeling coming from her, this feeling made him feel attached and attracted towards her.
He had no idea why he had suddenly felt this way but he knew for himself that he was filled with desire towards the girl.
The desire that he had held no impurities, he wasn't lusting towards her body but that there's something on her that made him feel this way, but he did not have any idea on what that thing is.
It was his first time feeling this way and he knew nothing about how he would plan to deal with this.
It seems like his body craved something deep inside her but did not feel any craving towards the girl herself.
He felt the thing chaotically flowing inside her, it then broke into countless pieces that scattered all over her body, those scattered pieces returned to their original form not long after.
He suddenly had the urge to dig his hands inside the girl's body and devour that thing himself, but he still maintained his rationality all this time so he managed to prevent himself from doing this atrocious thing.
He was extremely confused about what was happening to him and could only divert his attention away from the sleeping girl, while he silently asked himself in his head.
'Why am I feeling like this? Am I developing cannibalistic tendencies or something?'
While Mirage was speechless by his strange situation, there was one person who had witnessed everything.
Aaron was tightly knitting his eyebrows, his forehead creases from time to time while watching Mirage's strange behaviors.
He was feeling cold all over his body, the hairs on his arms had even stood on their end, he felt intense danger from this psychopathic youth for the first time.
At first, he saw the youth staring strangely at the unconscious girl with burning desire but he somehow managed to hold himself back.
He thought that if he was not around them then maybe he had already pounced on the girl and do malicious things to her.
He had also applauded the youth's ability to hold himself back, it was obvious that he held an intense desire towards her, and yet he managed to suppress it, his actions were truly admirable.
While he was doing his assassination jobs, he had seen countless people that were being driven by their worldly desires and emotions, without them knowing themselves.
They were too obsessed with these things that they had either voluntarily or involuntarily given up on becoming strong and went to satisfy themselves instead.
In his opinion, those kinds of people were the prime examples of pathetic living beings, they couldn't even control themselves and were instead being driven around by those measly things called wealth and lust.
How pathetic could they possibly get?
They would not be able to last longer in this world if they remain controlled like that.
They are bound to die and get eaten by those who are stronger than them, serving their pathetic life as nourishment for the strong.
This is just how this world works, cruel and merciless towards the weak while favoring those who have stronger capabilities.
It is truly a dog-eat-dog world.
He did not have any problem with this as they were trained by the organization to think of humans as nothing but walking bags of flesh and bones that could think no worse than wild savage beasts.
The desire for wealth and lust had also been cut off from them by the organization, this was done because the higher-ups felt that these desires were unnecessary for an assassin to have, these might even hinder them from completing their missions effectively.
Those were just the few that were removed from their systems while the rest weren't touched they feared that if they continued to remove emotions, it would do more harm than good instead.
And right now, he felt fear and dread while looking at the azure-haired youth's actions, he hadn't even noticed that he had unconsciously stepped back.
He was also filled with palpitations from the youth's ominous aura, he felt that it was extremely dangerous and felt threatened by this.
He woke up from his stupor, fiercely shook his head, and silently asked himself in his head.
'How could I feel fear from him? He doesn't look much older than me and yet he could induce a nerve-wracking aura that could make one feel extreme fear.'
His eyes were now full of caution, he was silently observing the actions that the youth might do, he also maintained his high vigilance all this time.
He further examined the youth and was instantly met with confusion.
'He looks like he wasn't trained in the ways of assassination, so how could he possibly possess that kind of terrifying aura?'
He was thinking hard of the reasons for his anomaly when he had suddenly come up with a strange thought, he looked at Mirage weirdly.
'Unless.. he's an ancient old man that was shamelessly disguising as a teenager?'
He thought of the possibility of this from happening and felt that it's quite possible.
It's because he knew that some old and strong monsters would be able to effortlessly disguise themselves as their young and youthful selves.
He had even heard of the legend of a beauty potion that could make a person regain their past beauty.
But on the second thought, this idea seems to be quite improbable as well due to the eccentricity of each old monsters.
Some of them disdained this kind of actions, they felt that disguising yourself as what you used to be is considered as trampling their hard-earned dignity and seniority.
Plus, if he was really disguising his identity then he should've immediately discovered him the moment he sneaked in his shadows.
It's too illogical if he's old and strong but couldn't even discover the trace of a small assassin like him.
He had entirely ruled out the possibility of him disguising, he could see his high potential but that potential couldn't even be called as his current strength.
Potential is potential while strength is strength after all.