Outside the meeting room, a cloaked figure was busy writing down the contents. It pocketed it's notebook and vanished.
Black Steel Manor
I was sitting on the roof of my house, enjoying the view of people working happily. Their smiles filled me with a sense of fulfillment as I flashed back to the massacre these years ago.
"Ah. Good times."
Suddenly, a black cloaked figure appeared and bowed on one knee.
"Subordinate greets Lord Shinokage."
I stood up.
"Results?"
"Subordinate has successfully recorded everything that was said into the book. Subordinate also left a shadow clone in case there's further information to be collected."
He stretched out his hand and gave me the notebook. I paged through it.
"Interesting. Have squads 5 and 6 tail each of the nobles who were left behind and have squad 9 and 12 follow those who left early. Have all of them report to me on a daily basis. Meanwhile, hand this letter to the Merchant Guild. You'll get a nice surprise after."
The man smiled.
"Subordinate thanks Lord Shinokage."
He vanished. I was left alone with my thoughts. I gazed into the sky.
"They plan to hire a mercenary from the Beast-human continent of Winchelin? This should be interesting. I should assign an original to observe the situation."
I opened a portal to the Familia Mansion and went in.
3 days later, Imperial Palace of Linchestin
There was a grand ceremony as countless people were celebrating the coronation of the new Queen.
"ALL HAIL QUEEN MARIA!!! MAY SHE LIVE FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS!!!"
Maria had finally become the Queen. Even though she was trying to look serious, the odd smile leaked out sometimes. Her golden hair shined even brighter in the sunlight. I watched her graceful figure as she went to take her seat on the throne. It made me further not regret killing the king a few days prior. Mountains of extravagant gifts were displayed in front of her. Ashley and I were standing by Maria's sides. I had made sure the nobles personally bought their gifts to the front. All of them walked to the front and delivered their gifts. I used my Kansatsume (Mana Eye) to properly observe the gifts for any sort of traps. None of them tried anything at all. Everything was going well until a messenger ran in panicking.
"THE ARYANS ARE ATTACKING!!! THE ARYANS ARE ATTACKING!!!"
Maria stood up and used a calming skill on everyone as they were panicking. She then spoke.
"Send reinforcements to the border. Have someone send me an update on the current situation. Have the Merchant Guild prepare supplies and horses. Everyone move as fast as possible. I as your Queen, will do my best to support you."
Everyone cheered as they hurriedly moved. Maria then looked at me.
"Guildmaster Isaac. I'll entrust the Black Death Familia to help me dispose of the enemy?"
I laughed.
"You are also part of the Familia. We'll always help our own."
Ashley held Maria's hands.
"Don't worry. I'll try to make sure I leave some for you."
"You know I don't kill Ashley."
Ashley laughed.
"Then stay in that boring chair while Isaac and I have some fun."
I sighed.
"I'm not waiting any longer. I'll take my leave."
I vanished and Ashley soon followed after.
We appeared above the battlefield and multitudes of soldiers from both sides were fighting each other. The Linchestin soldiers were being slightly overwhelmed from the sudden attack and the inexperience of the nobles placed on the frontlines.
"I guess I should help a bit. The cannon fodder can't die out yet."
I raised my hand to the sky and charged up a huge fireball. I flung it at the Aryan soldiers. Their screams pierced the air. Ashley frowned.
"I've always wanted to see a battle. There's lots of fun to be had there. But this is...disappointing. There's just too much hesitation and rigidity in their moves."
"There's no need to continue watching. Let's go."
I opened a portal to the Familia Mansion and went in with Ashley. I had sent word for all assassin Familia members to be present. All of them were standing silently and as soon as we appeared, they greeted us.
"SUBORDINATES GREET LORD SHINOKAGE AND LADY NIKUYANOKAGE!"
I smiled.
"You all did well in coming here. All of you know the war is going on right now. That doesn't concern us. We don't belong on the battlefield. That is for warriors. We are the assassin. What I want you to do is simple. Assassinate the generals of Aria. Disperse."
All of them vanished and both of us returned to the main world. The assassins were doing a good job as the Aryan army was slowly falling into disorder. Ashley took out her twin daggers.
"I'm going to go kill some time. Maybe I can teach these greenhorns how to fight in the process. Wanna join?"
"No. I'll be waiting for the main event."
"Hmph. I hope those eggs turn out to be garbage."
Ashley shot down into the middle of the Aryan army and began slaughtering them mercilessly. In the meantime, I was high up in the sky absorbing mana with my Sage Nirvana Technique. Time seemed to pass by as a blur until rumblings from the Earth were felt. I opened my eyes.
"It seems the Aryans activated their trump cards."
At that moment, huge monstrosities tore open the Earth.
"They really were Chaos Beasts."
Chaos Warhound, Chaos Ox, Chaos Phoenix, Chaos Slime, Chaos Tiger, Chaos Cobra, Chaos Warthog and a Chaos Dragon. All the soldiers lost the will to fight and fled. Ashley suddenly appeared next to me, covered in blood.
"Weren't the suppose to be nine eggs? Where's the last one?"
"It hasn't hatched yet."
"Why?"
"I don't know and it doesn't matter. Right now..."
My mana flared up as it reacted to my excitement.
"...the possibility of fighting all eight of them..."
My breathing became heavy. My smile widened as I sent mana to my eyes, activating my Hasunome and my Kansatsume.
"I...can't...wait any LONGER!"
I shot down at a massive burst of speed while Ashley went to help the soldiers retreat. I prepared a massive fireball on my hand. I jammed it into the Chaos Phoenix's back and let it explode. I used the momentum from the explosion to jump up into the air and created many magic circles around me.
"HAKUSHI"
I struck all of them but it didn't seem to do much damage.
"I see. My mana can't penetrate your chaos mana barriers quite well after al-"
I suddenly got hit by the tail of the Chaos Dragon and instantly half of my ribs broke. The Chaos Tiger immediately started running towards me as I was flying in the air but I soon recovered and retaliated.
"VOLKANO"
I rammed down a huge blast at it's face at point blank range. It got blown away as I back flipped and landed on the ground. Before I could catch my breath, the Chaos Phoenix was already above me. It released high intensity showers of flames at me. I managed to erect a barrier in time but it was slowly breaking.
"If I used Instinct Teleportation, I would be unconscious for atleast two minutes. These beasts won't wait that long for me and Linchestin will suffer heavy casualties."
I wanted to handle the calamities I left alive myself. Besides, there was another reason.
"These beasts are insanely strong. I can barely handle two. Imagine another six! These kinds of odds...I LOVE THEM."
The Chaos phoenix increased the intensity of its flames. I grit my teeth as the flames began to burn my skin. My healing magic was failing to keep up with the damage rate of the Phoenix's fire.
"It hurts. It really hurts! I'm...not...about...to be killed...by...some...GLORIFIED CHICKEN!!! "
Mana burst out of me as I broke free from the flames and I created a magic circle above the phoenix and brought down a huge ice lance on top of it. My mana was surrounding me as my hair flickered about. I didn't have the time to breathe before the Chaos Warthog charged at me. The other Chaos Beasts soon followed suite as they viewed me as a common threat. They were relentless in their attacks as they kept coming at me again and again. I fired off a few attacks but I never got enough time to charge them up and make them strong enough. If I tried to charge while dodging, the Chaos slime would immediately shoot a barrage of acid balls at me, causing me to cancel my charged attack and defend. The Chaos Warhound would charge at me if I was stationary for even a second. The Chaos Tiger would always try to swipe me with its claws if I jumped while the Chaos Dragon would try to grab me with its mouth or launch a breath attack. The phoenix would attack me with flames if I didn't pay attention to it for too long. The Chaos Cobra would dig itself underground and come at me from there while the Chaos Ox would perform a pincer attack with the Chaos Warthog. I kept getting hit multiple times and I would heal myself. Each time I suffered tremendous damage and healed, my body would get stronger. Each time it got stronger, it was able to handle more mana without rupturing. I was slowly breaking my body's limits as I channelled more and more mana into my body. I was soon able to avoid most of the attacks but there were a few fatal ones that got in but it was worth it. Everytime my skin, muscles and bones were torn, broken, melted or corroded, I would get better with healing, but I knew I would soon reach my limit.
"The more grievous the wound, the more mana it takes to make it heal and what I'm using is Perfect Heal."
Perfect Heal as its name implies, heals you to your best optimum condition. It's a part of the Immortality Spell I'm working on, which would stop my body from aging at 21.
"I only have half of my mana left and I can't regenerate it fast enou-"
I suddenly thought of an idea. It's been a very long time since I last thought of using this type of magic.
"Thank you for helping me remember the first ever magic I studied."
Rune Magic. By inscribing special letters onto something and then filling it with mana, you could produce amazing effects. It's like commanding the planet to do something for you. As long as you know the proper language and have the necessary amount of mana, you can do almost anything.
"Since I don't have a pen, my finger should do."
I began evading and increasing the distance between the Chaos Beasts and me. I formed a small mana knife on my finger and prepared to begin inscribing runes on my skin by removing my tattered clothes. I summoned multitudes of perfect clones and shadow clones. The difference is shadow clones have much lower durability than perfect clones but they're good for distractions and sacrificial attacks. There were hundreds of shadow clones and 111 perfect clones.
"That cost me another quarter of my mana."
I sent them to face the Chaos Beasts while I began inscribing my skin with Runes. My clones were working pretty well but my fatigue was catching up. Making Perfect Clones have a disadvantage. In exchange for the same durability and a tremendous increase in combat power compared to shadow clones, half of the total damage they suffered until death will be sent onto the original. I had one perfect clone continuously cast healing magic on me so as not to lose focus while inscribing the runes. I was done with my stomach and I was now on my chest. The battle was getting intense as more and more clones were dying. Only half of them were left.
"Finally done."
I had inscribed a rune that would force all mana in the vicinity into my body continuously. As a huge surge of mana entered my body, I cancelled all the clones I made. My body felt rejuvenated as the familiar feeling of endless mana coursing through my body enveloped me.
"Now then...shall we begin round 2?"