The woman plunging the dagger into the duke was no one other than Anais. She had a grim and murderous look on her face, unlike her natural, alluring and captivating expression.
Sensing my presence, she looked in my direction. Her murderous expression blanched, and her eyes showed shock and bewilderment.
I looked at her and then at the old duke. The last attack was blocked by a protective talisman on his necklace, which was shining slightly. And the object of attack, the dagger, was nicked at the edge.
The old duke still hadn't woken up after the attack. It meant that the effect of the wine was very strong. And anyone who had slept once will find himself deep in his slumber, unaware of anything happening to him.
I looked at Anais, who was still shocked. Other than shock, there was also a hint of sadness in her eyes. I walked up to the duke. Seeing me come closer, Anais started stepping backwards as if afraid of me. I stopped between the bed on which the duke was sleeping and the unnaturally behaving Anais.
I looked at her for a long time, my eyes dull and heavy. She didn't look directly at me. With her head low, she pulled out two daggers from her back, one in each hand. After a long time, she finally looked at me. This time, her eyes were neither sad and afraid nor murderous. But were full of determination.
We two didn't say a word. We eyed each other for a few moments, and then Anais leapt at me in a flash.
She slashed the daggers in such wondrous arcs as if she were making a painting. But at the end of their arcs were my vitals. Her attacks were like the steps of a mesmerising dance, which were welcoming the arrival of the grim reaper to take my life away.
I parried the attacks using my sword and tried to dodge them. But her attacks were lightning fast, leaving me many times undefended, and I had to use my free arm for defence. If not for the metal weights acting as a defensive shield for me, my limbs might have been shredded into many pieces.
Her cultivation level was not much higher than any other opponent of mine. She was at the peak of the River Formation Realm. But her movement speed and dagger arts were a deadly combination for anyone in close combat. And were also very difficult to face by myself.
We continued to fight, with her attacking swiftly at my vitals and me passively guarding against them. Her attacks were ferocious, leaving me no time to move away from her or use any other tricks.
But after many minutes of our continuous attack and defence, the intensity and frequency of her attacks slowed down. I took the chance and shot the metal weights in my arms in her direction.
Her slight delay in attack resulted in her defending against those plates. She dodged them nimbly by doing flips and twisting her body in poses unimaginable.
But her defence gave me time to increase the distance between us and lose all the metal weights on me. After removing them, I felt light. And I believed I could fight easily at her speed now.
She shot towards me for close combat this time, but I was already prepared. I externalised by stored energy on my sword and attacked her first.
In our second bout, the roles were reversed. It was me attacking Anais, and she was defending. I was not attacking her vitals but was trying to disarm her of her weapons.
My speed had far surpassed hers, and with my current offensive advantage, I overwhelmed her in no time and flicked the daggers away from her hands. I hit her limbs with the dull part of my sword and broke her arms. After getting her wholly unarmed, I pushed her down on the floor with my sword on her neck.
Even after breaking the bones in her arms, she didn't shout and was now lying on the ground with lifeless eyes. She looked at me with those eyes. Her face was now calm but sorrowful and exhausted.
"You are quite ruthless, aren't you? Even broke my dainty arms. How am I ever going to paint again?"
Her words were complaining, but she had a seductive smile. The smile contrasted with her lifeless gaze, making me feel pity for her. I wanted to ask something, but she continued before I could speak.
"Ahh, it was supposed to be easy to kill a comatose person. Who knew that he would wake up from his slumber… You know you had promised to fulfil one of my requests. Could you please let me kill the duke?"
I knew she was going to ask something unreasonable as her request, and this request was under my expectations. I would have even fulfilled it if not for my and Alice's good relationship with the Luna sisters. But this wasn't the case. So, I told her the same in a monotonous voice with my sword still pressing on her neck.
"Sorry, but I can't fulfil this request. Perhaps if the Luna sisters were not Alice's friends, then your wish would have been fulfilled. Any other request?"
She chuckled even when blood was tricking from her neck.
"You can't fulfil one but still are asking for another. ~Fufufu~ Let's see… I don't want much. Just promise me to do one thing after you kill me."
I nodded at her to continue.
"Torture the bastard emperor of the Vangan Empire to death. Torture him more than you did to the crown prince. Torture him so, he will beg you to give him the mercy of death. But instead, you will give him the slowest and most painful death as his reward for begging… Can you fulfil this request of mine?"
Her words were cold and brutal. An immeasurable amount of anger was behind those words. But her voice was low and relaxed with no agitation. Her expression was the same as before. And there was a pleading smile on her face.
Her words were shocking to me, not due to her request. But because of the mention of the crown prince. I didn't know when that 'eunuch' walked away from the forest. And the knowledge of him meeting Anais was also low.
And if she knew that we were present here, then why did she choose to attack the duke in our presence? Couldn't she try to kill the duke after we left? There were many questions I wanted answers to.
But before I could ask, she lifted herself up from the floor and stabbed herself in the neck with my sword. I had, by instinct, deflected my blade a little, but still, her major artery was cut open, and blood started gushing out from her neck.
She was still smiling wearily. And with her diminishing voice, she said.
"I didn't want you to see me betray you. But you did. Moving forward with the shackles controlling my free will was heavy, but I persevered. I had been betrayed and forced to do others bidding, but I still persevered. But you are different. It felt like I could leave my back to you and do the same for you. But life is a game, and ,I was forced to betray you this time. I was sad and unwilling to do so. But to get my freedom back, I had to persevere."
"But now, with my current state, I don't want to persevere anymore. I couldn't. I betrayed you and still couldn't get my freedom. I don't have any more strength left."
"I just wished that we could have been good friends till the end. Perhaps in another life…"
With the blood loss, her voice became lower and lower, and she finally stopped speaking with the melancholic smile. She was smiling from the start, but still, her words were full of helplessness and resignation.
I resonated with her last words and felt a piercing pain in my heart, like something shattering in me. Seeing her die in front of me, I felt like losing a part of my soul. With her body slowly losing the last embers of her life, I sat down and hugged her. The pain in my heart demanded that she couldn't die.
With my emotions in turmoil, the ability of 'Color Feel' was activated subconsciously. And I saw the earlier warmly burning flame being nearly completely engulfed by the gloomy and sinister flame. As her remaining life force diminished, the strength of the ominous flames increased.
I didn't want her to die. I couldn't let it happen.
So, I cut open my wrist, opened her mouth and started feeding her my blood along with my life force. Using the other hand, I healed her cut arteries and injected my stored stellar energy into her body.
Then I directed the continuous supply of my energy and life force on her meridians, her heart, her brain and the wound on her neck. I continued to heal the injured parts and gave the life force required to bring her back from the brink of death.
(If her life force fades out, then her soul will also leave her body and go into the cycle of reincarnation. I have to heal her and contain her life force as soon as possible. And then increase her life force to sustain the soul. If not, then the slightest attack from anyone else could destroy her soul.)
I didn't know how I got this thought, but I followed it nonetheless.
Her diminishing life force stopped flowing away after a couple of minutes. If I had delayed a few more seconds to stabilise it, then her soul would have left the body.
Now, her life force was very low, and I had to continuously supply my life force for many minutes. After a long and exhausting session, I finally made her life force reach the bare minimum level to sustain her soul.
By that time, my own life force had reached a critical level. That and due to exhaustion from my fully depleted energy reservoir, my vision blurred, and I fell on the floor with unconscious Anais in my arms.