Groaning could be heard from the collapsed people—numbering more than thirty—in the drake's nest at the highest peak of the Jamari mountain range, which seemed to reach the red moon.
"Sniff…"
"P-please save me."
"Uwaah…"
"P-please!"
Everyone had a dark hole in their bodies. Strangely, no blood was flowing from the wounds.
However, the holes were getting gradually larger, and their blackened blood vessels could be seen. The flesh around the holes was being crushed like rotten fruit.
"..."
The Black Commander looked down on them coldly, as if he were looking at insects, before he made his way down from the peak.
"Izzel."
"Yes."
A small, blond-haired woman stepped forward and knelt upon hearing the Black Commander's call.
"How are the preparations going?"
"It's done. The drake shall return before sunrise."
A black sphere floated from Izzel's hand. Her eyes turned serious as she looked into the sphere.
"What about the Black Spirits?"
"They are guarding the surrounding area to reduce the burden on the Floor Overseer. They will start their move once the drake returns."
"Good job."
The Black Commander nonchalantly nodded. He went to the stone mountain on the right and concealed his presence to avoid being noticed by the drake.
"Black Commander."
Izzel hid behind the boulder next to the Black Commander and quietly called to him.
"What's the matter?"
"Why did you bring your noble self here when we would've been enough to take care of the matter?"
"..."
The Black Commander stared at Izzel without saying anything.
"Hmm…"
Izzel bit her lip tightly. She seemed to be afraid of his dark eyes.
"It was the order from the tower's vice-master."
"Th-the vice-master's order…"
"The drake that settled here is a special one that can use the power of ice. It might turn into a mythical monster if we feed it with the mana of darkness in the sacrifices."
The Black Commander responded emotionlessly and looked up to the summit.
"A mythical monster…"
Izzel clenched her fist while following his gaze.
'This is my chance.'
The lengthy explanation from the Black Commander implied how much he trusted her. She wanted to be recognized by the Black Commander, who was acting under the direct order of the tower's vice-master.
"P-please leave the drake's capture to me. I won't disappoint you."
"Izzel."
"Yes."
Izzel raised her head upon hearing the call. However, she could never hear the response she was looking for.
"You just need to amplify the mana of darkness inside the sacrifices and call the drake. That's the only job you have."
"Ah…"
"You should know your place before running your mouth."
"P-please excuse me!"
Izzel lowered her head with a trembling chin. She couldn't move at all because she could feel the cold gaze piercing her.
"..."
However, the Black Commander wasn't even interested in her. He quietly kept staring at the summit just like when he'd arrived.
* * *
Five summits were rising on the other side of the stone mountain where the Black Tower's masked men were hiding.
Loktan frowned while crouching between those summits.
'What's happening? Why are the Black Tower goons around here?'
He managed to quickly arrive at the mountain range thanks to 'his' teleportation magic, but the first thing he saw was the Black Tower's masked men, who were dragging ordinary people to the summit.
He would've been discovered if he'd arrived a bit earlier or later, but the Black Tower didn't notice his presence because they were too occupied with injecting the mana of darkness into the people before amplifying it.
'Are they also targeting the drake?'
Judging from the situation, they seemed to be unaware of Raon's arrival, and they were preoccupied with injecting the mana of darkness into the people to feed them to the drake.
Loktan smiled coldly while looking at the stone mountain, where the naked men were hiding.
'Perfect.'
Since Raon Zieghart was named the Frostfire Sword of Valor, there was no way he would overlook the situation.
He was bound to clash against the Black Tower, which meant that he could get his job done without having to do any work.
'No, no. A painless death is wasted on him.'
His lord had been annoyed by Raon Zieghart many times in the past. Loktan figured that it would leave a bitter taste in his mouth if he let such an unpleasant bastard have an easy death.
Whap.
Loktan snickered and raised his finger. Gray and green energies emerged from between his index and middle fingers.
'This is the best one to use when it comes to pain.'
They were concentrated poisons. The gray was from a mineral, and the green was from a plant.
'I'll make you have your last dance as you die.'
They were already powerful poisons as they were, but combining the two created a poison called the Devil's Bloody Dance, named as much because the struggle of the affected one looked like a dancer bewitched by a devil.
The poison was difficult to use, but he was confident he could poison everyone by spreading it while Raon was fighting against the Black Tower.
Whir.
Loktan carefully concocted the poison when the team leader of his poison crew walked up to him.
"Sir Loktan."
"What's the matter?"
"Shouldn't we be reporting the Black Tower's arrival?"
He briefly licked his lips while pointing at the location where the Black Tower was hiding.
"We don't need to."
Loktan slowly shook his head.
"But…"
"You must be feeling insecure because the order to report is engraved in your brain, but we don't need to do it today."
He snickered while pointing behind him.
"Because our lord has already sent additional informants."
Loktan smiled coldly as he completed the Devil's Bloody Dance.
"I-I'm sorry."
The team leader bowed to him and stepped back.
"Don't worry about such a trivial matter. Did you finish your preparations?"
"Yes."
The team leader nodded.
"We can change the direction of the wind to spread the poison whenever you want."
"Alright, be ready."
Loktan grinned while tapping the back of his hand, where the Devil's Bloody Dance was dwelling, with his finger.
"For our dancer's arrival."
* * *
Yes, that's right. Start by cladding yourself with wrath.
Wrath's voice was quietly echoing in his ears.
You have to use the wrath instead of the aura. That's the real way of using the Perception of the Snow Flower.
Raon nodded and widened his perception as much as possible. The wrath surged from the bottom of his soul to spread toward the end of his aura perception.
It felt like his skin was stretching endlessly. He realized that the Perception of the Snow Flower was really supposed to use wrath as fuel instead of aura, just like Wrath had said.
Don't stop there yet.
Wrath's wrath was seeping into him. He wasn't trying to take over his body, he was trying to help him further extend his perception.
Once you are clad in wrath, spread yourself into nature. It should feel like you are becoming one with nature.
Raon carved Wrath's advice in his mind and scattered his mana mixed with wrath. It felt the same as when flowers were blooming from the Flame Spirit. The extremely thin and intricate mana incorporating the wrath scattered all around the world.
Whap!
He felt like he was taking off eye patches that were covering his soul, and his vision—or, rather, all of his perception—broke through its limits and expanded endlessly.
Whoosh!
The stench of a gutter could be scented from the rocky mountain on the right side. It was the location where the Black Tower's masked men were hiding.
'Is he the one?'
One of their number's pressure was particularly nasty, and Raon figured that he must've been the Black Commander, one of the Black Tower's floor overseers.
Raon identified the presence of the Black Commander, a magician with a relatively large amount of energy, and thirty Black Spirits before moving his aura perception to the left.
Pssh.
He could feel the presence of forty people above a steep summit. They were the shadows sent by Derus.
'So they are here after all.'
Raon guessed that they must've used teleportation magic since they'd arrived earlier than himself. He started to identify their presence one by one when he felt a huge yet familiar poisonous aura.
'Wait, is that Loktan?'
There weren't many deviants in the world who carried such a disgusting stench of poison with them. He must've been Loktan, a poisoner who taught the shadows how to use poison.
'I get to see another piece of trash here.'
Loktan had turned an entire village into a poisoned area instead of his target in the past when he was trying out a new poison he'd made.
He'd also fed snake venom to Raon and the other children during a poison lesson and left them until they were on the verge of death.
'The ones next to him aren't any better.'
Loktan's poison crew used human venom, which is acquired by killing people.
The amount of poison they had suggested that they'd massacred people unrelated to their mission, just like Loktan. Their disgusting aura told him that they were definitely murdering people for fun.
'Perfect. I wanted to take care of them.'
Raon was aware of why Loktan was sent by Derus Robert. He must've been planning to poison him, as an average assassin wouldn't achieve anything against him.
'However… It won't work against me.'
The fact that he already knew about Loktan's poison was one of the reasons, but he also had Poison Resistance and the Ring of Fire. He could devour such garbage poison without any issue.
'Thank you for underestimating me.'
Derus was going to lose another precious subordinate of his.
As for the last, Raon focused his senses at the highest summit of the Jamari mountain range where the drake's nest was located.
'About thirty-five people…'
The number of villagers on the summit was smaller than what he'd heard from the agent.
'They must've used them to call the drake.'
He could guess that the Black Tower's masked men had killed some of the villagers and scattered their blood in order to hasten the drake's return.
'They aren't in a good condition.'
A powerful demonic energy was coming out from their bodies because they were poisoned by the mana of darkness.
All of them are going to die before tomorrow morning at this rate.
'Indeed.'
He agreed with Wrath. They didn't have much time left.
You must save them at all costs, for the sake of the King of Essence's desserts!
Raon smiled faintly. Even though his motivation was dessert, he was grateful that Wrath was doing his best to save people.
'Don't worry, Dorian has arrived.'
He could feel an extremely small presence behind the summit where the people were located. It was small enough that he wouldn't have been able to feel it without Wrath's help, and Dorian was sticking to the side of the summit.
'It's my turn now.'
Raon exhaled softly before he reduced the Perception of the Snow Flower and focused on the Snow Flower's Veil instead.
Whap!
The wrath in his soul engulfed his body and assimilated him into the world. He buried his presence into the flowing scents of wind and soil.
It's not enough yet.
Wrath shook his finger, telling him that he could do better.
Feel nature more deeply. Imagine that you are breathing with your lungs instead of your nose.
He unleashed his wrath to show the example. Wrath seeped into the flow of the world, and his plump cotton candy body couldn't be found anymore for an instant.
'Alright.'
Raon analyzed Wrath's flow through the Ring of Fire and engulfed himself with the exact same flow.
Unlike the Perception of the Snow Flower, which felt like his body was scattered in all directions, he felt like the world was entering his body.
Whir.
His presence used to be as small as a pebble, but it diminished to the size of a grain of sand.
It's pretty decent now.
Wrath nodded, saying that it wasn't too bad.
However, you'll be found out if you get too close.
'I know.'
He needed them to find out anyway to make the Black Tower bastards follow his presence.
Raon calmed himself before he moved to the right. He used the Supreme Harmony's Third Step to move like flowing water and reached behind a Black Spirit who was guarding at the edge.
Psh.
He stabbed the Black spirit's heart with the Blade of Requiem and covered his mouth. He didn't even know what happened to him as he immediately perished.
Wh-what? Why is this so clean?
'I already told you, I'm good with assassination.'
He immediately moved aside to sever the second Black Spirit's neck. Just like the previous one, he sank into the darkness before he could even let out the smallest groan.
Raon went around outside the Black Commander's perception range to eliminate the Black Spirits one after the other.
After he killed five Black Spirits, he went towards the center.
'He will find out if I assassinate them from this distance.'
Moving silently should've been fine, but the Black Commander was going to notice if he assassinated anyone. However, that was the key part of his plan.
Psh.
Raon went towards the center and pierced the heart of the closest black-robed man.
Wham!
Even though the assassination didn't make any sound at all, a frightening amount of energy burst from the rocky mountains. The Black Commander was unleashing his mana of darkness.
'I did it!'
He used the Supreme Harmony's Second Step, which was the fastest, to run to the other side of the summit. He unleashed a small amount of the Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation and fired it to the front. The faint heat spread around like perfume and created a line between the rocky mountain where the Black Tower was located and the summit where the poison crew was hiding.
'It's your turn now, Black Commander.'
Instead of heading to the summit, Raon escaped to a hill that he'd previously investigated with a smile on his face.
'Have fun with the trash.'
"Izzel."
The Black Commander called to the woman who looked like a magician inside the rocky mountain.
"Yes."
"Gather the Black Spirits."
"But right now…"
"Hurry up."
"U-understood!"
The woman called Izzel gathered the Black Spirits, but only twenty-four of them appeared.
"H-how is this happening…?"
"There's an assassin."
The Black Commander narrowed his eyes while looking at the summit on the other side, where he could feel a faint fragrance of mana.
"Cast the scanning spell in that direction."
"Ah, yes."
Izzel scanned, and the mana's flow became visible. The red line was directed at the multiple summits on the west.
"I-it's connected to that location. And…"
"So the assassins were there."
"Yes. Around forty people are hiding their presence!"
"You vermin, how dare you!"
The Black Commander ground his teeth and kicked the ground. The darkness burst out around him to spread into black wings.
"Follow the floor overseer!"
Izzel and the Black Spirits started running towards the summit and followed the Black Commander.
* * *
"Wh-what?!"
Loktan's jaw dropped as he saw the Black Commander and the black-robed men running towards him.
"Why are they coming here?!"
He could feel a faint heat around him, and they suddenly started to run towards him like crazy. He couldn't understand what was happening.
"I-it looks like they discovered us."
The team leaders walked up to him and swallowed nervously.
"How?!"
"We aren't sure about that…"
They shook their heads, telling him that they couldn't understand either.
"God damn it!"
Loktan swore and stood up. He could tell that the Black Commander had found out his location.
"Move the wind. We are getting rid of them before the mission."
The Black Tower was extremely persistent, as expected of people who use the mana of darkness. They were going to follow even if they escaped, which meant that killing them while they still had the geographical advantage was the best option.
Whir!
Loktan raised his hand. The Devil's Bloody Dance that he'd concocted a moment ago burst out like an invisible heat haze.
'It can't be helped.'
He'd prepared the poison to kill Raon, but he didn't have time. He had to use it to defend against the Black Tower.
Whoosh!
He released the Devil's Bloody Dance into the wind that the team leaders had created. The colorless and odorless poison followed the wind and spread throughout the Black Tower's group.
Right before the Devil's Bloody Dance fell upon the tower's spirits, the Black Commander raised his hand from the spearhead. The black claws emerging from his hand looked huge enough to reach the sky.
"Die."
He slashed with the claws of darkness as he spoke, and the entire summit was cut apart.
"Damn it!"
Loktan bit his lip and stepped back. The summit that was hiding them was severed in a single strike, and it could only be described as insane.
"Spread out! Spread out and kill them! I'll take care of that violent boar!"
"Yes!"
The poison users who managed to survive scattered in all directions and thrust their swords at the Black Spirits.
"So you were the one who did it."
The Black Commander's black eyes were directed at Loktan.
"Life for life, according to the Black Tower's laws."
The extensive energy spreading from his hands looked like he was clad in the night. He almost looked like he was holding a sword of darkness.
"You crazy bastard! What have we even done to you?!"
Loktan climbed towards the peak and threw daggers from his hands. Five blades with different poisons applied in them pierced through the air toward the Black Commander's vitals like an eagle.
Clang!
The Black Commander fended off the daggers with his darkness-clad cape before he closed the distance from the front.
"You are the ones who started it."
"We didn't even do anything! I don't know what happened to you, but it was someone else's doing!"
"Make it believable at least. You reek of the stench of an assassin."
"It was not our doing!"
Loktan slammed his chest in frustration.
"You unleashed the wind and poison as soon as we approached. You looked like you were waiting for it."
"But that was made for someone else…"
"Your chance is over."
The black eyes glowed from the Black Commander, and the mana of darkness burst out like a fire around him. His long claws bent like a whip to fall upon Loktan like lightning.
Whaam!
The summit that Loktan had been climbing was cut apart and started to fall under the cliff.
"Damn it!"
Loktan bit his lip tightly as he jumped down from the summit. The yellow aura of poison was emerging around his body.
"Fine, I'll grant your wish and kill you."
He created a wall of poison and glared viciously at him.
"I'll melt you down without leaving a single bone!"
"I'll turn your flesh into a sacrifice!"
The Black Commander's mana of darkness and Loktan's poison clashed against each other.
Whaam!
They weren't the only ones. The poison users and the Black Tower's masked men started to fight against each other all over the Jamari mountain range.
Claang!
The endless clashes between the assassins' blades and the energies of darkness created a dissonant orchestra throughout the area.
Raon softly lowered his hand like a conductor from the top of a hill, where he could witness the entire hellish scenery.
Poison and the mana of darkness.
They were both nasty energies that sucked the life out of their opponents alongside intense pain. The Black Spirits and the poison users were the perfect matches for each other.
Raon raised his eyes to examine the drake's nest on the other side.
'He managed to climb.'
Dorian had reached the drake's nest in the midst of the chaos. His trembling limbs revealed his extreme fear, but Raon was proud of him since he kept moving to save people.
'Now then…'
A deadly glow sparkled in Raon's eyes as he watched Loktan and the Black Commander attack each other with a poisonous fist and claws of darkness.
'Let's prepare for the grand finale.'