[Shanteya’s point of view]

The Phantom Island had many facilities hidden under the guise of this endless barren wasteland. Scattered behind the cliffs of the mountains and stretching through intricate tunnels all the way deep underground, there were numerous caves created with the special purpose of hiding and training the deadliest assassins within the Phantom Rage Guild.

The weakest assassins that could be found on this island were of at least a lower Godlike Rank in terms of strength alone, which meant that the more powerful ones could reach lower Supreme Rank. They didn’t even compare to those found in the hideouts outside of Phantom Island, which I had encountered so far.

My fifteenth clone stumbled upon a poisonous plant plantation, where five skinny women were making sure to grow the deadliest flowers known to history. Their skills were decent when it came to combat, but an Over Clone was still an Over Supreme in its full right.

My fourth clone found a massive room filled with all sorts of torture devices. On several of them were assassins who were currently being taught how to survive and endure that painful process. I was familiar with this place because I also had the ‘luxury’ of being part of the ‘students’ at my old hideout. That place was smaller in comparison, but the scent of healing salves mixed with that of blood, sweat, and tears was the same. It was gross and nauseating, making my skin crawl just from taking a step inside.

Nobody liked to be tortured except for a few, slightly disturbing, weirdos, and I was not one of them. For me, those days were nothing more than slivers cut from a never-ending nightmare.

I could read it on the faces of those few who could be seen here that they would rather welcome death than spend another second trapped in those torture devices. Thus, I granted them this release.

My twelfth clone found the dormitory of the Fledgling Rank assassins. I entered the complex without making a sound and then dropped by each and every room inside that place. There were always six to twelve people sleeping inside. The hideouts did not have a personal room for someone of their rank, only the Elites and special ranks had one.

The blood of Fledglings dripped on the floor and stained the beds in all the rooms. Once I was done, my eighth clone dropped by and slit the throat of the patrols in the area. At the other side of the corridor, my fifth clone entered the office of the supervisor of the area and stabbed him in the heart with his own dagger. Three meters below, the third clone was putting some odorless and tasteless fast acting numbing poison in the food that was about to be served in the canteen. Once the vast majority was on the ground, the ninth clone would sweep in to kill the stragglers, while the third one was slitting the throats of those who consumed the poison and were left at the mercy of my daggers.

Just like that, my Over Clones were turning this once boisterous facility into a ghost settlement, all while making sure the master of this place never caught wind of my presence. Thankfully, there were no little children so far, or I might have hesitated to kill them, but not for more than a second or two. In this line of business, that small amount of time was enough to turn the tides against even the most powerful of foes.

From the way this entire place was mapped out, it appeared as though the office of the Master of the Phantom Rage Guild was located deep within the heart of the biggest mountain on this island. It was rumored to be an almost mythical place where you could always dare to step inside, but from where you could never leave alive. Among the many assassins back when I was still part of this organization, the mystery behind this master was one of the biggest gossip subjects as well as one of the few you were never allowed to let a single word of it slip to the outside.

Once I was freed from their curse, I had no problem in telling everything I knew about them to Illsy and my sister-wives. Zoreya, at first, was unfamiliar with my past, but once she found out, she was quite adamant to pick up her shield and bust through their front door to avenge me. It was very considerate of her, but also a bit futile as even an Apostle of Melkuth would have a hard time finding the hideouts of all the assassins of this organization.

The only reason I was now able to step on the Phantom Island was vastly due to the many skills I had acquired and polished over the past several years as well as the many lessons I went through regarding spying, infiltration, and assassination. I may not have been able to reach the rank of elites among my peers, but I was no doubt one of the few who bothered to study as much as she could about the organization’s inner workings.

“Truly, my life has been nothing but a nightmare ever since I was kidnapped and a most delightful dream ever since I met Illsy.” I said with a smile on my original body’s lips as I opened the entry door to the main facility.

What greeted me was a sea of corpses that laid sprawled on the ground or pinned to the walls. They had all been killed silently with their own weapons or with pure brute strength. Not even a single squeal left their lips before their soul was teared out of their bodies. Everywhere else on this island, my clones were doing an impressive job of cleaning up these scums. The kill count had already surpassed 1000 and there many more left alive and unaware of the silent assassins who approached them from the shadows.

With a calm step, I approached one of the libraries on this island. It was discovered by one of my clones, and its librarian was quite skilled in terms of detecting hidden individuals. Unfortunately, despite his exquisite skills that surprised even me, his pure combat power was not even worth mentioning. He puffed up his chest in front of me and gloated about his own might only to die after a single slap, his head now twisted at an unnatural angle.

There were many interesting tomes here, some from ages long forgotten, while others so recent that no more than a week had passed since they left the copier’s desk. The reason why I wanted to come here was to take all of these books before the assassins had the chance to burn them down. After all, one of the methods secret organizations employed to protect themselves was to destroy any and all existing documents in the compromised location, be them codex books or simple white sheets of paper.

“There is no dust on these shelves...” I said as I rubbed my finger over one of them.

Either they had a very skilled cleaning maid, or all of these documents and books were being put to good use almost on a daily basis. This alone came as a surprise, seeing as how even the students at the Illsyorea Magic Academy weren’t that eager to pick up all the books off their shelves, especially the newcomers who were of noble blood.

Looking towards the body of the dead librarian, I spotted not far from him a small book with several pieces scattered around it. I walked up to it and picked it up, casting my gaze upon the coded letters inside. The cipher used was a combination of what I was thought back when I was still a member of the organization and the old Teslov language.

“Is this of any relevance?” I wondered as I tried to read several passages.

They were mostly dates and numbers, but several of them had been scratched off several times, almost as if the information he gathered was at one point valid but then another source proved it to be false. Considering how much this book had been used, anything could be possible.

“It’s probably just the ramblings of some crazy old man...” I thought and then gathered the other papers.

On one of them, I read the words ‘The Dark Ones are not many, just one. And He’s coming for YOU.’

These words sent a chill rushing down my spine, and for a moment, I felt as though a very powerful being was staring right at my back. I could almost swear that it was right there, that I could hear his breathing and muscles as they tensed. The presence that washed over me was real, and in my mind, I could see his long fiendish hands ready to grasp my throat and squeeze the very life out of me. What I felt was pure fear of my own existence, but when I turned around, there was nothing there. That being, that entity, whatever it was... it was gone… if it was ever there in the first place.

“Dark Ones?” I wondered, but when I cast my gaze upon the piece of paper again, what I read was something else. “The Five Beasts of Heaven will turn to One, and Hope shall be lost in the world covered in Darkness. Shadows will rule and all will be lost for His grace will embrace all life to sacrifice it to Destruction.”

It was an even stranger piece of text, but I could not get the other one out of my mind, it made me... it made me afraid.

What could this mean? Am I being watched by some evil god? I wondered, and I could not really rule this option out since one of my sister-wives was an Apostle of Melkuth and Illsy’s very existence was that of a soul who reincarnated into the body of a Dungeon.

Nonetheless, I didn’t come here to be frightened by some illusion. If there was a god out there who bared a grudge against me, I couldn’t do anything except try my best to fight it off. Besides, while I didn’t see myself as a pious person, I never went so far as to cause sacrilege in the temple of the gods. Illsy did try at one point to pull a prank in the temple of the Goddess of Metalworking and the Goddess of the Hunt only to end up struck by a lightning that mysteriously left a palm print on each of his cheeks. He stayed like that for a week.

Maybe the two goddesses weren’t two happy with him writing in Romanian: ‘Hail to Big Boobs!’ on the foundation of their statues?

Letting out a sigh, I tried not to let the idea that I was going up against gods frighten me. For all I knew, what I just saw could have very well been a very elaborate illusion magic that simply took me by surprise. Thus, without further ado, I began to absorb all the books in this library, down to very last piece of paper.

Stepping out of this room, I then followed the trail of blood and corpses, which led me deeper and deeper underground.

At that very moment, all of my clones were in the middle of either killing an assassin or chasing down after one. They did everything with absolute stealth, employing their own tricks and new ones against them. I wasn’t merciful at all even when I encountered a child of no more than fourteen years old. His killing intent was as real as it could be and there was only a maniac’s blood thirst in his eyes. In this place, there was no need for mercy.

“So many young ones...” I said at one point as I stopped next to the body of a el’doraw girl of around twenty years old.

All of these young adults that were present here could only mean that they had shown an incredible talent in assassination as well as a strong desire to put it in action, otherwise, let alone leaving the hideout, they wouldn’t have ever been allowed to take a single step on this accursed island.

Even so, taking the lives of the young ones was never easy, only the thought that they had chosen a path of evil put my heart at ease, thus, I wished to never hear their life stories.

Every step I took along this sinister corridor riddled with the mortal remains of assassins felt as though it made me pry open the gates of my hellish past little by little with a crowbar made from pure hate, fear, and wrath. The one I was going to meet now was the bastard who ordered my fate to be scratched and cut to piece by the way of life within this Guild.

No little girl or little boy deserved what I went through, no matter their past or parents, their innocence was never supposed to be stained by the darkness of this world. In a way, this Phantom Rage Guild felt more like the cult of a Dark God than the ones those black-hooded acolytes we met in the past.

The eerie feeling I was getting from this corridor was also mostly due to the way it was built. There was only a straight path that led into the darkness, with only a pair of torches lit up at the very end of it. The tunnel was shaped like a giant archway, with smooth walls made from onyx stone, cut smooth, with no ridges or bumps in it. The floor was made from a black and white marble combination that had wave-like bumps on it. The design reminded me of the mirror mazes built by Illsy, which could bring anyone one step closer to madness.

When I reached the end of the tunnel, a pair of massive marble doors stopped me from going farther. Only someone who was past Emperor Rank could wield enough strength to push them open.

I stopped there. My mind spread out to my Over Clones and patiently waited for them to do their jobs and kill off any and all stragglers. One of them moved to the surface and waited there for Illsy. I was looking out towards the sea, in the direction of the lone island Illsyorea. As the time went by, more and more of the souls who lived here met their doom, dying to my silent attacks.

Yet, with all this blood that was splattered on my hands, I didn’t feel dirty at all. There was no worry in my heart regarding my possible sins. Maybe my sister-wives would have never accepted such an outcome. Killing so many people without giving them the right to a fair trial felt wrong and unjust, but in this world where the Phantom Rage Guild made its living through killing, there was no such thing as a fair trial.

The only ones who could judge them was probably Illsy, but by the time he was done with them, they would have died because of the curse.

“Yet, in a way, I’m lying to myself, aren’t I?” the topside clone said as she looked down at her hands.

A single tear formed in the corners of the eyes of each of my clones. I wiped it off and then continued with the slaughter.

I was probably deluding myself, trying to see kindness and honor in barbarism, but the truth was always as obvious as it could be, and deep down... it hurt. After all, what I was doing was nothing more than an absolute genocide against anyone and anything that crossed my path. In no more than half an hour, the whole island fell into a somber silence as the scent of iron filled the air.

One of my clones approached me in silence and with a nod, she stepped forward, opening the doors to the Guild Master’s office. There was no reason to put my real body in danger like this. Even one clone was a bit too much for him, but tonight, I wasn’t merely planning on defeating this monster who ruined so many lives throughout the years. No, I was going to humiliate him and then kill him while making it obvious that he wasn’t even worth for me to go at full strength against him.

Having my main body come all the way here to his front doors was enough for someone like him.

As I slipped back into the shadows, heading up to the surface, my clone stepped inside the Guild Master’s office.

Six-meter-tall bookcases were placed against the walls of this circular room that had a diameter of 60 meters. It was a perfect circle with his office made from obsidian placed at the very center of it. Each was filled with countless documents and books from various ages. There were no weapons on his walls or armors on stands, only books upon books.

This scene of this man turning the pages of a small book the size of his palm took me by surprise, yet he neither flinched nor turned around to look at me. He stayed there, in front of his desk, continuing to read, while I moved closer to the bookcase on my right. With the tip of my fingers, I touched the wooden spine of one of the books and then pulled it out.

“The Ancient Gods of Myasdril.” I said as I read the title.

“An interesting piece that one. Written by a monk over 15000 years ago with the intent of warning the people of the future about the dangers the Apostles of the Forgotten Gods would bring to this world. What fascinates me about it is the fact that he speaks of Dungeons as being some sort of machines from the void among the stars. A silly concept, if I were to say so myself.” the Guild Master said as he closed the book and then turned around to look at me.

“Indeed... Interesting.” I replied and then placed the book back on its shelf.

After I killed him, I was going to loot this entire place.

“Do I know you? Were you give a name?” he asked in a calm tone of voice as if my presence here didn’t disturb him at all.

While this conversation was happening, my clones approached this room one after another, waiting for their time to burst in and take him down.

“Shanteya Dowesyl... I was brought here at the age of ten.” I replied.

“Ah, that one! You were supposed to have died back then, you know?” he said as he rubbed his chin and then looked up at the ceiling.

A thick layer of glass separated this place from the outside world, where a powerful illusion stopped others from finding this place too easily. The glass ceiling was more of a statement of his power than one of show of aesthetics. It invited all those who dared to challenge him to step up and come at him.

“Who ordered my death?” I asked.

“Does it matter?” he asked as he looked back at me.

“Yes.” I nodded.

A moment of silence fell upon us as he looked into my eyes, almost as if he was trying to probe me and discover any secrets I dared to hide from him. There were many, but he was unworthy to listen to them.

“A rival of your family. You can take a guess as to which one of their members forked out the money. I doubt they remember.” he shrugged.

“Why was I made into one of you.” I asked without showing even the slightest bit of emotion on my face.

“Curiosity.” he replied narrowing his eyes at me.

“...”

“I could have ordered your death the moment you were brought to the hideout, but the one who captured you, actually thought that you would do better as a trained assassin for us. I can’t say he was wrong, you ended up as a beautiful and strong woman, worthy of the title of a Phantom not a Doll.” he said, trying to lure me into the trap of believing that somehow he predicted my growth over the years.

Normally, one would question the reason as to why someone as powerful as the Guild Master took interest in a simple Broken Doll like me, but when thinking about the fact that he would have had to keep an eye out for me all these years, it would be more reasonable to believe that he simply ordered his elite assassins, the Phantoms, to investigate my background.

The reason was a simple one: the assassins sent to Illsyorea failed miserably in their mission. The Elites of Phantom Rage never failed. This was the rule.

As for the Phantoms, they were the most powerful and well-trained assassins under the direct command of this man. No one dared to underestimate them when they were dispatched, but at the same time, I couldn’t say they put up a good fight against me.

They were all Supreme in strength, but each Phantom I met on this island still crumbled under one strike from my clones. No matter their Magic Armor, the levels they gathered, or the number of spells they researched, in the end, all of them proved to be absolutely worthless against me.

When I asked Illsy to help me train my stealth, speed, and agility, he made for me several dangerous training courses with his dungeon-building skills and allowed me to go through them. At first, it was absolutely nightmarish, but as I continued to persevere, it got better, and I was able to eventually reach the end. My other sister-wives had similar experiences, and only Ayuseya received a more personal training, since she had a bit of trouble at first controlling that powerful dragon form of hers.

“That’s a lie.” I said with a smile back at him.

“Oh? How so?” he asked raising an eyebrow.

“You rarely leave this place... Everyone knows this, so it would have been impossible for you to be there to give such a precise order, besides, who was I to you? A simple, useless little Broken Doll. Until I met my husband, I had neither power nor fortunes, I was nothing. Even after I encountered him, there were still many many trials I had to go through before reaching this point. If you could foresee such things, when even Melkuth was unable to, then you would be someone with a power beyond that of a god.” I replied in a calm tone of voice as I began to walk around him, keeping a safe distance from him, at least for now.

“Kukuku! True.” he laughed and then looked back at the door. A frown was cast upon his smirking face.

“No one is coming.” I told him after a while.

“Oh? You took care of my Phantoms?” he asked with a smirk.

“On this island, there’s only you and me right now. Everyone else is nothing more than a wondering spirit ready to take the first boat to the Netherworld.” I told him.

“You...” he glared at me.

“I came here prepared, old master of mine.” I told him.

The man clenched his fist until he started to bleed, but then he relaxed his hand and turned his back at me. With a calm and slow step, he walked over to the third bookcase from the door and picked up a single document from there. Just from looking at the aged paper, I could tell that it was old, very old.

The Guild Master opened the document and then began to read a few lines from it.

“Do you know how Phantom Rage came to be?” he asked after a moment had passed.

“No, but why would you be inclined to share this story with me?” I asked.

“You deserve that much for what you have done. If I am to die tonight or whether I am to kill you, I do not know yet, but I wish to tell you this story anyway.” he said.

“I see. Carry on, then.” I told him.

“I was born to a peasant family more than a thousand years ago. I was an ordinary kid for that time.” he started.

“You should be dead by now.” I pointed out.

“Elves age slower than the rest. My human ears right now... they are a ‘gift’ from someone in my past.” he showed me a smile. “That man said that I was too ugly without them.” he shrugged and then continued, but not before he rolled the old scroll and placed it back on its shelf.

When looking at him from afar, the Guild Master was a man around thirty years of age with strong muscles covering his body and several deep scars that reminded you of a ruffian. He had a long black hair tied up in a ponytail, and a short beard that cover his face. He wore clothes that were easy to move in, mostly a white silk shirt and a pair of cotton pants padded with studded leather. His Magic Armor, as far as I could tell, it was the highest among all the assassins I had met so far.

If he didn’t tell me that he was actually an elf, I wouldn’t have believed him if he told me he was a human. He barely resembled the slim elves who cared so much about their own beauty and didn’t value the idea of developing their own muscles. In this world, having a ridiculous amount of Magic Energy could grant you as much strength as you desired, if you knew how to use it properly.

“There isn’t that much to talk about my childhood, but I always felt that the people around me were a bit too... naive... sometimes, too happy, as if willingly ignoring the darkness in this world. Do you know what I mean?” he asked as he looked back at me.

I did not reply. I just stared at him with a blank look on my face.

“There were a lot of people who loved to kill and also a lot who wished they could die, but no one was there to grant them their wish.” he shrugged and then turned back at the bookcase. This time, he picked up a thick book wrapped up in hardened animal skin. “I wasn’t one who loved to kill, but death... was a necessity.”

“...”

“At the age of twelve, I began to practice fighting techniques on my own by imitating the knights who were training outside. I was caught a few times, but they let me be because I was a peasant and a child. There wasn’t anything dangerous about me.” he let out a sigh and then flipped through the pages a few times “I was sixteen when I made my first kill... a boy from the village. He was weak and fragile... so I took the liberty of freeing him from his mortal chains.”

“What made you think you had the right to be the judge of his fate?” I asked.

“I raised my hand against him. I killed him, but neither fate nor the gods intervened to stop me. If they had, I would have backed away, but up until the last moment, no one came to his rescue.” I was left alone to my own devices, so it was then when I knew, when I realized that the gods and fate had no care about us mortals. We could do as we pleased. We could punish whom we pleased. We could kill whom we pleased, and they wouldn’t so much as raise a finger against us because they didn’t wish to bother themselves with something as feeble as this.” he told me and then laughed.

“You never thought that you might be wrong?” I asked.

“Wrong? Never.” he shook his head “I was also skeptic about this revelation of mine, but only at first. Once proof after proof of my reasoning was dropped in my lap, I understood that this was the true face of this world.” he smiled and then closed his book “This is an old version of the Book of the Dead. The spells here are the foundation of necromancy in our present time. First of its kind and only of its kind. If those poor idiots at the Magic Academies all over the world knew of its existence, then they would understand so much more and realize that they were still at the very first page of the book called ‘Knowledge’.” he laughed.

He placed the book back on its shelf.

“Ixion was my name... I never kept it.” he shook his head. “They called me Zeros while I was adventuring throughout the world. My party at that time was called ‘The Phantoms’. Ironic, isn’t it?” he showed me e wry smile “Then, at the age of 25, I took my first assassination contract. My target was the old lady from a noble’s mansion. Didn’t even had to enter the house to kill her, but I wanted to see the look in her eyes once she realized that her time in this world was up.” he smiled “It was beautiful, filled with fear and madness despite her old age.”

“You killed for pleasure.” I remarked.

“I still do, but no one knows this.” he shrugged.

“I never found out what’s so interesting about killing. My family despises it and tried their very best to stay away from it.” I told him.

“Yet, here you are, assassin of the Phantom Rage, with hands soaked in the blood of all those who made their living on this little island of mine. Why did you do it, I wonder?” he asked me with a smile.

“To make sure that you had no way of calling for reinforcement. I was trained by this guild, but my skills were further polished by my husband.” I replied.

“Leave no witness behind... Spare no soldier before you face the general, huh? Sounds like a good tactic, if you have the strength, especially when you know those poor fellows under your target don’t have a say in the matter.” he nodded.

“They were easy kills.”

“Of course, my lady Shanteya is... what did you call yourselves? Ah, yes... an Over Supreme.” he nodded.

“It’s not a secret.” I pointed out.

“True, but you are still a frog at the bottom of the well, who had yet to jump out to see the vast world outside of it.” he told me.

“I’m not the frog, I’m the snake outside, waiting for my snack to make a jump.” I furrowed my brow.

“Impressive pride you have there, but be careful, you might get kicked off of your high horse one day. I wouldn’t be surprised if you managed to kick yourself down either.” he scoffed. “But getting back to the subject, this organization... The Phantom Rage was built after a noble ordered the assassination of my party. I was the sole survivor.”

“You made this guild just to get back at that noble?” I asked.

“Hm? No.” he shook his head. “The whole country. The reason why the mighty Zastoral Empire on the Sorone Continent met its doom was none other than me. Once that elf empire was gone, all of them scattered to the farthest corners of the map, and I did my best to kill as many of them as I could.” he showed me a smile.

“You butchered your own country and your own species?” I furrowed my brow at him.

“Yes, it was fun.” he nodded.

“You have no remorse or principles.” I spat.

“Remorse? No, but I do have principles. They were just a bit more difficult to understand by the average frog in the well.” he laughed.

“Non-existent principles are indeed difficult to understand. They plague their user with various delusions of grandeur and narcissism, but what do I know?” I scoffed.

“Your tongue is like a whip... made from the hair of rotten Merions.” he retorted.

“At least, unlike you, they have a use in this world. Then again, what use was this Phantom Rage Guild of yours supposed to have? You cursed your members and forced them into doing your deranged bidding.“ I asked him.

“Like any other assassin guild out there, we provide numerous services, from espionage to regicide. We don’t back away from any type of despicable deed, after all, who is there to stop us?” he shrugged and showed me a smile “For centuries now, we have pushed history in our favor in every country out there. It mattered not what the others cried and wished for, we were the ones who decided their fates with the tip of our blade and its edge that could cut through their weak flesh.” he declared.

“Indeed, up until now, there has been no one to stand in front of the Phantom Rage Guild. Be them kings or heroes, they all failed when faced with your might.”

“Quite true. Quite true.” he nodded with a satisfied smile on his lips.

“Up until now that is...” I narrowed my eyes at him.

The Guild Master looked back me, his eyes locked in with mine, staring down at me, challenging me, but I didn’t waver. I took him head on and refused to back away. He would need more than a glare to make me feel a little worried.

“You sound pretty confident in your own abilities, little miss. Don’t you believe that you might be a little too young to go against someone like me?” he asked, a strong pressure in the tone of his voice.

“My confidence comes from experience.” I replied.

“I can only wonder what you’ve been through to claim such a foolish thing.” he shook his head. “Do you know what our exact orders were for your fate, little miss?” he asked me as he began to walk on the opposite side of the room.

“Can’t say I do.”

“We were supposed to kill Shanteya Dowesyl, cut up her body in pieces and then have them scattered throughout the entire Dowesyl Mansion in the Mondravia Kingdom. The fool who was sent to do this, for some unfathomable reason, decided that it would be better to simply rape you in the temple of a god of Darkness... At that time, my guild’s curse was passed on to you as well, making you an official member. Regarding this, we ended up failing the mission, but... I decided to spare that fool because he brought you into our guild.” he explained.

“That’s pretty morbid, but to make things simpler, you just heard of this weird incident and then let it off. I still find it exceedingly difficult to believe that someone of your stature and ego would actually lift an eyebrow towards my little insignificant case. Rather, you just saw it as more favorable for you to gain a new potential assassin than bother with the little money you gained from this one assassination, which... if I’m not wrong, it was also a bit too unfavorable for the guild’s reputation, right?” I asked with a smile.

At the same time, I felt a powerful presence approaching the island. The clone that was above the ground looked up towards the sky. The presence was coming from the direction of the Teslov Kingdom, but there was no doubt in my mind as to whom that powerful individual was. It was friendly and calm, a bit playful and maybe a bit perverted too.

“Unfavorable, true, but in the end, you were an asset that both brought glory to my organization but also tragedy. And... Hm? You brought reinforcements; it seems...” he said as he looked up in the direction of the presence.

“No. My husband is here only to be witness to your demise at my hand. You have my word that we will not interfere in this battle.” I told him.

“Oh? That’s very brave and foolish of you.” he remarked as he looked back at me.

“I doubt it.” I shook my head.

“No matter what, this little chat has been rather pleasant for me. I don’t offer the privilege of a chat to those I plan to kill.” he smiled.

“This privilege you speak of was actually granted to you by me, and you will know in a bit just why it is so.” I showed him a smile.

At this moment, the reason why I bothered to converse with the Guild Master like this was partially due to my curiosity, but also because I was interested to see just what type of individual he was. The mask he was showing me right now was that of a calculated and composed man who understood both his own strength and that of his opponent. His many remarks regarding his own superiority was nothing more than his fragile attempt at stalling for time to gather Magic Energy into his Magic Armor and the various artifacts on his person.

I would have been a fool if I didn’t notice such a simple thing, but only those with Magic Energy flow perception could do it. This skill was something Illsy helped us learn, but it did require a bit of focus from our side.

Since the clone that was facing him didn’t seem to hold an impressive Magic Energy pool, he jumped to the conclusion that I might not be capable of showing abilities that could surpass his. My clone wasn’t wearing the best of my items either, but even those were more than enough to kill him. Or at the very least, this was what I hoped for.

I wasn’t a fool as to believe that I always held the upper ground. Even if this were a safe battle for me from my point of view, there were still plenty of things that could go wrong at the very last second. Him holding onto some sort of instant death artifact wasn’t beyond his abilities and resources either. This elf had survived all this time in a business marked by death and suffering, so letting my guard down against him was a fool’s choice.

In the end, there were many ways this battle could end up for the both of us. Illsy taught me that all of my abilities and skills were determined by the way I learned to use and control Magic Energy. Without it, we were all just simple individuals that could die from a simple slap from a Beginner Rank Adventurer. Without magic, this whole world would cease to be.

“In that case, there’s no need to continue this conversation of ours. The might of our fists shall be the judge of our fate.” he declared with a scoff.

“Very well...” I said and then my clone began to release a more menacing presence, the complete opposite of what I usually did in battle.