The Sword and The Shadow

Descent of the Worldender

"Hmph…" Alfreid smirked. The dust hadn't settled, but he was almost certain that Leguna was dead. Soulslay wasn't a saint, but he definitely wouldn't let Leguna escape, having had the expertise to train so many assassins for the empire in the past decade. Alfreid believed that no matter how powerful Leguna was, he would be heavily injured, if not dead, after receiving the blow.

He didn't worry about Soulslay, who had countless methods he could use to escape thanks to his shadow magic. The strike might've harmed him, but Alfreid didn't think he would die. Even if he did, it wouldn't be a great loss to the empire. While that assassin represented Larwin's will, Alissanda was the empire now. Alfreid didn't want the emperor he served to continue to live under the shadow of a dead man, even if it was his previous monarch.

However, his smile froze before he could finish his thoughts. He looked up in disbelief and saw a black sword poke through his body, causing blood to drip out.

"Surprised?" Leguna pulled the sword out with his right hand and held on to Alfreid's shoulder with his left to stay in the air with the levitating Alfreid. Having suffered a mortal blow, he could no longer maintain the stability of his flight spell and he began to fall shakily down. Leguna kicked Alfreid off in mid-air and landed stably on the ground.

"You… impossible…" Alfreid looked up from the ground with disbelief, his face pale from the bloodloss through the puncture in his heart.

"What? I can't blink during the day…" he said in a mocking tone, before suddenly blinking to Alfreid's side and bending down. "Is that it?"

"You…" His eyes shuddered as if he wanted to curse Leguna, but the rapid loss of his life caused him to no longer have any energy left to speak. The vile and cunning premier twitched a few more times before he ceased moving altogether.

"How boring…" Leguna muttered.

"Goodbye!" Alfreid's voice rang. Before Leguna could react, a beam of light struck Leguna in the chest and sent him flying. In an instant, he burst through three to four tall buildings and disappeared into the distance.

"Alfreid! How are you?" The battle had only lasted a few short seconds and Alissanda was just checking to see whether Soulslay was alive.

"Cough… cough… I think I'll live," he said, coughing out two mouthfuls of blood. He used the last of his enthymema to summon a small golden box from his diatagi. He fussed at it in a panic, as if he was trying to undo the lock on the box. He could've opened it with his enthymemic signature directly, but the heavy and near-mortal blow from Leguna and his final strike caused him to no longer have any more to spare.

"Hmm~ hmm~" Innilis smiled as she watched the few busy themselves away. She even hummed a folk tale she once heard in the academy. Even with Leguna nowhere to be seen, she didn't seem the slightest bit worried, believing that he wouldn't be defeated that easily. Not to mention, when he was struck by the beam of light, Innilis saw Leguna turn to her and shoot her a funny face at that instant.

"I will witness Big Bro's revenge myself!" she joyfully chimed. "Do your best!"

"Cough… cough…" Alfreid coughed out even more blood. This time around, he was pushed to the absolute limit. Fortunately, he managed to open the box. Three small crystal vials contained blue-purple liquid. Two of them were empty and the last one was filled.

If he finished the last bottle, he could recover to perfect condition within a few seconds even with his ruptured heart. That was something the founding emperor had given him, and he was finally going to use the last one.

He popped open the cork as his hands shuddered in an effort to bring the bottle to his mouth. When the liquid started to flow into his body, he felt relieved. So long as he finished the potion, he was confident he could continue fighting Leguna.

However, he was destined not to finish it. Before he even had a fifth of its contents, he felt his hand holding the vial separate from his body. It wasn't cut apart with a sharp object. Rather, it separated from Leguna's forceful stomp.

"That strike just now wasn't bad! It really packed a punch!" Leguna said, suddenly reappearing with his clothes tattered and blood flowing from his mouth and forehead. He did seem to suffer a little damage from Alfreid's full-force strike.

"Alfreid!" Even though Alissanda did his best, Soulslay didn't move. According to his checks, Soulslay wasn't hurt by the sword of light at all. Instead, there was a small, bloody hole at the bottom of the back of his head. Leguna had instantly counterattacked and taken his life when he leapt to grab him from behind. After making sure that Soulslay was beyond saving, he stood up to check on Alfreid's injuries, only to see Leguna stomp his right arm away. He growled in anger and charged at Leguna after summoning Lunaminous.

Leguna watched the charging man with a cruel smile and gave Alfreid a harsh kick in the waist.

"No!" Alissanda yelled.

Magi had weak bodies to begin with, and Alfreid was heavily injured. The divine-power-infused kick separated his body into two. After a low thump, blood, and innards spilled out like a river and scattered tens of meters away. Some of them even splattered onto Alissanda's face.

The sudden blood and gore completely stumped him. He slowed down to a stop and watched Leguna blankly.

"If possible, I want you to experience how it feels to have the blood of your loved one splatter all over you," Leguna said, turning to the unconscious Lisana, "But it's a shame your loved one is someone I will definitely not harm. So, I compromised. How does this feel for a change?"

"Le… gu… na…. LEGUNA!"

"Hahahahaha!" Leguna broke into a maniacal laugh, his domineering laughter growing even louder. "Come, Alissanda! Let's end this! I want revenge!"

"Well said… revenge… but I'm the only one who truly deserves this." A deep voice rang through the plaza. The skies of Melindor suddenly turned dark.

Right above Melindor Plaza, four balls of light, red, yellow, blue and green respectively, floated in the air. A hexagram formation formed near them, following which the balls of light settled in the upper left and right and lower left and right positions of the hexagram. The center up and down positions were empty.

Leguna looked at the formation in the sky and his expression grimmed.

"Nidhogg, you were alive after all!"