"Some may have gotten away..."
The small hill where the mansion had stood was no longer a hill.
It had been carved away by the chunks of explosive flame hurled at it, reduced to nearly flat ground.
The Dark Guild had been hired by the Pope to assassinate me, and they had accepted the contract.
The client was dead, but they'd already received a hefty advance, so failing to complete the contract might mean no future jobs would come their way.
On top of that, the Dark Guild's master apparently hadn't given up on killing me for reasons of their own.
I've always been the one getting ambushed, so this time I wanted to be the one doing the ambushing.
So I decided to burn the entire mansion to the ground, root and branch, to wipe them all out.
I'd heard there was some kind of shelter underground, so to make sure even that got completely destroyed, I dropped a massive blast of flames right from the start.
If anyone had witnessed that moment, they would have mistaken it for the sun itself crashing down.
Even so, there were still several human life signs in the vicinity.
I made my way toward them.
◇◇◇
"W-What is this...?!"
The Dark Guild's master, who had sensed the danger to his life through [Super Intuition] and escaped using a Transfer Stone.
Several executives responded quickly to his shouting.
The survivors stood gazing at where the mansion had been, speechless.
They stared at the flat ground where, literally, not a trace remained.
And from above, a person drifted down leisurely through the air.
They touched down smoothly.
◇◇◇
"Three of you, huh? Quite a few survived."
"You are... Could it be Alan?!"
A man with a pompadour and a vertical scar over one eye demanded.
So this was the master, if I remembered correctly.
"That's right. Our acquaintance will be brief, but pleased to meet you."
"Don't be ridiculous! You think you can get away with such a cowardly trick?!"
The one who shouted was a red-haired man.
The man ranked second, known as "Blazing Flame."
"Oh please, cowardice is your specialty, isn't it?"
And the last one.
"You — you're the one who attacked the Grim Trading Company's base and stole their memories, aren't you?"
"That's right! You figured it out, huh?"
"Because I can sense the aura of one who has fallen into darkness from you..."
Declared the man ranked third, the "Dark Master."
Don't just go around claiming we're the same kind.
"One master of the dark arts is enough! Die — Evil Strike of Slaughter!!"
"[Holy Magic] Sword of Divine Light — Rend!"
I slashed through the oncoming dark sphere with a blade of light.
The Dark Master could use [Dark Magic] too, but nothing impressive.
"What— you've also fallen into the light!"
Nobody says you "fall into" the light.
I'm actually stronger with [Holy Magic] than anything else.
Because I have [Heaven's Gate].
If I had to declare myself, I'd be a warrior of light.
I closed the distance with Shukuchi and slashed the Dark Master diagonally with my light sword.
On the way, I stole [Whisper of the Abyss].
Clearly a backline-type, the Dark Master couldn't react to melee attacks at all and simply died on the spot.
Then, black smoke rose from the corpse and came drifting toward me.
A powerful curse, triggered by the caster's death, had activated.
But to me, who had mastered [Holy Magic], it was like a gentle breeze.
The curse I deflected, having nowhere to go, struck the closest person — "Blazing Flame" — and killed him through the curse.
◇◇◇◇◇◇
[Whisper of the Abyss]... A support skill that enhances dark magic.
Skills: [Reverse], [Divine Eye], [Sword God], [Gentleman Thief], [Dark Magic], [Iron Rock Magic], [Holy Magic], [Space-Time Magic], [Scorching Magic], [Freezing Ice Magic], [Magic Hand], [Seduction], [Pain Dampening], [Complete Status Ailment Resistance], [Fire Spirit's Protection], [Phantom Demon], [Swift as Wind Swift as Thunder], [Dark Spirit's Protection], [Monstrous Strength], [Thunder God Sword], [Fortune], [Clear Gale Magic], [Humility], [Heaven's Gate], [Ninja Master], [Eloquence], [Seeker of Truth], [Whisper of the Abyss]
Rank: Mithril (Alisa: Gold)
Thank you for reading as always 😊