Regnum Aetern: Dual Rebirth

Chapter 122: The Assassin (2)

As the assassin hired to kill them took a step in their direction, Adrian pointed his sword at him while Evangeline quickly cast spells.

Seeing their reaction, the assassin’s smile widened.

"I don’t usually enjoy this, but I wonder if you two can intrigue me."

He took another step forward.

Or was about to, but then—

"Just let me ask you one last thing," Adrian said, and then glanced at Evangeline. "Who among the two of us is your target?"

Evangeline’s blood ran cold the moment she heard him speak those words.

’W-why is he asking that? And that look...’

She was suddenly gripped by a chilling fear as a thought entered her mind. If the assassin answered that Evangeline was his target, she had this suspicion that he would abandon her to save himself.

The assassin momentarily paused, looking confused as though he had heard wrong. But then a wide smirk spread across his face. Evangeline’s heartbeat sped up even more as she saw that smirk.

’Please no...’

"I thought that the two of you would be innocent little children, but man was I wrong. You boy—you’re quite the little shit, aren’t you? Well, too bad for you; you’re both my targets."

The moment the man said that, mana began gathering behind him, twisting into patterns resembling constellations. In the next moment, a large ring of flame materialized behind his back.

The man brought his hand forward and cast another spell.

A ball of glowing red magma materialized above his palm. The ball of magma began changing shape, turning into the shape of a sword. Moments later, the assassin was holding a sword made of glowing red magma.

Adrian shouted with his eyes focused on the opponent.

"The opponent is stronger than us; don’t give him time to attack."

Evangeline clenched her fists as water began swirling around her.

***

’He’s at least a Phase Three.’

It was not hard to guess after Adrian saw the man’s presence as well as how quickly he cast that spell. Readying his stance and tensing his muscles, Adrian analyzed his opponent.

’Ring of flame, manipulating magma...’

The man’s stance didn’t seem like that of a fighter experienced in swordplay, so he was most likely a caster. Magma was a common derived element of the major element, fire. Considering that he had used both, he must have an affinity for the major element, Fire.

’Is he proficient with other derived elements besides magma—’

Adrian’s thoughts were cut short as the assassin pointed at them with his free hand. Suddenly, two balls of flame separated themselves from the ring of flame hovering behind his back. The two fireballs shot forward at incredible speed, aimed at the two of them.

They were both quick to react as Adrian dodged to his left while Evangeline dodged to her right.

But both the fireballs changed their trajectory, turning towards them.

Adrian’s eyes widened.

’It tracks our movements!’

They both react quickly once again. Adrian slashed the fireball with his blade coated in mana, while Evangeline shot a spray of water at the fireball.

The assassin clapped as he watched them.

"Wow, those are some smooth moves. You guys aren’t rookies at this, huh?"

Without waiting, Adrian quickly performed several vertical and horizontal strikes in quick succession, shooting dozens of mana blades at the assassin. The assassin smirked as he looked at the incoming attack.

Tightening his grip on the magma sword, the assassin swung it only once, and all the mana blades were shattered, disappearing into wisps of mana, effectively neutralizing all of Adrian’s attacks.

But suddenly, a blast of mana came from the side. The assassin narrowly dodged it, but Adrian had already closed the distance by then.

He lashed out with his sword, performing a flurry of attacks.

"Getting impatient, are we?"

The assassin blocked all of Adrian’s slashes with ease. His movements were wasteful, and his stance was mediocre, yet it was the sheer gap in physical strength that allowed the assassin to block every attack.

Adrian’s strikes were becoming quicker with each passing moment, but the assassin was still not showing any signs of struggle. Then he suddenly counterattacked with a punch that landed squarely on Adrian’s chest, sending him flying several meters back.

"Agh!"

Adrian quickly got to his feet, though his mind was still rattled from the impact of the punch.

Evangeline shot several more wind blasts, but they were all blocked by the assassin’s magma sword, too.

’The difference in strength... is too great...’

Even though there were two of them attacking simultaneously, while the assassin was alone, they were the ones losing one-sidedly. Such was the gap between Phases.

Even though the opponent was only a single Phase above them, he could overwhelm them easily.

Deflecting another one of Evangeline’s wind blasts, the assassin widened his smirk.

"I guess that’s enough for a warm-up."

The moment he said those words, dozens of fireballs separated from the ring of flame behind him, coming towards the two of them at incredible speed.

Adrian’s eyes widened.

’I won’t be able to cut them all.’

Adrian dashed away to the side, and just like before, the fireballs changed their trajectory, tracking his movements.

While running, Adrian continuously cut down the fireballs one after another, but there were simply too many of them for him to cut before they hit him.

Just then, he heard Evangeline’s shout.

"Adi! Come here!"

She was running in his direction, followed by dozens of fireballs. It looked like there were too many for her to deal with as well.

Adrian ran towards her, closing the distance within moments She hugged him tightly as soon as he did and then stomped on the ground while gritting her teeth.

Just like in their spar, she created a water vortex around them, effectively blocking all the fireballs.

But the next moment, a kick tore through the protection of the vortex, landing on their shoulders and pushing them outside ‌the vortex.

"Ugh!"

"Ack!"

They both fell to the ground, but Adrian was quick to get up once again. With Evangeline’s concentration broken, the vortex of water disappeared, revealing the assassin standing in front of him.

The man smiled.

"I think that is enough fun for today. How about I end this now? I should put the two of you out of your misery."

Adrian tightened his grip on his sword.

The man tilted his head.

"Are you still going to struggle? But there is no way you can defeat me, and you two should’ve realized that by now. So what’s the point of struggling?"

Evangeline also got to her feet, gathering mana in her palms to cast spells.

"Oh, do you think that if you continue to stall, your noble families will come to save you?" He gave them a pitying look. "Sorry to say, but that is not going to happen. You two have been teleported to the very edge of the Feralscar Domain, outside the empire’s borders, so nobody is coming to save you."

Adrian saw Evangeline freeze as she heard those words.

And the next moment, the assassin lunged at them. With a powerful kick to her gut, he sent Evangeline flying and then lashed out at Adrian with his magma sword.

Adrian was quick to react, blocking the assassin’s sword strikes, but each strike was so heavy that it felt as though his sword would break. He could feel the searing heat from the magma sword as well as the ring of flame behind the man’s back.

Their exchange was getting faster and faster, and Adrian was slowly failing to keep up. He also had to use a lot of mana to cover the blade so that it wouldn’t simply melt from clashing with the magma sword.

And finally, Adrian made a mistake. He was a moment too late to react to an incoming strike. The assassin didn’t miss that opportunity, knocking the sword away from his hand.

’No, not yet!’

Adrian jumped back while channeling mana into his palm; the starlit black sphere materialized moments later. Adrian aimed his hand at the man’s face, and the starlit black sphere shot toward it at incredible speed.

But the assassin was still able to react in time, blocking it with his magma sword. The moment the sphere made contact with the magma sword, it began expanding in size, trying to consume the sword.

But as if the sword somehow resisted the sphere, only a small chunk of it was devoured. The assassin briefly frowned, seeing the missing chunk of his sword, but he fixed it moments later and turned to Adrian.

"Do you have any more tricks up your sleeve?"

"..."

"No? I guess we should end this then."

Saying that, the assassin raised his magma sword high, as if moments away from striking him down. Seeing it, Adrian finally came to realize that he was going to die.

And just then, he felt something else. The uncontrollable irritation suddenly resurfaced, making his thoughts jumbled.

’Why?! Why?! Just why?!’

He was already not in the best state of mind, so dealing with this foreign impulse was too much for him.

’Just why is this happening to me?! I have done nothing wrong!’

He gritted his teeth as his mind was quickly being consumed by the impulse.

’It has always been like this since I got reincarnated! I simply never had a choice in anything! All I could ever do was accept the circumstances!’

Even if he tried to struggle, his efforts barely bore any fruit.

The impulse completely consumed Adrian’s mind.

’But not this time! This time, I will be the one to choose!’

His piercing grey eyes burned with determination.

There was still a tool in his arsenal. The infinite dimension. It had nearly killed Adrian while it had only expanded for a few hours. But it had been several months now, and it had continued to expand in size in that time. Its current size, as well as the mana it contained, must be thousands of times larger than it was back then.

So what would happen if he were to tap into it now?

His body will explode, and everything in the nearby area will be instantly destroyed. The assassin won’t be able to survive the explosion of mana either.

’If I am going to die either way, then I would at least choose to take you with me!’

And so, Adrian focused inside him, at the door to the dimension. And then... he mentally commanded it to open.