Chapter 142: Chapter 142: The Blood-Lotus Assassin
The stiletto rested perfectly against Dante’s throat.
The dark red poison coating the thin blade didn’t even need to break the digital skin to register as a threat; the system interface in the corner of his vision was already flashing a silent, blinking warning of absolute toxicity.
He was sitting at exactly 1 HP. The [Undying Spirit] passive from Erebus was on a massive, thirty-day cooldown.
The [Aetherial Nectar] made him immune to the poison effect, but the physical kinetic damage of a tiny scratch from the blade would instantly trigger True Death.
Dante didn’t swallow. He didn’t tense his muscles. He remained perfectly, mathematically still.
"Who are you?" Dante asked. His voice was steady, completely devoid of the panic the assassin clearly expected.
"I am the one who collects," the voice whispered into his ear. It was a woman’s voice, smooth and chillingly melodic.
"You carry an absurd cosmic weight, Outworlder. The system hums when you move. The Orthodox remnants in the Capital will pay a fortune for the data stored in your code."
"The Orthodox," Dante noted. "So you’re a mercenary."
"I am an artist," she corrected softly.
The system finally managed to pierce her stealth parameters, forcing an identification prompt to load into Dante’s vision.
The text was a deep, hostile crimson.
[Entity Identified: Xue, The Blood-Lotus Assassin]
[Faction: Rogue Operative]
[Level: ???]
A named, high-tier NPC assassin. The fact that the system couldn’t read her level meant she vastly outclassed his Level 68 stats.
She wasn’t a standard mob generated by the Mists of Carnage; she was a wandering, highly lethal lore entity who had likely been tracking him since he entered the forbidden zone.
"You’re very patient," Dante said, keeping his eyes locked straight ahead on the bone-littered ground.
"Waiting until I used my invulnerability buff and dropped my health to one point before attacking."
"Patience is the foundation of my art," Xue whispered, the stiletto pressing a fraction of a millimeter closer to his throat.
"I watched you butcher the Phalanx. Your destructive capacity is impressive, but your spatial awareness is fundamentally flawed. You rely entirely on your interface to warn you."
She wasn’t wrong. His 100 points of Intuition had completely failed to register her approach.
Her stealth mechanics bypassed the system’s baseline tracking algorithms.
"If you move, the blade cuts," Xue promised. "If you attempt to cast your teleport, the micro-vibrations in the air will trigger the blade. You are checkmated, Outworlder."
Dante didn’t argue the point.
He couldn’t use [Meteor Stride] or [Phantom Dash]. The activation frames, however fast, required a physical neurological impulse. The blade would sever his throat before the system registered the command.
He was completely trapped.
"What do you want?" Dante asked.
"Your primary weapon," Xue stated simply. "The black greatsword you hide in your wrist. It reeks of primordial authority. Hand it over, and I will ensure your execution is painless. Refuse, and I will sever your tendons and leave you here to be slowly consumed by the remaining undead."
Dante didn’t summon [Voidsever]. He didn’t even twitch his right hand.
"I think you miscalculated," Dante said.
Xue let out a short laugh. "Did I? You are at one health point. You cannot move. You cannot cast. How have I miscalculated?"
"You assumed I was the only anomaly in the room," Dante replied flatly.
He didn’t move. He just opened a secure channel to his pet interface using a purely mental command.
[Pet Command Issued: Erebus.]
A tiny spatial rift tore open in the air, exactly three feet in front of Dante.
Erebus stepped out of the rift.
The Half-Soul Celestial wasn’t wearing her gothic dress. She was still wearing the massive, Mythic-tier [Troll-Hide Haversack] Dante had given her in the swamp. She looked completely out of place standing on a pile of pulverized bronze and giant skulls.
She was currently holding a half-eaten candied apple she had clearly rummaged out of the backpack.
Xue, standing behind Dante, saw the little girl materialize.
The master assassin didn’t panic, but a faint hint of confusion entered her voice. "A child? You summon a cosmetic pet to save you?"
Erebus didn’t look at Dante. She didn’t look at the massive pile of loot. Her solid, blood-red eyes slowly looked past Dante, locking directly onto the unseen assassin standing behind him.
The little girl took a bite of her candied apple. She chewed thoughtfully.
"You are holding a sharp thing near my shiny man’s neck," Erebus stated. Her voice wasn’t flat this time.
It carried the heavy, dual-layered resonance of cosmic authority. The localized atmosphere in the Mists of Carnage actively shuddered.
Xue’s hand trembled slightly. The assassin finally felt the overwhelming, terrifying cosmic weight radiating from the tiny toddler.
"What are you?" Xue hissed, her grip tightening on the stiletto.
Erebus didn’t answer the question. She didn’t throw a telekinetic tantrum.
She simply pointed a small, sticky finger directly at the Blood-Lotus Assassin.
"Bad ladies," Erebus commanded, "turn into fluffy bunnies."
The Zenith Protocol’s combat engine completely shattered.
There was no magical flash. There was no resist prompt. There was no damage calculation.
The cold steel of the stiletto vanished from Dante’s throat instantly.
The heavy, lethal presence of the master assassin disappeared, replaced by a soft thud on the bone-covered ground behind him.
Dante didn’t immediately turn around. He took a long, slow breath, letting the adrenaline subside.
He looked down at Erebus.
"Good job," Dante said.
Erebus nodded, taking another bite of her apple. "She was mean."
Dante finally turned around.
Standing on the pulverized bronze shields of the Undead Hoplites, exactly where the terrifying, high-tier assassin had been standing a second ago, was a small, gray rabbit.
It wasn’t a monstrous, blighted rabbit. It was just a perfectly normal, fluffy gray bunny with long, floppy ears.
The rabbit stared up at Dante, its nose twitching rapidly in absolute, unadulterated panic.
[Entity Identified: Kiity (Formerly Xue)]
[Level: 1]
[Status: Transfigured]
Dante stared at the cat. He let out a short, disbelieving laugh.
"You literally turned a master assassin into a petting zoo animal," Dante said, shaking his head.
The reality-altering [Law of Command] was the most fundamentally broken mechanic in the entire Zenith Protocol.
It completely bypassed levels, stats, and lore armor. As long as Erebus decided something needed to change, the system engine was forced to accommodate the rewrite.
Before Dante could decide what to do with the assassin-turned-cat, the thick red mist at the edge of the clearing parted again.
Dante’s hand dropped instantly to the hilt of the [Dawn-Breaker Blade]. He was still at 1 HP.
A figure stepped out of the fog.
It wasn’t a monster. It was an NPC.
He looked incredibly ragged. He wore tattered, mud-stained robes that might have once been pristine white. His long gray hair was tied back in a messy knot, and a heavy, wooden scabbard hung across his back. He leaned heavily on a polished wooden walking stick.
[Entity Identified: Jian]
[Faction: Grandmaster (Exiled)]
[Level: ???]
"Grandmaster Jian," Dante noted, recognizing the name from the SSS-Rank investigation quest the City Lord of Aethelgardia had given him.
Jian didn’t look like a legendary martial artist who could bypass celestial level caps. He looked like an exhausted homeless man.
The old man stopped at the edge of the clearing. He looked at the massive mountain of destroyed bronze shields, the pulverized bones of the Deputy Generals, and the piles of glowing loot.
Then, his eyes dropped to the small gray cat currently vibrating with panic near Dante’s boots.
Jian’s eyes widened in absolute shock. He dropped his walking stick.
"Is that..." Jian stammered, his voice hoarse and raspy. He pointed a trembling, calloused finger at the bunny. "Is that Xue?"
"It is," Dante confirmed. "She tried to cut my throat. My pet disagreed with her life choices."
Jian stared at the rabbit, then looked at Erebus, completely failing to process the visual information.
The old Grandmaster let out a sudden, booming laugh. It was a rusty, joyous sound that echoed through the desolate wasteland.
He walked forward, completely ignoring Dante’s raised sword, and dropped to his knees in front of the rabbit.
"Ten years," Jian laughed, tears actually forming in his eyes. "I have hunted the Blood-Lotus for ten grueling years. She slaughtered my disciples.
She stole the sacred texts of the Ten Thousand Swords Sect. And every time I cornered her, she vanished."
Jian looked up at Dante, his expression shifting to profound gratitude.
"She possesses a [Holy-Forbidden Spatial Stone]," Jian explained rapidly. "It is an artifact that grants absolute, limitless teleportation to any known coordinate on the server. I could never catch her. She was a ghost. But a cat..."
Jian reached out and easily scooped the panicked, kicking bunny up by the scruff of its neck.
"A cat cannot activate a spatial stone," Jian grinned viciously at the struggling animal.
Dante watched the legendary Grandmaster stuff the server’s deadliest assassin into a small burlap sack he pulled from his robes. He tied the sack off securely.
"That’s one way to close a bounty," Dante observed.
Jian stood up, dusting off his knees. He looked at Dante with newfound respect, his eyes locking onto the [Zenith Epaulet] on his shoulder.
"You are an Outworlder," Jian said. "But you do not fight like the greedy mercenaries who usually plague these paths. You fight with the absolute, unyielding intent of a Vanguard."
"I was sent here to find you," Dante said, cutting straight to the point. "The City Lord of Aethelgardia wants your research data. He wants to know how to bypass the celestial level caps."
Jian’s smile faded. A look of deep, ancient sorrow crossed his face.
"The City Lord seeks power he cannot control," Jian said softly, shaking his head. "My research is a failure, Outworlder. The system’s progression gates cannot be bypassed with simple cultivation techniques. The celestial caps are absolute."
Jian reached into his tattered robes.
"But you have done me a service that I cannot easily repay," Jian continued. "You delivered the Blood-Lotus into my hands. I can finally return to my sect and face the spirits of my disciples."
Jian pulled a small, glowing green jade pendant from his pocket. He also produced a jagged, dark gray stone that pulsed with intense spatial energy.
He held both items out to Dante.
"Take the pendant to the City Lord," Jian instructed. "It is proof that you found me, and proof that my research is a dead end. It will satisfy his quest parameters."
Dante took the green jade pendant.
Jian pointed to the dark gray stone.
"And take this," Jian said. "I stripped it from Xue’s inventory before your pet altered her code. It is the [Holy-Forbidden Spatial Stone]."
Dante’s eyes widened slightly.
[Item Appraised: Spatial Stone]
[Tier: Holy-Forbidden]
[Description: A localized fragment of the original server architecture. Grants the user unlimited, instant teleportation to any previously visited coordinate on the global map. Bypasses all suppression fields and lockdown arrays. Cooldown: None.]
"You’re giving me a limitless fast-travel node?" Dante asked, staring at the stone.
"You have earned it," Jian nodded. "But heed my warning, Champion. The Path of Gods and Demons is not a place for the living. The entities buried deeper in this fog are not mere monsters or assassins. They are the remnants of the First Cycle."
Jian turned away, adjusting the burlap sack slung over his shoulder. The muffled, panicked kicking of the rabbit could be heard from inside.
"If you truly seek a power that bypasses the system," Jian called out over his shoulder as he walked into the mist, "you must find the True Sovereign of the Path. But be wary. His gifts carry a terrible price."
The old Grandmaster vanished into the red fog, leaving Dante alone with his massive pile of loot, a reality-warping toddler, and a brand new, Holy-Forbidden artifact.
"A True Sovereign," Dante murmured, slipping the spatial stone into his inventory.
He looked down at Erebus, who was currently trying to wipe sticky sugar off her face.
"Aura," Dante commanded.
The tiny silver fox popped out of her pet-space and instantly pulsed a [Resurgence Wave], fully healing his 1 HP health bar back to a comfortable 25,500.
Dante rolled his shoulders, feeling the tension finally leave his digital muscles. He was fully healed, heavily geared, and completely optimized.
He turned his attention deeper into the Mists of Carnage. The real secrets of the First Cycle were waiting in the dark.
