Chapter 223: Stigma Powder
He liked the word "Ghost."
Although he had endured a horrifying experience, tumbling with witches in the Forest of Ghosts, the newfound ability he gained in return had changed him significantly.
Ghostification.
Not only did it reduce physical damage, but it also blurred his presence—an ability that perfectly suited soone who had lived as an assassin. His survival rate had increased dramatically.
The other mbers were also highly satisfied with the ability, and fueled by the enthusiasm, a new organization was established within Hunt. It was nad "Ghost."
With Karl as the master and Elton as the vice-master, a total of ten mbers ford the Ghost unit.
Their first mission was to gather intelligence and monitor key figures of enemy forces.
Three Ghost mbers were assigned to Kal Blazer, the infamous Mad Butcher, keeping close watch over him ever since he settled in Etor.
It was a monotonous and tedious routine. Kal’s movents had shown nothing unusual.
At least, until a few days ago.
— "...What the hell?"
Kal had vanished.
The Ghosts exchanged bewildered glances.
It was difficult to pinpoint the exact mont he disappeared.
Around two days ago, he had failed to show up for his usual morning walk, and now, as evening approached, there was still no sign of him.
As they debated whether they should check his room, sothing unexpected happened.
— "Huh??"
A group of knights entered the lord’s castle.
The Ghosts exchanged looks and quickly scattered. At the mont, they were disguised as soldiers and stable keepers.
While observing the newly arrived knights, their eyes caught sothing alarming.
A blood-red cloak.
"The Nest of Shamans."
For the first ti since arriving in Etor, they were witnessing the presence of Dark Shamans.
Alongside the Shamans were enormous Van Dyke puppets, each carrying a large bundle on one shoulder. When given a signal, the puppets began to unravel their bundles.
The mont the bindings loosened—
Fwoosh—
— "...!"
Sothing pitch-black shot into the sky.
At least a hundred of them.
At first, they looked like birds—but they weren’t.
Winged creatures with human-like noses.
The tracking beasts of the Shamans—Sllows.
— "Kiiieeeek!"
— "Wh-What the hell are these freaks?!"
The Sllows flapped their wings and sniffed the people around them.
'Sothing’s wrong.'
The Ghost instinctively realized that things had gone south when one of the Sllows circled around him, sniffing.
Monts later—
— "Gaaahhh!"
Screams erupted.
Looking back, the knights were rcilessly beheading people.
Above the fallen corpses, the Sllows circled in small, ominous loops.
— "Goddamn it...!"
The Ghost cursed as he propelled himself forward.
A Sllow was spinning above his head as well.
The sa scene was unfolding around every Ghost mber.
Knights poured in from all directions.
— Kaang-!
— "Kugh!"
He deflected the incoming swords and dodged the rising red shamanic energy from the ground.
— "That’s him! Surround him!"
After evading several joint attacks from the knights and shamans, he beca their primary target.
The knights and Van Dyke puppets charged from all sides.
Clenching his teeth, the Ghost sprinted like a madman.
Getting surrounded ant death.
At that mont, his body turned hazy, phasing through the incoming attacks as he surged forward.
His body was covered in blood.
But it wasn’t a fatal injury.
If not for Ghostification, he would have been in serious danger.
— "Have we all been exposed?"
The castle was littered with corpses.
Among the dead, he recognized so familiar faces.
They were the spies from Beneta.
Just then, the Black Roses flashed through his mind.
They were supposed to be lurking nearby as well.
— "Kugh!"
— "Run! Get out of here!"
Finding the Black Roses wasn’t difficult.
He only had to follow the Sllows circling in the sky.
Unlike him, so Dark Elves had already been surrounded.
They were being slaughtered by the shamans’ magic, the knights’ swords, and the Van Dyke puppets’ fists.
Helping them would an dying together.
Biting his lip, he scanned his surroundings.
'Where are the others?'
Tracking the movents of the Sllows, he spotted figures scaling the castle walls.
Thankfully, his comrades seed to have escaped safely.
The Ghost climbed over the inner castle wall, fleeing toward the outer city.
There was no ti to look back.
He focused solely on running forward.
— Tap-tap-tap!
He dashed across the rooftops as if they were flat ground.
The knights shouted and gave chase, but catching a Rank 4 assassin was no easy feat.
Soone of the sa rank might have stood a chance.
But these knights? Even in numbers, they weren’t fast enough.
However, colliding head-on with them was still suicide.
Peering below the rooftops, the Ghost muttered under his breath.
— "Crazy bastards... They really brought an entire army."
Knights and Shamans flooded the city.
The Sllows weren’t confined to the inner castle—they were scouring the entire outer city, hunting down the spies.
— Screech—
He threw a dagger, piercing a Sllow mid-air.
But it was futile.
Another Sllow, lurking nearby, imdiately locked onto him.
— "Over here!"
Behind the trailing Sllow, a squad of Shamans followed.
The Ghost moved again, but the mont he stepped onto a roof—
— Crack!—
The roof collapsed.
The shamans had rotted the wooden structures with their magic.
He tumbled into an alley, and before he could recover, knights rushed in, swords aid at him.
It was a crisis.
— "Kraaaaah!"
He flailed his arms desperately, trying to break through the encirclent.
But the enemies kept closing in.
There were too many of them.
As his movents slowed, and death seed imminent—
A scream rang out.
The knights blocking the alleyway collapsed in droves, and familiar faces appeared.
Ghosts.
— "This way! Hurry!!"
They were covered in blood, evidence of fierce battles on the way.
With three Ghosts reunited, their breakthrough gained montum.
The encirclent shattered in an instant, and they successfully escaped Etor.
But there was no ti to rest.
Above them, Sllows continued to circle, relentlessly pursuing them.
— "Soone take care of those damn things!"
— "How the hell are we supposed to kill flying bastards?!"
Killing a few Sllows with his dagger had only made them fly higher, keeping their distance while persistently tracking them. Their fist-sized bodies made them difficult targets.
If Karl were here, his precision throwing would have been enough to take them down effortlessly.
But Karl wasn’t here.
— Dudududududu—!
As they sprinted across the open plains beyond the castle, the ground rumbled violently.
A pursuit squad had joined the chase. The ominous pressure behind them was undeniable.
The mont the Ghosts turned to look, their expressions hardened.
A storm of dust rose in the distance, kicked up by an advancing cavalry unit.
If it were only a few dozen riders, they could have fought back or shaken them off.
But this—this was in the hundreds.
To make matters worse, knights and shamans were mixed among them.
If they got caught, they’d be torn apart instantly.
— "Shit! What the hell is going on?!"
— "Shut up and run! If we don’t get out of here, we’re all dead!"
The Ghosts changed direction, sprinting toward a massive rock formation in the distance.
Etor had once been the stronghold of Crux, the assassin organization they once served. They knew the terrain inside out.
The mont they saw the cavalry, they instinctively thought of their only escape route.
To shake off the Sllows and break free from pursuit, there was only one place to go.
— "Kugh!"
— "Just a little more!"
They squeezed every last drop of energy into their legs.
They were running at a pace comparable to horses, but exhaustion was creeping in, and the distance was closing fast.
The situation was critical.
Then—
The sound of rushing water reached their ears.
— "Jump!"
— "Fuuuuuuck!"
The three of them leaped off the rock.
Below them, a wide river surged through the valley.
The mont the Ghosts disappeared into the river, the cavalryn pulled their reins and ca to an abrupt halt.
A mont later, the shaman unit arrived behind them.
— "Did we lose them?"
— "They jumped into the river."
A shaman scanned the riverbank and summoned the Sllows, which hovered over the waters, searching.
Stigma Powder didn’t wash away easily, but the river’s flow disrupted the scent, making it difficult for the Sllows to pinpoint their location.
It had been their only viable escape route, and they had managed to find it in ti.
One of the shamans turned to the senior shaman leading the unit.
— "What should we do?"
— "We’re pulling back."
— "Understood."
They didn’t have the luxury of wasting ti searching.
If those Ghosts were spies, their next destination was obvious.
The senior shaman unfolded a map, scanning the marked locations that their lord had instructed them to target.
There were five hideouts in total.
If they wiped them out simultaneously, the enemy’s entire network of spies would collapse into disarray.
Hunting down individual spies was pointless.
This was the real priority.
— "Move quickly. We don’t have much ti."
They had to wipe out their assigned targets before dawn and regroup with their lord.
If they were the last ones to report in, they’d beco the laughingstock of the other shamans.
Without hesitation, the knights and shamans turned their horses and disappeared into the night.
— "Pwaah!"
The mont the relentless pursuit ended, the Ghosts didn’t erge from the river.
Instead, they let the current carry them downstream, drifting with the water.
By the ti dawn broke, they cautiously crawled onto the riverbank and began moving again.
Their destination was a shared hideout used by Hunt, Beneta, and the Black Rose.
It was a key hub in their Blood Pact’s intelligence network.
— "...Shit."
The mont they arrived, they knew.
There were no survivors.
The hideout was in ruins.
The building had been burned to ashes, and the only thing that greeted them was charred corpses.
— "We have to report this imdiately."
The enemy had made their move.
They hadn’t fully grasped the extent of the operation yet, but one thing was clear:
Etor had moved.
And that ant Tobaron was about to undergo a massive upheaval.
With this intelligence hub wiped out, there was no quick way to relay the information.
Without delay, the Ghosts set off to check the other hideouts.
One.
Two.
Three.
Every single one was destroyed.
Blood-soaked remnants were all that remained.
The Ghosts examined the traces and their expressions turned grim.
— "Was there a traitor in the Blood Pact?"
— "How the hell did they find every single hideout?"
— "It’s either us, Beneta, or the Black Rose."
— "It’s not Beneta. Their spies are just rcenaries they hired with money."
— "...Then the Black Rose?"
— "Watch your mouth."
— "Tch."
A new presence suddenly joined their conversation.
The Ghosts imdiately gripped their daggers, lowering their stances.
But just as quickly, they relaxed.
A sharp-eared Dark Elf stood before them.
He was clearly from the Black Rose.
— "Who do you belong to?"
— "I’m the branch leader."
— "...The Etor branch leader?"
The Dark Elf nodded heavily.
He was the one responsible for handling all intelligence within Etor for the Black Rose.
He had only just figured out what had caused this disaster.
— "There was no traitor. It was the Stigma Powder."
— "Stigma Powder?"
The Dark Elf approached the Ghosts and ran his gaze over their bodies.
He extended a hand, and a blue glow flickered from his palm.
The light twisted and revealed a presence.
It was Elven spirit magic—a low-level water spirit.
— "Charlotte, show them."
At the Dark Elf’s request, the spirit scattered its blue light.
And for the first ti, the Ghosts saw it—red powder clinging to their bodies.
It looked almost like bloodstains.
— "Shit! What the hell is this?!"
— "When did this get on us?!"
— "Kal’s garden."
— "What?"
The Dark Elf explained.
The Stigma Powder had been scattered throughout Kal’s garden—where he took his morning walks.
Anyone who had hidden near the garden to spy on Kal would have unintentionally gotten covered in it.
— "Stigma Powder spreads through contact. Anyone who touches it can pass it to others."
The Ghosts glanced at each other, letting out hollow laughs.
— "So we’re the ones who exposed the hideouts?"
— "It could have been you… or the Black Rose. Now’s not the ti to point fingers."
The branch leader’s expression darkened as he asked:
— "Did you see an army moving out of Etor? I’m tracking its movents."
— "An army?"
— "Kal’s forces—the ones that train outside the castle every day."
User Comments
0 comments from readers