Chapter 60 – Fangs Sect
Hours passed inside the dirty underground space that Horus, now Cassius’s subordinate by Oath, claid as his own house.
Hours where all three of them did their best to heal. And heal they did.
Cassius was the first to recover completely, despite having been the most injured during the recent ordeal.
He didn’t even need to look at his attributes to know his Constitution had jumped considerably.
All of it thanks to his Innate. Because even without a Snake Loop fully ford, the Innate still made it easier for his body to adapt — aning in the right conditions, his stats would increase far faster than anyone else’s.
And that was without a completed loop. All he needed to do was maintain the will to keep going and ensure he never repeated the sa mistake more than three tis.
With Ananke — the very Queen of Fate — watching over him, repeating the sa mistake three tis would be a genuine challenge.
’I am so fortunate to have her.’ Cassius thought, his eyes closed as if deliberately hiding from sothing.
Which was exactly the case.
’Still, what in the hell is happening here?’
Hours had passed and Isolde had arrived in a strange attire, accompanied by two people, one of them the old maid he recognised from the Amaris Household.
The first thing she had done was pull him aside, where no one could overhear.
So here they stood, a little removed from the others, Cassius watching from the corner of his eye as Océane and Horus fixed their gazes on Aissatou...and on a black-skinned man beside her.
The man’s left arm was severed, the stump still fresh and wet with blood. Sweat poured down his face, and the shock and horror written there had a permanent quality, as if it had been pressed into him and refused to leave.
A strange sight. But stranger still was what ca next.
"What are you doing here, Isolde?" Cassius asked, sparing her a piercing glance.
She said nothing at first, her eyes fixed on Aissatou and Maxim. Then, as if she had made a decision, she slowly turned her head toward him.
"I thought you were dead, Cassius." Her voice was tight and full of sothing she wasn’t quite managing to contain. "I should be the one asking why you’re here. And why you didn’t tell where you were going."
She narrowed her eyes. "Don’t you trust ?"
"You know that’s not it." He shook his head. "It’s not a matter of trust. It’s exactly because of this situation that I ca without telling you."
"What do you an?"
"I knew you were connected to the man I ca here to find." He said plainly and directly, and Isolde’s body gave a faint shiver. "What I didn’t know was how. And I didn’t want to push you into confessing sothing you weren’t ready to share. So knowing that — and knowing I intended to kill the man, which I needed to do — I ca alone. I didn’t want to put you in an impossible position."
"That’s so thoughtful, Cassius." She snorted, genuinely grateful for the consideration, but still unhappy. "But you should have told and let decide for myself. Don’t treat like a child who can’t make her own decisions."
"It’s not—"
"It is exactly that. And the worst part is you ca alone, you a Mortal Self rank, a maid at Imbued Self rank with a basic Aspect, and what?" She threw a quick, contemptuous glance at Horus. "A damned cripple? Are you serious?"
"I had a well-planned plan." He defended himself.
[Ah. A plan. Of course.] Ananke cut in with pure sarcasm.
Cassius ignored his petty goddess.
"Oh, well done then." Isolde gritted her teeth. "If the goal of your well-planned plan was to get yourself killed, then congratulations, you nearly made it."
"I know. I know." He said. He’d heard enough from Ananke already. He didn’t need his wife piling on.
Isolde passed a hand over her face with visible exasperation. "You have no idea what I felt when that useless bastard told you were dead, Cassius. I... I..."
She gave up. There were no words for it.
In that mont her mind had gone blank, and the pain and rage and grief swelling inside her chest had been greater than anything she had ever felt.
Even now she didn’t fully understand what had stopped her from killing the man outright rather than just severing his arm. But deep down she knew: sothing in her had simply refused to believe Cassius was gone.
It sounded too illogical. As if he simply wasn’t built to die. Let alone like that, in a place like this.
And now, seeing him again — bruised, burned in places, but alive — the tension bled out of her body entirely.
"Please." Her voice went soft. "Be more careful, Cassius."
"I will be." He said, then he frowned. "However, there are still things I don’t quite understand about this situation."
He settled his red eyes on Maxim kneeling so distance away.
"So this one-ard man is the fat man who tried to kill . And he ca to you after the fact to report to you. That’s it, isn’t it?"
"Aye." Isolde answered.
"Which leads to the question I was hesitant to ask."
He turned his head and locked his red eyes onto her purple ones.
"What are you hiding from that I should know, darling?"
Isolde pressed her lips imdiately into a thin line, her thoughts turning quickly.
She had always known this day would co. That sooner or later she would have to tell Cassius about her connection to the Fangs.
She hadn’t expected it to be this soon. Only a day after they had made everything official.
She wasn’t ready. And she knew she never would be. Not because of sha — though there was truth in that too — but because telling him was the sa as pulling him deeper into danger.
Knowledge, once given, had a way of being used. That was its nature. That was human nature.
And Isolde knew that better than most. So she hesitated, but knew she had very little choice now.
She exhaled slowly, closed her eyes briefly to gather herself, then opened them.
"I know it’s useless to ask, knowing your nature." She began. "But do you truly want to know?"
"I do."
"And I know I probably shouldn’t worry, but" she smiled wryly "you won’t judge ?"
Cassius smiled. "I won’t, darling."
She drew a slow breath, knowing full well that the mont Lord Constantine learned she had revealed her identity and the existence of the Fangs, she would be killed.
She spoke anyway.
"I am part of an assassin sect called the Fangs. My codena is Olympias."
She didn’t say much. The Oath she had sworn would sense a genuine betrayal and act accordingly.
But what she was doing was not betrayal; not at her level. She had the authority to recruit, and so this was, in the eyes of the Oath, simply the standard introduction afforded to her rank.
Even so, even the little she said was enough. Cassius’s face turned serious.
’Sothing else I didn’t know from the ga.’ He thought uneasily, hearing the na Fangs for the first ti.
Though he wasn’t particularly surprised that Isolde was connected to sothing like this. She was a Main Villainess. An assassin sect fit her perfectly.
"So the Fangs is a sect of assassins?"
"Yes."
"Who founded it?"
"I only know her title. We all only know her by her title." Isolde said. "She is called Alstar, Mother of Assassins."
"Lovely na for an assassin. And your sect takes commissions on anyone? No limits on who you’ll touch?"
"The only limit is money." Isolde smiled coldly. "As long as the paynt is right, we take the task."
"I wonder how you’ve survived this long with that policy."
"Because we have never allowed ourselves to be seen or discovered." She paused, her eyes glowing faintly. "And assassination is only the main aspect of Fangs. Not the only one. We also capture monsters and control their evolution according to our needs." Her eyes found his. "You were inside one of those facilities, Cassius."
"Oh my." He whispered.
"Those sites are precious to the higher-ups. And after what you caused," Isolde said, "I was tasked with reporting to my Leader about the destruction of our Base Operation."
She held his gaze firmly. "You understand what that ans."
Cassius smiled, understanding perfectly. "It ans, darling, that it’s ti to find soone to pin this unfortunate incident on."
Isolde mirrored the expression.
"Exactly. Which brings to the question: who?"
—End of Chapter 60—
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