Chapter 1964: Another Top-tier Assassination
Chapter 1964: Another Top-tier Assassination
The golden tip of the weapon pierced her left shoulder without mercy.
"Aaaaargh!"
Sifrona screamed, her body jerking as Shir pushed in his S-Rank mana through the trident.
The foreign mana clashed violently with her own, attacking her core, disrupting her bloodline, burning through her nerves like acid.
Her breathing became ragged. But she didn't break.
She kept laughing in between her screams, her eyes still filled with mockery.
"Let me see how tough you really are. Demons might be able to scare regular mana practitioners. But in my eyes, you are nothing. Just clutters of negative emotions that developed consciousness. You were born from souls' waste and the waste will be your final destination."
Shir growled. His calm was slipping.
With a sharp movement, he stabbed again—this time into her right thigh.
Rippp!
He twisted the weapon, flesh and blood flying as the golden weapon tore through muscle. Her phoenix blood hissed as it touched his weapon, steam rising from the wound.
It was only because of her resilient demon body that she was still alive. But it turned out to be her curse as well.
The giant demigod was trying to break her pride, her body, her will—everything.
Sifrona screamed again.
The pain was unbearable. But her heart? It was firm like a mountain.
"Still… no?" Shir asked coldly, his voice laced with suppressed frustration.
Sifrona looked at him with half-closed eyes and whispered, "Ne…. never."
Shir took a deep breath, regaining control of his emotions. He shook his head.
'Hmph. Not worth it,' he muttered. 'She's just a beast.'
But the anger hadn't fully left his eyes. He raised his trident high into the air.
"I'll destroy your pride… before I end your miserable life," he murmured, aiming the tip of the weapon toward her face.
Sifrona didn't look away.
Her vision was red. Blurry. Her body was failing. Her lips moved.
'My liege… take care…'
Eren's face flashed in her mind.
The trident came down. But just before it touched her skin…
Swoosh. Zoom. Pierce.
A small wind blew by. A faint breeze, like the breath of something inexplicable brushing past the battlefield.
And then—silence.
All the sounds around them disappeared. The clash of armies, the cries of soldiers, the roars of demon beasts—gone.
Even their own heartbeats felt distant.
Their vision turned black and white. The world seemed frozen in time.
Something had changed.
A powerful Skill had been cast. One that warped not only space but also the senses. Time itself had been slowed to a crawl. And even the element of space had been affected.
A very capable user of the time and space element had appeared. Someone with exceptional elemental attainments in both of them, which spoke volumes about his "talent".
In that eerie moment of stillness, both Shir and Sifrona felt it.
Rip.
A soft tearing sound. Not from the trident.
But from behind Shir.
Then came the dripping.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
The sound of blood escaping a torn body. Sifrona blinked weakly, confused.
[ Blink ]
[ Dynamic Distance ]
[ Perfect Projection ]
Someone had cast three top-tier space-element Skills at the same time. With such precision and finesse that it looked like only one complex Skill was executed.
Shir's eyes widened. He looked down.
The trident hadn't moved. It was still inches away from her eyes.
But something was… wrong. Very wrong.
He turned his head slightly. And saw it.
A dark Hex dagger was still in the process of piercing through his own chest, right from behind.
His mouth opened in shock. The pain hadn't even caught up to him yet.
Sifrona stared in disbelief as the colors slowly returned to the world.
The battlefield's noise came crashing back in. Shir's trident trembled.
He froze. And for the time being, his body failed to react.
His trident stayed mid-air, never touching Sifrona's face.
His mind… blanked. Then it raced.
'What… what the fuck just happened?'
He looked down at his chest where the Hex dagger had pierced him from behind. His blood, dark red with golden sparks inside, oozed from the deep wound.
The divine energy inside him stirred restlessly, trying to heal and protect—but the damage had already been done. It was too severe to be healed right away.
How…?
It felt like a nightmare. But the pain told him it was all real.
Shir's mind moved like lightning, running through possibilities.
A sneak attack… an Assassin-Class mana practitioner. Had to be. Must be S-Rank, maybe peak. Otherwise…
But then—his eyes narrowed.
The mana lingering on the dagger…
It's A-Rank?!
'This… how can this be. A fucking A-Rank dares to assassinate a legit demigod?'
What kind of balls would it take for an A-Ranker to accept such an assassination mission? And he actually almost succeeded.
Shir's heart skipped a beat.
Impossible!
How could an A-Ranker pierce through him?
He was a late-stage S-Ranker. A demigod. Every breath he took was filled with faith energy from his followers.
His God Spark had strengthened his mortal vessel beyond compare. His natural mana defense layer was always active. Even caught off guard, a random Grand Knight shouldn't be able to break through that.
And yet… Here he was.
Bleeding.
Hurt.
Not just physically. But his pride was shattered.
This was the work of a Pridebreaker assassin.
Shir's hands trembled slightly as he turned around slowly, eyes wide and burning with disbelief. And then…
He saw him.
A handsome young man with wavy black hair. His face was calm, confident. He was way too young by the standards of the mana practitioners. Especially for someone in the late-stage A-Rank.
Blood splattered on his clean-looking clothes.
And those emerald green eyes…
Shir felt a cold chill run down his spine.
Those eyes weren't just cold—they felt poisonous.
It was like they could melt the will of gods.
How…?
Why is it him?!
Shir could have sworn that Eren didn't have an Assassin Class when he met him yesterday.
How did this vile man change his damn Class in just one day?
What shocked and infuriated Shir even more was that the man had the audacity to smoke while he was carrying out such a high profile assassination.
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AN: Blink was covered back in chapter 826. Eren gets Dynamic Distance and Perfect Projection in chapter 807, and he first combines both in chapter 1132.
Blink kind of explains itself, but I'll quickly go over the other two in case anyone forgot or doesn't feel like digging through old chapters.
Dynamic Distance is basically a movement-type spell—well, a Skill in Labh Salem. It pairs really well with Blink and turns into a high-level assassin move when used right.
Perfect Projection is also a space-element skill. It lets Eren bend space around him in some pretty wild ways.
For example, he can make it look like a spell or weapon is getting warped by space, only for it to suddenly shoot out from a totally different direction.
He has gotten so good with this Skill that it has started to affect his opponents' physical senses, making them not hear anything around them. Even the light reflection is affected, forcing his opponents to see things in monochrome while the Skill is active.
These details are important, but I left them out of the actual chapter since I didn't want to ruin the flow of the "perfect assassination" moment in the story.