Chapter 199 - Quinn, Nathan's Third Assassin

  Quinn:

  I tinued my walk, each step weighed down with a mixture of uainty and worry, until I finally reached the edge of the river. The rain poured relentlessly, but something in the darkness caught my eye—a faint, pale glimmer among the soaked stones.

  The ring on my finger pulsed, glowing softly. It was unmistakable: its terpart was nearby. A wave of dread hit me like a punch to the gut, and my breath grew heavier.

  "Damn it..." I murmured, kneeling down slowly, my knees sinking into the mud. Eliza’s ring y there, partially buried under dirt a leaves, but its green pendant shimmered faintly, responding to mine.

  Reition strustantly, and the pai deeper than I could bear. I reached out with a trembling hand, pig up the ring, feeling the cold weight of its significe. It was a symbol of the bond we shared, a silent vow to protect each other when nothing else would.

  The dread that had taken hold of me turned into unbearable anguish, a scream trapped in my chest.

  "Eliza..." I whispered, gripping the ring tightly as the rain washed over my face.

  If she activated the ring a it behind, it could only meahing: she had entered a powerful enemy. This was her message to me.

  I poured mana into Eliza's ring and watched the message form in the air, the letters crafted from my own energy. They shimmered for a moment before revealing the words:

  'DANGER, BROTHER! NATHAN EVENHART IS DANGEROUS!'

  My chest tightened further.

  “Sister…” I murmured, the weight of the revetion hitting me hard. I pocketed the ring, taking a deep breath as the reality of what had happened began to sink in. If she recorded that message, something serious must have gone wrong. Ricardo and Eliza never made mistakes, especially in a mission nned for two years. But something had goerribly wrong.

  “She must have been captured…” I whispered, my mind rag in a thousand dires. Ricardo and Eliza were masters at what they did, especially when it came to abdu. They were prepared for any unforesees. If somethi wrong, it meant that Nathan Evenhart was more than he seemed.

  If someone was strong enough to face those two, the logical course of a would be to capture one of them… to try and uhe reason for the abdu.

  Rage began to build inside me.

  “I have to save my sister!” I resolved, starting to run through the devastated forest.

  If Ricardo hadn’t tacted me, he might have been captured or killed.

  Eliza's message was brief but clear. If she stated that Nathan Evenhart was dangerous, it meant he could be far more skilled thaicipated or had received ued help. Perhaps bodyguards, or eveervention of ane. She didn’t have time to expihing, but the message was clear: dahat boy might not be the simple farmer our iigations suggested.

  Over the years, the informatiohered about him indicated that it would be a straightforward mission. Nathan Evenhart came from an agricultural duchy, located in the human kingdom’s interior, on the farthest edge of the ti, he Cursed Sea. The region was isoted, made up almost entirely of dense forests and vast farmnds. From our research, we learhat he was often seen alone or apanied by servants. Nothing unusual: no drinking habits, no visits to brothels, or any other indulgent behavior typical of the nobility.

  The reports described him as someoh little ambition for a noble heir. He was often seen helping with animal births on farms or at local markets, gathering food for orphans who waited until the end of the fair to collect leftovers. He seemed… too ordinary, without any hint of danger.

  “How that damn farmer be a threat?” I excimed aloud, stopping to catch my breath as anger began to swell withihe image of my sister, captured and humiliated… it tore me apart inside. I ched my fists tightly.

  “If he id a finger on my sister, he’s fug dead!” I swore, feeling the rage boil inside me. It was so intehat my muscles pulsed, and my steps quied.

  I resumed my run, the deafening sound of the rain matg my pace. But then, something caught my attention. A dark silhouette on the riverbank, shrouded in dense fog and the murky refle of the water. From a dista looked like... a body.

  My heart pounded in my chest, each beat eg like a war drum inside me. I sprioward the shadowy figure, adrenaline burning through my veins. With every step, uainty became more suffog, and a sense of dread grew within me.

  When I finally got close, my body froze. The sight before me ure horror.

  "What the hell is this?" I muttered, disbelief etched in my voice as I stared at the charred corpse before me. The flesh was fused with what was left of the clothing, now unreizable, a grotesque mess of burns and deformities. The stench of burnt, rotting flesh hit me like a punch, the ing odor invading my nostrils. The body had been carried by the river, showing signs of fish bites and even maggots.

  I he corpse with my foot, trying to make sense of what I was seeing, as if the movement could clear the doubt. But what I felt was even worse: the charred flesh crumbled uhe pressure, crag like it was about to colpse.

  The horror inside me grew.

  The body… was a woman.

  I lit a small fme in my hand to better illumihe se. A lump formed in my throat, and the desperation surged.

  “It ’t be… it ’t be…” I repeated, my hands trembling as I examihe corpse. My mind refused to accept what my eyes saw.

  Kneeling beside the body, I studied the dental structure.

  If it has that tooth… that damooth…

  “Please, don’t let it be hers…”

  As soon as I pulled the tooth from the charred mouth, I noticed the cruel detail: the false tooth, made of metal and paio look real, with a small message stone inside. A ethod among assassins, in case our bodies were left beynition. We each had a tooth with a message stone taining our name, so our partners could identify the remains.

  My heart raced. The evidence was there, but I refused to accept it.

  “It ’t be her… it just ’t…” I muttered, the denial eg within me as I poured my mana into the stone. Slowly, floatiers formed in the air, glowing with the same light as my mana.

  ‘ELIZA’

  The letters in the air felt like a final sentence, and my body froze. Shock coursed through me, and my vision blurred. My hands trembled as I looked at the lifeless, charred body. My world colpsed right there, in front of that unreizable corpse. That burnt figure... was my sister. The only family I had in this world.

  “Eliza…” I murmured, kneeling beside the body. I lifted it gently, holding the unreizable remains in my arms, the weight of grief and loss crushing my chest. A tear fell, and I remembered her st smile before all this began.

  As I cradled the body, the sound of footsteps broke through my moment of sorrow. A firm, intruding voice echoed through the relentless rain.

  “Who are you?! What are you doing here?” barked a guard, his figure appearing through the heavy downpour. He looked like a patrolman, drawn by the devastation around him.

  I simply stared at him, too shattered to respond. My mind was somewhere else... focused on someone else.

  “Are you responsible for all this destru?” the guard insisted, now with a tone filled with suspi. His eyes locked onto me, trying to make sense of the se before him.

  I kissed Eliza’s forehead, tasting the bitter mix of soot and tears on my lips. I closed my eyes for a brief moment, letting the weight of grief crush me from within. I gently id my sister’s body ba the ground as my throat tightened and despair threateo overwhelm me.

  “Answer me!” the guard shouted again, more impatient now, his hand gripping the hilt of his sword.

  “Shut up!” I snapped brutally, my patienpletely gone. Without hesitation, I suddenly jured a tornado of fire around him. The fmes rose viciously in a spiraling inferno.

  The guard screamed, his cries of agony pierg through the rain, which seemed powerless to quench the wrath of the fmes. He fell to the ground, writhing as the fire ed him. I didn’t look away from Eliza, even as the guard’s screams grew weaker and finally fell silent.

  “I’m sorry…” I whispered to Eliza’s charred body, my voice trembling, each word ced with pain a. “It was my greed… I thought this would be our st job… I thought we could start over after all of this.”

  Rage and guilt ed me, a whirlwind of emotions threatening to tear me apart. I ched my fists until my fingers ached, my body as tense as a spring ready to snap.

  As the guard’s body disied into ashes in the mud, my focus was clear.

  The name of the one responsible echoed in my mind like thunder, and my hatred burned like molten va, ready to annihite everything in its path.

  “NATHAN EVENHART!” I screamed at the sky, as lightning danced among the clouds, eg my fury.

  “I will do the same to you! I will take everything you hold dear, make you beg for death. I will kill those you love.”