The blood-covered room should have been covered in total darkness, but at that moment, the blood that covered everything was giving off a faint reddish glow.
Severin flicked his hand to the side and threw the assassin he was holding to the ground, watching as the man coughed desperately.
"Now. Can you all answer my questions?"
The assassins exchanged glances, and then they came together to face him.
Two of them took a step forward, and one of them stepped back and faced the wall.
’Oh? So two of them will fight me, and one of them will try to find a way out. Not bad. In fact, these assassins are "professionals." They immediately ran when they encountered an anomaly they didn’t understand, instead of waiting to die. Are they from the same place?’
’And that one with the dagger that cut the body before I awoke into it. He knew something and probably knew more than the other two with the way he had been trying to flee. He also kept his distance. I was careful not to kill him too.’
The reason Severin did not just snap his neck was because he could tell the man might know even more than the other two.
"Where am I? Who am I? Why do you want to hurt me? Who sent you?"
One of them sneered. Now that they were trapped and couldn’t run immediately, there was nothing they could do but fight. "So, Caelen, you’ve been hiding your powers? But it seems that your arrogance is still constant!"
"If you did not let us go, you can’t even imagine the trouble you’ll find yourself in."
"I am Caelen... Seradon. Right? Right." He then narrowed his eyes. "How dare you try to harm someone like me?"
Severin had thought about it, and he realized that since he did not know about the world, it was best not to show too many abnormalities. He would simply take the identity of this Caelen Seradon, and fortunately, one of the assassins had given him the excuse that he would use.
’Caelen Seradon had been hiding his power all along!’
Anyone who had a problem with that could come deal with him. But it was best to be cautious. After all, he did not know how strong people could be in this world or how many people were stronger than him.
And considering that there were assassins sent after him, along with the small reputation of his that he had heard, he now knew the body must have had some enemies.
"Harm someone like you?" A dark chuckle followed. "Your House lost its Sicon. An Upper Sicon at that. What’s special about you? If not because of your body, do you dare to think you’d still be alive?"
Caelen frowned. ’Come to think of it. If the body is weak and useless as they said, why are assassins after him?’
’There’s something special about the body?’
But try as he might, Caelen couldn’t find anything unusual about the body.
Behind the two assassins, one of them stood before the blood-covered wall. His hands were covered in a shadowy silver glow and a sickly green tinge of poison that gave off a damp and cold feeling. His nails lengthened, piercing through his gloves, each emitting a glow of its own.
Caelen narrowed his eyes. ’What type of power is that? It’s almost similar to mana, but it’s giving off a sinister feel.’
Immediately the assassin started using his power. The two who were standing in front of him leaped into action. Their nails also lengthened like daggers, dripping with poison.
Almost simultaneously, they shouted, "Thousand-Nail Barrage!"
The two assassins thrust their hands forward, and the air whined as hundreds of nails shot forward. The nails were shadowy, tinged with green, and they looked illusionary, but they cut through the air with the speed and force of bullets.
But before they got to him, Caelen raised his hand.
"Blood Armor!"
The blood on the ground around him instantly twisted and rose into a curving shield in front of him.
Peng! Peng! Peng!
The nails slammed into the shield, the illusionary nails shattering into pieces. But not a single dent was seen on the surface of the Blood Armor.
The two assassins were stunned. "But... how can that be..."
Caelen shook his head. "You don’t know the difference between A and C. I will show you.
"Blood Needle!"
The red glow in the room glowed brighter. Caelen’s aura climbed higher, his pressure turning more oppressive and tyrannical.
The three assassins froze.
One of them stumbled back. "No, no... this is impossible. He’s at the Ascendant Rank? No way! No wa...!"
He didn’t get to finish speaking as blobs of blood floated up, then broke down into densely packed crystallized needles that shot at him with a force that broke the sound barrier.
The sound of flesh tearing, of bones snapping and breaking.
Then the assassin turned into a smear, his flesh and blood splattering onto the other two.
The silence now was total.
Caelen frowned. "Just one blow? It seems you guys were weaker than I actually thought. You must have now realized just how insignificant you are. Do you want to answer my questions?"
Two things happened. Things Caelen expected.
The two assassins created space between themselves and him, then sent hundreds of nail attacks at him that he easily blocked.
They wanted to create a distraction and then send their strongest attack his way to create an opportunity to escape.
"Blood Needle!"
But they were simply outmatched.
A wave of blood needles slammed into the lower body of one of the assassins, instantly destroying everything it touched and drawing a blood-curdling scream from him.
The other assassin poured some kind of power into his hands, and two ghostly scythes appeared around him, furiously hacking into the blood wall, creating enough space for him to squeeze out and escape.
Caelen watched him go with a smile on his face. The one who escaped was the one who had his blood on his dagger.
He turned to the assassin crawling on the ground while crying.
"So?"
"I will! I will answer all of your questions!"