Mythology: Ragnarok

But Rayleigh scoffed and retorted, "Captain, you underestimate me. I've already found out. The kitchen owner is bringing his fifteen-year-old daughter along as a kitchen helper. I..."

Agreed pulled Rayleigh close, rubbing his neck with his fingers as he gritted his teeth and said menacingly, "If you dare to mess with the kitchen staff again during a mission, believe me, I'll castrate you right now. You know my temper; I'm not joking with you!"

Rayleigh swallowed hard and said confidently, "Don't worry, I will definitely control myself."

Agreed patted his head and said, "Very good. If you behave well, I'll give you an extra five hundred gold coins when we get back. Otherwise, you can use the money from this mission to buy a good grave for your little brother." With that, Agreed turned and left, leaving Rayleigh trembling with fear.

As expected, Rayleigh behaved himself over the next few days. When they were less than two days away from the royal city, the thing everyone had been worried about finally happened.

That night, as they were about to reach their destination, the guards lowered their guard, and the night watchmen were also very careless, thus giving the enemy an opportunity.

Several dark figures emerged from the shadows and instantly killed the night watchmen with crossbow bolts. To prevent too much noise, the men in black ran towards the sentry campfire at the same time as the bolts were fired. After they fell, they immediately covered their mouths and stabbed them in the lungs with knives to prevent any other sounds from alerting the enemy.

Immediately afterward, the men in black drew their weapons and used their special technique, 'Shadow Escape,' to infiltrate the shadow space and sneak into the camp. To be honest, if their enemy hadn't been Agreed, their ambush would have been absolutely fatal to the guards. Unfortunately, Agreed was too knowledgeable. His deal with the demons had given him a wealth of experience and wisdom, so when the enemy used shadow energy to escape into the shadow world, Agreed was awakened from his already shallow sleep.

"This fluctuation... it's an escape into a parallel dimension! Such a high-level assassination technique, damn it, this mission is definitely not going to end well." Agreed cursed helplessly, while simultaneously slashing open his tent with his knife and releasing the magic 'Thunder' to create a thunderclap in the night, waking everyone in the camp.

Everyone was immediately awakened, but this also allowed the enemy to launch an immediate attack. The guards were stabbed to death in their own beds as soon as they got up. Although they had been warned immediately, more than half of the guards died in the enemy's surprise attack.

However, Agred's team members were not assassinated. Sophie even managed to capture one of the assassins and, together with the others, brought him to Agred.

Although the assassin wanted to commit suicide by poison, Sophie anticipated his move and dislocated his jaw. After bringing the assassin over, Agreed pressed his hand on his head and activated the demonic spell 'Soul Search' to search the assassin's memories. Once he found the information he wanted, Agreed detonated the soul, shattering the assassin's head.

Then Agreed instructed, "I'm going to take them out in the shadows. You guys stay together and try not to give them a chance to ambush you."

After speaking, Agreed used the secret technique he had learned from the assassin's memories to escape into the Shadow World. As soon as he entered that otherworldly space that resembled a reflection of the world, twenty-seven men in black immediately attacked this uninvited guest. Crossbow bolts were fired at Agreed, but they were all blocked by his instantly cast magical shield.

The man in black, who appeared to be the leader, immediately activated the shadow magic 'Shadow Strangulation'. A huge, eerie black shadow appeared from behind Agred, wrapped around Agred's neck, and tightened its grip, intending to decapitate him.

Argreed instantly cast the spell 'Radiance' to banish the shadows, and simultaneously cast 'Chain Lightning' to electrocute all the men in black. However, the leader was still not giving up. Despite his injuries, he cast the high-level shadow spell 'Shadow Annihilation' again, and then he could no longer hold on and collapsed to the ground with his companions. At this moment, Argreed's shadow began to disappear, and his soul began to be devoured. If his shadow completely disappeared, he would die completely.

But Agreed calmly released the high-level shadow magic 'Night Domination' that he had stored in his staff before entering. In the blink of an eye, the shadow returned directly to Agreed's body, and his soul, which had been devoured by the shadow, was restored to its original state.

Seeing that all their attacks had missed, the leader of the men in black shouted in frustration, "How is this possible? How do you know shadow magic!"

Agreed walked up to him and said disdainfully, "If you can learn it, why can't I? Go in peace, it's not shameful to die by my hand." With that, Agreed unleashed a barrage of fireballs, and the men in black were instantly engulfed in flames.

After eliminating the enemies, Agreed quickly escaped from the Shadow Dimension. The waiting guards immediately surrounded him, and the guard captain, Robin, anxiously asked, "Did you take care of them?"

Agreed nodded and said, "Of course, not a single one will be spared."

"Not a single one left?! Why didn't you grab one alive for questioning?" Robin complained.

Agreed simply explained, “There’s no need. I know who sent them, and I know who they are. Lord Harvey’s concerns are valid; they are assassins sent by his political enemies, and these assassins come from the infamous Shadow Lodge.”

Robin exclaimed in surprise, "Shadow Pavilion?! The strongest assassin organization on the continent! How can a high-ranking official of the country still have contact with them? Is he planning a rebellion?"

Agreed scoffed and said, "So what if you know? Without evidence, he can deny it outright. Besides, the Shadow Pavilion assassins are all deadly; you can't get any useful information out of them."

Robin said helplessly, "You're right, we..." Before Robin could finish speaking, a spear shot from afar and pierced Robin's heart. The sudden attack startled everyone. Agreed immediately activated his senses and only saw one person appearing on the hillside above.

He was a strong man with a face that could only be described as ravaged. He wore a suit of soft armor made of mithril and held two swords. He looked down at his prey at his feet.

Upon seeing him, one of the guards immediately shouted, "I recognize him! Kingpin's top fighter, 'Wolfhound Emma,' is a grandmaster-level warrior! What the hell is he doing here!"

Just then, Emma made her move. She rushed down the hillside, imbuing her twin swords with battle aura. The domineering sword energy surged towards the camp, instantly killing the guards. Meanwhile, Agreed reacted immediately, using a magical shield to protect his team. Afterward, the remaining magic sorcerer squad looked solemnly at their enemy.

It's unbelievable! Kasa was already a Grandmaster-level expert enough to drive us to despair, and now we've encountered another Grandmaster-level powerhouse who's still in his prime. Did these two groups plan this out? They're going back and forth like this, it's like they're fighting a war of attrition!