Áz - The Battlefield

The Assassin's Mission

South of Aggron, North of Azzaria Forest.

In a closed forest, a man of small stature was jumping over the branches of the trees as fast as he could reach, with an expression worried to fear something. His flexibility in moving among the trees would make any theater performer jealous, but at the moment it didn't matter.

The little man was sweating profusely and the complete weariness of his person could be seen from his worn-out expression. He carried an extremely good looking red staff on his back which seemed to glow in the sunlight, if it was any other escape maybe this would be the reason he was chased, but not this time. This time the problem threatened his life worse.

— Damn it! But what I got myself into... — He commented as he continued.

As he jumped between the trees in the shadow of a more distant tree an arrow projectile was shot towards the place where he would jump, being able to hear the sound of the projectile passing through the air he deflected into a mortal causing the projectile to stick in the trunk of a tree. a tree in front of you.

Poof!

The arrowhead on impact dissolved into a yellowish gas which covered him before he could deflect. Going through it he ignored the gas that had passed and continued his flight quickly.

Another arrow shot out of the shadows of the trees towards him ahead, yet he managed to dodge it despite the inconvenience. For him to dodge it wasn't really difficult, the real problem was that attacks aimed at him could come from anywhere, from anywhere at all.

When passing through the trees the birds and insects fled due to the noise, he didn't have much to do as the forest was the place where his authority worked best, however a forest was also a great place for them.

Again, this time in full view a woman covered entirely in black clothes carrying a crossbow appeared from the shadows of a large tree, shooting in the direction he would use for support, his aim seemed to be fatal. On a branch above her, a man also appeared in the shadows of the tree, this one dressed in the same way as she was, only with several small bombs scattered around his body, launching a bomb in the direction where he would go even further than the woman would throw.

Instinctively, the Lord using the staff that was on his back as support on a tree when turning sideways he managed to dodge the arrow's trajectory, however when it came time to land on a large branch of a tree and change the direction he would go. due to the dropped bomb, his leg stopped moving.

— AHHHH! — He shouted when he noticed that some members of his body didn't respond.

Falling and hitting the branches as he fell, the only thing the little lord could see in his vision was the figure of someone dressed in black falling in front of him.

It wasn't a lie what he saw, soon another whip wrapped itself around the little man's body preventing his quick fall by pulling him up throwing him straight to the ground after that.

— Urg… — He exhaled with the pain of the fall.

Another woman dressed in the same way as the previous two was standing on the floor in front of the little lord as she held the long whip that immobilized him.

He could feel his arms and legs not responding to his commands, whatever that gas was now and he knew… He knew he hadn't been careful enough.

Apart from moaning he couldn't do anything else, his mouth was barely moving, his body was completely paralyzed and he was only allowed to watch and listen.

The sound of movement echoed through the rustle of leaves, the woman and man who had initiated the last attack appeared among the dense vegetation of this forest joining the third that held that lord physically bound.

— I solved the problem. — The woman with the whip commented in a low voice.

The woman who carried a crossbow in her hand watched the lord immobilized on the ground, his staff had fallen a little farther, that was important and would come in handy at some point although she didn't know when.

— You talk as if all the work was yours… —  Replied the man whose bombs were carrying.

Turning her attention to the immobilized lord, the woman raised her crossbow while ignoring their conversation and with the loaded weapon fired towards the target's head.

— No… —  Was all he managed to say as he realized what was going to happen.

The arrow went straight into his eye, going through his brain and putting his head on the ground, there was no need to report that he was dead, the fact was easily clarified in the eyes of everyone else.

— She's cruel... — Completed the bomb man. — And the biggest job was hers, not ours. Haa...

Going to the dead lord's body, the man took out of his clothes a vial with a green liquid, throwing the contents of the vial on the dead man's body, where the liquid touched the body parts were melted quickly and in a few minutes the body would disappear in the midst of such.

— Now yes, resolved. — He finished.

— Leaving that aside... where's the boss? — The woman with the whip asked after she had already stowed her weapon in her waist when the target died.

— He must be coming back, probably finished faster than we did with this Ape Lord. — The woman with the crossbow replied, putting her weapon behind her back.

— I'm up here. — Said an extra voice from above seriously.

Everyone looked up, sitting on the branch of a tree above them was another man, this one a little shorter than the one next to the two women on the ground. On his back he carried a woman of small stature who slept peacefully regardless of any movement he made.

— I got here a minute ago. — He replied, looking at each of them and passing his orders shortly after. — Z-Three, collect your unused bombs and clean the remains of the others. Z-Two, same for your projectiles. Z-Four, take care of the remains of the body. We're going to Azzaria.

They each got up and went to do their bidding, Z-Three and Z-Two disappeared into the shadows due to this. As Z-Four took a vial of white liquid from her clothes, this one to clean the traces of used acid, she turned her attention to their leader coming down from the tree.

— Why Azzaria? she asked seriously. The only target there is too big for us, so... Did something go wrong? — She added, reaching a conclusion.

The target she mentioned was Cardinal Jord, there were many people after him, but no one dared to do something rashly, the Water Lord had more value alive than dead. It wasn't simply a matter of power, Jord wasn't a Phase 5 strong enough to be compared to the Sins or the current kings, but due to his seniority.

After the Sins, Jord was known as the oldest known living lord. He was present at the fall of the Golden Empire, a time when no one else could be accepted by the Seven Thrones simultaneously after the Golden Throne disappeared along with the Blood Emperor, where the first kingdoms of the continent emerged. Jord also had known contact with the Lady of Histories, the Lord of Arms, some kings, not to mention the fact that he was a Cardinal of the Blue Temple who suddenly decided to settle in that city and never left.

If there was one thing certain in the reality of the Lords, it was that these elders did nothing for nothing and had real knowledge about many things. Azzaria had somehow become a town full of scouts because of him, even if he didn't do anything it ended up that relevant people visited him sometimes or sent someone to warn him about something.

It wasn't like they had never tried to kill him either, the Shadow Assassins were never given the mission to kill him and some just watched him, but other organizations had tried and failed.

— Has the time for that old stream finally come? — Z-Three also asked, coming back after a few moments. He couldn't be seen due to his face being covered, but the man, Z-Zero, was smiling at the conclusion they had reached.

— No. Looks like two previous targets are still alive, I got a call from an informant. We have to verify and restart the plan if it really is true. — He replied when he saw that she finished what she was doing and there were no more traces on the ground.

None of the other three asked him if his part of the mission was complete, they all knew it was. Now the Lord of the Trident no longer belonged to this world.

— Wait, two targets? So… the Princess and that Royal Guard? Seriously? This makes no sense, we saw them fall! Not even Phase 5 Lords escape that place and inevitably die! It makes no sense. — Said Z-Three, disturbed by the thought.

There have been situations where Aven'Nath Deep was used as a way to bury people. One was when former Lords of Summer and Spring threw the Lord of Autumn of that time there after a conflict between the three, another case was when the Lord of Light and Night was captured and thrown into the abyss by the Shadow Assassins themselves and this was eventually released by the Lord of Truth.

A discovery in these events was that despite being confirmed that they were dead, the Authorities of these people did not choose new users. This implied many things and from Lent onwards there was a widespread consensus that nothing comes out of the abyss once it lands there, not even the Authorities.

— We don't know the reason, the fact is that it happened and we have to get rid of what happened. We have finished with most of the infiltrators in Aggron that could serve as aid to your army, finishing solving the previous mission we can return. — Concluded Z-Zero.

For some reason the Shadow Lord decided to support Malzer, something unusual as the Shadow Assassins did not actively engage in war. A common fact was that their targets were always chosen specifically, these were erased but the places around which they would disappear remained normal, that is, the assassins never worked to the point of changing the course of a war in this way.

— We should go now. — He ordered turning towards the forest, more precisely to the south in the direction where Azzaria was.

In a few steps Z-Two also joined them and as they prepared to move together swallowed by the shadows they were interrupted.

— Zero… — Said the sleeping woman when she woke up, opening her sleepy eyes.

— One. What's it? — He replied when asking, the mission in this place was already over and she didn't usually wake up like this out of nowhere after that.

Z-One was someone special among the Shadow Assassins, she was the only known follower of one of the Sins besides the Lady of Assassins. The only person she knew to share the power of more than two Phase 5 Lords and in some ways she was the most dangerous assassin on this team.

— The Lord of Sleep…is…moving to Aggron. — She replied sleepily.

It was relevant information, also as she was one of the only people who knew of the Sleep Lord's whereabouts.

— How strange, he doesn't usually move, has something changed? — Rambled Z-Four.

Z-Zero stopped to think and took into account the fact of their failed mission and any other strange occurrences happening in Aggron. In the end, he didn't get a considerable answer as to why this move.

The Sleep Lord was currently an undead with a conscience due to the characteristic of his Authority he was ,still a full Lord even dead and had his conscience intact.

— I'm afraid we'll find out soon enough if anything's changed. — Z-Zero replied.

With that they disappeared into the shadows and several hours later they became aware of the movement of some servants of the Lord of the Dead across the continent, at that moment three Undead Lords had already been discovered acting in several places.

That alone was a bigger change than they could have imagined.