"So we're doing a high-risk hit for revenge, but what's the payout?" Helios asked, adjusting his new suit.
"Nothing," Sara replied breezily. "Rose is a friend, and her husband was a good man. We're doing this pro bono."
What do you mean we aren't getting paid? I'm the leader of a criminal syndicate, not a charity!
"Here's the plan," Sara continued, ignoring his internal crisis. "You hold off the external guards while I handle the actual assassinations. Just be careful—they have guns."
"Guns? Why am I not surprised?" Helios muttered, then paled. "Wait, how am I supposed to fight people with guns?"
"Don't worry, they aren't Seekers. These are lower-tier nobles; they can't afford superhuman security. As for the guns... I don't know, just try not to get hit? Think of it as training." Before he could argue, Sara tapped her pocket watch. Time blurred, and in a blink, Helios was standing directly in front of the Targen estate.
"See you later, Leader! Try to stay alive for me!" Sara vanished.
Immediately, an alarm blared, piercing the night air. Guards began swarming the courtyard like hornets. Shit.
From the rooftop, Sara watched the chaos for a moment. "I hope the Leader will be okay," she mused before smashing a window and slipping inside.
"Another assassin! Sound the alarm!" a guard screamed as she entered a hallway. Sara didn't even break her stride. She slowed time, walked casually up to the man, and drove a dagger through his throat. "It's been a while since I've done a full wipe. I'm getting rusty."
Outside, Helios was backed against a stone pillar. Crown, you bastard, show yourself!
The ornate black crown flickered into existence on his head. Human, you woke me up. Can't a crown get its beauty sleep?
You've been missing for so long I thought you'd finally kicked the bucket! Help me with my ability!
You can't summon the Knight Lords yet, the crown warned. If you do, they'll break free and kill you along with the guards. You aren't strong enough to chain them while conscious.
Then what am I supposed to do?
These are normal humans, Helios. Fight them yourself.
"Fine. I can do this." Helios gripped his sword. As the first wave of guards rushed him, he moved. He didn't just swing; he carved. He sliced the first man in half and buried his blade in the heart of the second.
A gunshot rang out. Helios's reflexes screamed, and he vaulted over a flowerbed, the bullet whistling past his ear. That was close. If it wasn't for this Seeker body, I'd be six feet under.
A guard lunged with a sword, but Helios parried it effortlessly. The guard panicked, pulling a pistol from his belt and firing point-blank. Helios twisted his body mid-air, the bullet grazing his coat.
"This guy... he isn't human!" the guard shrieked.
Helios didn't respond. He felt a cold, dark thrill rising in his chest. His body was moving on its own, dancing through the rain of lead. He lopped the head off the screaming guard. It feels like I'm cutting through wet paper, he thought, a sinister smile creeping onto his face.
Inside the manor, Sara was whistling as she sped up time, moving like a blur of death. Ten guards lay in the hallway behind her, dead before they could even draw their weapons. "I've still got it," she whispered. "I wonder if Helios has felt the bloodlust yet. Every Seeker's first mass kill is a... transformative experience."
In the courtyard, Helios was no longer just defending. Red Spiral Power began to leak from his pores, flickering like dark embers. He vanished and reappeared behind two guards, taking both their heads with a single horizontal sweep.
He moved to the next man, who had dropped his gun and began to cry. Helios didn't hesitate; he delivered a diagonal slash that split the man from shoulder to hip. He was in a state of pure slaughter. Chillingly, he channelled Spiral Power into his blade and unleashed three consecutive energy waves.
When the dust settled, the garden was a graveyard. Blood flowed across the stone tiles like water. The remaining seventy guards were trembling, their aim wavering as they tried to fire.
Crown, this is taking too long. Give me a way to finish them.
Use your ability. You have new Nightmares now—weaker ones that you can actually control.
How?
Focus. Call them from the gate.
Helios roared, and the rusted iron gate manifested behind him. But this time, it wasn't the Knight Lords who stepped out. It was shadow-versions of the Targen guards he had just killed, clutching spectral swords and rifles.
"The bloodbath is beautiful," Helios whispered, his eyes glowing.
The surviving guards turned to run, but their own dead comrades hunted them down. Shadow-bullets and dark steel finished the job. Helios watched with a twisted grin as his new army grew with every fallen man.
Sara appeared at his side, sniffing the air. "The Leader is finished, I see. I can smell the blood from here."
She looked at the five nobles she had handled personally—their eyes were missing, their fingers severed, each finished with a precise stab to the throat. "Time to go before the Royal Police arrive. I don't fancy a jail cell tonight."
"Let's go," Helios said, covering his nose as the metallic scent finally hit him. "The smell is getting nauseating."
The next morning at the mansion, Luna bounded into Helios's bedroom. "Brother! Can you read the newspaper to me before you go to work?"
"Sure, Moon. But just the front page."
Luna sat on the edge of his bed and handed him the paper. Helios's eyes widened as he read the headline.
BREAKING NEWS: TARGEN BLOODLINE EXTERMINATED.
The Royal Police are questioning five surviving guards. Initial reports suggested an internal conflict due to the mix of gunfire and sword wounds, but the brutality of the family's execution suggests an outside force. Authorities believe it was a coordinated strike by multiple assassins, as no single person could have committed such a massacre alone.
Helios folded the paper, his hand steady. "They have no idea," he whispered.
"No idea about what, Brother?" Luna asked.
"No idea how much fun we had," Helios replied, patting her head.
What will the Royal Police do next, and will the Order of the Blackthorn be their primary suspect?