Chapter 167: Battle of Assassins

Simoun already suffered a heartbreak induced by his unconscious insecurity that unfortunately, even the light given to him by Clara cannot cure in an instant, hearing someone in the office of  his lord talk about his dead father ask about him made all of his sorrow turn into anger, he looked around, seeing if there is any hidden magic circle for espionage or spies that are stationed besides the office, seeing that there is none, he went and placed his ear into the door, his eyebrows clenched as if ready to crack down on anyone that will dare to tarnish the name of his ruined father.

"Heh, he is quite talented. He can analyze who from his 'friends" are genuine and who are the ones with ulterior motives, the latter, immediately dead of mysterious causes that even honest to goodness assassins are impressed on how well executed they are."

Silence ensued. Simoun didn't know what the stranger was thinking, but it seemed like he was contemplating his next words.

"My Lord... you know that that's not what I am talking about... his investigation of his father's death... the kid persists on it despite all the dead ends he has met... I am afraid that one day, you will finally be implicated, and all his loyalty to you will go down the drain."

Simoun's eyes widened. He had long forgotten what his heartbreak with Clara was, and only the insatiable desire to know the truth lingered. Accidentally, he had just stumbled upon the prime opportunity to do so.

"Ha, don't worry about it. I am sure that he will never manage to find any fault on me, nor will he ever have a chance to confront me if he does find my guilt."

At that moment, Simoun froze into place as if he had been put in a cryogenic chamber.

_What? Lord Aerendil... he... he..._

Slowly, Simoun's vision was tainted with literal red, he clenched his fist, due to his irrational rage to the person who have admittedly said that he is the one who have plotted against his father, and most probably, also controlled his relatives to destroy their dukedom, and as he did, he punched the door with all his might, making it blast away towards the face of Aerendil as he made a dynamic entry, or that's what Simoun wanted to do, because as it was said, he is shrouded with anger, and only when the door halted to advance, fixed itself in front of him and then went back to his original position did he woke up back to reality.

There is no one in the room except the king of elves, Aerendil.

"Spying on your king's matter... such a grave sin, and you are so talented... You are hereby arrested for the crime of espionage and treason."

Simoun is confused, alongside a plethora of emotions as two specifically strong assassins he has only heard in the tales of his drill sergeants apprehended him with great force, he cannot articulate any words as he have only one thing in his mind.

All of his investigations are somehow manipulated by the man in front of him.

It may be stated that Aerendil is not, military-wise, adept in strategies, but that is only relative to the almost fully martial views of Sophia. In truth, there are only a handful of people that can guess what is going on in the mind of the False Prophet Aerendil.

Simoun is not one of that.

After that, Simoun had no recollection of what happened; all he knew was that he went straight to a lab and not to prison. Then he was given a very strong anesthesia, and after being asleep for who knows how long, he heard a notification alongside a fleeting headache.

[Notice: Individual Simoun Crisostomo Ibarra has been successfully administered with [Artificial Hero Prospect Crystal]]

[Notice: Weapon Familiar [Shadow Daggers] acquired]

Simoun opened his eyes, and as he did, he saw a room full of elves in lab gowns.

However, even before Simoun can be shocked, the scene before him changes. He is now kneeling, facing the back of an archer with a porcelain mask on her face. "Her" is because of the piston-like movements of the woman's glutes.

"You will find her again... you just have to win a war for me..."

Suddenly, two hands planted themselves on his ears as he heard those ravings. Simoun resisted, however he still succumbed to the compelling command that did not let him confess his true identity to Clara until the war has been won by the elves.

Of course, Simoun is a strong-willed man; thus, slowly but surely, he gnawed away on the command. He even uses Kabuto's skills to break it apart faster so that within the battle, he would be able to once again proclaim his love and then convince Clara to escape with him.

Simoun never thought that the event that would destroy the commanding illusion deep in his mind would be Clara's death.

But still, he doesn't want to give up.

He believed that, somehow, someway, a miracle would happen. Maybe it was because of the drunken effect of the Artificial Hero Prospect crystal, or maybe it was nothing but his delusion.

Simoun entangled himself with Kabuto, and clangs of metals caused shadow strings to emerge from the hands of Simoun that tried to latch themselves to Kabuto, who somehow, someway, twisted his body multiple times while not losing the initiative to dodge the strings.

_He's very flexible... no, it's just that even if he snapped his spine in half, he can bring it back to its former state, after all, he is an undead and doesn't have to worry about dislocation... however, one thing that baffles me is that he was able to adjust with the thought of temporary death due to their resurrection sequence being sealed, the other undeads are like that too... It's like they are trained to think that they will die if they get hit in a vital spot._

Simoun's deduction was spot on, thus, he concluded the troublesomeness of their opponents. They move with great caution as if they were alive, and everything they do is calculated with their ability to protect themselves amplified by the redundance of doing so.

However, for Simoun, troublesome or easy, redundant or not, it doesn't matter, he have only one goal, and that is to come to Clara's aid, again, irrespective if its too late or too early, thus, when he saw an opportune moment, he made his daggers evade the ones being waved by Kabuto, causing the 3 pairs of eye hole in the mask of the undead assassin to present the widened eyes of Simoun's opponent, the latter ignored the opponent's shock and kicked him in the stomach again, causing the undead to fly a few meters back, Simoun then bit onto one of his double daggers, spread out the vacant arm's palm and then stabbed the dagger present in his palm on it.

Simoun grimaced in pain, yet he endured as he plunched the dagger deeper until it cracked the bones on his palm and arms open and only the hilt was visible, the strongest function of his weapon familiar is that it can control shadow into strings or anything of the user's desire as long as it touched a metal that is not a weapon familiar, normally, to catch his opponents off guard, he will just use it when banging weapons against his them, but his opponent right now is someone who have most likely predicted the strategy employed by Simoun, thus he resorted in using the calcium in his bones for him to be able to control shadow constantly.

All of this bizarre action happened in an instant, and Kabuto once again jumped towards him, or at least that is what Kabuto wanted to do, for the moment Kabuto tried to jump, his shadow suddenly morphed beyond his control and connected to the shadow of Simoun, he looked at such a spectacle in great shock, his whole body has been petrified! Simoun smirked at this. He then stabbed his dagger into his shadow, making it disappear. He is now shadowless, with only a string of shadow connecting him, the dagger, and the shadow of him and Kabuto.

_Damn, now, I can't kill him._

Simoun grimaced, yet he did not fret that hard as he had more priorities. He dashed towards the direction where Clara was whilst Kabuto could only watch him with helplessness.

_It seems like he never interrogated anyone who has been caught by this technique, which makes sense because I can't even move my lips._

Kabuto could not help but sigh, still awkwardly positioned in a way that would make him jump out uncontrollably if it was undone. still, if he do can move his lips, then eh will be grinning.

_They're really drunk, they did not even recognized that only Bakunawa and Sipnayan are the ones who can defeat all of them with their artificial hero prospect crystal, more so, he concluded immediately that I cannot move and never learned that every person that he have restrained using this strongest trapping ability he have can still articulate in their mind properly..._

Using his mind, Kabuto latched the magic circle used to seal the crystal in the heart of the living generals, and as Kabuto have expected, when the shadow gained a proper existence except blotting the sun out of the way of the one who owned, it made the magic circle travel on it, in which it did quite swiftly, in a couple of seconds it transversed the morphed shadow of Simoun and Kabuto and then the shadow string connected to the injured arm of Simoun, the latter did not even notice the magic circle latching itself into him as he was full of desperate hope and joy in reuniting with his beloved, and only when he heard the dreaded notification:

[Notice: Effect of the [Artificial Hero Prospect Crystal] has been sealed, individual Simoun Crisostomo Ibarra will lose his amplified mana, amplified constitution and minor debuff [Intoxicated].]

[Notice: Due to the artificial heart of individual Simoun Crisostomo Ibarra being blocked of all its functions, the individual will die in five minutes; alternative heart immediately required.]

Did Simoun stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes widened as he looked at his back, shock evident in his face as he gritted his teeth in the sight of his shadow going back to him and the shadow string in his finger slowly fading until it disappeared, Kabuto who have his momentum returned to him landed on the ground, leisurely walking.

"What did you do!?"

Simoun shouted whilst in the middle of his chest a spider web of blackening blood vessels emerged, and in his desperation, he did not noticed that he stared too long in the mask of Kabuto, and as he did, the world he was in seem to change, the bloody and noisy battlefield became silent in an instant.

___________

"C... Clara...?"

Simoun, with a toolbox in his hand looked at the woman in front of him, she have golden eyes, long ears matched with white and green apron, ignoring his question, the woman hugged the sweaty body of Simoun, seemingly from crafting several furnitures, making the man who is, for a second in a desperate struggle to save his lover to be perplexed, but it was as if he has forgotten all of his hard work in such a battlefield, his heart erupted with joy, manifesting as tears flooding his cheeks, he hugged the woman, Clara with his two arms, not caring if this si reality, for he only knew that his dream finally came true.

"Eh? You're crying? Why? Are you alright?"

"Clara" asked, worry evident on her face, yet Simoun ignored it. He released the woman of his dreams from his tight hug and stared at her with her black eyes.

"I... I am finally with you."

Clara" was perplexed, yet Simoun didn't care; he embedded his lips with hers, and for a moment, his "spouse" was confused, but soon, she clasped her body near her husband as they enjoyed each other's company.

At this point, Simoun knew that this scene was nothing but a forceful lucid vision; however, strangely enough, he never made any effort to go out of it, maybe because of Kabuto, or maybe because the command of Aerendil was already destroyed by him.

In any case, Simoun doesn't care anymore.

Because finally, he and his beloved have finally been united.

Finally, their horrible life ended in a happily ever after.

_______

Such is the scene that replayed in the mind of Simoun again and again, yet kabuto doesn't have any control on it nor was he even a little bit intrigued, all he have in mind is that his mission is finally completed.

Kabuto looked at Simoun, who was standing, blankly, maybe even happily, staring at him, still breathing, but not for long as Kabuto plunged his hand in the middle of Simoun's chest and pulled out the green crystal on it.

With that, Kabuto, the destroyed noble whose life was nothing but a series of plans for Aerendil, is the second general of the living to perish in the second elven undead war.