The Prince of Heaven's Gate - Last Stand At World's End

A week passed since Lux first met with Colette’s sister, Aina.

Aina agreed that she would extend her help to Lux once, but as an individual, rather than as the Guild Master of Eternal.

Lux didn’t find any issue with this. Aina was in the middle stages of the Grade A Apostle rank, which also meant that she was halfway the Initiate Rank.

For someone her age, it was already a great achievement and the Half-Elf now understood why she was one of the prodigies of the Dwarf Race. Not only was she strong, but her future was also limitless.

Within the one week that passed, almost all the members of the Twilight Rain who hid in Whitebridge City had been captured. The others were lucky enough to escape the city before the encirclement, which was made up with all the guilds and the army of the Gweliven Kingdom, was formed.

However, Lux didn’t participate in the hunt for the members of Twilight Rain. Instead, he familiarized himself with the city, in order to know which locations he could run to or hide in, in case of emergencies.

The one, who acted as his guide on this endeavor was none other than Emma, who was born in Whitebridge City. Colette and the others needed to undertake missions, so they couldn’t spend a lot of time with Lux, which made the adorable little Dwarf leader pout in frustration.

Even so, she understood that this was her duty as a member of the Eternal Guild. Even her big sister, Aina, who was the guild leader, didn’t exempt her from her rightful duties.

“We have almost explored the entire city, and only a little more remains,” Emma said as she ate lunch with Lux and Eiko. “If my calculations are correct, we should be able to cover the rest in a day or two.”

Lux smiled. “Thank you, Emma. You’ve been a big help. If I strolled alone, I might have gotten lost. This city is really big.”

“Hahaha. I’m glad to know that I was able to help you. Don’t worry, if any of those assassins arrive, I’m gonna help you… run away! It is impossible for me to defeat an Initiate. Our best course of action is to run as fast as we can and hope he trips or something.”

“I’d rather hope that they don’t send an assassin my way. This will save me the trouble of dyin–”

Lux wasn’t able to finish his words because a notification had appeared in front of him. Glancing at the upper right corner of his vision, he saw that a red dot had appeared on his map.

A moment later, that single dot became two, and a frown appeared on Lux’s face. After changing the settings of his map to only show allied and hostile units, the Half-Elf instantly knew that the people that wanted him gone had now appeared in the city.

However, just as he was about to tell Emma that the assassins had arrived, the two blinking dots on the map vanished without a trace.

‘Could it be a glitch?’ Lux thought as he once again scanned his map to look for the two blinking dots that suddenly disappeared. ‘Maybe they’re using some kind of artifact to hide their presence? If that is the case, I am screwed.’

Seeing the sudden change in Lux’s reaction, Emma knew that something was wrong.

“Lux? Did something happen?” Emma asked as she looked at Lux with concern.

Lux nodded. “The assassins are here. Two of them.”

Emma’s face became grim as she took Lux’s words seriously. She didn’t even bother to ask Lux how he managed to find out that the assassins had appeared. The only thing she knew was that the Half-Elf would not joke about this matter because it affected his survival.

“What are we going to do now?” Emma asked. “Should we tell the authorities?”

Lux was also tempted to do it, but without proof, his reputation as a member of the Order of the Griffin might take a nosedive if he asked the guards to become his bodyguards out of the blue.

Galileo, Charles, and Nevreal were also not in the city since they each had their own important matters to attend to.

The three Dwarves initially stayed in the city for a few days to keep a lookout for possible assassins aiming at Lux’s life, but since they hadn’t noticed any suspicious individuals snooping around the city, they decided to leave and handle the aftermath of the Cleanup Operation that had recently transpired in Whitebridge City.

“For now, we should finish eating,” Lux replied. “They just entered the city and still don’t know where I am. At least, that is what I think. Even if they knew, this inn is under the protection of the Adventurer’s Guild. There might be some strong individuals here that can make those in the Initiate Rank become wary to attack.”

Emma nodded and ate her food silently. Even Eiko who was usually lively was now eating seriously as if preparing for a battle against her rival, Astra.

‘Should I contact Nevreal?’ Lux thought.

Right now, the middle-aged Dwarf was the only person of authority that he could contact at any given time. Galileo and Charles didn’t want Lux to get in touch with them during their missions, so the Half-Elf was only left with the only option he had.

‘I can’t be passive,’ Lux thought. ‘I need to think this through.’

——

Somewhere in Whitebridge City… 𝐟r𝒆ℯ𝘄𝑒𝒃𝚗𝒐𝘃e𝗹.c𝘰𝐦

“It’s annoying that I had to wait for you to arrive before I start this mission, Sid,” a Dwarf girl with long red hair said in annoyance. “If only the Elder hadn’t required that we entered the city at the same time to make things fair, that Half-Elf might already be dead by now.”

“Perhaps,” Sid replied. “Or the one who would be dead could have been you, Scarlet.”

“Me? Die? Oh, please. I can kill the target with my eyes closed.”

“That is because you rely on your eyes being closed to activate your special ability. Well, I won’t argue because it is indeed my fault for coming late. Now that we’re both here in the city, it’s time to separate.”

Scarlet snorted. “About time. May the best assassin win.”

Scarlet didn’t even wait for Sid’s reply as she made a turn to an alley and disappeared in the shadows. All of the assassins of Twilight Rain were given special artifacts in order to hide their presence when they were about to start their assassination mission.

This was because most high-profile targets had artifacts of their own to help warn them of potential assassination attempts on their lives. These artifacts were made to counter those detection artifacts, which frustrated the counter-terrorist agents of the Kingdom of Gweliven.

Until now, they still hadn’t found a way to bypass the artifact that hid the assassin’s presence, preventing them from carrying out their plans of assasination.

Sid kept on walking on the main street ignoring the people around him. He had also activated the artifact to hide his presence, which nullified the effects of detection artifacts that were designed to find the members of Twilight Rain.

‘You’re right, Scarlet,’ Sid thought as he gazed at the most famous inn in Whitebridge City.

His benefactor had gathered enough data about his target and had given it to him in order to help Sid one-up Scarlet, and allow him to become the next Slayer candidate.

“May the best Assassin win.”