Chapter 580: A Night of Horror for One Assassin

I have known pain and suffering for too many years, carried them like companions. Peace and a chance at joy are no longer optional for me—they are necessities I will claim at any cost, no matter the price.

Farewell.

THWACK!

***

However, just as Eve pulled the trigger, her body became locked rigid, frozen in place as if struck by lightning.

Every muscle seized at once, contracting with a force she could not control.

Her finger remained frozen against the trigger housing; her lungs refused to draw a full breath, trapped in her chest.

The crossbow stayed aimed, useless now, while a cold wave of paralysis rolled from the base of her skull down the entire length of her spine, spreading through her limbs like ice water.

[She… She spotted me?! How is that possible?!]

The thought slammed through her mind while her heart hammered so hard she could feel it in her teeth, the pulse pounding in her ears like a drum.

Benjamin still walked ahead, shoulders slightly slumped with exhaustion, apparently unaware of anything amiss.

[But she doesn't seem to know of my presence. So was it something else? Is... there someone else inside Benjamin?]

A second, deeper horror settled over her when she forced her long-sight ability to stay locked on the pair, refusing to release her grip on the vision.

Benjamin was not dead. The bolt had never reached her.

Eve's pulse thundered in her ears, a roaring cascade of sound.

Through the clarity of her vision she saw that Heka's hand had closed around the shaft of the bolt mid-flight—an unbelievable interception at what should have been near point-blank speed for the enchanted crossbow, a speed that should have been unstoppable.

[Sh… She caught it? But it was nearly at point blank? That's impossible!]

Eve's teeth began to chatter, her jaw trembling with cold fear.

Fine tremors raced through her arms and legs, yet she remained pinned to the rock, compelled to keep watching, unable to look away from the nightmare unfolding below.

Behind her, Janin's voice drifted closer, carried on the night air.

"Hey, is everything okay, sis? I thought you shot a bolt just now? I heard the release." He had noticed the violent trembling that now shook her entire frame, her body quaking against the stone. "Don't tell me you're cold now, shaking like that?"

Octavius chuckled from his place against the boulder, his voice flowing with forced levity.

"Well, it is cold tonight and we're at the mountain, exposed to the wind. Maybe we should just go back. Right, Eve? What do you think?"

She gave them nothing. Not a word, a glance, or any acknowledgment of their presence.

"Oh, when she is in the zone, she doesn't talk to us, completely absorbed in the shot," Janin said, rolling his eyes with familiar exasperation.

Eve was no longer in any zone, no longer in any state of focused concentration. She was staring into something that felt like the edge of hell itself, the precipice of destruction.

Heka started to explain something to Benjamin, before examining the arrow, turning it over in her hands with curiosity.

Then she deliberately touched the poisoned tip with one bare finger, pressing her skin against the deadly substance.

The effect should have been instantaneous and absolute, immediate and irreversible.

That particular toxin was infamous among high-tier alchemists: self replicating and resistant to dilution, a single drop in a city's water supply could empty the streets, killing thousands.

Victims bloated, organs liquefied, brains cooked from the inside, bodies failing in every possible way. And death arrived in seconds, irreversible and absolute.

Heka dropped.

Her body hit the cobblestones hard, collapsing in a heap. Skin turned a sickly, ashen grey, the color of death spreading across her form.

Dark veins spider-webbed across every visible surface, corruption racing through her veins. White froth gathered at the corners of her mouth, bubbling forth.

Yet the expression on her face was not agony or pain. It was something closer to startled delight: playful, as though the catastrophic failure of her own body was merely an interesting sensation to be experienced.

Watching this, Eve's stomach twisted with nausea and disbelief.

She had chosen the deadliest poison she owned, the most lethal substance in her arsenal, and the target was treating it like a mild stimulant, or a momentary inconvenience.

But just as Eve thought she had seen enough anomalies, the impossible became worse, defying all logic and reason.

Benjamin crouched beside the fallen woman, his movements calm and unhurried. His hand settled on Heka's torso, pressing against her chest.

A soft golden light bloomed under his palm and spread outward in a smooth wave, a warm radiance that pushed back the darkness.

The grey color retreated, the ashen pallor fading from her skin. The black veins shrank and vanished, dissolving into nothing.

Healthy skin tone returned in less than two full seconds, the restoration complete.

Heka sat up, flushed and smiling, and scratched the back of her head as though she had simply tripped.

[Healed…? She's healed?! Th-Th-Th-That is outrageous!!] Sweat poured down Eve's face and neck despite the mountain chill, soaking her skin. [Did she just will the poison away?! And the entity inside her... It is still staring at me! And I can't move…]

Her hands shook so hard the crossbow rattled against the stone, the sound echoing in the silence.

No known magic—none she had ever studied or heard whispered in restricted circles, none that existed in any tome or grimoire—could neutralize a poison of that complexity and potency once it had already begun dismantling a body.

Yet Benjamin had erased it with a touch, as if the toxin had never existed.

Not to mention... something else was watching her, something she could not name.

Through the long-sight she felt a pressure that did not belong to either of the two women on the street, a presence that was separate and distinct.

An awareness, cold and precise, had locked onto her position high on the ridge, pinpointing her exact location.

It did not feel human, neither did it feel mortal. It felt ancient and faintly interested, observing her with the detached curiosity of a god watching an insect.

Heka rose to her feet, still smiling, her body fully restored.

She turned fully toward the distant mountains, settled her weight with deliberate intent, and drew her arm back in a clear throwing stance, her muscles coiling with power.

The same poisoned arrow that should have ended Benjamin's life now rested between her fingers, aimed directly along the line of Eve's own vision, with deadly precision.

[What…? Wh-What is she doing? What is she about to do?]

Eve's eyes stretched wide with terror, her pupils dilating. Pure, animal horror flooded every remaining corner of her mind, drowning out all rational thought.

[Oh no. I have to move. I have to alert my brother and Tavi! Move, move, move, move, moooove!!]

But her body remained a statue, frozen and unresponsive, refusing her commands.

Utter fear in such a concentrated and focused state had worked against her.

Janin's hand landed on her shoulder and shook her none too gently, his grip firm and urgent.

"Eve, are you sure everything is okay? You're scaring me here, shaking like that and not responding."

She still could not answer, could not even turn her head, trapped in the paralysis that held her.

Octavius's voice came next, thinner now, edged with real unease and something that sounded like fear.

"Janin, I have a bad feeling, a really bad feeling about this. Let's just leave it at that and call the whole thing off." He glanced at the trembling woman on the ground, "I will be marrying Eve... and I will build a farm. We will live a simple life—a comfy, peaceful, and quiet life. I don't think this is all that necessary anymore, and definitely not worth the risk. I hate Heka with my being, with every fiber of my existence, but she scares me too much. I don't know what I'll do if she ever comes for revenge. So let's stop, please."