235 Chapter 235: Far from Over

"Stuart Swordsmanship, First Stance."

Lionel Stuart had his eyes closed and his hand placed on the hilt of his katana, crouching low as he prepared to draw his sword.

"Ten Thousand Splinters."

In a flash, tens of thousands of razor-sharp splinters rained down upon the giant Shaggrowth, peppering it with deadly destruction.

"Stuart Swordsmanship, Seventh Stance."

This time, a blizzard of petals swirled around Lionel in an elegant manner, a myriad of colors filling the air.

"Blossoms of Life and Death."

The millions of petals swallowed the gigantic Shaggrowth, behaving like a single, enormous living tide. The dark creature wailed with a bubbly noise before it was consumed and disintegrated by the mystical petals.

"Hmph."

Sheathing his sword, Lionel turned away from the completely annihilated Soul Beast and watched the battle between his friend, Yuan Dao Yue Guang, and Ying Bu Si. The Umbra Assassin was getting pinned and obliterated by his longtime buddy. Another punch grazed his cheek, leaving a trail of blood streaming downward.

"That hurt!" Ying Bu Si complained, still as flippant as ever despite losing his Soul Beast and getting increasingly cornered by his opponent. Yuan Dao Yue Guang did not fall for his tricks and continued to pummel him mercilessly, knocking the multiple shadowy appendages aside with nothing but his fists.

Stomping on the ground and changing his stance, he punched through another net of shadows, his fist smashing through the hastily conjured barrier and catching Ying Bu Si in the chest. The latter vomited blood as he was sent hurtling across the air before landing untidily on a heap.

"Whoa…I really didn't expect this." he tried to get up, but grimaced and held his chest before coughing out another mouthful of blood. "I never thought there would be a human capable of fighting so many of my shadows with nothing but his bare hands. Even though I've attacked you from so many different directions, you deflected every single one of them. What are you, some kind of prodigy? No, you're a monster."

Yue Guang didn't bother responding to his compliments or taunt, merely impassively charging forward and punching through another web of shadows that Ying Bu Si rapidly summoned to aid him. Twisting around, he kicked the Umbra Assassin just as he was getting up, smashing his knee into his chest and causing him to double over. Without missing a beat, Yue Guang whirled around and delivered a roundhouse kick that caught Ying Bu Si at his neck, smashing him onto the ground.

"Ugh…what monstrous strength!"

Lying on the ground, stunned, Ying Bu Si raised his head slightly. Parts of his body were literally missing, having been obliterated by the sheer, overwhelming power of Yue Guang's barrage of attacks. Thin threads of shadows tried futilely to rejoin and weave his broken body back together, but they dissipated before long.

"Armament Ba Qi…truly a terrifying skill indeed. I can't believe you were able to hone Ba Qi to such an extent that you can physically destroy my otherwise elemental body and disrupt the mana flow of the enchantments."

Yue Guang silenced him by stomping on his head, but Ying Bu Si quickly rolled away. Even when fatally wounded, he was still able to evade and move. An incredible feat that demonstrated his amazing tenacity.

However, the burly bodyguard was far from impressed. He methodically pressed on with his attack, relentless and merciless. When his stomp missed, he was already calculating and executing his next attack, a kick that swerved from the opposite direction and right into the trajectory of Ying Bu Si's writhing body.

"?!"

Ying Bu Si wasn't able to muster a witty remark when Yue Guang's foot caught him fully in the face, lifting his body up and sending it flying like an arrow into the air. his jaw shattered and blood streaming from his nose and mouth, the Assassin tried to flip himself up in midair and right himself.

However, he wasn't given any chance to recover. As he struggled to halt his momentum, he found himself bursting into a storm of vividly colored flower petals.

For the first time, Ying Bu Si's face paled and he lost his composure.

"Oh, shit."

The flower petals closed upon him, their razor-sharp edges slicing into him and utterly destroying him. Even with his elemental, shadowy body, Ying Bu Si wasn't able to withstand the ferocious spell, which was also imbued with formidable amounts of Armament Ba Qi that ignored his normally intangible and elemental form to cut him apart.

However, even as he was disintegrating, Ying Bu Si managed one final parting remark.

"See you on the other side, young men. I'll be waiting in hell for you."

With a peal of laughter, he vanished as Lionel Stuart's petals utterly annihilated and erased his existence from Earth.

"I am sorry for taking so long to finish off my enemy, to the point where you had to intervene." Yue Guang lowered his head apologetically as he turned to face the approaching Lionel. "I am ashamed of my deficiencies."

"Nonsense." Lionel snorted. "You had the battle well in hand, and were perfectly capable of eliminating that bastard in another few minutes. I just thought I should save us some more time so that we can get to the bottom of the temple as quickly as possible. That kid from earlier might need our help. Besides…" he grinned. "I'm the one who should be ashamed for claiming the easier fight. Even though that monster was big, it was pretty simple-minded and easy to destroy. That Umbra Assassin was one hell of a sneaky bastard, and if you hadn't given me an opportunity to launch a surprise attack, even I wouldn't be confident of killing him with one spell."

"Everybody! Are you all right!?"

A beautiful girl was jogging toward them, and she immediately went for Yue Guang to help him up.

"We are, Zi Yang," Yue Guang assured his girlfriend. She scowled.

"Sit down for a moment and let me heal you!"

Lionel watched the couple for a moment, his expression unreadable. However, his eyes clearly lingered on Zi Yang's gorgeous form for a few seconds more than necessary, and he forced himself to turn away to assess the situation of his comrades. Depending on how they fared, he would either assist them or if they had the matter well in hand, he would proceed downstairs to help Huang Shun Yin destroy the device.

Michael Porter was still clashing with the relatively skilled Assassin, but he evidently held the upper hand. The latter had cuts all over his body, but he wasn't bleeding because the sheer heat from the flames of Michael's sword had instantly cauterized the wounds. Above, the Vermillion Phoenix was overwhelming the ghost-type Soul Beast by bathing it in flames and minimizing the amount of shadows it could escape into.

It wouldn't be long before its defenses crumbled.

As for Glen Porter and his White Tiger, he was still struggling against a superior number of foes, even if these weren't necessarily the elite Assassins. In fact, judging from their skills, they were most likely rookie Assassins, fresh out of the training programs in their sects…no, they might even be trainees from the various sects, sent out on official missions to gain invaluable combat experience.

As talented as Glen was, he was also still very young and relatively inexperienced. Realizing that, Lionel stepped forward to aid him. The greenhorn Assassins didn't even realize that he was intervening, even as he swung his sword and unleashed a couple of them with his Stuart Swordsmanship, slaying them before their comrades even knew they were under attack.

"What the…?!"

The remaining Assassins turned around to face the new threat. Again, as expected of a relatively untested youth, Glen paused to stare at Lionel in shock instead of calmly continuing the battle and seizing the opportunity to take his opponents out while they were still reeling from the surprise attack from behind. Even his White Tiger stopped, its mind controlled by its summoner.

Fortunately, Glen was a quick learner, especially when he met the hard gaze of Lionel, and he mentally commanded his White Tiger to dispatch the Assassins while they were staring and trying to deal with their latest assailant. Lightning seared forward and struck them, electrocuting them. While they went into convulsions, Lionel mercilessly finished them off with his sword, leaving a trail of flower petals and blossoms behind as he cut them down.

"Thank you." Glen hurriedly joined Lionel, breathless from his earlier exertion. His White Tiger remained on the prowl, searching for any more enemies as a precaution.

"You don't have to thank me."

"But I do," Glen protested. "I don't know how much longer I could hold on for."

"Get Zi Yang to look at your wounds and heal you," Lionel instructed, not in the mood to argue or make small talk. He looked at her again distractedly, feeling something stir in his loins, and then forced himself to look away when Yue Guang came into the picture. Taking a deep breath, he smiled at Glen. "You did a good job there, kid. I don't know of anybody your age who can survive a prolonged battle against not just one but several Assassins. Well done."

He didn't mention that these were most likely rookie or trainee Assassins. He knew how unwise it would be to damage Glen's morale and confidence at this crucial juncture. In any case, Lionel was being sincere. Even if they were mere trainees, they were still Assassins trained in the sects of top killers. A kid like Glen surviving against them was no mean feat. It was something to celebrate and praise.

There was a tremendous explosion above. Without even turning to look, Lionel knew that the Vermillion Phoenix had finally defeated the Ghost-type Soul Beast. On the ground, Michael finally hacked off the arm of his opponent, causing the Umbra Assassin to fall silently to his knees and clutch his cauterized stump. Despite himself, Lionel was impressed. It took incredible mental fortitude and discipline for that Assassin to prevent himself from crying out upon receiving such an agonizing injury.

Then again, he was long aware of how terrifying the Assassins of the Guild were.

"!!!"

He suddenly turned around when he sensed the implosion of mana. The incredible amount of mana pulsing below the Phoenix Temple had vanished, as if something had swallowed it…or it had never existed to begin with.

Yue Guang noticed it too. He nodded wearily and smiled.

"It seems that the kid succeeded."

"Yes. Very impressive." Lionel agreed, thoroughly impressed. Earlier, he was pretty sure that the kid had encountered a huge obstacle. The mana signatures were faint and difficult to sense, especially from this distance, but there unmistakably was a very powerful enemy below, which had been exterminated shortly before he destroyed the gigantic Shaggrowth. Come to think of it, he had also picked up a second presence who appeared to have assisted the kid.

But ultimately he was not a god, and thus he didn't possess the omnipresence that a god would have.

"Nonetheless, we should go check them out," Michael said tiredly as he lowered his sword. The Umbra Assassin, sensing a momentary opening, lunged at him, but Michael casually swung his blade and decapitated the killer before his shadowy blade could reach him. He grimaced when he realized he had acted on instinct and beheaded the Assassin he had planned on apprehending and interrogating later. "Damn it."

"He's an Assassin. He wouldn't have told you anything anyway."

"…right." Michael must be wondering if Lionel had read his mind, but the latter was merely stating the obvious. After all, he would have probably done the same if he wanted to collect information on his enemy. Even if he knew it was unlikely for the Assassin to spill his secrets and rat out on his Guild, it was still worth a try.

At that moment, Shun Yin and Angelica emerged from the hatch that the former had gone through earlier.

"Angie! You…!"

Glen started forward, but Michael held him back with a raised hand. He regarded her grimly for a moment, and then nodded with a sigh of relief.

"You stopped them from triggering the artificial Emergence event."

"That's right," Shun Yin confirmed.

"Great!" Glen brightened up. He still cast a wary glance at Angelica, but he looked immensely relieved. "We've stopped them!"

Lionel snorted. "Those bastards never stood a chance to begin with. The moment they made the ten great families their enemies, they were already signing their own death warrants."

"So everything is over?" Yue Guang asked as he held Zi Yang's hand tightly.

"No." Angelica shook her head. "It's far from over. This is just the beginning."

"What do you mean by that?" Lionel demanded with a scowl. "Didn't you stop them?"

"We stopped the Dark Church from activating one of their prototypes for the transdimensional device," Angelica affirmed. "But as long as they still have the blueprint in their server, they will be able to construct new ones. We've to hunt them down and delete that blueprint to prevent them from manufacturing new devices."

"In other words, we've to find their mainframe and cloud server, and then delete it from their computer terminals?" Zi Yang hazarded a guess.

"Seems like it." Michael nodded and glanced at Angelica.

Her shoulders sagged and she shook her head sadly.

"It'll be difficult to infiltrate them again. I've blown my cover. They now know I'm a double agent."

"Double agent?" Glen blurted out. "Do you expect me to believe that?! You killed the clan elders and your own father! Do you think we'll just accept that and welcome you back? That all that carnage was necessary for you to infiltrate this…insane organization?!"

"Oh, no. You are right, of course." Angelica smiled evilly. "The Dark Church never cared about the Porter clan. That was my own desire…my own goal. It had nothing to do with the Dark Church. I was using the Dark Church to achieve the annihilation of the Porter clan."

"You…!"

"Enough," Michael cut in sharply. "We can talk about this later. Angie will have to face justice for her actions, I promise you that. But right now, we've to deal with this Dark Church and the Assassins Guild first, before they summon some calamity that will destroy the world. And Angie is the one with the most knowledge on them."

"Yes." Angelica's smile widened, but the expression only served to intensify the malice in her eyes. "Even though I won't be able to infiltrate them, at least I know where their main headquarters and their main computer terminals are. It will take even an organization as big and resourceful as them time to dismantle and move everything…so I suggest we stop wasting any more time and strike them as soon as possible."