As the two groups were staring at one another, one of the assassins took a step forward; speaking in a mocking tone.
"Who knew it would be just sooo easy to fool the Archduke, huh!"
One of the royal knights raised his voice, asking who they are and what they plan on doing with the crown prince and the princess. But to this, the group of assassins began to laugh, as female assassin-mage among them spoke; her voice calm but held a threat to it.
"Oh please~ We didn't come here for them. What we want, is something far more valuable than the royals presented here. Do you want to know what that is~?"
As she kept on talking, a tall, muscular man next to her raised his voice, calm and firm.
"We don't have time for chit-chat. The Archduke should have already reached the place and realized the situation. Let's get the girl and complete our task."
The first among them who spoke, sighed, looking at Kris and the knights for once; then turning back to the rest of the assassins, saying;
"Search all the rooms and get that girl with two mastery skills. GO!"
As he said so, all of them disappeared in a swift, as Kris held his head with both of his hands, breathing heavily. Fear and worried took over him, but yet he calmed himself as raised his voice;
"Whoever in here is the fastest, go to the west guard and bring the Archduchess! QUICK!!"
As he said so, the female knight of the royal knights came forward as she said she would go and rushed out. As she went, Kris commanded;
"Rest of you, cover the entire area! We are not letting them escape from here. No one of them is going away from here tonight!"
Even though Kris said so, internally; he blamed himself for not being careful enough and seeing the security of the mansion. But now, or he could do is make sure to keep an eye on the situation and hope for Sakura to arrive soon; since currently she is the one with the shortest distance from the mansion.
At the exact same time, inside the room where Ray was resting. The others were present as well, Lala looking outside the window seeing the barrier and knights circling around the mansion. Every one of them heard the talk between the assassins and the knights, and fear was evident among them all. Karina held onto both Ana and Elysia, who were the most scared as she kept reassuring them everything will be fine. Nino sat beside Ray; who was still unconscious and held tight onto his hand.
"Why is this suddenly happening… Everyone is scared here… Uncle and Aunt are also away right now…
Ray's been unconscious for some time now
And where is Kai? Don't tell me… did he get caught by them…"
Many questions ran through her mind, she glanced at the others who sat in silence, all scared and unsure of what to say. She took a look at Ray's face, thinking what he would do at times like this.
But slowly, she took a deep breath as she stood up. Everyone looked at her, as she said to them;
"I will go out to see what's happening…"
As she made her point, Karina and Lala gasped as they tried to stop her but Nino didn't listen to the two and made her way towards the door, to open the door. But as she tried to, the door didn't open; as if something was right behind the door and stopping it from opening.
"Why won't the door open?"
Nino wondered out loud, trying to open the door again but it didn't budge.
Exactly then, in the third floor, assassins looked around in confusion.
"…What is going on here!?"
The tall, muscular man spoke up. With him, the other assassins too were equally enraged. Everyone made their questions one by one, recalling the past events that happened when they entered the mansion.
Half a minute before, as the assassins made their way to look around the mansion.
Splitting among the group, they were walking onto different sides. As the female assassin among them, went ahead to open the first door they saw; the moment she touched the door knob, a high voltage shock of electricity passed through her body; throwing her away crashing to the wall as she screamed in pain.
Everyone around her, and those who scattered came to her.
"What's wrong?"
The guy who provoke Kris and the knights asked, when he noticed that the female assassin knocked unconscious; with burn marks on her skin and bleeding from her back.
"What happened here!?"
He questioned, as the rest explained what happened. After so, he looked over that door held by the female assassin, and was about to try to open it; when he felt electricity around his fingers that were reaching to the knob.
"Something's not right here…"
He turned to another mage among the group, asking if he feels any magic traps around the mansion. But to this, the mage shook his head saying all he feels is the magic of the magic stone at the hall which is being used to light the whole mansion. Everyone stood in silence, when another giant man among them stepped forward;
"Whatever the case is, if we can't open the door… Then we are breaking the walls!"
As he said so, he launched himself at the wall, shoulder-first, crashing through it with a loud boom. But the wall didn't break down, rather; the one who launched itself to it screamed.
"ARGHH!!"
The giant man fell on the floor, screaming and clutching to his shoulder tightly. Everyone gathered around him now, checking on his left shoulder, seeing bleeding in it. They removed his cloak to see what happened, as they witnessed what was the cause of his screaming.
Underneath the cloak, they saw his left shoulder being covered in holes; as if spikes had penetrated several inches into his body. The entry points were surrounded with by bruising and swelling, indicating the force of impact.
A healer among them quickly came up as he began to heal the wound. The rest wondered what was happening, when one of them got hit by a thought and looked back at the unconscious female assassin. He quickly went up to her and checked her back, where he noticed the same holes in her body and screamed; saying she's got injury like the other one as well.
The second healer came up to her, quickly taking care of the injury. At this point, everyone could tell that something was off. The first assassin who spoke up looked around the magnificent hall, thinking to himself;
"We are the most elite and highly trained assassins. Even taking down a S-Rank adventurer is no issue for us. We are like hunters ready to hunt anytime. But… ever since we stepped inside this mansion… why does it feel like we are being hunted…"
As he was thinking, the light of the entire mansion suddenly went off. The mansion now was eerie silent, with no lights. Nino and the others in the room stayed together, scared of the sudden light out. Kris and the knights on the outside stood with a worried look, seeing the lights suddenly going off in the mansion.
"Please come quick, duchess…" Kris could only pray. But in that moment, he noticed something strange. Straight in front of him, at the entrance door to the mansion; which was slightly opened due to the impact of continuous attack being done at the barrier. Inside, he was able to see the crystal that was planted there; which was strangely glowing at the moment. But the glow wasn't just any normal bright; it was glowing in a bloody, red color. As he saw it, he froze in his steps, as a memory from the past began to run in his mind.
By now, two minutes has passed by as the assassins decided to look for any source of sound in the mansion, and not the be close to the door and walls inside. After healing the two, rest of them scattered around as the one who commanded them, stayed back with the unconscious two. Just as he was wondering what to do, he heard footsteps from behind.
Turning back, he wasn't able to clearly make out what was happening; until he saw a black figure walking towards his way. In the figure's hand, held a magic stone; the one used to light the entire mansion. The figure was tossing the magic stone; up and down, playing it around his right hand.
The assassin took out his sharp-bladed swords, opening his mouth to speak;
"Who ar-"
But he paused mid-way, his eyes slowly widening in pain and fear. Many red lines began to form in his body, covering all of his body from head to toe; as he slowly deteriorated into a pool of blood splashing on the ground, along with his clothes and weapons shattered into very small pieces, unable to identify.
The figure kept walking ahead, stepping onto the pool of blood, then passing by the two unconscious ones; as the two also had the same fate as the first one. Both turned into a pool of blood splashing around, the walls and floor painted in blood; as the figure walked ahead without looking back.
-To be Continued