He was death incarnate - or at least that's how he felt about himself. But there were not many who could challenge this. The number of powerhouses that he had killed could fill mountains. He did not have a name - he did not need one. But at the same time, he had many names.

For people in his line of work, names and personality were like clothes - they could be changed every different occasion. He was an assassin. He did not remember how he started in this business. He had killed to live in the forest - grew up as a feral child. Later, he was taken in by a wealthy noble family as an adopted child. The nobles were kind - they treated him well and taught him etiquette. But all good things come to an end. His adoptive family was murdered in a feud.

In his anger, he swore vengeance. He trained his skills of impersonation and assassination. He knew that sometimes to kill an elephant, only an ant is enough. His training yielded results. He returned years later and poisoned the culprits behind his family's death.

Devoid of purpose he was when he met him. He was like a kind elder. He said:

You have talent for this line of work. I was contacted to find you and kill you but you are just a fledgling. Become my weapon and bring death with you wherever you go or die right now! Choose.

He knew that he was no match against him. Thus, he agreed to be the man's sword. He underwent harsh training and tireless cultivation. All this was hundreds of years ago. With time, his power grew - he reached the perfect-realm. His assassination skills also grew to the stage where it was not wrong to call him a master in his own right. His teacher made him an elder in the assassination organization. He stood above many. There was only one other who was better than him. This was all a testament to his skill and strength.

His track-record grew to be more and more frightening. Over the past few centuries, he killed many important people, some with cultivation stronger than his. In fact, he was confident in killing anyone below the immortal-realm.

This was his background. He was shadow-2.

The newest assignment was quite absurd. The client had asked that an elder do the job. The target was just an emperor. This was quite an absurd request. After all, they were assassins. They usually hunted prey stronger than themselves and not the other way around. But what could he do when the client was paying so highly. He looked up the target - Michael Rageberg. A seventeen-year-old kid who had not even seen the world properly yet. He was not going to be proud of this job. Assassinating powerful people was a track record among the assassins. It measured how good an assassin was in their trade. Killing a child was neither fun nor respectful. But some things had to be done for the sake of it. He was quite confident that he could kill the kid without even being seen. But, as the organization has had a hundred per cent success rate, there was no way they would go easy on the target.

He even donned on a soul-guard. These things were expensive and even their organization did not have too many. To do so much preparation before showed how thorough the organization was about professionalism.

He was confident in killing the kid without being noticed. To kill the target, they condensed a terrible curse. It acted extremely fast and would definitely kill. Even perfect-realm experts would not necessarily be able to fight against it. Only immortals could remain unhindered. The curse contained some power of laws added with extremely strong and malicious killing poison. Only a body of laws might survive the attack.

It was also perfect in the sense that it did not leave behind any traces and after the target's death, it evaporated. Even immortals would not be able to decide the type of curse used.

He joined the light army as an ordinary soldier. Disguising was one of the most important lessons for assassins. After joining the army, he took part in the battle of CC#3. This was quite the battle. Never had he seen such fighting break out. It was his cultivation that gave him the confidence to slay the target in the middle of this battlefield.

He saw the target. He was rushing back in between several experts. About 11 peak-saints and a few other saints. Quite a scary backup. But he did not need to fight a protracted battle. He just needed one correct attack. Then, he would vanish from the battlefield. Thus, he activated his stealth mode and hid his presence that no one could see him anymore. This was not a method to make oneself invisible but a method to fool your enemy's senses. Quite a powerful technique if he said so himself. Even immortals would not be able to react to this.

He approached the target from the side and brought out the curse in his palm. Then, he attacked.

Time seemed to slow down for him. This happened whenever he concentrated to his utmost. That is why he was able to see it. The target - Michael Rageberg noticed him! This was already quite shocking. He also reacted by sending a soul-blast in his direction. This kid was good! His reputation as the king of geniuses was well deserved. But he was too young. When the organization decided to do a job - they did a thorough job.

The soul-guard deflected the attack. Then, he saw the target closing his eyes.

Yeah, kid, it sucks to be you! Nothing I can do about it.

He thought that the guy was resigning himself to his fate but then something changed!

Inexplicably, he found that his hand had been grabbed! Before he could process anything, he was thrown off his feet in the middle of the soldiers behind the guy. Before he knew it, he collided with them and his palm struck one of them.

CRAP!

He knew that he messed up greatly. Before he could get on his feet, he saw the elven soldier wither off and die. Almost the entire group was left stunned at the scene. A man attacked out of nowhere and killed a peak-saint with a single attack!

But this was a battlefield where anything could happen at any time. The people got out of their shock quickly and four other guards attacked at the same time.

Bastard!

A perfect-realm expert! He dares to break the law of the war! Kill him!

Attack!

Several people attacked him at the same time.

Shadow-2 looked from the corner of his eyes and found the target escaping on a warhorse. For the life of his, he could not understand how he missed. This was simply impossible. For all intents and purposes, the child should be dead. But he wasn't.

Shadow-2 may have missed his mark but that did not mean that he was a bad assassin. He immediately tried to flee. But it was proving to be too difficult. Not only were the peak-saints around him attacking him but the others were blocking his path as well.

This is not good!

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This was the closest to death Michael had ever been in his second life. It was centimetres away!

Michael would be dead had he not activated his trump card - perfect persona blessing! He forced his body and ignored his limits. Catching the palm of the attacker, he threw him towards the elven guards - especially towards the one guard who constantly got on his nerves.

Just after that, he deactivated his blessing. But still, it took a toll on him. Due to moving faster than the set limits and exerting more power than the limits, his left hand was injured severely. There were several fractures and even the tendons in his wrist had snapped! It was an injury that would take him a few hours to heal from. He could still use his arm if he used it through the perfect persona blessing. But that would increase the injury further.

Michael saw in time as the guy sailed across the soldiers to hit the bastard elven guard. The guard died in a second! Seeing this filled Michael's heart with lingering fear. He also knew the organization that hunted like this - The Deces.

This was the most fearsome assassination organization in Aterna with an immortal slayer at its head. In the war against devils in his previous life, the founder of The Deces had assassinated many important generals of the other side. Michael remembered another thing, The Deces attacked with their full power for every target. But there was another rule to it - if you survived their assassination attempt, they will never target you. This was what the founder himself had established. For an assassin of The Deces to target him, someone must really hate him.

Michael spread out his All Seeing Eyes in all directions with extreme concentration. There he found another assassin in stealth. But the assassin disappeared as soon as he discovered him.

As I thought!

The Deces would usually send two assassins after a target. Michael knew this because he had worked with them in the past. The Deces had the most brilliant martial art that removed your presence. There was no way to find the assassin again. Michael knew that he was the target. He needed to get away from the battlefield as fast as possible. In so much commotion, there was no way to figure out where the attack would come from. He needed to get to a secluded place so that the assassin would be revealed. Or else, it was likely that the assassin would kill him. He signalled Omar and Ramsus and the three brothers to surround him as he departed on his warhorse. He was constantly using his Eyes to survey an attack from the above.

With extreme caution, he travelled away from the battlefield. As soon as he reached the flying steed, he jumped onto it. He said to the rest:

Return to the Rageberg territory! There is a chance that someone is attacking us. Hurry back as reinforcements. I will try to lose the other possible assassins and join you. Go!

Saying so, he flew away. Michael was indeed worried about an attack on his family. That was because he had seen the soul guard the assassin was using - it had the royal Atrexia seal on it!

It was the queen's property. He was worried that the Atrexias would attack the Rageberg family. He left very fast to lure the other assassin away. And rightly so, just after 15 minutes of flight, a powerful arrow embedded itself in his ride's wing. It flew down and crashed in a wasteland. There was hardly anything around him except for a few small mountains here and there. While Michael had seen the attack coming from far away, he could not make the stupid bird dodge in time. He was unhurt except for his left arm.

He looked over to his back. A man had appeared there without any noise or indication. He looked middle-aged.

Late-Perfect-Realm.

And a soul-guard.

This was an opponent that Michael would normally have no chance of winning against. Even with the perfect persona blessing, he would have to pay a huge price.

The man looked at Michael and smiled.

He said:

You, Sir, are indeed a hero. What you did there was something out of the world. You foiled our attempt. Even managed to trap shadow-2 like that. He will most likely die. You, my dear sir, are the most challenging target we have received in the past century. And we have even killed people who were on the verge of becoming immortals. You should be proud! But unfortunately, this is where your luck truly ends.

Michael : Geezer, you have a weird way of talking. You are speaking respectfully to me?

Assassin : You have earned my respect sir. In our history, not many have managed to foil the attempt of an elder from the organization.

Michael : You guys are quite cruel, huh? Instead of helping your partner, you came running behind me. If you would have helped him, he would have lived.

Assassin : You are indeed right. But we at the organization are very professional. You sir, are the highest priority. Ans assassins deal with the business of death. It will not be surprising that we die in our missions.

Michael : Grimjoy has taught you well. So which number are you?

The man's expression changed after hearing that. Shock, anger all mixed on his face. But it was only for a split second. He regained his composure and said:

Well, well, well. You surprise quite often. You know the leader and the structure of the organization as well. You must be having your own secrets and I will not pry. But sir, even if you know the leader personally, you can not stop an official mission with just this fact alone. You will die today.

Michael : Is that so? Come, maybe I will give you another surprise!

Fate had a way of testing heroes. Every hero before they grew up faced life and death calamities. This was their fate. Only by emerging victorious could they call themselves heroes and lead their generation.

For Michael, this battle was very important. It was his life and death calamity. Though our Michael had no way of knowing so at the time.