Rise of the White Devil

Chapter 68 Calamity of Dread [2]

Reaper of Night

A single assassin known by an ominous name...

The mere mention of that name brought dread into one's heart.

A name that everyone in the entire world feared.

Everyone feared him.

Not because he was the strongest—there were countless men who could beat him physically, but that didn't mean he was the weakest.

Not because he was the smartest—there were countless men who were smarter than him, but that didn't mean he was the dumbest.

Not because he was the craziest—there were countless men crazier than him, but that didn't mean he wasn't crazy.

The reason why everyone feared him was simple...

He was the most

Dangerous.

He was the most

Unpredictable.

He was the most

Unknown.

Every victim of the Reaper of Night was marked, for he always left his signature: a black rose, on the body or nearby.

They say a man is most dangerous when he has nothing left to lose.

Perhaps that was most fitting for the Reaper of Night...

On June 17th, 2016, it was reported that the Reaper of Night's activities had drastically decreased, as almost no black roses were found near the bodies of the assassinated.

Many believed he had died or retired. Countless theories on the dark web and social media speculated on what might have happened to him.

But one thing was certain:

Everyone felt relief.

Relief that he was finally gone.

Or so they thought.

On April 21st, 2019, two months after the tragic massacre at Shibuya Hospital, after two whole years, a victim was discovered...

A black rose lay atop the victim's dead body.

The Reaper of Night had returned.

From that day forward,

A garden of black roses could have been made from the number of people who died by the Reaper of Night.

The victims, though, were always reported to be criminals or worse, making many believe that perhaps the Reaper of Night was a hero of justice...

No one knew why he returned.

But

His return only brought ruin to countless criminal organizations.

He became even more deadly,

Even more crazy,

Even smarter,

Even stronger.

He was dubbed the most dangerous assassin.

*****

"Curse this luck of mine!"

He didn't know what to do. Fighting on top of a skyscraper was a terrible idea, especially against a giant serpent that could easily take it down with them on top of it.

The whole point of being this high up was that, in case the calamity could fly, it would be easier to spot it here and perhaps even fight it.

But it wasn't a beast that could fly; it was a giant serpent that managed to sneak around them without them noticing.

If they had known about the black serpent approaching, they would have easily repositioned themselves to fight in a more convenient place.

'Now what...'

He knew that fighting the calamity here would be a bad idea. Lucas could tell that out of the two calamities, he and Seraphina got the most dangerous one.

Those eyes...

It was smarter than its siblings. It wasn't attacking; it was simply staring at them. All Lucas could sense was curiosity and something else he couldn't understand.

Both eyes were gazing at Lucas intensely as its tongue kept flicking out. Lucas felt like the serpent was peering down his soul for a second.

The black slits in its red eyes kept shrinking and expanding.

"Shadow magic..."

Suddenly he heard Seraphina whisper next to him, but he didn't turn his head away from the calamity.

"That must be how it managed to sneak behind us without even making a sound."

What she said made sense to Lucas. Since Seraphina also knows shadow magic, she might be able to prevent it from sneaking up on them again.

'I should be able to teleport away a good distance from here, preventing the fight from happening here and far away from the other calamity.

But the problem is if Sera wants to reveal her space magic or not... using shadow magic to escape would be too big of a gamble against it.'

'I should have asked her beforehand...'

Lucas sighed inwardly at seeing how complicated it had become.

'What if I just grab her and teleport away? Hmm, yes, that might work perfectly. She would be able to keep her secret safe, and at the same time, we could fight it properly.'

As Lucas finally reached a solution for their problem, the building suddenly started to shake.

Looking at the serpent, Lucas and Seraphina saw something that left them bewildered.

The colossal serpent suddenly backed away a little as it looked at Lucas with...

trembling eyes.

The calamity of dread was looking at Lucas with fear.

"Huh... Lucas, what did you do?"

Seraphina asked in a low, trembling voice as she looked bewilderedly at the serpent, which was trembling and gazing at Lucas while making the building tremble along with it.

"Nothing... I did absolutely nothing this time,"

Lucas said, as even he didn't understand what caused this type of reaction.

'Just why does it look at me so scared...wait.'

Suddenly, Lucas's eyes widened as he thought of something.

'Did it perhaps sense that I am a half-dragon? But if it did, then how? It is looking at me with fear, so that is the only solution. Did it see a dragon before? Isn't this just a virtual world?

No... they must have managed to replicate everything perfectly here, meaning that it would recognize me as above it. Does it recognize me as a half-dragon or just someone above it?'

Lucas could only think of this as he gazed at the serpent, which was watching him now with a wary gaze.

'No, I feel like it doesn't know about dragons...still, it must be really perceptive to recognize that I am not human. Or is it perhaps because it is a serpent's trait?'

The colossal serpent hissed, looking at Lucas with hostility, feeling threatened that someone of a higher order was in its territory.

"We should get out of here and lead it to fight us somewhere else,"

Lucas said, not caring in the slightest about being quiet anymore since he knew it probably didn't even matter with a serpent that could deduce he wasn't human.

"Mm, I thought you were thinking to fight it here. Good, let's teleport somewhere suitable."

Lucas, for the first time, broke contact with the serpent and looked at Seraphina with a deadpan face.

'Has she forgotten that they can probably hear us...'

As he thought this, he suddenly saw her looking at him with a sly grin on her face.

"What? I told you I wouldn't let you steal the entire spotlight~"

As she said that, she suddenly teleported away, making Lucas's mouth twitch.

Snapping him out of his annoyance while still balancing himself amidst the trembling building was the black serpent, which, with an angry hiss, lunged at him, its entire maw open, revealing two sharp fangs and an endless void inside its stomach.

As the serpent's mouth was mere inches away, Lucas grinned, looking the serpent dead in the eye before he teleported as well, letting the mouth that snapped shut meet nothing but air.

Meeting his view was Seraphina standing next to him. Both were now a few blocks away, gazing at the skyscraper that was surrounded by the calamity.

They could see debris falling down as a cloud of dust started to form around the building.

Suddenly, making everyone freeze in place and stopping the battle against the queen of spiders, was the maddening shriek of the calamity of dread.

The skyscraper it was coiled around began to tremble.

Its body, wrapped tightly around the structure, tightened even more, causing more debris to fall.

The sound of the structure groaning echoed throughout the ruined city and, in the next second...

The entire building started collapsing, making the ground tremble.

'Strong...'

The serpent was extremely strong physically.

'I'll have to use my aura to even make a cut on it, probably.'

As Lucas thought this, the cloud of dust cleared away, but the calamity of dread was no longer there.

Suddenly, as Lucas was gazing at the ruins of the collapsed building, [Danger sense] began loudly ringing alarm bells in his head, warning that he was about to die at any moment from an attack.

'What? Just where the hell is it?'

Lucas's eyes widened at the same time he heard Seraphina shout.

"Lucas, get away from there!"

She was suddenly on top of a broken building, looking down at him with anxiety.

Not thinking twice about the warning, he teleported next to her as a giant maw suddenly shot out of the shadows beneath Lucas's previous position.

'What the hell... I am glad we aren't fighting the bastard at night.'

Lucas was extremely relieved that they were fighting the calamity in daylight as he gazed at the serpent emerging from the shadows.

He didn't want to think about what would happen if it were nighttime.

"We should end this fight as soon as possible before the sun starts setting."

Lucas spoke to Seraphina, who nodded her head seriously as she gazed at the serpent.

"Well then, there is no need for me to hold back, is there?"

She said as suddenly an energy of black and white burst out of her.

Aura.

Seraphina had just revealed herself as a dual wielder while at the same time also having a space affinity.

'What a beautiful aura...'

Lucas honestly thought that the combination of black and white was simply beautiful.

The color of her aura was extremely rare; in fact, he had never heard of anyone having a black and white aura.

'Not letting me steal the entire spotlight, eh? Let's see about that.'

Lucas suddenly grinned as an aura of red and black intensely shot out of him as well, making both the cautious and angry serpent and Seraphina surprised.

'Hmm? Why has it changed...'

Lucas glanced at his aura, noticing that it had suddenly turned into black and red when it was only red before.

It looked like when he used the Chaos mana around him.

'Let's think about this later.'

As he thought this, he gripped his hilt again, letting the aura surround his blade. Seraphina did the same with her daggers.

Both got ready as they took proper positions to fight the calamity.

The calamity, getting angrier, let out a deep, growl-like hiss from its mouth. Its eyes looked at them with intense fury, especially at Lucas.

And in the next second...

Both Lucas and Seraphina disappeared from their positions.