Legend of the Empyrean Blacksmith

PLIGHT OF THE HOLY CONTINENT

A shadow weaved masterfully through the narrow corridors of concrete-paved streets, with sky-piercing buildings rising on each side, blanketing the sky above with their grandeur . Strings lunged above, lit lanterns hanging off of them like stars, yet despite the illuminated surroundings, the shadow blended perfectly with the world around, escaping the sight of the sea of people currently traversing the nightly streets .

Suddenly the shadow stopped and slithered sideways into a small, blind alleyway before heaving onto one of the surrounding walls and jumping back and forth between the opposing one, reaching the roof that was at least forty meters tall in a matter of seconds . It hung on the edge, briefly overlooking the street down below before darting over the roof and scaling the massive, beautiful city like so .

The figure was donned entirely in black, the only part visible being the pair of equally black eyes void seemingly of any emotion . About ten minutes later, it came to a halt on top of a rather stand-out building, even with the fact that there was seemingly no such thing as a downtrodden building anywhere in the vicinity . A rectangle halfway up, it opened up into nearly a pyramid-like structure toward the top, with hundreds of windows decorating it .

Glancing through the windows, one could see a giant hall full of chairs and tables and people dancing, eating and drinking away freely while the music quartet repeatedly played songs on the side . The figure plastered itself against the windows and slowly scaled down, hanging off the edge and swaying back and forth for a little while before throwing itself inwardly, barely managing to catch onto the ledge of a corner pillar . Seemingly breathing out in relief for a moment, it suddenly began dropping down, reaching the rectangular part quickly and easily before using its hand to seemingly make the window disappear, vaulting over and into the room .

The room was rather large yet empty, all its furniture and decorations covered in now dusty blankets . The figure weaved its way through quickly, opening the door and glancing out into the empty hallway for a few minutes . Realizing no one was coming through, it took a deep breath and suddenly darted out, blasting through a well-lit corridor in absolute silence, reaching the end of the hallway quickly and using one of its hands to weave about the lock on the door for a moment as the latter magically opened, the doors creaking gently .

Before even being partly opened, the figure already darted its way through into the room; unlike the previous one, this one wasn’t empty -- on top of a king-sized bed, a middle-aged man and a young woman lay starkly naked, asleep . Step by step, the figure approached silently, its presence entirely indistinguishable from the rest of the room . Walking up to the bed, a pair of shimmering daggers appeared in its hands as the latter moved in unison in a wide arc, one swiping over the man’s and the other over the woman’s necks . The two woke up almost immediately and reached for their throats, yet before they even had an opportunity to figure out what was going on, the daggers swiped nearly a hundred times altogether, hitting vital points squarely of both of them . Within a single breath, both died without ever learning how .

Not waiting any further, the figure withdrew the daggers and vanished from the room, as though it was never there . Nothing was different save for the pool of blood building over and under the bed, and two corpses left in its wake .

Half an hour later, Lucky was standing on the corner near the building she just left, casually drinking as she observed the world around her carefully . Though she hardly changed over the past year physically, the look in her eyes and the air about her made her seem like an entirely different person . Barely a few minutes since she started standing, chaos broke out outside the building as people began streaming out like a river, cries intermingled with angry shouts . Yet, within that anger, she easily distinguished fear; after all, this was just one more in a line of corpses she had left in her wake over the past month that she’d stay in the coastal city on the Holy Continent .

In total, sixteen had died -- and no one had any clue who was doing it . . . or even why . Smirking briefly as she saw the chaos unfurl before her eyes, she put the drink away and turned around, walking through the alleyways for a few minutes before entering one of the buildings, quickly reaching its top floor and entering the room where a figure was currently sharpening a small dagger .

" . . . why am I even here?!" the man -- or, rather, boy, barely eighteen it seemed -- cried out the moment Lucky closed the door . "Y-you do everything!! I haven’t left the fucking room ever since we got here!"

"Eh? Why not?" Lucky asked indifferently . "There are some neat sights to see, and some even neater women to fuck . Go out Ty . Taste the world!"

" . . . I-I thought this was a joint mission . . . " Ty mumbled lowly; he had rough, brown hair and a pair of rather peculiar, twilight eyes . Slightly shorter than her, he, however, sported rather wide and high shoulders with a pair of arms that caused Lucky to shudder each time she saw them -- after all, they reached nearly down to his knees .

"Of course it’s a joint mission," Lucky said . "We’re staying in the same room, aren’t we?"

" . . . "

"Ah, don’t be so depressed," she chuckled, ruffling his hair for a moment as she sat next to him . "You’re here just to learn . All targets so far have been rather high priority, but, if you’re really itching to give it a go, I might have someone for you . "

"Really?!!"

"Nope!!" Lucky exclaimed with a grin .

"FUCK!!"

"Ha ha ha, relax, relax . We’re behind the enemy lines here," she added, patting his now sunken back . "One mistake, and we’re both dead . We both know why Val sent you with me Ty -- and it wasn’t so you can sneak around and slither a few necks . "

" . . . I know, I know," Ty sighed in defeat . "But, you know, you are well known as someone who couldn’t give less shit about the rules . . . so, you know, I figured . . . "

"I’d bend a few for you?"

"Yes!"

"Nope!"

"Goddammit!"

"Ha ha ha . . . you really are a fun guy to fuck with," she chuckled, ruffling his hear once more before getting up and walking over to the window . "Have there been any messages?"

"Just one," Ty said . "Some guy tried to contact you but I told him off . "

"What guy?" Lucky glanced at Ty with a dubious expression .

"Dunno, some idiot wearing a ponytail," Ty shrugged . "He said his name was Lino or something . Humph, as if just any other moron can contact the Leader! Don’t worry; I’ll protect you from all the filthy men out there!"

" . . . "

" . . . "

" . . . "

" . . . w-what? W-why are you looking at me like that?" Ty asked as he noticed Lucky’s odd gaze .

"Like what?"

" . . . like I’m a dead man?"

"Oh, that," she smiled . "Well, the guy you told off is our boss Ty . You know, the guy everyone back home worships . "

" . . . . . . "

"Yup, that’s the expression . "

" . . . . . . . . "

"Fuck, there are even tears?!! Oh my, this just keeps getting better!!!"

"--h-h-he . . . the . . . uh . . . Empyrean?! Th-the n-noble . . . oh . . . god . . . . " the boy suddenly cracked in tears and sobs, crawling onto the bed in a fetal position . "I’m . . . I’m . . . . I’m . . . " he simply kept repeating ’I’m’ without a break for a long while, until it stopped being funny and became rather depressing, causing Lucky to sigh .

"Oh my god, would you cheer the fuck up," she punched him squarely on the back, causing him to cry . "What? Do you really think he’s gonna kill you?"

" . . . of course he will! And he should! No, wait! I’ll kill myself first so he knows I deeply regret my actions!"

"Ugh, stop being such a drama queen," she quickly swiped the dagger out of his hands . "Oh, look . He’s calling again . Let’s see what he has to say . " Lucky said as she saw a talisman vibrating on a drawer, quickly picking it up and burning it . A screen suddenly showed up, on it Lino’s face sporting a rather strange expression . His eyes quickly veered off of Lucky onto the young man next to her who couldn’t be any paler as Lino was beyond certain there was no whiter shade of white . "What’s up?" Lucky asked .

"Please tell me you aren’t fucking that guy . Look at him . " Lino said quickly .

"Nah, I’m mentoring him . "

"Oh, so that’s where he inherited that tongue," Lino chuckled, stroking his beard . "You know, young man, because of your little outburst, Hannah made fun of me for like an hour straight . How are you going to make it up to me?"

"WITH MY LIFE, SIR!!" Ty immediately exclaimed, saluting like a soldier, causing Lino to suddenly fall back on his behind and Lucky to burst out into laughter .

"Where in the shit do you find these kids . . . " Lino said, sighing and chuckling bitterly . "I don’t need your life kid . What the fuck can I do with it? Shit . What the fuck are you talking about death, being so young and all? Is your brain alright? Of course it’s not -- you’re spending your days with L’ . "

"Hey, don’t drag me into this!" she cried out quickly .

"He’s right L’," Hannah chimed in from the other end, briefly popping into the view . "You do have a tendency of corrupting young, innocent men . Look at what you’ve done to my Lino . He used to be just an innocent boy, you know?"

"Oh suck his dick Hannah," Lucky rolled her eyes at her . "By the time I met him, he was already far too gone . If anything, he’s corrupted me . "

"ELYSIAN, SIR, GOOD DAY!! I APOLOGIZE!!"

"Oh shut the fuck up!!" Hannah, Lucky and Lino exclaimed at the same time as Ty quickly skittered over into the corner, drawing circles on the ground with his finger .

"So, why are you reaching out?" Lucky asked . "Something wrong?"

"I have a target for you," Lino said . "Though not for assassination, so you might give that kid a chance to show off . "

"What target?"

"Non informed me that our dear Emperor has found asylum in the Children of the Gods Holy Ground," Lino said . "And, despite Non’s great abilities of deception, even he can’t weasel his way through the defensive arrays of the Holy Ground . So, you can send that kid to apply for a position of a Disciple and keep an eye out on the Emperor . "

" . . . why are you even giving that fart the time of your day?" Lucky sighed . "You could have beaten him back then, you can pretty much anything you want to him right now . "

"No, no, no, killing him would be easy," Lino chuckled darkly, causing Hannah to suddenly feel a cold shiver run down her spine; for a moment there, she felt terribly sorry for the Emperor . "And, besides, I’ve been patient so far -- I can endure for a little while longer . Yeah, give the mission to the kid -- he doesn’t need to become someone important, just a regular ol’ Disciple . I imagine since you’ve picked to mentor him, he’s not terribly talented . "

"Alright," Lucky nodded . "What about you two? When are you coming back?"

" . . . I dunno . " Lino shrugged . "I first have to fight a Dragon and hopefully win to make him my pet . Anyway, I’ll call if there’s anything else . See ya’ . "

"WAIT JUST A GODDAMN SECOND, DID YOU JUST SAY FIGHT A DRAG-- OH YOU FUCKING SON OF A BITCH!!" Lucky roared, startling Ty who had never seen his Master explode like this . "YOU HUNG UP ON ME?! Oh, motherfucker, when I get my hands on you . . . "