The assassin holding the twin swords saw the family of three. His malicious grin widened. Without a second thought, the man raised his boot and delivered a casual but devastatingly powerful kick to the base of the severed tree trunk.

The massive top half of the oak tree violently tilted, accelerating its fall, plummeting directly toward the family standing by the wall.

"You bastard!" Hide roared, his dark mana flaring as he tried to rush forward.

But the father of the family was quick-witted. Seeing the colossal shadow descending upon them, the man didn’t freeze.

With a desperate scream, he grabbed his wife by the shoulder and scooped his daughter up by the waist, violently throwing all three of them backward onto the park grass.

CRASH!

The massive oak tree slammed into the brick boundary wall, utterly obliterating it. Bricks, dust, and heavy branches exploded outward, missing the family by mere inches.

Hide’s mind went into an absolute frenzy.

’What is happening?!’ Hide thought, his eyes darting frantically. ’Weren’t these people afraid to cause a ruckus? Why are they so reckless? Someone will see or hear them! And the Police would be here to investigate any minute!’

But these assassins clearly didn’t care. They operated with an arrogant impunity that suggested they either expected to be gone before anyone arrived, or they were powerful enough to not care if the authorities showed up.

"Zenith!" Hide commanded mentally.

The dark mana escaping behind Hide violently erupted. Zenith materialized like the towering, dark-plated phantom executioner he was and stepped into the street.

Hide kept Aegis hidden for now. He couldn’t reveal all his trump cards to enemies who were this fast.

"Kill the swordsman," Hide ordered.

Zenith didn’t make a sound. It simply blurred into motion, using Phantom Step to cross the street in an instant, its razor-sharp talons clashing violently against the twin swords of the twin sword using assassin.

But Hide’s eyes were frantically scanning the environment, searching for the primary threat. The first man. The man in the office suit who had kicked him. Where was he?

Hide’s True Sight pierced the dust and shadows and he finally found him.

The suit-wearing man was climbing the walls to the second-story balcony of a nearby residential house, looking down at the street like a theatergoer watching a play.

But he wasn’t alone. An old lady, wearing a floral nightgown, had stepped out onto the balcony, drawn by the noise. She was standing a few feet away from the suited man, looking down at the destruction with wide, terrified eyes.

Hide watched as the suited man slowly turned his head toward the old lady and sliced his dagger with such speed that it would have been invisible for anyone to see his action.

The next moment, the old lady’s head simply slid off her neck.

It plummeted two stories and hit the concrete pavement below, bursting like a dropped watermelon in a sickening spray of red.

But it didn’t stay red.

As the headless body on the balcony collapsed, a deep, necrotic purple hue instantly began to spread rapidly across her pale skin. The flesh bubbled and hissed, rotting away with terrifying speed, leaving behind a foul-smelling, dark purple mist that drifted into the night air.

Hide’s eyes went incredibly wide. His breath caught in his throat, a cold, absolute realization slamming into his chest.

That dark purple tinge. That aggressive, highly corrosive rotting effect. It was the exact same type of curse magic. It was the exact same type of magical curse as the horrific, mangled scar tearing across Kai’s face.

’That’s him,’ Hide realized, his knuckles turning white as his grip on Night Singer threatened to shatter the hilt. ’That is the bastard who attacked Kai in the transit tunnel. He’s a Sihue Clan’s assassin. Damnit... he followed me from the estate... to avenge that Enji.’

The pieces fell into place perfectly. This wasn’t a random hit. This was a faction within the massive Sihue clan, who had been ordered or had chose themselves to execute the person who had dared to humiliate and maim Enji, their clan’s heir.

On the balcony, the curse user stepped onto the railing. He didn’t jump down like a normal human. As soon as he stepped off the edge, his body seemed to lose all physical weight. He flew in a terrifying, unnatural, gliding motion, slicing through the air directly toward Hide like a vengeful ghost.

He was way too fast.

Hide dragged his short sword up, trying to parry the incoming strike. The dark scales of his Carapace surged to thicken his armor. But the suit-wearing assassin’s movements were erratic, blurring in and out of the shadows.

The assassin bypassed Hide’s guard completely. The attack was aimed at his stomach... but he evaded the attack, still the matte-black dagger gently grazed the side of Hide’s right thigh.

It wasn’t a deep stab, leaving behind only a shallow, barely perceptible cut that sliced through the fabric of his pants and nicked the skin.

At that exact moment, a sharp, piercing sound cut through the chaos of the street.

The little girl in the park, terrified by the collapsing tree and the horrific violence, started crying at the top of her lungs. Her father scrambled to cover her mouth, his face pale with dread, desperately trying to keep his family quiet, but the sound had already carried.

The twin-sword assassin, currently locked in a blazing clash of sparks and dark mana against Zenith, heard the wail. His eyes snapped toward the park boundary.

"The witnesses are alive,"

He parried Zenith’s heavy downward slash, using the phantom’s momentum to launch himself backward. He landed lightly on the trunk of the fallen oak tree, immediately pivoting to jump over it into the park to slaughter the family.

"Stop!" Hide roared, his eyes blazing with fury. "leave them alone asshole!"

He pivoted, planting his right foot to sprint forward, ready to intercept the swordsman with Phantom Step.

But the moment Hide put weight on his right leg, his entire body seized.

A sudden, blinding spike of agony shot up his thigh, originating entirely from the tiny, shallow scratch the dagger had left.

A dark, necrotic purple web was rapidly spider-webbing beneath his skin, aggressively eating at his muscle fibers and completely severing his nerve connections.

Hide’s right leg gave out instantly and he fell heavily to the cracked pavement, tumbling entirely off-balance as the swordsman leaped over the tree toward the screaming child.