Chapter 186
Even after the continental war ended in my past life, the identity of the Night Killers remained shrouded in mystery. People could only speculate that they were mages.
When I encountered the Night Killers in the Choin race's ghetto before, I also assumed they were mages using magic rifles with imbued magi.
However, Zeke's guess was completely off the mark.
He never imagined that the Night Killers were actually knights using magic rifles to fire bullets infused with magi.
'I rummaged through all the Imperial mages, but couldn't find anything. They weren't mages, but specially trained assassins.'
Zeke pondered what to do with the unconscious Aaron, then decided to use the Dragon's Sense.
'Before I wake him up and interrogate him, I need to see who's behind this.'
Zeke instructed Richmond and the Dragon Tooth Soldiers to stay alert as he reached out to the fallen Aaron.
Woooong!
Aaron's memories flooded into Zeke's mind.
Swoosh!
Fragmented memories flashed by rapidly. Zeke carefully examined the pieces of memory.
Then, Zeke discovered Aaron's memories of his training days.
'This is it.'
Zeke touched the fragment of the training memory and delved into it.
In a training ground built within a forest, young boys and girls with shaved heads stood in line with venomous eyes.
The children, who appeared to be around fifteen or sixteen years old, all resembled vicious wild animals.
Their bodies were covered in wounds, and they held in their hands misshapen swords, with lengths between that of an arming sword and a dagger.
Someone wearing a mask appeared before the children and shouted.
"Only you guys are left out of all those who came here! The rest died because they were weak! The swords you hold are stained with the blood of the weak! If you are weak, you die! Don't forget that!"
The instructor's shout made the children's eyes even fiercer.
Zeke gritted his teeth upon hearing the instructor's words.
'Crazy bastards. They trained these kids and then made them kill each other.'
Zeke's eyes blazed with coldness.
Zeke had undergone this kind of training himself.
This was how the cartels in the Southern Continent trained their hitmen.
In his past life, when Zeke trained as an official hitman, he had to kill his fellow trainees to survive.
At first, he hesitated to swing his sword. But when someone started killing the weakest of their peers, when the comrades he trusted turned their blades against him, that's when hell began.
Zeke also killed his colleagues who tried to kill him in order to survive.
He was targeted quickly because he appeared weak. But in the end, it was Zeke who survived.
When the massacre began, Zeke swung his sword without hesitation, and no matter how weak the enemy, he never let his guard down and always made sure to finish them off.
Zeke realized that the Night Killers had also undergone this cruel training method.
He delved deeper into the memories.
After completing his training with high marks, Aaron surprisingly entered Draker Academy.
There, he received normal knight training along with other trainees from his training center.
Zeke was taken aback by this memory.
'They deliberately trained him as a knight? What the hell are these guys up to?'
After graduating from the academy, they were gathered again and secretly underwent special training.
Aaron was undergoing assassin training, but because of his excellent performance, he was selected for the magic corps, where he learned how to handle magic firearms.
Zeke realized that the Night Killers were a group created with an immense investment of time and resources.
'The Empire wouldn't train them like this… This is a much more systematic and secretive method.'
Until now, he had thought that the Night Killers were affiliated with the Empire, but seeing Aaron's memories made him think otherwise.
Just then, a scene of Aaron receiving a medal in his Night Killer uniform after completing his training came to mind.
Zeke peered into that memory.
Surprisingly, a completely unexpected figure appeared in Aaron's memory.
'Cain?'
Cain, who had died at Zeke's hands in the Southern Continent's dungeon, was in Aaron's memory.
Cain personally pinned medals on the Night Killers' uniforms and shook hands with each of them.
The uniformed Night Killers saluted Cain.
"Hail! Siemens!"
That's when it happened.
Wooong!
As Aaron started to regain consciousness, his memories began to shatter and tangle.
There seemed to be a difference between using Dragon's Sense on someone unconscious and someone awake.
Zeke quickly withdrew from Aaron's memories.
Whew!
Zeke opened his eyes.
He realized where Aaron and the other Night Killers had been trained.
"Those damn Siemens bastards."
It wasn't the Empire, but Siemens who had nurtured this secret weapon.
In the continental war of his past life, most of Draker's bloodline families, including Draker himself, had defected to the Empire.
It seemed that Siemens' secret assassination squad had been deployed to the battlefield on the Empire's side.
'Was Cain originally a knight from Siemens as well?'
Cain's true identity remained a complete mystery.
Previously, Zeke had tried to read Teia's remaining memories within the Hercyon, but perhaps due to the ancient artifact's defense mechanism, there were no memories of Cain left.
Zeke looked at the collapsed Aaron and pondered.
"I wonder if I can find out by interrogating this guy."
Just then, Aaron suddenly opened his eyes. As soon as he got up, he swung a hand blade towards Zeke.
Whoosh!
Zeke lightly dodged Aaron's attack and stepped back.
When his attack missed, Aaron rolled on the floor to gain distance from Zeke.
Realizing that all his weapons had been taken away, he assumed a martial arts stance.
Zeke looked at Aaron with a surprised expression.
'He didn't receive knight training for nothing.'
Aaron, realizing that the person in front of him was his target, Zeke, looked for an opportunity to eliminate him.
Just then, Zeke opened his mouth towards Aaron.
"Aaron Dominic."
Aaron flinched and was startled when Zeke called his name correctly.
However, as a specially trained agent, he quickly regained his composure and sought an opening to attack Zeke.
Seeing this, Zeke clicked his tongue.
The Night Killers were killing machines who had undergone brainwashing-like training from a young age, with the elimination of their target as their top priority.
Zeke looked at Aaron and said,
"Aaron, listen to me. You've been brainwashed by Siemens."
Whoosh!
Without reacting, Aaron moved at high speed and lunged towards Zeke.
Bam!
With movements no different from the Ishutar's Mystics, he launched a kick towards Zeke.
Thud!
Zeke raised his hand to block the kick and stepped back.
'Talking won't work.'
He decided to face Aaron in hand-to-hand combat, under the same conditions, without using his sword.
Zeke took the stance of the Infinite Chain Binding. Then, he unleashed the Demon's barrier technique he had learned from Arataso.
Woooong!
Vibrations emanated from Zeke. Unfazed, Aaron ran towards Zeke, scaling the wall.
Zeke launched a palm strike infused with the power of Vibrating Force Resonance towards Aaron.
Woooong!
The power of Vibrating Force Resonance engulfed the charging Aaron.
"Ugh!"
The vibrations of mana caused Aaron's aura to surge.
He collapsed on the spot and started retching.
"Blegh!"
His head spun, and he felt dizzy, unable to even stand properly.
Zeke was amazed by the effect of Vibrating Force Resonance, which he had used in actual combat for the first time.
'This is no joke.'
He wasn't sure if it would work on blue knights or higher who could freely manipulate aura, but it was a formidable weapon capable of subduing knights below that level in one blow.
'I need to practice this diligently.'
Zeke approached Aaron, who was rolling on the floor, desperately trying to get up.
Aaron glared at Zeke and tried to regain his composure.
"Grrr."
When his body wouldn't cooperate, Aaron tried to commit suicide as he had been trained to do.
Crack!
He tried to kill himself by biting down on the poison hidden behind his molars, but something was strange.
"If you were trying to take poison, it's too late. I've already removed it."
It wasn't that he hadn't captured Night Killers in his past life.
However, as soon as these stubborn individuals were caught, they would take poison and detonate bombs hidden within their bodies, dying without leaving any evidence behind.
When his suicide attempt failed, Aaron glared at Zeke as if he wanted to kill him, still struggling to move his body.
Zeke clicked his tongue as he looked at Aaron.
"What did Siemens do for you to be so loyal? You fool."
Looking at Aaron's bloodshot eyes, he kicked Aaron's jaw. Aaron spurted blood and fainted.
Zeke called Richmond.
"Richmond, take this guy upstairs. I'll interrogate him separately after I'm done here, so make sure he doesn't escape."
"Yes, Master."
Richmond summoned a skeleton to carry Aaron upstairs.
After confirming this, Zeke drew Bahamut and leisurely strolled through the maze.
"I can't believe the guys who were setting the traps were all killed by the real specters."
He couldn't believe such an absurd thing had actually happened.
Zeke clicked his tongue, having learned through Aaron's memories that the enemies targeting him had been annihilated by the specters in this place.
The Night Killers sent by Siemens, as well as the dark mages and specially dispatched knights, must have been quite formidable.
However, he couldn't understand how they had all been wiped out by specters without a trace.
"What kind of specters are they?"
If they possessed such power, it was highly likely that this was an ancient curse that had lasted for a thousand years.
Before attempting to dispel the curse, Zeke intended to examine the specters and, if possible, absorb them with Gluttony.
That's when it happened.
The Dragon Tooth Soldier sent to scout sent a signal that he had found something.
Whoosh!
Zeke quickly ran towards it.
He had thought it was an ordinary mansion, but the underground space was so vast that he could believe it was a dungeon.
The strange thing was that in Aaron's memories, this underground area was like a maze, impossible to navigate, but it didn't appear that way to Zeke at all.
'Is it because of the Dragon's Eye that I can see the path clearly?'
Zeke ran along the clearly visible path and soon arrived where the Dragon Tooth Soldier was.
There, a hazy, shadow-like specter stood before him.
Zeke drew Bahamut and pointed it at the specter.
"I don't know what kind of specter you are, but let's have a go."
Strangely, the specter didn't show any movement even after seeing Zeke.
'What? Why isn't it attacking?'
It had clearly shown aggressive behavior towards Aaron and his group, attacking them first.
That's when it happened.
The specter turned around again and started moving somewhere.
Zeke hurriedly followed the specter with his sword. Then, he launched a Light Strike towards it.
Crash!
The Light Strike struck the specter.
Swoosh!
However, the specter, which had scattered like mist after being hit by the Light Strike, soon returned to its original form and continued on its way.
Zeke had a bewildered expression.
'Is that not a specter?'
Light skills were essentially the bane of cursed specters and beings with demonic energy.
This time, Zeke summoned the Holy Flame, creating a blaze.
Whoosh!
As expected, the specter passed right through the Holy Flame.
Zeke had no choice but to admit that the being was not a specter.
'Then what is it?'
It wasn't a specter, an undead, a demon, or a golem since it had no physical form.
As far as Zeke knew, such a being didn't exist in this world.
Confused, Zeke decided to follow the suspicious being for now.
After following it for a while, the being suddenly stopped walking.
"Huh? What?"
The being turned towards Zeke and pointed to a wall with its hand.
Zeke turned his head and looked at the wall with the Dragon's Eye.
'A secret place?'
Suddenly, the being pointing at the wall vanished like smoke.
It was as if it had been moving all along to show him the location of this wall.
Zeke slowly approached the wall. As he touched it, a message surprisingly popped up.
[The security device is accessing the administrator system.]
[Confirming the title Dragonian.]
[Security code deactivated.]
[Opening the door.]
Rumble!
The place that looked like a wall opened by itself.
Zeke looked back and forth between the message and the open door with a dumbfounded expression.
'So it's not just a cursed place?'
Since the security device had been deactivated, there was no threat.
Zeke opened the door and went inside. A spiral staircase leading down appeared.
Zeke slowly started to descend.
After going down for a while, a huge cavity appeared. And Zeke was surprised to see the cavity.
About ten of the specter-like beings he had seen earlier were lined up in the cavity.
Seeing them standing as if waiting for orders, something flashed through Zeke's mind.
This time, a being similar to them came to mind.
"Dragon Tooth Soldiers...?"