The Assassin and The Blind Saint

Side Story: Sirius vs. Jerold Part 2

Later that night, Jerold and 100 other Holy Knights began to travel to the border to complete the mission Zuberg had given.

After several hours of riding, they arrived at a dead city. This place was abandoned by its citizens 20 years ago because there was an outbreak of disease that appeared.

"We're going to split up into two groups so we can find those kids faster!" orders of their leaders.

Jerold and 50 other Knights began to walk through the dead city.

"Hey, Captain. Is this place safe? I heard the plague here is deadly with the survivors being able to evacuate from here only reaching 20 percent." asked one of the Holy Knights.

"That's a taboo event to talk about you know. The Empire wants to forget about this tragic event so that the remaining surviving citizens can step forward from the shadow of the past of that terrible event" the Captain replied.

Hearing this conversation, Jerold became increasingly aware that the world was not doing well. Jerold during his life had never experienced any difficulties. It was because he was lucky to have been discovered by Georgy, not by a person with malicious intentions.

However, many people were not as lucky as Jerold. Many abandoned children were found by the wicked and sold into slavery.

On this mission, Jerold wants to save the kidnapped children no matter what.

After tracing the city for a while, they arrived at an area that had many buildings that indicated this was the center of the city.

"Share the team of four people and check the contents of each building here. If you find anything, yell for the others to get to your place" their Captain ordered.

Jerold along with the other three Holy Knights began to inspect every building that was there.

"Safe!"

"Safe!"

One by one the buildings they searched. However, there was not a single sign of a life that existed around the area.

They arrived at a large building. The silent atmosphere made the Holy Knights who were with Jerold a little nervous.

"Senior, can you come here." Jerold called his comrades. "The doors of this building are so hard to open, we're breaking down together."

"All right." The four of them then lined up to get ready to do a scramble.

"As per my precepts, one, two, three!"

- Broken!

The door is open. However, their expressions were slightly surprised. In front of them, a woman was standing in the middle of the building.

"Hello, Miss?" Hearing someone call her, the woman turned around.

Her face was full of blood, around her eyes was a black roundabout and the woman grinned at the Holy Knights.

"...!"

"...!"

The woman pointed her hand at them.

"Ughhhhh!" The four Holy Knights including Jerold were bounced out of the building.

"Damn! It was a Witch!" Jerold then tried to stand up."Enemy found!" He then shouted as loudly as possible to warn all of his comrades.

Jerold saw the Witch coming out of the building, the woman then shot a magic into the air. Not long after, a human figure appeared flying in the air. They then landed on top of the city buildings.

"They are—Vampir."

The battle of the Holy Knights with the Devils began.

***

On the other hand, Sirius and Visena were watching the Holy Knights fight with the Devils. Allowing them to kill each other, weakening both sides waiting for the best chance to make a move.

Before those Holy Knights had come, the two of them had already traced this dead city. They concluded, the Witches and Demons had been waiting for the arrival of the Holy Knights.

"Visena, I take care of this part. You take care of the other parts of town." Sirius gave the Instructions to Visena.

The battle between the Holy Knights and the Devils took place in two areas as the previous Holy Knights were split into two groups.

Bomb!

They both saw a magic explosion. The one who brought it out was a young man of their age.

"Are you sure you want to handle the one here? one of them looks like a Fortune Child."

Fortune Child is very difficult to kill because it has a special shield given by the Goddess when they are in a state of life and death.

The mana possessed by Fortune Child was also never depleted and they would never experience the one called Mana Exhaustion like the Heroes.

"I will fight him, this will be the first time I will fight a Fortune Child, pray for me, Visena," Sirius said.

"What do you mean pray, I am an Atheist" replied Visena who then left Sirius.

***

After two hours of fighting with the Devils, Jerold and the Holy Knights were finally able to defeat them.

"We won!" Jerold raised his hand above the sky echoing the declaration of victory after killing the last Vampire.

During the fight, Jerold was the one who played the most active role among the other Holy Knights.

- Plak!

Jerold turned around because someone patted him on the shoulder.

"Good job, new boy. As expected of Lord Georgy—'s disciple The White Knight," praised the Holy Knight Captain who led Jerold's group.

"Thank you, Captain!" Hearing his Captain's praise, Jerold became even more motivated.

Their battle however was not without casualties, as many as 20 Holy Knights died and dozens more were injured after fighting the Witch and the Devils.

The Jerold Holy Knight Group then sent two people to meet the other Group, while Jerold and the rest went to continue their search to search for the children.

After a few minutes of searching, they finally found ten of the twenty children who were ordered by them to be evacuated.

But to their surprise, the situation of the children was very bad. The bodies of each child were covered in experimental scars carried out by the Witches.

Seeing this, Jerold's heart trembled. He again made up his mind to save these poor children.

They gave them food and drink before taking them out.

The atmosphere of the City returned to silence after the battle, they walked back to where their forgotten and deceased comrades were.

"The two people we sent, Captain, why did they take so long just to tell the other Group about our situation?" ask Jerold.

"Yes, they've both been around for quite a while. It's quite an—"

Bomb!

Before the Captain could finish his words, they were suddenly startled by a burst of light that left them blind for three seconds.

But for Sirius, three seconds was enough time to kill all ten of the children. The Holy Knights were puzzled by what was going on including Jerold.

They were blind and then heard the screams of a child. When they managed to recover their sight, the Holy Knights saw Sirius thrust his sword into the neck of the last child.

Their mission which they had fought life and death ran aground in an instant. Seeing this, Jerold's emotions peaked. Sirius then rushed to escape.

"Pursue that son of a bitch Assassin!" the Captain's Order.

The Dozens of Holy Knights began to chase after Sirius. However, Jerold still fell silent not following his colleagues who were chasing the sadistic killer.

It's the first time Jerold has seen a human kill a child without further ado. Jerold saw the bodies of the children, their blood flowing down Jerold's feet.

"I swear, I swear I'll kill that Assassin!" Just this time Jerold had such a strong sense of wanting to kill a human being.

He chased his comrades quickly. The Holy Knights and Jerold continued to chase after Sirius who ran and jumped into the small alleys of the City. All they had in mind was just one—It was hunting the Assassin.

However, they lost track of Sirius in the alleys of the city. They looked into the corners and roofs of a building. However, they did not manage to find him. With minimal light conditions, it would be very difficult to find an Assassin.

"Gaghhhh!" They then heard the screams of one of their comrades.

"Where is that son of a bitch Assassin hiding!?" They're all confused.

They later found the body of one of them with an incision in the neck. It showed, The Holy Knight died quickly without knowing or seeing who killed him.

That's right, for an experienced Assassin like Sirius. One second you let your guard down and it will make your life float.

"Aghhhhh!" Back, there was the sound of screams from their comrades. It had been two Holy Knights who died in the same way.

"Gather together!" the Captain's Order.

The Holy Knights including Jerold gathered together in groups to form a circular formation.

"Remain watch all around you!" the Captain's instructions are back.

Now, that they had originally hunted Sirius, now things turned into those who hunted Sirius. In the hearts of those Holy Knights, there began to be fear. The human mentality will indeed be shaken if only in a moment, their position becomes reversed. The one who hunts is now the one who is hunted.

"Where are you cowards!? Get out show yourself!' shouted one of the Holy Knights.

Jerold then began to focus his mana on activating a tracking magic. However, before he could do so, three round-shaped objects of a fist fell in the middle of them.

"Protect your eyes!" the Captain's Order.

However, the explosion of light like before did not come out, but rather a thick puff of smoke that filled all corners of the alley that this time came out. Quickly the entire area of this alley was filled with thick smoke.

"Aghhhhh!" They began to hear the sound of their comrades' death.

Jerold then started walking, he then passed one of his colleagues. However, the Holy Knight suddenly collapsed. There was an incision wound on his neck.

Jerold still did not understand how the Assassin could kill his comrades without making a sound at all. He then focused his mana onto his sword.

"Great Swing!" Jerold did a powerful slash to make these fumes disappear.

However, his efforts did not yield results. What Sirius used was a special smoke bomb that would not be affected at all by the gusts of wind. He got these things from the Intelligence Department of the Republic of Anconia.

"All of you! Get out of this puff of smoke as quickly as possible!" the voice of their Captain's orders.

Jerold then rushed to get out of this area. After running for a while, two people managed to get out of the alley area.

"Captain! Where are the others?" ask Jerold.

"I don't know, we should hurry back to headquarters! I'm afraid, the other Group has also been attacked by these Assassins."

However, Sirius would not be that easy to let the two of them escape. He then darted his sword at the Captain.

This time, Jerold was able to sense Sirius' existence.

-Clang!

Jerold fended off Sirius' sword that was about to slash the Captain's neck.

Seeing his attack thwarted, Sirius then again disappeared into the alleys of the City.

"But Jerold—"

"Only I can deal with it now!" Looking at his adamant subordinates, the Captain finally nodded.

He started running away from his subordinates. As for Jerold, he followed the Captain from behind while watching and searching for Sirius' whereabouts.

Not long after, Jerold saw Sirius again darting from the top of the building towards the Captain.

"I won't let you!" Jerold hurriedly ran over quickly to protect his Captain from Sirius.

However, Sirius suddenly turned around and shot towards Jerold. The real target he was going to kill was not the Captain but Jerold himself.

Jerold who was surprised did not have time to defend or dodge because he ran quickly without a second thought.

Sirius' sword had stayed for a few cents with Jerold's neck.

-ang!

However, a light shield suddenly appeared that prevented Sirius' sword from slashing Jerold's neck. The light was seen surrounding Jerold's entire body.

Contrary to what happened, Sirius seemed not surprised to have expected this before. It was Jerold who was shocked by what had happened.

He then kept his distance from Sirius, still confused by the unique shield that had protected him. After a while, the shield disappeared.

Sirius disappeared back into the alleys of the city. However, this time Jerold tried to chase after him. He cast his magic to speed up his movements.

"Lightning Step!"

Sirius, who realized he was being chased, smiled instead. By using his magic, Jerold can get ahead of Sirius and perform an attack.

"Dancing Sword: Lightning Stardust Stream!" Jerold committed a combo of 11 attacks against Sirius.

Seven attacks Sirius managed to avoid, two of which he was agile. However, the remaining two slashes managed to slash Sirius' shoulders and hands.

Jerold who saw this was surprised, only Masternya—Georgy who had been able to completely avoid the kombonya attack.

Sirius then counterattacked by slashing his sword back at Jerold's neck. However, when he saw that Jerold's hand moving would fend off his attack, Sirius changed his attack pattern by kicking Jerold's body which caused him to bounce against the wall.

When Jerold got up, Sirius had already disappeared from the sight of his eyes. Although Jerold searched around him, he still had not discovered the whereabouts of Sirius. The view is blocked by city buildings.

"The Dragon Thunder Hurricane!" Jerold used his magic sword to flatten all the buildings around him so that Sirius had nowhere to hide.

However, his efforts were in vain. Although the battleground had now become more open, he was still unable to find Sirius.

"Where's Zone!" Jerold activated the tracking magic.

This magic can detect Magic activity with a radius of 100 meters. However, despite using his magic, Jerold still did not feel the existence of Sirius.

Jerold did not know that what Sirius used to eliminate his existence was not magic, but an Assassin technique that could eliminate the sound of footsteps called Featherstep.

Sirius continued to move to the spot where Jerold's blind spot was located which made it seem as if he had disappeared.

Suddenly, a light shield appeared on Jerold's body. Sirius' sword came back almost successfully slashing Jerold's neck undetected by him.

Jerold then again began to keep his distance.

"With this, it's been twice that the shield came out" Sirius murmured.

Jerold had no idea what Sirius meant. After his shield disappeared, Jerold re-activated his magic.

"The Raging Lightning Dragon!" Jerold's slash released a dragon lightning bolt that struck towards Sirius.

However, Sirius could easily dodge that extremely obvious attack by jumping. However, where Sirius was about to land, Jerold had been waiting for him there.

"Dragon Lightning Damnation!" Jerold's slash again formed a lightning dragon that struck towards Sirius. With this close, it was impossible for him to escape.

"Mirror Force!" Sirius activated his magic.

Bomb!

Both are bouncing away. Sirius' magic allowed him to create a magic mirror that made his enemy feel also the impact of the attack he launched into Sirius' body.

Sirius tried to get up, his body felt numb all after being hit by the attack even though the impact of his attack had been absorbed a little by the Mirror Force magic.

Sirius then reorganized his strategy. He now focused his mana on his left hand and then sheathed his sword back.

On the other hand, Jerold had also risen. His body was still shaking from the clash earlier. Only his Master—Georgy ever made him end up in this condition.

However, he had no time to reminisce about the past. He saw Sirius again moving over the building.

"Lightning Spirit!" Jerold's body this time was enveloped by lightning.

His hair and eyes turned yellow. He then shot as fast as a thunderbolt towards Sirius.

"Dancing Sword: Final Flash!" Jerold launched a combo of 20 attacks.

Without a sword in his hand, Sirius this time only focused on dodging. He managed to avoid 15 attacks. However, Jerold's four attacks managed to slash Sirius' hands and feet which made him look weakened.

Jerold then unleashed his final attack and was convinced of his victory.

"Dead you!"

But alas, Jerold's slash only slashed the wind.

"Afterimage." Sirius waited to use his magic while Jerold was convinced of his victory.

Using his shadow technique, Sirius managed to outwit Jerold and then appeared behind his body.

Sirius then glued his left hand which he had gathered where it was there.

"Reject Impact!"

Bomb!

Jerold's body was hit by an explosion of mana. He then bounced far through the walls of the building.

Sirius' left hand drooped after using the magic. Reject Impact has great side effects. After using it, the user's hand will not be able to move for several days.

Jerold tried to get back up, the lightning that covered him now disappeared. He tried to cast magic but could not.

It was due to the effect caused by Sirius' Reject Impact attack. Victims affected by the attack will not be able to use mana for several days.

Sirius took this risk because he believed that if Jerold fought with him without using magic, Sirius could defeat him easily even if he only used one hand.

He now darted back towards Jerold who was still trying to stand up. Sirius attacked Jerold.

Jerold could only dodge waiting for the gap to counterattack. Sirius then carried out a Horizontal attack that widened towards Jerold. However, Jerold had been waiting for Sirius to carry out this attack.

"Blitzkrieg!" Jerold made a quick counterattack towards Sirius.

However, Sirius was already anticipating this, he suddenly canceled his attack and then did a tackle attack on Jerold's body.

Sirius climbed up Jerold's body and was about to thrust his sword into the heart of his enemy.

-bam!

However, a shield reappears in Jerold's body. Not only that, an explosion of mana made Sirius' body bounce far away.

"I promised I'd come back to express my feelings to her. How could I die here!" Sirius faintly heard Jerold speak.

He then saw Jerold's body being covered by lightning.

"Ahahaha, the Goddess Athena does love the Fortune Child, right? It turns out that the rumors about them being so hard to kill were true. There are always strange wonders when they are pressed."

Sirius said that. Jerold without Cheat his status as a Fortune Child, must have been killed by Sirius three times. But this time, not only had Jerold regained his mana, the injuries he had obtained during the fight had also recovered.

"I'll put an end to this, Assassin. Lightning Spirit!" Mana Jerold started to increase drastically than before. On his face appeared a Mark commonly owned by the Fortune Child.

"Please give it a try, oh you're the one blessed by the Goddess. Night Phantom Murderer!" Sirius also used his secret magic.

A aura of darkness began to envelop Sirius' body.

The two then clashed again. Sell each other attacks. Sirius is in an unfortunate position here. With a body full of wounds and relying on just one hand, Jerold managed to repel Sirius.

"Uhukkp... Uhukk... " Sirius' mouth began to cough up blood. His body was heavy and difficult to move. His dark aura faded and disappeared without a trace.

"End already! Maximize Magic: Dragon Lightning Damnation!" A gigantic lightning dragon shot towards Sirius.

Bomb!

His attack caused a huge explosion with a diameter of 50 meters.

Jerold then knelt down on one leg, holding his body with his own sword.

"Well... Huh... Huh... By this... That's enough, right?" The lightning that enveloped Jerold disappeared.

"I mena—!?" Before he declared his victory, a sword was seen piercing out from within his chest.

"Shadow Links... " After Jerold, Sirius suddenly appeared.

"W-how can it be?" Jerold's body fell to the ground. Blood started pouring all over his body. Sirius stabbed Jerold in the heart.

Jerold's gaze began to blur, his breathing began to be irregular. Death will not be long to take him. He then held the necklace around his neck.

'Serena... Ii'm sorry. I don't think I can keep my promise... '

Not long after, Jerold exhaled his last breath. The Empire lost one of the most promising young talents in the history of the Continent of the Alterna.

If Jerold had not met Sirius, it was certain he would have been a hero who would have wielded Balmung's legendary sword.

Moments after Sirius killed Jerold, Visena then appeared before Sirius.

"As expected of Sirius. You managed to kill a Fortune Child who was notoriously difficult to kill." Visena tried to tease him.

But Sirius was silent and did not respond to Visena. He only noticed a necklace in his hand.

"What's Sirius?"

"It's okay Nightingale. Let's go back to base."

"Hey, I told you, call me by my real name if we're just the two of us!"

***

On the other hand, Serena who had just finished practicing was cleaning up waiting for Jerold to return from the first mission he had undertaken.

"How will his face be when I accept his feelings of love? Fufufu... I can't wait to see him back." Serena said that while holding the necklace she was wearing.