The pain instantly overwhelmed May, and she fell to her knees, her blood pooling around her on the cold pavement. She was panting heavily, each breath labored as she managed to choke out, “Nathan, run… get away…”
Nathan laughed, a cruel, mockaing sound that echoed off the alley walls. “Wait, you still believe I’m Nathan?”
May, bleeding and growing pale, looked up at him with confusion and fear. “W-what do you mean?” she asked, her voice weak.
Nathan smiled slightly, a sinister glint in his eyes. “Oh May, you really don’t get it? Well, I guess I should be a nice ‘boyfriend’ and explain.”
As he walked up to her, his body began to fizzle like a red glitch. His appearance started to change-his freckles disappeared, his facial features morphed, and his hair took on a different style. Strange, tattoo-like markings appeared on his face around his left eye.
May’s eyes widened in shock and horror as his appearance changed. Standing before her was not Nathan, but Kai Li, the second son of the House of Li and the New’s mysterious serial Killer.
His face was now different, unmistakably menacing. Kai looked down at May, a twisted smile on his lips.
“Surprise.” he said, his voice filled with malice.
“Nathan was just a role I played. To get you, my dear May, the last piece of my game.”
May, struggling to stay conscious, managed to whisper, “W-why… why are you doing this? W-where Cough Cough is the real Nathan?”
She coughed violently as she spoke, blood already filling her damaged lung.
Kai knelt down beside her, his cold eyes gleaming with satisfaction.
“The real Nathan? Oh, he’s around… somewhere.”
“But you don’t have to worry… he’ll be joining you here any moment now.”
“W-what is that s-supposed to mean?”
“You’ll find out soon enough.” Kai said with a smile.
May’s vision blurred, but she fought to keep her eyes open, desperately seeking answers. “Why… why me, w-why are you doing this?”
Kai, still smiling as he responded, “Oh, why, why you? Well… it’s nothing personal like a grudge or anything like that.”
“Let’s just say I had a kill count I had to meet and you were an easy target, an unfortunate victim of circumstance.”
May’s eyes widened in horror, tears mixing with the blood on her cheeks. “You’re… you’re a monster,” she said with a touch of anger in her voice.
Kai Li shrugged nonchalantly. “Call me what you want. In the end, it doesn’t matter.”
Suddenly, another purple portal opened, larger this time, above the small alleyway. First, a hovering black ball with a small opening revealing a red eye emerged.
It was Helxon, who hovered over to Kai’s side. In the next instant, a grotesque flesh-like creature with massive jaws and eyes all over its body slowly emerged from the portal.
May felt a shiver run down her spine.
‘Is… this is the end?’ she wondered.
The creature opened its massive mouth, revealing razor-sharp teeth. But it wasn’t to devour May. Instead, from the gaping maw fell a dead body, its limbs broken and bent at unnatural angles, large chunks of flesh bitten away. The body landed on the floor beside May with a loud thud, splattering her pooling blood around.
~ ‘I’ve brought it here, just like you asked.’~ Helxon said in Kai’s thoughts.
Kai smiled, “Good… now I’ll have enough blood to paint with.”
May, shocked, turned to face the body, whose face coincidentally ended up facing hers. Her eyes widened in horror, her jaw dropped, and she shook her head slowly in disbelief. Tears welled up and spilled down her cheeks as she let out a weak scream, barely audible due to her frail state.
The person was none other than Nathan. From the looks of it, he was already dead, probably murdered hours ago.
His pupils dilated, his sickening pale skin stained with his own blood and the clear fact he wasn’t breathing were signs of that.
Kai narrowed his gaze coldly at Helxon as he asked, “Did you make sure to properly clean the scene?”
~ ‘Indeed.’~ Helxon’s shadowy teeth materialized with a sinister grin as he responded. Kai had murdered Nathan a couple of hours ago after he had returned from a dungeon raid. Now dressed and headed to meet May at their designated meeting spot, he saw Nathan’s date as a golden opportunity to kill two birds with one stone: to kill the boyfriend, pretend to be him, and then kill the girlfriend, finally reaching the necessary number of kills to complete his first quest.
The union and the guilds had been tightening their investigations lately, making it increasingly harder to commit murder and leave a message.
One might wonder, with his family background, couldn’t he have done this quicker by hiring a top assassin to get the job done? No, that would have defeated the whole aim of the quest he was given. He had to take the risks personally, a small price to pay for the power he sought.
But then again, unlike Kai’s past victims, Nathan wasn’t random. No, he chose him, and his girlfriend just ended up being an added bonus. Kai wanted the messages he left to be taken even more seriously and to strike further fear into the hearts of the masses.
What better way than to kill a member of a high-ranking guild? Bringing Nathan’s dead body here was also another calculated move.
The fact that a member of one of the top guilds was not only powerless to defend himself but also failed to protect the love of his life would raise questions about the competence of the guilds and make many believe that whatever was coming, the guilds couldn’t protect them
from it.
Inevitably earning him more abyss points.
And for it to have its maximum effect as well as leaving no trails behind, he had to pretend to be Nathan and go on this fake date, have that fake romantic chat, and so on. CCTV cameras would have caught it all, further making it all believable when the case would be investigated. ~”This plan of yours won’t have its max effect if we leave any loose ends, right?”~
“I’m glad you understand.” Kai responded with a sinister smile of his own as he turned back
to face May.
He then spoke up saying.
“See, just as promised, I’ve reunited the both of you.”