Chapter 35: Lizzy’s Death

After silently slaughtering her roommates without the slightest trace of remorse, Lizzy approached the door that had been firmly locked from the outside.

For years, she had carefully observed, studied, and memorized every little detail of the base’s security routines.

Armed with nothing more than a small piece of iron wire that she had carefully bent into shape, her nimble fingers worked skillfully inside the keyhole.

Click.

The iron lock opened without making a sound.

With extreme caution, Lizzy slipped into the corridor. Her hearing, sharpened through deadly training, could pick up the faintest sounds of breathing and isolated footsteps in the distance.

Whenever she spotted a guard caught off guard at his post, Lizzy darted forward like a shadow in the night, wrapping an arm around his neck from behind and ending his life with a single, precise stab to a vital point.

She made her way through the dark, damp stone corridors, illuminated only by the faint glow of wall-mounted torches.

Lizzy deliberately slowed her steps to keep the sound of her shoes from echoing into the surrounding passageways.

The underground corridor seemed endless, its roughly smoothed stone walls stretching on and on.

Suddenly, the faint murmur of voices echoed from the bend ahead.

’Someone’s there,’ Lizzy thought coldly.

Without hesitation, she slipped into the deepest patch of shadow behind a stone pillar. The moment two patrolling guards passed in front of her, completely unsuspecting, Lizzy sprang out!

Her dagger pierced the first guard’s throat, then flashed around to slice open the second guard’s neck before he could even scream!

As she watched warm blood spray across her fingers and the bodies collapse lifelessly onto the ground, an intense, almost insane sense of satisfaction erupted in Lizzy’s chest. It was a pure, sharp, intoxicating sensation.

Sinners and devils who stole lives like these... deserved nothing less than a gruesome death!

After successfully navigating the underground maze of corridors, Lizzy finally stepped into an enormous circular hall. High above, a narrow opening in the ceiling served as the only passage leading to the outside world.

Through that opening, the faint glow of the crescent moon filtered in. It seemed the assassin organization’s main headquarters had been built hundreds of meters beneath the surface.

Lizzy let out a quiet snort, her footsteps suddenly coming to a halt in the middle of the hall. Strange. There wasn’t a single guard or assassin stationed in such a vast chamber.

A deep sense of suspicion immediately crept into her mind.

"Something’s wrong... There should be a dozen elite assassins stationed in such a vital area. Could it be... that they’ve known about my escape from the very beginning?"

She bit down hard on her lower lip, sharpening her gaze.

"Tch, who cares! Whatever is waiting for me up there, I have to keep moving forward. Being killed here or captured again... makes no difference to me!"

On one side of the stone hall stood a magnificent yet ominous spiral staircase of enormous proportions.

Its moss-covered steps were stained with layers of dried blood, now blackened with age, a grim reminder of the countless lives that had been executed and lost in this cursed place.

Lizzy quickened her pace, climbing the spiral staircase without stopping. The higher she climbed and the closer she came to the exit, the more wildly the joy inside her chest burned.

A wide, terrifying smile spread across her beautiful face. She could hardly wait to breathe the air of freedom. Along the entire staircase, not a single trap was triggered, nor did any sudden attack emerge from the darkness.

Although her combat instincts kept sounding alarms, warning her that something about this situation was far too suspicious, Lizzy refused to stop.

When she finally reached the top, her path was blocked by a thick glass dome reinforced with special enchantments and equipped with its own magical locking mechanism.

"I’ve watched that bastard instructor open this place countless times..." Lizzy muttered, narrowing her eyes. "The mechanism... should work like this, right?"

Without hesitation, Lizzy bit into her own finger until fresh blood began to flow. Using her blood as a medium, she traced strange symbols and intricate patterns of formulas across the glass surface.

Although Lizzy herself had no theoretical understanding of the runes her instructor usually drew, her extraordinary photographic memory allowed her to perfectly imitate every curve and hand movement she had ever witnessed.

The strange, irregular bloodstains suddenly began emitting a faint red glow.

Click—Sssrk!

In the very next instant, the thick glass dome slid open automatically with surprising ease!

The light of the full moon poured over Lizzy’s face and body. The fresh night breeze brushed against her senses, filling her with the feeling that true freedom was finally within her grasp.

However, the moment she stepped through the opening and stood upright on the forest grass... every expression on her face froze completely.

Before her, among the dim silhouettes of towering trees beneath the moonlight, stood dozens of fully armed elite assassins, alongside every high-ranking member of the organization. They had formed a tight encirclement around her!

"So... you already knew I was going to escape tonight?" Lizzy let out a soft laugh. It sounded somewhat off, yet there wasn’t the slightest trace of fear left in her eyes. "Impressive acting... pretending not to know anything and letting me come all this way."

The middle-aged instructor with the scarred face stepped forward from the front ranks. He stared at Lizzy with a cold, disgusted expression, as though he were looking at a worthless insect.

"I’ve been suspicious of your behavior for several months now, Little Girl," the instructor said in a flat tone. "And it seems my suspicions were entirely correct. You may have thought you could deceive us by pretending to drink the antidote... but you were too stupid to notice one thing. If someone deliberately leaves even a tiny amount of that substance in their bloodstream without completely neutralizing it, their skin will gradually develop a faint greenish glow under the moonlight."

Lizzy froze for a moment. Her pupils widened. This was the first time she had ever heard of such a thing! No wonder the skin on her arms had looked somewhat strange over the past few weeks.

However, her shock lasted only an instant.

Lizzy no longer cared!

Without hesitation, she leaped over the front line of guards, spun her dagger, and darted into the dense darkness of the forest!

An unavoidable chase erupted in the middle of the dark woods.

Lizzy pushed her stamina and survival instincts to their absolute limits. She killed every assassin who managed to get close, slitting their throats among the dense undergrowth.

However, the enemy numbers were overwhelming. Deep cuts and severe stab wounds began covering her body, fresh blood streaming down and soaking her tattered dress.

"You’ll never escape this organization, Lizzy!" one of the high-ranking members shouted from a distance.

Yet, in the midst of this one-sided battle, Lizzy, with all her training, noticed something terribly strange.

The high-ranking members and elite assassins seemed to be deliberately holding back!

Not once did they direct a lethal attack toward her vital organs, as though Lizzy were some kind of ’commodity’ or valuable asset that had to be captured alive!

Eventually, after losing an enormous amount of blood and being worn down by exhaustion, Lizzy was cornered at the edge of a steep cliff.

She stood alone, tightly surrounded by a dozen or so cold-blooded assassins. Her breathing was ragged, and her vision had begun to blur and swim before her eyes.

"Drop your weapon and surrender at once, Lizzy!" the instructor called out in an authoritative voice.

"The organization will forgive your betrayal and heal all your wounds if you surrender willingly," another high-ranking member added. "You are the most valuable member this organization has ever had!"

An overwhelming wave of nausea and hatred surged through her chest.

So this was how they saw her now? As something valuable? An asset that could bring these devils profit?!

If I surrender now... I’ll only become their obedient dog and experimental subject all over again, for the rest of my life!

"You want to use me again...?" Lizzy whispered, a wild smile spreading across her face as blood trickled down her chin. "Don’t even dream of it!"

Stab!

Without a moment’s warning, without the slightest hesitation or fear, Lizzy turned her dagger around and drove its razor-sharp steel blade straight into her own heart with all her strength!

Lizzy had deliberately chosen to die by her own hand. Although she didn’t understand exactly why the organization’s higher-ups were so desperate to keep her alive, she firmly refused to give those who had ruined her life even the slightest satisfaction or benefit.

Seeing her reckless, insane act, the cold expressions of the high-ranking members and assassins shattered instantly! Panic and sheer terror struck them as though the world had just collapsed before their eyes!

"NO! STOP HER!" the instructor screamed hysterically, rushing forward at full speed alongside the other high-ranking members in a desperate attempt to save Lizzy’s life.

However, just as their hands were about to reach Lizzy’s collapsing body... something within her soul suddenly reacted and erupted with tremendous force!

BWOOOOSH—BOOM!

A wave of pure magical pressure burst from Lizzy’s pierced chest! From within the towering column of dark light that surged toward the sky, an enormous black-furred wolf emerged, its pair of blazing red eyes radiating the majesty of an ancient being—

Xavier!

The Wolf Guardian, who had only recently awakened within Lizzy’s soul, had now fully risen, triggered by the threat to his host’s life!

ROAAAAR!

The ancient wolf’s thunderous roar shook the earth and shattered the silence of the night. Xavier leaped forward, swinging his enormous claws and unleashing waves of merciless destructive magic!

That full-moon night instantly transformed into a night of mass slaughter and absolute destruction for the assassin organization.

Every high-ranking member, instructor, and elite assassin was utterly annihilated. Their bodies were torn to pieces beneath the Mythical Beast’s fury, until the organization’s headquarters was reduced to rubble.

Yet, amid the ruins of the massacre and the scattered piles of corpses...

Lizzy’s small body lay weakly on the blood-soaked ground. Her heartbeat grew weaker and weaker, the light of her life slowly fading as she teetered on the brink of death.