Chapter 67 – Shadows in the Light
The Luther Citadel was quieter than usual in the days following the Blood Moon Duel. Jean had claimed victory, but victory came with weight. She was now First Blade, not just in name—but in responsibility.
Meetings with war councils, alliance envoys, and internal dissenters consumed her every moment. Even her nights were restless. The burden of leadership pressed on her shoulders like the weight of a blade she could never sheathe.
But tonight, the stars whispered of treachery.
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Jean stood at her window, overlooking the courtyard below. Whitney lay beside her, ears twitching, gaze locked on the shadows dancing unnaturally beneath the moonlight.
"You feel it too," she whispered.
Whitney growled. "There's a scent of death in the wind."
A flicker of movement.
Then silence.
Jean drew Luxclade. The room dimmed—not because of night, but because something had entered the space between seconds.
A blur of black cloth and gleaming daggers lunged from the shadows.
Jean spun, parrying midair. The assassin struck like smoke and steel, blades coated in shimmering poison. His aura was cold, sharp, refined—the mark of a Shadow Guild executioner.
He whispered her death sentence:
"The Emissary dies tonight."
Jean didn't answer. She fought.
Their clash shattered furniture and cracked marble. The assassin was fast—possibly faster than anyone she'd ever faced. But Jean was not the girl who once wept beneath the Academy moon. She was the Emissary of Light.
She called on Severra.
A ring of golden symbols flared beneath her feet.
Divine Pulse – Seventh Light.
Luxclade flared, striking a radius of brilliance that scorched away the shadows.
The assassin hissed, retreating into the veil—but Whitney pounced, tearing through veil and bone with divine fury.
Jean seized the moment and plunged Luxclade into the assassin's chest.
Silence.
Then a whisper from the dying killer's lips:
"Too late… he comes."
The body disintegrated into ash—arcane ash.
Jean froze.
Whitney snarled, "That wasn't just an assassin. That was a message."
Jean turned to the west.
Beyond mountains, beyond the Iron Empire… lay the hidden citadel of the Shadow Guild.
They had declared war.
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