Within the alley, only the darkness remained, thick as ink that refused to dissolve.
The Black-robed Man had transformed into a puddle of high-concentration shadow, skimming along the damp puddles and rubble at the base of the wall, fleeing at an inconceivable speed.
“Shadow Stealth” was his specialty. Anywhere there was shadow, he could hide his form and magic power fluctuations like a drop of water merging into the sea.
At this moment, he was like a startled rat, frantically scurrying through the tangled shadows of the buildings.
After crossing two entire districts and confirming there was no sign of any pursuers behind him—
‘Did I shake her off? I should have shaken her off…’
He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
‘Damn it, where the hell did that monster come from…’
However, before he could even catch his breath, an extremely faint footstep suddenly sounded from atop the wall beside him.
The Black-robed Man’s hair stood on end. He jerked his head up.
A sliver of moonlight broke through the clouds, perfectly illuminating the silver-haired figure standing atop the wall.
Ailiya looked down at him from above, casually twirling the dining knife she had brought from the bell tower in her hand. Her breathing wasn’t even slightly labored.
“Such a shoddy method for masking your scent. In the wind, it’s as obvious as a guiding beacon.” Ailiya wrinkled her nose slightly.
‘Shit!!’
The Black-robed Man was scared out of his wits. He scrambled out from behind a pile of garbage and continued his desperate flight without looking back.
The chase was on again.
As he ran, the Black-robed Man hurled every last life-saving tool he had in his arsenal behind him.
Dozens of pills emitting purple poisonous gas, nearly invisible magic tripwires, and large clouds of blinding smoke instantly blocked all of Ailiya’s potential pursuit routes.
This was his layered trap for covering his escape. Even a formal knight squad stepping into it would lose a layer of skin.
Yet, Ailiya didn’t even blink.
She lightly tapped the tip of her foot on an invisible tripwire. Not only did she not trigger the trap, she used it to propel herself into a leap—
‘Jump judgment, twenty degrees left; slide judgment, crouch right…’
Amidst the purple mist, she passed through the gaps in the smoke like a feather, landing unharmed on the eaves ahead. The entire process was fluid, without even a speck of dust on the hem of her maid uniform.
Ailiya landed steadily, looking down at the shadow still desperately fleeing below. Her tone was calm as she offered an evaluation.
“Quite a few tricks. You know quite a lot.”
That light, casual sentence fell on the Black-robed Man’s ears, driving him to utter desperation.
‘Don’t get so cocky! Do you really think I’m afraid of you?!’
He gritted his teeth fiercely, wildly releasing magic tools and spells behind him.
“SHADOW SPLIT!”
For a moment, the narrow alley was densely packed with traps and flying magic blades.
Five identical black-robed figures scattered and fled in different directions.
“CORROSIVE FLYING BLADE!”
“PHANTOM CLONE!”
Yet, Ailiya couldn’t even be bothered to make big dodging movements. She merely tilted her body slightly, turned her head, or casually deflected the attacks with the dining knife in her hand.
Her steps were steady, but her speed was shockingly fast, and she remained locked onto the Black-robed Man’s true body.
“The escape skills you’ve mastered are indeed quite numerous.”
Ailiya’s voice came again from not far behind him, her tone even carrying a trace of rare satisfaction.
The Black-robed Man felt his scalp go numb.
‘Not only is this woman unafraid, why does her tone sound like she’s picking through goods at a market?!’
Seeing he was about to be caught, the Black-robed Man was pushed to the absolute limit.
He stomped down hard, his entire body merging directly into the deep shadow of a dead-end alley below.
This time, he suppressed his breathing, heartbeat, and magic power fluctuations to the absolute limit, becoming almost indistinguishable from an inanimate object.
‘Perfect concealment. Now you definitely won’t find me…’
Just as a sliver of hope rose in his heart, he heard a sharp whistling sound of something cutting through the air from above the alley.
Ailiya leaped directly down from the top of the wall. Her right leg erupted with a faint glow of magic power, like a battle axe, accurately and mercilessly chopping down towards a patch of shadow in the corner of the alley!
BOOM—!
A loud crash. The hard stone slab ground was forcibly stomped into a large crater, spiderweb cracks spreading outwards.
“Ah—cough!”
From the originally empty shadow, the Black-robed Man, as if a monster forcibly dragged out of water, screamed and spat out a large mouthful of blood.
He tumbled out, rolling miserably before slamming heavily into the wall at the end of the dead-end alley.
His proud Shadow Stealth had been forcibly stomped apart by a single kick!
Watching the silver-haired maid holding a dining knife, walking step by step towards him, the Black-robed Man finally broke.
Fear completely devoured his reason.
‘Several bones broken… magic circuits in disarray…’
Clutching his chest, the Black-robed Man looked despairingly at Ailiya, who was slowly walking out of the dust.
‘Can’t escape.’
‘Can’t outrun her physically, can’t beat her magically, even my most prized stealth can be kicked out by her.’
‘Just what kind of monster has some big shot cultivated?!’
He yanked the black pendant from his neck and crushed it viciously.
‘Can only go all out now. Maybe there’s still a chance to live.’
Accompanied by a piercing shriek, over a dozen grotesque, pitch-black stone gargoyles surged madly from the surrounding shadows, flapping their wings as they pounced towards Ailiya.
However, the moment those hard stone gargoyles made contact with the blade, it was like butter meeting a hot knife. They couldn’t hold on for even a second, each being sliced into pieces mid-air.
And that wasn’t all.
The Black-robed Man pressed the last, enormous black crystal core in his hand directly into his own chest.
In an instant, he actually fused with a giant stone gargoyle over two meters tall, its body covered in heavy stone armor!
The giant gargoyle’s purple eyes fixed on Ailiya, emitting an ear-splitting roar.
Rubble and shadows from the ground gathered frantically, attaching to its body.
ROAR—!
The giant gargoyle swung its millstone-sized fist, carrying terrifying wind pressure, smashing down towards Ailiya’s head.
Facing this mountain-crushing attack, Ailiya didn’t even blink.
She stood in place, a brand new, coldly gleaming dining knife sliding out from the sleeve of her maid uniform.
The attack landed!
Ailiya’s figure swayed slightly on the spot. Her whole body, weightless as a feather, drifted past the enormous fist.
The next instant, a flash of silver light.
Shhhhk—
The dining knife, imbued with high-density magic power, pierced accurately into the magic circuit at the gargoyle’s wrist joint.
No sparks. No explosion.
CRASH!
The giant gargoyle’s thick stone arm cleanly severed at the joint, crashing heavily to the ground!
“What?!”
The Black-robed Man hidden within the gargoyle let out a cry of disbelief.
What followed was a scene that could be described as a cruel yet elegant “dissection surgery.”
Relying on terrifying agility and insight into weak points, Ailiya scaled the gargoyle’s massive body upwards.
The dining knife in her hand was like countless silver threads.
Swish! The left wing was severed at the root.
Swish! The thick stone armor on its chest was peeled away layer by layer like an apple peel.
“Impossible! Impossible! What kind of weapon is that in your hand?!”
The Black-robed Man inside the gargoyle let out acollapsing roar.
“Kastian Manor Logistics, standard issue. Ordinary dining knife.”
Ailiya answered coldly, her hands never pausing for a moment.
With one final, extremely precise cross-slash—
BANG!
The over-two-meter-tall giant gargoyle completely lost its magic support, collapsing with a crash into a pile of rubble.
Amidst the sky-filling dust, the Black-robed Man lost all protection.
Without any courtesy, Ailiya reached out, grabbed him by the collar, yanked him out of the rubble like a piece of rag, and then hurled him hard against the nearby brick wall like garbage.
THUD!
The Black-robed Man was slammed senseless, countless bones undoubtedly broken.
He looked at the silver-haired maid walking towards him step by step as if looking at a monster that had crawled out of hell.
“You… just who are you?! The organization behind me is—”
He screamed hysterically, trying to name-drop his backers to save his life.
But before he could finish.
Ailiya, who had walked up to him, simply raised her maid shoe—the one that had stepped in mud and was covered in grime—and stomped it down on his face.
“Mmgh—!”
The sole, carrying mud and grit, instantly silenced all his sounds.
Ailiya’s leg exerted slight pressure, pinning his head firmly against the brick wall as if nailed there, immobile.
The surroundings fell instantly silent, leaving only the Black-robed Man’s desperate gurgles in his throat.
Ailiya looked down at him from above, her expression still flat, her breathing even.
She leisurely took a pristine white handkerchief from her apron pocket, gently wiping the completely undamaged dining knife. Her tone was so calm it was as if she were discussing tomorrow’s breakfast.
“Too noisy. Be quiet.”
She put away the knife. Her icy eyes reflected the Black-robed Man’s terrified face.
“Now then, let’s have a proper talk—”
“How are you going to teach me all those interesting things you just used?”