Extra's Path To Demon King-Chapter 418: CALL ME…"##&##"

Axel stood near a small mountain range about 5 kilometers away from Ravin City. He had obtained all the branch locations of the Hand of Umbra, along with crucial operational information, secret codes, communication methods, and internal structures from Count Halden.

Inside the largest brown mountain was the branch of the assassin sect. There should be an entrance inside through the western bottom corner. He was wearing an attire typical of an unassuming assassin of that sect. The first thing he needed to do was enter.

It had been exactly 30 hours since the ambush. For a highly capable assassination sect like the Hand of Umbra, some news must have reached it. The Duchess must also have received some news.

The situation will remain unclear for a while until both the Vex family and Livia Dusker also learns that he is still alive and well. Now that would be the tricky part, especially with the Anti-Rune element in the hands of the Duchess. Axel couldn’t help but feel a bit of apprehension about what sort of moves these two families would make.

Axel brought out the Night-Visor mask left by Damien Nomrad and another vial filled with red liquid. The blood of Count Halden. He poured exactly three drops of that blood onto the skull-like mask; it absorbed the blood, but no change occurred.

Putting the mask on his face, it started to wriggle and change, and blended into his face. But the caveat of the ’impersonation’ trait of the Night-Visor was that it could only imitate the presence of another, but not imitate the looks of another.

The mask turned invisible, he looked at his reflection in a nearby pond, and saw that his face had become unrecognizable. So, even if it could not imitate the looks of another, it would at least hide his own identity very well.

Axel covered his face and put on the hood, moving like an assassin, through the night filled with the moonlight of three moons.

Soon, he reached near the entrance. It didn’t take much time looking for it with his discerning eyes. The moment he stood there. Sharp killing intent of more than 10 assassins pressed onto him. More than that, from far locations. Multiple long-range archers had set their arrows straight at his head.

Ready to shoot with their most killing blow at a moment’s notice. Axel did not flinch and remained calm. He spoke dryly while making a specific gesture with his hand, "344th, Hail the hand of Umbra."

All the killing intent and the arrows targeting him were retracted. And he stepped inside calmly. There were a few other checkpoints inside, where he had to say a few more of the secret codes to pass through, and everyone had a different code depending on their position and region of operation.

It was a long corridor filled with complete darkness that he had to walk through until he reached the busy interiors of the massive mountain. It was pretty shocking, actually, that they had excavated so much of the inside, turning it into such a complicated fortress of sorts.

From what he knew, not even the most prominent forces of the Suncrest knew where the branches of this assassin sect resided; that’s just how careful they were. Because, in all honesty, it was impossible to get the sensitive information out of the Hand of Umbras’ assassins.

It was only because Axel had planted a Seed of Despair into the Count, practically making him a demon kin, thus bypassing all the contracts that bound Halden, and only then was he able to get all the information from him.

Inside the mountains’ towering structure, he saw the coiling stairs going upward. Hundreds of hooded assassins moving in different directions, it was almost like a busy place, but it was silent, uncomfortably silent, one could say.

He moved through the crowd of assassins similarly, not raising any suspicions. He reached the main deck, where missions were to be assigned. At that moment, a voice came from behind; he did not detect its presence, just like Axel could not detect Halden’s presence initially.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, don’t tell me you actually failed to kill the brat?"

Axel turned around and looked at him. This man, unlike everyone else, was not wearing a mask to hide his face; his attire was the same, and his voice reverberated through the extremely silent sea of busy assassins; it felt disturbing, almost.

The man continued, "I received the report that an entire part of the forest was destroyed. It seems you made the assassins all explode their cores. But the strange thing was that someone deliberately destroyed all the clues to what happened. As if it were nothing but a large explosion."

Axel manipulated his voice through mana, imitating Halden’s voice, and spoke, "Unfortunately, we were not able to kill Axel Nomrad."

The man was shocked, to which Axel clarified, "A powerhouse from the Greaves family intervened."

"Who was it?" asked the man coldly. Axel was relatively sure that this man was the Head of this branch of the assassin sect.

Axel revealed somewhat hesitantly, "I don’t know. It was a hidden powerhouse. And he used flames."

It was right in that instant that a shift occurred in the surroundings; countless pairs of eyes locked onto Axel’s figure, and simultaneously, an unprecedented wave of killing intent pressed onto Axel.

But the most potent sense of danger Axel felt came from the man he was talking to; his eyes widened as he felt the savage power pressing on him. A genuine 4th phase powerhouse was standing in front of him; more than that, he felt something wrap around his limbs.

Near-invisible black-colored threads wrapped around his arms and legs, almost cutting into his skin, the man spoke again, his voice that of an unrivaled killer, his bloodlust alone was powerful enough to match Axel’s complete killing intent in his half-demon state, "You don’t really think it would be so easy to get inside of our sect’s Branch of operation? Whoever you may be?"

The black threads not only immobilized him, but they also immobilized his mana movement, and he was unable to use mana. No matter how powerful a runecaster he was, he could not do anything. Not even activate a single artifact, use of his passive or active skills. Like a mouse caught in a cheese trap.

The 4th phase powerhouse spoke again, his voice making Axel’s mind tremble, "Now, why don’t you tell me who you are? You’re clearly not Halden, yet your presence mimics him?"

"But I suppose you need to be roughed up a bit first," sneered the powerhouse and made a gesture with his hand.

WOOOSH!!

Almost 200 poisoned arrows came at him from all angles as if they were all prepared for him in advance. He understood that he had been fooled from the very beginning, and got himself caught in a trap of his own volition. The world slowed down in his eyes.

And then Axel smiled ominously and mentally commanded, ’Demonic Eruption.’

The moment he did so, the skull mask became visible on his face; it covered his entire head, and a mighty wave of demonic power radiated outward, easily destroying the binding black threads. Two large red horns became visible, but now they looked like part of the mask, rather than something that came out of his head.

All the killing intent as well as the incoming poisoned arrows, each coated with a dark aura of the assassins, disintegrated a meter before hitting him, above and in front, hundreds upon hundreds of the assassins were flung backwards, from the sheer violent nature of his demonic energy.

Even the 4th phase powerhouse took a few steps back and muttered in overwhelming terror, "DEMON??????"

Axel’s demonic red pupils flashed behind the Night-Visor. And his demonic voice reverberated in the soul of...

EVERY...

SINGLE...

KILLER...

"You may call me... OSIRIS."

***

{Author = Axel’s appearance art as OSIRIS, wearing Skull Mask(Night-Visor) is in the Chapter comments.}