CHAPTER 38: THE ANNUAL AUTUMN GALA 6

The cold night air sent chills down Aegis’s spine.

She clutched Lady Roseheart’s shawl tighter, trying to keep her breasts from escaping completely. Every step made them bounce. Every bounce made the fabric slip.

[Man, as much as I love this new body, running around with double Ds swinging sure isn’t practical.]

She’d played Queen of Hearts for thousands of hours. Not once did the game mention how annoying large breasts were during emergency sprints.

The administrative wing loomed ahead. Dark windows. Empty corridors. Perfect for an assassination, now that she thought about it.

Her bare feet slapped hurriedly against stone. The shawl fluttered behind her like a cape. A guard rounded the corner, took one look at her barely-covered chest, and walked straight into a pillar.

"Evening!" Aegis called cheerfully, not breaking stride.

She turned left. Then right. The academy was a maze at night. Every hallway looked identical without students filling them.

[Come on, Talia. Where are you?]

A flash of light from the east corridor. The distinct crack of lightning magic.

[Found you.]

Aegis sprinted toward the sound. Her breasts had completely given up on staying contained. The shawl hung around her shoulders like a suggestion.

Another lightning strike. Closer now. She could smell ozone.

She rounded the corner and froze.

Talia stood backed against a wall, breathing hard. Her perfect hair hung in disarray. Blood trickled from a cut on her cheek. Scratches covered her arms. Smoke was literally coming from her outstretched right hand.

The assassin facing her didn’t have a mark on him.

He moved like water. Black clothes, professional stance. Not some hired thug but a real killer. The kind who studied their targets.

[Of course. Talia’s talented, but she’s still no match for a trained killer.]

"Getting tired, Princess?" The assassin’s voice was conversational. "Magic takes so much out of young mages."

"I have plenty left." Talia raised her smoking hand.

"No, you don’t." He stepped closer. "But points for bravado."

Talia’s lightning sputtered. Died. Her legs shook.

[Shit. She’s almost done for.]

The assassin drew a curved blade. "Any last words?"

"Just one." Talia lifted her chin. Even exhausted, even knowing she was about to die, she looked every inch a princess. "When my mother finds you—"

"She won’t."

He lunged.

Aegis’s hand shot out. Aether gathered at her fingertips, forming into a whip of pure energy. It crackled through the air, wrapping around the assassin’s ankle.

[Aether Whip, don’t fail me now!]

She yanked. Hard.

The assassin’s feet left the ground. He flew backward, slamming into the opposite wall with a satisfying crunch. Plaster cracked. He slumped down, dazed.

"Heya!" Aegis grinned, still holding the ethereal whip. "Missed me?"

Aegis jogged over to Talia’s side, trying to keep the shawl from sliding completely off. Her breasts bounced with each step, drawing Talia’s wide-eyed stare.

"What are you doing here?" Talia’s voice cracked. "And why are you—"

"Half-naked? Long story." Aegis positioned herself between Talia and the assassin. "Let’s focus on the guy trying to murder you, for now, babe."

The assassin pushed himself off the wall. Plaster dust drifted down from the impact crater. He rolled his shoulders, studying them both with professional interest.

"Two targets now." His voice stayed conversational. Like discussing weather. "The commoner who topped the rankings. Interesting."

"Yeah, I’m full of surprises." Aegis kept her Aether Whip crackling. "Speaking of which—"

He moved.

[Fast!]

Aegis shoved Talia sideways. A blade whistled through the space where her head had been. Close enough to trim hair.

"Rude!" Aegis lashed out with the whip.

He ducked. The ethereal weapon cracked against stone, leaving scorch marks. He rolled forward, came up throwing knives.

Three blades. Perfect trajectory.

[Shit shit shit—]

Aegis twisted her body. One knife grazed her shoulder, drawing blood. Another caught the shawl, tearing it completely free.

Her breasts bounced into full view again.

"Seriously?" She snapped the whip at his feet. "Could you stop destroying my clothes?"

He jumped. Mid-air, vulnerable.

Talia’s lightning caught him. Not much, her reserves were nearly empty, but enough to make him grunt. He landed in a crouch, smoke rising from his clothes.

"Better." The assassin nodded approvingly. "But you’re both exhausted. The princess from magical drain. You from running here."

He wasn’t wrong. Aegis’s lungs burned. And although she had 100 MP total, she didn’t have enough to just spam spells quite yet.

"Still enough to take you down." She tried to sound confident.

"Is it?"

[Not really, no.]

He pulled two curved blades from his back. The metal shimmered. Runes glowed along the edges.

[Enchanted weapons. Of course.]

"Those look expensive." Aegis backed up a step. "Someone really wants her dead."

"Nothing personal, Princess." He addressed Talia without looking away from Aegis. "Just business."

"Whose business?" Talia demanded.

"Does it matter? You won’t live to use the information."

He lunged. Both blades swept in a perfect arc.

Aegis’s whip met them. Energy crackled against enchanted steel. The impact jarred her whole arm.

[He’s not just fast. He’s strong too.]

"Hey." Aegis grabbed Talia’s wrist. "Can you trust me for a bit?"

"What?" Talia stared at her. "No!"

"Great. Just do it anyway!"

She yanked the princess into a sprint. Talia stumbled, caught completely off guard.

"What are you doing?!"

A blade embedded itself in the wall where they’d been standing. Deep enough to disappear to the hilt.

"Running!" Aegis pulled harder. "Keep up!"

"This is your plan? Run away?"

"Better than dying!"

They tore down the corridor. Aegis’s bare feet slapped against cold stone. Behind them, steady footsteps followed. Not rushed. Patient.

[He’s not even trying to catch us yet. He’s enjoying the chase. Fucking low-rate villain thinks he has us for sure.]

"Where are we going?" Talia demanded.

Aegis didn’t answer. She took a sharp left into a service corridor. The kind servants used. Narrow, dark, full of turns.

"Answer me!"

"Busy not dying!"

Right turn. Another left. Down a stairway she remembered from the game. The stone grew damp under her feet.

A spell hissed past. The wall exploded in chunks of stone and dust.

[Too close—]

"Hold on!"

Aegis gathered her remaining mana. The world blurred as she triggered Aether Step, pulling Talia through the spatial jump. They materialized ten feet ahead.

Talia gasped.

"How did you—"

"Magic. Very complicated. No time."

Another knife whistled past. Aegis Stepped again. The drain hit immediately. Black spots danced in her vision.

[Can’t do many more of those.]

Down another flight of stairs. The air changed. Damp became wet. Clean stone became grimy. A smell hit them like a physical force.

"The sewers?" Talia’s voice pitched higher. "You’re taking us to the sewers?"

"Trust me!"

"I already said I don’t!"

"Then trust that I don’t want to die either!"

They burst through a rusted iron door. The smell intensified. Decay, waste, and something else. Something that made Aegis’s game knowledge tingle.

Talia gagged.

"This is insane."

"Welcome to my life."

The sewer tunnel stretched ahead. Stone walls sweating moisture. Patches of glowing green moss provided sickly light.

Footsteps echoed behind them. Still patient. Still coming.

"He’s herding us." Talia realized. "Like sheep."

"Yeah, well, this sheep has teeth."

Aegis pulled her around a corner. The tunnel dead-ended at a metal grate. Beyond it, something glowed brighter green. Something that moved.

"No exits." The assassin rounded the corner, not even breathing hard. "No backup. No more magic, from the look of you both."

He was right. Talia swayed on her feet. Aegis’s mana was down to fumes.

"You’ve trapped yourselves." He twirled one blade. "Though I appreciate you choosing somewhere easy to clean."

"Thoughtful of us." Aegis pushed Talia behind her. "But you’re making one mistake."

"Which is?"

"Assuming we’re trapped with you."

His eyes narrowed.

"Meaningless bravado—"

Aegis snapped her whip at the grate. The last of her mana burned through the strike. Metal shrieked and tore free.

The green glow intensified. Something wet slopped onto the tunnel floor.

The assassin’s professional calm cracked.

"Slimes."

[Not just any slimes,] Aegis corrected, internally. [The kind of high-level slimes that dissolve anything organic in seconds.]

Three gelatinous masses oozed through the opening. Each one the size of a grown man. Their surfaces bubbled with digestive acids that hissed against stone.

"You’re insane." He backed up. "They’re indiscriminate. They’ll kill you too."

"Maybe." Aegis raised her exhausted arm. "Want to test that theory?"

He moved. Not at them. At the wall. Trying to climb back the way they’d come.

[No you don’t.]

Aegis’s whip wrapped around his ankle. No mana left, just desperate strength. She yanked with everything she had.

He flew backward. Arms windmilling.

Straight into the nearest slime.

The scream cut off almost immediately. The slime engulfed him like jelly swallowing a fly. They couldn’t even hear him scream. His flesh sizzled. Dissolved. The smell of burning meat filled the tunnel.

In seconds, nothing remained but bubbling green and the guy’s clothes.

Aegis collapsed against the wall. Her legs gave out completely. She slid down until she sat in questionable puddles, chest heaving.

Talia dry-heaved beside her. Nothing came up. She probably hadn’t eaten since before the gala.

"Fuck." Aegis threw an arm around Talia’s waist, too exhausted to be flirty about it. "We did it. We actually made it."

Talia didn’t pull away. Too tired. Too shocked. They sat there gasping while slimes burbled contentedly.

But something caught Aegis’s eye. Floating in the acidic mass.

The assassin’s clothes. Black leather armor bobbed in the slime like a pool toy. And on the chest piece, clear as day...

A symbol. Black wings wrapped around a crimson blade.

[No. No fucking way.]

The mark of the Umbral Blade. Shadow Empress cultists.

[They’re not supposed to appear until year three. After the tournament arc. When the Shadow Empress makes her first real move. But... they came here now? To kill Talia!?]

Aegis stared at the floating emblem. Her exhausted mind tried to process this.

[What the hell is happening to the timeline?]