Mage Manual
Chapter 353 - Chapter 353 Chapter 298 Void Realm Assassination_2

Chapter 353: Chapter 298 Void Realm Assassination_2 Chapter 353: Chapter 298 Void Realm Assassination_2 To dodge an assassination by shortening one’s lifespan? No one would make such a bad deal.

Thus, Happiness and Comfort developed a second line of business: the whitelist.

Just pay an annual fee, and Happiness and Comfort will guarantee not to target you for that year. The fee varies from person to person–if you had several assassination contracts on you last year, then your fee for the next year would significantly increase.

From the Yisu royal family down to the major families, the whitelist of Happiness and Comfort nearly included all the ruling classes of the Kingdom of Gospel. Of course, there were quite a few who didn’t buy into this scheme, such as Azura’s local Red Hat, Cleos–who never bothered with them–a Holy Sanctuary Mage wouldn’t fear assassination.

However, even the Holy Sanctuary Mages couldn’t kill them unless they wanted to be outcasts in the Kingdom of Gospel. Although Happiness and Comfort generally didn’t provoke Holy Sanctuary Mages, when they started the whitelist business a hundred years ago, there was a Holy Sanctuary Mage who kept provoking them. Happiness and Comfort didn’t assassinate the Holy Sanctuary Mage, but they killed all of his Two-winged and One-winged kin and friends.

After that Holy Sanctuary Mage slaughtered the office staff of the agency, he was wanted by the Kingdom of Gospel and became a performance accomplishment in the eyes of the Red Hats, soon arrested and, as per the Gospel’s verdict, executed.

A few years later, Happiness and Comfort rose again, continuing their whitelist business, but this time nobody dared to challenge them.

They didn’t bow to the assassins but to the Gospel.

The Gospel had already set fair and just rules of the game; if you couldn’t beat others, then you deserved to lose.

In recent fifty years, Happiness and Comfort acted less and less–sometimes not even assassinating one person in a year, but they became number one in Azura just by collecting protection money from the wealthy, proving that earnest labor is inferior to redistributing wealth from the rich to the poor.

These past few days, the Happiness and Comfort agency finally received a long-missed big contract.

“Assassination target: Ash Heath”

“Reason for the contract: Ash Heath”

The clients were many, including the Yisu royal family, Cleos, and other regional Red Hats; Happiness and Comfort agency accepted all orders.

Although the Red Hats were generally antagonistic to the agency, no one would cross paths with the Gospel Merit; as long as Happiness and Comfort completed the assassination, that Gospel Merit would be distributed among the Red Hats who invested in the assassination fund according to the shares of capital contributed, since financing is also a form of effort after all–the Gospel Book is very equitable.

Ash Heath was not on the whitelist, so Happiness and Comfort could wholeheartedly accept this commission and deployed all the Two-winged assassins in the office, totaling 13, among whom Amado was included.

All thirteen Mages received the “Guidance to Ash Heath” Blessing and could search for Ash upon arriving in the Void Realm as per the guideline.

As for how to determine when Ash would enter the Void Realm, it was too simple–they had gotten the electricity and water usage details from Hanna’s household from Cleos, estimating Ash Heath’s Void Realm times to be from 11 PM to 5 AM.

On May 11th they took the order, and they chose to execute the task at 2 AM on May 12th. At that time Ash Heath would definitely be in the Void Realm, and also would have consumed a significant amount of soul energy, making it the ideal time to deliver him some “happiness.”

Amado primarily studied Mechanical Faction and Earth Magic, the two primary specialties of the Earth Empress, clearly he was also a victim of the “Mage Duel” series. But being proficient in these two factions also granted him several advantages, such as being able to build bicycles on the Time Continent; moving not only didn’t require soul energy consumption, but also was quite fast.

However, Amado discovered that the assassination target had a faster mode of transportation for as he traveled straight towards his target, the guiding mark gradually became dimmer. He thought he had taken the wrong direction at first, but careful observation revealed that the target was simply moving faster than him, thereby increasing their relative distance.

Strange, I’m already cycling pretty fast, am I not? I am the “National Cycling Rank 10th,” and the “Azura Cycling Rank 2nd,” a cycling expert with a speed reaching 70 kilometers per hour, almost as fast as a Floating Car.

What kind of transportation is Ash using?

An alchemical puppet? An enslaved intellectual creature? But none of those are as fast as my bike.

It couldn’t possibly be that he’s driving a sports car, could it?

Despite his confusion, Amado would soon find out the answer–as per the guiding mark, he was already very close to the target, and the target was also moving towards him.

Could I be the first to arrive? he wondered.

Without a doubt, Ash’s combat power was lackluster, as evidenced by his absence from any Mage combat power rankings. For assassins like Amado who came prepared, Ash was like a fish on a chopping board or a workbook in front of a top student, just waiting for death.

The bonus distribution was also based on the contribution to the battle, so Amado did not hold back and prepared “Boiling Mire” and “Thousand Thorns” from Miracle. As soon as Ash appeared in sight, he was set to give him a blissful hot water massage bath.

There’s an important issue with assassination in the Void Realm: how to annihilate the target’s soul energy?

If it was a common death, a Mage would only lose part of their soul energy, which, although inconvenient in reality, could generally recover after a few months’ rest, still a long way from death.

Therefore, the assassins from Happiness and Comfort used a specially developed assassination Miracle. Compared to a common Miracle, an assassination Miracle consumed more magic power, but its power did not increase significantly.

The greatest effect of an assassination Miracle was: inflict slow, all-around damage to the target.

This was the secret to Void Realm assassination: not to kill the target instantly but to place the target in an environment of sustained, all-around damage. Thus, when the target died, the soul energy was almost depleted, leaving remnants insufficient to support a body.

Even if not dead, the target would enter a state of unawareness, unable to recover for years, maybe even decades. It was said that some clients would pay extra to put the target into this state of unawareness, seemingly as a setting for some kind of committed crime game…

The guiding mark grew brighter, just ahead!

It was coming!

But Amado felt that something was off–why was the ground shaking?

The data on Ash didn’t suggest he weighed tons, so how could he cause such a vibration?

But there was no time left for Amado to think, as the guiding mark had reached its peak brightness, and Ash Heath was just behind this veil of rain–

Buzz!–

A convertible sports car whizzed past him, although Amado’s professionalism allowed him to immediately cast a Miracle. However, neither the thorns nor the mire could stop the car as it crushed them.

Not to mention there was a thin barrier on the sports car.

“Another one?”

After leaving behind a questioning remark, the car sped off, leaving Amado stopping his bicycle abruptly, inhaling the dark green exhaust left behind by the sports car.

His mind was in chaos, filled with countless questions.

What did he mean by “another one”?

Why was he driving a sports car?

Why were there two other people in the car with him?

Why did those two people seem to be beautiful young girls?

Why did the car’s exhaust make my eyes hurt and my face feel like it was rotting?

Why was the car far away yet the vibration sound was getting louder?