Chapter 14: Werehorse

When they reached the last step of the staircase, Pieffer put up a shield around herself that expanded and enveloped Aries, Sunrei, and Leon.

"You don't have to shield us, Pieffer," Sunrei said. "Focus on protecting yourself."

"This is only a precaution," the princess answered. "These last floors always make me feel uneasy even though they are guarded by reliable monsters. I only want to protect everyone as much as I can."

"Garnet, I only realized it now," Aries suddenly thought about something.

"What is it?"

"Who is guarding the first floor if you are here with us?"

"Don't worry about it. I have my own little army," Garnet winked at him.. "And prisoners on the first floor are not as wicked as the prisoners here on the last two floors. The guardian here is strong but that doesn't mean he will help us if something happens. His priority is keeping the prisoners in their cell. Not to save visitors."

"Be careful, Aries," Pieffer seriously cautioned.

Aries only nodded and Garnet knocked on the stone wall.

Three beats and an entrance had been revealed.

As soon as they stepped in, trouble had welcomed them.

A man in tattered clothes was running in their direction. Broken chains were dangling in his wrists and ankles.

Garnet quickly closed the door by tapping the wall. This time, it was six beats.

The escapee had no weapon in hand but he kept on running towards Aries who already called on to his dual swords.

Something that resembled a bolt of lightning had zipped through the chest of the prisoner, shattered the shield protecting Aries and pierced his heart. The lightning was incredibly fast to be deflected by his blades.

The moment his heart had been stabbed, his senses had gone numb, and he blacked out.

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Aries finally had a lead about Pieffer's long-lost brother after months of searching and sparring with assassins.

It was Sunrei Solstice. He was at the number one seat in the entire Zodiac Assassins. He was uncontested. No one dared to spar with him. He was cold and would not hesitate to slit anyone's throat. Even if it was his fellow assassin.

Aries never tried to spar with Sunrei. It was not because he was inferior to the seat before him but because he was too lazy to spar with anyone else.

He only did all those sparring sessions for Pieffer and even though he was somehow expecting that his search would finally end, the truth still surprised him. He was also not expecting to enjoy sparring with Number One but he did.

Sunrei was an excellent assassin. His speed was blinding. His footsteps were soundless. He never needed any assistance from the shadows. Aries fought number one with the best that he could. He maximized the assistance of silhouettes around him but all he could manage was pick a strand of his opponent's hair.

Aries managed to save his neck from getting cut, but the rest of his body had been savagely beaten. At the end of their fight, he was lying face down on the ground and could hardly move a finger.

"Five minutes and you are still alive. Not bad," Sunrei checked on his watch. "Be grateful that you are still useful."

Number one left the sparring ground without saying another word. Aries, on the other hand, had to rest for an hour to gather enough strength to leave that place then another week of hibernation to let his body heal completely.

He was glad that Pieffer did not visit his place while he was recuperating but when he came to visit her place, he was not that grateful anymore.

Pieffer welcomed him with a smile and, as always, she had put her arms around his neck to kiss him on the lips.

"I love you, Aries. Don't you forget that," she was always saying those first three words to him but that last sentence had an ominous resonance to it.

"You came at last."

It was Sunrei. He walked out of the kitchen. His eyes had changed color from black to blue. It was now identical to the eyes of Pieffer. Aries did not have to say anything. He had already told Pieffer the truth. But none of the siblings looked happy that they had finally found each other.

"Kill her, Number Two."

"What?" Aries could not believe what he had just heard. He was her brother.

"Yes. I am his brother," Sunrei said as if he could perceive what Aries was thinking. "But I am also an assassin," he unsheathed his knife and Aries did the same. "If I am to choose, I will always pick my present over my past," an evil smile curved on his lips. "Come on, Number Two. Will you waste all your hardships and die just because of one woman?"

Aries glanced at Pieffer and was surprised at her bravery. Instead of crying in fear, she was courageously smiling at him.

"Sunrei is right," she grabbed his weapon hand and pointed the blade at her chest. "Don't waste your life for me."

"Don't tell me what to do," he pushed Pieffer behind him. "I will kill whoever harms you."

"Aries, please…" Pieffer grabbed his waist and tightly embraced him. "Even if you are Number Two, you cannot win against all of them. You can still survive this. Just treat me as another person you must kill. Continue with your life. I only want to see my brother. Now that I finally found him, I can die in peace."

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Aries turned to face Pieffer and asked, "Is that truly what you want?"

"Yes. I don't want to complicate things and make everything difficult for us. Let me die in your hands," Pieffer answered without the slightest tremor in her voice or hesitation in her eyes. She was just smiling contently at him. "Do it, Aries."

Countless possibilities flooded his mind but it all had the same ending. Struggling was futile for a single assassin and an ordinary woman. Death was the only ending waiting for Pieffer.

"You should not have met me," Aries took Pieffer in his arms.

"I'm at my happiest whenever I am with you," she leaned her face at his chest and tightly embraced him. "Let's meet again in our next life."

"If that happens… if you see me in your next life… run away as fast as you can," Aries raised his knife and stabbed Pieffer in the back.

The blade pierced her heart, passed through her chest, and grazed the overcoat Aries was wearing.

"In our next life… I will help you… experience a better world," Pieffer promised through her fading breath. "I… love you… Aries…" her hands slipped from his back and Aries slumped on the floor while cradling her dead body.

He carefully placed Pieffer on the ground, "Hate me. That is what I deserve."

He got up on his feet and faced Sunrei.

"Burn this house then report back to our boss," Sunrei impassively instructed, adding more fuel to the fury raging within Aries.

He raised his bloody knife and attacked the horrible devil.

It was another long and exhausting fight. By the time Aries landed a fatal blow on the lungs of Number One, his body was filled with cuts and his clothes were drenched in his own blood.

He finally allowed himself to drop on the floor, beside Pieffer.

"Let's all… die together…" Aries laughed and coughed out blood.

"How dare you…" Sunrei placed his left hand over his bleeding chest and his right trembled with rage while gripping his blood-soaked knife.

He was limping towards Aries who was too exhausted to lift a finger. His body was starting to feel numb. His senses were failing him. He looked away from Number One and gazed at Pieffer who had a peaceful smile on her face.

Her beauty was the last thing he had seen while Sunrei relentlessly pierced his chest until everything around him had been swallowed by darkness.

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"Why did you let your spear hit him?!"

From the darkness, Aries heard the pixie yelling in annoyance.

"It was not my fault!" a male voice roared back at Garnet. "You came at the wrong time!"

"You could have warned us!" the pixie screamed louder.

"I was busy with all the prisoners trying to escape this floor!" the male voice bellowed, and even though it was not as intense as the giant's roar, it still caused the ground to tremble. "Those shameless prisoners! I want to kill them! But my spear can only show them their deepest guilt! If they are not guilty at all, the worst my spear can do was paralyze them for a moment! What is the use of confining them on this floor if they will not repent?! Why not take them straight to floor four and be tortured until the day they die?! Why let them stay here and give them three chances?!"

"Criminals deserves a second chance," the voice of the pixie had finally calmed down.

"That prisoner had already lost two chances. One more attempt to escape and he will finally be sent down to the fourth floor. I wish he would do it soon. One less disgusting creature on this floor means less work for me."

"Hey, Aries, for how long will you pretend to be asleep?" the pixie lightly tapped him on the chest, where the lightning had pierced him, but it was not hurting at all.

He opened his eyes and checked his chest. His clothes were not torn at all, as if he had not been stabbed.

"I was told that you had forgotten everything about this world."

Aries glanced at the source of the male voice and saw that it was a werehorse. It had the face of a black horse. Its eyes were red and had a mane that was beautifully braided. Its arms and torso were those of a man. It was also black and had perfectly toned muscles. Its thick legs looked like the hind legs of a horse. It also had a tail that was as shiny as its mane.

"My spear must have caused you to see a lot of shameful memories and made you feel like a bad person," the werehorse continued. "But it is not all you, Aries. They brought it to themselves, and you are the only one who can stop them. Leon and the other Zodiac Knights can also do the same if they remained as resilient as you are. But they didn't. And now, you are the only one we can count on to defeat those corrupted souls."

"Hey!" the pixie elbowed the werehorse. "You are saying a lot of things. Let Aries hear it from Master."

"Fine," the werehorse crossed his arms. "I only want to tell him not to feel so bad about everything. He might finally get corrupted if he dwelled too much on those negative emotions."

"He would have been corrupted a long time ago if he is that weak," the pixie glanced at Aries and told him, "Get up and let's get going."

"Be careful on the fourth floor," the werehorse smiled and waved a hand. "It is worse than this place."

And just as he said those words, another prisoner had escaped. The werehorse sighed then ran after the runaway prisoner.

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