Alecto had been caught, but she had not given up. She tightened her grip on the Dagger in her hand, her eyes fixed on the man's throat.
Marika, the kin of theirs who had ascended to the divine throne, had once told her that cowardice and weakness were useless in this cruel world. The only way to survive was to take up a blade.
Alecto knew Marika had only been using them. That woman cared about everything, yet cared about nothing at all.
To the Black Knife Assassins, they were Marika's kin, but even more than that, they were tools she could move about however she pleased.
Even so, Alecto thought Marika had been right. Cowardice would help no one, and the weak could only end up as meat in a jar.
But from the look of things, the other side had misunderstood something. For Alecto, that was an opportunity.
A great star of war raised up by the Two Fingers, only to die in the end at the hands of an assassin sent by the Two Fingers. It would be ironic enough to laugh at.
One way after another to drive the Black Knife into Nolan's throat flashed through Alecto's mind.
Her murderous intent rose little by little, as if she might put those thoughts into action at any moment.
But just as that killing intent grew stronger, she suddenly felt the pressure on her shoulder vanish.
Alecto was stunned to realize that Nolan's hand had left her shoulder at some point. In the blink of an eye, he had moved in front of her and was standing before Crepus.
Nolan's back was exposed to the Black Knife Assassins. He and Crepus exchanged a glance without saying a word, yet that brief silence seemed to strike harder than a thousand words.
At the sight, the Church Confessors all held their breath, watching the bizarre scene before them with tense, wary eyes.
Who knew why the Black Knife Assassins had suddenly ended up on the same side as the target? Maybe they had betrayed them long ago and had led them here to die.
"From the breathing and footsteps, five champions and ten ordinary assassins? Quite the grand showing. You've got nerve too, bringing this many people here to make trouble and disturb my sleep."
Nolan wore a smile, his voice deep and magnetic. Normally, that voice would make the Numenes lean toward him with fearless faces.
But to the assassins, it sounded terrifying. Even Crepus could not help being startled, because Nolan had been right about everything. The Church Confessors sent on this mission had exactly that composition.
By listening only to their breathing and footsteps, Nolan had accurately judged their strength. And these were assassins who had undergone specialized training.
What kind of monster was he?
Crepus cursed Alecto and the Black Knife Assassins inwardly.
If they had not suddenly been overcome by compassion and made those unnecessary noises, how could they have alerted the target?
They had searched every possible place Nolan might appear, yet they alone had failed to anticipate that he would be here.
According to their investigation, this was the residence of Sellen, a Preceptor of the Flame-Bearer Army.
But who could have imagined that Nolan, her student, would neither work late nor return to his own room in the middle of the night, and would instead sleep in his teacher's bedroom?
Just as Alecto was about to signal the Black Knives to act, Crepus suddenly cut her off.
"Alecto, you traitors!" Crepus said. "No wonder you wouldn't let me kill a few women. So you were colluding with the Firelink Army all along and lured us here."
As Crepus spoke, he began backing away.
They were assassins, not knights who charged headlong into battle.
Though they had come to assassinate a Demigod-level enemy, that did not mean they could fight such an opponent head-on.
By now, Crepus had already accepted that this mission had failed.
The most important thing was to preserve his life. Only then would he have another chance to carry out an assassination.
Alecto fell silent for a moment. She had never thought she had done anything.
She had believed her clan had been nearly wiped out, with only a handful left. Then she suddenly discovered there were still kin alive, so being moved by that should have been normal.
But the target, the moment they met, had put an arm around her shoulders without the slightest hesitation, speaking so warmly that it was as though he had run into a comrade he regretted not meeting sooner.
What made her feel even more helpless was that her own side had immediately decided she was a traitor.
She had only wanted to save the lives of her kin. She truly could not understand how things had turned out this way.
"You came here to kill me, and now that you can't, you want to leave? I won't allow that. You should stay." Nolan's figure vanished from where he stood.
There was nothing else to say. He and the Two Fingers were enemies who could not stand the sight of each other, each trying to find a way to kill the other. Anything more would be pointless.
Ahead, black mist rapidly gathered, hiding the Church Confessors' figures. Nolan casually flung out lightning, and with a golden light bright as the sun, it tore through the curtain of Darkness in an instant.
Once the black mist dispersed, the Church Confessors were completely exposed.
Crepus was shocked, but he also understood that outrunning a monster was impossible. He raised the Black-Key Crossbow and fired a wooden-stake Bolt.
The other Church Confessors followed his lead, firing the Bolts in their hands all at once. In the next instant, a dense Rain of Arrows fell through the corridor.
Nolan swept his hand casually. A storm surged up and blew the bolts away. Then his legs erupted with force, and his figure vanished from the spot.
Fighting that kind of monster head-on was impossible after all. People like them, who were used to hiding in the shadows, had no idea how to walk beneath the sun.
A deafening boom rang beside Crepus's ears, like an enraged dragon slamming into the earth. He turned and saw a Confessor driven into the wall by a knee strike.
Crepus's heart shook.
Because he saw that figure vanish in an instant, reappear before another Confessor, and smash his head apart with a single punch.
The Confessor's head burst as easily as a watermelon, blood splattering everywhere.
That horrific sight was only the beginning. After that, one companion after another died in the same brutal fashion.
In less than a minute, of all the Church Confessors who had arrived together at Stormveil Castle, only Crepus remained, completely alone. How could he not be afraid?
Crepus's body trembled faintly beyond his control. His mind went blank, and for the first time, he began to doubt the Two Fingers' decision.
The Two Fingers should never have sent the Black Knives to assist them. The facts proved these traitors could not be relied on at all. If the Baleful Shadow had come instead, perhaps they might have stood a chance.
In that blood-soaked world, the terrifying monster walked toward Crepus step by step, stopped before him, and looked at him calmly.
"Actually, I've been waiting for you for a long time," Nolan said softly.
"What did you say?" Crepus froze.
"A king praised by all, a king who lets his people eat their fill, a king who lets people smile while they are still alive."
Nolan looked toward the sea and said, "Yet he was assassinated because of the Two Fingers' greed to usurp the supreme authority of the gods. It really is infuriating, isn't it?"
Crepus stared blankly at Nolan. He saw lightning gather in Nolan's hand. It was a battle spear.
His vision drew farther from Nolan, then farther from the castle, and finally farther from the city.
Crepus felt himself crash into something. When he turned his head, it seemed to be two enormous fingers.
Nolan watched the enormous pillar of lightning rise into the sky in the distance. The towering Divine Tower of Limgrave collapsed in an instant beneath the impact.
He turned back to look at the assassins in black armor, each holding a Black Knife, and his gaze finally settled on Alecto.
"Come to think of it, I think I sensed killing intent from you just now too. How strange."