The Old Witch brought over a candle and drew the Witch's Eye and the Inverted Hexagram on the assassin's chest. Then she recited a few spells over the corpse. As the air around them turned cold, the Little Brotherhood of Faith assassin's body immediately raised its head. His only remaining eye was utterly vacant.
The Demon Hunter Black Wolf felt his scalp prickle. He realized he had made a serious mistake earlier.
"Who's calling my name? I... How am I alive again?" The assassin was on the verge of madness. He remembered dying in agony, yet now he had come back to life.
He struggled frantically, but the ropes bound him tight.
The Old Witch said to Yveta, "Your Grace, he is an undead I summoned, so he cannot disobey my commands. Whatever you ask, he will answer truthfully."
"But only for as long as it takes this candle to burn down."
"Because I forcibly bound him here, the undead will leave this body when the time is up."
Then they had to hurry.
Yveta looked at the panicked Undead Assassin. "I want to ask you something. You said that if you couldn't bring my head back, Jielong would come after me eight months later. Is that true?"
"I... I don't know." The Undead Assassin realized in horror that, though he didn't want to speak, his mouth was moving on its own. "Before I left, His Highness Jielong did say that. But I don't know if he'll carry out the plan."
"Damn witches and warlocks! You'll all go to hell!"
The assassin shut his mouth and warily watched Yveta, afraid he'd ask something else he couldn't answer.
This time, he was truly scared.
Yveta thought for a moment. "Besides Jielong, who else will come after me?"
Black Wolf and Leili caught on. The assassin had only said that Jielong would hunt Yveta down, but that didn't mean no one else would.
They couldn't help admiring how carefully Yveta had thought things through.
A look of struggle showed in the Undead Assassin's eyes. "Yes, others will come after you, demon. Assassins more powerful than me. Formal Assassins—the great assassins of the Little Brotherhood of Faith!"
"It's..."
He tried desperately not to say it, but couldn't resist the magic. "It's the powerful assassin from the Little Brotherhood of Faith's branch in the Arthas Kingdom—Bassan the Upright."
"If I fail, he'll come in person to take your life, so the reputation of the Little Brotherhood of Faith's Arthas Kingdom branch won't be tarnished."
"The organization has its own way of determining whether a member is dead. When I die, it'll be time for him to make his move."
The Old Witch and Black Wolf exchanged a glance.
Black Wolf sensed big trouble. "I've heard of him. They say he always kills in broad daylight, drawing everyone's attention."
"He's only a Second Sequence Formal Assassin, but plenty of Third Sequence professionals have suffered at his hands."
"He's a difficult man to deal with."
"We can't exactly stay on guard every second of the day."
Yveta continued questioning the Undead Assassin. "How many people does the Little Brotherhood of Faith have?"
"Why are they after me?"
The Undead Assassin was forced to answer. "We have people in many kingdoms. I don't know the specifics. But the Brotherhood has its own principles: nothing is true, and money comes first."
"We are always neutral."
"The king of Arthas paid us. But if we fail, our branch will lose face, so Bassan will come after you."
"If Bassan can't handle you either, the Brotherhood will abandon the target and tell the client the mission failed."
Yveta continued, "What is the structure of the Little Brotherhood?"
"Squ..." The Undead Assassin tried to bite his tongue off, but couldn't even manage that. "Every Formal Assassin leads a squad as its Squad Leader. Bassan is my Squad Leader. Each squad has about seven or eight people. Above the Squad Leaders are Squad Leaders of Squads, and I don't know what's above them. That involves the headquarters."
"We're only peripheral members of the Little Brotherhood."
Yveta glanced at the candle, now halfway burned down, and asked, "Why are assassins from the Little Brotherhood so unafraid of death?"
"Because death means returning to our lord's embrace." The Undead Assassin's eyes burned with fervor.
Yveta had a thought. "Do you worship the God of All Things, the god of the Church?"
"No." The Undead Assassin's eyes blazed with fervor. "An assassin's power comes from truth. By repeating that truth again and again, our power grows. We speak of a lord only to conceal our faith and keep the Church from realizing that the Little Brotherhood is full of heretics."
"Our faith is..."
Suddenly, the candle in the witch's hands burned down at an incredible speed.
Black Wolf urgently warned them, "Look at our shadows!"
Yveta looked down and saw their shadows rushing across the ground toward the assassin.
Black Wolf's shadow, Leili's shadow, and the shadow of Leili's employee from the first floor, the Rabbit-eared Girl, were all converging on the boards in front of the assassin.
Yveta's shadow had also started to peel away from him and drift toward the others.
But for some reason, it seemed firmly stuck to him, and eventually returned to normal.
When the Old Witch realized her shadow had detached from her, she immediately bent down, grabbed it, and pinned it under her foot so it couldn't leave her.
The three shadows gathered together and merged. Then the shadow rose from the boards.
It transformed into a skull in a black robe, holding an enormous black scythe.
The skeleton floating in midair turned around and looked at Yveta with some surprise. He hadn't expected Yveta's shadow to be unaffected.
As for the Great Witch?
The Great Witch's shadow wasn't so easy to move.
Yveta was puzzled. "Asking about their faith seems to be a sensitive subject. But what is that thing?"
Black Wolf and Leili gripped their swords.
The Great Witch hurriedly stopped them. "Don't worry. This is the Brotherhood's way of keeping secrets. When one of its members reveals the organization's secrets, the Death Bringer appears."
"The Death Bringer is a Fourth Level powerhouse, but this is just a death curse he placed on Brotherhood members, with a condition that triggers it."
"This isn't his true body."
"We haven't been cursed, so he can't hurt us. Even an ordinary person who hasn't been cursed could destroy him."
The Death Bringer turned, raised his scythe, and brought it down, taking the Undead Assassin's head.
Then he vanished before their eyes.
The Old Witch wore a strange expression. "It wasn't just his head that got cut off, but his soul as well. The Little Brotherhood of Faith... wants the souls of traitors to vanish too, leaving them no chance of reaching the afterlife."
"Cruel."
"Anyway, it has nothing to do with us." Yveta breathed a sigh of relief, even more intrigued by this world full of unfathomable supernatural powers.
"What do you think about hiring assassins from the Little Brotherhood of Faith to kill the Great Boar Knight?"
The Old Witch was excited. "Great idea."
There was nothing better than seeing your old enemy die.
Black Wolf reminded Yveta, "It is a good idea, but the problem is we can't afford it!"
Yveta nodded. "True."
"We'd better make some money first."
"Hearthstone Witch, go upstairs and get the Dragonflame and the materials. Leili, gather up your assets."
"We're getting ready to leave."
The Old Witch rushed upstairs at once. She'd been itching to do that for a long time.
Before you continue