What Witch? This Alchemist is Breaking Bad!

Leon did not notice at first that someone else was moving inside the room.

That person was concealed within a mass of eerie black shadow.

Whenever someone attempted to observe that shadow, it would disperse like ink diffusing in water before it could be seen, vanishing without a trace.

Shadow Passage, a divine art and one form of power bestowed by the Blessing of the Star-Night Secret God.

Within the area covered by shadows, the sense of existence of things would sharply diminish.

A person hiding within it would be subconsciously ignored even if another’s gaze swept over them, or even if they made a sound.

Only when the one in hiding interfered with surrounding objects would the concealed state be broken, allowing the observer to perceive something for only that instant. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

For a professional assassin, this single advantage of striking first was enough to methodically eliminate every ordinary person within a base.

He had already completed the assassination mission, but while searching for important items and letters, someone had intruded.

The assassin did not rashly launch a sneak attack on Leon.

He was still considering.

This appeared to be an Inquisitor, likely with backup, yet there was no movement from anyone else nearby.

The other party had infiltrated alone; the backup probably could not arrive immediately.

If he silently killed this Inquisitor, he could buy time to continue searching.

But the Inquisitor was not on the mission list.

He was unsure whether creating additional trouble would bring him unnecessary complications.

At this moment, the assassin did not take this Low-Ranking Inquisitor seriously.

He was a Transcendent, and assassinating ordinary people had never posed any difficulty for him.

Inevitably, he had grown somewhat lax.

What he did not know was that the other party had also received a certain kind of blessing.

His concealment ability was not nearly as effective before a Transcendent of the same rank.

When Leon began to cautiously look around, the assassin did not evade.

After all, the other party could not see him.

However, at that moment, Leon’s gaze—meant to sweep past the assassin—suddenly stalled.

He did not see a person, but he noticed a faint, indistinct black shadow.

There was something there!

Leon sensed it.

The assassin noticed something strange in Leon’s gaze, and alarm bells rang loudly in his mind.

There was no more time to hesitate.

He lunged forward, the dagger in his hand stabbing toward Leon’s chest.

Leon had just seen the shadow when it abruptly turned into a person leaping straight at him.

There was no time to aim carefully.

He fired by reflex, but the opponent reacted in advance, tilting his head aside to dodge the shot while thrusting the dagger.

Leon retreated and evaded at the same time, raising his hand to block in front of himself.

The dagger stabbed into his arm.

The assassin pulled it out and was just about to press the attack with speed when the splattered blood instantly turned Purplish-Red, exploding between the two of them and transforming into Purple Smoke.

This sudden change startled the assassin.

The purple smoke smeared across his face.

He instinctively held his breath, but his eyes immediately felt a searing, burning pain.

“Ah!”

He screamed, clutching his eyes as he retreated.

Leon endured the intense pain from his stabbed arm, tossed away the gun in his hand, and drew a second one.

Yet before he could aim, the opponent executed a flying roll and took cover behind the long bench beside the tea table.

Leon could not be sure whether the opponent’s eyes were still functional and dared not rush forward recklessly.

The opponent’s close-combat skills were far more refined than the basic sword techniques Leon had trained in at the Inquisition.

However, the bench obstructed his line of fire, and the gun could only fire once.

Leon aimed the gun toward the bench, retreated near a pillar, and used it as cover as he cautiously faced off against the opponent.

Leon checked the wound on his forearm, which was still bleeding.

At this time, the assassin opposite him also forced open his tear-filled eyes.

He could still see, but his vision was already extremely blurred, a hazy white expanse.

In their first exchange, both were shaken.

Neither had expected to encounter another Transcendent here.

“Who exactly are you?” After a long, silent standoff, the assassin unexpectedly asked in a low voice.

Those with relatively high positions among the Inquisitors could also receive blessings, but an ability that turned blood into poisonous mist was clearly not a blessing of the Four Gods of Origin.

This was undoubtedly heretical power!

“And who are you? Why did you kill Potter?” Leon also tried asking.

He had activated his ability, yet the opponent could still move.

The poisonous mist formed from that small amount of blood had not yet reached a lethal dose.

Neither of them answered.

Another stretch of silent confrontation followed, when sudden noise came from outside.

The earlier gunshot had been heard clearly by Aaron and the others stationed farther away.

Realizing that Leon might be engaged in combat with someone inside the estate, Aaron ordered an assault.

While they were locked in their standoff, the Inquisitors rushed into the estate.

The assassin clicked his tongue and glanced behind him.

He knew there was a glass window there.

He made a desperate gamble and charged toward the window, leaping through it in one motion.

Leon had not anticipated his move.

As the other party shattered the window, Leon pulled the trigger and fired, the bullet grazing the assassin’s body.

The assassin landed in the flowerbed outside, rolled, and used his divine art again.

Ignoring his injuries from the fall and his unrecovered vision, he staggered toward the corner of the building.

The mission ended here.

His top priority now was to escape Leon’s line of sight.

Ordinary people could not see him.

Even if the Inquisitors surrounded the area, he still had a chance to get away!

“Stop.”

A low voice sounded directly in front of him.

The assassin froze.

In his hazy, white-blurred vision, a human figure appeared.

He could not make out the figure clearly, and his body grew cold inch by inch.

The other party could directly see him even with the divine art active.

Without a doubt, the opponent was also a Transcendent—and of a higher rank than him!

“I am Aaron Dias, Director of the Hamel Inquisition and a Third-Rank Knight of the Church of the God of War. The person ahead—immediately dispel your divine art and state your identity!”

Blocking the assassin’s path, Aaron drew his sword with an expressionless face.

At this moment, the Inquisitors who arrived behind Aaron raised their guns in confusion.

None of them could see the assassin’s figure at first glance.

Leon came to the window and saw the scene of the assassin confronting Aaron.

He did not speak rashly.

He could faintly sense that the assassin was shrouded in an indistinct, hazy black shadow.

If his attention wavered even slightly, the figure would become unclear.

Judging by the reactions of the other Inquisitors, they could see almost nothing.

It seemed that only he and Aaron could capture the assassin’s outline—and Aaron saw far more clearly than he did.

“Immediately dispel your divine art and state your identity. This is your final warning.” Aaron said as he stepped toward the assassin.

The assassin hesitated for a moment, then suddenly turned and ran.

He could not be captured!!

Aaron did not give chase immediately.

Instead, he drew his sword across the ground.

Firelight burst forth.

A row of blazing flames surged up before the assassin, forming a wall that blocked his escape route.

The heat wave rushed toward him, searing his skin.

Forced to stop, the assassin found Aaron already closing in rapidly from behind.

In desperation, the assassin turned and threw his dagger at Aaron.

The dagger became a streak of afterimage, impossible for anyone to see clearly.

But Aaron merely swung his sword casually in front of himself.

With a clang, the dagger was knocked aside, leaving no opening at all.

The assassin drew another dagger, intending to make a final, desperate struggle.

At that moment, Aaron pointed his sword at him from a distance, and the assassin immediately felt as if his feet had been filled with lead.

The heaviness spread instantly through his entire body, as though the gravity pulling him toward the earth had doubled, forcing him down onto one knee.

As he struggled to hold his footing, the ground suddenly became unnaturally soft, like a swamp.

He could not move, only watch helplessly as his legs slowly sank into the earth.

He was completely trapped.

Leon watched in stunned disbelief.

The strength Aaron displayed was on an entirely different level from any Transcendent Leon had seen before—including himself!

There was no escape.

Realizing this with absolute clarity, the assassin made a decisive choice.

Gripping his dagger, he stabbed it into his own throat without hesitation, slicing through his windpipe completely, leaving no chance for rescue.

This was the last neck he would ever cut in his life.

Blood sprayed out.

Aaron stepped back to avoid the splattering blood.

Watching the assassin collapse to the ground, twitch a few times, and then go still, Aaron frowned deeply.

Possessing blessed power and choosing suicide without hesitation the moment capture was imminent—this was absolutely not an ordinary assassin!

Such a person was not someone Henry Potter could have hired as a bodyguard.

“Immediately search for Inquisitor Leon Set!” he commanded loudly.

“Sir,” Leon called out from the shattered window.

“I’m here!”

Seeing the assassin captured and committing suicide, Leon let out a slight sigh of relief.

After all, the other party had just witnessed his ability.

But with this outcome, tracing the assassin’s origins would be rather difficult.

“Inquisitor Set, are you all right?” Aaron looked up at Leon and asked.

“My arm was stabbed by him, but it’s nothing serious,” Leon replied.

“Thank the gods.” Seeing his subordinate alive and well, Aaron relaxed and revealed a relieved smile.

“I found the suspect Potter here. He is already dead. In addition, there are two more corpses, likely also killed by that person,” Leon reported.

“Stay there. I’ll be there shortly.”

Aaron turned and began issuing orders, first having someone check the assassin’s condition.

After confirming death, he assigned two people to guard the body, sent a group to search the area, and personally led the remaining men as they forced open the door and stormed into the villa to rendezvous with Leon.

Leon clutched his injured arm and turned to look at the chaotic room.

Potter’s corpse was still slumped where it had been.

At the very moment the Inquisition uncovered his dealings, his collaborator Potter had been killed by an assassin of unknown origin.

Although he still did not understand what was going on, Leon had already faintly sensed that danger was drawing close.

It seemed that his business would ultimately have to be suspended.