The Eternal Assassin

As Horntho village cracked and burned around him, the only true home Asher had known for himself since coming to this crazy new world filled with magical elements and deadly monsters, Asher stared at the pack of demons that were responsible for such carnage. Five [Lesser Demons] stood in a loose semi-circle around him and Samantha, their muscular, eight-foot-tall frames towering over them and their red skin looking even brighter in the light of the flickering flames currently consuming the village. Asher knew from his experience fighting one of the same lesser demons in the lich's tower that each one was a deadly combatant in their own rights, and while he'd certainly grown far stronger than he had been that first day he'd arrived in this world, he'd never had to try fighting multiple of them at the same time.

Not to mention, the demon leading the pack was something else entirely.

The [Greater Demon] grinned at him, its pitch-black teeth seeming to suck in the very light and dimming the space around its frame. It stood yet another head and shoulders above the already towering demons surrounding them, to the point that Asher practically had to crane his neck up to actually meet its gleeful gaze. Its dagger-like claws were already soaked red with the blood of who knew how many poor villagers, and it wasn't hard for Asher to imagine just how easily those blades would carve through his own flesh.

While he stared in shock at what was almost certainly the most dangerous opponent he'd ever faced, the demon laughed and repeated the words that had chilled him to the bone just a few seconds prior.

"Yes, you do have something that doesn't belong to you… I can taste it," the demon smirked, its voice echoing in Asher's ears and somehow drowning out the surrounding screams and roars of the flames, as if not even nature itself would dare to speak over it. Staring at him, the demon opened its mouth and a tri-forked tongue flicked out, like some sort of horrid, mutated snake as it tasted the air itself. "An element I've not tasted in all my countless years wandering the realms… A new element."

"Asher, what do we do?" Samantha whispered, another arrow nocked on her bow, but not yet drawn back. The lesser demon corpse with part of its head blasted off was a testament toward just how deadly the hunter was with her enchanted bow, but even she must have realized she stood no chance of taking down so many demons before they could get their hands on them.

"I don't know," he admitted, keeping his body slightly in front of hers to ensure if any of the demons did decide to jump the gun and attack, they would go after him first. Asher was no stranger to finding himself in deadly situations, but this was a bit much, even for him. It hadn't even been twenty four hours since he'd battled Eight to the death, formerly one of the ten Fingers of the Assassin's Guild ruling over Whikoga from the shadows. While he'd managed to come out on top, and earn himself an obscene amount of shards in doing so, the battle hadn't come without cost.

Not only had he lost his entire right hand, he'd died from blood loss caused by a few hundred mutated rats all trying to tear him apart at the same time. Thankfully, his evolved Eternal Regeneration was capable of bringing him back from the dead so long as his body was mostly intact, but he still felt like crap for a bit afterwards.

All that to say, he wasn't exactly in the best condition at the moment.

And he was still naked.

He'd been enjoying a much-needed soak in Draken's tub after his last battle when he felt a shooting pain through the Eternal Mark he'd left on Samantha and had decided Recalling to her position without delay was far more important than drying off and making himself appropriate. The roaring flames dancing around them had done a wonder at drying him off, but they didn't do much for his nudity.

Never breaking eye contact with the greater demon that was still watching him curiously, almost like a cat waiting for the mouse it had cornered to try and run so it could enjoy pouncing on it, he reached into his Personal Rift and pulled out a pair of pants, tugging them on with some difficulty due to only having a single hand. He'd liberated one of the Assassin's Guild's safehouses of its storage a while back, which included a couple of boxes of different outfits.

Though now that he'd killed Eight and become the new Finger ruling over the Guild placed in Whikoga whether he wanted to or not, he supposed technically such items belonged to him anyway. He still hadn't accepted the position or decided what he was going to do about the Head of the entire Guild, but he had bigger concerns at the moment.

"You came for me," Asher stated, gesturing around them at the flaming village and distant screams of villagers he could only hope were making their way to safety and not being hunted down for sport by more of these demons or their imps. "Why do this to the village?"

"Why? Because it's fun," the demon said, letting out a deep, bellowing laugh that silenced everything until it was done. The eerie effect made Asher feel as though he was standing in an echo chamber with nothing but the demon and its booming voice. "We were ordered to find and retrieve you, by any means necessary. The Council of Death couldn't care less about how we went about doing so."

Asher hadn't even known about The Council of Death until a few days ago, but after breaking into the fourth ring of Whikoga and interrogating Leighann, one of the powerful noblewomen of the Frent estate, he now knew just how terrifying they were. A council of fourteen liches that had existed for unknown millennia. Their members cared little for things such as laws, or morals, or even the boundaries of nations, they devoted themselves solely to their research and would stop at nothing to see their projects completed.

It was one of their members that had accidentally summoned Asher to this world, and one of their towers where Asher had found his Eternity element. He hadn't known at the time, but Leighann had speculated that the liches had brought together all fourteen of their phylacteries in an attempt to create a never before seen element. Why they were doing this was unknown, but after a few centuries of waiting, it had worked. They'd managed to create an entirely new, never before seen element.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Which Asher had promptly stolen from right under their lack of noses.

"Kidnapping me is one thing, but the High Prince won't just stand back and let one of his villages burn to the ground without investigating!" Asher snapped, rage building within him despite their current situation. The knowledge that the peaceful Horntho village was currently being destroyed solely because it had taken him in burned him worse than any mundane fire could ever hope to. It was only because he could sense Brian was still alive and uninjured, currently fleeing with presumably others from the village, that he hadn't already thrown himself dagger-first at the demon before him.

"Your High Prince will have greater concerns than a single village on the outskirts of the kingdom burning to the ground," the demon chuckled, its dark smirk never leaving its face. "We attacked every village on the edge of the Lavash Border, slaughtering hundreds of people as we did. I have to thank you, today has been the most fun I've had in centuries."

"Asher, there are over a dozen villages like ours situated near the forest," Samantha gasped, her already pale face going nearly white as a sheet. "That's thousands of people!"

"You attacked all those people, just to try and find me?!" Asher shouted, summoning his mithral dagger from his rift into his off hand and preparing himself for a fight he still had no idea how he was going to win. "Why?!"

"Oh, you misunderstand," the demon grinned, staring down at them with impunity. "The master was able to track your location down to this village with ease. We attacked the others for fun. It's part of our deal for coming to this realm to do their bidding. We try to enjoy ourselves when we can!"

The tension seemed to stretch out between them as Asher angled for some sort of opening and the greater demon waited patiently, looking almost amused that Asher thought he stood a chance at winning. The greater demon looked so at ease, so assured of itself and the fact that it would win, that Asher made a snap decision.

Rather than go after it, there were five other perfectly good targets he could whittle down first.

And he had one hidden ace up his sleeve that might change the expression on its face.

Compressing a tunnel of space with Distortion, Asher dashed forward, covering nearly twenty feet in a single lunge to the shock of the lesser demons standing respectfully behind the greater one. Before the one Asher had chosen to start with could even react, he adjusted his grip on his dagger and struck upwards, aiming straight for the monster's neck.

While simultaneously swapping out his assassin class for demon hunter.

After unlocking all five of the skills tied to his Spatial element and earning the ability to swap out his unique classes on the fly, Asher had briefly experimented with each of them. In this world, classes granted people minor benefits that, while they normally didn't hold a candle when compared to elements and skills, were still rather useful. His librarian class allowed him to find books more easily, and his assassin class silenced his movements and made him more sure-footed. At the time, he hadn't been able to tell what his demon slayer or awakened beast hunter classes did, but he'd hoped the classes would reveal their benefits in the event he ever needed to fight demons or awakened beasts again.

And it seemed his hunch was right.

Asher's dagger sliced through the demon's thick hide, muscular flesh, and dense skeleton like all three were made of butter, decapitating the demon in a single blow and sending its head flying. He knew from experience that his mithral dagger was already capable of penetrating their magically enhanced bodies, but not nearly to this extent. Before its body had even hit the ground, he was already moving.

As the next demon moved to react, Asher leapt at it, using Distortion's second tier ability to briefly lengthen his dagger to the size of a longsword and bisected the monster, sending both halves to the ground. At this point, the element of surprise was finally lost, and he turned to take in the remaining four foes.

Only to find another demon corpse lying on the ground, a chunk of its head blasted clean off from an empowered arrow.

Damn, I love that woman, Asher thought, twirling his dagger around in his hand as he faced off against the last two lesser demons. During his entire attack, the greater demon hadn't moved so much as an inch from its spot, merely turning to watch him attack his followers with a hungry and ever-amused gaze. Asher couldn't shake the cold pit in his stomach that told him his efforts were pointless, but so long as the greater demon wasn't going to intervene, he'd happily remove the tag alongs before dealing with the big boss.

The two final lesser demons split up, one dodging another arrow from Samantha that scored a bloody line across its face as it went for the hunter, while the other rushed Asher instead, its claws outstretched and at the ready. Asher couldn't help but laugh as the demon tried to slam into him.

Slipping into the astral realm, he let the charging demon run straight through him, before returning to the material plane and slashing his blade through the demon's calf, severing its tendon. The demon crashed to the ground, and before it could even figure out what had happened, Asher was upon it, ending its life with a dagger thrust through the eye.

In less than ten seconds, Asher had killed three lesser demons without getting so much as a scratch. The sound of a roar suddenly being cut off and a heavy thud drew his attention back to Samantha, who was standing defiantly as the last of the lesser demons collapsed to the ground, an arrow having been fired through its throat.

We can do this, he thought, adjusting his grip on his dagger as he warily eyed up the greater demon who still had yet to move. Confident in his skills and his class, Asher used Distortion to close the gap between him and the greater demon, faking a strike at the monster's side. But rather than commit, he shifted into the astral at the last possible moment, moving to phase straight through it and attack from behind.

Only to be jerked to a stop as the demon grabbed his wrist, halting his momentum like he was a toddler attacking it with a pool noodle.

Asher stood there, blinking stupidly as he tried to comprehend what was going on. Based on the tension in his muscles and the washed out colors all around him, he was definitely in the astral realm. Yet for the first time, there was something else within the realm that wasn't washed out and made pale.

The greater demon.

"What a unique skill you've claimed for yourself," the demon smirked, its grip like a vise as it lifted Asher up painfully by the wrist until they were at eye level. "Unfortunately for you, you're not the only one capable of wandering between realms at a whim."