Azrael stared at the skeleton for a while and commented, "Good Riddance."
He was still lying on the ground. Without any energy to move even a single muscle, he scanned his eyes around the room, and the room completely unrecognisable. The walls were charred, tiles overturned and marked with blade marks, and in the corner of the room were the two nobles'; the Marquis and Viscount, naked and unconscious on the ground.
Their bodies were filled with wounds, but nothing serious.
"I hope they are still alive." Azrael thought.
He tried moving, but a severe pain travelled across his whole body, making even a light movement impossible.
Azrael raised his hand, {Stream of life}
He gulped down the whole conjured stream in one go.
In a few moments, his insides were visibly undergoing changes, as all the muscles, tissues and all the other things bulged and dropped in a beat. And this cycle continued for half an hour before it stopped.
And Azrael was not having an easy time of it . Every time his body "ballooned" it was the death of damaged tissues and cells and their rebirth from division. Each pulse was a wave of agony, as if his body was being unmade and remade by hands that didn't care about the difference.
It appeared as if, he was hollow from the inside but it was all a matter of outside perception.
"Haa... Ha... This was supposed to be White's area.. ha.." Azrael lay sprawled on the ground, his voice low and breaths difficult.
Master White never expected himself to be unconscious. It was an eye opener for both of them. And it was also an evidence to their immaturity and lack of power.
If not for "The Veil" making them separate, they both should be unconscious and essentially dead by now. But that is an issue for later, when Master White wakes up and they are in a safe place. For now, Azrael has to escape this place.
Taking a few minutes, he steadied himself and got up. But his leg was still missing, or we could say it was slowly healing and growing back, but it will take at least one day for it to be fully functional.
Azrael was out of balance, but he still hopped on one leg, and moved to the other side of the room, where the Marquis and Viscount were unconscious. He reached them, and was about to strike them with a blade, but then he got an idea as to what to do with them,
"It's going to be really troublesome if I follow through with this."
"But if I succeed, then.. Hahahah.. Rodrick you will be forever trapped with me." Azrael's eyes betrayed cynicism and he was about to dive into insanity, before he stopped himself and pulled out a special sac, which he had just bought from the system store.
The store has everything; you just have to complete certain quests to get any item. And seeing the previous fight to death, the system felt generous and decided to give it for free.
"Hahah.. Thank you, System." Azrael said with a light laugh.
[You have earned it, Hosts.]
Azrael pulled out the sac and willed it to absorb both the unconscious people into it. Then he stored the sac in the system space. It was a special one-time use item, with a time period of seven days.
It can keep any living thing trapped inside it for seven days, but afterwards it will dissolve along with the being inside.
"Now that is over, but I have to escape this place sooner." Azrael thought and started moving towards the stairs.
He was back in the office through the secret opening, and then he exited the room.
He started "walking" slowly and reached the front of the mansion's gate. It was still dark, and there were hints of the first ray of light.
The people who were unconscious because of the {Stream of Death} will take atleast twelve hours before they wake up. So there's not much disturbance at this point in time. He only had to look out for the townspeople who would be awake early.
He had mapped out the town during the four days of stalking, he was very familiar with the alley routes.
When he had crossed some distance from the mansion, his wound on the missing leg opened up. Due to the continuous strain of "walking" with one leg, his energy, which he had recovered a little bit, was exhausted all over again. Because of the simple action of just walking from the mansion to here in the middle of the alley.
"I overestimated my healing." Azrael thought seriously.
"And I can't show up to any inn like this."
"What should I do now?" He was trapped here. If he chose to exit the town, then that will be too long of a journey and he would faint before exiting. And his wounds have started to open up, so that will also leave a blood trail.
When Azrael was standing and contemplating his next actions, the wound in the leg already opened up and started leaking red.
"First let me cauterize it."
"Haa... White, why are you the one unconscious." He then snapped his fingers and a small ball of fire floated in front of him. He then slowly guided it to the area of the wound. This was a normal fire, without any Life & Death attributes.
The fire started burning around the injury and, "Fuck! Fuck.. aah.. aahh." Azrael was trying his very best to stop the sounds of his pain from leaving his mouth. He first closed the major wounds on the missing leg, then proceeded to some minor injuries that opened due to the stressing of muscles during movement.
After finishing that, he started moving. It was better to be on move than just standing aimlessly in an unknown alley.
A while later, he started hearing some sounds. People were talking with each other, and it didn't sound pleasant.
At first Azrael wanted to exit the alleyway, but after hearing the voices he decided to go deeper.
As he moved closer he was able to hear more clearly,
"Ava, you know we don't have to do it this way."
"We just want to help you.. hehe.."
"Do it willingly and there won't be any unnecessary trouble."
Three burly men were cornering a young girl, who appeared to be around Azrael's age.
Seeing that, Azrael didn't know how to respond.
"Woah.. never expected anything like this to happen to me." He thought.
"So, do I play the hero now or what?" He really was confused about what to do now. He was completely okay with ignoring whatever was happening here, but he was looking for something here that he can use to his benefit.
And his body was failing by the minute. He was pretty sure that he would pass out before reaching the exit of the town.
"Are you going to do it or not, Ava?" One of the man rasied his voice and he was getting impatient.
"Fuck off!" The girl, Ava, finally spoke and Azrael who was observing everything, liked that response very much.
"Guess, I have to gamble now. It's do or die anyway." With that Azrael stepped up and got into the view of the thugs and Ava.
"Who goes there?" One of the thugs shouted upon hearing some movements, and right after that they saw Azrael.
Azrael had adorned "The Veil" once again. So, he appeared normal. He took the disguise of someone his age, but with less noticeable features of a noble.
When all of them saw Azrael, the first thing they noticed were his injuries. He appeared pitiful. With one leg missing and blood all over. Ava, who had some hope rekindled in her eyes, lost it again completely.
"Who are you, boy?" Seeing his state, the three men didn't think much of it. It was still dark, only some light escaped the horizon. Nobody was aware of what had taken place in the Marquis's mansion. It would only be at noon, when the unconscious people awaken that the world will come to know about the incidents.
Before Azrael could speak, one of the men said, "Get out of here, boy, this is not the place for someone like you." They felt bad for Azrael, they weren't some seasoned evildoers, they were just roadside local thugs. The most crime they could have ever done was theft, vandalism and harassment by the looks of what was going on now.
Completely ignoring their comments, he started talking to the girl, "If I take care of these guys, will you help me?"
Ava was startled, as the injured new person suddenly started talking to her. She wasn't able to reply to him.
But Azrael surely got unwanted dialogues from the thugs, "Oh someone sure thinks, they are a bigshot."
"And how are you going to take care of us? You crippled idiot."
Azrael again ignored them, he simply looked at Ava and continued, "I will even pay you, ten gold coins per hour. You just have to take care of me." He said pointing at the missing leg and injuries.
Ava, couldn't process all the things Azrael said, but she definitely heard ten gold coins and replied without thinking much, "Yes!"
By this point the three thugs were utterly annoyed, "if you have that much money, then cough—" before one of them could even complete that sentence, a pitch-black blade of the {Perfect cleaver} whizzed and decapitated all three of them.
Following that, {flames of consumption} came to life and completely erased their bodies and head. They were simply mortals, "erasing" that mortal shell was very easy. But the action of even utilising the energy itself was taking a toll on his body.
So he shouted and snapped Ava out of her daze, "can you help me now, girl?"
Ava was stunned. The three men who were there before, simply died and vanished. All of it happened so suddenly that she didn't even realise what happened.
The three thugs were there for a second and then they were not there.
Azrael's voice snapped her out of her daze. Because she had accepted his early request, she had to move.
Ava got closer to him, and Azrael instructed her to support him by giving him a hand.
He raised his hands and conjured a large amount of {stream of life}, summoned a few waterskins and stored the liquid in them.
Turning to Ava he said, "Now listen carefully."
Ava, who was still in a bit of shock, immediately focused.
"First of all you have to take us to an isolated space, unknown to the normal townsfolk."
"A place where there isn't much human activity." Azrael paused, and Ava nodded, understanding him.
"I am on the verge of passing out. And after I am unconscious, you will feed me what is in that waterskin repeatedly with an interval of one hour before each administration." Ava again nodded. But something flickered in her eyes.
Azrael noticed that and continued, "And don't try anything foolish for your own sake. You can't steal the money from me and ditch me."
"As you saw, I have extraordinary means to deal with people, so I will know if you try anything funny." Ava shuddered and nodded meekly. But she didn't notice, that Azrael's face had lost its glow, he was walking on the last few threads.
"Now focus.. cough.. cough.. this is the most important thing." Azrael forced himself to speak and reminded.
"Whatever happens, don't let the soldiers or anyone discover me. If that happens, then you will also be involved with me."
"Do you understand, girl?" Azrael narrowed his eyes, and his tone was close to a threat.
"Yes." Ava replied, still not fully understanding her peril.
"Good." With that final say, Azrael passed out.
Ava looked at him. She could still run. Could still leave him here to bleed out in an alley. Could still pretend this night never happened. She thought about the gold. Looked at his wounds. Looked at the place where three men had died and vanished in the space of a breath.
She made her choice.
They had already covered some distance with Ava guiding them somewhere isolated, as previously described by Azrael.
Azrael and Master White both had completely lost consciousness by now, and their fate now entirely depended on this unknown girl, whom Azrael got to know just half an hour ago.