Arkus fought like a cornered beast.
Blood slicked his shoulder, a gash split his brow, and half his squad had turned against him in the haze. Even the golems had backed off, sensing their prey was now human.
"Traitors! All of you!" he roared, parrying Kier's relentless strikes. "I carried you—protected you—and this is how—!"
Another blast of light magic seared past him. Mira had rejoined the others, still confused, still afraid, but unwilling to stand by.
Arkus's sword sliced wide, forcing two hunters to retreat. His power flared—flames rippled along his blade, a defensive skill meant to clear space.
Thalen watched from the edge of the smoke.
"This was the moment. Chaos at its peak. No one watching. No one ready."Arkus had no allies left to watch his blind spot. Everyone else was locked in their own frenzied confusion.
And Thalen? He was invisible.
[Stealth Master (Rank C) – Active.]
[Eye of Desire – Active]
Arkus's silhouette pulsed in Thalen's vision. His heart pounded—not from fear, but focus. Every movement, every breath from Arkus played in his mind like a map.
There. A gap in the armor. Beneath the right arm. Torn chainmail.
Thalen moved like shadow incarnate—silent steps, dagger in hand.
"Thanks for being a stepping stone for my rise. I will make sure not to remember you."
He reached Arkus in three heartbeats.
And struck.
The blade sank between ribs, angled upward. A gasp tore from Arkus's throat—raw, confused, almost human.
He staggered, eyes wide. "Wha…?"
Thalen leaned in, whispering low into his ear.
"You were always going to die here."
Then he twisted the blade.
Arkus collapsed.
The flames along his blade fizzled out. His body hit the cold stone with a dull thud.
For a heartbeat, no one noticed. The chaos continued. The fighting, the shouting. But as Kier turned and saw Arkus unmoving on the ground, everything slowed.
"...He's dead."
Silence began to spread like a sickness.
Thalen stepped back into the smoke, melting into the swirl of confusion. Blood on his blade. Calm in his chest.
He didn't need applause.
He didn't need to be seen.
Let them think it was fate. Let them argue about the betrayal, the divine quest, the madness of it all.
Because in the end, it didn't matter who killed Arkus.
"Only that he was gone."
The others had only seen chaos—Arkus's reckless charge, the sudden smoke bomb, the disarray. No one had seen Thalen's blade slit the man's throat from behind.
Kier knelt beside Arkus's body, his sword hanging limp in one hand. The fire in Arkus's blade had already gone out, but the heat still lingered in the stone.
"…He's dead," Kier said again, quieter this time. "For real."
No one responded.
Mira backed away, light magic still flickering at her fingertips. Her eyes darted from the corpse to the hunters around her—half of them bloodied, all of them confused.
"But… that wasn't the plan," she whispered. "We were supposed to just stop him. Not—" Her voice cracked. "Not this."
"Who killed him?" someone asked.
The question fell like a stone in a well.
They all looked at each other. Suspicious. Hollow-eyed. No one had seen it happen.
"It was the smoke," one hunter murmured. "Too thick. I lost track of everyone."
"I thought he collapsed from Kier's strike—"
"No, I wasn't even close when he fell."
"It had to be someone behind him. Look at the wound—clean, fast, deep. That wasn't panic. That was execution."
The silence twisted into something uglier: **paranoia**.
Mira clutched her staff tighter. "Then who did it?"
No one spoke.
And still, no one looked toward Thalen.
Because they couldn't see him.
---
Behind a veil of dissipating smoke, Thalen watched the seeds of confusion take root. Not guilt, not pride—just quiet satisfaction. The narrative was already slipping from anyone's grasp.
Let them question each other.
Let them chase ghosts.
He turned away, the system's text still glowing faintly in his mind
A moment later, it came.
[Quest Complete: Eliminate Arkus Vale]
[Reward Available: Select from Issuer's Inventory]
Mira and kier eyes glint with surprised when they received the reward but still managed to keep a poker face
Three Hours Later
Outside the Rift, Guild Staging Grounds
The air was heavy with silence. The squad had made it out alive—most of them—but something had broken in the process.
Arkus Vale, B-rank hunter and field leader, was dead. The mission was technically a success. The rift was closed. The casualties were within "acceptable" range.
But the atmosphere said otherwise.
No celebration. No victory cheers. Just low voices, shifting eyes, and paperwork soaked in blood and confusion.
Thalen stood near the edge of the supply wagon, sorting bags like a proper porter. Dirt on his hands. No one looked at him twice.
Perfect.
From behind, he heard Mira's voice—tight and brittle.
"We need to file an incident report. The Guild's going to demand an explanation. Arkus was a ranked hunter."
"We tell them what happened," Kier said. "He lost control. The quest—whatever that was—sent him into a frenzy. He turned on us. We defended ourselves."
"Then who killed him?"
Silence again.
"None of us saw it."
"You think they'll believe that? That a B-rank just dropped dead mid-fight?"
Someone muttered, "Maybe it was divine punishment. He went too far. The quest—"
"There was no goddamn quest!" Mira snapped, her voice cracking. "Something was wrong! That 'mandate'—none of us even know who gave it!"
Thalen smiled faintly to himself. That was the beauty of it.
No one did know.
Later, a senior Guild investigator arrived.
Tall, grey-robed, with an enchanted lens over one eye. He examined Arkus's remains. Studied the squad's testimonies. Interviewed Mira, Kier, and the rest.
Thalen? Wasn't even on the list. Just a porter. Just background noise.
But as the investigator prepared to leave, he paused near Thalen and gave him a glance. A little too long. A little too curious.
Then he walked away.
The mysterious nature of Arkus's death—no clear killer, divine quest interference—sparks an internal investigation. The Guild suspects a cover-up or a forbidden artifact's influence.
Questions rise about divine quests appearing mid-dungeon and targeting a hunter. Two people receiving the same quest is rare but not unheard of.
As long as he stays beneath notice, no one connects him to the quest. But the more quests he issues, the more likely someone smart enough will put the pattern together