[FMMISM] Chapter 34: Assassin

In the blood-spattered room strewn with blood and brain fragments, silence reigned.

Amid this silence, a girl wrapped in a black robe, stood motionless in the shadows.

Needless to say, with her way of doing things, the black-robed girl was none other than Assassin.

Expressionless, Assassin observed every move of the woman who had survived thanks to the boy's intervention.

Morgan's noble silver hair stained crimson, her luxurious robe now adorned with blood and brain fragments. She lay sprawled on the devastated floor, straddling the boy whose body was now devoid of life and headless.

"Ragna... Hey, Ragna! Don't die... Say something to me! Speak!"

Morgan shouted Ragna's name, frantically clawing at the floor with her hands as she gathered the crushed remains of his head.

"...I'll kill you, absolutely kill you... You bitch..."

Morgan murmured curses to Assassin behind her, focused intensely on infusing her magical energy into the gathering flesh and brain fragments.

"I'll peel off your skull and dunk it in hot oil, crush your limbs, feed your uterus to pigs... I'll kill you, whore..."

'He is already a corpse, what exactly is she doing?'

Assassin thought speechlessly, unable to comprehend what the silver-haired woman did.

'As expected of a heretical mage, she's gone mad...'

Her judgment was not wrong, as Morgan had indeed gone mad.

What she attempted was to resurrect the dead, a realm untouched even by the Five True Magic.

Even for someone like Morgan, who was known as a top-ranked mage, it was an impossibility she should have known well.

Yet Morgan, as if possessed by something, disregarded her enemy and attempted to resurrect her Master using magecraft.

"...Why isn't it working? Why isn't my magecraft working?!"

Morgan le Fay, who possessed three personalities all at once, had an exceptionally high affinity for the Berserker-class.

Her mind was formidable yet extremely fragile.

Although possessing a resilience bordering on obsession, she could also plunge into extreme madness once her defenses were breached, just like now.

It was because earlier, someone whom she had taken a liking to had foolishly died to protect her without any hesitation.

"It shouldn't be like this, it shouldn't..."

Morgan's delicate and beautiful fingers sank deep into the floor, contorting and deforming, drawing blood.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no..."

Morgan, her hair wild and eyes wide, repeated meaningless murmurs.

Witnessing this scene resembling a cult ritual, Assassin looked upon the frenzied witch on the ground with eyes full of pity.

'Oh, poor soul led astray by blasphemous sorcery, I shall grant you release now.'

With that thought in mind, Assassin uttered a powerful and resolute incantation once more.

"Delusional Heartbeat, Zabaniya..."

Splurt!

In the next moment, the room filled with an eerie gurgling sound.

A crimson arm pierced through Assassin's black robe from behind, springing forth at an unseen speed towards Morgan's vulnerable back.

'Got you...' Assassin thought calmly.

As a Caster, Morgan apparently lacked resistance against curses, deeply immersed in her madness, unaware of her imminent death.

However, just as the crimson arm was about to touch Morgan's back, Ragna's headless corpse on the floor suddenly raised its hand, circling around her waist and tightly grasping the crimson arm.

"?!"

Before understanding what had happened, Assassin's body was already launched into the air.

Swish!

Ragna, supposed to be dead, suddenly twitched his wrist, flinging the grasped illusionary crimson arm aside!

Unable to move due to her crimson arm being held, Assassin was dragged by immense centrifugal force, her body crashing heavily into the wall.

BOOM!

"Ugh..."

Letting out a painful groan, Assassin lay buried among the rubble like a ragged cloth.

In all honesty, as long as Morgan took a moment to calm down and think, she would realize Ragna couldn't possibly die from a mere fatal wound.

For a Beast, the human body was just a vessel projected using magical energy.

Although there was a momentary lapse in thought when his brain was blasted away, Ragna's soul and mind quickly adapted to having no head.

It was precisely because of this that Ragna intercepted the attack meant for Morgan without hesitation.

Regardless, Morgan's reaction was truly unexpected for Ragna.

No matter how he thought about it, he wouldn't die, right? She should know his strength best.

He always thought Morgan would be a much calmer person but it seemed he was wrong.

Truthfully, Morgan's unexpected behavior made him feel a bit embarrassed, so he didn't know when to stop pretending to be dead.

Ragna wanted to scratch the back of his head, but as he raised his arm, he realized he was headless.

"...Rag...na...?"

With tears on her face, Morgan stared at Ragna and called his name in disbelief, her mouth half-opened.

Still headless, Ragna casually discarded the crushed crimson arm he had snapped, held Morgan's arm, and slowly stood up.

[I'm fine, still alive.]

After hearing the familiar voice of her Master inside her mind, Morgan seemed to lose strength and knelt on the ground.

Pressing against her rapidly rising and falling chest, Morgan anxiously confirmed repeatedly whether it was a dream or not.

"Are you... really alive, Ragna? Do you remember who you are?" Morgan asked hesitantly.

"..."

What answered her was not words but Ragna's head, rapidly regenerating.

Bones, teeth, muscles, nerves, eyeballs—like pressing a rewind button, they layered around his neck.

In just a few seconds, Ragna had grown a completely new head.

"I am Ragna, Master of Caster Morgan. Satisfied now?"

With a frivolous smile, Ragna looked at the witch sitting beside him, who looked speechless.

"Did you cry?" Ragna asked with a gentle tone.

Upon hearing that, Morgan widened her eyes and then shook her head.

"N-No! What nonsense are you talking about? I knew this would happen from the beginning! H-How could a monster like you just die like that?"

She quickly turned her face in panic, bowing her body to wipe the tear from her cheek with the back of her hand.

"...Don't look at me! Don't look!"

"Jeez, alright, alright, I get it." Ragna smiled bitterly, then thought, 'Thank you for crying for me, Morgan...'

Meanwhile, Assassin stumbled out from the shattered wall fragments, looking at Ragna with a face that mirrored Morgan's shock.

'There's no way...'

Her excessive shock even made her forget to retract her crushed crimson arm.

'...How is it possible for someone not to die after having their head crushed... and then grow a new head...'

"...Alright." Ragna stood before Morgan and turned to look at the true culprit who had killed Ryuunosuke.

As he saw the black-robed girl, he knew who she was.

She was none other than 'No Name Assassin', also known as 'Zealot', someone who couldn't become 'Hassan-i-Sabbah'.

Apart from the First Hassan, who founded the sect of assassins known as the 'Hashashin', she was actually the most faithful and strongest believer in the sect.

However, due to her comprehensive skills, she was more like a warrior than an assassin.

"I wonder, how should we handle someone who crashes into someone else's house and makes the hostess cry?" Ragna scrutinized Zealot, lazily stroking his chin.

"?!"

Although their gazes didn't meet, Zealot felt her legs uncontrollably tremble, unable to move.

For her God, she had once transformed into a wild beast and hunted countless lives. However, the boy before her now regarded her with the eyes of a hunter.

At this moment, she knew that winning was impossible.

With her blood-stained hands, she had mastered the eighteen techniques of her predecessors under the name of the angels who guard hell, known as 'Zabaniya'.

Yet, she knew that it was meaningless in front of this boy.

Because this boy, this being, he was—

"As expected of the rare genius who had mastered the divine miracles of all eighteen leaders of the Hashashin... you understand very quickly."

Ragna spread his arms wide with a happy and innocent smile on his face.

"Watch closely, Zealot... this is how 'Delusional Heartbeat' is used."