Chapter Sixty-Nine: The Revanchist''s Disciple


    Reza waited in the shadows, jumping off her horse as she finally arrived. It had taken three days to reach Oriente, but here she was. It looked like any normal city, but the best part was the river next to it, adding a sense of being a port city to the overall atmosphere.


    Leading her horse through the streets, Reza made herself known. Her face would be known throughout the criminals and outlaws of the city, and rumor would soon fly that she was here. That was good. Hopefully, it sent her target against her.


    She stabled her horse at a stable of an inn, and stopped to drink a beer.


    “What’s the news?” She asked the innkeeper, tossing him a silver piece.


    “Not much,” the innkeeper said. “Rumor is we’ve got a Revanchist disciple here, but you didn’t hear it from me, got it?”


    “Sim,”Reza replied. “Where can I find this disciple, amor?” The innkeeper shrugged and Reza tossed him another gold piece.


    “He lives over in the castle.”


    “I thought that was illegal.”


    “We don’t really mess with the Revanchist.”


    Reza frowned. “Does he ever come out?”


    “Rarely. He’s been spotted only three times since he arrived a month ago.”


    “Thank you for the information.”


    “I wouldn’t look for him,” the innkeeper told her. “Not if you want to live.”


    “It’s not about me wanting to live,” Reza told him, paying him for the beer. “It’s death that doesn’t want me yet. Or else it would have caught me, darling.”


    — — —


    The Mouros Castle stood above all else, right where the land touched the river. It was a drab beige color, but the towers and span of the whole edifice truly stood out. It had once been a true castle, meant for defense and fortitude. Then, it had mostly changed to a tourist attraction.


    Now, it was mostly just an abandoned relic from an older time.


    Reza rode up to it, wondering how she would get in. Supposedly, it was illegal to even enter it now, after the robbers had desecrated the place. She didn’t mind the rules—she would break them if she must—but she knew they were watching her, and that she did not want. There did not seem to be any entrances except for the broken former gate on the north side, facing away from the river. The desecrators had irreparably broken the gate, leaving it wide open, and the Oriente Minister hadn’t bothered to fix it. Usually, that was a pity, but not that day. That day, it was a godsend.


    The next hour found Reza searching every nook and cranny around the castle, looking for any sort of entrance she could use to avoid prying eyes. Sadly, that did not seem possible. After a very fruitless search, Reza decided the only option was to show herself and hope for the best.


    And so, there she walked, straight through the first and only entrance to the Mouros Castle. Surely they knew she was here by now, but the courtyard was empty. She didn’t dare believe that her target was the only one living in the castle. It was a foolish thing for the Oriente Minister to let the Revanchist disciple stay there, only letting the Revanchist take over the city more easily. But it wasn’t Reza’s place to mess with politics.


    So why was she sent here to kill a disciple?


    To meet a God.


    Reza didn’t understand what that meant, and right now, she really did not want to.


    The entrance to the castle proper called to her, and, with caution, she entered the building. Immediately, she shrunk in the shadows, keeping out of sight.


    People don’t see what they don’t want to see.


    Her mantra ran through her over and over as she slunk through the castle, on the hunt once again. Her knives were already in her hands, her mind already focused on finding the disciple. That was the imperative here, just find him and go.


    The first voices that she heard were coming from a room not far away. She leaned on the wall softly and tuned in to what they were saying. They were speaking in a rough accent of her language, something that was common among the disciples.


    “I do not like this,” The first voice growled. “The Revanchist…”


    “The Revanchist chose me over you,” The second, a woman, interrupted. “And he wants us here, waiting for her. He told her to never bother him again.”


    Reza drew in a breath. She was sure they were talking about her.


    “Is she here?”


    “Sim, in fact she should be…Reza!” The woman gasped as Reza spun into the room, throwing her knives. Both of them plunked into the disciples through the heart, and they fell to the ground gurgling.


    “Don’t speak of my name,” Reza growled. She hated that the Revanchist knew her name, and thus all of his disciples did too.


    She was quickly gone from the room and into the next one. None of the people she killed were her target, and now, she was too invested in killing them all than just her target.


    A woman passed by her and Reza hid. As soon as the woman passed, she earned a knife in the back. It was done quickly, but not quietly. The woman had time to scream quickly beforeReza shut her up.


    Fogo, That was unprofessional.


    And so Reza went, room by room, killing anyone she found. After a few minutes, she realized they knew she was in. It was obvious that they would notice the dead bodies, but she’d hoped to find her target first. Now, though, with everything truly going silent in the castle, she knew they were waiting for her.


    But she wouldn’t give them time to see her.


    Room by room, hallway by hallway, floor by floor. Reza checked everything but it seemed like the disciples had abandoned the place. That didn’t seem right, though. They wouldn’t leave such an important place, would they?


    She entered another room, knives drawn and eyes narrowed as she scanned it.


    The door closed.


    Fogo.


    She’d fallen right into the trap, and spinning around, she cursed as she saw them.


    Five of them. All disciples, presumably, and, although they were masked with the same tiger mask that the Revanchist used, she was sure one of them was her target.


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    “I’m flattered you deem to use five to kill me, amor,” Reza smiled. “But I would prefer to fight you one at a time.”


    “I thought the Revanchist told you to never bother him again,” the leader—Tiger One— growled at her.


    “I would really have loved to do that, darling,” Reza said. “But the money was there. And to be fair, I didn’t know I’d find all of you…”


    “You remember what the Revanchist told you he would do to you if he saw you again?”


    “Probably kill me.”


    “Stop with the games, Reza Ateu,” Tiger One said. “He said you would be killed, yes. He said you would realize the power of our God.”


    “You do know what my name means, right?” Reza asked, smirking.


    “I do not care,” Tiger One spat. “It is time to make good on the promise.”


    “Here’s the thing, I don’t believe in your god.”


    “Doesn’t mean you can’t feel him. Or that he can’t feel you.”


    “Ew, that was a poor choice of words,” Reza cringed. “No, don’t say it like that, amor.”


    Tiger One took a step towards her, and she stepped back, her eyes on him the entire time. There was no one behind her, she was sure of it, but the paranoia stayed in her head. Focus.


    “Do you have any last wishes?” He sneered.


    “Honestly,” Reza replied, trying to move around him, “I have the will at my house, I can go get—”


    Tiger One blocked her. “What happened to you, Reza? You used to be so strong, so arrogant. Now, you’re playing around as you wait to die. This isn’t normal for you. What has the world done?”


    Reza sighed. “I thought it would be fun to make a joke just as I die. After all, it is the best medicine.” She paused, then smiled. “Plus, it was a distraction. Two of your men are dead.”


    Tiger One swung to his left, where the Tiger there was already gurgling, covering his bleeding stomach, a knife sticking out of it. Snarling, Tiger One turned to the right, where Reza had already removed her knife from the other man’s throat, and had moved on to the first Tiger that she had killed.


    “You’re quick, Reza,” He said. “But you’re not quick enough. There’s still three of us, and even your speed won’t be able to kill all of us and escape.”


    “You’re Irm?o Sérgio, right, duckling?” She asked, cocking her head at him. “Stop saying my name. It gets annoying after a little. Imagine I called you Irm?o Sérgio every sentence—”


    “SHUT UP!” Irm?o Sérgio said, unsheathing a sword and swinging it at her. Deftly, she ducked under it, moving past him to the other two tigers. The first one aimed a punch at her that she dodged, stabbing at him. Gurgling, the Tiger fell to the ground, but Reza was already on the next one, punching her knife into the woman’s gut, felling her.


    “You’re alone now, Sérgio,” Reza commented. “What will you do now?”


    “The Revanchist will get you,” was the petty response Reza had not expected. “You know he chases those who confront his disciples like this.”


    “I’m not worried about that.”


    “You should be. You were sent here to kill me, weren’t you. Then you can’t run away. Your job isn’t done yet, is it?” Smirking, the disciple swung his sword in the air, inviting her to attack him.


    There’s something about him, Reza thought. He shouldn’t be wanting to attack me if I just killed the other disciples so quickly. Is this where I meet a God?


    With reluctance and caution, an increasingly more paranoid Reza attacked the Revanchist’s disciple, who faced her head on. Usually, a swordsman against a knife-wielder would be a fairly one sided fight, the longer reach and strength of the swordsman lending it a victory over the normal knife-wielder, but Reza was not a normal knife-wielder.


    She was a beast hunter.


    More than that, she was Sangue de Monstro.


    Still, it’s not easy to hit Irm?o Sérgio when his sword waved at her. She moved around to the left and right, ducking her and jumping there, avoiding all confrontation with the prickly part of the sword. The disciple had the better weapon, but she had the more throwable ones. All she had to do was fall behind enough to throw them.


    That part was also more difficult than it should be. The disciple moved rapidly, ready to strike her as soon as she moved back. Sérgio grew more and more confident the more he attacked her, seeing her on the defensive. But then she finally had an opening. Squeezing past him, she ran for a few feet, then turned and threw her knife as his unprotected back.


    It should’ve been enough to fell him.


    Instead, in what seemed like a superhuman feat, Irm?o Sérgio turned back and hacked down with his sword, knocking the knife out of the air. Reza groaned, realizing what he was. All of a sudden, this fight had gotten so much harder.


    “What are you waiting for?” Irm?o Sérgio smirked at her. “Scared?”


    “Me?” Reza asked. “Or are you talking to yourself again?”


    The disciple shook his head in amusement and rushed at her at an inhuman speed once again. Reza dodged at the last moment, stabbing at him. Somehow, she was just too late, and the disciple sprinted past her, turning back with his chest heaving.


    “It’s time to finish this,” The man said.


    “I wholeheartedly agree,” Reza grinned, brandishing her knives. “It’s time for you to die, amor.” Running at the man, she jumped, ready to hack down and end his life.


    And that’s how she found herself paralyzed in the air, Irm?o Sérgio looking at her disappointedly.


    I was right. He is an Ancient!


    “Oh, Reza Ateu,” The man sighed. “I really thought you were doing well, but this, this was lazy. Why did you do this?”


    She found her mouth able to move and spat at him. Laughing, the man wiped it off his face.


    “Now, that was uncalled for, darling,” Irm?o Sérgio said, spitting out the last word. “I am going to kill you. It will be quick but it will also be painful. I want you to see how much fun I have as you die. And then you will meet God.”


    Is that what the woman meant? If so, she was wrong.


    “Let’s start with your feet now, shall we? The revanchist did promise you would die if you crossed him again!”


    The disciple raised his hand, and Reza heard a crack at her feet just before the pain began. It ripped through her and she fought not to scream, knowing her foot was broken. A second later, it happened again, this time to her other foot. She couldn’t help but scream this time, the pain unbearable as her feet hung limp where she was in the air.


    “Should we move to your hands next?”


    Reza thrashed, knowing she could do nothing against this horrible fate. The disciple steadied her, then grabbed her hand.


    “I’ll do this one with my hands,” He said, then twisted. Reza’s hands snapped, and she screamed again, sure the pain couldn’t get any worse. She was wrong.


    When the next hand was broken, she threw up. Normally, she would’ve been pleased she’d thrown up on Irm?o Sérgio’s head, but this time she couldn’t think right. The pain was too much for her, and she cried, ashamed of what became of her.


    “Kill me,” She begged. “Just get it over with.”


    “I intend to,” Irm?o Sérgio smiled. “But I have a couple more things I want to try.”


    Waving his hands in the air, Reza felt her broken limbs move towards him even while the rest of her body stood still. With a squelch, they came off, and Reza’s eyes popped, her mouth reaching for a scream she didn’t have.


    She was already losing consciousness, and even while she was starting to grow numb, she could only stare in horror at where her hands and feet used to be. The blood poured down onto the disciple who swayed, enamored, as it fell on his head, and he drank it.


    “Beautiful,” He said. “Now, it truly is time to kill you. You are mortally wounded, after all.”


    Reza felt something inside her begin to move, then pain exploded inside her as she grew blisteringly hot.


    “Your blood is boiling right now,” Irm?o Sérgio explained. “Feels good, doesn’t it?”


    This time, Reza did find the voice to scream as the pain transcended anything humanly possible. ButIrm?o Sérgio wasn’t done. With an evil laugh, the man waved his hands up, and Reza vomited. Strangely, what came out wasn’t vomit. It took Reza a moment to realize what it was.


    Her insides.


    There they were, her intestines, her kidneys, her lungs. Her heart was missing, but Reza knew she was dying anyway.


    She felt hollow, which was true, but now she knew her death was here. She couldn’t feel the pain anymore, but she still felt agitated.


    I CAN’T DIE!


    I can’t die!


    i can’t die…


    i…


    Reza Ateu died.