Dawn had already in the capital of Greendale, but there was still no trace of the imperial knight's second target, even after over 12 hours of searching. Every single part of the city had already been fine combed multiple times but still, no one had found or even seen the mysterious demonkin and the entire situation started looking increasingly problematic for the imperial knight captain.

(What the h.e.l.l is going on here?...)

Something was definitely wrong, that's what the captain's intuition clearly told him but still, he couldn't figure out what it was, at least not until one of his subordinates bust into the office he was using.

"Captain!"

"What's wrong?"

"It's John! He's been done in!"

"What!?"

Immediately heading the scene of the crime the imperial knight captain found one of his most trusted subordinates dead in an alley. His blood was everywhere, but not because it looked to have been a fair or drawn out fight, but because whoever had killed him had smeared his blood out all over the place, the most prominent of those blood smears were right above the decapitated corpse with the head nowhere to be found.

"Let's see... 'lower the barrier or more of the same will happen. Or don't, I'm still coming for  all of you.' It looks like we have a poet on our hands."

Translating what was written in a common demonkin script right above the copse, the captain frowned deeply as he was filled with rage.

"Find this f.u.c.king joker and capture him! I don't care if all his limbs are gone at that point and he's barely alive!"

"""""SIR, YES SIR!"""""

(Well looks like that worked out perfectly~)

Standing on top of the roof of one of the city's larger churches, Dax was in a good mood as a tiny bit of bloodl.u.s.t he failed to suppress leaked out from him.

"The declaration of war has been clearly delivered, time for the next phase. That means I no longer need you… John was it?... Well, whatever."

Tossing a severed head of the imperial knight aside Dax heard it splatter all over on the ground below, the qiton went on the path of war as he continued along with his plan.

-

A few hours after the imperial knight had been found dead the entire city was still on high alert, but being only mere mortals some of the guards started messing up even the very basic parts of their job. Having noticed that as he patrolled along with an imperial knight and a few of his subordinates one of the guard captains tried to secure his men some rest.

"Miss knight, some of my men haven't slept all night and are starting to have problems staying awake."

Still continuing to patrol now well into the noon hours of the day, some of the less elite guards started to have trouble doing their job, unfortunately, the guard captain complained to a close friend of the imperial knight who had been killed.

"Is that so? Too bad I don't give a s.h.i.+t about them. We're searching for a dangerous criminal who ambushed and killed an imperial knight, everything comes after we've captured him!"

"Then you should definitely make them rest up, after all, their tiredness allows my spell to work so much better on them~"

Out of nowhere, the imperial knight heard a voice laced heavily with bloodl.u.s.t right next to her ear which made her briefly tense up before her training took over and she drew her sword and slashed in that direction.

"Arg!" 

"What are you doing!?"

But instead of striking down a hidden opponent which had struck upon her, she struck down an innocent guard while his comrades and part of the city residents witnessed it.

"DAN! Keep it together!"

"We're under attack! Spread out!"

"Under attack? Yeah from you maybe!"

Immediately panic spread throughout the formation as the imperial knight had clearly reacted to something she had only heard, while the rest of the guards had only seen her strike down one of their friends without any remorse.

"Shut the f.u.c.k up and get in battle formation!"

But alas only the chain of command made the guards obey as they spread out and around the imperial knight as they drew their weapons and prepared offensive spells. But nothing happened and while the guards remained ready for combat, their friend bled out on the pavement.

All over the capital, this pattern repeated itself over and over, even resulting in one open confrontation between the guard core and the imperial knights were multiple guards where killed.

"This is not good…"

Receiving countless reports of unrest from the citizens and outright insubordination from the city guards, the imperial knight captain realized he and his subordinates had been played. The first murder and taunting statement had been so they would act in the exact way they had been.

(The people don't trust us any longer and the guard core is no longer useful… s.h.i.+t, we've lost our advantageous position.)

Without the use of the city guard, the imperial knights no longer held the edge in information gathering and exchange and with the knowledge that their opponent could match a single one of them in combat, it would be extremely dangerous to travel through the city, making searching for their target impossible.

"f.u.c.k! Send a message to all the knights in the field, get them back here now!"

Realizing what his opponent was planning to do slightly too late, the imperial knight captain realized that he was not facing a demonkin mercenary, but a hardened tactical operative with extensive experience in picking apart organized formations in urban combat.

-

(Seems like that worked out perfectly… Now for phase 2.)

(Dax you sure are mean~✿ I absolutely love you!~)

Having witnessed how skillfully its partner had picked the elite imperial knight's advantage apart and turned the people against them at the same time, the cursed sword could barely contain itself.

(Yeah, yeah. Look alive, it's time.)

Blending in with the spa.r.s.e foot traffic Dax gradually closed in on his second target without their knowledge. Having closed the range completely the qiton formulated a simple spell before grasping the head of the imperial knight from behind. The result was instant, without their entourage of guards around them Dax could sneak up on the knight without issue and killed him without a single sound leaking from his mouth as the qiton had heated his brain to 60 degrees celsius in a split second. Before the copse hit the ground Dax was already away from the scene of the crime as he shadowed another imperial knight from a rooftop, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.

(Phase 2, ICI be ready for callout beta. Warm up the 540 mill.)

(DIRECTIVE CONFIRMED.)

Drawing the cursed sword Dax jumped from the roof down towards the imperial knight, using the sun to hide until the very last second.

"!!!"

But a single second was enough time for the knight to react as he rolled forward and avoided the strike.

(CONTACT INITIATED, STARTING TIMER.)

"Why h.e.l.lo~ I've been told you people have been looking for me."

Not allowing the knight to return his greeting or even draw his weapon Dax kept up his a.s.sault and sealed the knight's movements as he prepared a spell while slowly waving mana into the ground through meticulous footwork.

(Here we go… ICI time?)

(37 SECONDS, ESTIMATING 2 MINUTES TO HOSTILE RESPONSE.)

Using his knowledge of the imperial knight's command and communication structure Dax knew they had some way to communicate with each other, therefore he limited himself to short engagements to avoid being surrounded. Easing up slightly on his attack the qiton slowly allowed the imperial knight a tiny bit of breathing room and waited patiently on the moment to strike.

(NOW!)

As the imperial knight reached for his sword Dax activated the spells he had been preparing by stomping into the ground, making countless spikes of compressed rock flying out of the ground towards the knight.

"Naive!"

Proving he was an elite the knight sidestepped the attack spell as he drew his sword and stepped into the demonkin's range, aiming to meet him head on.

(I got you now!)

Preparing a spell himself the imperial knight charged forwards, aiming to block the demonkin's sword with his own while he cut off his arm with the spell. As expected the demonkin blocked his sword, and so the imperial knight locked it in place as he activated his spell with the help of engraved runes in his armor, creating a golden crystal sword in his other hand which he swung down to server the demonkin's dominant arm.

"Sike~"

"s.h.i.+!-"

But the imperial knight sealed his own fate when he let himself only react to what Dax was doing, allowing the qiton to lead him into a trap. The initial rock spikes were no more than bait to invite the knight to engage and now that he had and was momentarily immobilized Dax acted. Letting go of his own sword Dax took hold of the knight's sword arm and pulled the knight towards him, at the same time a single spike of compressed rock shot out from the ground beneath Dax's feet, sticking the knight in the gap on his chest piece as the qiton put his full strength into his leg and knee'd the spike into his gut and almost split him in half using the spike as a wedge.

"And that's 3-"

Right as Dax was celebrating his victory a ma.s.sive, 2 meter long arrow hit him square in the chest, knocking him back and into a building whose wall disintegrated momentarily shrouded the street in dust and smoke.

"Target hit. If he's not dead then he should be knocked out at the least…"

About 2 kilometers away from where Dax had fraught at the top of a tower which was part of the outer wall a single imperial knight spoke out a report to no one in particular. Having waited for her shot the imperial knight had been forced to watch her comrade die, making her lose her temper as she aimed for her target's chest instead of one of his limbs like the captain had instructed. 

"I wonder if the captain is going to be mad at me?... Oh well, not that it matters as long as we get the job done."

Having returned to a nonchalant att.i.tude the imperial knight's greatly enhanced vision made her clearly able to observe as all 16 of her remaining comrades closed in on the demonkin's position.