The Villain Is Destined to Die: But as the Creator, I know All Endings-Chapter 233: Day - 2: The Moon is Still Up

"Hey... are you sure about this?"

Cyan whispered as they walked through a narrow alley, keeping close behind Leon. The City Harbor was just a bit ahead of them. A faint lantern lights flickering between rooftops, illuminating the corner enough to see with bare eyes.

Ethan glanced sideways at him.

"About what?" Then his lips curved slightly. "Leon? Ah... it’s your first time working with him."

Cyan frowned. "That doesn’t help."

Ethan let out a small scoff. "Relax. He knows what he’s doing."

Cyan’s eye twitched.

"Say what now? Are you really fine with this plan? Did you even hear him earlier? He literally said we’re going to—"

"Hey." Leon stopped walking.

Both of them froze.

Leon turned halfway, his white hair caught the dim light from a nearby window.

"This is a residential zone," Leon said calmly. "Do you plan on waking up every household here?"

Cyan clicked his tongue under his breath.

Ethan raised one hand in apology. "Our bad."

Leon turned forward again and continued walking.

They were all in their disguises now, empty-handed, dressed like a traveler.

They only kept their weapons close to them. Other things like supplies, and anything suspicious were kept safely inside Leon’s dimensional pouch.

Earlier that evening, Leon had already sold off the goods they had seized from the bandits. He would get a decent sum for them from Princess Asuna.

Neither Ethan nor Cyan knew about that part yet.

Before they left Karnak City, they had also decided to leave their carriage behind, along with the horses, secured at a stable on the outskirts of the city.

Cyan glanced back once, toward the direction they had come from. He would not be seeing that horse again.

"...Damn it," he muttered.

Now that Ethan had agreed to Leon’s plan, Cyan had no real choice but to go along with it. Still, that didn’t mean he felt good about it.

Ethan walked calmly, with both his hands in his pockets. His expression was so relaxed.

That alone bothered Cyan.

To Ethan, trusting Leon felt natural. As if he knew Leon wasn’t making a wrong call here.

Cyan didn’t share that confidence like him.

There were safer ways. Of what one would call a normal way to cross regions.

Yet Leon had chosen the most absurd one.

Hijacking a cargo ship?!

"For gods’ sake," Cyan muttered under his breath, rubbing his temple. "Normal people just buy tickets and board the passenger ship."

Yet, he had chosen such an absurd method.

Cyan glanced at Leon’s back, then at carefree look on Ethan.

"...Both of you are insane," he whispered to himself.

Due to the current time and the city being near the coastal area, they can hear the ship’s wailing sound from here. It was pretty loud, which would make anyone wonder how the locals here would nap.

Anyways, the more time passes, and the more they walk, the wailing sound becomes irritated to the ears.

BAAAM–!!

Both Leon and Cyan stopped, as heard a loud bang behind them.

"...!!"

Leon turned towards the sound coming from behind. It was dark, but due to the warm light coming from the lamps hanging outside the houses it was earlier to trace the edge of what it was.

The alley was dim. Just a few meters aways from them, someone was lying on the ground.

Leon’s steps slowed, and through the ice-crystal contact lenses, his vision was able to identify what it was.

It was a woman.

She wore black clothing, dyed in a shade so dark it almost blended into the night itself. Her eyes were wide open, frozen in shock. Her tongue hung slightly out of her mouth. A jagged crack ran across one side of her face.

Her entire body looked wrong. As if it had been flash-frozen in ice.

Fine fractures spread across her skin like shattered glass, and thin mist leaking from her nostrils and lips with every shallow breath.

She was still alive.

"What the— hey—?" Cyan started, he instinctively stepped forward to help her out.

Leon then said in a cold voice.

"Don’t go near her.."

Cyan halted and turned on him. "What? She’s still breathing. If we don’t hurry, she’s actually going to die—"

"She won’t survive," Ethan said quietly.

His gaze never left the body.

It looked like she had fallen from above. From a rooftop, perhaps.

"Weird..."

The timing was odd.

Ethan expanded his senses a bit more.

Nothing caught his sight..

He then focuses on the fallen body. Then he noticed her fist.

Clenched tight around, there was something she was grabbing onto.

Ethan took a step forward, intending to pry it loose.

Tap!

Then he heard bold footsteps.

"...?"

Ethan froze. His heartbeat spiked several folds.

’But I am not sensing anyone!’

The footsteps were getting closer every second.

Shadows stretched across the stone path as a figure emerged at the edge of the lantern light.

A low murmur followed as the figure joined his hand and prayed with his eyes closed.

"O Frost that stills the world,

O Silence that judges the impure,

Grant rest to the misguided,

And return all warmth to nothing—"

Ethan was about to take his blades out before a hand landed on his shoulder.

Zzzzzoop–!!

In the next fraction of a second.

The dark alley vanished.

SHAAAAAAA-!!! WAAAAAILLLL–!!!

"MOVE THE LEAVER!!! HALT!!!!"

Wind roared past Ethan’s ears. Cold air slammed into his lungs.

The world snapped back into focus, and a vast wooden deck was beneath his feet.

Endless black water stretching in front of him.

Thick mist was rolling across the surface of the sea.

He looked around and noticed that he was in a different location.

"Huh—?!" Cyan gasped.

"The sea—?" Cyan’s voice trembled. "This is a ship—? What the hell just happened? Weren’t we just—"

"Relax. It was a short-range teleportation skill," Leon said casually before letting go of both Cyan, and Ethan’s body.

Cyan blinked several times trying to make sense of his words.

"Short-range teleportation...?"

He turned slowly, scanning the deck beneath his feet, then looked back toward the direction they had come from... as if expecting to see the alley, the rooftops, the narrow street was still there.

His mind replayed the scene involuntarily.

The frozen woman, and her cracked skin.

And lastly that prayer.

"...Wait," Cyan said suddenly. "That chant earlier. Who was that?"

Ethan’s gaze hardened slightly.

"A Priest of the Frost Tower."

The Priests, sometimes called Knights, sometimes Priests, depending on who you asked. They were the elite authority directly under Lady Aisha. They answered to no noble house, and no kingdom law.

They served the Frost Tower.

And beyond that, they acted as priests and priestesses of Lancaster’s Cathedral, one of the five Calamity factions.

"That guy... was one of them?" Cyan asked, still trying to process it.

Ethan nodded once. "Yeah."

"...What was he doing there?" Cyan pressed.

The most reasonable answer would’ve been coincidence. Maybe a patrol, and nothing more.

But none of them believed that.

"Don’t ask me," Ethan said quietly, his eyes sweeping the deck behind them. "I don’t know either. But if I had to guess... patrol duty."

Leon didn’t comment.

He had already begun moving again.

With two short jumps, each accompanied by a brief distortion of space, they crossed the harbor far faster than any normal route would allow.

By the time Ethan realized it, they were already deep within the docked ships.

’That must’ve cost a ridiculous amount of mana...’

Ethan glanced at Leon.

But Leon looked fine.

His disguise was still intact. And his breathing is steady. If anything, he looked more relaxed than before.

"We should move," Leon said, scanning the ships anchored nearby.

In the original game, One of Aisha’s Priests had obtained a prism similar to the one Ethan carried. Using it, she had made several of her Elites arrive at Evana during a crucial moment, right when Ethan himself had done the same.

They had stood on the same sides back then to end Evana’s suffering.

Aisha wouldn’t come personally. But if she suspected anything, she would send her best.

Her most elite priests and priestesses.

"...Is he after us?" Cyan asked cautiously.

Leon shook his head without hesitation.

"No. That’s not possible."

And he was right.

Even Aisha didn’t know the true reason behind Leon’s visit here. To her, only one such prism existed.

That assumption was wrong though.

There were five Prisms in total.

Three lost to the outside world. And the other two are still inside the Evana City.

Those remaining three were the ones resonating now.

"How are you this confident?" Cyan rubbed his temples. "You’re way too calm about all of this."

Leon let out a soft chuckle.

"Because we’re running out of time," he said. "The cargo ships are about to set sail."

He glanced at the moon hanging high above the mist-covered sea.

"If we miss this one, we’ll have to improvise."

"I can use short-range teleportation again if needed," Leon added casually. "So don’t worry."

Ethan stared at him again.

’A spatial displacement like that should’ve drained him dry...’

And yet—

Leon looked up at the moon.

A faint, crimson hue shimmered along his pupils.

[Heir of the Crimsonmoon — Active]

With his title in effect, mana scarcity wasn’t an issue for him.

And dealing with guards?

That would be easier too.

Leon’s gaze locked onto a massive ship docked near the far end.

He finally found the thick reinforced wood with circular metallic edges lining the hull. A familiar crest fluttering atop its mast.

"...Found it," Leon muttered.

The Crest clearly read: [A.R]

"Ayaka Rudward." Ethan muttered.

It was her ship. And tonight’s target.

Leon’s lips curved upward.

"Hold my shoulders," he said loudly enough for both of them to hear.

"...What?" Cyan barely had time to react.

Leon grabbed him again.

ZZZZZPPPPP—!!