The End of the Line

"So, why were we tasked with taking this guy out?"

Amiya was currently putting on her gear with the rest of her squad with a Scout Black Cloak from another squad walking away from them.

"Please do complete that mission. You don't know how hard guns are to smuggle in here."

"Thank you again, Scout." Chisai said it for all of them as she fixed her cloak to her and then clipped her belt on.

Once they were all suited up and put on their mask, Chisai pulled open the bedroll to find their guns tied together.

"Wait so the ammo must be in this?" Selen picked up the pillow and ripped it open to see a good couple of bundles of ammo.

From the looks of it, each of them had about three clips of five.

"...It looks like we'll have to avoid fighting as much as possible then." Chisai picked up her bundle and started storing the clips in her belt after slinging her gun to her shoulder, "It's a good thing I have a plan." She looked at the massive group of civilians walking very angrily toward the building where the army group's leaders are.

"Oh? I see."

Chisai took off her mask and hood and the group of four ran off and joined the crowd as they kept marching.

The only reason this group was together is that they were tasked with taking out the General of the Army and Duke Slack, who was the Manager of the Treasury and Economy, who was under military protection at the second most important building in the whole city.

"So, how are we gonna do this...?" Sakura asked as the crowd was starting to arrive at the gate.

This building was much smaller than the Royal Palace but was still quite big, although it was the military's main home base, it had far fewer troops stationed than it would've liked.

All of the best were currently defending the city from the surrounding Imperials, that isn't to say the guard was lax, just that their entire front lawn was only covered by about 30 guards.

If this gate were to fall quickly, the assassins could easily rush in and take out the targets before they even had the chance to run. No one ever expects violence on the first day of protesting, not even the protesters themselves, as long as the guards didn't upset them in any way, they would simply go home after a few hours of yelling into the void.

But, that's where the Executioners make their way into the section.

The guards gathered at the front gate a few minutes into the protesting and things were in a very natural balance. Neither side was making moves on each other and this was really looking like it was going to be a peaceful protest, that just wasn't going to work, honestly.

"Who wants to go first?" Chisai asked and Amiya looked excited right away.

"Oh, I have something...!" The girl cleared her throat and got a little wind projection from Sakura, "Who do they think they are?! Continuing this war will do nothing except blow up the economy up and make our dollar worthless! The demands of the Empire will only get steeper the longer we don't give up, I say as the people, we have every right to charge in there and show them we don't want war!"

Of course, most of the crowd quieted down at her very radical idea. She had more points than anything, and the very small group of people who were with her was slowly growing with each passing moment, Amiya stepped up onto an invisible ledge thanks to Sakura's wind magic and decided to keep going.

"We know, we ALL know!! They won't listen to anything besides violence!! They want this war, we don't! If they won't listen to our words, then they'll listen to our fist! How come they can do whatever they want?! The Imperials actually have a government that listens to them, why can't we?! Do we choose starvation or a change of power?! Break down those gates, who's with me?!"

The guards for one were starting to look very startled and after the nightly cheer for a good size of the group, the peer pressure settled in for the nonradicals.

"Open the gate!!"

"We won't stand to have our lives wasted like this!"

"If you won't represent our ideals, we'll just have to let the Empire who will in!!"

"Down with the King!!!"

"Break it down!"

Amiya stepped down as the group started moving onto the gate and were surely going to break it down.

"Wow, you're pretty good at that?"

"I read a lot of novels about revolution?" Amiya shrugged as she put her mask on.

"I must say, you are skilled." Selen put her mask on after her.

"I am so glad I didn't have to yell at all." Sakura's laziness shone through again as she and Chisai put on their mask.

The guards picked up their weapons and got into formation to fight which only angered the civilians, even more, when they forced their way through the gate. They were woefully outnumbered it was going to be a slaughter of 30 to over 200. The entire building could've been out here but it probably wouldn't be enough.

"Let's dance, shall we? Private Lance is on me, right?" Even as they walked forward, the relaxed and lazy voice of Sakura was almost offputting, even though they've been working with her for a while now, it was something they don't think they'll ever get used to.

"Yes, I'm with you. Lead the way."

"Good, I think I've perfected Lightning Movement, try to keep up."

Amiya gulped as small surges of lightning coursed around Sakura, the Rabbit Demon started sprinting off and carved her way through the crowd with Amiya following behind her just well enough to see her. Sakura was one of the first to make it to the guardsmen and took a knife off her hip and drop kicked one of the guards before they had a chance to really react.

She stabbed the man in the back and got to her knees as a sword was swung down on her, she expertly moved out of the way and grabbed the sword user's arm and pulled them in, stabbing them twice as they hit the ground.

She looked back up from her crouched position as a good amount of the guards were focusing on her rather than the crowd moving closer to them.

"Should I kill them?" Sakura asked herself as she threw her knife at one of the women, it stabbed into her chest and before any of them knew it, the world had simply gone black as chain lightning traveled through all of them frying them from the inside and ruining their organs.

If any of them survived that, it wouldn't be for very long.

"Can you slow down, please?!" Amiya ran over as Sakura collected her knife and started running off again.

She slowed herself down this time around and Amiya turned up her Magic Enhancers. They could see Chisai and Selen breaking into the place through a window meaning they now had permission to enter the building too.

"Let's be a little loud, eh~?"

"I'm all for it!"

They dashed through the front lawn and jumped over the fancy flower display in front of the main entrance. Both stepping forward, they planted their feet into the door and pulled their guns off their sides as the common people finished off the guards and were now marching towards the main entrance too.

The main radicals were spewing something about control and possibly burning the building down so they really had to hurry up here. The main floor here was in complete disarray, people were running all around but the big group of people which consisted of their target was currently heading for the main entrance. The guards looked skilled but the distance between them made this horrible easy.

Sakura and Amiya aimed their weapons put on spells and pulled the triggers shooting bullets right for their target. Bodyguards jump in front and the bullet Amiya shot pierced the chest of one of the guards and light shot from his back blasting everyone behind him with enough force to throw them back.

The bullet Sakura let off pierced the bodyguard and chain lightning blasted from him shocking the hell out of anyone who dared stay close.

So, they were not only burned with light but also shocked to the point their brains turned off. You could say this got the whole building quiet.

The civilians who entered the building soon after were smiling at the fact.

"They killed him! The Imperials already killed him!! Get the rest of those bastards!!"

The civilians charged forward and the workers who thought one life was enough to satiate the crowd were chased down and practically beaten to submission.

Amiya and Sakura were done here, they shouldered their guns and simply walked out of the building.

But, over with Chisai and Selen, they were somehow on the rooftop facing off with the general, blocking off the back of the house which led to a carriage.

"General Frantz. Would you like a quick death or a painful one?" Chisai raised her hand as a pack of wolves were created from shadows and were looking awfully hungry.

"...What's the quick death like?"

"I simply shoot you in the back of the head." Chisai walked to the middle of her wolf pack, "Now, which one will it be?"

The general sighed, Chisai aimed her weapon for his head but he swiftly drew his wand from his side but a beam of white light shot from the sky and put a hole through his arm and legs.

He fell back yelling in pain, that was something Selen had a specialty. Thanks to it being night and outside of a building, she could call upon the stars and moon to simply shoot beams from practically anywhere the moonlight was touching.

Her favorite was from the sky as no one ever looks up. Not like most people could dodge light anyway.

"And I thought you were smart? Well, if you were smart, you probably would've won the war." Chisai chuckled as she pointed her finger, her wolves run forward and started to devour the general right on the spot.

The two assassins blew up his carriage and walked off as now their mission was done.

"Receptionist, our target is down. How is everyone else doing?"

"I didn't expect you to contact me first, everyone else is finished as well. Powerful Dukes, merchants, the General, and everything in the middle, all that's left is the King. You and your squad may want to leave the city now, there's no point in staying."

"Will do. Lieutenant, let's get out of here."

Selen nodded and slung her gun to her shoulder.

But, moving over to Winter and Akari, they were facing off with the Royal Guard in the throne room...

Their progress was followed by a trail of blood and if they weren't out of here soon, they were going to be trapped by the fact they would be hopelessly outnumbered.

The Royal Guards only numbered up to five but the armor they were using had magic dispelling effects on it making this fight a lot harder than it needed to be. Seeing that they also were wearing plate armor, Akari and Winter didn't carry blunt weapons which was upsetting their position even more. Though, if there was something to be happy about, their weapons had anti-magic spells on them so if they could take the poleaxes away, they could cut through the armor or break through it with the hammer.

"...Black Cloaks. The Imperial Axe! The Executioners. You come by many names but who would've thought you would ever come to claim the life of a King?" The person who was sitting on their throne with the protection of the Royal Guards was talking down to them in an effort to try to distract them.

"We'll deal with you in a second, damn it!!" Akari and Winter both jumped back and nodded to each other.

The enemies were perfectly lined up too, there was a plan to finish this.

They run forward and Akari dodged a downwards strike while Winter dodged under a diagonal one. They stab their blades into the ground before the enemy could do anything back and a wave of fire and wind blast the armored opponents back with a good amount of force.

While doing that, they swiped the poleaxes from the enemy's hands and as they were recovering from the combined attacks, Winter and Akari move in.

Winter used the hammer side of the weapon to completely smash the knight's head in. Akari, on the other hand, used her overpowered Magic Strength Enhancers and buried the axe side into the knight, ripping it out she and her partner jumped back and put up magical barriers to block the lightning ropes that were shot out from the closest guard to them.

Winter threw his poleaxe to the best of his ability but the knight managed to dodge out of the way far before it struck him and started moving forward at the now weaponless Winter.

They were struck in the back and looked to their chest to see the poleaxe Winter had just thrown buried in his chest. Falling forward, it was so deep in them that they didn't fall flat but instead propped up on the weapon.

Two Knights were left and they were wondering how they just got their numbers cleaned so easily.

"You ready? Plan Wave!"

Akari charged forward at the two knights who formed a line to stab her, in reality, she had no way of getting through this alive, that was until Winter raised them into the air, quickly draining his power to do so.

Getting a grip on their armor was hard as the anti-magic spells were causing his wind to lose its charge and become normal air again but he was able to hold onto them long enough for Akari to spear one of them through the chest and jump back.

She took her sword out of the stone ground and threw up two fingers pointing at the floating knight. A blast of heavy fire hit the woman right in the chest sending her flying against the steps. Thanks to the heavy armor, her impact was quite harsh and when she opened her eyes, Akari was standing over them and lunged her sword forward stabbing right into the eye slits with her sword.

Her half-swording let her aim much more delicately and once she knew she struck the eye, mostly from the screams of the woman, she viciously dug around until the woman stopped moving.

Akari sighed and stood up as Winter walked over to them. The King was no longer on his throne but there was only one exit out of this room, well, two, but spies already disabled the second one.

They walk up to the throne and go behind it to find the king rapidly pressing a button that was hidden as a floor tile. He was so absorbed that he didn't notice the two killers standing right behind him, Akari gave him a hard kick in the ass making him flip over and land on his back.

He swiftly got to his knees but a sword being pointed at his face stopped him from standing.

Akari smiled under her mask as the king sighed out loud, entirely in desperation.

"What do I have to do to live...?"

"Nothing. You're practically already a dead man. The only reason you're still alive is because she hasn't chosen how to kill you." Winter shrugged and Akari's sword ignited making the king fall back.

"Wait, wait, wait! We can talk this out-!?"

He wasn't given any more time to speak as Akari walked towards him while he crawled away, with a single swing of her sword, his head was cut from him and his body fell limp. Akari took a sharp inhale and put her sword in her scabbard.

"That was amazing. Cutting the head of the snake that dared bite us will always be something I'll hold in my heart." Akari placed a hand over said organ as Winter walked over to the wall.

"You're so lucky you won that game, I would've loved to cut his head off."

The life of royalty was put on a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors and Akari won the whole thing. You would think they would take more care in something like this and they loved the idea that if they would've told the king his life would be decided by a children's game, his face would've been mad to the point he would've burst a blood vessel.

It's times like this Winter wished he had Time Magic in his arsenal but nope, that wasn't something he had.

"...Where is it? Oh, here it is?"

He was seeping wind through the stones in the wall to try and find the secret exit the king was about to use and they ran out of time as the door burst open and a group of royal guards ran into the room. Those guys were fast responders considering they should have only gotten the call a few minutes ago.

Akari took the dead body of the king and kicked it down the stairs and threw the head after it.

The dragging of stone was heard from behind Akari making her look, Winter had gotten the stone entrance open by manipulating the contraption using his wind.

"Well, well, well. Looks like we won't have time for a chat, see you never! We'll be sure to put someone competent in power next time." Akari was gloating that the Empire was soon to be in control of the country but the guards were too stunned at their dead king to even realize she was talking to them.

The guards were brutally killed too, everything about this was simply wrong in their heads. But, when they snapped out of their trance, the anger filled their bodies making them run to the secret exit only to find it closed and the Executioners were gone.

They tried to use the pressure plate to open it but nothing happened. Their job was over, the King was dead and from the rapid reports all over town, figures in power were dying to causes that were quite unknown and some too known. Protests, riots, and more than likely, the Imperials were about to march on the capital without a general to lead them.

The war was lost, their king dead, it was over for the nation of Breidal, once great, fallen to the hands to the Empire, and the only ones they could blame were themselves. Starting a war with the Empire was bad news, sure they had a few things riding for them but without a nation to call their own, who would step in?

For the people who hoped their nation would stay, it was simply impossible, for now, they could only hope their new rulers would be kind...