Death Guns In Another World

The Floating Capital of Avalon, the heart of the Drexia Empire, hovered in the sky like a celestial city untouched by war. Its grand towers stretched toward the heavens, adorned with banners of the empire, while the streets bustled with life. In the midst of this floating utopia stood Freya Academy, one of the most prestigious institutions of magic and combat.

Despite the brewing chaos in the outside world, the academy remained a sanctuary of learning. Students trained, studied, and laughed, unaware of the growing shadows lurking in the background.

Among them walked a man unseen by the world. A shadow hidden in plain sight.

Elias Nightshade.

A member of Alex's elite assassin squad, sent to Avalon not for war, but for vigilance. His mission was simple—observe, gather intelligence, and eliminate any threats in the dark before they could reach the light.

An Assassin in Disguise

Elias played his role perfectly.

By day, he was just another student—a second-year transfer, skilled in magic and swordsmanship but never drawing too much attention to himself. His black hair, neatly tied back, and his deep gray eyes, always half-lidded with boredom, made him appear like a reserved noble heir, uninterested in academy politics.

He attended morning lectures on magical theory, blending effortlessly with the crowd, taking notes with meticulous precision while his real focus remained elsewhere.

By midday, he trained in the academy's sparring grounds, using only the bare minimum of his skills to avoid suspicion. His movements were precise but not flashy, his victories just good enough to make him seem competent, never exceptional.

By afternoon, he spent time in the academy's library, seemingly absorbed in books—but in reality, studying the movements of suspicious individuals.

He listened. To whispers. To conversations. To rumors. Every bit of information was a potential weapon.

He wasn't the only one watching.

While Elias worked in the shadows, so did another faction—the Chaos Organization.

Disguised as students, professors, and even academy staff, they were embedded deep within Freya Academy, preparing for something big.

In a secluded part of the academy's underground levels, a covert meeting was taking place.

A man in a professor's robes, Professor Varlen, stood at the center of a dimly lit chamber, surrounded by four other spies. His eyes gleamed with madness as he placed a map of the academy on the table.

"The time is near," he murmured. "The final pieces are falling into place. Soon, we will strike, and Avalon will burn."

One of the spies, a young woman posing as a student, grinned. "The barriers around the city are strong, but we've already started weakening them. It won't be long before we can summon something powerful enough to bring this floating empire crashing down."

Another spy, a staff member in the academy's security division, crossed his arms. "What about the high-ranking students? If they interfere, the plan could be ruined."

Professor Varlen's smirk widened. "Let them try. We will unleash nightmares upon them."

Unbeknownst to them, Elias was already aware of their movements.

He had spent the last three weeks tracking their activities—the encrypted messages, the secret gatherings, the strange shipments arriving at night. He knew they were planning something massive.

But his mission was not to strike first.

Not yet.

He worked best alone in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to eliminate threats without raising alarms.

As he sat in the library that evening, pretending to study an old tome, his eyes flickered toward one of the spies—a "student" named Mark, who had been moving suspiciously for days.

Elias smirked to himself.

Soon.

The shadows belonged to him.

And when the time came—he would end them all but at least for now he must keep pretending.

The floating capital had always been a city of brilliance, a place where knowledge flourished and the young minds of Freya Academy honed their skills. But in recent weeks, a dark undercurrent had crept beneath the surface.

Students were disappearing.

It started subtly—first, just rumors of students failing to return to their dorms. Then, those who went missing stopped showing up to classes altogether. Professors dismissed it as runaways or students simply dropping out, but Elias knew better.

The academy had strict security measures. No one could just 'disappear' without leaving a trace.

And yet, there were no signs of struggle, no traces of magic, no ransom notes—nothing.

Just silence.

Elias couldn't ignore it anymore.

This wasn't just the work of the Chaos Organization.

This was something else.

Thus the Investigation Begins.

Elias started where any good hunter would—the last known locations of the missing students.

The first place the Dormitories.

Late at night, he prowled the student dormitories, blending into the shadows, listening to whispered conversations. Many spoke in hushed tones about the disappearances, fear growing among the students.

"They say Lionel vanished from his bed last night…" one student murmured.

"No one even saw him leave?" another asked.

"Nothing. His roommate swore he was there before he fell asleep. When he woke up, Lionel was just gone."

Elias narrowed his eyes. No signs of forced entry. No noise. That meant one of two things—

Magic. Or an inside job.

Following the Training Grounds

The next location was the academy's sparring grounds. Some of the missing students had last been seen training here before they vanished.

Elias examined the ground, searching for irregularities. There were faint traces of mana in the air, but nothing powerful enough to indicate a battle had taken place.

That meant whoever was behind the disappearances had either taken them instantly or lured them away without struggle.

Lastly the Underground Catacombs

The academy was built atop ancient ruins, and deep beneath its foundations lay forgotten tunnels and catacombs. Many of them were sealed off, but Elias knew there were always ways to slip through.

If students were being taken without a trace, there was a high possibility that someone was using the underground passages.

He found his entrance through an old storage room in the academy's western wing, slipping through a broken section of stone into the dark corridors below.

The air was damp. The walls were lined with old, flickering torches.

Elias moved silently, following the faint traces of footprints and the lingering aura of something… wrong.

As he ventured deeper into the catacombs, Elias began hearing faint whispers.

Not words.

Not voices.

Something… unnatural.

His grip tightened on his hidden daggers as he pressed forward, staying close to the walls. The air grew colder, the torches flickering unnaturally.

Then, he saw it.

A ritual site.

A circle of dark symbols drawn in blood. Candles flickering with an eerie, violet glow.

And at the center, a group of cloaked figures.

At least six of them stood in a circle, chanting in an unknown language. Behind them were the missing students, suspended in mid-air, their bodies lifeless—neither dead nor alive.

Elias' eyes sharpened.

This wasn't the work of the Chaos Organization.

This was something else entirely.

A dark cult.

He had found his answer.

Now, it was time to deal with them.

Like a Silent Executioner Elias did not hesitate.

Like a shadow, he moved.

A flick of his wrist—a dagger flew through the air, piercing the throat of one of the cloaked figures. The chanting stopped abruptly as the body collapsed, blood pooling on the cold stone.

Before the others could react, Elias was already upon them.

His second blade slashed across another cultist's neck, severing flesh before they could even scream.

The remaining four turned, one of them unleashing a burst of dark magic. A violet arc of energy raced toward Elias, but he twisted his body, narrowly dodging before closing the distance.

He drove his dagger straight into the caster's heart.

Three left.

One of them tried to run. Elias threw a knife, nailing them to the stone wall. Their body twitched before going still.

The last two drew weapons—curved daggers imbued with cursed energy.

They charged.

Elias deflected the first strike with ease, twisting his body to counter with a brutal slash across the attacker's chest. Blood sprayed across the ritual symbols.

The final cultist turned to flee—only to find Elias already behind them.

With a swift motion, Elias drove his blade through their spine.

They gasped, then went limp.

With the cultists dead, the ritual's magic lost its hold. The suspended students dropped to the ground, unconscious but alive.

Elias moved quickly, checking their pulses. Weak, but stable.

They had been used as vessels for an unknown ritual.

He needed to report this back to Alex.

But first…

Elias scorched the ritual site.

With a vial of alchemical fire, he burned the symbols, the bodies, and any traces of the dark magic.

As the flames consumed the unholy remains, Elias looked up toward the academy above.

This was just the beginning.

Whoever these cultists were, they weren't acting alone.

And Elias would find them all.

It was fun to play the infiltrator role, if only Drei his leader were to know this, the latter would have facepalmed.