"Mistakes are costly, huh..."

  Silver Forge looks back and regrets giving this woman so much time to fight against them because of his mistake, thousands of plants cling to his subordinates. Or rather, to the corpses of his subordinates.

  "What did that man do to deserve this?"

  He asks the woman whose life belongs to her, but she just shakes her head. Until the end, Sky Petal answered none of his questions.

  Silver Forge has died.

  Elsewhere in the magic formation, remnants of fire and electricity decorate the environment, the earth is divided by dozens of cuts, and not only that, the corpses of proud hunters lie on the ground, stripped of the pride with which they faced life.

  "We only serve under that contractor, our loyalty is not with him."

  The ranker loses his beastly appearance and begs for his life and that of his companion. The scarlet-haired ranker only bites her lips, she doesn’t want to beg for her life, but she doesn’t want to lose it either.

  Serene Will thinks for long seconds, then sighs.

  "Damn! I knew it!"

  The woman is the first to attack followed by the man, but the level gap is not the only consideration. Talent is too.

  Both rankers' Ways cannot withstand the incomplete Way of Serene Will. The fire snake is divided, and its body vanishes, the counterattack harms its master. The man turns into a beast for a few seconds, but although his electric breath is lethal even for Serene Will, he could not dodge the woman's sword.

  With a single sword cut, both rankers die.

  After seeing their bodies fall to the ground, Serene Will comes to her senses and flies to a corner of this limited space. The next moment the environment changes, she has returned to the destroyed mansion.

  Before her, Sky Petal was already there.

  The last to arrive is Coldness Divine. She snorts at seeing the looks from wives one and two.

  "Hmph, my Way is the most complex of all. I could have finished earlier, but I chose not to."

  Serene Will smiles and says: "You forget about Sky Petal's Way."

  "My Way was granted to me by birth, it's not good to compare with me."

  The relaxed conversation between the three women would make it seem as if they had returned from a hiking trip, but nothing could be further from the truth. Although their looks and words show no sign of concern, their bodies are full of wounds. Their beautiful garments are stained red, blood that belongs not only to their enemies.

  Clap. Clap. Clap.

  Applause interrupts their conversation.

  "Sky Petal, now I remember."

  The speaker is the sole survivor of this massacre, the target for which they attacked this mansion. Thousand Leaves, one of Sky Petal's clients.

  "You are that woman from the Unquenchable Fire Brothel. Why are you doing this despite us getting along so well?"

  While Serene Will and Coldness Divine frowned, the person involved paid no attention to Thousand Leaves' words.

  Because for Sky Petal, who she slept with was not important.

  The only thing that affected her was that she could no longer travel the world in search of flora unknown to the world.

  "You're part of my past, I must erase you so as not to affect our future."

  She herself is not very interested in eliminating her former clients, but she must do it not for herself, but for the women by her side, for her husband, and for her son. Nothing must relate her to that brothel.

  Thousand Leaves frowns, unable to believe what he's hearing. "Is that all? For that one reason my life and the lives of others are being threatened?"

  Others? Upon hearing this, they all realize something strange is happening. Because their target should not know what happened to the rest, unless--

  "They warned me that this would happen and to be prepared for that eventual moment."

  At that instant, different portals appear around him. "If I delayed the reinforcements until now, it was because I wanted to know the true responsible party, know their intentions. Nothing is more disappointing than knowing the truth."

  The magic formation Denial Domain should block his advances, preventing him from summoning beings from the outside, but the glow of the environment and his rings show that, rather than stopping, the invocation is about to successfully conclude.

  Serene Will realizes this and activates her innate ability. Her expression darkens as she obtains the results.

  "This is bad!"

  The teleportation magic isn't summoning reinforcements from the outside, but...

  "This magic aims to summon the dormant hunters hidden underground!"

  From the start, Thousand Leaves was able to face this situation, but instead allowed Silver Forge and his men to die solely to get answers. Answers that did not match the warning given by a partner at the Unquenchable Fire Brothel.

  They were lying to him, all this happened because they couldn't control their women.

  Both Serene Will, Sky Petal, and Coldness Divine know the situation is irreversible. If they kill that man, they will only advance the activation of the magic, while if they allow him to continue, the outcome will be the same.

  This is the worst outcome.

  Coldness Divine watches the man silently, then clenches her teeth. She didn't want this to happen, she needed more time, perhaps if she decides to end her own life the result might be different... But she doesn't want this to end up being the only one to remember it.

  She makes up her mind. If the result is going to be the same, she might as well try.

  Coldness Divine brings her fingers together and forms a frame in front of her eyes. Through her fingers, she observes Thousand Leaves, but not in the current moment.

  But in the past.

  "What--?"

  The moment Thousand Leaves feels something strange is happening, it's already too late.

  All his movements start to rewind. The movement of his lips, the advance of the teleportation magic, even the beating of his heart rewinds to a previous state. Even as his body moves in reverse, his eyes show the terror of what he is experiencing.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Because this magic may rewind his time, but not his memories.

  Serene Will and Sky Petal watch in astonishment at Coldness Divine, no one should be able to control time to this point, but they quickly understand that this is a magic with a huge penalty.

  Blood drips from her nose and her aura weakens by the second, she is suffering internal damage at a great rate. It's a magic whose losses are much greater than the gains.

  As soon as Thousand Leaves rewinds to the moment before truly activating the teleportation magic, Coldness Divine stops rewinding time and yells at Serene Will.

  "Do it now!"

  Serene Will does not delay in responding and appears in front of Thousand Leaves, cutting off both his arms in an instant.

  "AAAAGH!"

  The teleportation magic is successfully interrupted when the rings lose their connection with their master and the golden glow around the mansion disappears. Coldness Divine falls from the sky and before touching the ground is held by Sky Petal.

  "Are you okay?"

  "Yes, I just need to rest. Don't waste time on me, destroy the evidence and gather the valuables. I'll wait for you here."

  Serene Will and Sky Petal look at each other and then nod, leaving Coldness Divine in place. Once no one is looking at her, she coughs up a mouthful of blood and her appearance looks even worse than before.

  "Hah... hah... hah..."

  The proud Coldness Divine is nowhere to be seen, just a badly injured woman, but despite this, her eyes show a burning fire that nothing could extinguish.

  Perhaps for another, eliminating the evidence and looting the mansion would be impossible to complete in less than an hour, but not for the Omniscient View of Serene Will and Sky Petal's control of the plants. Money, jewels, magic artifacts, spiritual herbs, and even pill recipes, all his treasures were in his treasure vault without hiding them like other clients did.

  Because he was confident of winning, all this happened.

  "Aagh! Let me go! You don't know the mistake you're making!"

  Gone is all nobility in Thousand Leaves, with his dismembered arms, his face aged a few years and his state could not be worse.

  "I work with too many pill refiners, I have deep relations with the Lunar Cascade Sect. I'm not like those small fry you usually catch! Letting me live will be a lesser evil compared to killing me!"

  Currently, he is tied to a bed, unable to move even a strand of his hair. What causes him so much terror and why he is talking nonstop is the sword floating two meters away, whose target is none other than his neck.

  When the countdown reaches zero, his life will have ended.

  "Those damn pill refiners never come out of hiding, I'm the only one who can negotiate with them. My death means the loss of multiple pill refiners, can you handle the consequences? Even my enemies will want to seek revenge!"

  But his screams enter deaf ears, the three women make one last confirmation before departing. As soon as they set off, Thousand Leaves despairs.

  "I can give those refiners to you! Their treasures and their secrets will be yours! Your futures will be unlimited!"

  He breaks down in tears after losing sight of them.

  His pleas soon turn into insults, but there's no one left to hear them.

  "Damn bitches! If it weren't for the Unquenchable Fire Brothel, I--!"

  The counter reaches zero, and the sword cuts his head, unknowing of what's happening, his eyes blink for the last time on the ground.

  Thousand Leaves has died.

  At that same moment, dozens of portals open, and from them emerge the dormant hunters hidden underground. In just seconds, they reach their best state to fight, but they quickly understand that it is no longer necessary to do so, as there is nothing left to do.

  In the battlefield, there is nothing to link his death to the assassin.

  +++

  After getting off work, Lawrence immediately senses the strange atmosphere in Agares City. Normally, this is a bustling city, where all the minor hunters feel they have the world in their hands, living happily unaware of its true nature.

  But today, everyone looks down and there are fewer pedestrians than usual.

  "What could have happened?"

  Cautiously, he heads home, certain that in the coming days, the rumor will reach his ears whether he wants it or not, there is no need to get answers at this moment. He was acting just like the others, when a commotion occurs at the entrance of the city.

  "Make way! The Lunar Cascade Sect has gone mad!"

  Dozens of injured enter through the city gates, all belonging to the Sacred Rock Sect.

  "You will pay for this! My fellow disciples will not die in vain!"

  "Ha!"

  A snort is heard in the distance. Soon, disciples of the Lunar Cascade Sect enter the city, among them are injured disciples, but their lives are not in danger.

  "So far, our Lunar Cascade Sect has acted passively, you know very well who is right or wrong. It’s too late to ask for mercy!"

  The disciples from both sects were ready to fight again, when a deep voice stops them.

  "Fighting is forbidden within the city! Lower your weapons and I'll pretend nothing happened."

  A knight from the Gray Army reminds them of the city laws, and the disciples separate, a minor penalty compared to what would happen with an unnamed hunter. The main sects clearly have authority within the Heavenly Path Kingdom.

  Lawrence steps aside and watches the injured pass in front of him, once they disappear in the distance, he hears a passerby speak.

  "Could this have something to do with the destruction of that mansion this morning?"

  After hearing this, he frowns.

  ‘Could it be...?’