Within the Grey Zone's alley combat area, the slaughter continued. Rin was surrounded by over a dozen cadets, attacked from all sides. His treacherous teammate already lay in a pool of blood. Though his "Shunpo" and "Shadow Strike" were powerful, under the sheer numerical disadvantage, every dodge was perilous, and every attack was costly. His stamina was rapidly draining, and wounds began to appear on his body.
"Die!" a burly cadet roared, his massive axe whistling through the air, cleaving down towards Rin's head. Rin barely evaded a fatal blow, but the axe's aftershock still grazed his shoulder, tearing his clothes and leaving a deep, bone-visible gash. Excruciating pain surged through him, and Rin stumbled, dropping to one knee.
"Get him! Don't let him escape!"
The surrounding cadets swarmed him, daggers, short swords, ropes—various weapons coiled around Rin like venomous snakes. Rin's consciousness began to blur, the dense footsteps and sneers ringing in his ears. He felt the poison in his system acting up again, his body becoming heavy, as if pulled by countless hands, plummeting into the abyss of death.
"No… I can't fall here!"
On the brink of death, a fierce will to survive and an obsession with the truth once again ignited the deepest instincts within him.
However, this time, what awakened was not a skill, but a memory.
As if a lightning bolt tore through the darkness, Rin's consciousness was pulled into a crimson vortex. He saw a scene he had never imagined, a truth that deeply shook him.
In the vision, it was the organization's cold and solemn headquarters, with endless snowfields visible outside tall, floor-to-ceiling windows. And what he saw was Ye Xue.
She knelt on the ground, slender and fragile, yet her back was ramrod straight, exuding an unyielding stubbornness. Before her were several high-ranking members of the organization, cloaked in black robes, their faces hidden in shadow, leaving only cold silhouettes.
"I implore the elders to cancel the execution order for the 'Blade of Demise'!" Ye Xue's voice was hoarse with suppressed emotion, yet exceptionally firm. "He did not betray the organization; he merely… he merely completed his mission!"
A high-ranking member scoffed, his voice piercing like ice: "Ye Xue, you overstep your bounds. The existence of the 'Blade of Demise' has become a threat to the organization. His power, his loss of control, can no longer be underestimated."
"No! He can be controlled! He can continue to serve the organization!" Ye Xue suddenly lifted her head, her eyes filled with pleading and urgency. "He is the strongest weapon; he cannot be destroyed!"
However, the high-ranking members were unmoved. They merely issued a cold, ruthless verdict: the "Blade of Demise" was a discarded pawn and must be eliminated.
Rin saw Ye Xue's despair. She tried to persuade them again and again, even risking her own life as collateral. Her body trembled, her voice trembled, that urgency and reluctance were so real, so heartbreaking. She seemed to be trying to save someone profoundly important to her.
Finally, when all her efforts proved futile, Ye Xue slowly, despairingly, lowered her head. The high-ranking members issued the final command, their voices icy and without mercy:
"The mission will be executed by you personally, 'Cold Moon'."
In the vision, Ye Xue's body trembled violently. She slowly lifted her head, and her clear eyes were now filled with pain and struggle. Rin clearly saw the tears in her eyes, and the despair of being forced into a corner.
However, she ultimately stood up. She did not resist, merely silently accepted the dagger—the dagger entirely forged from ice, its guard carved with the snowflake motif.
She slowly walked towards him. No, towards the "Blade of Demise."
Holding the ice blade, she approached step by step, each step as if treading on her own heart. Her face bore a kind of numb sorrow, yet her gaze could never meet that of the "Blade of Demise."
Finally, she stopped before him. Rin clearly saw her hand trembling, the ice blade humming faintly with her tremor. She closed her eyes, tears streaming down her face.
Then, with her own hand, she plunged that ice blade into his chest.
—It was Ye Xue. It was her own hand.
But her eyes… her tears… her trembling…
The memory fragment abruptly ended.
Rin was violently pulled back from the illusion, excruciating pain instantly rushing through his entire body. He lay in a pool of blood, the enemies around him wearing savage smiles, their daggers descending towards him.
"Was she forced?"
This thought exploded in his mind like a thunderclap, consuming all his awareness. He was no longer the "Blade of Demise" simply betrayed; he saw a "Cold Moon Assassin" forced to the brink by fate.
Just as the enemies' daggers were about to strike, an unprecedented force, mingled with immense rage and sorrow, erupted from Rin's body. He didn't even use "Shadow Strike" or "Shunpo"; it was a pure, instinctive counterattack.
His body sprang up like a coiled spring, his short dagger cutting a deadly arc in the air.
"Ah—!"
Screams erupted one after another. Rin's attacks were utterly ruthless and reckless. His eyes were still cold, but within that coldness, a complex, ineffable emotion was intertwined. He eliminated all his enemies in the fastest, most brutal way possible.
When all threats were neutralized, Rin collapsed back into the pool of blood, gasping for breath. His wounds caused intense pain, but he seemed not to feel it.
In his mind, there were only Ye Xue's tear-filled eyes, and the image of her trembling as she thrust the dagger.
Was she forced? If she was forced, then who was the true mastermind? Those "high-ranking members" who gave the order? Or the mysterious voice that whispered to him in his dream, "Blade of Demise, you have finally awakened"?
Rin's inner turmoil was no longer simple hatred but replaced by deeper confusion and a need for verification. He had to find Ye Xue; he had to get to the bottom of all this. This was not just for his own past, but also for the "Cold Moon Assassin" who had cried for him in his memory.
This trial of life and death had become the beginning of his search for truth, for the other half of his destiny. Amidst the slaughter, he saw her, and he saw the bloody and complicated past between them.