Taron Norwood's eyes gleamed with a murderous gleam as he silently approached the newly-elected Councilor, Halbert Dawson.

He did quite well to keep his bloodlust hidden until the last possible moment. The second he made a move, the Magi of House Norwood present in the chamber also did the same. They brandished their weapons and attacked at the same time.

They were all given strict orders to take care of the targets closest to them. Of course, they wouldn't be attacking Ranzenberg's Magi. After all, the two groups were working together.

They did, however, have to kill every other person present inside the room. That was going to be quite the task given that they were quite outnumbered.

But they did have the element of surprise with them, making the assassination easier.

Moreover, once the traitors, Norwood and Ranzenberg, had finished dealing with the other two Councilors in the room, it was going to become quite easy for their men to take care of the rest.

After that, it was going to be pure carnage.

The elven Councilor, Norwood, could already see the mana extraction technique being bestowed upon him after the battle of Ravenfell had concluded.

Once he had gotten his hands on the manual, not just he, but even his family members would soar to the great arcane rank practicing it.

He could already taste victory. His eyes turned into crescent shapes, flickering with murderous glee as he thrust the poison-coated dagger straight at the clueless Halbert Dawson's back.

The elf never did like the guild leader of the Herbalsits' Guild, and was, in fact, more than happy to take care of the man.

Cold light flashed and hot blood sprayed through the air. A moment later, the surprised and blood-curdling screams of people echoed inside the room.

But something seemed off…

"What is…" Taron Norwood's cruel smile gradually vanished. He did not feel anything for a moment. No, he did feel something… something strange and… excruciating.

And then a piercing, agonizing pain radiated from his hand. He slowly lowered his head, stunned to see that his dagger-wielding hand was cleanly cut off from the wrist.

As blood gushed out like a fountain from the bloody stump, the darkness around him surged forward. A gust of cold wind brushed against his pale face, and the next moment… dark tendrils rose from the shadows and viciously coiled around his limbs and torso, severely restricting movement.

It all happened too fast. For a brief moment, he couldn't quite make sense of what was going on. But when his gaze landed on the shadowy tendrils, he knew whose magic that was…

"Daniel…" he whispered, thunderstruck.

A figure stepped out from the shadows beside him. He was slightly more than six feet in height and had a muscular and stocky build.

A sword was tightly gripped in his hand and blood dropped from its sharp blade.

Suddenly, realization dawned on the elf, and he hurriedly looked towards the other people in the chamber. Just now he had heard the desperate screams of people.

When he raised his head and looked at the bloody massacre unfolding, his eyes trembled.

Those screams… they belonged to the Magi of his family. Daniel's men were brutally killing his Magi!

Overcome by rage, Norwood turned toward the stoic, fence-sitter Daniel and screamed, his tone laced with panic and shock, "You… you betrayed—"

His following words, however, were forever buried inside of him.

Daniel's sword flashed one again, this time cleanly severing the elf's head. With a flick of his sword, he cast off the traitor's blood from his blade.

He glanced at the enraged expression still frozen on the decapitated head of the traitor and coldly muttered:

"Fool, I never betrayed Ravenfell."

By the time Norwood's bloodshot eyes had turned completely lifeless, Ranzenberg's men had already murdered the dozen or so men of the Norwood Family.

The newly elected Councilor, Halbert Dawson, who was mere moments away from getting assassinated, slowly turned around, his back drenched in cold sweat.

When he saw the elf's decapitated head and the hot blood gushing out of his cold, severed neck, he couldn't help but jump in fright and scream in a high-pitched voice, "G-goodness arcana! What… what is…"

And when the Herbalist's gaze shifted to Daniel standing beside the corpse with a sword in hand, he couldn't help but hastily retreat.

Pointing his trembling finger at the stoic man, he screamed yet again, "T-traitor! Traitor! He's the one! He's the one! Guards, apprehend him!"

Daniel cast him a cold, disdainful glance as he sheathed his sword and put it away in his storage artifact.

Seeing that the man did not speak a word, Dawson hurriedly ran towards Hammon McLeod and hid behind him.

"Councilor McLeod, we've found the traitor!" He barked, his eyes flickering with panic.

The elderly man turned to him and scoffed. "Councilor Dawson, get a hold of yourself. Daniel is not the traitor."

Dawson's eyes widened in sheer disbelief. "What are you saying?!"

Daniel and his men had just viciously slaughtered Norwood and the Magi of his family. How could he not be the traitor? How did any of this make sense?

But there was a fact only known to a very select few: just like Nylian Feno and Sabrina Benton, Daniel Ranzenberg, too, had once been a pupil of the mighty Mana Core Magus, Marcus Blackwood!

And that he had been personally sent by the Headmaster to infiltrate the Cult's forces in Ravenfell as a spy!

McLeod was one of the few people who knew about this secret, of course. Gazing at Dawson, he couldn't help but sneer, wondering if this was what a Councilor of Ravenfell was supposed to act in desperate times.

Ignoring the Herbalist, he calmly walked towards the stoic Daniel. He took a deep breath and looked at Norwood's decapitated corpse.

"…So he was the traitor," he softly muttered, his old eyes flashing with conflicting emotions.

Daniel remained silent for a long time. Then, he said evenly, "There is another one."

Since he had been working with Cult all this while, it had become impossible for him to send crucial information to his allies. The cultists were always monitoring his every move, preventing him from doing most things.

It was only now that Daniel was able to truly act, but... it was already too late. The battle of Ravenfell had already begun, and countless people had perished.

McLeod involuntarily clenched his fists. He had a good guess as to who the other traitor was.

"Ballard," he spat through gritted teeth.

Daniel silently nodded his head.

He then looked around at the bloody scene in the chamber. Norwood's men lay dead on the floor, while the rest of the people gathered had pale and thunderstruck looks on their faces.

His brows furrowed into a knot, and he couldn't help but ask the question that had been pressing on his heart all this while:

"Where is Sabrina?"

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