Building My SSS-Rank Universal Empire: From Trash to Cosmic Overlord-Chapter 220: You sent assassin

He stretched his hand and placed it atop Thane’s head, then blasted it with fire, melting the assassin’s head through. He flopped to the ground with a thud, twitched a little, and stopped moving.

Vale stood over him, staring down for some time before he canceled the Infernal Prison technique. He glanced around the room, noting the damage marks on the walls, and nodded.

Then he went through the tunnels and returned, dragging a monster’s corpse behind him. The monster was humanoid with green skin and tusks. It wasn’t like all the kills from Vale.

When he fought, he usually turned his opponents to ashes or left them half-burnt, but the monster he dropped beside the dead Thane had some uses, so he had been careful not to fry it.

Then he crouched and removed an engraved bracelet from his ring. He put it around the green-skinned monster’s hand, then, with a punch to its chest, he crushed it, snapping bones like twigs before whispering a few words and stepping back.

The monster’s body warped and twisted, overlapping with a blurry image before it snapped back to that of the monster. But the bracelet flared with light, and the blurry image solidified, turning into the image of a dead Vale.

His dead body was slack, bent at an angle, with eyes flat and lifeless. The chest was crushed.

He nodded in satisfaction. The bracelet had cost a lot, but it was worth it. If Vale didn’t know what he was staring at was actually a monster’s body, he would have been fooled. Even his senses couldn’t detect anything.

He smiled without any mirth. "Now I am dead."

Back at the core, he had sought advice from an Illusion Knight, who told him what he needed—not just any illusion but something that could trick the mind as well as the eyes.

"...Should I loot him?" Vale considered it, but he stopped himself. That would open up another branch of questioning entirely, and he had no time. Instead, he brought another bracelet from his ring and snapped it onto his right hand.

Then he whispered a few short words. He felt the illusion weave around his figure, warping him in darkness, and then... Vale wasn’t there anymore.

He could feel his hand, but when he looked down at it, he saw nothing. "Impressive," he muttered, and in the ruined hall, it felt as if a voice—an invisible voice—spoke.

He turned away and headed for the door. "Time to get down to some serious business."

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Captain Orin sat in the office he had been given and sighed again. Things weren’t going as he planned—not one bit. He had thought the Flagbearers would return with him immediately, but who knew they still wouldn’t be preparing to depart even now?

"Maybe I underestimated this place," he muttered. "It must take a lot of time and preparation to leave, and they are insisting on bringing everything of theirs.

"I wonder how the Clan Leader would take the news that the Rift was cleared with the help of his brother, the Commander," he snorted. "Or to think that he’s also instrumental in the death of three Flagbearers. I understand why he wanted him dead."

But his face was shadowed. "Shouldn’t he be done by now? That bastard can’t be playing around, can he? The Flagbearers might not necessarily support Vale, but this is still the borderland, and they likely won’t look away from an assassination if it’s shoved under their noses."

The assassin had been gone since morning, and now the sun was well into setting. "What’s happening?"

Suddenly, he heard noise from below—a painful scream that split the air, followed by a loud crash that made the window panes shake slightly.

Orin frowned and stood from his place. "What’s going on?"

He had a flying ship directly above his building, and the others would be there with just a simple signal. No one should be foolish enough to attack him directly.

But what he heard sounded suspiciously like an attack.

He stood up, and the air thickened around him as if he were encased in glass. He walked around his table toward the door when suddenly he stiffened and then dove out of the way as something cast a shadow that blocked the light coming through the window.

Something heavy slammed into the window. The defensive mechanism on its surface resisted but only a little before it gave way, and the window shattered, raining sharp shards into the room.

Captain Orin stared blankly at the window for a while, looking at what appeared to be metal made of extremely dark steel. The metal was warped into a crumpled heap as if someone big had squeezed it.

The metal shuddered and unwrapped, revealing a girl and an older man. They looked familiar, but Captain Orin didn’t immediately place them.

Instead, his pressure swelled and filled the room. He wasn’t a captain by name only. The air visibly thickened and then slammed into the two invaders, and they went down instantly, flat on their chests.

The material screeched as it was crushed and then dissolved into darkness.

"Start speaking now!" he demanded.

The girl stared at him with hate, her eyes red and brimming with tears. "You killed him! You bastard, how dare you! You will pay for it! You killed him!"

Captain Orin’s heart skipped a beat, but his voice was sharp as he asked, "Killed who?"

The woman hissed, and it was the man who answered, his voice a hollowed rumble. "Vale. Vale Athrimir. You killed him!"

Orin felt relief rush through his body, but his face showed none of it. "What are you talking about, and who are you? Ah, you’re Vale’s subordinates!"

"Why? Why did you do it?" she whispered.

Captain Orin shook his head. "What are you talking about? Do you know what you are saying? You are accusing me of killing the Clan Leader’s brother? That’s a Athrimir!"

"That didn’t stop you! You sent your assassin!"

"Assassin? There’s an assassin? Calm down! What are you even talking about?"

Slya flared up again, but Tiber wrapped his hand around her mouth. He gritted his teeth and explained. They hadn’t seen Vale return from his ruin hunting, so they went looking for him, only to find him dead, together with the assassin.