Hitman with a Badass System

As blood trickled down her mouth, Eve looked over her shoulder to see Noah breathing heavily. The spear he had thrown, cutting through the raging storm created by the fighting hydras, had taken everything out of him. He was gasping for air, and a flicker of regret passed through his eyes. If he hadn't thrown that spear, Eve might have killed Salesi, and Noah couldn't allow that. He had already lost his wife, Alicia, and his lover, Xanali—Salesi's daughter, whose meridians had been shattered by Gaya. He couldn't let Eve kill Xanali's mother.

Taking advantage of Eve's stunned state, Salesi quickly picked up a nearby dagger and plunged it into Eve's heart, eliciting a gush of blood.

"I win, bitch," Salesi snickered with an evil grin.

However, a chill ran down Salesi's spine when she saw a grin spread across Eve's face.

"You have no idea what's going to happen to you, your little kingdom, and your son-in-law…" Eve said, coughing up blood, hinting at the vengeance that would soon befall them at the hands of her friend, the Dark Lord.

"EVE!" Lenora's shout echoed across the battlefield as Salesi watched the elder vampire charging through the armored soldiers with her companion Trista. However, Salesi's soul army was formidable enough to keep the elder vampires from reaching Eve in time.

As Eve reached for a healing potion, Ayag's head unleashed a volley of golden lightning bolts at Mugashuku. One stray bolt struck the ground near Eve, sending her flying before she could grasp the healing potion within her armor. The sheer force of the lightning bolt not only sent Eve flying but also knocked back Noah and Salesi.

Eve's breath hitched, each gasp a crimson bubble escaping her mangled lips. A final, defiant rasp escaped her throat as darkness bloomed at the edges of her vision.

"Ghost will come... for all of you..." she croaked, the words a chilling promise echoing through the battlefield.

Memories flooded her mind, a bittersweet montage of happier times. She saw how Ghost helped her break her bottleneck in cultivation, saving her and her family. Then, she saw her time with Gaya, little Cindy and the training with the dark army and the good times they all shared laughing and dining.

But at that moment, she didn't regret her demise. Instead, she regretted dying without finishing Salesi, without ending this bloody war.

Above, the two colossal hydras continued their earth-shattering duel, oblivious to the drama unfolding below. Noah's anguished cry reached Eve's fading consciousness, a distant echo swallowed by the din of battle.

Tears welled up, blurring her vision further. Eve tilted her head back, the chaotic scene above dissolving into a canvas of swirling colors. The sky lost its color, morphing into an endless sea of darkness. "So close..." she muttered.

Then, with a soft sigh, Eve surrendered to the encroaching darkness. When Eve closed her eyes, a subtle change permeated the atmosphere. A thick, palpable energy radiated from her, causing the realm tear in the sky to widen unexpectedly. Mugashuku, noticing both Eve's demise and the subsequent alteration in the tear, frowned deeply.

"Something is odd about her death… the energy escaping her body… it doesn't belong to the mortal realm," one of Mugashuku's heads commented to the others.

"I've noticed too. It's also causing the realm tear to expand," another head added, dodging a volley of lightning bolts from Ayag and evading the sonic waves from Sarba's head.

"FOCUS!" roared another head, urging its siblings to maintain their concentration.

Suddenly, another realm tear appeared in the sky, this one an emerald green streak, black as if a stroke of dark lightning had sliced through the atmosphere. The thunderous boom that followed momentarily halted the soldiers in their tracks. Those who had been desperate to escape the chaos of the battlefield and the deadly hydras now looked up in dread at the new tear.

"What is happening?"

"Another realm tear!"

"No, no, no… not another hydra!"

Panic ensued among the soldiers, their voices filled with despair. However, no giant claw or hydra emerged from this new tear. Instead, something far more ominous and dangerous appeared: the Dark Lord. Noah's body tensed, his fists clenched tightly as he recognized his brother stepping through the realm tear.

"He is here," Salesi muttered under her breath, her voice tinged with excitement. She had thought that kidnapping Harry would lure the Dark Lord back to the mortal realm. But upon seeing the Dark Lord's intense gaze fixed upon Eve's lifeless form, Salesi realized that he hadn't come for his son but for his best friend. Kneeling beside Eve's lifeless body, Michael felt a heavy sorrow weigh upon his shoulders. The battlefield's chaos blurred into the background as he focused solely on his fallen friend.

"Eve…" he whispered again, his voice barely audible. Gently, he placed his hand on her forehead, a futile gesture of comfort to the departed. Reaching into his coat, he pulled out a healing potion, his hands trembling slightly as he poured the liquid over her wounds. Hope flared briefly within him, but the potion merely soaked into her clothes, its magic useless against the finality of death.

[There is no healing the dead, host.] The system's voice resonated in his head, tinged with a rare hint of empathy.

"Can you bring her back? I don't care how many badass points it takes, or how many loans I need to take... just bring her back," Michael murmured, his voice thick with desperation.

[The system level is too low to bring her back, host. Even if the system level were adequate, it would require billions of badass points to resurrect her,] the system responded, outlining the stark reality of their limitations.

"So there is hope..." Michael's words were a whisper to himself, a promise in the face of overwhelming despair. He knew that resurrecting Eve would be a monumental task, potentially taking years or even decades, given the sheer number of badass points needed. Yet, the determination in his eyes was clear. He would do whatever it took, no matter how many lives he had to take or how long it would take. Eve had been more than a friend; she had been a part of his chosen family, and for her, he would move heaven and earth.

"It hurts, doesn't it?" Noah's voice cut through the silence, laced with echoes of his own grief. "To watch someone you care about die?"

"I felt that pain too," Noah growled, "the day you murdered Alicia." Regret gnawed at him, but his hatred for the Dark Lord hardened his voice, obscuring any remorse for Eve's death.

"You have no right to mourn," Noah hissed, "not when thousands have fallen by your hand.

"It's going to happen... no more schemes, no more holding back... they are going to fight to the death," Salesi added, a hint of satisfaction in her voice. Her father's plan had worked. Although the reason for the Dark Lord's return differed from her expectations, he had returned nonetheless.

"Look around, all this destruction, all this death, all this pain; it's all because of you. Because of your thirst for power. The Skyhall elders were right, you bring nothing but death to this world," Noah said, unsheathing his twin white swords from his back.

Yet, Michael remained silent. For the first time, he let his anger take over his mind. Although silent, he was far from calm—a dangerous storm raged in his heart, and Noah's words only fueled it further.

"You are going to die... no one in the entire universe can stop it," Michael's voice, when it finally came, was devoid of emotion, only a chilling promise laced with deadly intent. He then slowly rose to his feet after closing Eve's eyes, tapping the skull medallion on his chest. His dark armor sprang from the medallion, seamlessly covering him up to his neck.

Michael stood, his twin dark swords gleaming ominously as he unsheathed them from his back. His gaze locked onto Noah, filled with unrelenting killing intent. The storm of his emotions was palpable, the air around him charged with dark energy.

"No more schemes, no more coming back, no more death," Noah declared, his voice resolute. "This ends today, with one of us dying."

"Not one of us, you," Michael's response was a low growl, each word laced with killing intent.

In a blur of raw power, Noah surged forward. His twin white swords slicing through the air with deadly precision. Each strike was aimed with the intent to kill, cutting a path toward Michael with a ferocity that matched the storm raging above them. Sparks erupted in a shower as Michael met each attack head-on, his own dark blades deflecting Noah's strikes with chilling efficiency.

"Eve's death is on you!" Noah roared, his voice raw with grief and fury. He hoped to break Michael's concentration, to exploit a flicker of regret in the storm of rage.

A grim smile twisted Michael's lips. "Don't bother trying to make me lose my calm, you already did that," he rasped, his voice laced with a chilling emptiness. In a sudden and unexpected move, Michael allowed Noah's sword to pierce through his shoulder, the blade biting into his flesh. Ignoring the searing pain, Michael used the close proximity to deliver a brutal punch straight to Noah's face. The force of the impact sent Noah flying backward, crashing to the ground with a thud.

Noah quickly scrambled back to his feet, wiping the blood from his mouth. He spat out a mouthful of blood and glared at Michael, his eyes blazing with anger. "You have to do better than that," Noah said, readying himself for the next assault.