At the very top of Dawn Castle, two figures were weaving constantly across the walls, one fleeing, the other pursuing.
They kept going for quite a while before finally stopping.
On the round battlement at the top of one of the castle towers, the two figures stood on opposite sides, about thirty feet apart, each staring closely at the other.
The wind blowing past gently stirred Katarina's red hair, while her emerald-green eyes flashed with cold light and an undisguised hint of killing intent.
Across from her, Du Couteau slowly raised the hand holding his dagger, taking a stance that looked ready to strike at any moment.
He had to admit, Katarina's growth truly surprised him.
In speed, he no longer held any advantage over her.
Since he could not escape, this duel to the death was inevitable.
"Only one of us will return to Noxus in the end."
Du Couteau calmly accepted that fact, then smiled. "The token is with me. Bring it back, and you will be the strongest assassin."
"Cut the crap."
Katarina gave a cold snort, lunged forward, and charged straight at him.
The next second, Du Couteau's figure moved as well.
In the blink of an eye, the two were locked in combat. The daggers in their hands brimmed with endless killing intent, and their two figures darted back and forth across the steep top of the fortress.
The battlefield was no longer an enclosed room surrounded by walls. Without the limits of that space, and with both of their lives on the line, neither of them held anything back.
Using Shunpo was also an extremely stamina-draining skill. There was no doubt that whoever ran out of strength first would need no further explanation for their fate.
Once victory could no longer be seized through technique, what came next was a contest of raw ability.
So, standing on the pointed rooftop with only one foot braced for balance, Katarina and Du Couteau began a contest of blades.
Clang! Clang!
Four sharp daggers collided again and again, ringing out with crisp sounds and sending sparks flying.
Generally speaking, a duel between assassins was often decided within just a few exchanges.
Yet now, this father and daughter, who were practically strangers to each other, had clashed for more than a minute and still remained deadlocked, seemingly evenly matched.
Very soon, both of them realized the same problem.
They had been taught by the same master, so neither could break the other's techniques!
"Haven't you realized it yet? Every move you know was taught to you by me. The limits you can reach are all limits I gave you."
Du Couteau did not look remotely tense for someone locked in a life-or-death battle. Instead, he sneered with ease. "And I am proficient in dozens of assassination techniques you know nothing about. How could you possibly be my opponent? You have already burned through a great deal of stamina, so it is time to end this."
He could tell that Katarina had already spent a lot of strength, though the same was true for him.
But in this state, his odds of victory were higher!
His style of attack abruptly changed. Every slash became unpredictable, and each swing left behind several dagger afterimages, making it difficult to distinguish the real from the fake. His assault was ferocious.
Katarina narrowly dodged one deadly strike after another. Each blade almost grazed across her skin, and every time, she could feel a bone-chilling cold.
She kept retreating, then suddenly her foot met empty air. She had already reached the edge of the tower spire.
All she could do was leap backward with all her strength, her body rising into midair with nowhere left to push off from.
The next second, Du Couteau threw his dagger. A single dagger flew toward her, only to split into several in midair.
Every coldly gleaming dagger was real, and each carried lethal danger.
"That old bastard hid plenty of tricks up his sleeve."
Katarina had no time to think. With a Shunpo, she vanished and appeared at the other end.
However, that action seemed to have been predicted by Du Couteau. Before she could even land firmly, dozens of daggers came shooting toward her again.
The stamina Katarina had spent earlier left her unable to use Shunpo repeatedly, so without hesitation, her eyes swiftly took in the paths of ten daggers and found a space where she could dodge.
Then she leapt sideways.
Her slender, alluring figure spun twice in midair as dozens of daggers brushed past by a hair's breadth.
After landing, Katarina did not hesitate. She flashed away and opened up the distance.
"As expected of my daughter. I thought you would die just now."
Du Couteau held his dagger and revealed a rather satisfied expression. The way he looked at Katarina was like he was admiring a piece of art.
That gaze made Katarina feel deeply disgusted. Since she was young, she had never been treated as a "person." From beginning to end, she had only ever been an exhibit in his eyes.
The next second, a beautiful smile bloomed on her face. "But I really am grateful to you. You taught me many things. Do you remember something you once told me? When an assassin kills a target, she must use every means available. Mercy toward the enemy is cruelty toward herself."
"Correct. I did indeed say that to you. So please die, my daughter."
There was not a trace of mercy in the dagger Du Couteau swung. He did not mind destroying his own work of art with his own hands. At worst, he could simply make another.
With that thought, he prepared to unleash his final killing move without holding anything back.
However, the hand he raised with the dagger suddenly froze in midair.
Immediately after, the instant his body moved, he felt his heartbeat violently accelerate for a moment, as though it had suffered some kind of impact. He was losing control over his body.
Disbelief surfaced in his eyes. Du Couteau glanced at the wound on his arm and instantly understood what had happened.
He had been poisoned!
That was precisely what he found so unbelievable.
His body, like Katarina's, had endured inhuman training since childhood. From that time onward, he had also trained his resistance to poison.
It was all to prevent enemies from poisoning him in crucial battles.
By now, it could be said that his body was immune to every poison.
And yet, at this moment, he had still been poisoned?
The next second, a wave of terrible pain came, like a giant hand kneading his heart. It spread to every corner of his body, completely crushing his final resistance.
Compared to the pain in his body, what Du Couteau felt in that moment was the despair of death.
"Looks like the medicine finally took effect."
Katarina stopped guarding herself so tightly. Her body relaxed as she looked at the disbelieving Du Couteau. "The effect of this poison is enough to make you suffer. I experienced it myself."
"So that's how it is..."
Du Couteau murmured to himself. His body had completely lost control and become incomparably stiff.
He fell backward, dropping from the top of the tower toward the ground below.
With a thud, his body slammed heavily into the ground.
The next second, Katarina leapt down from the high tower and stood in front of him, looking down at Du Couteau as he lay on the ground. "Before you die, is there anything else you want to say?"
By now, Du Couteau could not even make an expression. Facing death, he did not show fear in his eyes, because he had already calmed himself.
Anyone would fear death when facing it. Even he, who had killed countless people and had long been accustomed to death, was no exception. It was just that, in this moment, he had already prepared himself to meet it.
Looking at Katarina's beautiful, outstanding face, he saw the determination to kill him in those eyes. Du Couteau opened his mouth and said, "In a true battle, some enemies will not give you the chance to poison them."
"I know. That is why next time, something like this will not happen."
Katarina answered coldly.
"Is that so? Then congratulations, Katarina. You have become the strongest assassin."
Du Couteau's words did not satisfy Katarina.
She stared at him coldly. "You're at death's door, and you have nothing else to say?"
"Do you want to hear me beg for mercy?" Du Couteau seemed to be laughing. "To be killed by my own creation is my fate. I have nothing I cannot accept."
Katarina showed a displeased expression. Her eyes seemed to burn with fire, but suddenly, she smiled in relief. "To be honest, before this, what I wanted most was your approval. It was as if, as long as you said to me, 'Katarina, you are the best,' then the scars and pain on my body would all have been worth it."
There was nothing shameful about admitting that. The first half of her life had basically been spent striving toward that goal.
It was as if, as long as she could satisfy Du Couteau, she would not even fear jumping from the roof of a building more than thirty feet high.
Even if she broke every bone in her body, she would still climb back up and force out a smile for Du Couteau.
"And now?"
"Now I realize that getting your approval is worth jack shit. Or rather, whether it is you or anyone else, it is all the same. The old me was just a frog at the bottom of a well, but is that ridiculous? No, it is not. Because that was not my doing. It was yours."
Katarina stared at Du Couteau with eyes devoid of any emotion. "So I want to tell you that my life will no longer be controlled by you. From now on, I will live for myself."
Was there any point in saying this to him? To a man who, even at death's door, had never felt the slightest guilt toward his own daughter?
Would he feel sad because of these brief words?
No.
But Katarina said them anyway, because she did not care whether this man took them in or not.
She simply wanted to say them. She wanted to spit out the words that had been pent up in her heart for so long.
She would not feel satisfied until she said them.
To her, that was meaningful enough.
Sure enough, after she finished speaking, Katarina felt much better. The knot that had always been lodged in her heart seemed to suddenly come undone.
Du Couteau did not respond to Katarina's words. His gaze also shifted away from her and turned toward Demacia's blue sky as he murmured, "I truly did not expect that one day, I would die in a foreign land."
Katarina had adjusted her state of mind by now. Looking at him, she asked, "Why did you agree to come to Demacia for Darkwill? Don't tell me you didn't know that he wanted your assassination to fail so he could use it as an excuse to move against the family and the Assassin's Guild."
In Noxus, power was scattered across many factions. Although all were collectively ruled by the Grand General, Darkwill, among his subordinates there were inevitably some who were powerful enough to threaten his position.
Without a doubt, General Du Couteau was one of them.
He did not merely control House Du Couteau, but also several smaller noble families, as well as the Assassin's Guild.
Taken together, these made Du Couteau's status in Noxus anything but ordinary.
In particular, the Assassin's Guild under his command could strike fear into many people with just the mention of its name.
Darkwill valued power more than his own life. By sending Du Couteau out this time, he wanted to find a reason to attack his forces.
"Do you think obeying and disobeying the order would have led to different outcomes?"
Du Couteau spoke calmly. "Of course I knew Darkwill feared the family's influence and the Assassin's Guild, but if I openly disobeyed orders, he would have a reason to attack all the same."
Katarina did not simply believe his explanation. "With your personality, you could have thought of many ways to solve this, yet you deliberately chose the one that made it easiest for him to find a reason to target you. Do you think I would believe this 'I was forced into it for the family's sake' excuse?"
"I did do it for the family, but there were indeed other reasons."
Du Couteau's tone remained calm, as if the terrible pain in his body did not exist at all. "Your mother and sister seem to be serving a mysterious organization. I used my disappearance as a pretense, but in truth, I also wanted to test out the organization behind them."
At the mention of her mother and sister, Katarina frowned slightly. "Then what do you know?"
"Since you were able to track me all the way to Demacia, why not investigate the rest yourself?"
Du Couteau smiled and seemed unwilling to say more.
Katarina smiled as well. "With your personality, if you had truly found proof that they were serving this so-called mysterious organization, you would have acted long ago. In other words, you actually do not know much."
"Then you will have to investigate it yourself from here on."
Du Couteau did not deny it. Immediately after, he felt the vitality in his body seem to drain away, and his complexion grew even paler. He continued, "There is one more reason. I came to Demacia to search for... a rune."
Katarina was still frowning, seemingly deep in thought.
"There are rumors that runes are a power that drives all people into obsession and madness. Possessing one is equivalent to possessing supreme authority and strength."
Du Couteau spoke quietly. "It is something even Darkwill covets desperately. I happened to learn that one rune was in Demacia. I came here to find it."
Katarina asked, "So did you find it?"
"If I had found it, the one lying here would not be me."
Du Couteau said calmly.
Katarina had no response. She felt that question had been stupid.
Du Couteau slowly added, "But I am certain it is in Demacia's royal capital."
Katarina was about to ask something else.
Suddenly, the ground shook. From the direction of the inner chamber, an extremely violent, terrifying aura of power surged toward them.
Even from far away, Katarina could feel the sheer force and pressure of that power.
She looked over and saw a torrent of orange-yellow energy surging upward. For a second, she could not help staring blankly. "Is that what you were talking about?"
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