Hitman with a Badass System

Amidst the bustling crowd, a young man with a full beard and long, flowing black hair carefully cradled a steaming mug. The scent wafting from it was a fragrant symphony that caused heads to turn and noses to twitch.

One passerby exclaimed, "What is that heavenly smell?"

A woman next to him inquired, "Is it from that guy's mug?"

As the young man weaved through the crowd, people couldn't help but murmur their curiosity.

"It smells like fresh-baked bread."

"Or maybe cinnamon and apples?"

He finally reached the library, where a hush fell over the readers as they caught a whiff of the delightful aroma. One elderly scholar remarked, "It's been ages since I smelled something so inviting."

The young man threaded his way through the readers until he reached a secluded corner. His lips moved soundlessly as he muttered, "Poor bastards."

Then, with a deft touch, he pulled a particular book from the shelf. A soft click echoed in the silence as the bookshelf swung open, revealing a concealed passage.

The young man stepped into the dimly lit corridor, gently closing the door behind him.

The secret passage led the young man down a winding staircase into the heart of the underground. As he reached the bottom, the passage opened into a grand, spacious hall. The vast chamber was alive with the diligent work of dwarves mining glistening golden orbs.

One of the dwarves, his pickaxe striking true, looked up and caught a whiff of the aromatic brew from the young man's mug. "Is that coffee from 'The Grand'?" he asked, momentarily distracted from his task.

The young man chuckled, setting the mug aside on a nearby stone. "Focus on your work before she catches you slacking off," he advised.

Another dwarf, with a mischievous glint in his eye, chimed in, "If we get caught, we can always use your name to escape, right?"

Amidst the laughter that followed, the young man grinned and replied, "She'd kick my ass first and then probably bury you all."

As he continued to make his way towards the center of the hall, a dwarf on his way to mine another golden orb muttered to his companion, "She seems really in the mood today."

The young man, overhearing the remark, grinned wryly. "Mood is an understatement."

Then, as he walked away, one of the dwarves couldn't resist calling out to him, "Don't let them live, Ricky!"

In the center of the grand hall, Ricky beheld a grim tableau. Three young men hung by their bound hands, their bodies bruised and battered, blood dripping from fresh wounds. Their faces bore the marks of a merciless beating, and their eyes held a mixture of pain and despair.

Nearby, a young woman with raven-black hair, dressed in dark, imposing armor, leaned casually back in her chair. She was none other than the Dark Queen Gaya herself.  At this moment, she was asleep, her chest rising and falling with each slow breath.

Ricky approached cautiously, the mug of coffee in hand, and whispered, "Dark Queen."

Gaya's nose twitched, and her eyes fluttered open as the delightful aroma of the coffee reached her senses. She sat up, blinking away drowsiness, and regarded Ricky with an air of calculated indifference.

Ricky's gaze drifted to the three men hanging nearby, their pain evident. He saw the stains of their blood on the ground and fresh wounds on their bodies. Gaya's fists were smeared with crimson, a testament to her interrogation methods.

Quietly, Ricky stepped closer, standing behind her. Gaya turned her gaze toward him, her eyes piercing. With a sip of the coffee, she finally asked, "What took you so long?"

Gaya, with a no expression, commanded Ricky, "Get them some healing potions."

The three men, still hanging and weakly muttering, shook their heads and whispered, "No, no, no," in a feeble attempt to refuse.

Ricky walked over to the dwarf stationed on the other side of the hall. With a simple nod, he signaled the dwarf, who promptly pulled down a lever. The mechanism activated, lowering the three injured men to the ground.

Now, on the floor, they looked up at Ricky with desperation in their eyes and muttered weakly for help, "Please... help... us..."

Ignoring their pleas, Ricky swiftly reached for the gleaming blue potions and, with gentle but firm hands, forced the liquid down their throats. Almost instantly, the magical elixir began its work. Their wounds closed, the bruising faded, and a renewed light of vigor returned to their eyes.

The moment the three men were healed and regained enough strength to shout, they began pleading with Gaya, their voices trembling with desperation.

"We don't know anything!" one of them cried out.

Ricky, having returned to Gaya's side and now standing behind her, felt no pity for the men. They held the secret to something that could turn the Guardian Guild into a super power once again.

Gaya, her expression unchanging, placed her coffee aside and leaned forward, her dark armor creaking softly. She addressed the men with a tone of authority, "Tell me where the plans are, and I'll spare your families."

The three men, now shouting and screaming, continued to beg for mercy, their voices trembling with fear and desperation. "Please, Dark Queen, have mercy! We don't know anything about those plans!"

Gaya chuckled darkly at their pleas. "I am a merciful Dark Queen," she mused, "which is why I've been generous enough to provide you with valuable healing potions." Her tone turned colder as she continued, "It seems it's you who are heartless, chugging down these healing elixirs and yet refusing to give me what I want."

The men's pleas fell on deaf ears as Gaya leaned back in her chair, waiting for them to reveal the information she sought.

Gaya sighed, her patience waning, and stood up from her chair. Ricky swiftly handed her a club, knowing what was about to happen. With the club in hand, Gaya approached the three men who were still hanging, their faces etched with fear.

In a cold and commanding tone, Gaya asked once more, "I will ask again, where are those plans?"

As she clenched the club tightly, Gaya advanced toward them. The tension in the room was thick, and the three men could feel the impending punishment.

Gaya's voice grew even colder as she continued, "You have no idea how much effort and work it took my husband, the Dark Lord, and me to dismantle the Guardian Guild. Months of meticulous planning and secrecy—all of it threatened by one asshole with giant brain,"

She stopped in front of them, her eyes narrowing with intensity, and demanded, "Now, where are those plans?"

Gaya swung the club with swift, brutal force, striking one of the men square on the skull. He cried out in agony as the blow sent searing pain through his head. She then turned her attention to the man in the middle, whose brown hair was now matted with blood, and his face had turned an eerie shade of pale.

As Gaya was interrogating, another figure materialized within the hall. It was none other than Azazel himself, as composed and impeccably dressed in his butler uniform as ever.

"My lady, it's done. Their families are secured," Azazel reported.

"NO!"

"Leave my family alone!"

"Please, I beg you, don't hurt my family!"

The three men began to shout for mercy, but Gaya paid them no heed. Instead, she took a mirror offered by Azazel and showed it to them. In the mirror, the three men saw their own families, tied to chairs in their own homes, their faces etched with fear and desperation.

"Did you encounter any trouble?" Gaya inquired of Azazel.

"Nothing I couldn't handle, Dark Queen. Though I did face some challenges locating their families, it cost a few guardians their lives," Azazel responded, an amused tone in his voice.

"You know what they say: a good guardian is a dead guardian," Gaya chuckled.

"Azazel, would you like to give it a try? These assholes handpicked by Noah are pissing me off. I fear I might just kill them if I continue," Gaya sighed in exasperation. The three men hanging before her belonged to the Guardian Guild. Despite Michael's dismantling of the original Guardian Guild, Noah had seen it as an opportunity to establish his own version of the guild.

As anticipated, Noah had meticulously reconstructed the Guardian Guild from the ground up, subjecting every guardian to rigorous physical and mental training. Even Gaya found it challenging to break them.

"I truly miss him in situations like this. That bastard would simply flick his wrist, produce some potent potion, and poof! They'd spill the truth like drunken pirates," Gaya lamented, her longing for Michael evident in her voice.

"Now that we have their families, why not let them witness their loved ones' demise, Dark Queen?" Azazel calmly proposed.

At the mention of this, the three men panicked, their hearts skipping a beat.

"I didn't want to resort to that, but these assholes," Gaya seethed and impulsively hurled a club at one of them in a fit of anger, "are leaving me no choice."

"No, no, no, no... spare our families!"

"You'll pay for this, you evil bitch!" one of the guardians shouted, but the smile on Azazel's face slowly faded, replaced by an icy coldness. Ricky knew all too well what was about to happen.

Azazel materialized before the guardian in a blur, striking with deadly precision. He punched through the guardian's chest, grasping his still-beating heart.

"Now, witness your family's demise as your own heartbeat falters," Azazel declared in a chilling tone. With a flick of his wrist, a mirror floated in the air before the guardian. Inside the mirror, the guardian's family was bound to their chairs. Suddenly, figures cloaked in black robes appeared in the feed, forcing a green misty potion down the family members' throats.

"No..." the guardian uttered, while the other two watched in helpless despair as the family met their end, foam oozing from their mouths. Although the potion brought swift, painless death, their bodies writhed and twitched, as if undergoing agonizing torment.

Under normal circumstances, Ricky might have felt sympathy for the families. However, the plans Hammond had devised posed a dire threat to all of them. Moreover, the Guardians were ruthlessly hunting down anyone who supported the Dark Army or even mentioned the Dark Lord.

Even Noah, when it came to the Dark Lord, had become a tyrant.

"We can extract the truth about the plans through other means, Azazel. Just finish their families and be done with it," Gaya ordered Azazel, her eyes harboring a hidden agenda.

"No, I'll tell you. Please, spare my family," the guardian finally broke, his resolve crumbling after witnessing his fellow guardian's demise and the death of his own family.

"Speak," Gaya demanded.

"The plans... they are enroute to the dwarves in the Windgate Mountains... please, release my family," the guardian pleaded.

"Windgate Dwarves, the rising guild of the proud dwarves," Gaya mused.

"Azazel, inform Aria to take care of it. I want those plans on my desk by tomorrow," Gaya instructed as she turned her attention to the dwarves who were diligently mining.

"If anyone breathes a word about what transpired here, you know the consequences, right?" Gaya questioned the dwarves, who froze in their tracks. These twenty dwarves were fiercely loyal to the Dark Lord, yet Gaya maintained a tight leash on them.

"Yes, Dark Queen," they chorused in unison.

However, just as Gaya was preparing to depart, a portal materialized before her, and Daniel rushed out with bloodstained hands.

"Dark Queen!" Daniel exclaimed in a panic, causing Gaya to furrow her brows.

"What happened?" she inquired.

"It's Cindy... she... She..." Daniel stuttered, clearly in shock.

Gaya's heart skipped a beat upon hearing his words. She swiftly moved to grab Daniel by his collar.

"What happened to her?!" Gaya's voice reverberated throughout the mine.

"An undead bit her... she's not healing..." Daniel replied, shocking everyone present.