The Shadow Warriors, a group of professional warriors as old as Assasin, if not older.

They were born in Rome.

In 476 AD, the Western Roman Empire was cut off from life after more than a century of repeated ravages by the Praetorian Guard, empresses, Germanic savages, and Huns.

The fall of the brotherly empire caused a great crisis for Leo I of Thrace, who was ruling Byzantium at the time.

Because the risk of being emperor in Rome is too great.

In the 422 years since the unification of Rome, 82 generations have been passed down, and 60 people have not died well.

In the 81st year of Western Rome, 11 generations, 4 people were deposed, and 5 people were killed.

In stark contrast, the Eastern Roman Dynasty, which also lasted for 81 years, went through five emperors, and the four previous dynasties before Leo I ruled all well, and Leo I's own throne was quite stable.

Why is this happening?

The Thracians, who had begun a new dynasty, pondered and finally came to two conclusions.

First, Eastern Rome abandoned the polytheistic doctrine of Western Rome and insisted on the Orthodox Christianity, a Christian sect of one God.

Second, the emperors of Eastern Rome were more interested in the centralization of monarchy, and the emperors of Eastern Rome had more power than their brother empires.

The more crucial reason for this is, of course, the centralization of power by the monarchy.

Knowing this, Leo I immediately gave up his plans to avenge his brother's empire.

Before his brother's bones could turn cold, he reconciled with the Goths, the great enemies of the Empire, who no longer coveted the lands of the Eastern Empire, and he swore to renounce his plans to regain the lands of the Western Empire.

After solving the external troubles, Leo I began to strengthen the centralization of his rule, and together with his children and grandchildren, he turned the senate and consuls into honorary titles in the time of a dynasty.

This did make the empire's rule more stable, and the four emperors ruled the empire for a total of 61 years, and even after the usurpation turmoil, Zeno the Great had the opportunity to kill the usurper Vasiliskos and take the throne back into his own hands.

It's just that a strong centralization of power does not make the emperor himself safer, because in the face of more and more powerful imperial power, the emperor no longer has a credible person.

Leo II was poisoned by his own parents and trampled on the blood of his own son, Zeno the Great became the supreme of Rome.

As a result, after the extinction of the Leo dynasty, the great Justinian I continued to strengthen his royal power and prepared a new guard.

This work began when he was an assistant to his uncle, King Justin I.

He selected good and strong slaves, many of whom were born gladiators. He used them to breed, took healthy boys to raise and educate them in isolated estates, then castrated them at the age of six, began taking drugs at the age of eight, wore restraint clothing, and underwent harsh and brutal training in martial arts.

By the time they were twelve, the ones who survived were the shadow warriors.

These people have no desires, lack common sense, have the skinny physique of a deformed child, can hide in small spaces unimaginable to adults, and also show tenacity and patience that humans cannot imagine.

These people hid by the emperor's side 24 hours a day, like the emperor's shadow, and only showed their strength and loyalty when the emperor's life was in danger.

From a certain point of view, they actually have a lot in common with Assasin, such as superb martial arts, inhuman athletic ability, concealment skills integrated into the bone marrow, professional and skilled killing methods, and so on.

But in the long history of these two similar types of professional armed groups, there have been no major conflicts. The emperors of the Eastern Romans were never the target of Assasin's assassination, and the shadow warriors would not leave their emperor.

Their origins began after the lineage was severed.

With the fall of the Eagle's Nest and Constantinople, Assasin became the sword of desire. The Shadow Warrior, on the other hand, stood out from the vast number of guard types as the Eastern nobles fled westward, and gradually became the highest-level shield for the high-ranking nobles to maintain the safety of their families.

Is the sword sharp? Shield Strong?

For two or three hundred years, the remnants of Assasin and the shadow of the lost emperor never stopped killing in the invisible and unknowable secrets, and both sides suffered huge losses and made the other pay a heavy price.

Henna had an encounter with the Shadow Warrior while she was practicing with her father.

She was only 10 years old at the time, and her target was a marquis of the Knights of the Golden Fleece of Austria.

On Assasin's side, in addition to her and her father, there were two strong opponents who were not inferior to her father in terms of strength, and the marquis was protected by two shadow warriors.

The brutal fighting was silent.

Unbeknownst to the people of the manor, an Assasin was strangled to death in a ceiling compartment of the ceiling, and a Shadow Warrior was killed while poisoning the cellar.

The father followed the bones of his companions on the top of the bookcase in the Great Library to kill the attacking samurai, and he himself was seriously wounded, so he gave up his immediate goal and returned to Egypt with Henna, who was in charge of the wind.

So Henna had only "encountered" the Shadow Warrior before, and now, today, it was the first time she had seen her natural enemy with her own eyes.

Shadow Warrior Zaniin......

Henna pursed her lips, took a half-step back, and kneeled in a lunge.

Her lunges are loose and loose, but her feet are as immobile as raw nails, and her upper body sways and swings rhythmically at an amplitude that is difficult to discern with the naked eye, and the center of gravity is constantly adjusted, making it impossible to predict her next movement.

The shape of her hands is also very different from the stretched and soft ones of the past.

The left hand holds the short blade upside down, and the arm is bent. The tip of the knife is forward, and the fist eye protects the heart. The right hand is stretched forward, locking onto the opponent like a javelin, and facing him straight.

Both knives are in front, and both arms are on the offensive.

The left knife and the right arm form two parallel lines of different lengths, which rise and fall together within a limited range with the change of the center of gravity, like broken wood floating on the sea, giving people a strange, stiff and sluggish feeling.

This is, of course, an illusion.

Even in the face of a fierce opponent in the shadows, Henna would not foolishly throw herself into dangerous tension and hesitation.

Her muscles were still flabby, and she used them to pose stiffly, just like a feline arched its back and grinning before a big war, which was both a deterrent and a war readiness.

Zaniin actually received a threat from Henna.

He strides across, low, swings. Misshapen arms that were so slender that they were out of proportion to their bodies spread back like wings, shiny curved hook tips that swept the air with a whirring wind-cutting sound.

"What a wonderful encounter, Miss Assasin." "The shadow is on the offensive side, but the killer is on the defensive," he said. ”

"Then you get out of the way."

Henna lowered her eyelids and walked past him, staring at Nacien behind him, ready to strike.

"A competent killer will not stand in the way of anyone, but will only try to take my life when I kill."

"An interesting proposition indeed." Zani let out a night owl-like laugh, "It's funny, but it's not executable." Nacien is a valuable asset to his master, and his skills are of great use to us, and I cannot let you kill him. ”

"Then shut up, it's time to fight...... War! ”

Henna's body stopped swinging and sank, like an out-of-control spring, which suddenly activated and shot out in the process of sinking.

She strode forward, her right knife stretched out at the tip of her edge, and the left knife that was tucked in front of her chest swung away.

Zaniin stepped forward without showing weakness, and the two iron hooks crossed in front of him, easily hanging Henna's straight stab without any fancy, expanding his chest, locking it, and pulling outward, sealing the offensive line of Henna's left knife.

Who knew that Henna had abandoned the knife.

The moment the short knife was locked, she abandoned the knife and swirled around with the force of Zaniin's traction, using the right leg that had stepped away.

A big spin!

Her wide robe unfolded like a flower, and at some point she stopped her momentum, spun around, and the hilt of her left knife slammed into the bronze bell beside her.

Airplanes!

The frenzied sound exploded, shattering the silent night, smashing like a hammer on the eardrums of the three bell tower visitors, and even Henna was not spared.

But she was prepared.

Resisting the nausea of her brain and the loss of direction, she stepped on the guardrail of the bronze bell and jumped out of the bell tower.

Shocked, dizzy, Zaniin's vision blurred, and all the scenery was presented in a twisted vortex, making it a luxury for him to even stand up straight.

He sees Henna jumping out of the bell tower, and the limited part of his brain that can sustain thinking keeps shaking the alarm bell, warning him that Henna can't jump to her death.

But what is her purpose in doing this? What is dependence? Where is the mechanism to ensure mobility?

Gotta find out!

He squinted like a drunk, looking carefully through the arched window where Henna had jumped off the building.

Once, twice......

As the dizziness slowly faded, he finally found the clue.

A piece of string......

"Behind!" Zani yelled at Nacien, who had been stunned into a stupefied state.

Henna rose from the arched window against which Nacien leaned.

Holding the sling and stepping on the wall, she galloped on the vertical wall in a pendulum motion, breaking through the constraints of gravity like a flying angel and rising from the night sky outside the building!

Sling tightened!

The sling pulled Henna back. She let go of the sling, felt the throwing knife in mid-air, and raised three bullets that shot Nacien down the throat.

Zani couldn't do anything.

He flew up, but he couldn't catch up with the throwing knife, and could only watch as the knife pierced Nacion's shoulder, making a sharp sound of a sharp blade entering his body.

Three shots and one hit.

Under the interference of dizziness, Henna's flying knife hit only one, and she perfectly missed all three key points of the eyebrows, throat, and heart.

She flew towards Nacien under the pull of the rope, and Zani grabbed Nacion by the collar before she could mend the knife and flew into the gaping staircase.

Henna fell to the floor of the bell tower, pushed by inertia and slammed against the stone arched window, and couldn't help but let out a muffled grunt.

"Escaped......"

She clutched her shoulders in regret and staggered to her feet.

"Forget it, as long as you get rid of the hunters, it doesn't matter if you're alive or dead as a shadow warrior......"