The standoff in the corridor continued. Fane had recovered from his initial shock, gradually realizing the phantom behind Rick wasn't solid—merely a light-shadow formed by overflowing energy. Though certain Rick's inner insect had evolved, he relaxed: at least Rick hadn't reached the Insect Master realm where energy externalizes and solidifies.
"Uncontrolled self-hatching? Dammit... He used a wild egg? Is he insane?"
Fane couldn't fathom Rick's madness and realized Rick was now in mortal danger—dangerous to others and himself.
Controlling evolved insect power opened the path to Insect Master and beyond; failing to control it meant being consumed, losing humanity entirely.
Arthur had told Rick this last night, even believing Rick had time to prepare for the egg's hatching. But now it came too fast—Rick had no time to ready himself.
Rick was in a delicate state. The insect within, triggered by external threat, had hatched into a separate consciousness. Unlike genetically culled eggs, this newborn life sought immediate control, sensing discomfort and intent on transformation.
In response, Rick's consciousness clearly felt the threat. Normally, upon hatching, an Insect Master's insect should merge without self-awareness, like any organ, driven by human will. But Rick faced a "visceral rebellion"—an organ defying his brain, seeking dominance.
This indescribable sensation first left Rick disoriented, but Arthur's teachings echoed in his mind, sorting his chaotic thoughts.
Fane, an Insect Master, understood Rick's state. In his view, Rick's consumption was inevitable—he'd become an unstoppable monster. Fighting a monster didn't align with Fane's code.
Calculating the time, Fane decided it was enough. Though Manny's room lay silent, this assassination wasn't about direct murder. The plan should have succeeded by now—Manny would perish soon.
Fane smiled coldly, retreating to the corridor railing. If he could leap from here, even a monstrous Rick couldn't pursue.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Just as Fane prepared to leap, Rick's near-twisted voice roared from his throat.
Fane jolted, his movement faltering. In that instant, Rick transformed into a purple shadow, a blur of afterimages flying. Before Fane could react, a searing pain shot through his chest.
He looked down to see an arm piercing through his back, emerging from his sternum.
"H-how... how is this possible..."
Fane's eyes glazed over, his body's cold energy spiraled out of control, erupting from within. In an instant, he and Rick behind him were frozen into two ice statues.
Bang!
Moments later, the ice sculptures shattered. Rick shook off the ice shards, his gaze fierce as he stared at Manny's room. On his bare back, the insect mark that had been on his shoulder now covered his entire back, a vivid tattoo depicting a ferocious insect.
At a glance, it was no Scythe Worm— not belonging to any known Swarm species. Yet there was something uncanny about it: the savage insect tattoo looked like a beast imprisoned within Rick, ready to tear through his flesh at any moment.
Rick stood by the door, body trembling. His hands alternated between insectoid scythe limbs and human arms. Distorted blood vessels on his face even shattered the mask he wore, revealing half a ferocious visage.
"Move! Dammit, like before—just hold on a little longer!"
Rick roared in his mind. Though he'd temporarily suppressed the wild life within when killing Fane, the frozen state and lost power had restored the balance. Now, it was a battle for dominance in his invisible inner war.
Suddenly, the tattoo on Rick's back surged to life. Countless twisted blood vessels bulged beneath his skin, pumping scalding blood to his back, turning the once dark cyan insect tattoo as red as blood.
At the same time, Rick's vision turned blood-red, his remaining consciousness seeming to be gradually consumed...
Roar! ——
Suddenly, a thunderous roar tore through the sky.
A fiery red light enveloped Rick, his eyes fixed on the ornate chamber door. Though his mind was blurred, an obsession clung to his consciousness, unshakable.
With a "boom," Rick swung his right hand, and a red light smashed the door to pieces. The moment he entered, four powerful auras whistled toward him.
These were Manny's four bodyguards, tasked with protecting her at all costs. Even as bloodshed raged outside, they ignored it—their sole duty was defending this room.
Their rigid bodyguard mindset made them indiscriminate in this sensitive hour: any outsider entering was an enemy. Without giving Rick a chance to explain, they launched a furious attack.
All four possessed strength no weaker than Rick's, even comparable to Fane at his peak. With tacit coordination, they formed a defense so tight that even Arthur would struggle to break through.
In this sense, their defensive strategy was sound. With them here, they could keep Manny unharmed even if all assassins stormed the door—what happened to others in the Guild mattered not.
Had Rick been lucid, he would've retreated at the sight of this impenetrable defense. But now, in his half-human, half-insect state, the raging aura within demanded release.
He charged recklessly, heedless of death. Crisscrossing air currents surged as five Insect Master-level combatants clashed, instantly shredding everything in the room to pieces...
At the same time, on the first floor of Pai Mansion, countless black-clad assassins gathered, gradually pushing Shust and Balzac into a tight corner.
Besides Gria, the enclave included several pro-Manny Guild executives; the rest had long since perished in the conflict.
"Hey, this doesn't look good. What do we do?" Balzac hissed to Shust.
Shust listened intently to the fighting echoing from the sixth floor, frowning. "Dammit, Rick—what's taking him so long? If he gets Manny the sickly girl out, we can break through too."
"Looks like it's do or die..." Balzac took a deep breath, twirling two foot-long scimitars nimbly in his hands. Anyone familiar with him knew this meant he was going all out.
Just as the tension reached a breaking point, the first-floor ceiling thundered collapsed. Billowing smoke filled the air as five ghostly figures intersected, energy currents raging like a tempest and hurling nearby assailants away.
"Is... is that Rick?" Balzac rubbed his eyes, unable to believe the figure battling four Insect Masters single-handedly was Rick.
Gria was equally stunned—he never expected Rick to fight Manny's bodyguards.
Chaos reigned anew, but the sharp-eyed immediately focused on the massive hole piercing six floors above. That was Manny's room—success lay just above!
The thought surged in countless assassins' minds, but as they leaped upward, they found Shust already waiting, along with his imperceptible spider web traps.
No one saw when Shust positioned himself there, but the drizzling blood made it clear: this apparent shortcut was now a death zone guarded by Shust.
Choose between the spider silk trap or the five Insect Masters' fray—both options looked grim for the black-clad killers.
Unfortunately, the battle's pace allowed no hesitation. The moment they missed the chance to reach the second floor, they were sucked into the inhuman clash.
Insect Master battles operated on a different plane than Insect General skirmishes. Rick, now teetering on the Insect Master realm, didn't transform, yet each arm swing unleashed a three-meter blade of solidified energy, sharper than any insectoid scythe limb.
Most Insect General assassins couldn't even track the combatants' movements—any stray blade could cleave them in two.
Terrified killers gradually squeezed to the edges of the first-floor hall, while the dance floor became a free space dominated by five hurtling figures.
BOOM—!
A deafening explosion ripped through the five combatants.
The four synchronized super-guards scattered to secure each corner, while Rick huddled in the center, head bowed, tangled hair shielding his eyes. Hunched over with arms dangling, he panted like a wild beast.
In just five minutes of combat, Rick's one-against-four struggle had drained his power astonishingly. The energy that had initially surged to the point of explosion was now utterly spent. Worse, a massive wound running from his right shoulder across his chest to his left abdomen had turned his shirtless torso into a bloody mess.
Was he still alive? The question echoed in nearly everyone's mind.
"Ri... Rick..."
Suddenly, from the second-floor room, Manny crawled pale-faced to the hole, barely holding on.
"Manny!"
The cry jolted Rick's dazed mind like thunder, yanking his fading consciousness back. Gradually, beneath his damp bangs, his dazed gaze regained sharpness, and the crimson aura that had nearly vanished flared up again like flames around him.
Abruptly, the four who had scattered lunged at him like lightning—Rick was now their top threat.
"Idiots... are your brains made of wood?!" sober Rick snapped. The Ghost Step moved at inconceivable speed, and in a blink, his erratic form slipped through their encirclement.
This was unprecedented speed. Reaching Insect Master realm had elevated the Ghost Step to a new level. When Rick was mentally clouded, this advantage hadn't shown, but now the four felt overwhelming pressure—he seemed like a different person.
Swish!
As figures crossed, Rick's three-meter blade suddenly extended an inch mid-air. A bodyguard's chest was slashed open a meter long before he could react. Blood sprayed, breaking their perfect formation.
"Hmph!" Rick landed in a crouch like a cat, springing at another dazed bodyguard with lightning speed.
"Rick, stop!"
Manny's tense cry halted Rick's murderous advance. His blade was less than an inch from the bodyguard's forehead, but at the last moment, he forced himself to stop.
Time seemed to freeze, all eyes fixed on the blade hovering before the bodyguard's face. It wasn't until a fully armed city guard unit—late to the scene—stormed in and subdued all black-clad assassins that everyone snapped back to reality.
The unit was led by Anna, acting on Arthur's behalf. Upon hearing of the attack, she'd ordered the guard out, but unfamiliar with politics, she'd lacked deployment paperwork, arriving only now.
"Rick... I'm sorry, I—" Anna stammered, approaching blood-soaked Rick.
But Rick ignored her, leaping to the sixth floor. There, Manny trembled on the ground, the blackness from missing her bee venom injection having spread from her foot to her waist, clearly reaching her organs. Her face had turned corpse-like gray.
"Manny!"
Rick's heart lurched. He scooped her up, fumbling open her medicine case—empty of bee venom.
"Dammit, why hasn't the bee venom arrived yet?"
Rick hurled the medicine case to the ground in a rage, shattering it. Just then, a staggering figure stumbled through the sea of corpses—it was Lika, who had been gone for some time.
"Miss! Quick, inject this for Miss Manny!" Lika panted, clutching a vial of bee venom with a panicked expression.
Balzac reacted instantly, scooping her up and leaping to the sixth-floor room.
"Bee venom!" Rick snatched the vial from Lika's hand. As he prepared to inject Manny, a tiny detail caught his eye, freezing his movements.
"What's wrong? Can't you do it? Let me."
Seeing Rick hesitate, Lika tried to take the vial, but he flipped his wrist, grabbing her arm. In her horrified gaze, he injected the contents into her neck vein.
"What are you doing?!" Lika screamed, clutching her neck.
Rick stared at her coldly. "You're Diago's final trump card, aren't you?"
"You..." Lika's eyes flashed with surprise, quickly masked by panic. "You're insane! First you fought Manny's guards, and now you're injecting me with bee venom! You—"
"Heh, Rick, how'd you spot her? Even I missed it," Shust asked, arms crossed.
"Her skirt has water stains—clear signs of running through splashes. Inside Pai Mansion, she'd only get blood, not rainwater. Only outside would her skirt have water." Rick pointed outside. "Bee venom is stored here. If she left to get it, what she brought back can't be real venom."
Rick's logical deduction flustered Lika. She remembered going to the dry cleaner to remove mud stains before returning, but the water spots from her hurried trip had betrayed her.
Seeing Lika speechless, Rick barked: "Still denying it? If that were real bee venom, you'd be dead by now. You look healthy—proof it's fake."
Confronted with the truth, Lika collapsed, slumping to the floor.
Indeed, Manny's body required a potent toxin to counter her internal venom. Lika had brought a growth serum—a substance that would accelerate Manny's toxin spread, the deadliest poison for her.
Today's grand operation was designed solely to let Lika deliver this "serum." The external assassinations targeted Pai Mansion staff to create chaos, ensuring no one could fetch real venom—guaranteeing Manny would receive Lika's "vial."
Lika was Diago's "Shadow," trained for sixteen years since childhood alongside Manny. Without Rick, the plan would have succeeded, but the flaw in Callan's assassination and Lika's bad luck exposed her. Diago's sixteen years of scheming crumbled, and the shadow over Pai Mansion lifted as the rain outside subsided...