Hero of Darkness

On the very night when Kereberos, the first stage saint magician vampire was surrounded and then defeated by Ismatrazel, before they met.. Kahn passed Ronin to Szayel's shadow when they stood in a warship and watched the two godly saints fight. 

At that point, Kahn was already aware that the fourth stage saint swordsman and leader of this vampire clan had been using him since the very beginning. That he was using Kahn's shoulder to shoot a gun. 

And he turned the young man who saved his son's life into a chess piece in his schemes before Kahn even knew it. 

This left a bad taste in his mouth so Kahn wanted to use Ronin, who also had his Shadow Walk skill now which allowed the assassin class fighter to completely hide and submerge in someone's shadow without even leaking or revealing the smallest bit of your aura. 

Ronin was to be his planted spy who would later reveal the real intentions of the clan leader and the vampire clan. To see whether they were trustworthy or he had to think of them as his enemies.

Kahn learned that day about how he wasn't always the smartest person in the room. Some had far more wisdom and experience than him. So Kahn took the opportunity and used Ronin as his inside man who would hide and then know everything and all the inner plannings of the clan through Szayel. 

That was the primary & Kahn then did the same with all the members of the chamber of commerce this time. The subordinates had been reporting any suspicious activity by the council members to him for the past month. 

But since Szayel lived in a very highly protected area that was filled with hundreds of magic formations, barriers and detection traps, it wasn't possible for Ronin to return and report to Kahn casually at all. 

Besides, the headquarters of the Vandereich clan was more than 600 kilometers away from where Kahn lived. So there was no form of communication he could do with the rogue class subordinate either. 

Kahn already ordered Ronin to commit suicide with an explosion just like a suicide bomber in case he was caught by someone. Since he could always revive the subordinate by spending high-grade monster cores and mana ores, it was something affordable at that time. 

But everything changed on the day when the Pureblood Faction suddenly announced an empire-wide grand execution ceremony of the traitors. After Kahn conversed with Szayel through the jade medallion, he also learned that all of the traitors caught including Kereberos were going to be killed in the evening. 

Suddenly, Kahn's had an idea as a very risky yet extremely rewarding plan hatched in his mind. 

What he aimed to do was steal one of the first stage saint's core. Because he would never be able to kill a first stage saint rank by himself even with the help of all his allies and subordinates. And neither was his relationship with the Vandereich clan that good for them to hand him a saint's core either. 

Plus, inhabitants of Vantrea didn't just eat cores and rose in ranks like him. They had to spend months and in some cases, years to physically maintain contact and absorb the mana stored within these cores. 

Only Kahn was one of the oddities because of the Ability Absorption divine ability. And if he suddenly rose to a first stage saint rank after a short time of getting the core.. His identity as one of the chosen Heroes would be at risk of being exposed to the top powers of the empire. 

No way he would be able to hide that fact since the aura around the saints was completely different than the ranks below them. 

So there was only one choice left. And that was to steal it!

On the day of the execution, there were millions of citizens heading to their respective clan headquarters throughout Rathna.

Kahn disguised as one of the people in the crowd heading towards the headquarters of the vampire clan and used shadow walk to travel through the thousands of vampires that were gathered in the main headquarters where the grand execution ceremony was held. 

And when he finally came into the inner circle and reached in 10 kilometers proximity to Szayel, he could finally talk with the subordinate. 

Kahn specifically told Ronin about his plans and how he had to carefully steal the core of a first stage saint. Coincidentally, Kereberos was the only one at that rank amongst the traitors, rest were above & below him. 

But being greedy here wasn't the best choice either. If the cores of all these saints went missing, Kahn would be in deep shit sooner or later. If they found out, he would be dead for sure and the heat it would bring back to him was something he couldn't deal with even now. 

Besides, Kahn couldn't even use the cores of the saints of higher stages. Dealing with that issue later was a more reasonable choice than completely enraging the top powerhouses of this clan and dying a painful death. 

When the night finally fell and only the ashes of the traitors were left on the execution ground after cooling down, Ronin passed from Szayel to shadows of the guards and then used the dark of the night to steal the core, using his assassination skills and the fear toxin to divert the guards stationed as security. 

After he successfully stole the core, he waited for an opportunity to leave the place but the best chance he got was when Szayel came with a group of grandmaster rank soldiers to collect the cores and safely escort them. 

Luckily, there were no monitoring devices or artifacts present here as no one would ever imagine someone infiltrating and stealing from the clan right in their main headquarters. 

Using the dark shadows and carefully masking his presence, he again hid in Szayel's shadow as that was the best choice to meet Kahn again. 

Even without the direct commands from his master, Ronin was already very careful and intelligent; inheriting Kahn's opportunistic and patient behavior to perfectly execute the task. 

And since no one would dare to inspect the clan's heir and the candidate for clan leader's position in the future, no one even dared to inspect Szayel after a thorough investigation was done by the clan which resulted in some of the soldiers getting imprisoned for failing their duties. 

And ever since then, he had been hiding and waiting to get out and meet Kahn all this time. 

Kahn on the other end was completely consumed with thousands of things to do in the past month after the deal with the 8 big clans and the saints who visited him that day. 

But since the system hadn't notified him, he knew that Ronin was still alive. Just that it was unclear whether he succeeded or failed the task. 

And during his conversation with Szayel he had a couple of hours ago, he had all his questions answered by the clan heir. 

He wasn't traced or even considered as one of the suspects. 

----------------

Kahn held the bright and glowing white core in his hands after Ronin appeared after one month. 

Even though he wasn't proficient in using or sensing the world energy, he still could feel the extremely condensed world energy within this fist-sized core. 

Just by touching the core, he felt an immense reserve of energy that can be used for destroying the army of tens of thousands if used properly. 

And this was just a first stage saint's core. The cores of the higher stage saints would be far powerful and contain more energy inside them. 

"Well done." said Kahn as he nodded at Ronin who successfully managed to steal this core from the headquarters of the Vandereich clan and remained untracked, waiting patiently for this exact moment. 

Kahn let out a content sigh as he looked at the core with a joyous smile. 

Kahn finally had one of the main sources to become a saint which was also the hardest one to get. He wasn't stupid to even think about killing a bonafide saint himself after looking at how the mage oppressed the army of ten thousand and didn't even receive a scratch from those destructive magic cannons that could obliterate hundreds of Kahn together. 

"Finally.. Half of the battle is won." said Kahn as he put the first stage saint's core in his personal space ring. 

He gave 1000 SS Rank cores to Ronin as his reward and decided that it was time for the subordinate to take some time off and rise in levels just like the others. 

All Kahn needed now was time. 

By his estimation, he would need at least half a year to reach level 200 and then he could finally become a certified saint. 

A realm that was in a way, a realm above the mortals and felt more like pseudo gods. 

Kahn laid on his bed and spoke in a tired voice. 

"Finally… I have everything I needed."