Chapter 626: Assassination at Castel Sant'Angelo

It is worth mentioning that the reconstructed Eagle Vision relied on a synergy between intuitive perception and physical sight to "see," manifested on the screen as the surrounding scenery fading to gray while crucial items flared with a vibrant highlight.

Its utility extended far beyond mere item location, manifesting uniquely within each individual—granting abilities such as x-ray vision, shared perception, target marking, tracking, and the discovery of hidden objects.

Eagle Vision also served to assist in tracking targets, a faculty that proved exceptionally beneficial to Altaïr during his final confrontation with his mentor, Al Mualim, who had used the Piece of Eden to conjure numerous illusions of himself, yet Altaïr unerringly located the true flesh among the crowd.

This was precisely why the mentor met defeat despite wielding the divine artifact.

When this gift evolved into the Eagle Sense, it heightened all the user's faculties, granting an instinct so potent it could even foresee impending danger or perceive echoes of the past and glimpses of the future.

Shay, for instance, would hear heavy breathing and whispers in his ear upon encountering an Assassin ambush if his Eagle Vision remained dormant; once activated, it would perceive the exact location of the threat.

The narrative of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood unfolded through distinct memory sequences, making it easy to bypass the superfluous steps within the recollections.

The first sequence following the modern-day training was the Wilderness of the Lion, depicting Ezio's initial arrival in Rome, where he beheld a city languishing in desolation under Borgia rule.

The subsequent second sequence involved forging alliances within Rome with the likes of thieves and mercenaries; once a foothold was established, one could advance to the next memory sequence to begin rebuilding the Brotherhood, recruiting disciples from the grassroots and acquiring various war machines.

The ancient world of Assassin's Creed was no conventional antiquity, for the presence of the Pieces of Eden allowed for the emergence of certain... black technologies.

These war machines were ancient iterations of machine guns, bombers, tanks, and naval cannons, crafted by Da Vinci using the knowledge gleaned from the Piece of Eden.

Ancient versions, naturally.

Ezio was clearly cut from a different cloth than Altaïr; Altaïr was a calm and wise master, a pioneer who reshaped the creed of the Assassins, his tempestuous life dedicated largely to the struggle for the Order and liberation, whereas Ezio was far more volatile, a passionate and romantic son of Florence, and if Altaïr was the saint of the Assassin lineage, his descendant Master Ezio possessed far more flesh and blood.

Thus, in this sequence, upon witnessing Caterina being captured by the Borgia family at the bridge outside the Castel Sant'Angelo, the opening act became a solitary infiltration into the fortress to rescue her.

Looking up along the wide river that shimmered with ripples of light, there stood a broad, arched white stone bridge adorned with twelve angelic statues, and beyond the span, past the towering battlements, rose a grand circular tower amidst a dense cluster of fortifications.

"To breach such a castle alone, with no power but sheer skill...?" Irina could not help but feel a surge of thrilled excitement, "Magnificent!"

One had to remember that when they had assassinated Luther, the temple's scale could not compare to this.

To dismantle an entire castle single-handedly was undeniably a monumental challenge.

In the original game, one could choose assassination or simply slaughter a path straight through the main gate, though the system version made such a frontal assault exceedingly difficult, particularly since this era possessed firearms, unlike Altaïr's time which knew only the bow.

Yet, infiltrating such a grand and magnificent castle promised to be thrilling! Irina thought, her heart racing.

Evidently, at this moment, several other Assassins were engaged in the same task.

"What do you think?" Haxin asked, his voice laced with excitement.

"The design is brilliant!" another Assassin nearby spoke up, "To infiltrate a massive, heavily guarded castle like this without the aid of any stealth spells—the mere thought of it is exhilarating."

"Let us begin! If we succeed, the temple's anti-stealth wards and no-fly zones will be utterly useless to us, because we won't even need stealth spells!" Irina opted for the safest approach, slipping beneath the bridge outside Castel Sant'Angelo to infiltrate from the base of the fortress.

As a proper Assassin, assassination must naturally remain the focus! she thought to herself.

Ezio's movements were agile, like a low-flying swallow, skimming the underside of the bridge to evade the eyes of the guards atop the turrets, quickly reaching the base of the wall.

The system version of the game lacked a third-person perspective, so there was no relying on a rotating camera to glimpse what the protagonist could not see, but as a Master Assassin, Ezio possessed numerous methods to circumvent the limitations of the naked eye.

Upon scaling the wall, he found a terrace garden where two sentries patrolled the battlements, while another guard stood before the gate leading into the castle, their posts overlapping.

Irina had barely crested the wall when she cleanly and swiftly drove her hidden blade into a passing sentry.

"Assassin! Assassin—!" the remaining two guards instantly began to shout frantically.

"My goodness!" Irina cried out, her face turning pale as she watched the swarming guards, "Did you guys get in? My infiltration failed!"

"I've already gone full warrior mode!" Haxin roared.

"I've already killed three or four!" another Assassin shouted, "The infiltration failed this time, I'll focus on stealth next time!"

"..."

"Yahhh!" Irina drew her longsword from her waist, charging at the soldiers with a fierce cry.

With a parry of her blade and a flash of steel, a counter-attack instantly impaled one of them.

"Wow—! That counter is amazing!" a gasp of admiration came from Sela, the elf girl behind her.

"Oh..." Hearing that sweet, appreciative gasp, Irina's confidence instantly soared.

Instantly raising her left hand, her hidden gun roared, shooting another dead, her blade dancing like a demon amidst the crowd.

"Ahhhhh..."

A chaotic slaughter ensued.

They were all enemies anyway; whether she saw them clearly or not, she stabbed them first.

Several minutes later...

"Whew..." Inside the screen, Ezio, whose white robes were now stained crimson, breathed a sigh of relief, and Irina said, "I've killed over a dozen, no one sees me now, I shall resume stealth..."

This was the outer perimeter, where they arrived in groups of four or five rather than a dozen at once, making the battle manageable.

The other Assassin spoke up: "...I've desynchronized."

The Assassin Haxin added: "My health is low, I'm about to desynchronize too. Let me recover first. I've checked, no one detects me now, I will definitely assassinate properly from here on..."

"Wow... to kill over a dozen all at once!" the elf girl Sela exclaimed, "How powerful!"

Irina turned her head and saw that, indeed, it was an elven maiden.

"Want to play together?" Irina recalled the multiplayer co-op mode available later in the game.

"I'd love to!" the elf girl Sela replied, happily adding her as a friend.

By this time, the entire castle had clearly grown far more heavily guarded due to the intrusion, but Irina firmly believed that, as a proper Assassin, assassination remained the true path.

Thus, before the next wave of reinforcements could arrive, she moved along the castle rooftops, evading the eyes of all soldiers while witnessing Cesare's ambition and conspiracy from above.

"Are you practicing a kill streak to prepare for another frontal assault?" the elf girl Sela asked curiously.

"No..." Irina's face twitched; as a true Assassin, one must play stealthily!

She hastily added: "I am assassinating."

With that, she crept silently along the edge of the rooftop.

"I am usually never detected when I sneak!" As a true Assassin, she could not mingle with the common crowd, and wishing to display her genuine prowess before this somewhat familiar elven maiden, Irina spoke up.

Controlling Ezio, she peered over the edge, spotting a castle soldier patrolling the roof, and quietly drew her wrist crossbow: "Look, at a time like this, if I just shoot him with the crossbow, he definitely won't notice."

With that, she loosed a bolt.

"He's here!" an abrupt shout rang out as a concealed lookout, stationed dozens of meters away from the slain sentry, stood up and yelled.

"Ahhhh—!" There was a girl watching behind her! How were these guys' eyes so sharp! Irina unleashed a torrent of frantic energy, rushing forward in a blur of violent maneuvers.

"My goodness, I've been spotted again!" the nearby Assassin Haxin cried out in a frantic scramble, "I'll fight my way through first, guaranteed stealth next time, have you guys been spotted!"

"No, I am infiltrating!" Irina gritted her teeth as she looked at the carpet of corpses, her face flushing red. After cautiously scanning the surroundings to confirm, she stated, "No one detects me now!"

How could an Assassin's business be called a slaughter? She resumed her stealth.