Chapter 637: Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood Concluded

Boss Fang followed behind them, observing their antics as this group of players moved forward according to a meticulously scripted plan.

“Alright, get ready to begin.”

“See that spot over there?” Sera pointed toward the high ground. “That’s a good vantage point. We’ll head there in a moment.”

By now, Sera had already maneuvered a young female assassin onto the rooftops, circumventing the obstacles from above as she made her way toward the Pantheon.

The other elves followed closely at her heels.

“Are you all in position yet?” Elder Sila enquired.

“Almost. You can step out now, Elder. We’re looking for our firing positions.” Skirting behind the upper houses, the elves efficiently dispatched a few bothersome Templars along the way, gradually infiltrating the optimal location with consummate professionalism.

“Then I’m heading out!” Elder Xivi shouted.

“Right, right! Go ahead!”

Their cooperation appeared seamless and impeccable, their movements perfectly synchronized.

As the Pope's convoy passed by, Elder Xivi commanded Ezio to stride boldly out from his hiding place.

Just as in the cinematic trailers, the surrounding crowd parted in haste.

By this time, the other elves had slipped into a residential house. Finding it empty, they quickly evaded the majority of watchful eyes.

“Ah, this door is locked!”

“How do we open this…”

“I think we need that specialized lockpicking tool for assassins…”

“Let me try. Once we open this door, we can ambush them from the balcony, right?”

A lockpicking tool was slid into the keyhole.

Ten seconds later…

“Have you arrived yet!” Elder Sila was walking with an air of grand defiance, and a large cohort of Templars had already converged upon her.

“We're… almost there!” Captain Lancer, the elf commander, broke out in a cold sweat. “Let me do it, let me do it.”

“Are you there yet?!” Out on the piazza, Ezio could be seen sprinting wildly with a massive horde of Templars hacking fiercely at his heels.

“Just a moment, just a moment!” Sera cried. “Move aside, let me try. I know how to do this!”

With that, Captain Lancer stepped aside, and Sera gave it another turn.

Click!

“Uh… it’s stuck inside.” Sera looked thoroughly embarrassed.

“Forget it, forget it.” Captain Lancer stepped forward once more. “Let me handle this.”

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

A flurry of frantic pounding echoed against the wood.

“Assassins! There are assassins here!”

“Oh my god, run, run!” As if they had stirred a hornets' nest, a swarm of enemies came rushing up, forcing the elves into a desperate sprint.

“We can’t outrun them! Hack them down! Kill them!”

“Are you finally ready?!” Out on the square, over a hundred imperial guards had surrounded the area, and Elder Xivi was likewise fleeing for her life.

“??? Where are you guys?! Why has everyone gone quiet?”

The elves were still buried in a chaotic, silent frenzy of hacking and slashing.

“Ah!” Elder Xivi let out a miserable shriek.

“…” On the other side, several elves stood panting heavily. “We finally shook them off.”

“We can resume our stealth approach now, right?”

“Let’s go, let’s go. No one noticed us…”

“Why does this feel so different from the trailer…”

“Let’s go protect Elder Xivi…”

“Huh? Where is Elder Xivi?”

Boss Fang was currently watching Elder Xivi remove her virtual reality headset and stand up with a face full of utter bewilderment.

On the screen, Ezio had long since been hacked to death in the middle of the piazza.

The group slapped their thighs in exasperation: “Oh no!”

“…” Boss Fang had already retreated to the side, clutching his stomach as he dissolved into laughter.

…

Soon afterward, Boss Fang stood alone holding a cappuccino, rubbing his stomach which still ached slightly from laughing, as he began to spectate the elves embarking on a fresh round of assassination attempts.

Meanwhile, the native assassins born of this continent were clearly making immense strides in every aspect of their craft.

At this moment, exceptional assassins like Irina and Haxin had already brought their playthroughs to the final act.

“How on earth was this Apple of Eden forged?” Several voices gasped in amazement. On the screens, the war to liberate Rome had reached its climax. Ezio held the Golden Apple aloft. Upon its activation, everything in the vicinity seemed to slow into motion. The sphere—neither metal nor stone, yet radiating a golden luster—suddenly erupted with a cascade of golden lightning, causing every attacking soldier in the vicinity to collapse to the ground.

Reaching this final hour, the overall difficulty of the game was evidently no longer so daunting.

The Apple of Eden was an artifact left behind by the First Civilization, possessing not only immense power of its own but also the gift of prophecy.

With the backing of the Assassin Brotherhood and various allied forces, Cesare was swiftly defeated and captured.

Cesare had once possessed the Golden Apple himself, and he seemed convinced that no chains could ever hold him, nor could he ever die by the hand of any man.

Sure enough, Cesare escaped that very day. Yet Ezio utilized the power of the Apple of Eden to track him down once more, ultimately casting him from the castle walls to let heaven decide his fate.

Evidently, the judgment of heaven was the demise of this brutal tyrant, and this lifelong nemesis of Ezio finally met his end.

Thereafter, the Master Assassin retired at the peak of his glory. He had spent the most brilliant chapter of his life here, performing a series of monumental deeds that ushered in the liberation of the people.

Yet, without a lingering glance back, he embarked on a journey to seek the truths hidden by his predecessor, Altaïr, and the Apple of Eden. The artifact itself was sealed away by him within a vault near the Colosseum in Rome.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood had reached its final moments, and Irina found her heart swelling with an irrepressible tide of emotion.

As a true assassin living upon this continent—one of those who had been reviled by the world from the very moment they took up the mantle—a person like her felt something entirely different from the ordinary players.

Just moments ago, within that alternative world, she had experienced the most glorious epochs of that Master Assassin's life.

What she received was not raw, formidable power, but a spiritual inheritance.

That profound comprehension of “Nothing is true, everything is permitted,” that ironclad will, was like a torch that illuminated the bewildered darkness within her soul.

Assassins like them had always lived in perpetual shadow, where even their names and countenances could rarely be revealed to the world.

It was true that they were viewed as shadowy and ignoble, always striking from concealment to deliver a fatal blow.

This had caused many among their ranks to develop increasingly dark and callous dispositions. Although the foul rumors surrounding assassins were indeed somewhat exaggerated, a portion of those tales did not arise out of thin air.

Because they possessed no faith and were bound by no code, these assassins were entirely outlaws operating beyond the reach of justice.

But now, Irina's perspective was gradually shifting. In the past, she did not truly understand what it meant to be an assassin. Perhaps she had thought that accepting contracts day after day, committing murder, and causing targets to meet an untimely end was all there was to it.

But now she realized that an assassin could perhaps be a spirit, a testament of will, the very essence of those glorious lives burned to ashes by the ancestral brotherhood within the game.

If one understood this, and fought for its cause, then even charging headlong into a reckless, open slaughter would still be the path of an assassin.

She felt that this, perhaps, was the true tale that Assassin's Creed sought to tell.

...

As the shop neared its closing hour, Owner Fang walked to the threshold, lifting his hand as he prepared to lock the doors.

Suddenly, he caught sight of several bouquets of fresh flowers, arranged in neat order before the entrance.

"To the great vanguard of assassins, Master Altaïr—offered by an unnamed assassin of the Morningstar Empire."

"To the eternal Eagle of Florence, Master Ezio—offered by an anonymous assassin."

"..."

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