Chapter 150: Redeem Yourself

"--Stop."

​Aaron cut Angelina off instantly, raising his hand to halt her in her tracks. A little physical pain was nothing compared to the roaring furnace of rage and vengeance burning within his chest. He gritted his teeth, allowing the hot blood to flow freely from the shallow slash across his chest.

​"I won’t retract my request. Either I am granted an audience, or I die right here. I already made my decision before traveling all the way into this desolate wilderness," he declared, staring straight at the hooded woman.

​She tilted her head upright, her hidden eyes dripping with contempt: "I don’t care about your personal goals or your foolish resolve... Lord Raze already issued you a clear warning in the past." She lazily stretched her pale hand toward him, dangerous Aether energy gathering at her fingertips.

​"I don’t mind execution-style killing you right now—"

​"—Let him in."

​A deep, echoing voice sounded simultaneously from every single corner of the dark hallway, instantly stunning the two uninvited guests.

​The lady slowly lowered her hand, holding back her lethal aura. She turned around without a word, her cloak fluttering as she began walking deeper into the pitch-black corridor.

​"Move."

​Angelina trembled violently as the man behind them commanded in a frigid tone. She nodded frantically, hastily pulling a high-tier healing potion out of her spatial storage and holding it out toward Aaron.

​He shook his head, brushing past her as he stepped forward: "Did you forget that I possess passive regeneration?" he asked quietly, not even bothering to look back. ℴℴ𝘮

​"But..." Angelina stood stunned for a moment.

​’Your physical regeneration is painfully slow without external support...’ She thought inwardly, her mind filled with dread. She quickly hurried behind him, tightly clutching the potion bottle in her trembling hands.

___

​After five minutes of suffocating, tense silence, the group finally reached the end of the labyrinthine hallway, bringing their steps to a halt before a colossal iron door.

​The cloaked woman shoved it open and stepped inside, with Aaron and Angelina following right behind her.

​Angelina nervously scanned the cavernous room, which was crammed with massive, decaying industrial machinery from a forgotten era that she couldn’t even begin to identify. However, her trembling focus was immediately drawn toward the imposing figure clad in a dark cloak sitting atop a makeshift iron throne. He sat with one leg casually crossed over the other, his piercing red eyes locking onto them through the darkness.

​She could only catch a glimpse of the lower half of his sharp face, and she didn’t dare raise her eyes to inspect the rest.

​THUD!

".....?!"

​Aaron dropped heavily to his knees. His open chest wound had mostly closed up thanks to his Abilities, but the thick smear of blood still painted his shirt. He completely ignored his discomfort, slamming his forehead directly against the cold, stone floor.

​Angelina blinked in terror, instantly dropping to her knees alongside him without uttering a single word.

​"I know I failed you miserably in the past, my Lord... I have come today to desperately redeem myself... I want to be your dog once again!" Aaron yelled, his voice echoing off the metallic walls.

​Angelina remained dead silent. Although it sounded pathetically demeaning for a renowned SSS-Rank fighter to beg to become someone’s dog, she knew that the six entities lurking in this room were far beyond normal comprehension. Even the ancient families wouldn’t dare cross blades with these six shadow figures, so she understood his desperation completely.

​The Leader stared down at Aaron’s trembling frame for a long moment. Then, with a subtle flick of his gloved fingers, an ancient, crimson card materialized between his fingers, which he casually tossed toward Aaron.

​BAM!

​The card struck the hard ground directly in front of Aaron’s forehead with explosive force, spider-webbing deep cracks across the floorboards and embedding itself an inch into the stone.

​Aaron blinked. He reached out to pick up the card, and instantly, unknown glowing red words flared across its surface, shifting fluidly until they translated themselves into plain English:

​[When the traveler steals time from the dark.]

[A curse and a blessing shall leave the same mark.]

[The stolen years flow, but the world falls to rust.]

[And every soul apart this shall suffer the cost.]

​Aaron stared at the verses, his face instantly draining of all color as a cold dread gripped his heart.

​"That is the exact prophecy I personally bestowed upon you when I first assigned that crucial task..." Raze opened his mouth, his brilliant white teeth catching the dim red light filtering through the room.

"Your sole job was to simply steal the Time, but you failed catastrophically due to your own foolish arrogance. And now, every soul tied to that fate has suffered the cost... Your missing eye is merely the outcome."

​’I remember that exact Prophecy... We were originally dispatched to capture Juliana Royalwood and drag her back to this lair. But because of Aaron’s uncontrollable lust, Juliana chose to violently implode her own core instead, and the resulting energy shockwave severely crippled our entire squad... I was only lucky enough to barely escape with my life, but I still suffered permanent internal injuries back then... No matter how you look at it, this man’s prophecies are never a joke.’ Angelina thought, staring at the glowing red card in sheer horror.

​The moment the card shattered into a fine mist of dark smoke, Aaron slammed his forehead back down onto the cracked ground with brutal force. The violent impact shattered the stone beneath his face, sending fresh blood trickling down his nose and forehead.

​"There is absolutely nothing I can say to excuse my failure on that mission!! It was entirely my fault—I was completely blind and foolish!! Please, I beg you to grant me one final chance to redeem myself, Lord Raze!!" Aaron yelled desperately.

​"Tell me... How exactly do you plan to redeem yourself?" Raze asked, his glowing red gaze remaining fixed on Aaron’s bowing form.

​Slowly, the other five cloaked members emerged from the surrounding shadows, gliding forward to form a dark semicircle behind Raze’s throne. Their glowing crimson eyes locked onto the two kneeling figures, waiting in ominous silence for Aaron’s next words.