NOVGO.NET Chapter 98: I’ll Show Them
Cassius’s fingers closed around the edge of the white tower shield strapped to his arm.
He moved to raise it, to form a defensive line with his subordinate and buy himself a moment to think.
He was too slow.
Dunya moved faster.
She appeared between the subordinates before anyone could blink, a dagger in each hand.
The youngest subordinate opened his mouth to shout a warning.
"..."
But nothing was heard.
Dunya’s left dagger cut his throat.
The man’s eyes went wide, his hands flying to his neck. Blood poured between his fingers, black in the torchlight.
Dunya’s right dagger followed.
She drove it straight into his chest, piercing armor, flesh, and bone.
A blade of Death found his heart.
His Soul was taken before he died.
It exploded outward towards the rest but was shut down. Rukh crushed the force, scattering it across the hall.
No matter; one subordinate was dead.
Only two more to go.
At the same time that was happening, Sinbad had launched himself from the throne.
His small form grew mid-flight, allowing him to reach the second subordinate in a moment.
The second subordinate raised his great sword to deflect the attack, his Runes activating.
Too slow.
Sinbad’s claws tore the forming Rukh and raked across his face through his helmet.
Just as the man was about to scream and stagger, finally, a second had passed.
A full second since two words left Malik’s mouth.
And that was enough time for Cassius.
His Rune activated.
Heavy Rukh fell upon the hall, forming a barrier in the middle of the hall.
It was a dome.
Sinbad’s second attack harmlessly slammed into the barrier while Dunya was pushed out by a strong force.
Even then, she didn’t pause, her daggers striking the surface multiple times in the same moment.
But her Death wasn’t strong enough.
Scratched, yes, but the barrier held.
Dunya stepped back, her smile gone.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
While great pain visited Cassius’s second subordinate, his calm had fully cracked.
He looked at the dead body of his own, lying in a pool of blood, and his expression shifted.
’Anger...’
Malik smiled at the sight.
’Finally.’
Since no one taught him the consequences of words, he was more than ready to—
"Do you wish for this hall to be destroyed?!"
Cassius cut off his thoughts, screaming in enough fury to drown his fear.
"We came in peace and with a message! Is this how you treat emissaries? Where is your honor?!"
Malik barely stopped himself from laughing.
"You dare speak of honor, boy? It is you who came uninvited, asking me to abandon all I have. Some part of you must have known that upon uttering such words in my den... you’d never leave."
This was the den of lions.
And Cassius, by entering and saying what he said, gave Malik every right to end him. Thus, knowing that, Cassius’s hand moved to his great sword, holding it in a stance.
"We are protected by the Order. If you kill us, they will know, as will our Lady Angel. They will come to burn this palace to the ground and salt the earth where it stood."
"Then they will come."
Malik’s eyes glowed the brightest of gold.
"And they will burn. And they will salt. And I will still be here."
Cassius opened his mouth to respond.
"Silence."
Only to be shut down.
...Layla was the culprit.
She calmly stepped forward.
A single step and she was before them.
Her right hand rose to the dome of Rukh.
Her fingers spread, and her palm pressed against its surface.
A pulse of Death reverberated through the barrier.
Cracks spread from the point of contact, spiderwebbing across the dome.
The barrier’s very life was sucked out of it, leaving it to shatter, dead.
Its pieces fell to the floor and dissolved into nothing.
Cassius stared at Layla.
His face had gone from pale to ashen.
Layla did not like to fight.
She was a mother first, a wife second, a warrior third.
The Queen much preferred raising Amal, walking through the palace with her hand in hers. But she was also of Death, like her daughter was.
Her origin, her Runes, her Soul, all of it touched the void between life and the end of life. Dunya was the same as well, the three women connected by a bond that went deeper than friendship.
The East, hence their purple hair.
If called upon, Layla was not shy to stand up.
She was the most terrifying of Malik’s family.
Her attacks did not target the body.
They targeted the Soul.
"You won’t get me, Hex Blood!"
Cassius somehow managed to recover from his fear.
His hand tightly clutched the hilt of his great sword as he raised it above his head and...
"DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE ME!"
Brought it down towards Layla.
An incredible blast of concentrated Rukh shot from the blade. It was a beam of white light, thick as a tree trunk, bright as a Sun.
The marble floor cracked beneath its passing.
It could destroy mountains.
Yet it met Layla’s palm.
The beam struck and stopped.
It did not push her back a single inch.
Rather, it simply... disappeared.
The white light faded.
Layla was Class Five, an entire Class above Cassius. Her Death had simply devoured his Rukh, drinking his power by pulling it from his body and Soul.
His attack only served to ease that connection.
Cassius’s great sword slipped from his fingers and clattered to the floor.
His skin grayed.
His hair thinned and fell out.
His eyes went dull and empty.
His muscles withered, shrinking against his bones.
He collapsed to his knees, then lay still.
Dead.
The man had turned Hollow before their eyes.
"..."
"..."
"..."
It was a pitiful sight.
There was nothing more that could be said about that.
Cassius’s remaining subordinates did not fare much better.
Upon them were a people too thirsty for their deaths.
Dunya was on the second subordinate before Cassius hit the ground, while Sinbad took the third.
Huda and Noor simply ended the fourth, crushing him with wind and gravity that compressed his body into a ball of flesh and steel.
Hm, Villains indeed.
Only Safira did not act, and that was for good reason.
Her fighting style was the most destructive, quite the opposite of her gentle nature.
If she had joined the fight, she would have destroyed half of the Holy Palace.
So she watched and waited until all bastards were dealt with.
Which they were, their bodies, at least what remained, lay scattered across the marble floor.
Malik stared at the carnage, caring not for the consequences of their deaths.
’Did they really think I’d be terrified by the Order? Did they really think I’d listen to them just by hearing their threats? Are they stupid, or are they underestimating me that much?’
He couldn’t help but let out a second chuckle, this time louder.
’I’ll show them.’
All of them.