Chapter 77
“Ugh.”
Reiffers, sprawled on the cold floor, suddenly jerked his head up.
The lightning revealed his gaunt, emaciated figure. It was so frail that it was hard to believe he had once held a top noble rank in the empire. Reiffers stared blankly into the void with his hollow eyes.
Still, his vision showed nothing, but by instinct and gut feeling, he already knew who was approaching.
“You… you disgusting bastard worse than any devil!”
Scrambling to his knees, Reiffers grabbed the iron bars. A sharp clang echoed through the darkened hallway. He reached out into the shadows but grasped nothing.
“Cyrone! Aren’t you afraid to face the former Emperor?”
Reiffers shouted into the emptiness. His voice booming against the cracked ceiling.
But Cyrone looked down at him from above and said nothing. The silence was agonizing, Reiffers pounded the floor repeatedly and wailed.
“Because of your filthy bloodline, because of those vulgar creatures, I’ve come to this wretched state!”
Reiffers still couldn’t believe the nightmare unfolding before him. He had devoted his entire life to the former Emperor, to the late Crown Prince, to this exalted empire! And yet, this was the pitiful fate returned to him.
His once unblemished hands, untouched by hardship, were now covered with dried blood. Even the slightest touch tore open unhealed wounds that bled profusely. It was the ignoble downfall of the Reiffers family, unexpected by anyone in the empire.
“Cyrone, even if I become a ghost, I will appear in your dreams. Look at my face clearly!”
Cursing wildly, Reiffers laughed like a madman. The locked latch clicked open, and an imposing shadow descended upon him.
“You, you…!”
Driven by primal fear, Reiffers crawled backward. His lifeless, colorless eyes trembled uncontrollably. Yet the sharper the aura closing in on him became, the more trapped Reiffers was.
“Reiffers, it’s time for us to end this long nightmare.”
Cyrone chuckled softly. Reiffers, trapped within those crimson eyes, could no longer move. Frozen in place, Cyrone whispered sharply into his ear.
“Remember my name clearly.”
Raising his sword, Cyrone drove it straight into the center of Reiffers’s forehead. Blood burst from the wound in a vivid spray. Reiffers convulsed violently, thrashing as the veins of blood splattered from his face in every direction.
“Ugh! No! No! Not like this!”
Reiffers wailed, clutching his face. The mixture of tears and blood rapidly soaked his gaunt features. His desperate cries echoed sharply through the empty space.
“I am Belial, your salvation.”
The moment Cyrone raised his sword again and struck Reiffers’s head, the anguished screams that had filled the air suddenly stopped. The severed head rolled across the floor with a clean cut. The body, halved by the severed neck, convulsed briefly before collapsing.
Cyrone grabbed the severed head by its hair and descended the castle tower. His steps were unnervingly steady. Wherever Cyrone walked, a trail of blood followed, marking the path where Reiffers’s body had bled.
Once a powerful noble who commanded the empire, Reiffers’s face was now that of a dried-out corpse.
Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Cyrone kicked open the castle gates. A heavy downpour lashed his face as the storm’s rain washed away the blood splattered over his pale skin and garments.
His eyes flared red.
* * *
“Kyaak!”
“By the heavens!”
The terrified maids screamed and fled in panic. The severed head tumbled wildly across the floor, turning the once pristine chamber into a chaotic scene of bloodstains. When the head rolled by the bedside and its eyes flipped open, Elia finally collapsed to the floor.
“…Fa, Fa, Father.”
It was unmistakably Reiffers’s face. Overwhelmed by the stench of blood, Elia retched. Cyrone calmly watched her and slowly approached. The sword’s blade, still slick with fresh blood, scraped sharply against the floor as it was dragged.
“Cy-Cyrone… Why? Why would you do this?”
Elia froze as her eyes locked with Cyrone’s. His burning red eyes stared down at her, void of any emotion. Only a fierce, blazing rage simmered within.
“Don’t come any closer!”
As Cyrone took a step forward, Elia stumbled back. The chilling cold radiating from him was unnatural, something no human could emit. Elia’s teeth chattered uncontrollably from the biting frost.
“Ugh!”
Yet Elia had nowhere left to retreat. Cyrone grabbed a handful of her hair and made her kneel. He pinned Reiffers’s severed head to the floor with his foot and pressed it before Elia’s face.
“Cyrone? see for yourself who I am through your own eyes.”
Discussion
0 CommentsNo comments yet.