"Looks like he's dead." Kuzon stared at the lifeless corpse of the 9th Prince.
He displayed no real emotion while staring down at Kendrick. The man was his enemy, plus he didn't even know him in his original world.
There was no real reason to feel any sense of guilt or remorse.
'I should also be prepared to do the needful if someone wears the same face as someone I know in my original world.'
Hesitation was a fatal weakness he didn't want to possess.
'What if it was Ana? Would I be able to do it?' Kuzon couldn't tell unless he experienced it for himself.
He brushed aside the thought and reflected on the just-concluded battle. There were a few things he wanted to mull over.
The first was simple;
"It seems the rules haven't changed here. Mana remains inferior to Aether."
Kendrick's Original Magic seemed formidable enough. The only restricting factor was the fuel behind that power.
'He had bountiful Mana, and his Magic was powerful too. Unfortunately for him, I use Aether now...'
That was all it took to create an impossibly large gap between them.
'I can't assume that everyone in this world can't use Aether, though. I would have asked him, but what if there's some form of Magic that allows anything I say to be recorded and sent to the Midas Empire? Then, I'd just reveal the whole Aether secret to them.'
That would suck a lot, wouldn't it?
The other thing he had to consider was the First Prince that Kendrick mentioned. It seemed like he was going to be someone very powerful.
'Maybe an Aether user. I guess I'll watch out for someone like that, then.'
There were a lot of other things to consider, but it was best he went his way.
He looked at Kendrick one final time. "I think I'll burn it up. It's the least I could do."
Kuzon was about to cast fire Magic on the fallen prince, but then it suddenly dawned on him.
'I swear, it's not to erase the evidence or whatever.'
Now that he thought of it, that seemed like what he was aiming for.
'Well, there's nothing wrong with erasing the evidence. But, I think it should be better leaving things like this. Especially when I consider how things could play out eventually. Yeah... let's do that.'
With that in mind, Kuzon left the dead prince and leaped into the air.
"I should probably get back there soon."
With that thought in mind, he leaped into the air, charging straight at the Shelter.
'Hopefully it's already over.'
*
*
*
"H-how...?"
Darius was currently shivering as he stared at the scene of carnage before him.
The heads of many Inquisition officers were on the ground, and their blood stained everything in sight.
The pool of dark red liquid oozed on the ground, reflecting the horror that had been perpetrated by something not even he could explain.
'H-how did they die?!' Darius had no idea.
He had ordered them to attack the plebians before him, yet the moment they got closer to them, their heads were sent falling.
It made no sense to him.
How could they die so instantly and suddenly without a sign?
He had also tried using Magic. The surviving knights were ordered to cast long-range Spells to decimate their opponents, yet even that proved useless.
Why?
The Spells, no matter how powerful, never reached them. They would simply get extinguished or destroyed before even coming close to any commoner.
It reached a point of shame for Darius. And slowly... that shame morphed into fear.
He suddenly remembered the words of the imposter that his superior was most likely already done dealing with.
"If any of you even attempt to touch those people, you're going to die."
Darius gulped. He truly couldn't wait for their leader to return and handle this problem for them.
'I don't want to seem like a useless subordinate, but this is out of my power.' He turned to his remaining subordinates, and even they seemed too frightened to move.
"Surely, Prince Kendrick would understand... right?"
"The dead have no need for understanding anything." A sudden voice interrupted Darius's line of thought, causing him and the rest who stood him to look above them.
Floating there was the golden-haired imposter.
He stared at them with a bright glow evident in his eyes and a chilling grin on his face.
"Y-you? W-where is Prince Kendrick?" Darius yelled, forgetting his fear for a moment.
"Oh? You're quite slow for a superior race. Didn't you hear what I said earlier?"
The moment Darius's thoughts trailed to the words the man uttered, his body shivered. His eyes bulged, with his irises shaking in disbelief.
'N-no way! He killed Prince Kendrick?!'
"I'm surprised, though. To think some of you are still alive. You're a lot more careful than I gave you credit for."
Darius's body shivered at the mere sound of their enemy's chilling voice.
'What should I do now? What can I do now? Can I... do anything now?!'
"Since you didn't try to lay your hands on them, my threat doesn't apply to you. This is quite the problem. Should I spare you or..."
Darius couldn't believe he was doing this. His lips trembled, and his body moved on its own.
His subordinates followed his lead, like mindless drones, and all of them plopped to the ground on their knees.
They ignored the blood and gore before them, and with a trembling smile that showed nothing but sheer fear and submission, Darius felt his lips move.
"S-spare... us...?"
In response to his words, the obviously supreme one who floated above them ribbed his chin in consideration.
Darius could only beg—no, pray—that he was shown mercy.
At that point, there was nothing that occupied his mind other than his instinctive desire to preserve his life.
He didn't want to—
"Nah."
>WHOOOOOOOOOOSSSHHHH!!!<
The last thing he heard was the sound of his head being severed from his body.
And just like that, Darius's vision he dark and he lost all sensation.
In that moment, death came for him and his subordinates.
About fifty-nine of them or so.
"It's nothing personal."
*
*
*
[A/N]
Here's the link.
