"That is enough! Cut down this traitor!" Ceti said in a fierce tone as she stepped forward, and dark silver knuckles with steel spikes on them manifested on her fists.
The five Bloodborn Guards also unsheathed their swords halfway as they stepped forward from every side to cut down this intruder who dared to speak ill against the queen.
However, Rowena briefly raised her hand, gesturing them to stand down, making Ceti and the five Bloodborn Guards freeze themselves on the spot.
Instead, she discreetly told them to escort the guests outside and Asher to safety. However, right as they were about to do that, dozens of men and women in black robes and wearing masks entered the hall from every side, their eyes glowing dark red. Nobody could even tell how they suddenly came in, but they weren't surprised, considering Iryna knew this castle like the back of her hand.
Iryna coldly smiled, "Nobody in this hall will get out unscathed. Today this hall will be bathed in blood just like how you soaked your hands with the blood of my kin…my husband and my sons."
Everybody felt chills hearing her words since they knew she was dead serious, considering what had happened last year.
Asher felt the atmosphere in the hall turning quite heavy and tense. He looked at Kookus, gesturing to him to tell him what the fuck was going on.
Kookus was shivering and was hiding behind Asher's chair. But he somehow found the strength and said, "This is bad…really bad…The queen killed off her entire family and anybody who supported her husband when her husband tried to claim the throne right after the Demon King died. And now she is probably back to get revenge! Crap, my luck to be in the same hall as her."
Asher didn't know that a power struggle happened right after the Demon King's death. But it wasn't surprising considering how tempting the crown could be. However, he wasn't surprised to know that Rowena didn't hesitate to kill off a part of our own family to assert her dominance. As a Demon Queen, without being ruthless, one can't sit on the throne. This only made him once again compare the contrast between the human world and this world.
"How powerful is that woman?" Asher asked in a low voice.
"S-She is the sister of the late demon king!" Kookus said with a frantic look.
Asher's brows raised since being the sister of the demon king spoke volumes of how powerful she could be.
He also knew this castle won't help take care of the intruders since Iryna and her subordinates were carrying the same bloodline as House Drake. This made him wonder if Rowena would be able to handle her since Iryna somehow sealed the exits, and it could take a while before the guards from outside could come in.
Rowena was also like a junior when compared to a senior figure like Iryna, who was several centuries old. She didn't even have her dragon to protect her too. Things weren't looking good.
Lord Vernon and Lord Thorin, along with their family members, got up from their seats, their expressions on full alert. However, Jarius Thorne was trembling in fear upon seeing Iryna and her boiling dark red eyes.
He wanted to flee and shakingly tugged on his mother's sleeve, "Mother…please get us out of here…She has gone mad…"
"Grow a spine! There is no getting out of this until Iryna and her followers are taken care of," Esther Thorin said sternly before turning her ghostly red eyes toward the masked people slowly surrounding them to attack.
"Iryna definitely came prepared. She brought her best soldiers with her. This won't be easy at all," Lord Vernon Valentine said with a serious look.
Rowena leaned forward and said with a stone-cold gaze, "You dare say that I took everything from you when your kin, especially your husband, committed treason by trying to usurp the throne? Your kin didn't even care about my father's death. All they cared about was stealing the crown when this kingdom was broken and defenseless from his death. My father chose me as his successor and not your husband."
"He chose wrong!" Iryna said as she clenched her jaw and pointed at her, "Look at you. Look how closely you are keeping a beast of our enemy race close to you as your 'Battlemaster'. Did any king or queen in the history of our realm ever appoint an enemy with such a high-ranking title?"
Ceti's fists were shaking uncontrollably as her dark blue eyes shone with a deathly cold light.
Iryna wasn't finished as she turned her gaze towards Asher, "Forget about that and see the useless bag of bones with the title of a 'consort' sitting beside you. Even after your father's death, you still haven't gotten ridden of him and continue to keep him close like a disease. How humiliating and disgraceful to the entire kingdom. This only shows how wrong your father was to choose you as his successor. You don't deserve that crown on your head. It was only right my husband should have succeeded the throne rather than you."
Asher saw this woman throwing verbal attacks at him as well, and at this point, he was just wishing for her to drop dead.
"Oh my god…Why won't she stop…Did she really come here to die?" Naida Valentine mumbled as she placed her hand on her mouth with a look of disbelief.
"You have spoken enough…Now you deserve to burn," Rowena said in a blood-chilling voice as she slowly got up, her crimson eyes radiating killing intent that targeted Iryna and her people.
Iryna's followers felt their blood shaking in horror upon feeling the killing intent and anger of the queen.
They found themselves grimacing as they felt like their hearts were about to explode from terror. They couldn't even move an inch. But Iryna snorted as she used her aura to shield her followers from Rowena's killing intent, saving them just in time.
Ceti was about to help her deal with these intruders, but she received an order from the queen to quickly get Asher away from this hall.
Ceti had no choice but to follow the order as she turned around to grab him. However, she was blocked by a bunch of Iryna's men and had no choice but to try and fight them off.
"I said nobody will leave this hall!" Iryna shouted in a seething tone as she conjured a spear of searing blood using her mana and threw it right toward Asher.
Asher's eyes widened as he saw the spear of searing blood cutting through the air like a bullet and heading for him!
