Chapter 105 – Messy Event [4]

As the Red Moon began to fall, all the Heirs moved instantly to protect themselves, their minds focusing on survival rather than useless questions.

Some acted alone, clearly believing they needed no one.

That was the case for Jeanne and William, who stood apart from the others — surrounded by heirs scrambling restlessly — their eyes stern and cold as they stared up at the moon.

Jeanne’s body was shrouded in a deep, vicious black fire that rippled outward continuously, seeming to corrupt the very air around her. In her right hand was a rapier made of the same black flame.

She took her stance, eyes burning with deep-rooted fury.

William, meanwhile, stood without a weapon. Yet the Heir of Castria took his stance anyway, his hand grasping at thin air as if closing around a sword, head lifted, looking at the Red Moon and the world of red surrounding him.

His yellow eyes shifted, his pupils reshaping into the form of a blade. A severing aura erupted from him, scaring away the nearby heirs, coalescing into a sword only he could see, forged from the severing essence of the Castria bloodline.

Beside Jeanne and William, Jonathan and the fat young man also chose to stand alone, preferring to protect themselves without concern for anyone else.

Jonathan whispered something under his breath. A ring — deep black — appeared on his index finger. His essence flowed into it, the ring blazed with blinding black light.

A strange substance exploded outward and covered his whole body, then condensed into a full suit of armour made of unknown material.

His entire face was concealed. He looked just like a monster.

The fat young man, in contrast, cursed under his breath. "Ah, I just ate. Why now?"

Knowing he had no choice, he slapped his belly with an essence-covered hand. It rippled. White smoke oozed from his body, his frame shrinking: small and shrivelled, looking like a stick.

The white smoke condensed into a small ball. The now-tiny, weathered man swallowed it.

His strength exploded exponentially, the floor beneath him cracking and shattering instantly.

He cracked his neck, sending shockwaves from the simple action. "Let’s make this fast." 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Others found safety in groups, combining their abilities in coordinated ways to brace for the impact.

The most successful and dangerous of those groups — or rather the second most — was the one formed by Klaus, Natalia, Keisha and, surprisingly, Love.

With Klaus’s Wind Spirit, Natalia’s Mirror ability, Keisha’s Frost and Love’s runic body, the four managed to construct a sturdy protective structure around themselves within seconds.

The first group was Cassius’s, who alongside Raven and Esmeray raised a barrier just in time for the Red Moon to reach the floor.

Or so they all thought.

But Cassius knew the Red Moon would not simply explode. Its function was not that simple.

Instead of landing, it cracked into nine fragments shaped like red pillars — and with an earthshaking yet muffling sound, each one planted itself at a corner of the Hall, spaced evenly around the wide open area.

The nine pillars connected to one another through essence, weaving complex runic patterns between them, instantly sealing the Hall off from the physical world.

The Heirs were trapped inside a newly created realm where everything was crimson — floor, air, sky. A realm where the remaining wisp of essence from the cracked Red Moon spawned monsters.

These monsters existed between a physical and spiritual state, their bodies made of crimson starlight made solid. They were shaped like tall, eight-foot figures with hands that dragged along the ground, tipped with long sharp nails.

They were faceless, save for a single eye at the centre of each chest. Wide and pulsing. Red, with black web-like lines spreading across it.

These monsters were neither Ravagers, nor Wraiths, nor Voids.

They were of the Irregular type, walking the Red Moon Path: a unique Path belonging to one specific category of being.

[Children of the Red Moon — Tier 6, Tier 5]

Even behind their various barriers and skills, every heir could read the name displayed by the System. Their hearts went cold, each of them feeling three especially powerful auras pressing outward.

All of them were still at Mortal Rank, having awakened not long ago, capable of fighting Tier Seven monsters and sometimes Tier Six.

But Tier Five? That was outright suicide.

"Oi! This is bad!!!" Klaus bellowed, feeling the cold edge of something lethal pressed against his life. He was not alone.

Every single one of them felt like they were about to die.

But Cassius would not have set this situation in motion without a plan to keep them alive. And that plan had already been put into motion the moment he attacked Emrys.

’Come on, chosen one! Don’t disappoint me now!’ He shouted inwardly, smiling crookedly, keeping the barrier steady for what was about to come.

After all, he had erected the barrier not because of the monsters. But because of...

"Unseal the First Restriction of my sword, Golden Beggar."

...Emrys Stormblessed.

He was slowly rising to his feet, right hand closing around his black-clothed sword.

His words were followed by the voice of a god thundering through the realm, shaking it to its core.

[Granted.]

His sword glowed, and the cloth covering it fell away. He lifted the golden blade, pointing the tip toward the ground...

"First Manifestation:" Emrys spoke, voice reverberating all around, the sword blazing brighter. Anesthesia’s eyes went wide with horror. Cassius’s back went cold. Raven and Esmeray cursed in shock.

"Lightning’s Breath."

The sword dissolved into golden smoke.

And in one terrifying instant, the air of the realm was no longer air.

It was lightning.

...

Meanwhile, outside the barrier of the Red Moon realm, the Hood servants — or more accurately, Dorian’s agents — stared at the scene before them with no less shock than the heirs trapped within.

Nothing in front of them was anything like what they had planned. Their hearts were slamming against their chests like a beast giving its final breath, and a deep dread crawled up their backs as they felt the dangerous power radiating outward from the barrier.

They might have stood frozen far longer if not for a voice bellowing through the half-destroyed Hall.

"We need to run!" A woman screamed, her eyes shaking, pointing toward the west wall, where they had previously planted an explosive to blow an escape route.

"Fast! Fast! Fast!"

The eight men and women shouted in unison, tearing open their servant clothes and pulling masks from their space rings.

"Nora! Blow the wall now!"

"Roger!"

Nora, a short woman with honey-coloured hair, nodded and crushed a runic token in her palm.

The western wall of the Hall exploded instantly, sending splintered stone and debris outward. A hot rush of wind erupted from the hole.

Without hesitation, all eight agents leapt through.

Before vanishing, however, one of them turned his head and saw a woman — naked, dirty-blonde hair and black eyes — pushing open the door of the Hall and stepping outside.

He cursed under his breath as realisation dawned on him, then disappeared through the hole.

...

Emily Stone — having shed the skin of Julie and used it as the material to summon the Realm of Red Moon — pushed open the door of the Hall, her body shimmering with red essence, both hands holding short swords, ready to defend herself.

She stepped outside, feeling the fresh air brush her bare skin. She expected the guards to still be unaware of what was happening inside — the Realm of Red Moon had, after all, isolated the heirs completely.

What she actually saw made her stop instinctively, her black eyes going wide.

Three guards stood amid a floor scattered with sprawling maids and butlers, all of them clearly unconscious, bearing terrible wounds to their heads.

And there were two more figures — face-down on the ground, fully conscious, watching their surroundings with dread — pinned by the fourth guard.

The two pinned figures were the Sisters of Hood that Helene had left behind.

Emily’s arrival did not go unnoticed.

All four guards turned their heads toward her. Emily almost winced in shock at what she saw on their faces.

On each forehead was a kissing mark. But it was no ordinary mark: it was a mouth in and of itself, wide open, vomiting black threads that wove tightly around and into their heads.

Sensing the aura of those threads, Emily knew immediately what she was facing.

"Soulblade!" She hissed.

One of the guards, the one pinning down the two sisters, laughed sharply. The voice was feminine, filled with wicked delight.

"Oh, Lord Seraph was indeed right." The voice rang out. "Instead of escaping, greed would take over you and make you reach for more. Crimson Daggers, is it? What exactly is your goal?"

Emily’s face went cold. She understood then that a fight was unavoidable.

Yet not all was lost. Whoever was controlling these guards was clearly doing so from a distance through the threads.

The controller would obviously be less efficient and powerful at range. So if she moved fast enough, she could cut down the puppets and still complete what she had come here to do.

’All for the Lord of the Red Moon! All for a better world! A world of equality and justice!’

The moment those thoughts flashed through her mind, Emily opened her mouth.

"Soulblade’s Manifestation: Mismatched Sword."

A short sword, woven from different elemental powers of the world, materialised in her right hand.

Her power doubled instantly. Her eyes blazed. The space around her shuddered.

"Oh my." The feminine voice rang out again, moving with incredible speed.

Emily saw the two bodies of the Sisters launched toward her at breakneck speed.

Riding the surge of power from her Soulblade, she confidently slashed through them, mixing fire and wind at the edge of the blade, making it exceptionally sharp.

Flesh met blade. The sisters were cut in two. The blood burned at the blade’s heat, their eyes wide, their echoing screams filling the space around her.

Emily wavered slightly from the force of her own swing, and felt a cold breath at the back of her neck.

She shuddered, realising one of the four guards was no longer standing in front of her.

"You underestimated me, little girl." The feminine voice whispered at her ear.

A finger twitched.

Only then did Emily notice the thin thread that had been coiled around her neck the entire time.

She didn’t even get to scream as it tightened, and severed her neck in one clean motion, her soul receiving the same fate.

Her head came free. The blood that followed was caught and controlled by the guard’s essence, redirected to wash over the slumbering maids and butlers on the floor.

Emily Stone fell, her body dropping like a sack of stone, her Soulblade dissolving.

The four guards watched the scene for a long moment. Then one took hold of Emily’s dead body and her severed head, and immediately began moving in one direction.

The direction a shadow had been heading while everyone else was consumed by chaos.

And now, she had arrived. And in front of her was a door...

...an open door.

—End of Chapter 105—