"How many have we gotten?" Simon asked as he inspected the mess in the room. With the room now filled with the stench of fresh blood and corpses, the guards counted through the bodies and gave their answer.
"We have eliminated a total of 20 gang members. Their blood have already trailed towards the room opposite of us, now we only need to wait, my lord." The senior guard respectfully announced as he displayed a set of 20 right ears.
"Very good. I expect that a larger force will be sent to check on what is happening, before that happens, move all of the corpses to the other room so the stench becomes more concentrated there. It would be suspicious if there was no smell of death coming from the room." Simon carefully explained.
"Very well. We will do as you command, my lord."
The guards did exactly as Simon commended them to do. Within the span of 5 minutes, all of the bodies were now moved and the kitchen emanated a thick smell of death. As expected, the sounds of footsteps could be heard soon after, prompting the the group to ready themselves in anticipation.
"I hear roughly 20 different people, I advise that we take this opportunity to slip past and rescue the lord's brother." The senior guard suggested as he drew a short sword. Without speaking, Simon nodded in approval and the other guards too.
"F**K! THESE GUYS ARE DEAD! THE CORPSES ARE IN THE DAMN KITCHEN! EVERYONE GET OVER HERE!" A loud and terrified voice rumbled. This was followed by a mass migration of footsteps as they approached the room opposite of Simon, entering and gasping as they saw the scene before them. A mound of 20 dead gang member, with all of their throats stabbed.
"Sh*t! Karvlos... Karvlos is dead..." One of the gang members shivered as his knees gave in and he fell to the ground. Karvlos was in fact his older brother, he person that introduced him to the gang. Seeing his brother's corpse in a heap of dead bodies, the gang member could only twitch as he witnessed the scene in absolute horror.
"What in the world...?"
Immediately after saying this, Simon's group stealthily sneaked past the gang members and continued along the right side of the hallway, silently advancing the quiet halls until they heard chatter in the distance. With a gesture from Simon, they quickly made their way to the nearest door and quietly entered and closed the door after them.
Sigh
"We made some good progress, now we just need to keep this up until we find a particularly well fortified area. Then we will strike...however, do not attempt to fight against the leader if you find him, just run." Simon instructed as he closed the door behind them. Unlike before, no one answered, which felt slightly worrying. In response, Simon looked to his surroundings to find that the room was littered with mountains corpses. These corpses seemed more well dressed than the ones he had created in the last room, indicating that these dead bodies belonged to the inhabitants of the mansion.
With the smell of fresh blood and guts in the room, Simon's group couldn't help but gag in response. Although trained guards that have fought countless battles, these devils had never seen such an atrocity. Bodies of young and old were all piled together, with not a single corpse without a cut to the neck.
Simon's eyes started to blur as he began to feel slightly lightheaded, finding support on the walls of the room. Seeing this scene made him feel extremely worried for his brother.
"Quickly search through the corpses and identify all the ones that belong to juvenile devils." Simon ordered with a shaking finger.
'Idiot brother of mine, you better not be dead!' Simon felt a chill down his spine as he thought these words, feeling unrivalled worry and anxiety. He didn't actually know how it felt to lose a family member, and he did not feel like losing one right now.
"We found five." A guard announced as they respectfully carried five corpses towards Simon.
[Goal failed: Jazukal Crypts is dead]
Deafening words echoed in Simon's skull, invoking terror and shock. Each echo became louder than the last, gradually filling Simon's head with pure madness as he fell to his knees. Before him, was the body of his twin brother, dead, with his throat slit. Beside him, were few unknown children, all with the same fatal wound. Seeing this, nothing could express what Simon was thinking in this moment. The guards noticed his gaze and turned away and bowed out of respect, but he did not notice. He only felt nothing.
"Idiot brother of mine...surely you promised to heed my advice and care about your own wellbeing...you promised...you were supposed to become the hope of the family. You are an idiot brother." Simon said as he laid his eyes on his brother's peaceful expression, letting go of a single tear.
"Did you not have talent that could destroy the world? Did you not desire to make father proud? Did you consider how I would feel?"
Sigh
Simon was only talking to the air, there was no one to respond to him. His brother laid motionless on the floor.
"I see the little Reaper survived." Simon said with disappointment as he glared at the other corpses.
"They probably wanted her as a hostage, that is the probable reason for why she is not one of these bodies." Simon sighed.
"My lord, Honoured master...shall we capture every gang member we can find and torture them with the 'Rusting Horn Technique?'" The senior guard asked as he clenched his fists in hatred. Seeing all of these innocent devils dead made the Senior guard enraged. As he was a guard with a code of honour, such acts were against his very being, prompting him to feel a deep hate in his heart toward the perpetrators.
"I want Ripper. I will personally castrate him myself." Simon smiled with a truely devilish grin.
'Goodbye my dear idiot brother of mine. I will find a way...until then, let this devil be your offering.'
'You were right, this is the worst place imaginable.'