"No!"
Falling to her knees, Queenie held Lucerne's corpse, shaking it dramatically as she told him to wake up. Of course, he would not and as soon as she realized that, which was pretty quickly, she turned her gaze to who had released the killing blow.
Merely a few feet from everyone was Ann, who had already caught a second or two before. Her face was one of solemnity, as well some slight pain or guilt. Being stared at by Queenie's teary eyes, Ann could feel the importance this man had to her. After all, Lucerne had been one of the serpent's that had taken care of Queenie since she was a kid; him and the other servants had a place in her heart.
"You…" was all Queenie could muster as the rest was stuck in her throat. Her face was rapidly turning red as if she couldn't breathe, but a hand soon pressed on her shoulder; it made the pressure building on her face collapse and she let out a breath of turbid air.
Ran, who had been next to her the whole time, had been the one to hold her shoulder.
He spoke to her, saying "look", as he pointed at the body with his eyes.
Indeed, as she and the others watched the body, in his back was a hole; something then quickly poked its head out of the hole.
It was a snake made of black lightning. It was only about the size of a finger, and under everyone's gaze, it quickly slithered back to Kingsley in a flash, entering his sleeve.
Realizing what had happened, everyone grew restless, but Kingsley still maintained his smile. Now they knew just how helpless they were. This man, Lucerne, after surviving his previous fight, was barely alive to begin with. Clearly, he tried to bluff Kingsley by acting tough and confrontation by walking ahead of him nonchalantly, but he inevitably failed.
When the snake dug into his body, he didn't notice a single thing wrong, even more so considering Queenie was right in front of him and all he wanted was to bring her to safety.
In reality, the snake had made its move so fast practically no one saw a thing except… ding ding ding, Ann of course. Even while hundreds of feet away, she was able to see a black flash leave Kingsley and enter Lucerne. By then, she knew it was over for Lucerne either way, and considering it appeared he was going to do something potentially dangerous to Queenie, she decided to end it right then and there.
However, now, if anything, Kingsley's face only brightened as he watched Ann stand in between him and the rest of the group. She tried to console Queenie, but she wasn't having any of it. No matter the reason, this was the hand that had been dealt; she just needed time to adjust.
Then again, there was no time.
"Done yet," Kingsley asked. It was obviously a rhetorical question, but this only served to enrage Queenie.
As if Queenie's body acted on its own, she got up from the corpse and ran up to him, holding him by his clothes.
"Y‐you bastard! Do you realize what you've done? You killed your own servant!"
"All those years of taking care of you… of us, what for? For this?!"
Her eyes balled as she punched him in the face, sending him tumbling to the ground, but he didn't care and just let it happen. He let it all happen—it made no difference in the end.
It only took a second to get up, but when he got up, something seemed different. His eyes had turned completely black, sclera included. Not only that, his aura seemed to change quickly as well. It became increasingly more suffocating and dangerous to everyone, as if a prey saw a predator eyeing it from a distance.
"Say, don't you think it's about time to end this little game?"
"How about this, I'll show you something, then you can decide for yourselves."
He didn't bother with their responses and simply looked at them one… by… one.
Then, he slowly and intimately untied the sash tied around his robe.
The next second, the robe fell on the ruined ground. And what they saw… Oof, how do I say this? It was… sexy—no that isn't it.
It was terrifying.
It was horrifying… Wait, is that the same as terrifying?
It was suffocating.
"What? Like what you see?"
"No that isn't it. You finally realize the situation you're truly in, don't you?"
Indeed, they finally realized what seemed wrong this entire time.
The motive.
This entire time, there seemed to be no reason for all of Kingsley's actions. Even going as far back as when he tried to murder his sister, there seemed to be no reason. Sure, he said it was because he wanted the right to rule their city after his father stepped down or died, but that couldn't have been enough motivation, especially since he showed no such aggression at any point before then.
It was only after came back from wherever he went that he turned into the current him—something had happened during that time.
But what they saw explained some of it at least.
Indeed, the entirety of his upper body was covered in black runes.
And… They were eerily similar to those they saw outside and in the laser cannon.
In other words, he was in cahoots with the master of the laser cannon. That would explain his apparent familiarity with someone like Ran, who by now was inexplicably connected to whoever created these kinds of runes.
As for his behavior, like the rune formation that served to control Pridicus (aka Brother Pride), there was a chance he was being controlled in some way as well. That would, at least, be potentiality for why he tried what he did on his sister.
All this would also explain why he lingered around the receiver of the laser cannon to the point that his sister and Ran would come out of it.
So yeah, all in all, they realized what was going on.
They had been played. And hard too.
There seemed to be some huge plot going on in the background, but it constantly stayed out of focus, which definitely isn't my fault by the way, and they were left frustrated by this point.
And so, with this train of thought, all of their faces fell to the point even botox wouldn't be able to help.
"What—don't give me that face. You all knew this would be coming didn't you?"
"After all…" and he looked at Ran before continuing, "this isn't the first time, now is it?"
Hearing this made Ran shiver because a memory had resurfaced. He remembered how Philips Lanx, practically a nobody, had described how a raven had threatened his life and manipulated him to get Ran to go to the very place that held the special runes as well as Olly the Butterfly koi.
But the point was, the raven appeared to have been controlled by someone, who had a feminine voice, with black runes such as these.
And worse yet, Philips seemed to have been manipulated twice as while he saved him from someone who was far above him in ranks, it led him straight to his enemy. He even disappeared after all that went down.
And if we fast forward a bit, guess what we find? A fish, one who had seemingly lost her pet toad. And guess where they found him? In the exact place that led them to this exact situation.
And now, Ran really couldn't help but look at Shirley with some suspicion. However, it was dispelled as he watched her confused face. Indeed, she was just as confused, and without the context of what Ran had come across, she was clueless. She even looked at Peppy the toad and Missus the toad with suspicion.
The only one who had some actual clue was Queenie, who had actually seen this to some degree back when he tried to kill her. That was why she seemed uncomfortable to be inside the laser cannon; it reminded her of him.
And that was why she actually seemed to be in the worst condition out of everyone.
"Impossible! What… what happened to you, brother?"
"W‐who did this to you?"
She couldn't help herself any longer and fell onto the ground with a plop. She cried as she realized that she had truly lost her brother. No matter what, some part in her inherently cared for him, but that had been brutally shot down by this sight.
However, even with all of this, Kingsleys face did not change expression. He simply smiled warmly once again as he spoke.
"Child, don't worry, it will all be over soon. It'll be over soon."
His voice, however, had become strange. It was as if two people were talking, and it appeared more feminine than before.
Thereafter, as soon as she said those words, the runes on her body radiated black rays. Then, jets of black smoke were released from the runes, and they soon completely covered Kingsley.
The smoke continued to spew out, but it was contained, and soon, it grew taller and taller into a column of several hundred feet.
Then, the amorphous smoke seemed to go through a change, quickly becoming a half-cloud half-human hybrid. At the top of the head was Kingsley, where she smirked at everyone.
And after all of that, egregious thunder seemed to clap within the cloud, and let me tell you, it wasn't coming from her cheeks.
Rather, black lightning slithered all across the cloud, inside and out, and the aura it released instantly toppled all the trees within a mile.