And thus my first revenge had only just begun.
As a side note, I didn't escape immediately after running Herman and Irene through with my Blood Spear of Longinus. I listened to their muffled shrieks of pain, and then the panic that set in when the Supreme Priestess realized that she could no longer cast her healing spells. That her magic had been completely sealed.
As for the Hero, he was also taken by surprise by the agony that had punched through his heart. He writhed, but the movement only aggravated his wife, whose body had been fused to his through their melted flesh.
While they let out muffled, incoherent cries, I worked on dismantling the lion fountain, removing the valve and alternative container, and then reassembling it to its original configuration. Once I was done with the menial task, I then approached the grotesque, squirming abomination of fused flesh and bodies.
"Do you guys still remember me?" I asked loudly. Immediately, there was some silence, and I could almost taste the dread and disbelief that was emanating from the both of them. Seemed like they recognized my voice, at least. I smiled. "That's right. I'm Klein Pearson."
"Mmph!"
Both Herman and Irene appeared to want to say something, but with their mouths melded together in dissolved flesh, they were unable to form any coherent words. I had the impression that they were trying to ask how I was still alive or something similar to that.
Ignoring them, I continued to gloat.
"Did you think you could get away with betraying and then trying to kill me?"
There was a pause, and I could hear the quiver in their muffled voices now. Were they begging me for their lives? For mercy? Were they apologizing?
I didn't know, and I didn't care. Instead, I smirked and pushed my glasses up my nose.
"I allowed you both to ascend the heights of pleasure, just only so I can plunge you into the abysmal depths of hellish pain." I couldn't help but chuckle. "I hope you enjoy your last few months together. Oh, you did say that you wanted to be one with each other, didn't you? I'm so kind, am I not? To have granted you your wish."
With that, I then silently left the bathhouse, closing the door behind me and leaving their fused figures writhing in agony.
The next morning, I opened the door to the bathhouse, saw that the melded couple was still flailing futilely in agony, and then sprinted down the corridor of the mansion, yelling for help. At first, the chamberlain and the other servants reacted angrily, telling me to shut up. They didn't know what was going on, and thus were worried that the psychotic couple would publically execute me for causing a ruckus.
Well, if it was just me, then that was fine. The other servants were worried that I might drag them into being killed along with me. The cowards.
"Silence!" the chamberlain shouted while I blabbered, waving his hands in panic. I finally calmed down and pointed toward the bathhouse.
"H…help," I gasped in a convincing display of fear. "The bathhouse! The bathhouse!"
"What about the bathhouse?" The chamberlain snapped. "And stop stuttering! If the lord Hero and the Supreme Priestess hears…"
"That's…that's what I'm talking about!" I stammered. "The lord Hero and the Supreme Priestess! In the bathhouse! They…!"
For a moment, the chamberlain stared at me in disbelief. He then glanced around and realized that neither the lord nor the lady of the palace had emerged to kill anyone over the commotion I was making. The color drained from his face.
"Get the knights!" he shouted to a butler. "You, and you! With me! You too!"
He jabbed a finger in my direction, and I nodded, following him and a few male servants to the bathhouse. Attracted by the ruckus, the maids also followed, whispering and chattering curiously amongst themselves.
Their speculation turned into horrified screams and shrieks when they caught sight of the Hero couple in the bathhouse. Their figures fused together in a hideous manner, their entwined limbs having melted into each other's body, and the muffled moans and pleas from their melded mouths, not to mention the rivulets of dissolved skin that had formerly run down their bodies and now dried and solidified. Most of the maids gagged at the grotesque and a few of them ran off to throw up in the corridor. Even the male butlers turned pale from the horrific scene, and several of them looked very ill with nausea.
"My…my goodness!" the chamberlain was the most horrified of us all. He began stumbling out of the bathhouse, his face having lost all of its color.
He then grabbed one of the maids, who was too shocked beyond belief that she was staring blankly through the door.
"The priests!" he finally managed. "Inform the church and have them send the priests! We need to heal the lord Hero and the Supreme Priestess! Tell them to send their best!"
*
The Knights arrived shortly after and formed a cordon, searching for the enemy. The high priests from the Church took a while longer, and when they finally arrived, they found themselves unable to heal Herman and Irene.
"That spear…it's a cursed, demonic weapon." The head priest of the emergency squad dispatched to the Hero's palace shook his head and gestured toward the Blood Spear of Longinus. "It's dispelling whatever healing spells we cast. As long as it's piercing the lord Hero and the Supreme Priestess, we have no way of healing them."
"Then remove the damned spear!" a Royal Knight snapped. The royal family had ordered their elite knights to the scene, and they had shown up in their bright, golden heraldry. Without an enemy to fight, however, they were just milling about uselessly.
The head priest stared at the knight as if he was an idiot.
"I hate to say this, but the spear is the only thing keeping them alive at the moment. It is piercing both of their hearts. The damage is too extensive. If we remove the spear, they will die immediately."
And there were no healing spells that could bring back the dead. As miraculous as they were, they couldn't resurrect those who had already died. There was necromancy, of course, but you couldn't call that true resurrection. Reviving Herman and Irene as undead was a fate even worse than death.
"Then what do we do?!" the royal knight growled. The head priest pondered for a moment before sighing.
"For now, we'll have to move them. We'll bring them to the church's apothecary chamber and search for a way to remove the spear without killing them. That's the only obstacle…as long as we can remove the cursed spear without killing them, theoretically we should be able to save them with healing spells afterward."
"Fine." the royal knight turned to his subordinates. "You heard him. Bring the lord Hero and the Supreme Priestess to the Church."
That was a process that proved difficult, for the skin on the couple's feet had melted off and also fused to the floor. The knights cast nervous glances at the black acid burns evident on the marble floor, where the corrosive fluids had eaten through the day before, and tried to grab the fused couple as gently as possible.
Unfortunately, with their skin in such volatile condition, the both of them shrieked in agony.
That agony was nothing compared when the soldiers were forced to exert more strength to rip their feet off the floor, leaving patches of flesh and blood on the marble. Tears leaked from their fused faces and they appeared to scream louder, their voices still muffled.
The knights ferried Herman and Irene's fused bodies to the carriage, trying to be as gentle as possible, making sure to have a soft mattress with silk lining that reduced friction. They tried to make the Hero couple as comfortable as possible, to no avail. The both of them continued to scream and shriek in those muffled voices.
From a distance, I watched almost gleefully.
That was right. The curse of the Blood Spear of Longinus. It couldn't kill, even though it could leave a fatal wound. However, the price of sealing the target's magic was to ensure that their lives are preserved. The Blood Spear of Longinus would keep both Herman and Irene alive for the remainder of their short, hellish and painful lives.
Of course, it wouldn't be permanent. The Blood Spear of Longinus wasn't so kind as to save its target's life. It only kept them alive for its own purpose – in other words, to slowly absorb their life essences. In a few months, it would have sucked them dry and leave them as empty, desiccated husks devoid of all life.
Normally it would only take a couple of months to suck the target dry…but this time, I had fed the Blood Spear of Longinus not one but two victims. That meant the Blood Spear of Longinus would take twice as long to completely suck the life essences from both Herman and Irene.
In other words, it was going to take twice as long for Herman and Irene to eventually die. Almost half a year where they would spend fused to each other, locked in perpetual agony and beyond any kind of help. Unless the priests of the Holy Church decided to mercifully end their agony by pulling out the spear and thus giving them a quick death (since they weren't vampires, they weren't going to survive that sort of damage to their hearts), they were going to die a slow, agonizing death in six months, their life essences gradually stolen from them and increasing the power of my demon weapon.
I couldn't think of a more perfect punishment.
"You! The Knights have questions for you!"
The chamberlain shouted to me, gesturing for me to return to the interior of the palace. I nodded, feigning shock and horror. Striding across the corridor urgently, I returned to the bathhouse where the knights were conducting the investigation.
"Who did this to them?"
"No idea. There were no intruders last night. We patrolled the perimeter as always and saw nothing."
"There were no tracks either. No sign of forced intrusion, or entry."
"There are signs of shadow magic being used here. Plus the use of a cursed spear…could it be a demon?"
"But how did a demon get in?!"
"Shadow magic…did it sneak in using shadow magic?"
"Impossible, it wouldn't have been able to infiltrate the house from the outside, not with all the sanctified wards and defensive enchantments all over the palace!"
That was true. The protective wards cast upon the palace would have prevented intrusion from the outside, even if I were to use shadow magic. However, what if shadow magic was used inside the palace instead?
None of the knights realized the possibility that the assassin might have hidden among the occupants of the palace.
"You over there." One of the knights noticed my presence and impatiently gestured for me to come over. I obeyed deferentially.
"Sir."
"You are the one who found the lord Hero and Supreme Priestess in that condition, correct?"
"That's right, sir."
"Can you elaborate?"
"Of course. This morning, when I entered the bathhouse, according to my rgular work schedule, to clean the place, I saw them inside there…like that." I gulped and lowered my gaze. Clenching my fists, I faked trembling. "I…I have never seen anything like that before…I rushed out and tried to inform everyone, but because I was…I was panicking…"
"Understood." The knight listened intently and asked a few more questions. As he did so, one of his comrades came over.
"We can't find the source of the acid. The acid wasn't created from magic, it wasn't a spell. But we can't find where the acid came from."
"Why would there be acid in the bathhouse?" I asked dumbly. The second knight glared at me and I hurriedly bowed my head, behaving humbly.
"This makes no sense," the first knight growled, scratching his head. "Okay, perhaps the assassin threw the acid at the lord Hero and Supreme Priestess. But how did he sneak up on them and launch such an attack without either of them noticing? This is the lord Hero and Supreme Priestess we're talking about here. The strongest Hero party…the ones who defeated the Demonic Emperor! It's impossible for them to be taken by surprise like that!"
"Maybe they were too absorbed in fucking each other to notice," a third knight sneered. "You saw how they were. They were clearly in the middle of fucking each other's brains out when that happened."
A few of the other knights laughed. The second knight scowled, but he didn't reprimand them. The actions and misdeeds of Herman and Irene did not endear them to the knights guarding the palace. In fact, more than several of them were actually taking delight in the fact that they were suffering.
"You can go," the first knight told me, as if remembering I was still there. I jolted up timidly.
"Sir?"
"If we have any more questions, we'll ask you again."
"T…thank you, sir."
I bowed stiffly and hurried out of the bathhouse. All this while, I was struggling to hold in my laughter. I wanted nothing more than to cheer and celebrate. I wanted to shout my triumph to the heavens and laugh out loud.
This was glorious. My revenge had only just begun, and already two of the six targets on my list had been dealt with.