Countless frags of rubble and debris were scattered everywhere as four bloodied figures stood on the dark battleground.
Ack!
A mouthful of blood spurted out of one of the man's mouth as he fell to his knees weak, unable to fight any longer.
Seeing the man fall to his knees, the rest of the men heaved a huge sigh of relief as they were all shocked at the ability that Garrick had suddenly shown. He, a stage one refinement realm was able to go head to head against the main generals who were all at stage four origin realm. This was completely incomprehensible and unheard of, bringing a sense of unease at the thought of the axe.
"Haha! You are really relentless," Xander commented as he got up and laughed.
"Haha! Says the weakling who had to rely on his commander and mates to defeat me, a mere refinement realm cultivator," Garrick scoffed as he smiled at the generals mockingly.
"You may be laughing now but let me guess, you are here for the scepter?" the commander suddenly spoke as he asked with a cold smile.
"What are you hiding?" Garrick cautiously asked as he realized that the Ruby officials had always known what they were here for.
The commander then walked over to the tent and took down it's tent revealing the table and it's many chairs. The commander then pushed the table and it moved over revealing a secret compartment space inside the table and that the top was just a lid.
The commander then brought out a heavy scepter.
"This must be what your looking for," the commander spoke as he stroked the scepter's white gold body. On the top of the scepter was a small skull that looked like it had been melted into the body as parts of the mouth were stretched. The skull glowed with a deathly blue aura and the light slowly rose from the neck all the way to it's forehead releasing an eerie fearsome pressure.
"What is that?" Garrick asked in shock as he saw that the scepter that they were sent to find was not this one at all.
"This is the Nightkiss, legendary scepter of the Frost King who caused carnage here many hundreds of years ago," the commander answered as he smiled.
"Oh no," Garrick suddenly realized that he had given Mars the wrong instruction and that something fishy was going on as the generals did not seem like they really cared about chasing Mars at all.
"Let me guess now, you're curious about why we let you friend go?" the commander coldly asked as he could read Garrick's thoughts from his facial expressions.
"To activate this scepter, we need a blood sacrifice of a million lives," he continued.
Hearing this, Garrick's face turned extremely ugly. This had been a plot from the beginning and they had always planned for their demise. Now Mars would go back and the Lapis army would recklessly attack while the Ruby soldiers would be ready to ambush. How did it turn out like this?
"You maniac! This world has no place for you," Garrick shouted loudly as he looked at the commander with extremely anger.
"Hahahaha! I'm afraid it does. This world runs on power, not personality," the commander mockingly corrected Garrick as he walked forward to him.
"Now, let's let it feast on you, I wonder how long it will take," the commander spoke as he tipped the scepter on a pool of blood that was slowly pouring from Garrick's wounds.
Argh!!
A loud shout of pain came as Garrick was suddenly placed under heavy and extreme torment as the blood seemed to be sucked up by the scepter and forced out more and more blood to pour out from Garrick's wounds.
"Hahaha! Suffer! Xander cursed as he took pleasure in the sight of Garrick screaming out.
"The blood of all of you guys will supply all the beasts sealed inside the scepter and this will bring forth the downfall of the Lapis kingdom!" the red-haired man laughed out.
"Argh! I can't... let you just do that... you know?" Garrick weakly forced out as he slowly stood up, blood still flowing out of him.
"I have three sons... and a wife that I promised that I would go home to," Garrick spoke out with a strong-willed mocking smile as he hid his pain.
"Haha! I'll make sure to torture your sons to death and I'll make sure your wife suffers torment that will drive her to the borders of insanity before sending them all to meet up in the afterlife," Xander suddenly laughed out as he hated Garrick to the core.
Hearing this, Garrick's mood suddenly turned strange and devoid of any expression as he lost the look of life in his eyes.
"Ahhhh!" Garrick loudly screamed as purple energy began coating him emitting a extremely calm dangerous darkness.
Rumble!
The ground began to shake as pitch-black spots began appearing on Garrick's body.
"In totomeh kuas sepa in youalyotl uala yeseh amoskeh kua in youalyotl mo," Garrick's mouth slowly opened as he recited these words.
Boom! A sudden large explosion occurred as a pillar of darkness fell onto the field.
But as quickly as it came, the pillar suddenly disappeared and Garrick's body lifelessly fell to the floor as blood stopped flowing from his body.
There was no change in the scepter and it seemed to have gained a lot of blood as the glowing rose by one centimeter.
Confused, the commander walked out to Garrick's body, spooked by the scene what just occurred.
"What just happened?" he asked curiously as he confirmed that Garrick's body was dead. How was he able to accomplish such an effect.
"Xander!" he suddenly called out.
"Yes sir!"
"Take this body back to my tent, I want to examine it for future purposes,"
"Yes sir!"
Back at Mt. Ketumati, Leo's mind was in complete turmoil as the shadow's black energy slowly rose to Leo's knees, causing him huge amounts of pain as it felt as if there were countless flesh-eating ants were devouring his legs.
Argh!
He tried struggling but due to the many weapons that were lodged in him, found that he could not move at all.
Argh!
"Leo..." a familiar voice called out.
Suddenly, Leo's face raised to his left as he heard that voice, his father walked out from the darkness with a warm smiled as he walked out.
"Leo," he called out again.
"Dad!" Leo shouted as his mind was temporarily taken away from the pain.
Sphew!
Suddenly a sword appeared from the darkness and stabbed right into Reon's back and he screamed loudly in pain as he fell to one knee.
Immediately, another sword flew straight through Reon's neck and blood began pouring out from his neck, just like the time before he died.
"Dad!" Leo shouted as he began to struggle to get free.
"Leo, what are you fighting for?" Reon weakly spoke out as he slowly got up again.
"What are you saying dad?" Leo asked with confusion and concern. His dad was not a man of many words and what ever he said often had many meaning behind it. What he had just said immediately caused Leo's mind to awaken into sanity again.
"Look," Reon spoke as the darkness behind him slowly cleared.
And hundreds of bodies appeared with their bodies sliced in half. Shock and a look of insanity appeared in Leo's eyes as he was suddenly filled with disbelief.
Each of the dead bodies was copies of all the people that he loved and cared for, Garrick, Aurora, Ava, Lex, even Arsu's face was scattered among the countless bodies.
"Nooo!" Leo screamed in grief as he lost himself in regret once again. All the pain disappeared at that moment and all he was filled by was just sadness.
I'm weak. I have no right to pass judgement on others when I can't even control my actions. What have I done?
"You are indeed weak. Let me take over your body. I will make everyone pay," the devilish voice called out as it ranted, "People do not deserve to live. They are all fake psychopaths who this they are the king of their own worlds and that they can only live how they like."
Hearing this, Leo's rage suddenly built up as he agreed with the man, the black energy reaching up to his chest now.
Yes. People do not deserve to live. If people weren't there then mom and dad would not have died. They are the problem.
Suddenly, a soft dainty hand descended and karate-chopped Leo's head while he had his head down, lost in angry and vengeful thoughts.
"Dummy!" the voice suddenly laughed at Leo in a very playful manner.
Surprised, Leo was immediately brought back from his thought as he turned to his left and quickly, look up as he recognized the voice.
Is it who I think it is?
"Mom...?" he asked with a sense of hopeless desperation.