The hail got stronger, and the rumbling became louder like the world was angry at what was happening. The scenery looked horrible, Lucas on his knees while Liam was standing beside him holding his sword in his hands. Lucas was about to be beheaded, but a helping voice came.
Robert wanted to try one final thing before it was too late. "Father please, let him live! I have never requested something from you, so please, let him live! I will never ask for anything again, I plead with you father, do this for me!", even Robert was acting desperate. This didn't calm Havi down though, it only made him even angrier.
"You even got my son on your side? How much did you threaten him to follow you?! Huh! Did you manipulate him?! YOU DARE TOUCH MY SON AND CORRUPT HIM TO YOUR IDEALS?!"
"Father no, you're misunderstanding! I'm not following any kind of order, I want this myself!", Robert kept pushing for something different. After a bit of back and forth, Havi had to realize that Lucas didn't manipulate him. Not that it changed anything, "I'm sorry son, I would fulfill any request, but this boy has to die. He was bound by contract, yet he lied and misled me and didn't suffer any consequences. Do you understand what this means? He could completely ruin our household with his lies and tricks. If we give him free rein, it will lead to our destruction!".
What Havi was actually scared of is that if Lucas could lie and scheme his way even with the contract binding him down, what couldn't he tell the Order of Light? All the human experiments, and even the dark magic practices that went down on his estate could lead to his execution, and nothing was more important than the lord of the mansion.
Yet Robert knew about both, he knew why Lucas had to die, because of their own incompetence. "Father, please!"
"No son, this is not to be questioned! Liam, DO IT! Rid this world of this pest!", the order was given forcefully, yet the action didn't proceed with the same speed. Liam was hesitating, he didn't know if he should simply fight back. He knew that even if he did, Venion would completely destroy them, but perhaps that would be a better fate than this. At first, he was decisive in following the orders, but now that he actually faced Lucas, his heart started to pull him back. It felt wrong, why should he kill such a talented boy, for what?
"What are you hesitating for?! END THIS!!!"
Havi started to get impatient, he wanted this to be over, that all his potential taboo practices would remain hidden forever. That his livelihood was protected for generations to come, his life a paradise between the dregs of society.
Liam steeled his resolve, he tried to forget everything that was happening.
'I'm just following orders, I don't have a choice, I need to protect my family, I'm not in the wrong, I'm not in the wrong,...'
Cutting himself off from the reality he was about to face, he whispered his final message to Lucas, to the boy who was like a son he never had. Like the comrade that he could trust his back to, like the friend he was.
"I'm sorry it had to be this way.", before lifting his sword above his head. The maid had backed up to avoid any damage to the umbrella. Liam was exposed to the rain now, instantly drenching his hair and clothes in a cold shower. The lighting in the sky created a gloomy atmosphere. With his sword above his head, he still hesitated. 'Just do it, forget about everyth-'
"HAHAHAHAHA", Liam was completely caught off guard, a sudden crazed laughter sprung up from out of nowhere. Lucas couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of the situation.
"Of course, it had to be this way, fate was already sealed before I came here, HAHAHA!!!"
The onlookers didn't know what to make of it, Lucas seemed to have gone mad. His ramblings didn't make any sense and his way of laughing made them feel uneasy. 'Has he gone insane?'
Liam had already lowered his sword next to him, afraid of what came next.
"What are you doing?! Finish him off, this instant! He's clearly gone mad, no need to waste time, KILL HIM!"
"Do you truly hate me that much?" Lucas said while standing up. "WHAT!", everyone was shocked to see Lucas break Havi's order without any repercussions. The baron had ordered Lucas on his knees, yet now he was standing straight, disobeying the order and contract.
"Surprise! HAHAHA, that's right, your stupid contract is void, I don't have to follow a single one of your orders anymore! HAHAHA, do you want another surprise?"
"VENION, what's going on, why doesn't it work?", Venion was looking around, trying to sense a mage above his own rank, 'But there's no reason to help him though? Shit, is he targeting me?', he was confused at what was happening, but he wasn't the only one. The pressure in the area started to drastically increase, but only one person felt it. The baron felt like his body started to compress like the air got heavier and the ground was pulling him down. All the others didn't feel a single thing.
Venion didn't feel safe and conjured a spell or two but didn't do anything with it, he simply was waiting for Lucas' possible help to show up. Two watery snakes were circling his body in the air, seemingly protecting him from all sides.
The ground they were standing on started to shake, and the rumbling of the thunder seemed to create an earthquake. But the source of that rumbling was something entirely different.
"What's going on?", Havi and the maids were panicking like crazy. Only the ones who had endured enough hardship could stay calm and rational in a situation like this.
"Hey Havi! Catch!", Lucas threw what appeared to be a ball of dirt. With his attention on Lucas and a perfect throw towards him, he easily caught the ball. The moment he touched it though, it started to fall apart, revealing the empty hollow insides.
"HAVE FUN HAHAHA!", Lucas yelled before a strange dark membrane started to cover his whole body. He didn't move or run away, he simply stood there, waiting and smiling.
'What is he??? The Devil?', Lucas looked terrifying. He was surrounded by fog-like darkness, but his smile got through the smoke. Combined with the quacking of the ground and the rumbling in the sky Havi felt that the world was ending. He started to panic and felt his body tense up.
It didn't take long before the source of the rumbling was revealed, from the dark forest came something terrifying. Multiple monsters and animals were rushing through the trees. The guards at the gate could only watch in horror as a pack of wolves rushed beside them. Their hearts stopped for a moment, "Wait! Why aren't they attacking us?", the guards were confused at the strange sight of animals and beasts alike rushing past them.
"They aren't hunting or attacking us, they're running away.", Robert said with pure confidence in his voice. 'We're in trouble.'
Everyone stood still or panicked and froze up, only Liam was brave enough to run towards Robert before taking his hand and running away with the wolves and other animals. "Liam! What are you doing? You need to protect me!"
"I'm sorry Havi, but I don't think I'll be of any help, only the Goddess above can help you now!", Liam yelled before continuing his sprint with Robert. He didn't know exactly what Lucas had done, but he recognized the spell and didn't want to take any chances. If he hid himself, there wasn't anything that Liam could do to survive in that mess.
Havi had only one person left to rely on, Venion was a Rank 1 mage, a lot more powerful than Lucas, so he wasn't completely defenseless yet. Venion was surprised at how Lucas broke the contract, but he was more interested in who was backing him. "Lucas, stop this stupid trick of yours, it won't work, lowly animals can't destroy us."
Lucas only kept smiling creepily, like he was waiting for the show to start. "What are you waiting for? Use some spells to kill him!", the baron's orders didn't even budge Venion. The mage was still stuck in though, waiting for the mystery mage to appear. 'What is he planning?'
He didn't have to wait very long before the entire forest started to shake, something was coming. The shaking trees spread all over the visible forest. Once the trees stopped, it only revealed a massive army of spiders. Thousands of eyes and legs rushed forward. The first few hundred were all monsters beneath Rank 1, so Venion still felt safe, he could kill all of these without too much trouble, but his hopes were quickly dashed. Two large spiders with black-blue skin started to come out as well. The pressure they irradiated was enormous. "Rank 1 Steel Spiders? That's impossible!"
They all charged at the group, completely skipping Lucas due to his cover. The spiders started to swarm the mansion, the guards at the gate couldn't even scream before multiple legs punctured their bodies. The maids started to run away, abandoning their master and lord. It felt like the spiders were after the baron specifically, immediately disregarding others if it meant they could puncture his body even more.
Everyone started to get wet due to the rain. The lanterns were still lit, attracting the spiders even further. They broke into the mansion, looking for anything to eat, breaking all sorts of objects on their way. The bigger spiders were charging at Venion, and while he was a Rank 1 mage, fighting against 2 Rank 1 Steel Spiders wasn't such an easy task. The spiders had intelligence, in other words, they could use magic. The monsters were lucky that they used mostly water-related spells, which there was plenty of.
One of the Rank 1 spiders rushed at Venion while the other was conjuring water spells that would break Venion's balance. Venion immediately sent his two water snakes to distract them, since he knew that water attacks would do nothing against them.
He summoned a fiery whip that with a few hits drove the first spider back, the other one had already cast its magic, destroying his whip. "Goddammit, that little shit.", Venion wasn't concerned that his whip was destroyed, he could simply summon it again, but when he looked at where Lucas was standing, he wasn't there anymore.
A circle of fire appeared around him. Fireballs sporadically came out of the circle flying toward the closest monster. He moved his hands extremely fast and spoke many runes one after another to summon enough defenses. First, he created a shield to block the stabs from the Steel spider, then he had the circle of flames that was now inside the magical barrier, keeping it safe from the rain. The spiders' offensive was relentless though, they were smart enough to know that finishing their prey as soon as possible was the best course of action. Venion kept summoning lower-leveled fireballs and even wind to keep them a little longer safe. Sadly, the rain and storm in the area quickly squashed the fireballs into smoke.
He could use a lightning bolt, but he would put himself in danger, and with Lucas hiding somewhere and a hidden mage somewhere, he didn't want to weaken himself. Creating another fire whip he kept the first one back, but the one in the back was the problem. The whip had to be constantly reconstructed because of the rain, but that was the strongest element for dealing with this kind of spider.
Venion was fighting against the spiders, using mostly fire magic, but in this weather, he had to waste a lot more to achieve the same result. Using earth magic would probably damage them as well, but he didn't want to give away any kind of cards if there was someone watching him. Darkness magic was off the hook as well.
Once he saw that Venion was occupied with his little gift, Lucas infiltrated the mansion, immediately going to Venion's study to take anything that could be useful. It didn't take long before the spiders infiltrated the mansion. Screams resounded from multiple halls, but Lucas didn't even bother looking. He had a goal, and wouldn't let anything stop him.
From one of the halls a Steel Spider emerged, for any other person in the mansion, it would've been a disaster, but for Lucas, he simply summoned a ball of darkness before pushing his hand forward into the monster's face. Its face disappeared into the darkness, never to be seen again. Running forward he found a few corpses that were leaking their innards, yet he simply ran over them.
He wasn't emotionless, he didn't want these servants and soldiers to die, but he wasn't going to stop now. He had a plan that had to be fulfilled, a dream he needed to chase, if others had to be killed in order to achieve that dream, he would do so. Arriving at Venion's study he searched a bit before finding a plethora of strange potions and incantations, but he only needed books that contained more information about mages in general or the next sets of runes.
After scouring most of the study he only found a few books on monster anatomy and the very basics of magic. 'Is this it? Nothing else?'
'Think again, where would a paranoid mage hide his darkest secrets?'
'On his person?'
'No dumbass, in a secret chamber!'
Lucas remembered the chamber where he was chained up and awakened. Back then he heard a few noises like someone was walking and talking above him. 'That must mean that room is underground, but where?'
Lucas was lucky that stealth wasn't very important anymore, so he simply destroyed the floor with earth magic. Removing the floor revealed a stone staircase leading into darkness. 'Perfect!', Lucas' smile reappeared again.
Outside of the mansion, Liam was standing with Robert near the stables. "Robert, take this horse, run away as far as possible!"
"What about you?", Robert wasn't panicking like normally, he was a lot calmer than expected. "I have some things to do first!", Liam said before running towards the place his family would normally eat. "Good luck Liam, Hiyah.", Robert set off, leaving the mansion behind him. He tried to get as far away as possible, the wolves were in front of him, he simply had to follow them for now. Looking to the side revealed that the mansion was trapped in a U-shaped form, spiders were almost completely surrounding the mansion. 'How did these monsters even coordinate any kind of attack? No, how did he force the spiders to follow a strategy?'
Unbeknownst to Robert, all around the mansion were little broken dirt balls.