"You… spawn of a gutter snake and a back-alley harlot!"
Grand Magus Azaris cursed as his body finally collapsed onto the floor, his knees grinding into the shards of glass that littered the ground. Blood seeped through his robes, staining the once-pristine fabric.
"You think you'll get away with this, making an enemy out of House Marenth," he spat, his eyes glowering at me as if he wanted to burn me.
A few feet away, I stood amidst the wreckage, surrounded by broken glass and shattered floors. My chest rising and falling with labored breaths, while my mind was actively shunning down Azaris's curses.
There was no longer any need to pay attention to him, after all. The mage's wounds were too severe. Instead, I peeked outside through one of the shattered windows to check if our army had finally breached the castle's gates.
Doesn't seem like it's going well for them. Damn it, This entire thing has been a complete disaster. I internally cursed as I saw Marenth forces collapse another one of our siege towers.
I need to hurry this up. Shaking my head, I shifted my attention back to the wreckage around me.
Right now, me and Azaris were both in the middle of the ruins of what had once been a grand laboratory and office. Shelves of ancient tomes and delicate alchemical tools lay splintered across the floor, their contents scattered like debris after a storm. A row of cracked glass capsules glowed faintly at the opposite end of the room, their murky fluids swirling around shadowy figures suspended within.
Heck, even the chandeliers hanging on the roof hadn't been spared, all destroyed into tiny pieces veiling the room in an eerie darkness, only illuminated by the occasional fire-based spell being used near the castle gates.
"Damn it," I cursed again, this time outwardly, as I walked past the blabbering mage toward the glass capsules at the back.
My original plan had been so straightforward. Use the chaos of our army breaching the castle to sneak inside Azaris's laboratory, eliminate him, rescue my elder brother, and use his death to force the enemy forces to surrender.
The reality, however, had been much harsher. I sighed as I stepped past the corpses of two women dressed in opulent mage robes and some knights donning the traditional Marenth House's armor.
I should have seen this coming. Azaris has always had a reputation for being a coward. It was totally in character for him to keep his mage wives and a set of armed knights along, especially with the current siege, even bringing them inside his precious laboratory—a place he was known to not even allow his shadow to enter.
In the end, I had to jump out and ambush four armed knights and the three mages, barely killing them all in time to activate the protective runes surrounding the laboratory and stop the outside reinforcements from swarming the room.
"This will not go unpunished," Azaris rasped, his voice becoming weaker with every word. "I swear to you, you and that wretched father of yours, we will make sure—"
"Oh, shut up," I interrupted, as I walked toward the glass capsules and began carefully inspecting them one by one.
"There." My shoulders eased in relief as I found the figure I was looking for. Not wasting any time, I took out a dagger and slashed the glass capsules, shattering them open.
At once the stream of green, murky liquid inside began pouring out of the capsule, but I was prepared. I immediately threw my hand inside the capsule before gently pulling out the human figure from inside the tank.
"Saelis, Saelis, can you hear me?" I spoke while gently nudging the body of the young man with raven-black hair, similar to mine, in my arms.
Saelis didn't respond. Afraid, I immediately checked his pulse. He was breathing, that was good.
"Come on Saelis wake up, wake up." I shook him once again and again until thankfully my prayers were answered, as I saw a slight movement under his closed eyelids.
Saelis slowly opened his eyes, his gaze meeting mine. "Velion." He stuttered, his voice sounding half drunk.
"Thank god you are awake." Seeing him move an involuntary smile escaped my lips. "Don't worry, I'll explain everything in a moment. For now, just know that you are safe."
I carefully placed Saelis body on the floor, all the while making sure that no broken shard of glass touched and scratched his back.
"Just give me a second brother. We'll leave once I am finished with my work here."
Saying so, I gave a short glance at the dying mage as I moved toward the back wall, where a row of weapons lay scattered across the floor.
I bent down and picked up the longest spear, testing its weight in my hands. "This will have to do," I muttered, my voice becoming a tad bit cold.
Azaris's eyes widened in terror as he realized what was coming. "What are you—?"
"I need to inform my father that I've dealt with you," I said, my tone losing all of its emotion. "Unfortunately, you destroyed my communication device. So… I hope you'll be accommodating."
"Wait. No—" Azaris's protest was cut short as I drove the spear through his back, the tip piercing his heart and emerging from his chest. That was it, the Grand Magus's body convulsed for the last time before going still.
"Just wait here for a second."
I wiped the blood from my hands and strode toward the balcony, dragging the spear behind me. The moon hung high in the sky, its pale light casting an eerie glow over the battlefield below.
Hopefully, this was going to be enough to bolster our men's morale.
With a grunt, I hoisted Azaris's lifeless body onto the spear and climbed onto the railing, before proceeding to slam the spear into the concrete, embedding it firmly into the ground. Once checking that it was steady, I pulled out an illumination scroll from my spatial ring and activated it.
A blinding bolt of light erupted, illuminating the night like a second sun. For a moment, the battlefield seemed to freeze—spells fizzled mid-air, swords hung suspended in their arcs, and every eye, ally and enemy alike, turned toward the balcony. There, impaled on the spear, was the gruesome spectacle of Archmage Azaris's corpse.
Silence descended upon the battlefield, as every soldier present whether ally or enemy looked at the corpse, some in shocked awe, while others with visible terror.
It was only a couple of seconds, until-
"YEEEES!!!"
A series of loud cheers reverberated through the battlefield as almost every soldier with our family's crest began shouting at the top of their lungs.
"ARCHMAGE AZARIS IS DEAD!!!"
"THE CASTLE IS UNDEFENDED!!!"
"LORD VAELION HAS KILLED THE ARCHMAGE, THE CASTLE IS OURS!!!"
"FINISH THESE MARENTH BASTARDS!!!"
Cheers of my name began reverberating through the battlefield as I saw our forces begin charging into the castle with a renewed vigor that even left me surprised.
"If this doesn't get us the castle then I don't what will." Chuckling to myself I turned around towards the room. The illumination scroll had already run out, by now the Marenth forces should be trying their best to rush in to take down their lord's corpse. It was best if we escaped this place now.
"Brother, we need to get-"
I had barely taken a couple of steps inside the room, when suddenly—a sharp, searing pain forced me to stop dead in my tracks.
"What—?" The word slipped out before I could process what was happening. I immediately turned to my side, only to come face to face with a fully conscious Saelis, his hand tightly holding one of the ornate swords that were previously lying at the back of the room.
Instincts took over my body as I immediately tried to leap to my side, only to realize that I couldn't.
My body felt like it had been frozen, while my limbs refused to move as if unable to listen to my orders.
"No." A whimper escaped my lips as I heard the sound of footsteps coming from the other side of the room.
There he was. Mar, my father's most loyal retainer and the only person I knew capable of using telepathic magic at such proficiency.
Why was he here? How had he entered the room? Did Father know about this? One by one thousands of questions began running through my head.
Yet all came out of my mouth was a single word.
"Why?" The word came out choked, trembling with a mix of pain and disbelief. My eyes darted between Saelis and Mar, searching for something—anything—that would make sense of this. Saelis's face was unreadable, cold, and detached, while Mar's expression was stoic, almost regretful.
"I am merely fulfilling my lord's wishes," Mar spoke while taking a slow and deliberate step forward.
I struggled once again, trying my best to get out of the binding spell. Shit, if only my mana hadn't been completely spent while fighting against Azaris and his goons.
"So this is my reward?" I spat, my voice rising, with fury and despair. "For dedicating my life to this family? For bleeding for all of you?" My eyes locked onto Saelis, searching for the brother I once knew—the one who had laughed with me fought beside me, and shared secrets in the dark. But there was nothing. No warmth, no kindness. Just a mask, cold and unyielding.
As for Mar, he didn't answer either. He just kept moving, each step measured.
"You were never supposed to survive this far," Saelis spoke finally, his voice flat, almost bored. He twisted the spear slightly, and I bit back a cry, my vision blurring with pain. "Father's plans required sacrifices. You were just… convenient."
The words hit harder than the spear. My mind raced, piecing together the fragments of betrayal. This wasn't some impulsive act. It had been planned, and calculated. My own family—my own brother—had set me up as a pawn in their game.
Mar stopped just a few feet away, For a moment, I thought I saw something—regret, maybe, or pity. But it was gone as quickly as it appeared.
"Do not take it personally, young master," he said, his voice almost soft, almost kind. "This is not about you. It never was."
And then… there was nothing. The spear in my body penetrated to the other side, causing my body to lose all its feeling, collapsing onto the ground, the same way as Azaris.
"You… I'll never-" I tried to speak, but only whimpers came out. My senses began to fade… one by one as my vision began to darken.
My mind began to slow down as well. And just when the darkness was about to take over, something strange happened.
==
[God of Harvest has been located.]
[All Participants have been accounted for]
[ERROR]
[ERROR]
[ERROR]
==
What was this noise? Was I hallucinating?
==
[Warning: Excessive Karmic Disturbance Detected]
[Analyzing Possible Resolutions...]
[Optimal Solution Identified – Activating Emergency Protocol 17]
[Deploying Hourglass of Time...]
==
And just like that, it finally went dark.