B3 - Chapter 68: A Single Slash

Seth cast a glance toward Kaelen. The dark assassin gave the faintest nod, confirming he had located the people he had been searching for.

The two NEVAK representatives and the Spirit moved closer to the pair.

The female diplomat folded her arms, her expression twisting with contempt. "Conspiring with an enemy combatant during a Rift phase... what a pathetic waste of time and energy."

Seth met her gaze. "I don't recall a clause in the NEVAK amendments that forbids it."

"There's no need for one!" Jaxar spat, rattling the chains around his wrists. "It's called common sense, you moron!"

A stir swept through the Kastal ranks.

King Theron had descended from his royal platform, and his eyes were locked on Seth with murderous intensity. The gray-haired monarch strode past the front lines, flanked by his Royal Guards.

"What do you think you're doing?" the man's voice thundered across the neutral zone.

"Handling a traitor!" Seth shouted back.

Jaxar barked a harsh laugh. "He'll execute you for this, bastard!" A feverish grin spread across his bloodied face. "And every one of your little friends will follow you to the block!"

"If capturing him for me is causing you this much trouble," Kaelen said, chiming in, "then it's only fair that I compensate you."

The assassin stuck his hand into his Endless Pouch as if searching for some coins. Seth knew he was reaching for something far deadlier.

He looked down at Jaxar.

Seth's core pounded violently, each pulse echoing like a second heartbeat. "Many have died because of you. My friends would have too, if you'd been stronger."

King Theron quickened his pace, his escort matching him stride for stride.

"I am speaking to you, Primalist!"

Seth's gaze swept over toward the crowd.

Orwen was forcing his way to the front alongside several undercover members of the Champions of Chaos. The silver-haired leader met Seth's eyes and gave him another sharp nod.

Seth turned back to Jaxar.

A torrent of aether surged into Dusk Scythes' grooves.

"Actions have consequences."

He thrust his arm forward before the spell was fully summoned. As the twin blades of condensed darkness erupted from his gauntlet, the left one pierced cleanly through Jax's bone and flesh to drive straight through his heart.

Blood spurted from the royal Elementalist's lips. His eyes widened in frozen disbelief as his knees gave way beneath him.

The NEVAK representatives gasped next to them.

King Theron did not.

The gray-haired monarch uttered no screams of grief or rage and instead simply exploded forward. The man's sheer speed defied anything Seth's eye could track; he caught only a terrifying, high-speed blur crossing the plain, followed by a second silver one, who he guessed was Orwen.

Fortunately, Kaelen had anticipated that exact reaction.

A sharp, crystalline snap echoed behind Seth.

A dense cloud of pitch-black smoke erupted from just over his shoulder and expanded with explosive speed, swallowing the entire area before anyone could react.

The moment the darkness enveloped him, Seth's body revolted.

His lungs locked shut, air left his throat, and fire tore through his eyes. A searing pain then exploded inside his body as every aether channel ignited at once, giving the impression that they were about to burst apart. It felt as if his very existence rejected any trace of the energy, treating it as a toxic poison.

Before he could fully process the excruciating sensation, a gale swept through the black smoke, causing it to dissipate.

Grinding his teeth, Seth forced his burning eyes open.

The sight before him froze his blood.

Both NEVAK representatives stumbled across the grass, clawing frantically at their own throats. Thick, dark-blue veins glowed visibly along their skin, the unnatural coloration creeping rapidly up their necks.

Beside them, the Spirit flickered violently. Its ethereal body flashed in and out of existence, its pale radiance sputtering as it struggled to maintain its physical form.

Whatever Kaelen had unleashed, even the Spirit was losing its battle against it.

A dozen feet away, King Theron screamed in raw agony.

The gray-haired monarch staggered on the grass, his hands clamped over his face as the same dark blue veins erupted across his jawline and forehead. The elite Royal Guards with him were all on their knees in a similar state, though their physical symptoms appeared less intense than their king's.

A shimmer of gold caught Seth's eye.

A barrier had been cast on him, wrapping his body in a protective cloak. In the distance, Krystel stood with one arm raised toward the sky, clutching the charred remains of a burning scroll that blazed with brilliant golden light.

Then all he could see was a silver streak wrapped in crackling blue lightning, tearing through the battlefield with impossible speed. Violent arcs of aether trailed behind it, leaving jagged flashes that lingered for the briefest instant before fading.

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The blur came to an abrupt stop behind King Theron.

For a fraction of a second, Seth finally saw Orwen. Blue lightning danced across every inch of his body as the man swept both his twin blades from their sheaths.

King Theron lifted his head, his eyes meeting Seth's.

Seth held the tyrant's gaze. "This is for Eddin and all the others."

For a single heartbeat, time seemed to stop. Neither the poisoned Royal Guards nor King Theron himself seem able to move. Orwen's blades flashed through the air like streaks of falling lightning, shearing cleanly through the monarch's neck before he could utter a word.

The man's severed head struck the grass, blood spraying in its wake. And with it, a tyrant's reign ended.

Silence swallowed the battlefield.

Soldiers, officers, members of the Great Houses, even the Bridan Empress—every single person who hadn't been outside the reach of the poison stared at the man's rolling head.

King Theron was dead.

Decades of tyranny, oppressive laws, bloodshed, and fear had ended in the span of a heartbeat. Lives of millions had just been freed from the chains binding them since their birth.

One slash. It was all it had taken.

For all his power, his wealth, his arrogance and authority, King Theron had been alive one moment—and nothing more than a corpse the next.

Then the silence broke.

One of the nearby Royal Guards let out a furious roar and charged Orwen, despite being crippled by the poisonous cloud. But the man never reached him.

A deafening explosion erupted somewhere behind Seth. Before he could turn to look, a devastating shockwave slammed into his back.

Pain tore through his body.

The blast hurled Seth through the air like a ragdoll. He flew backward across the grass, bouncing repeatedly until his flight came to an abrupt stop. His back struck what felt like a solid stone wall—but instead of crashing to the ground, a pair of powerful armored arms caught him.

Seth gritted his teeth, struggling to stay conscious through the overwhelming pain.

His blurred vision slowly sharpened, which let him see Orwen's tense face hovering over him. The silver-haired leader released him and dropped Seth safely onto the grass behind a solid defensive line.

Directly ahead, Drack and Alexis stood shoulder-to-shoulder, their shields planted into the earth. A barrier of shimmering aether arched outward from the steel, forming a half-dome over everyone behind them.

Gathered tight beneath it were Orwen, Krystel, Professor Reat, Celine, Zyana, Nidal, and several other members of the branch Seth didn't recognize.

"In Dolomoris's name," Professor Reat muttered.

For the first time since Seth had met him, the usually composed professor looked genuinely terrified.

Seth forced himself upright, planting a gauntlet against the grass.

Violent shockwaves of raw aether crashed against the glowing dome one after another, each impact powerful enough to make the ground beneath them tremble. Remaining safe behind the shield wall, Seth peered past the interlocked shields of Drack and Alexis.

His breath caught.

Shredded, bloody corpses of the Royal Guards littered the churned grass of the neutral zone. To the left, beside King Theron's headless body, a handful of the monarch's surviving guards struggled to push themselves back to their feet.

None of them spared so much as a glance for their fallen king. Their horrified eyes remained fixed on the fight unfolding at the center of the plain.

A short distance away, the two poisoned NEVAK representatives could barely remain on their feet, dark-blue veins having spread even farther across their necks and faces. Yet torrents of flame kept erupting from them, sweeping across the neutral zone and scorching blackened scars into the ground.

The inferno converged on two human figures charging at them—men moving so fast Seth's eyes could once again barely follow them.

The first was little more than a blur of long white hair that vaulted and cleaved through the flames with a spear. The second, a rugged fighter with short-cropped iron hair, made no attempt at all to evade and plunged headlong into the blaze.

Blue-white light erupted around the spearman and a bolt of lightning tore across the battlefield toward the NEVAK officers.

Before the attack could reach them, space rippled.

A phoenix wreathed in crimson fire and a colossal armored drake materialized before the poisoned duo. The drake threw back its head and bellowed as the lightning slammed into it, sending arcs crackling across its scales.

Two towering suits of empty plate armor appeared an instant later.

The living constructs planted themselves before the NEVAK officers like a wall of steel, their blades and shields flashing to meet the oncoming charge.

But the two assailants weren't alone either.

As they dashed forward, the air warped and tore open.

A giant sabertooth tiger surged from the distortion, its snow-white pelt slashed with midnight stripes. Azure lightning crackled across its body and its fangs, which looked like gleaming ivory scythes, as it wove between the phoenix's spells.

A colossal, white-furred ape emerged right after. Four massive arms hung from its frame, each thicker than trees and packed with enough muscle that Seth had no doubt it could flatten a mountain in a few blows.

The newcomer roared and ran toward the NEVAK officers, raising its fists before bringing them down—only for the giant drake ahead to block its path.

Seth recognized every one of the beasts from his father's encyclopedia: a Stormfang Sabertooth, an Ancient Frost Yeti, a Heavenfire Phoenix, and a Volcanic Mountain Drake.

All four possessed Diamond Potential, yet Seth barely spared them a glance.

His gaze was locked onto the two men at the heart of the melee, who were trying to break through and reach the poisoned NEVAK officers.

The white-haired spearman relied on blinding speed, evading the heavy strikes of the living armors, while his ally met every blow head-on. The man blocked the constructs' swords and threw powerful punches with his heavy gauntlets.

Combat gauntlets, Seth realized, his throat tightening.

The white sabertooth tore across the plain like a streak of lightning, vanishing and reappearing in flashes as blue-white arcs erupted from its body and crashed against the phoenix's torrents of fire.

Beside it, the four-armed yeti bellowed and rammed into the drake, forcing the colossal beast aside. Before the creature could recover, the yeti surged forward and brought two of its fists down upon the animated armor blocking the spearman's path.

The construct exploded into a shower of metal and sparks.

A short distance away, the poisoned NEVAK officers tried to use everything they had on them to turn the tide. Spell-scrolls ignited, and artifacts flared one after another.

Yet every time they tried to trigger one of the items, a pulse swept outward from the white-haired spearman and blocked the activation. The gathering aether unraveled and the spells collapsed before any effect could manifest.

The phoenix shrieked overhead and swept its wings to unleash another spell. The yeti, sabertooth, and the two men scattered, causing the flames to strike nothing but the ground.

Watching the fight, Seth could already see where the battle was headed: the men who had hired Kaelen were going to win.

Near the edge of the battlefield, the Spirit drifted erratically through the air. Its ethereal body continued to flicker, its outline distorting and partially collapsing before struggling to reform.

It was in no condition to intervene in the fight.

Unbridled aether and flames from the clash slammed relentlessly against the protective barrier of the Champions of Chaos.

The energy ground against the shields of Drack and Alexis with a deafening screech, forcing the two Guardians to skid backward. Several paces behind, Orwen was bent forward, a hand against his chest as he struggled to catch his breath.

"Where the hell is that Alchemist?" Drack barked, his arms now trembling under the strain.

Behind him, Krystel held both hands high, streams of aether pouring into the shield wall. Her face was also pale and filled with exhaustion.

"Orwen!" she shouted. "We can't hold much longer! We have to leave!"

"Just a few more seconds!" Orwen called back, forcing himself upright before staggering another step.

Blood trickled from the corners of his eyes and nose, while arcs of blue lightning crawled across his body. His muscles spasmed every few seconds, and each of his breaths came in a gasp.

Seth grimaced while watching him.

Whatever spell, scroll, or artifact the man had used to reach such speed to behead King Theron was now exacting its price.