Chapter 218: A Punishment Worse Than Death

Chapter 218

He stretched his right arm out desperately across the cold ground. With his trembling fingertips reaching out inch by inch toward the fallen weapon while his father’s heavy, crushing hands continued to squeeze the remaining life out of him... but it felt like the gun was so far away.

Oh shit, his fucking hands were beginning to lose their strength. Not now! Not when he still wanted to live. He didn’t want to die. He was afraid of dying!

With the desperation of a man who didn’t want to die at all, Nico forced himself to inch his blood-soaked, trembling fingertips even further and eventually managed to scrape against the cold steel of the heavy black handgun.

With one final, desperate surge of strength, he wrapped his fingers firmly around the grip. Even though now his lungs were literally screaming for precious air, and his vision had almost completely faded into that scary all consuming darkness, he didn’t hesitate for even a fraction of a second.

Even if it was his own father he was technically about to turn into a dead man. He dragged the heavy muzzle upward, pressing it directly against the underside of his father’s jaw!

Then... BANG!!! A loud, deafening gunshot shattered the heavy silence of the night air.

The bullet was like an unstoppable beast as it ripped straight through Marcus’s jawbone, destroying his skull in the process and finally exiting cleanly through the top of his fat head.

Marcus’s only good eye was the one to widen in sheer disbelief as his entire body stiffened violently. For a split second, he stared down at his son with a look of, you really dared to betray me after everything I’ve done for you, before the light in his eye completely went out, leaving behind a dull, lifeless corpse.

The heavy body of the underworld boss collapsed forward, falling face-first directly on top of Nico. From now on out there was no longer Marcus Gordon, one of the most powerful men in the city with unimaginable power and influence, anymore. Alex guessed that the ripple this news would cause in the city would definitely not be small

Nico, meanwhile, lay flat on his back, gasping for air like a dying fish brought out of water. Heavy, ragged breaths tore through his throat as the precious oxygen he had been craving for on the verge of death finally flooded back into his starved lungs. He felt as though he had just dragged himself out of the deep jaws of death itself.

Using his arm, Nico desperately shoved his father’s limp, bloody corpse off his chest, causing the heavy body to roll onto the cold pavement with a dull thud.

Struggling through the agonizing, white-hot pain still shooting from his severely broken leg and full blown ruined groin, Nico dragged himself up into a sitting position against the wall. He looked up at Celine with wild, bloodshot eyes, tears and sweat pouring down his pale face.

"I... I did it!" Nico yelled out, with his cracked voice trembling hysterically as he pointed at his father’s corpse. "I killed him! I won! You saw it! You gave me your word! Are you really going to keep your promise now?! Are you going to spare me?!"

Celine stood elevated above him, looking down at the bloody mess of a young man with a completely calm, unreadable face.

"Yes," Celine replied smoothly, her tone flat and devoid of any emotion. "I will not kill you."

Nico let out a breathless, sobbing laugh of pure relief, falling back against the stone wall. "Thank you... thank you! Oh God, thank you..."

While Nico was desperately thanking her like his life depended on it which it totally did by the way, Alex shifted his face else where, as his sharp hearing suddenly picked up that faint and clearly rhythmic sound that was coming from beyond the estate’s outer gates.

If his hearing was good, which it always was thanks to his system, that noise sounded like the unmistakable sound of footsteps. And judging from what he was currently hearing there were definitely a lot of them.

Alex focused his perception, sweeping his awareness across the surrounding perimeter. His eyes narrowed beneath the dark mesh of his skeletal mask as he accurately calculated the incoming force.

There should be roughly around three hundred and forty one heavily armed men rushing toward the main courtyard from the outer streets.

Alex softly muttered to himself in a low voice that only he could hear.

"Looks like someone must have called for reinforcements to come take us out."

He quickly reasoned through the possibilities in his mind. The person who made the call couldn’t have been Marcus, since the man had been pinned down and monitored by them the entire time. Nico was a complete hard pass because the arrogant brat had literally zero idea what was going to happen when he arrived. He even tried to turn his car around and escape the moment he saw the situation, like the coward he was.

As for Marcus’s now-dead wife, well she wasn’t a possibility either, as he had been watching her and saw her make no moves before Celine finally offed her.

That left only two real scenarios. It was either one of the guards had somehow heard the loud noise of the Ferrari crashing into Alex, sneaked a quick peek, and frantically dialed for backup, or there was some low-level rat hiding deep inside the main house who had been watching the whole spectacle unfold through a window and alerted their main forces.

Whatever the case was, Alex didn’t really care anymore. The main targets were already dead or broken. All that was left now was to quickly dispatch these remaining small fries so they could pack up and leave this place. He was already feeling tired of all this.

"Guess it’s time to clean up," Alex murmured smoothly, rolling his shoulders and stretching his arms as he prepared to step forward and wipe out the incoming mob.

However, before Alex could even take his first step, Celine made her move.

She slowly lifted her pale hand into the dark night sky. Then black, frosty energy instantly surged around her palms like some sort of spiraling hurricane.

In less than a second, the temperature across the entire estate dropped below zero, and hundreds of razor-sharp Deathfrost Bloom shards materialized in the air, glowing with an ominous, jet-black light.

With a single flick of her slender finger, Celine pointed toward the outer gates.

SWOOSH! SWOOSH! SWOOSH!

It was like the sky literally rained, but instead of water droplets it was all ominous black ice! Hundreds of Deathfrost Bloom shards shot through the air like a lethal barrage of missiles, cutting through the darkness in a pitch dark streak!

It didn’t take too long for desperate screams to cut short before they could even begin. The entire army of over three hundred men were annihilated in an instant!

With Celine’s guidance, every single shard found its target precisely, piercing straight through skulls, chests, and throats.

And the crazy part was that the effects from those shards also turned all the men’s hair white and face old before their bodies even hit the pavement. In less than three seconds, all three hundred men lay dead across the driveway, looking like old corpses.

After casually wiping out an entire army of over three hundred men without stressing herself, Celine lowered her arm, and moved her cold gaze back toward Nico, who was still slumped against the pillar, shivering in sheer horror at the display of absolute power she had just shown.

Alex looked over at Celine, then he asked in curiosity. "Are you just going to let him go like that? Especially after everything he did to your little sister and countless other innocent people?"

A dark, cruel smile slowly curled up at the corners of Celine’s lips. "No."

Without explaining any further, she pulled out her phone and dialed a number, before bringing it up to her ear, and waited for two seconds until the line connected.

"Hey, Dolan. It’s me, Black Rose," Celine spoke into the receiver, her voice calm and businesslike. "Remember that huge favor you owe me from last year? Well, I’d like to ask for that favor now."

She paused, listening to the voice on the other end before continuing. "Does your private bar still need male strippers to entertain all those weird, big-shot clients? Oh, you do? That’s great."

Celine looked down at the pale, trembling Nico with a terrifyingly sweet smile. "Well, there’s a young man sitting right here in front of me. He looks fresh, bare-chested, and nicely tattooed, though he has a few minor injuries here and there... All right, I’ll send you the exact location right now so you and your men can come pick him up. And remember to make sure he serves all the customers with the most twisted, sadistic desires."

CLICK! Celine hung up the call and tossed her phone back into her pocket as if she had just ordered something as ordinary as pizza.

Alex stood beside her, staring at her for a moment before letting out a low, impressed laugh behind his mask. "You really are bad... but I highly approve of it."

Celine snorted quietly, turning her face away with a cold huff. "Who needs your stinky approval? Stinky man."

Meanwhile, sitting on the cold ground that felt anything but comfortable, Nico had heard every single word of their conversation. His mind completely shattered as the full realization of his horrific, endless nightmare hit him like a blow to the gut.

"You... you monsters!!" Nico screamed hysterically, tears and blood pouring down his face as he hit his fist against the ground in despair. "Are you fucking playing with me?! Is this all a fucking messed up joke to you?! All because I killed one little bitch is why I’m being treated like this?! Screw you! Screw both of you! I’ll fucking kill you..."

Before he could even finish his pathetic words, Celine’s body turned into an after image. She appeared directly beside him and delivered a swift, heavy chop with the edge of her hand directly into the side of Nico’s neck!