Chapter 1159: Cursed Guard [Part 1]

Chapter 1159 – Cursed Guard [Part 1]

The creature stared at him.

For several seconds, nothing happened.

Then his enormous shoulders shook.

Once.

Twice.

A horrible rasp tore from his throat.

Lux immediately raised both daggers again.

The creature bent forward. "Kh—!"

Black blood splattered across the silver-lined floor.

Coughing.

Lux lowered his blades by approximately three centimeters. "Please don’t die immediately after I rescued you. That would make the entire fight feel financially irresponsible."

The creature slowly lifted his head.

His cracked iron mask had partially broken during their battle, revealing more of his face. Gray skin stretched across sharp features that looked almost human beneath centuries of corruption. One eye remained crimson, but the other, previously hidden behind the mask, was dull gold.

Not demonic red.

Gold.

Strange.

The creature stared at Lux as though trying to fit him into a memory that didn’t exist. "You... are..."

"Lux Vaelthorn." Lux rested one dagger against his shoulder. "Son of Greed." A pause. "And currently someone with an extremely crowded schedule."

The creature’s brow furrowed. "Greed..."

"Long story."

Lux glanced around the distorted dominion.

Actually, everything about today was becoming a long story.

He snapped his fingers.

The Sovereign Event Horizon Ring dimmed.

[Private Dominion Released.]

Reality corrected itself.

The endless black plane collapsed beneath them. Silver lines folded inward. Distorted distances snapped back into their proper places, and the artificial darkness peeled away.

Suddenly they were standing inside the ruined underground chamber again.

Smoke still hung in the air.

Broken pillars.

Cratered floor.

Fragments of the creature’s chains lay scattered around them.

And somewhere deeper inside the fortress... Runa.

Lux’s amusement disappeared. He turned immediately toward the passage she’d taken. "Explain yourself while walking."

The creature blinked.

Lux was already moving. "Can you do that?"

A moment passed.

Then the former guard nodded. "Yes."

"Excellent."

Lux started walking faster.

Behind him came an uneven step.

Then another.

Lux glanced over his shoulder.

Right.

The creature had spent the last several minutes getting blasted with demonic orbs, crushed by Abyssal Grasp, bombarded with Hellfire, subjected to distorted spatial pressure, stabbed, slashed, punched by Runa, and finally turned into a temporary marionette while Lux surgically removed several cursed chains.

Walking gracefully might be unreasonable.

Lux sighed. "Dark Healing."

Dark energy gathered around his hand.

The creature immediately tensed.

"Relax."

Lux pressed his palm briefly against the creature’s shoulder.

Black-green energy flowed across the wounds. It couldn’t erase centuries of damage or whatever Kaelmor had done to him, but torn muscle knitted enough to function, bleeding slowed, and the ugly fractures beneath his armor stabilized.

The creature stared at him. "You use... dark magic to heal."

"I contain multitudes."

Lux resumed walking.

The creature followed.

Faster now.

"Name."

The answer took several breaths. "Vaelor."

Lux glanced sideways. "Vaelor."

The man nodded.

A name.

Good.

Names mattered.

Especially when someone had spent centuries reduced to guard.

"What are you?"

Vaelor’s remaining horn passed beneath a low archway. "I was..."

His voice faltered.

Lux didn’t interrupt.

"...a human."

Lux stopped.

Vaelor took two additional steps before noticing.

He turned.

Lux stared at him. "Human?"

"Yes."

Lux’s eyes traveled over the nearly eight-foot body, gray skin, horn, monstrous arms, ruined armor fused into flesh, claws and unmistakably demonic energy pouring from every breath.

"That seems to have gotten somewhat out of hand."

Vaelor’s mouth moved beneath the broken mask.

Lux wasn’t sure whether the man had almost smiled.

Almost.

"I was mortal," Vaelor repeated. "A knight."

They continued.

Lux’s boots clicked rapidly against the black stone. "What kingdom?"

"I don’t know what you call it now."

That answer did something unpleasant to Lux’s stomach.

"How long have you been here?"

Vaelor remained silent.

They passed another row of ancient cells. Most were empty. Several contained skeletal remains so old even the clothing had become dust.

"I don’t remember."

Lux’s jaw tightened. "Estimate."

"A hundred years."

Another step.

"Perhaps more."

Another.

"Much more."

The corridor suddenly felt colder.

Vaelor’s voice became distant.

"I stopped counting."

Lux said nothing.

Sometimes sarcasm needed to shut the fuck up.

Even his system remained silent.

They reached another staircase descending deeper.

Vaelor’s gold eye fixed on it. "She is below."

Lux immediately understood. "The prisoner."

"The princess."

That made Lux turn his head.

"Princess?"

Vaelor nodded.

"I was her shadow guard."

They descended quickly.

"She was born into the royal family. I was assigned to her when she was young. Never to leave her side. Never allow anyone near her without permission."

A faint bitterness entered his voice.

"I suppose I fulfilled that order longer than anyone intended."

Lux’s grip tightened around his daggers. "What happened?"

Vaelor stared ahead. "She was born different."

Lux waited.

"Her blood healed."

His footsteps slowed for only half a beat.

Because apparently Kaelmor couldn’t discover an unusual person without immediately thinking, ’How can I turn this individual into infrastructure?’

Vaelor continued.

"Cuts. Fever. Poison. Disease. At first we thought she possessed healing magic, but it wasn’t magic. Not exactly. Her blood itself carried something."

"How powerful?"

"I watched a dying soldier drink three drops."

Vaelor swallowed.

"He stood before sunset."

Lux’s expression hardened. "And Kaelmor found out."

Vaelor’s claws curled. "A demon came to our kingdom."

There was hatred in those words.

Old hatred.

Not the hot kind that screamed.

This hatred had fossilized.

"He arrived smiling."

Lux almost laughed.

"He said he wished to meet the princess. He offered protection. Knowledge. An alliance." Vaelor’s voice dropped. "Our king refused to give him access to her."

Lux already knew how this story ended.

"What did he do?"

"Destroyed the palace."

Vaelor kept walking.

"I fought him." His gold eye lowered toward his monstrous hand. "I was human then."

Lux could imagine how that had gone.

"He didn’t kill me."

"Because killing you wasn’t useful."

Vaelor looked at him.

Lux’s face remained cold. "That’s how he thinks."

"Yes."

They reached the bottom.

The architecture changed again.

The walls here were white.

Or they had once been.

Centuries of dark energy had stained them gray, while crimson formations crawled over the stone like veins.