The Broken Halo

Elder Mulon could not understand what he was seeing.

Why would the young master kill him?

What had he done wrong?

What was happening?

“Young-”

Cough!

He coughed out a mouthful of blood before he could even finish his words.

“Shhh.”

Lucien suddenly placed a finger on his lips.

“Relax old man.”

“The old ought to rest, and you’ll soon be rewarded with eternal rest for all the work you’ve done.”

“Old-?”

Cough!

He coughed out another mouthful of blood the moment he tried speaking.

“I’m a little bit surprised that you still haven’t realized what’s going on.”

Elder Mulon’s expression was filled with confusion.

“What do-”

Cough! Cough!

The old Frostborn coughed out another mouthful of blood, then he fell on his knees.

Thud

Splash

Copious amount of blood fell from the hole in his heart and his mouth.

The floor beneath him became drenched in blood, and Elder Mulon had to use his hands to support his body and not fall face flat on the ground.

Step

Step

The sound of footsteps drifted into his ears, and he realized something.

At first, they sounded like the footsteps of his young master, but he began noticing that the steps were changing.

They were now… quiet.

So quiet that if not for the fact that he was actually so close to the steps and that he was a Greater Demon, he would most likely have missed the sound.

And that was when a terrifying bolt of realization struck him.

He looked up, and the first thing he saw was not the face of his young master.

No.

What he saw was a demon wearing a matte black obsidian mask that had jagged crimson marks running down from the eyes to the chin.

It was a mask that made him fearful for some reason, but the mask’s appearance was not his main problem right now.

No.

He realized now that he had been tricked by the demon in front of him.

He thought he had been talking to his young master all this while, but he had been talking to an imposter.

A fake.

But what he could not understand was how.

How had he been so easily fooled.

From the moment he saw Lucien on the stairs, he was suspicious and he knew that something was wrong.

But he observed Lucien’s aura, demonic energy, and even the clothes he wore.

Everything was the same.

Nothing was out of place.

’Now that I think about it, the way the young master spoke was different. Why didn’t I take note of that? Why did I ignore something as suspicious as that?’

Elder Mulon looked at the masked demon with a myriad of emotions in his eyes.

Then, the old Frostborn saw the masked demon’s eyes.

The pupils were vertical and sky blue, and around the vertical was a slowly rotating black broken ring.

’What is that?’

Elder Mulon thought with a baffled expression.

In the next moment, he wobbled and nearly fell on the floor.

’I’m dying.’

’My heart has been pierced, and what’s worse is that my chaos flame has also been severely damaged.’

’That sword.’

He looked at the black blade in the masked demon’s right hand.

’What is that blade? How is it able to affect my chaos flame? I’ve never heard of a weapon that can do such a thing.’

’I can’t even circulate my demonic energy because my source of demonic energy is about to vanish.’

Elder Mulon suddenly released a self depreciating chuckle.

“Who- are… you?”

Despite the blood that was dripping from his mouth and despite the urge to cough out his organs, he forced himself to speak.

The masked demon suddenly tilted his head slightly, then he removed his mask.

The moment Elder Mulon saw the face behind the mask, his eyes widened in disbelief.

“It’s you.”

He saw Simon’s disguised face.

There was no way Elder Mulon could forget Simon’s face.

He was the Fiend that did not bother giving face to Elder Zevrik.

The moment Elder Mulon realized this, he wanted to laugh out loud.

Was a Fiend about to kill him?

A mere Fiend?

For a moment, Elder Mulon thought that he was hallucinating, dreaming, or he was being deceived.

No.

He hoped that he was being deceived because the shame of a Fiend killing him was something that would haunt him even in death.

However, he knew with hundred percent certainty that the demon before him was actually a Fiend and not a Greater Demon or a Demon Lord hiding his true heart rank.

’And his eyes… Why is that broken black ring rotating round his pupils?’

Elder Mulon swayed gently as he could feel death creeping closer and closer to him.

“What about the young master? Is Young Master Lucien dead?”

This was the only thing that mattered to him now.

If Lucien was dead, he would give up and let death take him without hesitation.

But if the young master was still alive, he believed that he still had a trick or two up his sleeves.

Few seconds passed, and when Elder Mulon saw that Simon was not responding to his question, he spoke again.

“The young master. Where is he?”

Simon exhaled softly, then he shook his head with a disappointed expression.

“He has been calling your name for a long time now. I’m a little bit surprised that you still cannot hear him.”

“… What?”

Elder Mulon was instantly baffled, but in the next moment, his expression changed.

He looked around, and he began to notice that all around was a dense white fog.

The old Frostborn could not understand what was going on… until he heard a familiar scream.

The scream was very familiar to him, and it was for two reasons.

The first is that it belonged to none other than his young master.

And the second is that the scream was the same as the whisper he heard some minutes ago.

A few seconds later, he heard the scream clearly.

“ELDER MULON!! WHERE ARE YOU??!!!??!

Elder Mulon’s eyes widened after hearing the scream of his young master.

“I’m-”

Puchi!

A black blade pierced through his head just as Elder Mulon was about to speak.

The light in the elder’s eyes slowly vanished, and in the next moment, the old Frostborn… died.