Supreme Magus

Chapter 3142 Gutted Prey (Part 2)

3142 Gutted Prey (Part 2)

”Not a clue, sorry.” The Chronicler bent down and picked up Ragnar?k, appreciating its perfect balance. ”Marvellous. My master was right. When Verhen remade War into Ragnar?k, he removed the self-destruction protocol.”

”It would have been weird otherwise.” The Zouwu shrugged. ”Verhen was about to have a baby and probably wanted his spawn to inherit the blade. Iʼll take it as well.”

”Donʼt push your luck, Zouwu!” Vʼhorr used his mana to imprint the angry blade. ”Verhen may have been a monster, but he was also a great Forgemaster and received Salaarkʼs teachings.

”Iʼm taking his equipment with me. My master needs it to crack the secrets of Creation Magic.”

In response to the imprint, metal spikes erupted from the hilt, piercing the Chroniclerʼs skin and drawing his blood.

”Right! The blood imprint. The rumors were true!” He said in excitement as the power of the blade flowed inside his body. ”What do you think you are doing?”

Strider had unsheathed his blades again and a flash of light marked the activation of his prided bloodline ability.

”Whatever you think you are doing, stop it.” The Zouwu said, casting his best spells as fast as he could. ”I donʼt want to fight you.”

”What do you mean?” It was what Vʼhorr tried to say.

”Uat u ʼuh min?” Was what actually came out of his bloated lips and swollen throat.

The elfʼs entire body looked like an overinflated balloon and it kept expanding.

”Speak for yourself!” Ragnar?k replied, its voice flat yet filled with unbridled fury as Vʼhorr exploded like a gory firework.

”More loot for me.” Strider circled around the angry blade, being careful to avoid the corpses. ”Youʼre not much without Verhen and I can afford the time to find a way to tame y-”

A clawed hand pierced through his back and came out of his chest, holding the Zouwuʼs still-beating heart.

[”Hey, pal. One question. Who the fuck is Verhen?”] (AN: the words between square brackets are in English.)

In their success, Vʼhorr and Strider had failed to notice how the black blood formed a bridge between the neck and the severed head instead of just spreading out. The Zouwu had missed how the blood on his blades had fallen toward the Abominationʼs corpse, not vertically.

[My name is Derek.] Abominations canʼt die simply because they are already dead.

Drilling more holes than Swiss cheese in their bodies or severing their limbs was pointless. They were made of energy and to kill one, that energy had to be neutralized.

”What? How?” Strider gurgled blood, but he was an Awakened.

All he needed to recover was one breath.

It was the reason Ragnar?k exploited his distraction to pierce his right lung. Now the Zouwu and the Abomination were pinned together, but while the angry blade wouldnʼt hurt its master, Ragnar?k hated Strider.

[”Answering a question with another is rude and Iʼm too hungry to give a fuck, kitten.”] The Abominationʼs maw opened, revealing two rows of pristine white fangs that found the Zouwuʼs jugular with ease.

Derek drank the blood along with the life force until only ashes were left of Striderʼs body.

Ragnar?k flew into his hand with joy, emitting a shrill sound of excitement as it felt his masterʼs mana purge the elfʼs. The angry blade took care to store the Ears inside one of Lithʼs dimensional amulets.

Ragnar?k remembered Lith and Solus often talking about the artifact and the blade knew how important it was to them. Everything else, Ragnar?k left it behind in the hope it would serve as clues to find its master.

The semi-consciousness of the blade wasnʼt enough to understand the situation but Ragnar?k could feel in their blood bond that something was wrong with Lith.

[”What the fuck is this? Where the fuck am I?”] Now that the hunger had subsided, Derek had finally the focus to look around.

The last thing he remembered was blowing his own brains out in an empty warehouse, yet instead of waking up in a hospital, he found himself on the site of what looked like a meteor impact.

[”Nothing to the north, east, west, and south.”] Ragnar?k purred in reply, drawing his gaze.

It was then that Derek noticed the armor, the spell-holding rings, and his own reflection on the bladeʼs surface. The face he knew was gone, replaced by a black slate twisted in a grimace of hatred.

[”Well, Toto, Iʼm afraid this isnʼt Kansas.”]

***

Distar Reason, Lutia County, Verhen Mansion, less than ten minutes later.

The members of the Hand of Fate had several protocols in place in case something happened to one of them. For example, the moment a rune disappeared from one of their amulets, it triggered an alarm.

If the rune belonged to a fellow member of the Hand of Fate, it triggered a red alert. Ryka the Titania wasnʼt on any case at the moment. Strider had simply lied to explain her absence.

As soon as his rune faded into nothingness, she checked his records, discovering that the Zouwu had talked several times with Lith and that they had spoken earlier that same morning.

”Why didnʼt that fucker tell me anything?” She wanted to cry, but the thirst for revenge overpowered her.

Ryka tried to call Lith, but his amulet was unavailable and so was Solusʼ.

Not knowing what to do, she went to the Verhen Mansion to demand an explanation.

”What do you mean, Strider is dead and Lith is unreachable?” Kamilaʼs shock was so pure that the Titania didnʼt doubt her honesty for one second.

Yet it left all of Rykaʼs questions open and posed a few more.

”Exactly what I just said.” The Titania replied. ”Strider wasnʼt working on any case. I already went to his house and thereʼs no corpse there. He must have been lured in an ambush, but how did they predict his movements?”

”Okay, now Iʼm sure youʼre full of it!” Kamila was getting angrier by the second and the fact that Lithʼs and Solusʼ amulets were always offline only added fuel to the fire. ”Strider did work on a case! The Menadionʼs grimoire case!

”And he didnʼt talk with Lith about the weather, but about a lead. I was there. I heard it with my own ears!”

”What?” Ryka double checked the Council database, finding no trace of updates on the case. ”Are you sure? We were supposed to investigate it together for Lith but the last time I spoke with Strider, he told me it was a dead end.”

”A dead end?” Kamila called and failed again. Both amulets were inside the pocket dimension and with the bond broken, even if Lith was in a sane state of mind he wouldnʼt have access to it.

”Varon, no Vidun Phorr.” As a Royal Constable, Kamila was used to memorize the most important details of every case. ”Rogue awakened about thirty years old, village of Xant. Does this sound like a dead end to you?”

”Where did you hear that?” Ryka imputed the name in the database, obtaining an instant hit.

”Do you have moss in your ears?” Kamila bright yellow aura burst out with greenish streaks as her fury reached its peak. ”Strider spoke with Lith about this guy. I was there. Do you understand?”