Chapter 498: Mier Family
A large crowd had gathered around the luxurious manor belonging to Lord Mier, a mild yet extravagant residence that stood several stories above the surrounding buildings and was normally regarded as one of the more prestigious properties in the western province.
On any ordinary day, the sight of so many soldiers surrounding a nobleman’s home would have been enough to cause panic, but the presence of hundreds of fully armed soldiers had made it obvious that something far more serious was happening.
Whispers travelled through the crowd as people stared toward the manor, careful to keep their distance from the heavily guarded perimeter. Soldiers stood shoulder to shoulder around the property, their weapons drawn and their armor reinforced with demonic arrays, while dozens of powerful demons occupied several enormous crimson arrays that had been carved into the ground around the estate.
The arrays pulsed continuously as they maintained a gigantic crimson dome over the entire property, completely sealing the manor away from the outside world. Nothing could enter through the barrier, and nothing within could escape by taking to the skies.
The soldiers had clearly prepared for someone extremely dangerous, and the murmurs among the spectators only grew louder as rumors spread through the streets that Lord Fulgur, the silver dragon who had rebelled against Kaizer, had finally been found.
Inside the manor, however, the atmosphere was far more suffocating than the commotion outside suggested.
Fulgur stood at the top of a grand staircase leading toward the upper floors, his body visibly weakened from the injuries he had sustained during the failed coup. His breathing was shallow, and every movement sent another wave of pain through his body, but the humiliation reflected in his eyes was far more painful than his physical wounds.
At the bottom of the staircase stood two figures he knew all too well. Kai wore his usual black robes, his long black hair falling freely around his shoulders as his cold gaze remained fixed on Fulgur, while beside him stood Koi, dressed in her distinctive Gothic clothing, her usual expression carrying a faintly disappointed smile.
Neither dragon had drawn their weapons yet because they both knew that Fulgur was in no condition to fight, but their relaxed posture only made the situation more humiliating.
Behind them stood the lanky old patriarch of the Mier family, Lord Mier himself, who could barely bring himself to meet Fulgur’s eyes. His hands trembled slightly, but not because he was afraid of Fulgur. He was afraid that the promise made by Kaizer might somehow be taken away from him.
"As promised, the rewards state commoners will be made nobles and nobles will have their status elevated, and we will be given a position in the royal court... My Mier family will become a Viscount family, right?" Lord Mier asked greedily, his eyes darting between Kai and Koi as though the man standing at the top of the staircase were nothing more than a prize he had delivered to them.
Kai slowly turned his head toward the old patriarch, and the disgust that appeared on his face was so blatant that Lord Mier immediately flinched. Kai had fought beside Fulgur in the past and knew exactly what kind of person he was.
Seeing one of Fulgur’s own relatives willingly betray him for a promotion was something he found far more repulsive than the rebellion itself.
"I never knew you had a shameless distant uncle like this who would sell out his own blood for a promotion... Truly, your luck has run out, Fulgur." Kai said, his voice carrying an unmistakable contempt as he looked back toward the wounded dragon.
Koi sighed heavily and shook her head, her disappointment genuine rather than feigned as she studied Fulgur’s battered condition. "I was really hoping you would escape. You know I always had a soft spot for you, but you just had to do something stupid as going against his majesty."
Her words were almost affectionate, which somehow made them more painful. Fulgur had known Koi for long enough to understand that she genuinely wished things had ended differently, but loyalty to Kaizer had ultimately outweighed whatever sympathy she possessed for him.
Tsk tsk tsk!
The two dragons stepped forward together, their eyes never leaving Fulgur as the old staircase creaked beneath their approaching footsteps. Fulgur instinctively tightened his fists, but even that small movement caused a sharp pain to travel through his chest. He could not afford to show weakness, yet his body was already betraying him.
Before either Kai or Koi could say anything else, Lord Mier hurriedly inserted himself into the conversation from behind them, clearly desperate to make certain his contribution was recognized.
"I even fed him Lantern Lotus in small quantities to further deteriorate his condition. He probably has no way of resisting you now. I want all my contributions to be made known to his majesty." Lord Mier said hastily, his voice becoming increasingly irritating as he tried to advertise his treachery.
Fulgur’s expression finally broke, rage flashing across his face as he turned toward the old man.
"UNCLE!!!!" Fulgur growled, but the moment he raised his voice, his body punished him for it.
His hand flew to his chest as an agonizing pressure seized his heart, and he immediately bent forward, coughing violently.
Thick blood spilled from his mouth and splattered across the stone floor as his breathing became ragged. It felt as though his heart was trying to tear itself apart from within his chest, and the demonic force inside him was so unstable that even attempting to summon it threatened to make the pain exponentially worse.
The Lantern Lotus had done exactly what Lord Mier intended. The poison had weakened his body and interfered with his ability to circulate his demonic force, leaving him incapable of mounting any meaningful resistance.
Lord Mier merely snorted and looked away, apparently feeling no shame at what he had done.
"You have already lived a good life, don’t blame me for dreaming for more!" he said, as though Fulgur’s life were merely an obstacle standing between him and a higher noble title.
Kai’s hands slowly curled into fists. Koi’s expression also darkened, and for a moment both dragons genuinely wanted to kill the old patriarch where he stood. They could not understand how someone could betray his own blood for something as pathetic as a title. Yet neither moved. Kaizer had personally issued the decree that anyone who helped capture Fulgur would be rewarded, and Lord Mier had apparently fulfilled that requirement. Killing him now would not simply be an act of personal revenge. It would mean openly disregarding Kaizer’s command.
"You will get your reward as soon as we send him back to the capital, now keep shut or I might just tear out your tongue." Kai hissed in an eerie voice, his crimson eyes narrowing as he turned toward the old patriarch.
Lord Mier immediately nodded and staggered backward, nearly tripping over his own feet as fear replaced his greed. The man had not even reached the demigod realm, and standing in front of two dragons who could kill him effortlessly left him with no choice but to obey.
"CAPTURE FULGUR AND SEND HIM TO THE CAPITAL? I DON’T REMEMBER APPROVING SUCH!" A powerful voice suddenly thundered through the manor.
KRASH!
The crimson barrier surrounding the estate shattered.
The sound was so violent that every person inside the building instinctively looked upward. The gigantic dome that had taken dozens of soldiers to maintain broke apart like glass, crimson fragments of magical energy scattering through the air before fading into nothingness.
Outside, the crowd erupted into panic as soldiers stumbled backward and looked toward the ruined barrier, while the demons maintaining the arrays were left staring at their destroyed formations in disbelief.
The voice had been unmistakable.
Every powerful figure inside the manor had heard it before. Yet the possibility of that person being here was so absurd that none of them immediately accepted what they were hearing.
Fulgur’s eyes widened.
"Young... Prince?" he muttered, disbelief and shock mixing together as he stared toward the shattered ceiling.
He had expected death. He had expected imprisonment. He had even considered that Kaizer might personally come to execute him. Damian, however, was the one person he had never expected to see. The young Prince of Lust was still a demigod, and Cinderfall was Kaizer’s domain. Coming here openly to rescue someone who had just rebelled against the Emperor of Wrath seemed almost suicidal.
BOOOM!
The ceiling exploded inward before Fulgur could think any further. Massive chunks of stone and broken beams crashed downward, smashing into the staircase and destroying several sections of it as a cloud of dust and smoke spread throughout the upper hall.
Kai immediately raised his arm to shield his face while Koi stepped backward, her eyes scanning the destruction for the intruder. For several seconds, neither of them could see anything through the thick cloud, and the soldiers outside shouted in confusion as they attempted to determine what had happened.
Then the dust began to settle. There was no one standing on the ruined ceiling. Kai’s eyes narrowed as he searched the room, while Koi’s expression became increasingly uneasy. Then both dragons slowly lowered their gazes toward Fulgur.
Damian was standing directly behind him.
He had appeared without warning, towering over the wounded demigod’s frame with a calm smile on his face, his presence so perfectly concealed that Fulgur had not even noticed him until the moment he was already there.
Damian stood with the relaxed posture of someone who had walked into a room that belonged to him rather than breaking into one of the most heavily guarded properties in Cinderfall. The sight immediately caused Kai’s expression to twist with burning hatred.
"You... What are you doing here?" Fulgur muttered, slowly turning his head over his shoulder to look at the young Prince.
Damian’s appearance was almost surreal to him. This was the same individual Kaizer despised, the same Prince who had somehow defeated him and stolen his memories, and yet Damian had walked directly into Cinderfall as though the Emperor of Wrath posed no threat whatsoever.
Damian looked down at him for a moment before chuckling softly. "To save you, of course. I cannot let my precious subordinate die to a tyrant, can I?"
Damian said lightly before walking past Fulgur. His enormous frame moved directly between the wounded dragon and Kai and Koi, effectively placing himself between them as though he were a shield.
The casualness of the gesture made the situation even more absurd.
"Are you not afraid of death?" Koi growled, but the tremor in her voice betrayed the fear she was attempting to conceal.
Damian glanced toward her and raised a brow, genuinely amused by the question.
"Why should I?" he asked before allowing a faint smile to spread across his face. "Kaizer has no clue and will have no clue of what’s going on even after your demise!"
His words were deliberately provocative, and the effect was immediate. Fulgur’s expression twisted with horror as he realized what Damian was implying, while Kai and Koi both initially smiled. Their confidence returned for the briefest moment because Damian had just openly called Kaizer while standing inside Cinderfall itself. They waited for the inevitable reaction.
But nothing happened.
Kai’s smile slowly disappeared and Koi’s eyes widened as she glanced around the room, searching for the overwhelming presence of Kaizer that should have descended upon them after such an insult.
There was nothing.
Only Damian’s calm expression and the heavy silence inside the manor. Their confusion deepened until Koi’s gaze suddenly shifted toward Lord Mier.
The old patriarch was standing completely motionless.
His eyes glowed with a strange pink light, his mouth hung open as saliva slowly dripped down his chin, and his body swayed slightly while unintelligible sounds escaped his throat. He appeared completely unaware of what was happening around him, trapped inside some private reality that only he could perceive.
Kai’s pupils contracted as the truth finally became obvious.
"Fox Illusionary Domain!" Kai blurted out in shock.
Damian nodded with a satisfied smile. "With my Illusionary Domain, you will not be receiving help from your soldiers or the onlookers outside. They are lost in their fantasy world where all their desires are real. However, to shut out the rest of the world from perceiving what is happening in here, I threw in a second domain skill."
As he finished speaking, the air behind him suddenly darkened. Black flames erupted from the floor and twisted upward, their unnatural fire producing no heat that could be felt by the others.
Fulgur’s eyes widened as the familiar oppressive sensation of the Abyss flooded the room. From within the black flames, Abel emerged, his small pitch black body burning with crimson light as he calmly landed around Damian’s neck like a living scarf.
Koi’s face immediately drained of color.
"A... Abyss." Her legs lost their strength beneath her, and she collapsed onto the floor, staring at Abel as though she had just witnessed the arrival of something that should never have been possible.
Kai remained standing, but the hatred that had filled his eyes only moments earlier had been completely replaced by confusion, disbelief and genuine fear. He stared at Abel, then at Damian, as the pieces slowly connected inside his mind. The impossible victory over Kaizer. The stolen memories. Damian’s ability to conceal himself from powerful detection. The confidence with which he had walked into Cinderfall. None of it had been arrogance.
It had been certainty.
"How do you think I defeated Kaizer so easily and stole his memories?" Damian asked with a light, nearly taunting chuckle, his crimson eyes settling upon Kai and Koi as the smile on his face widened. "Did you really think I accomplished all of that with the power of a mere demigod?"