Chapter 78: No Loose Ends
Chapter 78: No Loose Ends
The spatial light faded, and the spot where Orion had stood was empty.
Evolet, still curled on the scorched ground, slowly raised her tear-streaked face.
"Husband...?" Her voice cracked.
Her reddened eyes darted to the place where her husband had been standing just a heartbeat ago.
He was gone.
The realization hit her like a blade through the chest.
"He left me," Evolet shuddered as the cold reality hit her. "He actually... he left me here to die."
Her voice broke on the last word, dissolving into a wretched, choking sob.
Rhain watched the spatial distortion fade with a slight narrowing of his eyes.
He hadn’t expected that.
The Ashvele family had clearly spared no expense in protecting their young master.
But he also found this so called young master of Ashvele family, quite despicable.
To abandon your own woman to die....how pathetic!
Rhain turned his gaze toward the crumpled figure of Evolet, and walked step by step toward her.
Evolet heard those footsteps.
Her sobbing stopped. Her entire body went rigid.
She slowly raised her head.
The dark-robed youth stood over her, his indifferent grey eyes looking down without a shred of pity.
"No..." Evolet’s voice came out thin and reedy, her face draining of what little color remained. "Stay away from me!"
"RHAIN!"
A desperate shriek erupted.
Up on the dais, Soren, who was still bound head to toe in heavy chains, witnessed the entire scene.
"Please! Not my daughter!" Soren’s voice cracked, raw and unhinged. "Kill me! Kill me a thousand times! But spare her! She is innocent! She has never harmed anyone!"
The man who had smugly declared that the Ashvele family would reduce the Azure Cloud Sect to ashes was now on his knees, weeping and begging like a broken animal.
His mind was plunged into complete and absolute despair.
His biggest backing, the invincible shield he had staked his life on, had completely collapsed right in front of his eyes.
Master Hayden, the Core Formation expert, had been burned to unrecognizable ashes.
Orion, his son-in-law, the Young Master of the towering Ashvele Clan, had fled like a beaten, cowardly dog, abandoning his own wife without a backward glance.
Everything he had staked his life on had crumbled into dust.
The complete, utter collapse of every pillar Soren had ever leaned upon crashed down on him simultaneously, and the weight of it shattered something fundamental in his soul.
"I beg you..." Soren’s forehead slammed against the stone floor, splitting the skin. Blood mixed with tears pooled beneath his face. "She is all I have left in this world... please..."
Rhain looked at the chained man for a long, silent moment.
Then he turned his gaze back to Evolet.
She stared up at him, trembling so much that her teeth chattered.
Rhain raised his hand.
A thin blade of compressed dark essence materialized at his fingertips.
"This woman wanted me dead me dead a while ago."
Rhain said quietly.
"No— PLEASE—"
He flicked his wrist.
The dark crescent swept forward in a silent arc.
Evolet’s scream was cut short.
Her body slumped sideways onto the scorched stone.
"EVOLET!!!"
Soren’s anguished howl split the air.
"You monster... you heartless monster..." Soren sobbed, his voice dissolving into incoherent, babbling grief. "My daughter... my little girl..."
Rhain turned to look at Soren.
"I told you I would keep you alive just long enough to watch your Ashvele experts arrive and die," Rhain stated flatly, "Your time is up."
"Consider this mercy. I am sending you to reunite with your daughter."
Soren’s mouth opened — perhaps to curse, but no sound came.
With a casual wave of his hand, a blade of dark essence pierced the air.
It directly slashed through Soren’s neck.
His lifeless body fell on the ground.
After finishing the entire bloodline of the Barlowe family, Rhain’s dark grey eyes swept slowly across Seris, Harmon, and the thousands of gathered faces.
The plaza was a portrait of absolute terror.
The moment his gaze landed on them, many of them shuddered.
Even the fifty Spirit Manifestation Realm experts, felt an intense fear gripping their hearts
The old man from the Green Bamboo Sect, who had privately mocked Rhain as a "puppet" just hours ago, looked as though he might faint.
Rhain looked at all of them, and inclined his head slightly.
"I owe all of you an apology," Rhain said. His voice carrying clearly across the silent, ruined plaza. "You came to my sect today as honored guests, to attend a ceremony meant to celebrate a new beginning. Instead, you were dragged into a conflict that was not yours. Please, forgive my lack of hospitality."
Several people exchanged stiff glances.
Many of them were unhappy, perhaps all of them.
But none of them dared to voice a complaint.
This youth had just incinerated a Core Formation Realm expert — a being they had spent their entire lives regarding as an untouchable god — and then casually executed two more people without blinking.
If he could do that to the Ashvele family’s memebers, why would he care about them?
"S-Supreme Elder Rhain is too polite!"
A middle aged man at Spirit Manifestation Realm flattered.
Yes, yes! It is our honor!"
"We were not disturbed at all!"
Fenwick Luo dabbed furiously at the rivers of sweat pouring down his round face, nodding along like a puppet on a string. "Yes! Yes, what an incredible ceremony! Absolutely worth the trip! No complaints whatsoever! None! Zero!"
The other visiting leaders murmured their agreements in a cascade of overly enthusiastic, transparently frightened affirmations.
Not one of them meant a single word.
As the tension held, a slender figure broke from the crowd on the dais.
Seris crossed the scorched ground without hesitation as she rushed toward Rhain.
She stopped half a pace in front of him, her gaze sweeping over his face, his arms, the faint cuts on his white ceremonial robes.
"You’re hurt," she spoke anxiously, as she checked him.
"It’s nothing," Rhain said quietly. "Just surface cuts."
Seris pressed her lips together tightly, clearly unconvinced, but she didn’t argue.
Behind her, Harmon, Dorris, Kory, Roderick, Torin, and Maren arrived in quick succession.
They all felt the shared feeling of lingering dread, and profound relief.
Harmon took a heavy breath, forcibly stabilizing his fluctuating emotions, and stepped forward to face everyone.
"Our Azure Cloud Sect deeply apologizes for the ordeal you were all forced to endure today."
He straightened his back, his expression shifting to one of grave seriousness.
"However, as you have all witnessed, our sect now faces an imminent crisis. The Ashvele Clan will not let today’s events pass unanswered. We must prepare. Under these circumstances, we are unable to entertain our honored guests as you deserve."
Harmon cupped his fists and bowed once more.
"We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for attending today’s ceremony. But we must respectfully ask that you take your leave for the time being. When this crisis has been resolved, the Azure Cloud Sect will hold another banquet to express our gratitude and hospitality to each of you."
A heavy silence hung over the crowd.
Many of the visiting clan leaders felt their mouths twitch involuntarily.
Another banquet?
They wouldn’t be human if they ever set foot in this cursed place again.
But outwardly, every single one of them maintained perfectly composed, gracious smiles.
"Sect Master Harmon is too polite! We understand completely!"
"We will take our leave now! May the Azure Cloud Sect prosper!"
"Farewell, Supreme Elder Rhain! Farewell, Sect Master Harmon!"
One by one, they hurriedly fled.
Rhain watched them go.
He blinked slightly, as his vision blurred.
The surrounding light dimmed, and the voices of the elders suddenly sounded as if they were coming from deep underwater.
"Rhain...?"
Seris’s concerned voice was the last thing he heard, as his falling body was caught in a soft embrace.
He blacked out completely.