Chapter 95: Vengeance From The Past
— At The Thorne Main Estate —
"Aaaahhhh... someone, please help!!"
Terrified screams echoed through the night. The villagers who had been caught in the devastating shockwave of the explosion were scrambling through the burning streets. Several homes closest to the Thorne Estate were already engulfed in roaring flames.
"What the hell happened...?" a man gasped, standing near where the grand front gates of the estate used to be, staring in absolute shock at the smoldering mountain of rubble.
"Hey! Sam! Don’t just stand there staring! Grab a bucket and help put this fire out before it spreads to the rest of the village!" another villager yelled, desperately running past with a wooden bucket full of water and splashing it onto a burning roof.
’What does he think a single bucket of water is even going to do? Can’t he see that this fire is not natural probably magic? It’s not going to go out that easily, it would need another elemental magic to put out like ice or water’ Sam muttered to himself, shivering as he watched his neighbors frantically running with water or desperately trying to dig people out from under collapsed beams.
Suddenly, Sam froze.
’Mmmm... who are those guys?’
Through the thick smoke, Sam spotted several figures casually walking down the burning street. They were wearing heavy black armor under dark cloaks, their faces entirely hidden behind featureless masks.
...
"Hey... p-please... help me..." a villager begged. He was pinned waist-deep under the heavy rubble of a collapsed wall, holding a bleeding hand out toward one of the masked individuals walking by.
"Oh? You need help? From me, of all people?" 8 chuckled darkly, stepping closer. "Well, I will gladly help you out."
8 reached down and firmly grabbed the trapped man’s hand.
"Thank you... my wife went to find—"
SHLUCK!
Before the villager could finish his sentence, 8 casually drew a dagger and drove it directly through the top of the man’s skull. Hot blood splashed brightly across 8’s dark mask.
"8! What the hell are you doing?" Ronny demanded, glaring at his subordinate.
"He asked for my help, Boss. I didn’t want to leave him here to die slowly under the rocks. I thought I should at least end his suffering now," 8 shrugged, casually pulling his bloody knife free.
"Do not cause an unnecessary scene! You could have just let him be," Ronny scolded, his voice cold and serious.
’Does he not see the burning buildings, the destruction, and chaos everywhere? And he is telling us not to cause a scene?’ Number 7 thought, looking away to hide his amusement. ’But I probably shouldn’t say that out loud...’
...
’No way... he just killed him.’
Sam’s heart started hammering violently against his ribs as he watched murder from the shadows of an alleyway. His hands were shaking uncontrollably.
’Should I tell someone? Should I yell for everyone to run?!’ Sam panicked, his breath hitching. ’No!! If I yell or tell someone, everyone will just freak out, and I’m sure these masked guys will just slaughter us all! I should just run away by myself!’
The exact moment the thought crossed his mind, Sam turned around and sprinted silently away into the darkness, abandoning the village.
"Where is Sam running off to?" a villager asked, pausing with a bucket of water.
"Just leave him be... he must be terrified of the flames. Remember, a fire is what killed his parents," another replied, turning back to the rubble.
"Mmmm... if you say so.."
"HONEY!!!"
A woman’s bloodcurdling scream suddenly shattered the night, grabbing the attention of the entire village.
"You killed him!!" she shrieked, sprinting blindly through the smoke toward 8, who was still holding the bloody dagger over her husband’s corpse. "You are going to pay for that, you monst—!!"
SLASH!
Before the grieving woman could even get close, Ronny blurred forward.
"...?!"
The village went dead silent. No one even saw how she died. They only saw her headless body suddenly collapse into the dirt, her severed head rolling into the ashes.
"Aaaahh... MURDER!!!"
When the shock finally broke, the entire street erupted into pure hysteria. Villagers dropped their buckets and started screaming, sprinting away from the masked men in absolute terror.
"Wait, don’t leave me...Aaaah" Another person who was in a collapsed building that was burning, was left alone burning in the building.
"Talk about not causing a scene..." 7 chuckled, causing the other three assassins to start laughing as well.
"Well, unlike you guys, I can at least clean up after myself," Ronny said coldly.
Suddenly, Ronny concentrated a massive surge of Aura into his legs. He casually tossed aside the standard sword he had just used to decapitate the woman and reached over his shoulder, drawing a massive, heavy Greatsword from his back.
"Oh? It seems like the Boss is actually getting serious this time," one of the assassins muttered, stepping back.
Without warning, Ronny dashed forward. He moved so incredibly fast that even his own comrades couldn’t track his movements. He blurred directly through the fleeing crowd and abruptly skidded to a halt about twenty yards down the street.
A second later, ten running villagers suddenly collapsed to the ground. Some were missing their heads; others were cleanly split entirely in half.
The surviving villagers who witnessed the massacre screamed even louder, desperately pushing each other to run faster. Some just collapsed to their knees, paralyzed by pure, suffocating fear.
"The Boss is still as scary as ever... going all out just to slaughter normal humans," 7 chuckled darkly, slowly drawing his own sword. "We shouldn’t let the Boss experience all the fun alone..."
"Wait! Don’t move!" Ronny suddenly ordered, his eyes locked on the thick smoke ahead of him.
"What? Why? If we wait any longer, these peasants will—"
BOOM!!!
Before 7 could even finish his sentence, Ronny was violently sent flying backward through the air! He crashed brutally through the wooden wall of a burning tavern, collapsing into the rubble.
"BOSS!!" 7 yelled, his eyes widening in absolute shock as he looked at the destroyed tavern. ’To knock the Guildmaster away like that... who the hell is that?!’
From the thick smoke of the burning street, a towering figure slowly stepped forward. He was holding twin black swords, and his entire body was radiating a suffocating, dense crimson Aura.
"Hahahaha... I should really have a good, long talk with the idiots who do our information gathering, ohh.. wait we are the ones who should be doing that" Ronny’s voice echoed from the rubble. He slowly stepped out of the destroyed tavern, laughing like a maniac as he dusted off his black armor.
"Boss!!" 7 said happily, relieved to see him getting up. "Who the hell is that man, to have the strength to send you flying like that even though you are at the Sixth Stage?!"
"That... is Vincent," Ronny growled, gripping his Greatsword tightly as he slowly walked toward the crimson-coated guard.
"Vincent?! No way that’s him! Didn’t the Guild’s information say he was only at the Fifth Stage?!" Number 9 complained from the back.
"That’s exactly what I thought too... but I know his face very well. There is absolutely no way I could mistake it," Ronny said, his eyes burning with hatred.
"If you know me so well, then you must be incredibly stupid to come here and do this at my home," Vincent said, his voice deadly serious and completely devoid of fear.
"Ryan!!" Ronny suddenly shouted.
"Huh?" Vincent’s crimson Aura flickered slightly.
"Ryan. You remember him, don’t you?" Ronny asked, glaring at Vincent with absolute venom.
Vincent frowned deeply, his grip tightening on his twin swords. "How do you know that name...?"
Ronny slowly looked up, pulling off his mask to reveal a scarred, grieving face. "He was my son."
"What...?" Vincent was genuinely shocked. His stoic expression cracked, and his hands began to tremble slightly as dark, buried memories violently resurfaced in his mind.
"Huh?! Boss... you had a son?!" 7 gasped, completely caught off guard.
"I used to have a son... until this bastard killed him!" Ronny roared, pointing his massive Greatsword directly at Vincent’s chest.
Vincent didn’t even try to reply to the accusation. He just stood there, completely silent, letting the burning ash fall around them.
"He went missing thirteen years ago," Ronny’s voice trembled with rage. "When I investigated, I found out that five of you went into an ancient dungeon together. And when I searched that dungeon... I found his body. He was lying there rotting in the open, alongside three other bodies. And all four of them bore the exact same sword marks... which meant they were all killed by the exact same person."
Ronny laughed, though tears of pure anger were welling in his eyes. "You know, I met him once in secret before he died. I didn’t tell him that I was his father, since back in those days I was a wanted criminal in the Tessan Kingdom. I didn’t want him to affiliate himself with scum like me or is ut that I was scared he would deny me, so I kept the conversation friendly."
Ronny smiled bitterly, lost in the memory. "He was constantly complaining about how incredibly strong you were. How you always beat him in every single sparring match. I hated hearing that my son was always getting beaten up... but the warm smile he showed when he talked about you... it was like a little brother complaining about his beloved older brother. So I let it go and I was happy that he found a family in this Kingdom."
Vincent remained completely silent, listening to the grieving father.
"But when I saw that you were the one who killed him... I regretted him so much that I wanted to kill myself. But I forced myself to wait because I had to kill you first."
Ronny’s eyes darkened. "You were really lucky that day. The Tessan Kingdom caught me near that dungeon, and I was thrown into their prison. But a rare opportunity finally came, when the kingdom offered a bunch of death-row criminals who committed mass murder a deal: come out here and do their dirty killing in other kingdoms to avoid execution, and if some did what they were told they would be pardoned of their crimes. And fortunate for me I was assigned here as the Guildmaster of Eden. We were allowed, to do killing here but it must come with a perfect reason like assassinations and all and if one was raising suspicion in the kingdom they would be sent back home or sent to another kingdom."
Ronny gripped his Greatsword with both hands. "But you know when a crazy idiot that used to do small-time contracts offered a crazy job to completely annihilate this entire Baron family... how could I refuse an opportunity like this? Even though it came with heavy scolding from my superiors and a massive pay cut, it would all be completely worth it if I finally got to see my son’s murderer die."
Vincent frowned, his crimson Aura burning steadily again. "Why are you even bothering to tell me all of this information? Aren’t you afraid I will leak this out?"
"Don’t worry about that," Ronny smiled darkly. "Because you are going to be dead after today. You won’t ever have the opportunity to tell anyone."
Just after saying that, Ronny roared, and a terrifying, suffocating orange Aura exploded from his body, completely engulfing the burning street.