Her voice sounded clear and very feminine.
Anyone who heard it would have no doubts that the one who had just spoken was a female, petite at the same time. And truly, she was.
There were exactly four seats on top of the elevated platform. Two were closest to the stairs leading to the platform, while there was one directly behind the two.
Lastly, at a higher elevation than the three aforementioned seats, a bigger and more imposing throne stood.
Amongst the people sitting down on top of the elevated platform, the queen was seated just behind the two seats closest to the stairs.
And as she spoke, the hall seemed to fall into a palpable silence, only broken by the sound of drops of sweat hitting the ground and the clattering of teeth.
No one amongst the men below the platform turned to look at her, not even a glance, but they all couldn’t help but sigh inwardly. There was no helping it; something terrible was coming.
The queen, just like her voice, was petite. She couldn’t be more than 5 feet 3 inches if she stood up.
She was donned in a regal and elegant yellow dress adorned with myriads of decorative and luxurious jewelry.
Her skin was pale white, and she had red intricate lines tracing along from her head in a circling motion. Unlike the rest of the individuals Atticus had met, her head wasn’t bald.
Pure white hair cascaded down her back in gentle waves, its length reaching her waist. Its pristine white color complemented her white pupils, which seemed to look down on everything as though they were completely inconsequential.
Her face was the personification of gentleness, but every single person in this room knew better than to believe that facade. She was Viviana Ossara, the Queen of the bone race.
The only two individuals who actually dared to look at her were the two seated at the front of her.
They both bore a striking resemblance to Zekaron and just like him, radiated a princely aura. They were the 1st and 2nd princes of the bone race.
The silence lasted for a few seconds, seconds which felt like hell for Illa. The drops of sweat and clattering of teeth were all obviously coming from him.
He turned to look at his father once more, but this time around, he didn’t even bother to look at him.
After a few seconds, a thought suddenly struck him, one that made his heart clench. It had only been exactly four seconds, but had he really been keeping her waiting for that long?
Illa didn’t regain his composure; he was far from that, but he had to speak. Despite the fact that the queen didn’t show any visible emotion on her face, he wasn’t stupid enough to test her patience.
His words came out stuttered,
“T-the t-third p-Prince s-snuck a-away during the a-attack, and we didn’t h-hear from him again until one h-human boy brought him out of a space storage a-already d-dead.”
His words sent different waves of expressions across the hall, but the most prominent was anger. They had killed their prince?
Before anyone could say anything about the situation, Illa suddenly hit his hand on his chest and spoke frantically, “I want to make a warrior’s promise. No mat-”
“Describe him.”
But he didn’t even get a chance to speak, as the Queen suddenly interrupted again, making the hall turn silent once again.
Illa gulped audibly. Throughout the scene, he hadn’t once faced upwards to look at the queen; his gaze was fixed directly on the ground.
He mustered up the courage and spoke, stuttering as he described Atticus’s features. Despite his trembling form, he was still very detailed and described the way he looked, down to the last detail.
He even went as far as to also describe Aurora, who had also been with Atticus.
After a few intense seconds, he finished and then quickly continued his earlier speech,
“No matter what, I will find-”
The ground underneath Illa suddenly rumbled, and in the next second, the sound of flesh being pierced resounded across the hall as pointy bone-like spikes suddenly materialized beneath and around Illa, piercing his form from every conceivable angle.
An incredible amount of crimson blood splattered around the area.
As the blood reached each of the individuals in the hall, a translucent shield of different colors suddenly appeared in front of each of them, stopping it from touching their forms.
At the next instance, the sound of a loud explosion suddenly rocked the space. The gazes of everyone in the hall snapped towards the door, their gazes narrowed.
They all instantly realized what had happened; the ship Illa had come back with, where all the soldiers that had gone on the mission were, had been destroyed.
There was only one person who didn’t create a shield, Illa’s father. The blood splattered all over his body, his whole form instantly drenched.
He was basically the older version of Illa, with his whole body filled with fat. He was none other than the head of one of the main lineages of the bone race, Caius Vernumer, with the members of this lineage having the ability to control and mold bones to any form they wished.
Caius stared up at the body of his son absentmindedly, his heart clenched. Words could not begin to describe how much anger he was feeling.
It had been completely his fault. If he hadn’t pushed his son, none of this would have happened. Viviana was brutal; this was a fact known by all, but wasn’t this too brutal?
Caius took in a deep breath, crimson blood dripping from his body. His eyes lit ablaze with fury, his gaze snapping towards the form of the queen. It was late already, undoubtedly. His son was already dead; what else could he do?
But despite this, he just wanted to show one act of defiance, to look at the one who killed his son.
Viviana hadn’t moved a single inch. She didn’t even have a single change in expression; it appeared as though she hadn’t been the cause of everything that had just happened.
“Hm?” She suddenly turned her gaze, her intense white eyes meeting that of Caius, and upon seeing his furious gaze, she smiled.
“A father should pay for his son’s sins,” she spoke succinctly.
Caius’ aura suddenly exploded, his body becoming many times heavier.
Instantaneously, a multitude of bone-like spikes suddenly materialized underneath him, and just as their forms were about to pierce him,
“Enough,”
A voice suddenly resonated across the hallway, the forms of the bone-like spikes freezing instantly. A single trail of blood fell from the Viviana’s nose in response to having her powers blocked suddenly.
“You will not kill one of my generals because of your incompetent son,”
It sounded hoarse and resonated with chilling intensity, each word a command as though carved from ice, freezing the hearts of those who heard it.
The queen’s head snapped back, locking eyes with the man sitting down on the throne.
The man was topless and had a slightly bulky physique. Every inch of his body was compact and seemed to brim with power. His head was completely bald, but he had a golden beard, trimmed to perfection.
Unlike the others with red lines tracing across their body, he only had red small dots making different parts of his body.
He was Mortrex the Indomitable, the Ossarch of the bone race.
“Incompetent?” Viviana asked coldly.
But Mortrex didn’t seem bothered by her tone or reaction. Resting his head on one hand, he responded,
“Every one of the human youths getting sent here had their ranks limited to Intermediate+, this would remain unchanged for at least a few days. And yet, despite this huge handicap, the fool had still lost,”
Mortrex’s gaze turned cold, his words becoming even more icy,
“I know no better disappointment,”
The queen stared at Mortrex for a few seconds without saying anything. If looks could kill, there was no doubt that he would already be dead.
After a few seconds, she suddenly turned her gaze away and stood up from her seat. Without uttering a word, she started walking away towards the exit.
Bones materialized underneath the coffin holding Zekaron and dragged it behind her.
The forms of the bones that pierced Illa suddenly disappeared, his body falling onto the ground. But before it could fall, Caius’ aura receded as he hurried forward to catch him.
“This ungrateful servant is in your debt, Great Ossarch,”
He got onto one knee, thanking Mortrex, who simply nodded. Then, without uttering another word, he carried his son’s body and left the hall.
After a few seconds, Ezekiel and the two Princes had already left the hall, leaving only two individuals in the hall.
“What are your orders?”
Mortrex, whose gaze had gotten sad, turned to see his right hand on one knee.
Montrex sighed, “This is what we’ve become, Thaddeus, commodities and live targets used to train the human youths. A Prince was killed, and we can’t even seek revenge.”
He suddenly chuckled, “Oh, our ancestors would be furious.”
Mortrex stared at nowhere in particular for a while, the hall descending into silence. Thaddeus hadn’t spoken a word, simply maintaining his kneeling posture.
Mortrex sighed,
“She will go after him, make sure she follows the rules to the last detail. We already broke the rules once; they wouldn’t allow a second time.”
“As you wish,”
Thaddeus bowed and immediately left the hall.
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