For almost a minute, nobody moved.
Most even forgot to breathe.
Arguably the most powerful being in the world had randomly showed up at this already explosive party.
Nobody knows who did it first, but one by one everyone kneeled to show their respect.
All except for Yara, Iori, Exedra, Sei, and Audrina.
The vampire queen hurriedly teleported behind her friend and her brother.
All the while she never took her eyes off the white flame hovering over the king’s fingertip.
Helios’ legendary purifying white flames could burn any and everything.
It could even burn the magic out of vampires bodies that made them immortal, effectively turning them human.
Because of this the two sides maintained a friendly relationship that bordered on one sided servitude.
Although Helios didn’t treat them terribly, he didn’t get to where he was by being kind.
“M-my king- ” Jirai hurriedly kneeled and looked down at the floor as he realized the gravity of what he’d done.
“Silence.”
A single word was all it took to make Jirai flinch.
Click.
Click.
Click.
The sound of Helios’ clawed feet against the granite floor resounded throughout the entirety of the hall.
“I spared you once before… and you actually dared to bare your fangs against my family? Is this how you repay my generosity?”
Jirai’s body was trembling.
It’s a humbling experience for a predatory species like dragons to suddenly become prey.
That was the lesson Exedra taught Jeddah and now it is what Helios is teaching Jirai.
“N-no my king I simply forgot myself.”
Helios scoffed when he heard this flimsy response.
“Grrrr…”
A single abyss hound walked forward between the two dragons.
Helios immediately frowned when he recognized this kind of beast.
“W-what is it doing?” Jirai became nervous when he saw the hound walking towards his son’s unconscious body.
“Collecting what I’m owed.”
Exedra put no focus on the two men in front of him and instead was thinking about what he’d do next.
He could feel a greater force.. a calling of some sort spurring forth his next action.
The abyss hound picked up Jeddah’s limp body with its serrated teeth and began to carry it back to its master.
Sensing something terrible was about to happen, Jeddah immediately began to plead in a desperate tone,”P-please. I know he was wrong but you don’t have to do this.”
His pride was broken.
He couldn’t be as bold as before with the king now here.
All he could do was beg for the life of his son.
Exedra’s gaze lingered on Jirai for only a moment before he turned towards his hound. “You don’t have to be so gentle. Don’t waste your energy dragging him.”
The hound nodded and swung its head to toss Jeddah’s body towards Exedra.
His body rolled when it hit the ground before coming to a stop in front of the young man who would decide his fate.
Looking towards his family to make sure Mira was still covering Bekka’s eyes, Exedra changed his spear back into a sword and lifted Jeddah’s body into the air with mana manipulation.
Jirai could only grind his teeth in anguish as he watched this scene.
He was not naive enough not to recognize the look in the eyes of the young dragon in front of him.
His son’s fate was decided the moment he came back to the party.
SLASH!
With everyone in the room watching, Exedra swiftly sliced open Jeddah’s chest before pulling out his still beating heart and taking a large bite.
< Exedra Avernus Draven >
< Evolution Path : #%*^€£$@? %^!€¥
[Fallen Abyssal Species (Variant) ]
< First Stage Conditions :
– Conquer Five Dungeons (1/5)
– Consume the hearts of ten worthy enemies.(1/10)
– Gain a total of four affinities. (4/4)
< + 2,500 all stats.
< Skill learned : Cryokenesis.
< Affinity gained : Ice.
A bloody smile crossed Exedra’s face as he saw the updated status of his evolution as well as his unexpected gains.
Gasps of shock and slight disgust filled the room.
Only Helios made no sound as he watched this spectacle.
He’d seen and done a lot worse so he wasn’t moved in the slightest.
More than anything he was intrigued.
His grandson looked and felt different but when he searched hard enough with his aura, he realized it was indeed him.
Somehow after he ate the heart his aura increased in strength. It was minuscule to Helios, but he noticed it all the same. ‘Intriguing indeed.’
‘And those hounds…’ the dragon kings gaze lingered on the summons of his grandson for a long time before he decided to handle his own business first.
The time for questions would come later.
“Jirai.”
“Yes…my king.”
“You know very well I have never let anyone scorn me twice.”
The ice dragon lowered his head as he already knew what would come next.
‘Atleast I will join you soon my son.’
FWOOSH!
Bright white flames enveloped Jirai’s body in an instant.
He couldn’t even scream before his body turned to ash.
“My lords.”
At his call, his three remaining lords appeared in front of him kneeling.
“Lotan greets his king.”
“Seras greets her king.”
“Tiamat greets her king.”
“His territory and resources will be divided up among the three of you. His work as well.”
They simply nodded and did not speak further.
With this business out of the way, Helios turned to address the crowd that had divided their attention between him and his grandson.
“Apologies for the disruption. Please try to continue the party as normal. I believe gifts were being presented, correct?”𝑶𝐯xt.𝗇t
The guests looked back and forth between their king and the three hounds in the room that were eating the rest of Jeddah’s body.
How does he expect them to continue on as normal after this?!
They didn’t even understand why Jeddah collapsed! One second he was up and raging the next he was on the ground unconscious.
Helios finally caught sight of the one he’d come here for and smiled.
Faster than the eye could see, Helios teleported beside his daughter and scooped her up for a big hug. “My little girl I missed you so much!”
“It’s.. only been… two weeks..” she struggled to breathe through her father’s bear hug that could crush anything under the sun.
“Two weeks too long!”
Separating from her, he turned and clasped Iori’s shoulder and gave him a smile. “You look well son. How long has it been? “
A vein bulged in Iori’s head when he once again saw the difference in treatment between he and his sister.
Wasn’t this too blatant?
“Six months old man.” He finally answered.
“Oh? Such a short time and you’ve gotten stronger already! That’s my son alright!” Helios let loose a deep powerful laugh that reverberated throughout the room.
Seeing the antics of the royal family, the guests were able to relax again and gradually began to converse, though almost all of the conversations were about what they’d just witnessed.
Most had their own theories about what exactly Exedra had done to make Jeddah drop and shared them amongst themselves.
Seven individuals in particular did not engage in conversation and simply stared at Exedra.
While his strength wasn’t great enough to be a threat to them, the strange and sinister spells he cast as well as the methodical nature of his actions lingered in all of their minds.
Though the thoughts of almost all of them were completely different.
Tiamat: ‘A strange boy indeed. He’s quite charming as well.’
Seras : ‘Those spells were weird.. I wonder if I could get him to spar with me?’
Lotan : ‘A monster’s child is still a monster huh…’
Sei : ‘That magic… could it be?’
Canis: ‘I knew it… that brat is different.’
Iori : ‘Sister… just what kind of being did you give birth to?’
Audrina : ‘That was so hot… I want to ride him so hard I break his pelvis!’
While the other six had more normal thoughts, the vampire queens were more… colorful.
Even though Exedra’s fight wasn’t very flashy, she appreciated his cruel nature and was intrigued by his strange powers but mostly, seeing him with fresh blood dribbling down his chin and slowly falling down his abs was almost too much for her to bear and her underwear was currently dealing with a small flood.
She slowly bit her lip as she thought hard.
Originally she was going to gift him a few blood diamonds and move on but that was when she still saw him as her nephew.
Now that he was a man she wanted to pursue, she naturally couldn’t give him something so run of the mill could she?
