"Is that...David?" Logan stuttered, staring at the body a couple of meters away from Johnny. His muscles went rigid in shock. He never thought David would die while Jonah, who had no knack for the battle, is alive.
What happened before they arrived here was still a mystery to Logan but he was sure that Johnny or that two cloaked figures could have killed David unless they had used some crooked means.
"They tried to take what's mine, so I killed them," Johnny nonchalantly said while fiddling with the orb in his hand. He tried to figure out a way to activate the orb.
"You murderer!" After hearing these words from Johnny, the cloaked figures lost their composure as they rushed at Johnny with no hesitation.
At the same time they moved, Ross felt a gust of wind passing against his back.
Pulch!
Pulch!
Pulch!
Pulch!
Everyone saw four heads rolling on the floor as the headless bodies walked around clumsily, spraying blood all over the place before falling to the ground. The beheadings happened so quickly. None of them clearly saw the killer during the killings. They realized who killed them only after the four heads left their bodies.
"Ma...Maria" This was the first time Logan saw the terrified face of Ross. When they saw the bloody spear and the blood-splattered white clothes of her terrified them because they never imagined she possessed such a deadly side. Even her own father never had a clue about her real skills.
"Quit playing with it Johnny" Maria ordered Johnny. Her usual sweet gentle voice was nowhere to be seen as she sounded more like a battle-hardened villainess. On the contrary, Johnny's attitude took a one-eighty turn. He immediately knelt down, lowering his head to avoid eye contact with Maria.
He held out the orb towards Maria like he was giving an offering to a goddess. The sudden change of events completely stunned everyone standing in the hall.
"Maria" Ross called out to Maria but his voice was suppressed by various emotions.
"I'll deal with you all in a sec" she said, taking the orb from Johnny's hand.
When she looked at Ross, he could no longer see the little girl he knew. The girl in front of him was a completely different person. There was no love or kindness in her eyes, just anger and killing intent.
Ignoring Ross's call, she walked towards Michael whose body was still smoking. The team stood there watching Maria giving a couple of kicks to David's dead body.
"Pity, I wanted to kill you with my spear " After kicking Michael's body, she walked away from him. Johnny didn't stand up even after giving the orb, he just knelt down on the ground until she could tell him otherwise.
Creak!
She ripped off Johnny's shirt yet there was no reaction from him at all.
"Now I assume you all want an explanation" Maria didn't even look at Ross or anyone but began to clean the blood from the artifact using Johnny's shirt. She then put the orb in her satchel hanging on her waist.
"You're all gonna die anyway so it doesn't hurt to tell you"
"Ross" Although the skills she displayed could make her on par with a highly trained spartan or a gladiator, H still believed he could defeat her with the help of the team. He knew that Marcella attacked her from a distance and he and Logan flanking her from either side would definitely lead the way to beat Maria.
Johnny was a variable but H believed Ross would take him down if push comes to shove. But first, even if Ross didn't want to fight with them, H wanted Ross to stay out of their way when they fought Maria. If he tried to protect his daughter again, this fight would get complicated or simply result in H's defeat.
"I need to know what she has to tell" Ross slightly raised his hand, stopping H from doing anything.
"It's simple actually. Gisel kingdom took the one thing that meant everything to me, so I'm gonna destroy it and kill all those senator scumbags with this" she tapped the satchel. Her murderous grin showed them that she's very serious about this plan.
"It was my fault, Maria" said Ross. His eyes were full of regret. Anyone could tell he's telling the truth.
"That's why you're gonna die too. You always put your duties to the kingdom first, that was why you brought an undead to our home"
Her murderous voice echoed through the empty halls. After they heard her, they gawked at Ross in disbelief.
It was Ross's greatest regret. To the outside world, Ross's wife died of an unknown disease except she wasn't. It was Ross who killed her after the undead he brought home bit her. In the Southern Continent, it was strictly forbidden for any kingdom to bring undeads to the mainland from the undead island. All the senates and a few kings in the continent took the decisions together.
Nonetheless, five years ago, the senate and the scholars of Gisel conducted a secret operation to bring an undead from the island for experiments. After leading the mission with Marcella, Ross caught an undead alive. Since they didn't go too deep into the forest, the operation wasn't as dangerous as this one. But the operation wasn't without losses either. Ross brought twelve men with him and returned with seven.
If the safe house they decided to use hadn't caught on fire, the operation would have ended with only seven casualties. Due to the complications and the senate's trust in Ross, they put the undead in the cellar below Ross's home. Since it was supposed to be one day, Ross reluctantly agreed to the plan.
At that time, he never thought his wife would go to the cellar to pick up a wine bottle for him. To this day, Ross had no idea how the undead manage to break out of its cage. Only Marcell, Maria, and himself knew what really happened to Ross's wife. No matter how hard Ross tried, he couldn't get the blood of his own wife off his hands.
Every time he saw Maria, he saw his wife. The guilt ate his soul itself. A while later, he couldn't take it anymore as he sent Maria to a sect far away from Gisel. Yet again, he never thought she would turn into completely a different person.
"You're right to blame me but you're not a murdered, Maria"
"You kidding me? I just killed these people" she devilishly chuckled pointing her finger at the headless bodies in the hall.
"And don't act like you know me. You were never there for me and my mother. You failed as a father and a husband, you're an utter failure. Who would bring an undead to their own home? And even when we started this journey, if you were a good father, no matter how stubborn your daughter was, you would have sent her away. Even then, you put your mission to serve Gisel first" Her words were spot on. He was too focused on saving his kingdom rather than his daughter. The scholars and senate were absolutely sure that they could control the undead army with this artifact, that was why he risked his life to come here. If they could control this undead army, no kingdom would stand on Gisel's path or dare to invade them. The alphas were an example of the artifact's power to control the undead.
"Since no man came to save me or my mother, I learned to protect myself and to destroy those who harmed me. I'd bet someone would kill the senate for me and pay millions of gold for this artifact"
"Maria this is not you" Ross's voice broke in overwhelming regret. He tried to knock some sense into Maria.
"This is the new me, that lovey-dovey stupid girl thing was just an act to fool you. And it seems it can fool anyone, I mean you have no idea how easily you can manipulate men putting up an act. Plus, you're all fools, so it was much much easier to fool you" seeing the young girl laughing at them made everyone feel embarrassed and mad. Even H who had decades of dealing with criminals and battle experience failed to see her true face.
"But I got to give it to you guys, you've done a great job escorting me here. I never thought getting here would be this easy. I guess those alphas are just overrated"
If this was a better circumstance, they would gladly agree with her because they did see only one alpha.
"And you, my slave, are ridiculously underrated. I cannot wait to hear how you managed to throw a boulder that size."
"Was it you who ordered to kill Rowan's team and destroy the ship?" H suddenly asked before Maria could get an answer from Johnny.
"Why would I do that? I'm not stupid to destroy my safe ride. I don't know who, might be someone else with the grudge against Gisel. Now enough talking, let's get to the fun part...killing you all" She licked the spear's blade.
"I didn't master" suddenly, her menacing eyes turned at Johnny who spoke without lifting his head up.
"What you didn't?"
"Throwing the boulder master. It wasn't me"
She creased her brows. Destroying the ship was a logical move for anyone with a grudge against Gisel and there were countless people who fell into that category. However, she couldn't think of a person who would help them get to the artifact.
"Why don't you ask me?" Maria felt a chill running through her spine when she heard an unearthly voice coming from behind.