The imposter Dark Lord, the undead, was laughing like a maniac looking at the guardians panic.
”I won’t kill you now, Tanulia Valren. First, I will take away everything from you. Then, I will kill your precious elites. Only when you wish for death, I’d grant you your wish,”
Although the elites surrounding her were trained to be fearless warriors, they all feared for their lives deep down. Besides, the armor the under was wearing kept releasing fear toxin in the air. Thus, everyone who breathed in the air felt fear clutching their hearts.
Michael planned everything to the last detail.
Boom!
Tanulia felt hot blood splashing on her yet again as an elite guardian exploded. The empty silver armor he wore hit the ground with a sickening thud.
”We have to go Alpha Guardian!”
”Hahahahha”
The undead laughed as the elites tried to take Tanulia away from the room. However, she did not even budge an inch from the room.
Once again, Michael raised his hand, making the guardians’ hearts pound against their chests.
Boom!
Michael snapped, and just like before, a guardian exploded from within. At that moment, the entire white room turned red, and blood oozed out of the walls and ceiling.
Not only the walls but also Tanulia herself were drenched in blood. Her rosy face was covered by the blood of Peyton and two elite guardians. For the first time in her life, her mind went blank. She was unable to think of the next step.
As they were in a daze, hoping he wouldn’t snap his finger one more time, Xanali entered the room. As soon as she entered the room, her face went pale. Her body shuddered, feeling her heart suddenly skipped a beat.
Looking at all the blood and horror on the guardians’ faces and no Peyton in the room made her think of the worst. She stepped into the room as blood oozed down from the ceiling, reaching her crimson red robes.
Only then did she notice the Dark Lord’s face on the wall. Despite all the blood, she could still make out his face,
”Where…where is Peyton?” That was the first question Xanali asked,
”You’re stepping on her,” Xanali felt a chill hearing the Dark Lord’s words. However, she noticed the one sitting on the chair didn’t open his mouth. Since Xanali left the room way before the real Dark Lord’s appearance and Peyton’s death, she was pretty confused.
”Peyton is all around you, Xanali Harthill. Princess of Nagaland,”
Xanali’s body went rigid as she stared at the wall blankly. The last time Xanali met the Dark Lord in the Silent Reaper, he revealed her race. Now somehow, he had learned her real identity.
Except for Peyton and Tanulia, no one knew about her race or identity as the Nagaland princess, not even Noah.
”What…what happened…where…is Peyton?” Xanali stuttered. Gradually she felt a lump forming in her throat which made taking a difficult task.
When the guardians exploded, at least their armors survived the explosion. But, unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said of Peyton. Not even a shred of Peyton’s clothes survived the blast except her glasses.
Xanali saw the glasses lying on the bloody floor and bent her knees to pick them up. Her hands shivered uncontrollably as her mind refused to accept Peyton was dead.
”Take a long look at what’s around you guardians. This is what’s waiting for you if you stand in my way,” At that time, even Xanali couldn’t be courageous due to the fear toxin in the air.
After hearing his words, Xanali turned around, holding Peyton’s glasses tightly. All the sweet memories she had with Peyton flashed across her eyes.
”We have to leave the ship, Alpha Guardian” Xanali’s eyes flickered as Michael saw her pupils shrinking in size. At that moment, her eyes resembled the eyes of a Naga rather than a human.
”The ship is rigged to blow. We must go now” Tanulia took her gaze away from the Dark Lord,
”The captain is dead and so do several guardians,” her rage and anger in her heart fought back the fear toxin in her bloodstream. Xanali momentarily pushed all her grief and anger to the back of her mind and informed Alpha guardian of what she saw.
Xanali recalled the bodies she saw on her way to the captain’s cabin. All of the guardians guarded the hallways, and the captain’s cabin was killed. Someone slit their throats and the captain literally had no head when she reached his cabin where Xanali saw several explosives placed all around the room. Though unfamiliar with the explosives that looked like bricks pulsated red light, she sensed the heat building up within the bricks.
”The last time we met, you destroyed the Silent Reaper. So now it’s payback time bitch” Michael snickered as he snapped his finger. The guardians shuddered, but unlike they expected, none of them blew into a puppy red mist. Instead, the room the Dark lord was standing in lit up. He was standing in a room with several world maps hanging from the walls and an oak table just a meter behind him. On the other side of the oak table sat a headless corpse that Xanali had seen a few minutes ago.
”He is in the Captain’s cabin,” Tanulia immediately recognized the room,
”Alpha Guardian!”
The remaining three guardians tried to stop Tanulia, but they were pushed away by her. Then, on her way out, she grabbed the glowing sword sticking out of the undead’s guts.
”Hahahahahahaha,”
Pulch!
Tanulia swung the sword and cut his head clean off of his shoulder. Then, she strolled out of the room and didn’t seem like anyone could stop her. Her eyes were bloodshot with anger.
Boom!
Suddenly, they heard a loud explosion as the ship trembled violently. Soon, the ship tilted sideways,
Boom!
The explosion went off again. This time, the guardians and Xanali were thrown off balance. The explosion sound continually rang in their heads and soon, the howling sound indicated the hull breach.
Immediately Xanali grabbed the jade stone lying on the floor before stumbling out of the room while holding the walls for support.
”Get out of here!” Xanali shouted at the elites following her behind,
The lights flickered for a moment before ultimately going out. Then, the place turned dark as the emergency lights lit the hallway in a dim crimson red,
”I will go get the Alpha Guardian!” Xanali had to shout even though the guardian stood close to her due to the howling wind sound.
”But-“
”IT’S AN ORDER!” Xanali pushed the armored guards away before turning around to chase down Tanulia.
The two remaining guards had no choice but to find a way to escape the ship. Unfortunately, the ship kept tilting left and right, making moving forward a problematic task. However, holding onto the walls, the two of them walked along towards the cargo bay, where they received the fake Dark Lord.
That opening was the quickest and closest way to escape the ship.
”Don’t fall back Stass!” the armored elite guardian leading the way shouted at the one behind him. The guardian behind was staggering until the elite guardian shouted at him.
Then, the guardian’s walking became steadier despite the ship’s frantic shaking. He walked steadily and lifted the silver helmet off, revealing the face beneath. It wasn’t Stass as the elite guardian claimed. It was Michael.
He was disguised as the guard and remained in the room the whole time.
”Stars!” When the narrow hallway opened up to reveal the cargo bay, the elite guard shouted in relief. But, unfortunately, when he turned around, his relief became a shock.
Boom!
Michael snapped his finger before the guard could react. Just like earlier, the guard exploded into a bloody mist the moment he snapped his finger.
While Tanulia and Xanali were on their way to the captain’s cabin, Michael punched the ship, forming a large hole in the hull.
Since they were so high in the sky and rapidly descending, the wind and pressure were strong enough to push any normal human being like a piece of paper. However, Michael wasn’t a normal human being. Thus, he stood in front of the hole, looking at the tiny buildings on the ground.
The ship descended straight towards Elon’s guardian headquarters in Kingdom Dradel. Michael made sure the captain set a course to the Dradel before he took the captain’s head.
Michael conjured the dark flames and the moment the dark flames touched the hull, the ship caught on fire. The ship was built to withstand fire but not against a powerful Primordial flame such as the Dark Flames. Hence, the dark flames spread through the ship like wildfire, burning everything in its path.
At that moment, everyone on the ground shouted at seeing the giant flaming meteor descending towards the guardian castle. Immediately the mages and the guardians flew out of the castle to stop the ship from colliding with the castle. It wouldn’t take a genius to figure out that the result would be catastrophic if the ship crashed onto the castle.
The alpha guardians in the castle immediately evacuated the people inside while the otters were casting spells to stop the ship. But at that moment, they all knew stopping the ship wasn’t an option. Thus, they all braced for impact and tried to slow down the ship.
Far away from the castle, Michael was floating above the clouds in his Lucifer form. The imminent destruction of Tanulia’s warship and the headquarters put a wide grin on his face behind the mask.
It was a real pity that he couldn’t hijack the ship because of all the runes and protective arrays. Unfortunately, the system level was too low to hack them, but the system could disable the defensive arrays for a short time.
This short amount of time was enough for Michael to set it on fire and send it toward the castle.
”Payback bitch,” Michael turned around while the ship crashed onto the castle in the distance, creating a giant explosion.