Radmus let out a frosty snort, his gaze sweeping across Bloodbane Palace to the long-since-collapsed altar at its center. “It seems I’ll have to go and find it myself…”
At that very instant, a streak of emerald light tore open the heavens, Jared had finally arrived!
He took in the mountains of corpses and the sea of blood spread out before him, sensed the lingering ripples of self-destruction energy still trembling across the floor, and fixed his eyes on Radmus, whose body was now puppeteered by the blood corpses.
Jared‘s eyes instantly reddened.
“Father!” Nymeria’s anguished scream ripped through the carnage, could feel that father’s aura had vanished completely.
Jhaelyn, Jemima, and Thorley reached the scene a heartbeat later.
The devastation that confronted them drained every last drop of color from their faces.
Jhaelyn clapped a trembling hand over mouth, tears glimmering in eyes. “W-What in the world happened here?”
All of Bloodbane Palace had become a charnel field-piles of bodies, rivers of blood, not a single soul left alive. Even Jemima and Thorley stood rooted to the spot, stunned and horrified by the spectacle before them.
It was tragic, unspeakably, unbearably tragic.
Nymeria felt the world go black. Her body gave out, and slumped to the ground in a dead faint.
Jemima darted forward, caught Nymeria, and began channeling strand after strand of celestial energy into the young woman’s body.
Nymeria’s eyelids fluttered open. The moment saw Jemima, broke down, sobbing, “My home is gone… I have no home left…”
Watching Nymeria like that made the veins on Jared’s forehead bulge, the killing intent in his eyes overflowed, thick and violent.
Radmus turned to face Jared. The face now enslaved by the blood corpses curled into a warped, eerie smile. “Oh? So you finally made it, Jared… Perfect… Killing you now will save me a lot of trouble.”
Jared answered with silence. He slowly summoned the Dragonslayer Sword; the blade thrummed, and emerald sword energy spiraled around him, forming a razor-edged aura that cut at the air itself.
Power boiled inside him. The sight of Dincelius’ sacrifice, the ruination of Bloodbane Palace, an inferno of rage unlike any had ever known roared to life in his chest.
“You killed Mr. Dincelius and laid Bloodbane Palace to waste…” Jared’s voice was colder than ten-thousand-year ice. “Today you will repay that blood debt, with your own blood!”
Before the last syllable faded, Jared shot toward Radmus like a green comet.
The Dragonslayer Sword swept out a beam of emerald energy a few kilometers long, a stroke with the might to cleave heaven and earth. As it passed, the very air was sliced apart, leaving behind a pitch-black fissure in space.
Radmus snorted in contempt, letting the blood corpse’s power surge through his veins.
He thrust out a single palm, a crimson vortex re-formed in the center of his hand and effortlessly caught the emerald beam.
The sword energy spun madly inside the vortex, then shattered into countless motes of green light and dispersed.
“Is that all you can do?” With a sneer, Radmus took the initiative. His figure blurred, and in the blink of an eye, was in front of Jared, five fingers hooked into talons that lanced straight for Jared’s heart.
His nails gleamed with a blue-black sheen, poison strong enough to kill on contact.
Jared‘s eyes narrowed. Instead of retreating, stepped in. The Dragonslayer Sword snapped back to guard him, flat of the blade braced across his chest.
Clang!
The collision of metal rang like thunder. A monumental force slammed into Jared, numbing his arms. He was blasted backward, gouging a trench several kilometers deep across the ground.
“Jared!” Jhaelyn cried out and surged forward, only for Jemima to seize wrist.
“Don’t,” Jemima said, voice taut with dread. “That monster’s far too strong. If we charge in, we’ll only die.”
Jared skidded to a stop, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and lifted his head, battle-lust burning hotter than ever in his eyes.
He knew wouldn‘t win using brute force alone, had to unleash something stronger.
Drawing a deep breath, swept his right hand through the air. An ancient, unadorned longbow materialized in his grasp, the Divine Bow!
The moment it appeared, heaven and earth howled. Energy flooded toward the bow; a dim golden glow pulsed along its body, and threads of power of law coiled around the bowstring.
Jared poured marked aura into the weapon. His left hand closed on empty air, and a golden arrow coalesced on the string, an arrow woven from marked aura.
“That‘s… An ancient divine bow?” For the first time, dread flickered in Radmus’ eyes.
The power sealed inside that arrow was enough to truly threaten him.
