[HAHAHAHAHAH...]

'What just happened? Last thing I remember...'

[Hahahaha...]

'Wait, how am I alive?! Is this my fourth walkthrough...?'

Rune looked around. Nothing like a forest. If anything, it felt like the same estate but frozen solid.

[Do you know how cool, calm, and collected I was when I resurrected you from the dead?]

Rune's gaze swept across shocked expressions. Then he found Cassandra, bloodied, her red dress made redder by her own blood. Her eyes were weak but wide as she stared at him in disbelief.

Then he saw Kael and Selka hoisted on earthen pillars, their bodies slumped, barely conscious.

[You should've seen me doing it. I was so cool in the face of approaching death...]

Rune's fists clenched as he found the cause of it all — Dominion Saytan. The demons had frozen because the commands from their master had frozen.

'Is that... an aura blade...?'

Dominion's mind went blank. The only aura blades he'd ever witnessed belonged to Cassandra and the Sword King. He'd never met Ragnar, and certainly not this eighteen-year-old.

[Elowen was so impressed... that she almost confessed to me.]

Nexar's rant about his success had gone completely off the charts since Rune couldn't see Elowen unless Nexar permitted it.

{Wha.. what do you mean?! He's lying!!}

Elowen's protest went unheard.

'Good job. Now then, mind telling me what my condition is right now?'

Nexar stopped his rant and activated business mode.

[Cass came to rescue. Dominion made the enclave his demon nest. I resurrected you using AP card. You now possess Emperor's aura for about forty-five minutes or so.]

'I see.'

Rune could sense the aura in his body was indeed Emperor-tier, and he had roughly forty-five minutes according to Nexar.

'Then I'll finish it in....'

"Rune!!"

The girl before him, her hand still in his, could finally see his form clearly. She jumped on him, her lips kissing his forehead, his cheeks, anywhere she could reach.

"Whoa..."

Rune skidded on the frost-filled ground but managed to stabilize himself. Sera hugged him tight, clinging like a child to its mother. Rune held her head in place as her lips kissed almost every part of his face.

"Okay... okay... I get it." He steadied.

"H-how..." Cassandra's voice came out weak, muffled by Lydia and Ilya rushing toward him, completely ignoring the demons standing motionless, awaiting their master's consciousness.

Lydia jumped on him next. Her soft, tender breasts pressed into him. She held him like she'd never let go.

Ilya's eyes filled with tears as they searched the tear in his shirt near his chest. The wound was surprisingly closed, leaving only a slight scar as proof it had ever existed.

Rune checked Blood Raven, a demonic smile forming on his face. He could now use Seed of Dystrophy and Deadman's Decay.

He held Lydia and Sera in one arm, pressing both of them together against him.

"Okay, now if you ladies let go of me, we could continue this when we get home."

Neither of them heard him.

'Guess I'm doing this with both of them like this.'

He shrugged and found Dominion staring blankly at him and the marks left by the aura blade he'd just used.

The Sword King's senses tingled. In the next second, his thunderous aura crackled as he blurred forward, appearing directly before Rune.

Rune smirked, looking into the ancient warrior's eyes.

Blub.

Rune wasn't there anymore.

He didn't blur forward. There was no crackle of crimson aura left in his wake. He was there one second, then simply wasn't. No Sera. No Lydia. No Rune.

Ilya and the Sword King looked at each other in shock. Then the ancient warrior turned back, understanding dawning.

"No..."

His wrinkled throat muffled his contracted voice. After all, it was the first time in centuries the Sword King had failed to deliver on a task from the bearer of the crown.

"Now this is how you pierce someone's heart, Yuejian."

Rune's voice came from behind Dominion. Blood Raven had been driven through from the front, appearing from the back. At the tip of the crimson blade was Dominion Saytan's heart still beating.

Lub-dub. Lub...

But no more.

Dominion slumped on the katana as the light vanished from his eyes.

The dawn sun turned crimson. Soon the bright golden light transformed into a crimson shade, enveloping the whole of Raven Spire like a bloody veil.

The earthen blocks hoisting Kael and Selka crumbled. The beam-like structures gave way to gravity.

Cassandra's aura flared as she appeared beneath the falling pillars. She caught both Kael and Selka before they hit the ground, lowering them slowly with trembling arms.

They were still breathing. Chests still rising and falling.

Cassandra exhaled with relief.

They took her hands and slowly erected their backs, trying to sit. Cassandra helped them carefully, supporting their weight.

"Who are you?"

The Sword King's voice had changed. No more fatherly tone. No more sorrow. It had transformed into the growl of a vengeful hound seeking retribution.

Rune, still holding both women in his embrace, simply said, "Just a person who came to retrieve his weapon but ended up killing a criminal because some old fool insisted we couldn't leave."

A vein bulged on the Sword King's temple.

"I see."

The pressure in the atmosphere dropped like a heavy stone. Ilya's knees buckled to the ground. Kael and Selka found it hard to breathe as the wave of thunderous blue aura washed over the frost surface, projecting itself toward Rune.

A crimson wave originated from Rune and clashed with the Sword King's aura.

BOOM.

Tremors shook the ground and everyone on it, shattering walls, cracking foundations.

Cassandra shielded Ilya and dragged her near the generals.

"What is happening...?" Ilya's voice shook with fear.

"I don't know..." Cassandra replied, though her eyes told otherwise. They held no confusion, as if she were intimately familiar with the crimson aura and crimson shade enveloping Raven Spire like a funeral shroud.

Yuejian stumbled backward, his feet skidding across the frost as the pulse wave pushed him back several meters. He knelt, clutching his chest as a mass of blood burst from his mouth, streaking his long beard with crimson.

He took a ragged breath as realization dawned.

'He broke the Sovereign's Curse.'

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