Chapter 138

Chapter 138

Despite bursting at the seams with fury, Cassis retained enough reason to lure Deon toward a clearing in the forest where they wouldn’t risk endangering innocent bystanders.

While fending off the Blue Heir’s attacks, the Agrece felt compelled to follow along since he didn’t very much like the idea of being discovered in an area surrounded by Blue knights. As soon as the two were away from the campsite, the Pedelians came out of their tents.

They had actually split into two groups after leaving the Blue fortress. While one unit guarded Roussel and Jeanne, their son led the second unit responsible for guarding the Vertium captive. Just as their young leader had ordered, the warriors braced for a possible second ambush in the event that his current opponent was not the only fight they would see that night. They had also made sure to send word to the Blue Master’s group of the attack.

“Ugh... Aaah!”

“Hey, wake up!”

When the guards finally returned to the puppet, they unbound him slightly to check on his condition. Only then did he finally gasp for breath and clawed at his chest with his one free hand. Try as they might, they could not coax him out of his makeshift refuge. The look in his blue eye suggested he had been stunned out of his mind.

The feeling that he was being strangled only seemed to be getting worse as well. No matter how many knights shouted at him to come forward, Nix was so petrified that he couldn’t even respond. From the moment that man draped in black had entered his carriage, he felt as if he had become the prey of an expert hunter, which practically rooted him in place awaiting the killing blow.

And while under the weight of that eerie red gaze, he had hardly managed to tremble. He was far from the same Nix who would have normally chewed out anyone who dared to intrude on his personal space. Thus, he felt even more frightened and confounded by the stranger’s effect on him.

“...ix! Nix!”

In his mind, he remained the unlucky pebble sinking deep into a grim abyss, but then he heard someone calling him back to the surface. A wave of refreshing energy poured through his skin and into the furthest inches of his body.

The dark, heavy cloud that had been hanging over his heart slowly began to lift. Before too long, it was replaced by an incredibly soft and warm sensation. His eye had been reeling in circles, but finally began to settle down. The tension also seemed to melt out of his contorted, quivering muscles with every passing moment.

“It’s okay. I’m here now.”

Hearing the quiet, steady voice allowed Nix to finally open his eye. The blue sphere appeared to be drowning in clear liquid underneath his long, gold eyelashes. Once his lone eye had finally steadied enough to gaze upon the figure before him, he found Sylvia Pedelian staring back at him. The Blue princess who had failed to come see him in the dungeons again had instead come to his mobile prison.

Although the resemblance she bore to her brother was upsetting, her golden eyes emitted an entirely different temperature and feeling when she looked upon him. It was then that he noticed she was holding his arm; he then wondered how he hadn’t felt an immediate repulsion to having a human touch him for the first time since he had come to life.

Not only that, her warmth didn’t feel at all strange. The fog of fear he had been lost in slowly dissipated until everything else was in clear view again as well.

“That’s it. Deep breaths. There you go... There’s no one here but me now, okay?”

Sylvia continued to soothe the blond youth as he gulped down breath after breath of air. There were, in fact, a number of Blue knights surrounding them, but they weren’t visible from Nix’s position. Once he had finally returned to a normal breathing pattern, she sighed lightly with relief.

“Better now?”

Since her brother was away, she knew that anything that might jeopardize the integrity of the puppet could lead to unforeseen trouble. Besides that, she genuinely felt sorry for the boy when she saw him crumpled in over himself with a face so pale she would have supposed he had seen a ghost.

“Nix... can you tell me what happened? Did you see something?”

Sylvia crept a bit closer to him as she spoke. While she was well aware of his ties to Vertium, the man who had disappeared into the night with Cassis did not appear to be a member of the Gold clan. She needed to know what was going on if she intended to be of any help to anyone.

“That man...”

Nix’s voice finally came out in a cracked whisper as he recalled the figure that had come to him only moments before. He was certain that he had never encountered such a man in Vertium or anywhere else since he had been reanimated, yet somehow he could tell what the man had done in the past from the very moment their eyes met. It was as if that knowledge had been imprinted onto the very fibers of his being.

His lips trembled silently as he struggled to formulate the words. Then, in the softest whisper, he answered her.

“That man... is the one who killed me.”

* * *

Clang!

Clink!

The clash of metal pierced through the otherwise quiet night.

A piece of fabric was sliced away and fell among the reeds sticking up from the ground at their feet. Then another slash lopped off a lock of hair and sent the strands drifting away with the breeze. Unbridled animosity and violence were engaged in a moonlit dance in that open field.

Cassis and Deon attacked each other as if the other’s death was the only goal they had been given in life. It was a fight that had been three years in the making. Since the Pedelian had been a hostage at the time, his movements had been inhibited by the enchanted shackles. But in truth, the Blue Heir at 17 would have struggled to defeat Deon. However, in his current form, the two were nearly equal in strength and power.

Deon swiveled, just barely dodging a downward slash from his opponent. Although three years was a considerable amount of time, the fact that the younger man had become so formidable was beyond anything the Agrece could have imagined.

What he found even more troubling was that he could sense Cassis had yet to utilize his full strength. As much as he hated the thought, it was beginning to feel like his and the Blue Heir’s roles from their last duel were reversed.

This unpleasant realization caused his crimson eyes to flicker with fiery rage. He drove his sword with as much force as he could summon toward the Pedelian’s heart, but the younger man deflected the thrust easily and countered by taking a slash at Deon’s open hand.

The Agrece felt an odd, invisible force penetrate his organs, but then remain still as if awaiting the best time to start wreaking havoc. He began to groan through clenched teeth before realizing that his voice was issuing from his lips.

He instinctively leapt backward to create some distance between himself and his enemy, then placed a hand over his heart to check if the continued indescribable pain he kept feeling was due to a fatal blow. But to his shock, there was no sign of an external injury of any kind. The pain seemed to be intensifying with his every breath, but he had yet to shed so much as a drop of blood during their clash.

“What... did you just do?” He finally acquiesced to inquire in his icy, husky voice.

“You really don’t listen, do you? I already told you that you have no right to ask any questions here.” Cassis’ tone remained cool and unfeeling.

As annoyed as was, Deon tried to regain his own sarcastic tone before saying another word. “Fine... You wanted to know why I was looking for Roxana, right?” He smiled crookedly as he noticed the Blue Heir’s curiosity pique. “What if I were to tell you?”

He could see that he had succeeded in goading the Pedelian into considering his bargain and that his low, raspy voice had grated against his opponent’s ears like hot desert sand.

“Depending on what you say next, I can see to it that you never show your face in front of her again.”

The confidence with which the Pedelian spoke made Deon burn with such immense rage, he was certain he would murder the Blue Heir that very night.

How dare he? Just who does he think he is to Roxana?

In truth, the very sight of the younger man had always filled him with irrepressible ire and indignation for as long as he could remember. It seemed that ever since Roxana had linked herself to him three years ago hatred would follow him to the grave.

He still recalled how badly he had wished to annihilate the scrawny youth when Roxana first protected him at the Black mansion. Then later when the Pedelian had suddenly come between him and his sister in Yggdrasil that past winter, he would have beheaded him then and there if he hadn’t already been busy with the coup.

That thought only reminded him that in the end, Cassis had been the one to actually execute Lante, which only doubled his rage all over again. For as long as he could recall, Deon had determined that if anyone were to kill his father, it should be him and him alone.

Lante Agrece had been the ultimate sacrifice he could offer to Roxana, yet a moment of carelessness had robbed him of his only goal in life.

Recollecting the indignation he had suffered in the final stages of the Agrece coup and how the Pedelian had even chided him when Lante had dealt his neck that lethal slash, Deon acknowledged that his impulsive move to snap the neck of that useless steward in the Gold manor was his misguided way of letting off steam. The only neck he truly wished to snap was Cassis’ neck.

With his strength and fury reignited, he rose to launch another forceful attack. I’ve had enough of this idle chitchat.

Clang!

Their fight seemed to double in intensity, but with every strike and retreat Deon attempted, the further the cool force seemed to travel into his heart. He still wasn’t sure what the energy from the invisible blow Cassis had dealt in him would do, but he was determined to end their battle before he would have to find out.

The Pedelian also had no desire to prolong their fight either. The cold reflection of the moonlight in their eyes appeared especially ominous as it seemed the final blow was approaching.

“Nooo!”

Without warning, an odd shriek rang out across the open field. A lace parasol that was absurdly out of place in the grim setting appeared just as suddenly followed by the flutter of an elaborate gown dashing beneath it.

Cassis paused just as his hand was within range to rip out of Deon’s vital organs. At the same time, Deon held his sword in place just as it was en route to slash at Cassis’ midriff. Whoever had interrupted the Pedelian’s attack had dashed between them and yanked Deon away by his arm while making their escape.

Normally, the Agrece would have pulled his arm free with ease, but at that moment, he was experiencing such excruciating pain shooting through his heart that he simply allowed himself to be spirited away. As he left the battle, his body temperature cooled considerably, which caused the hand on his bare arm to tighten even more like a vice. Having regained some objective reason through his abrupt capture, he resigned to believing that it had indeed been the best time to retreat.

After all, he would have plenty of other opportunities to take aim at Cassis Pedelian. The murderous rage still burned within him, and a part of him was particularly irritated at having to consider whether he may have actually been at a disadvantage during the fight.

But regardless of his sentiments, there was no doubt in his mind that without retreating he may not have been afforded the luxury of being upset at present. Just as the Blue Heir had managed to do three years prior, it was now Deon’s turn to disappear into the cloak of night in order to bide time and plot his revenge.

Meanwhile, his opponent did not make any attempt to pursue the two and simply watched them with a piercing glare from afar.