Chapter 88: The End of the Betrayer

The flail was so heavy that even Lucien, who was already stronger than common people, was having a hard time lifting it over and over again. Powerful as it was, the flail soon tore the bodies into pieces and the flame and acid quickly destroyed the body parts completely.

Lucien was now feeling a bit concerned because during the fight he had absolutely no idea how dangerous this weapon was. If he really got hit by this flail without his Moonlight Armor, he would be seriously injured.

Within only thirty seconds, the bodies turned into a small puddle of unknown green liquid and some ashes floating in the air.

Lucien kicked over the water bucket in the corner and quickly cleaned up the mess on the floor. As for the floating ashes, he summoned a gust of wind by heating up some of the air inside that room and cooling down the air outside of it, to blow the ashes away to the aisle.

Then, with great caution, Lucien carried Joel and Alisa back to the cell with Iven, who were still unconscious from the oscillation spell. Although Lucien was very excited to see Joel, Alisa and Iven again, he could not leave with them right now, or he would definitely be suspected by the Church. After all, in people's eyes, he was no more than a physically weak musician.

After all the work, he pulled out a tube of Brown Owl and drank it, as his natural recovery was slower underground due to the lack of moonlight.

A moment later, Lucien was rushing through the most remote pathway to leave the underground palace, carrying the flail with him. The pathway was very far from the palace and the other core places in the complex, therefore, it should be relatively safe. However, the weird thing was that Lucien did not see any heretics on his way.

...

Down on their knees, these ordinary heretics in the stone room sounded rather panicked, "Lord Jerome, what shall we do right now! We...!"

Before they could finish their words, their faces suddenly twisted with great pain. Pieces of black cloud came out of their bodies and instantly took their souls away.

As the masses of black cloud were absorbed into Jerome's body, he shrugged a bit, "Well... what you guys should do is to die."

It would be impossible for those ordinary heretics to escape from the Church, so they must die, or more information about Argent Horn would be revealed.

...

Lucien was getting close to his destination. He could see dim rays of moonlight cast from the outside of the cave. Suddenly, he stopped running and hid himself in a dark corner because he sensed the strong smell of blood.

There were several dead bodies scattered on the ground on the way out of the complex. According to their special robes, Lucien could tell they were the heretics from Argent Horn.

Realizing that the heretics were killing their ordinary followers, Lucien decided to wait there a bit more, just in case.

Someone was screaming with great fear in the darkness. As the squeal was getting closer and closer, Lucien clenched his fists.

Suddenly, the squeal stopped. The person was killed.

"This should be the last one," sounded a cold voice. "Ilia asked us to leave as soon as possible after cleaning up."

"I don't see Janson..." the other young but hoarse voice answered.

"We're not gonna wait for the savage. We can't," urged the cold voice.

"All right... We leave now," agreed the second person.

Then Lucien heard their steps leaving the cave.

Taking a deep breath, Lucien made his body partially translucent into the moonlight and rushed to the exit. Under the cover of the silver moon, he successfully jumped into a bush.

Breathing the air mixed with the smell of dirt, Lucien released a long sigh of relief.

It was very quiet around him. For a moment, he felt that what happened in the underground palace was almost like a dream. However, the many scattered dead bodies of the heretics around the bush were reminding him how cruel the night was.

Looking up at the moon and the few stars in the sky, Lucien roughly figured out his current location and started to run toward Massol River, to get back to Family Hayne's manor.

...

The heavy flail was quite cumbersome, but luckily the silver moon was out tonight, and Lucien's speed and strength were both improved in the moonlight.

Several minutes later, he approached the wood cabin with great caution. Almost everything was destroyed in this area from the many powerful divine and fiend spells.

Dead bodies were everywhere, and many of them were burned beyond recognition.

Among the bodies, Lucien saw one wearing a sorcerer robe, which draw his attention the most.

So Lucien flipped the body over, and he saw the young man's face. The great fear the man experienced before he died was still there.

"Fire Wolf..." Lucien murmured the name.

An idea came to Lucien's mind.

Using Mage Hand, Lucien left a line of words on Fire Wolf's body with his half-clotted blood.

"THE END OF THE BETRAYER. PROFESSOR."