CHAPTER 27: ALICE’S ABYSS III

(A/N Please don’t hesitate to comment or drop a review. ENJOY)

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BOOM!!!

The huge bone construct moved untethered and tore through the air as though phasing through air resistance. The Marquis looked at the Ice with ruthlessness; he knew someone was inside, and he didn’t care enough to know who, the body would tell.

Just as the bone was a few inches from the ice, he heard a clap; the clap sounded so distinct it seemed comical to notice something like that in such a situation, yet he noticed something else that brought horror to his face.

His own son and heir was now in the direct path of the bone, a single thought passed through his mind, ’A Deviant!’. He poured all his will into stopping his construct; he couldn’t break it apart in such a short time scope. His best bet was to slow it down and leave his son to escape.

Unfortunately, his son showed no sign of moving. Fear bloomed in his heart. ’Move, move, move.’ Something was wrong; his son hadn’t made any movement since the kiss, and he didn’t sense any response from him towards the intruder.

Marcus was a Low Rank Ascendant; his reaction time was enough to sense this movement and dodge, yet he showed no signs of movement, completely still. All these happened in a matter of milliseconds as the Marquis struggled to save his heir.

BOOM!!

The bone collided, causing a massive shockwave to ripple out, destroying all that was in its path. The ground under them shuddered due to the force of the impact; it seemed that even weakened, the attack carried enough power to level a small mountain.

The marquis waved a single hand, and the dust was cleared. A pit had formed at the point of impact, with the ground caving in. He rushed to see what remained of his son.

He was dead, he and his wife pierced through completely with no signs of life, both still embracing and locked together by their kiss.

"Dead, dead, dead, my boy is dead..." The Marquis muttered under his breath as though trying to deny reality, his heir was dead on his wedding day.

He deconstructed the bone and ran to his son, holding his head as if trying to bring him back to life. Tears ran down from his eyes, his grief laid bare for all to see.

"First my wife and now my son..." He muttered, still sobbing, his mind was a mess, so many things about this situation were weird, how they infiltrated, how they got in without his detection, what they did to his son, yet none of those changed the fact that his son was suddenly dead.

He felt so much grief and pain, but the more he thought about it, the more his grief turned to anger. He was angry, he was so angry, the rage bubbled on his tear-stricken face.

"You dare!!!! My son is dead!!!" He shouted.

The mana around him reacted as though becoming attuned and sharing in his rage; the pressure bubbled over, the sheer effect causing the ground and trees to shudder, the atmosphere saturated with pure killing intent. He would destroy them, he would destroy them all.

His senses alerted him to the absence of the guests and his daughter, most likely a work of the instigators; it didn’t matter, he’d draw the answers from their dying breaths.

He turned towards them, three of them. One crouched down at the top of the ice, his palms together. ’The deviant,’ he thought, he was the one who clapped. He had black hair and pure red condescending eyes.

Another was in the air, arms folded, looking at him with the focus of a predator, wary but steady. Green hair and eyes like those of a plant.

And the last, a female, pure white hair and blue eyes like his, yet their countenance couldn’t be more different; she radiated pure frost, cold seeping around her like a mantle. ’Tundra,’ he thought, identifying her family immediately, another Marquis family like his.

His mana sense warned him, there was a barrier; he could tell he wouldn’t be able to break through it easily, and it came to him, their expressions, the barrier. They didn’t just come to deal damage; they came for eradication.

The Ivory family was the current smallest of all the Marquis families in terms of members, but still, there were many; he couldn’t sense any of his members, and he was isolated. These rogues came to wipe his family off; other members might survive, but the death of their patriarch would be a heavy blow, leaving the rest of his family in shambles.

He sensed their ranks, Low Ascendant, all of them just as his son had been. He himself was at its peak, soon to cross, yet their difference was worlds apart.

He soon started laughing, a cold, unhinged laughter. He would destroy them.

"You wish to hunt me and get rid of my family, children that have yet to see the magnitude of power, your newly awakened concept blinds you to our difference," He said, stretching his hands out.

"Come, I shall open your eyes before showing you true despair." He said with a chilling gaze.

Mana exploded off him in a heartbeat, the pressure coiling around the instigators like a bind, the killing intent suffocating them as though drawing life directly from their blood. They shuddered and stumbled in the face of such bloodlust.

Before they could even adapt to their newfound environment, they saw it, pure white, except it signified anything but pure; three bones of immense magnitude jutted out of the ground, all sharp, strong, and deadly, and they all had one target, their heads. Then they heard a clap.

In the span of one second, the attack met its designated mark, yet all three were gone. They each appeared at different positions, escaping sudden death. The white haired woman was about to take a deep breath when she saw him in front of her, her expression changing to horror with one single thought on her mind, ’Fast!!’.

The marquis’ face held no expression, just stone-cold intensity. A bone jutted out of his palm; his skin opening up to allow passage, he performed no extraordinary movement, he simply went straight for the head with a single horizontal strike, the bone sharpening automatically on its way to its destination.

Simultaneously, numerous bones converged on the remaining two, giving them no respite or means of interference, all these happening under a second.

The white-haired lady bent her head back at an almost impossible angle, allowing the bone to pass over her; the sound of it tearing through the hair was enough to explain the lethality of such a strike.

The Marquis, seeing that his attack missed, simply let the bone out of his palm, grabbed it, and brought it down in another devastating arc. He stamped his foot on the ground, causing another bone to appear directly under her, intent on tearing through her.

Her dodge gave her enough time to recalibrate. She could feel the magnitude of the attack bearing down on her, the pressure immense, and she quickly willed her mana and muttered "Bloom".

Frost exploded off her body from her awkward position, propelling her away from her demise. She landed weirdly, but she knew it wasn’t over. He was coming, she turned towards her former position, with her muscles and mana coiling to launch her towards her allies. She wanted to see the effect of her attack on the man.

Empty, he wasn’t there, before her brain could process his absence, something else interrupted, PAIN, white hot pain flooded her nerves, somewhere was being cut, she couldn’t even tell where, all she knew was she needed to run.

The intended movement never came; she finally realized where she had been cut, she couldn’t feel her legs, they were gone. She didn’t even have time to process the loss when another source of pain came.

This time, she knew where, her neck, the importance of the location was enough to alarm all her senses, she tried to will her mana, but it wasn’t fast enough, her brain searched for contingencies, ways to stop her imminent death, within that short period of time, yet nothing came up.

’I’m going to die,’ She thought in horror. They had underestimated the man; his strength was beyond what they were prepared for. After all the planning and preparations, she was going to die without even showing her full strength. She closed her eyes in acceptance when she heard it.

CLAP!

She knew that sound and its effect; she was saved. She landed with a thud on the ground, opening her eyes to find her companions beside her, sweating and panting in exertion.

"Status Aria?" The black-haired boy called while panting, still staring at their front.

"Immobilised. Randy, my legs now!" She replied while calling out her green-haired companion. The boy quickly pointed in her direction, where her legs started glowing green while regenerating swiftly.

The pain was unbearable, her head hurt from over-exertion, so many things had occurred under the span of two seconds that her brain was recoiling from over-processing.

She quickly got up, standing beside them.

"We had false information, Mark, he’s far stronger than what we bargained for," She told her black-haired companion while touching her bloodied neck.

"I can see that," He replied with a grimace, never taking his eyes off their opponent, who had been staring at them for a while.

"I can smell the fear from over here. Is this all you three are worth? If so, it’s pathetic." The marquis said with eyes that screamed disgust.

"I have opened your eyes. Now face despair"