CHAPTER 34: END OF THE CAPITAL

The great eastern gate of the city finally appeared before them.

But what awaited them was a silent carnage. Bodies lay piled up before the exit. Several dead, others still breathing with difficulty and unconscious.

The smell of iron filled the air of the city.

At that moment, the oldest member of the Order suddenly fell from his horse. His back hit the ground with a dull thud. Coughing up blood, with blood flowing from his nose and ears.

Elyria and the others immediately stopped, wanting to help him, but he shouted right away.

"Keep going... Don’t stop. I... can’t..." He couldn’t finish the sentence, murmuring before collapsing.

Elyria gritted her teeth.

"Move forward! Don’t stop!"

They continued, but along the way, Kyrian and the others noticed something strange. Among the bodies of the civilians, there were many traitorous guards, those who had turned against Valor for some still unknown reason. They, too, were dead. Some are pale, desperate, trying to escape.

Elyria roared, advancing on one of them with her spear at his throat...

"What the hell are you doing here?!"

The guard raised his hands in extreme weakness, his eyes full of fear.

"We-we couldn’t get out... the gate is already open. We tried to leave like the others... but anyone who touches that... turns into blood! A pool of blood! There is no way out!"

Kyrian frowned. Since his arrival, he had already been looking at the gate blocked by the red substance that sealed the exit. It had emerged from the smoke, but now it seemed thick, like strange flesh.

His new eyes could penetrate it and see what others could not. The barrier pulsed, made of veins and condensed rivers of blood. He saw that anyone approaching would be drained in moments. Even...

’If I try... I’ll die too. I can think of how to cross it. But understanding isn’t enough. I would need strength, the particles. Those of which I don’t have enough.’

"There’s no way out..." Suddenly, a voice sounded from an alley beside them. Elyria and the others instantly armed themselves.

Kyrian also looked at them with red eyes.

In truth, they were the surviving invaders. Martial artists, like the Royal Order, were still able to move.

Elyria did not attack immediately, nor did anyone else seem willing to fight. If they did, they would only die even faster because of the dome.

"We were only here because of the moonflowers. A woman... she promised us power. A power we could not refuse. We didn’t know what she was planning..."

"She was stronger than all of us together. Maybe not weaker than..." The invader said, looking at Elyria.

"Continue...!"

"All right! Each country was assigned something different. My country was assigned to kill the youths who would participate in the tournament, we thought it would weaken the future kingdom. But, we had to take their bodies to specific places in the city."

"Where did the smoke appear?" Kyrian asked suddenly.

"Yes! She said she would help us end the kingdom of Valor at once, she would lead, while the flowers would be divided among our kingdoms."

Kyrian and the others listened attentively, but something caught Kyrian’s attention even more at that moment.

His eyes fixed on the sky.

...

Suddenly, the ground shook. From the lake at the core of the royal city, a fifth smoke began to rise. It was not thin like the others. It was thick and colossal, dyeing the entire sky red.

The others felt their breathing falter.

The veins of every person in the capital trembled as if they were about to burst. The blood of the dead ran faster, then moved to the living.

Moans echoed through every street, every corner of the capital.

The fifth point ignited.

Kyrian felt his veins tremble for a second before focusing on his body and his blood returning to normal. His eyes shone red for a moment.

Kyrian only saw everyone still standing around him falling. No one would be able to escape.

’It’s the end of the capital...’

***********************************

The cave beneath the capital was silent.

Only the dripping of blood onto the floor, falling at regular intervals, echoed like a slow and macabre drum.

In the center of the circle of ancient symbols, a frail-looking old man kept his hand pressed against the chest of the royal counselor.

His eyes, with a cold and distant gleam, stared at the woman, who struggled in vain.

She coughed up blood, looking at him, incredulous. But mostly, in pain.

"W-Wei Feng... Why?" Her voice was weak, almost a whisper.

The old man did not answer immediately. He moved his hand slowly, removing it from her chest. Blood ran, staining the already bloodied stone floor.

He let her fall as if she were an empty sack, a useless weight.

Wei Feng sighed. His expression was still calm and cold, as if he had only performed a necessary task.

"In the end, you are still just a mortal..." The old man said calmly.

"An ant slightly better than the others. Useful, efficient, for a moment, but nothing beyond that."

The royal counselor opened her mouth, trying to speak, but the blood stifled her last words.

"You could never be like me. Much less cultivate. Your work was perfect up to this point... I must acknowledge. But what you desire is too high to even dream of."

"At least, I gave you a peaceful death."

He then approached her ear with one last poisonous whisper.

"Go rest in hell. Join your family... they will be there soon as well."

The counselor’s eyes widened, but she did not have enough time to even feel the horror. Her life was extinguished in one last breath.

The moment she died, her frail body seemed to shrivel, like a candle blown out by the wind. The illusion of youth disappeared, and before Wei Feng lay only an elderly woman, white hair and wrinkled skin, fallen lifeless on the ground.

Wei Feng smiled. A cynical, satisfied smile.

"At least you died without anyone knowing of your betrayal. You can be happy with that."

He slowly wiped his bloodied hand on his already stained robe and turned slowly to the center of the cave.

The crystal that once rested on his old staff was now in his hand. However, it no longer shone as before. It was completely cracked, deep fissures running like roots across the entire surface.

Wei Feng lifted it.

Observing it in the torchlight.

"In two more hours... Two more hours and I will have regained enough strength to no longer be on the brink of death."

He sat again in the circle embedded in the floor. The symbols around pulsed red, fed by the blood that dripped endlessly from the ceiling of the cave and fell onto the grooves of the formation.

Wei Feng closed his eyes as he breathed slowly, absorbing the metallic smell that permeated the air.

"When I turn the moon-flowers into blood-flowers..."

"I will be able to rejuvenate even more." His fingers squeezed the crystal, which groaned under the pressure until it broke into particles that filled the formation beneath him.

"Then I will finally recover part of my cultivation... enough to find my way back to the continent."

A hoarse laugh escaped his lips, echoing through the cave.