CHAPTER 360: A WITCH AND DEMON-II

Alice’s muscles twitched violently. With a jerking motion, she dragged her fingertips across her bloodied forehead and held them before her face. Crimson dripped in long threads between her fingers, and as her vision clouded red, her expression contorted into pure, feral rage.

She leapt to her feet in a blur. Wordless, like a beast gone rabid, she summoned a storm of icicles from the ceiling, each spear plunging down toward Cassius with lightning speed.

But Cassius was faster. His body tilted back just enough, his hand sweeping upward. With a brutal swat, he shattered the descending shards, the fragments shooting like darts into the walls, piercing stone and wood alike.

Alice was already in front of him before the splinters stopped vibrating in the air. Her speed was monstrous. But Cassius, as if he had read her intent, did not recoil. His hand darted forward, fingers angled toward the pale curve of her throat, only for a flash of gold to coil against his wrist.

The serpent. The golden snake carved into Alice’s dagger writhed to life, its jaws unhinging to sink needlelike fangs deep into his veins.

Cassius’s eyes flared crimson. With one violent tug, he ripped the weapon clean from Alice’s grasp, his force so overwhelming that her entire body was dragged with it. She crashed into the far wall, the impact cracking the stone and drawing a hoarse, pained gasp from her lungs.

Cassius lowered his gaze to his wrist. Already the veins there had blackened to a deep purple, crawling like roots toward his elbow. A venom that writhed as though alive.

He did not hesitate. With a single ruthless motion, he tore through his own flesh, splitting his arm open to the bone. Blood spilled hot and fast, splattering across the floor. From the wound, the poison wriggled, a writhing, tar like parasite desperate to climb deeper into him.

But Cassius’s hand seized it mid creep, crushing it in his fist as his blood continued to pour. His expression was cold, merciless, as if mutilating his own body was nothing more than swatting an insect.

"That won’t be enough to get rid of the poison," Alice’s voice rang beside him and his eyes moved to the right side quickly, noticing her presence at once which without using his own head, he had pushed his elbow toward her face which she dodged by crawling down into the ground.

"It’s odd isn’t it," sang Alice as she leapt backward, "You have the power of a demon but you haven’t been using it at all. Is it because you find it too difficult to control?"

"Hardly," Cassius didn’t smile, "I just don’t think that the power is needed to kill you."

"Hah," Alice pointed her finger, "That poison will spread to your heart in less than ten minute so let us see whether the poison will reach your heart first or you will kill me?"

Cassius didn’t speak as he knew Alice would move and she did. The next second she had marched forward again, slashing her hand forward like knife, trying to half Cassius’s head or slit his neck.

But witches’s fighting capability couldn’t be compared to Cassius who had spent his entire life in the battlefield. With ease could he push back the witch to the corner only if not for how his arms had suddenly stopped moving as fast as before... yes.

Alice cackled, knowing well what was about to happen.

The snake on her dagger had the ability of biting down a poison that would never have an antidote. The only way for the poison to stop taking effect is for the owner of the dagger to die and the owner was her.

Though Cassius was strong- oddly so strong for a mere pureblood- she was confident that with her constant physical attack and magic, getting rid of him was easy.

Sure enough, she was correct.

Cassius was slowing down.

With each second, his body turn sluggish and her icicles that had floated beside his ears could tear apart the flesh of his cheeks, causing blood to drop.

After that one attack that had gone through, more attack follows and more vicious than before.

Another icicle had stabbed Cassius by his shoulders, carving a deep hole that tore through his tendons. The rest of the icicles stabbed through his chest, his neck, and his thighs, forcing him to kneel in front of Alice.

As if that wasn’t enough, Cassius had began to cough out blood that had turned black from the poison.

Coming closer to him, Alice smiled as she studied how the poison had reached deep to his chest as his torn shirt had shown the mark of the poison almost fully turning his entire torso purple.

Cassius’s head lolled forward, strands of dark hair sticking to his bloodied face. His breaths were ragged, each one sounding more like a death rattle than the next.

The poison had crawled mercilessly through him, turning his once unyielding body into a grotesque kneel before the witch.

Alice tilted her head, her grin stretching wider, her eyes glinting with manic satisfaction. Nothing could bring her more joy than bringing those who she considered more powerful than her buckle right in front of her eyes.

"Look at you now, Crown Prince," she whispered, crouching to his level. Her fingers hovered just over his jaw, not daring to touch, but close enough to taunt. "The terror of nations, the one terrifying even Morpheus now... kneeling before me like a dog."

Cassius didn’t laugh and his expression that was bleak seemed like the last bite of a dog that was about to kick the can.

More black blood dripped from his lips, staining his chin when he slowly raised his eyes to her, "You think... this is enough to kill me?" His voice was strained, yet every word curled with venom. "Foolish witch."

Alice’s smirk faltered just slightly, enough for Cassius to notice. His lips curved, mocking. He coughed, spat a clot of black blood onto the floor between them, and with a sudden lunge of impossible will, grabbed her wrist.

Despite the poison tearing through him, his grip was iron. His nails dug into her skin, and she felt the searing heat of his blood, unnaturally... in a way that even monsters would shiver seeing it, as though his very body was rejecting death itself.

Alice tried to yank free, but his strength was monstrous. Panic flashed in her eyes for the first time. "You shouldn’t... be able to move—!"

Cassius leaned closer, his voice a guttural rasp against her ear, "I don’t... need an antidote. I’ll kill you before it takes me."