BXBX NOVEL Chapter 258 258 - What Happens With Those Who Stand By The Sidelines
"Sir Dominion!" Rushing inside the general's tent, a sweat-drenched messenger called out to him. "Sir Razor has relayed the emperor's current position!"
Having heard the news about Razor losing sight of the emperor as he ventured into the realm of souls, Dominion was more than interested to know where his brother had gone too after vanishing for so long. Raising his head from the strategic map on the table, he glanced at the messenger with sharp squinted eyes.
"Where?" Was all he said, yet a spark of terror washed over the young man.
Anxious, he corrected his posture and stood tall with his right hand pressed against his steel armor.
"I don't know sir, I was just told to inform you so you could join the other general back in the emperor's castle! " Being but a messenger, the soldier wasn't let on in the slightest hint about the emperor's whereabouts, however, the sounds of desperation in Razor's voice when he'd been given that message, relayed to him a dire threat. "He seemed upset, a-and threatened to kill me when I tried to ask about the emperor's location myself!"
"Well…" Moving around the table in front, Dominion walked up closer to the messenger and even rested his left hand on his shoulder. "He did the right thing. Know your place, you moron."
Patting his shoulder a few times, Dominion started walking towards the door, but the other soldiers whom he'd been planning the overtaking of Deus's territory with, couldn't simply let him go just all of a sudden.
"Sir Dominion, about the remaining demons? We still haven't encountered the demon lord of this territory if you leave rig-"
"We fight, not for land, remember?" Titling his head back, Dominion looked right into the soldier's eyes. His own eyes glowing a silver glow were enough indication for them all to back off and let him go without any other questions.
"Y-yes, sir!" Saluting him along with his companions, the soldier lowered his head in shame.
Scoffing at his useless men, Dominion turned his head back to the front and walked out through the tent's curtains.
***
"Where the fuck is he?!" Gathered up with an army of royal guards, Razor was far from being in a good mood. "Fucking piece of shit first disregarded my region of influence, and now he's taking jack load of time getting here?!"
Grinding his teeth in rage, he kept stomping his feet while waiting for the other generals to gather. Especially angry at Dominion for trying to storm his men to slay demons in his territory, Razor was beyond pissed at the demi-god general.
"Is everything ready?" Enshrouded in miasmic clouds, Nabe asked Razor as she descended down from the skies. "I can't get my men off the border so I'm really depending on you, Razor."
Being the only general whose's territory was free of a demon lord, and only had stray demons, Razor had gathered up all the royal guards in his army, so they could rush the demon lords allegedly gathered up at the newly constructed arena.
"I have enough," he replied, despite it not being true.
"Who are we fighting anyway?" Gracefully landing on the ground, Nabe turned to Razor to clear out her doubts.
'A devil, an elf, a demi-god who hates his brother, if I tell them the truth about what we're facing, at least one of them is bound to betray us and leave.' Holding the truth to himself, Razor uttered not a word in response.
"The usual, demons, what else?" Throwing out yet another lie, he'd hoped Nabe would stop asking him further questions, but the devil in her eyes was more perceptive than he thought.
"You can just say you don't want to answer you idiot," although she mumbled to herself, standing right beside him, Nabe made sure Razor could hear her.
"Fuck off," he replied, his head rising back up to the sounds of thunder rumbling through the skies. "Even Michael's here, what the fuck is taking that bastard so long?!"
Thundering down beside the army, Michael quickly moved closer to the two to figure out what was happening. However, before he uttered a word, a mercury portal opened between him and the other two. Walking out from the inside, Dominion had his blood sword riding on his shoulder and the entirety of his body drenched in demon blood.
"Where the hell have you been?!" Razor growled, completely disregarding the state he'd arrived in.
"What the fuck is that demon blood?" Nabe asked, pinching her nose closed.
Letting go of his sword, Dominion let it fall into a silver portal before pushing back his blood-wet hair. Slowly bringing his hands down, he washed off all the blood off of his face before peeking out from the edge of his palms at the trio of generals staring right at him.
"I doubt I could've kept my cool with the emperor after what happened last time," exhaling a deep sigh, he moved past them all and stood atop the small battalion of royal guards. "But now that I've taken out my anger on those demons, I think I'll be fine."
Snapping his fingers, he produced a droplet of mercury right above his hand. Pushing the floating bubble a bit further back, he stretched his finger slightly and the mercury stretched along with it. Spiraling into a mirror-like surface, it soon became a giant portal that could lead them wherever they wanted so far as Dominion had visited there before.
"Where to?" He asked, looking at Razor from the very edge of his eyes.
Right as he was about to reply, Michael placed his hand on Razor's chest to stop him from replying to the blood-bathed maniac.
"Now what's your problem? We have to-"
"You really believe that he's going to help the emperor in the state that he's in?" Looking down at Razor, Michael frowned deeply. "Don't be delusional."
Glancing over at Nabe, Michael gestured for her to come closer. Reluctant and confused, she moved towards him. Witnessing the strange interaction while his portal was ready to take the army to where it needed to be, Dominion felt more enraged at Michael than ever before. Moving towards him in rage, he turned the mercury in the portal into a sword and traveled it right into his palm.
"You fucking elf! How fuck-"
"True holy magic: Lightspeed!" Right as Dominion was about to swing it onto the elf, Michael activated a spell to teleport them all away.
Like thunder, they jolted up in the sky and traveled in the direction of the inner empire. With the army left behind, all they had was themselves, but even amongst them three, one was a sneaky imposter working for the enemy.
"I hate to admit it, but you were right about Dominion," Razor admitted before deciding to let the others in on the real situation with the emperor at the arena.
***
Waking up on a soft bed inside the dungeon, Moriyana looked around the room to find herself in the same shrine as Serena. Cluttered all around on makeshift beds were her close companions who'd been transferred into the dungeon at the last minute by Haruki.
"What in the world happened?" Closing her eyes shut, she tried to recover her repressed memories through her magic. Failing to recover anything of value, she opened them back up and pulled herself out of bed.
Moving inside the shrine, she quickly checked up on everyone's pulse and tried to heal their injuries to what little amount she could as an illusionist. Down on her knees while healing Asuka, she heard the door to the shrine open.
"Ballerina marionette," whispering to herself, she tried to summon the familiar from the otherworld, however, nothing manifested, not even the portal to place.
A bit alarmed she only relaxed her shoulder upon seeing Serena's followers marching in through the opened doors. For the brief moment, her eyes met one of them, she was given an assuring nod before they began to help her recover from all that had happened.
"Can you at least tell me what happened?" Moriyana asked the acolyte trying to help her back into the cushioned bed.
"I…We can't ma'am, please just rest," the reply she got was obviously unsatisfactory, but the strain on her aching body didn't allow her to push herself much further.
'Where the hell is he?' While her mind kept wondering what happened to Haruki and why he wasn't in the shrine, Moriyana felt herself drifting. Soon enough as her mind was consumed by slumber, she was instantly woken by the loud cry of her mother almost as if she was calling out to her.
"NO!" Yelling out loud, she propped herself straight from the dream. "I can't stay here! I need to go!"
Even though the acolytes tried to get her back to bed, Moriyana pushed them into a dream-like illusion where they could still see her laying on the bed. Getting around to everyone, she started waking them up and replacing them with illusions as well.
"What's happening?" Seeing how the acolytes were tending to empty beds, Asuka was shocked as well a slight bit creeped out by it.
"I'll tell you later, we need to get back to Haruki now!" Waking everyone up, Moriyana gathered them in a circle so she could attempt to pull them out of the dungeon. "I have only tried it against Mother's magic, if any of you lose a leg or arm, don't blame me."
Looking around at the determined faces, she went ahead and commenced their escape.