BXBX NOVEL Chapter 259 259 - Juliet By Proxy
By the time the war generals flew into the Colosseum's arena, Haruki was holding a sword of light dripping with blood. Right under his gaze laid the ashes of his master slowly being swept away by the air. As her ashes were swept away, he raised his dejected head to look at Atlas standing beside him, however, having broken the covenant between him and Asmodia, his heart ceased up in the cold clasp of a creature unknown even to the gods.
"Ughh!" With gritted teeth, he was brought down to his knees, and before long the claws around his heart began tearing into him.
Flailing around on the ground, Haruki was being internally drowned in his own blood and no matter how much he tried, he couldn't stop the hurt or use any of his ability to heal his body. Slowly as his heart gave in, he laid almost lifeless against the ground with blood dripping out through his lips.
In his suffering, he'd failed to recognize the presence of his companions who'd arrived right after the generals. Held in place by Atlas's words, the group led by Moriyana stood quietly at the very end of the arena. Their eyes tearing up, they were wallowing up in sorrow and rage, yet with the emperor's words kept them stuck in place.
"Let go of him! You fucking freak!" Asuka yelled out loud, her eyes bloodshot.
"Shut up," her curses forced the emperor to get them all to cover up their mouths.
Forced to watch without a peep, Moriyana glanced through the handful of people gathered around. And although her heart was crushed by grief, she knew better than to stick around only for them to become Atlas's next target.
'I'm sorry!' Shutting her eyes closed, she let her tears flow down her cheeks. 'We need to go…'
Summoning a pair of vines under everyone's feet, she managed to create a flow of mana from her to the others. Opening her eyes back, she was met with surprised gazes from her companions looking right at her. The shock in their eyes was a clear sign of their disapproval, and yet the illusionist stowed them to safety. With a beam of light emitting from her body, Moriyana encompassed them all and disappeared back into the dungeon while the emperor and his generals were too busy looking at Haruki.
"They left," Razor mumbled, his eyes frowning in frustration.
"So?" Turning his head towards Razor, he further added to his question. "Those who needed to die today have died. If we kill everyone we deem a threat, I'd be ruling over a pile of ashes…Even then, if you wish to hunt down some strays who have no master anymore, you're free to go and swat some flies."
Turning his attention back to Haruki lying lifeless on the ground, Atlas kicked him lightly on his legs to check for any signs of life. Getting no response whatsoever, he knew it would take Haruki longer than Michael to recover since this was his first time being revived by the emperor's curse.
"Bring him to the castle," Atlas commanded before peering up into the sky.
Tearing through the clouds once more, the bloody hand of Melicia descended down to the ground beside him. Walking up to her palm, Atlas glanced through his generals. Noticing only three of them present and the nervous jitter in Nabe's body, he became suspicious of both Dominion and her.
"Gospel: Nabe, is something wrong?" Asked Atlas, standing on top of the blood pool in Melicia's hand.
"Y-yes!" Compelled by the gospel word, Nabe couldn't lie her way out of the situation.
Realizing what she'd just done, she covered up her mouth, driving even more suspicion in her direction. The other two generals turned to look at her as well. Confused as to what she was referring to, the men had their eyebrows frowned.
"We'll talk about this in the castle, and bring Dominion with you when we meet next time," still not up to speed with what happened with Dominion and his other general, Atlas wanted to talk to them at the same time as he discussed his future plans.
Pushing matters off for later, he rode off Melicia's hand and disappeared into the sky. Left behind by their master, Razor as well as the others walked over to Haruki's body. With Asmodia's ashes now all gone, they only had Haruki to take care of.
"Did he curse him too?" Razor asked, unsure why the emperor would do something like that.
"He said he wanted him alive before, remember?" Clearing out the doubts, Michael knelt down and picked Haruki's lifeless body on his shoulders. "Besides, he's not too fond of death is he?"
"What about Asmodia then?" Razor shot back.
For a moment, Michael simply stood there in silence looking at Razor as if he was shocked that he even asked such a question. Pulling himself off of the daze, however, he began walking towards Nabe.
"He killed her for the same reason you'd kill me if the emperor allowed it," placing his hand on Nabe's jittery shoulders, Michael gestured Razor to come closer so he took them all back. "She was different from what he wanted her to be, and a hurdle towards achieving his goals."
Shrugging off the subtle insults, Razor rolled his eyes before moving closer to the two.
"Just be grateful you people are still alive," hurling out that insult, he grabbed Nabe's shoulder even though he was repulsed by her too.
Being the mature kind, Michael took them flying back through the skies without further escalating the matter.
***
Back inside the dungeon, Moriyana knew she would be assaulted with angry howls and complaints, and so the moment they dropped back into the shrine, she began marching towards the door and headed right out.
'Servant Title: Removed!' All of a sudden, the announcement rang in everyone's heads. The inclinations of thoughts after the announcement were dire, and none of them knew how to process it.
"There's no way," Mumbled Asuka, still looking in the direction Moriyana had stormed off to.
"Moriyana would've seen it if it was an illusion," although reluctant to accept reality herself, Riley pointed out.
Margarette, Fay, and even Athena and Alice turned to her with a scornful gaze. None of them wanted to accept what they'd seen and were in a deep state of denial as their minds had yet to process everything that's happened.
"I'll believe it when Haruki himself tells me he's dead!" Pissed out of her mind, Fay had no control over what she was saying. "I'll find a way to contact his spirit if I have to, if he's dead then there must be a way to contact his spirit, right?!"
"If he got killed by the emperor, do you really think he won't make sure that nobody can revive him?" Athena asked, just as frustrated as the others.
"Unless you have a better plan, shut the fuck up!" Flipping around, Fay moved as close to Athena as she could and pressed her index right onto her chest. "And don't you dare praise that monster in front of me!"
Pushing Fay off, Athena growled at her. Standing beside her, Alice joined in as well. For whatever reason, the bond they all felt towards each other for being Haruki's servants had now been broken, and with it, their feeling had gotten impulsively aggressive.
"Both of you shut up," trying to de-escalate the situation, Margarette moved in between the two. "If we start fighting now and divide ourselves so easily, they'll hunt us down before any of us has a chance to retaliate."
Having lost plenty of her own family in the past, along with the Duke of Daira, Riley's father, Margarette had a better grip on her emotions than the rest of the group. Glaring at the two until both of them stepped off, Margarette reminded them of something that they definitely needed to hear.
"You're free to live your life however you want, Haruki's last orders," drawing a deep breath, she looked over at Asuka who was still frozen in shock. "If you want to leave the group, you can, but we're not going to fight each other."
'Asuka, she was an orphan wasn't she?' Moving away from the two, Margarette made her way to the fox-tailed maid. 'The only people she knew to be family were Snow Frost and Haruki, but I don't think she'll be as okay with Haruki's death as she was for Snow's.'
"Asuka?" Wrapping her in a hug from behind, Margarette tried to comfort her a little. "We're gonna find a way to get him back, this isn't the first time he has betrayed his mortality, remember?"
"O-okay…" Burying her head onto Margarette's arms, Asuka began to sniffle as tears began strolling down her cheeks.
"I'll go inform the others, and see if the monsters want to help us anymore or not," drowning her own emotional outburst, Riley swept out of the shrine so nobody could see her cry.
As their emotions continued to bloom, their determination to bring Haruki back got stronger and stronger. And as if that wasn't already an impossible prospect, they were all ready to march against the emperor as soon as Haruki was back.