“Get a grip, Adrian!” Kristy’s voice came out sharp and authoritative as she reprimanded him.

  “You will have time to mourn your broken heart another day. We have a case of treason on our hands. Tulios probably knew I would follow you there, too, so he clearly was plotting against my life as well.”

  “Fuck…” Adrian let out a deep and heavy sigh, “Yes, you’re right. Thank you, Kristy. And thank you, stranger, whatever the name of your mask may be.”

  “Goblin Raiser, sir, at your disposal. For now, at least, haha,” Sokram saluted them politely but never bowed, but that behavior didn’t raise any eyebrows.

  “Goblin Raiser, thank you. And I apologize for showing you such a disgraceful side of me,” Adrian, with swollen eyes, saluted him back.

  Sokram shook his head and spoke in a sympathetic tone, “Well, the heart is the heart, even I, as a Necromancer, fell in love a time or two. I’m no stranger to heartbreak, so I don’t judge.”

  “No, this was my mistake. Lady Eliora sent many signs to open my eyes. Kristy herself should have been the biggest one,” Adrian looked at Kristy, eyes brimming with gratitude. But he was unable to hold her gaze for long.

  There was too much shame, sadness, and hatred in his eyes. “To think even Macal pitied me and sent a Necromancer to open my eyes. I’m pathetic.”

  His gaze returned to Kristy this time betraying his inner turmoil, “I’m sorry, I’ve proven myself unfit to lead. I’ll step down as Commander and let you lead after this. But please follow my lead one last time, can you?”

  “Commander, now that your eyes are open again, we’ll all follow you to the depths of the Nether!” Kristy knocked her fist over her chest, and so did John.

  “Thank you,” Adrian felt even more ashamed seeing their loyalty even after his failure.

  Then he turned back to Sokram and asked, “How long until they get here? And how did you manage to get here ahead of them? Furthermore, how did you manage to spy on them like that? I’m not suspecting you, but I’m truly curious.”

  “Well, they should be here in six to seven hours. As for why I got here ahead of them, it's because I didn’t go far; let me show you. I’m not much of a capable fighter, but I like to think of myself as ingenious enough when it comes to infiltration and stalking.”

  As Sokram spoke, he summoned one of the smallest undead animals inside the Goblin Raiser’s Tombstone.

  Then he chanted an earth spell, and the undead rat was encased with earth. The rat looked like a simple stone.

  The sealed earthy lump of clay masked the underlying stink of decay so perfectly that even standing inches away, Adrian couldn't smell the death clinging to its fur. And the earth magic also hid the Death Energy that emanated from the undead.

  “See, it’s just a rock, haha,” Sokram joked.

  “I see it now. Unless I’m actively looking for it with my mana sense, I wouldn’t be able to find it,” John nodded.

  “Oh, but that is not all, look at this…” Sokram chanted another spell, this one more complex with a longer casting time.

  Once cast, the rock mouse was cloaked by the shadows surrounding it, and Sokram said, “All I have to do then is attach the crystal and wait for this little guy to come back to me.”

  “Heh, you necromancers are truly crafty,” John admitted.

  Still, he backtracked, “But I’m proud of being a devout follower of Lady Eliora, so don’t get me wrong.”

  “Well, doctrine is doctrine, Magi is Magi,” Sokram shrugged.

  “Good. Don’t worry about fighting, we’ll take care of them,” Adrian spoke with a hint of gratitude in his voice.

  “But if I may ask… I need the Bishop alive; I have to bring her back to the Pope. I assure you she will suffer a lot, but I can’t let you kill her,” Sokram asked hesitantly.

  “Don’t worry. I’ll capture her for you, and you can do whatever you want with that whore,” The venom and hatred were clear as day in Adrian’s voice.

  Sokram thanked him, making a salutation gesture, “You’re a good one, Commander, thank you!”

  “No, I owe you that much,” Adrian nodded to Sokram.

  Turning to his men, Adrian said, “Men, let’s prepare for the traitor’s arrival. I have to clear the base so I can deliver it to your next Commander.”

  He glanced at Kristy with a sad smirk. But Kristy only nodded.

  Adrian led Kristy, John, and Sokram to his room, along with a few others of his most trusted men.

  Sokram did his best act, trying not to show he already knew the way while also making mental notes for his plan B, in case he needed to rescue the hostage before escaping.

  Arriving at Adrian’s room, he began devising his plan, “…So if your squad comes from here, and yours from this side, we can flank them, but Mila will also have her undead, so…”

  “Commander, I have a way to stop Mila from using any spells. But it might require you to be sneaky…” Sokram pitched in, but hearing the word sneaky, Adrian frowned slightly.

  “I know it can be painful standing face to face with her again, and even harder would be pretending nothing happened. But a snake would never expect dying from poison, would she?” Sokram concluded while the others gazed at him with interest.

  “What do you need me to do?” Adrian asked him, ready to do whatever it took.

  “First, do you have a pair of cuffs? Iron or Moonstone would be best,” Sokram asked him.

  But it was John who, taking a pair of handcuffs from his spatial ring, handed them to Sokram.

  Then, John asked him, “What are you planning to do with them?”

  “I know a bit of runic magic, let me show you…” Sokram took out his usual runic enchantment kit with monster blood and other ingredients, but limited himself to only adding gold and silver dust this time.

  After finishing the mixture, he drew a few runic words on the cuffs.

  Once done, Sokram raised the cuffs, offering them to John, saying, “John can test it if you like, but this will not only cut someone's mana circulation completely, but also lock away the mana converted in Death-Energy.”

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  John, as a curious mage, gave the keys to Adrian and put the cuffs on his wrists.

  He instantly regretted it as his body went limp and he fell to the floor in agony.

  John's face went grey as his veins bulged against his skin. As the mana backed up, unable to flow, he writhed, clawing at his chest, as a piercing pain assaulted his Mana Heart.

  His breath ragged as he tried to speak, “Please… Take it off… it works…”

  Adrian rushed to his aid, while Kristy and the others nodded approvingly.

  Then Kristy said, “Adrian, just play the fool for one last time. Let her get near you, and I’ll put those on her.”

  Adrian nodded, knowing that his heart could falter once he saw her.

  “Yes, ma’am.” He shot her a thankful smile.

  A few hours later, Sokram and the others were waiting by the walls after devising the plan and informing their men.

  Sokram was hiding so as not to alert Mila when one of the soldiers said, “Commander, they are here.”

  “Be ready, men, we have a traitor to catch,” Adrian gave his last order.

  They let Tulios and his men approach and enter through the gates, but as soon as they did, the gates closed behind them.

  “You’re all on high alert, it seems. Did something happen?” Tulios asked, glancing around, curious as his gut told him there was something wrong.

  “No, not really, just a jump-scare with a pair of snakes.” Kristy joked, standing beside Adrian.

  Hearing her joke, the other soldiers around laughed, and so did Tulios and his men.

  But Mila was too distraught to joke around and rushed to Adrian’s arms in tears, “My love, something terrible happened! You must help me!”

  Adrian’s heart tightened, a constricting pain spreading through his chest as moments they had shared flashed through his mind, each one twisting into bitterness, fed by the betrayal and the sight of her tears.

  Cursing at himself inwardly for being such a weak fool, he met her gaze, “What happened?”

  “Our small citadel, our hideout, crumbled. But there might still be survivors. Please come with us with some of your men. I need help digging. I left most of my undead there, but they are not enough, please help me?!”

  Mila's sobs shook her slender shoulders. Tears traced her cheeks, catching the late noon's orange light.

  To any observer, she was the picture of heartbroken devastation. But in Adrian’s eyes, everything he saw was a lying snake.

  Adrian held both of her hands, uniting them under his own as he gazed at her sweetly.

  Kristy saw the movement and took out the cuffs. And looking at Adrian, Kristy saw his determination waning for a second and acted before Adrian's signal.

  “Click!” The metallic snap was deafening in the silence. It was final, like an executioner's axe, severing Mila's power instantly.

  Mila fell to the ground, her limbs striking stone with a hollow thud, breath fleeing her chest in a strangled gasp. Her body was limp and without any strength.

  Tulios saw that and was about to protest, but the look on Adrian’s face made him freeze.

  Tears fell from Adrian’s eyes, but there was no sadness in them. Only hatred. Only killing intent.

  “You were my brother! But you are nothing but a snake! I loved this woman… After Maggie, I never thought I would love again, but in the end, I was just being a fool…”

  The air around the fort grew colder.

  The grief in Adrian's eyes hardened into a freezing rage so sharp it felt like a blade pressed against Tulios's throat.

  Mithril rasped free from its sheath as Adrian drew his sword, the sound sharp and final, like a verdict being passed as he pointed it at Tulios.

  “Surrender now, and I’ll give a fair trial. Resist and die a traitor's death!”

  The soldiers around him also took out their weapons, surrounding Tulios and his men.

  “Fuck…” Tulios raised his hands, understanding that Adrian found out about their activities.

  “Come on, man, she's just a whore. I’m sorry for going behind your back, but we go way back, man. Are you truly going to kill me just because I had some fun with her? And why are you all pointing your swords at my men? Answer me!”

  Sokram finally left his hiding spot, a recording crystal in hand.

  “I told them about your plan of killing the Commander. And I showed them this…” Sokram activated the recording crystal and left it on the floor.

  The crystal flared to life, light spilling across the stone floor as moving images hovered in the air like ghosts refusing to be ignored.

  He picked Mila up in his arms and walked away to enjoy the show, “Bishop, let's give the gentlemen some room to talk.”

  “Deacon?... But… It… crumbled…” Mila tried to speak, but she was too weak. Even weaker than John had gotten earlier, she could barely even form words.

  “I’m sure it did, Bishop..." Sokram's voice dripped with mock sympathy, smooth and poisonous.

  "...I’m sure it did,” he whispered, a smirk twisting beneath his mask, one that never reached his cold eyes.

  She was a ragdoll in his arms. Her head lolled back, exposing her pale throat. Her breathing came in shallow pulls, each one weaker than the last, as her body fought to sustain itself without the flow of mana.

  ‘She’s definitely a Half-Nocturnal, hm?’ Sokram confirmed it when he saw that her bulging veins began to darken, showing through her pale skin.

  Tulios looked at Sokram's departing back, then at the recording, and it clicked.

  Sokram was the one behind the destruction of the necromancers' hideout.

  Tulios turned to Adrian, seeing the hatred in his eyes as the recordings played, and sighed, “You’re not going to listen, are you?”

  “Listen to what?! More lies?! I won’t order again! Surrender or die, traitor!” Adrian shouted in rage, no longer trying to hide his killing intent.

  “Men…” Tulios looked around carefully, counting his odds.

  He looked at Sokram carrying Mila all the way back, away from them, and ordered, “At arms!”

  Tulios’s men weren’t fools. The moment Adrian told Tulios to surrender, they knew they would have to betray him.

  However, once the recordings began, they knew that if they didn’t fight together, there was no chance of survival.

  When Tulio gave the order, they were prepared.

  Luckily for Tulios, two of the only four mages among the sixty of them were on his side, so as soon as the fight started, they released the mana shields they had already cast since the commotion began.

  The guards standing atop the walls released their strings. Arrows hissed through the air, dark blurs cutting across the courtyard before burying themselves in flesh with wet, piercing impacts or shattering harmlessly against solidified mana.

  Only three of Tulios’s men were hit. All headshots. Their bodies were ignored in the heat of battle as they collapsed limply onto the ground.

  The mages on Adrian's side quickly cast shield neutralizers using a Force Spell to increase the gravity, forcing the shield to break.

  At the same time, Tulios dashed toward Adrian, and their clash began as their swords danced.

  The courtyard erupted into a chaotic symphony of war.

  Steel clashed on steel with the sharp ring of parried blades, spells and arrows hissed through the air, flying in both directions, lighting the gloomy fort like a fireworks spectacle.

  The deadly play intensified, bringing the dull thud of bodies hitting the dirt, and the wet, tearing sound of steel meeting flesh as men fell with choked cries at every second.

  Their numbers thinned with every heartbeat as men on both sides fell dead one by one, killed by their own comrades.

  Sitting beside Mila's limp, weakened body, Sokram let out a low chuckle, eyes gleaming behind the mask as bodies fell exactly where he expected them to.

  “Aren’t they so easy to manipulate? All it took was a slut and a broken heart. The slut being you, Bishop, of course. Thank you.”

  Mila’s eyes widened, terror rippling within them as her breath hitched painfully.

  Sokram continued, “I was following you and recording all that. You’re quite the ravenous nymph. I read about hybrids like you before, but you have the hunger of a pure-blooded succubus. Color me impressed.”

  “But since you helped me so much, let me give you a bit of good news,” Sokram placed his hand on the back of her neck, meeting her frightened gaze, and said, “Localization Crystals don’t point to dead people, you know? So your sister is still alive down there. So after I’m done with this here, I’ll have to go back there and finish what I started.”

  “You… did… that…” Mila spoke, her voice but a whisper, and Sokram nodded, confirming.

  “You… not… deacon…” Sokram nodded again, chuckling evilly.

  “But don’t worry. If your sister is not too broken, I’ll make the two of you my toys. I need spies, you see?” Sokram then looked at the fight, focusing on Kristy, and nodded.

  Then his gaze returned to Mila, and his grip tightened on the nape of Mila’s neck as he said, “And you’re not going to be the only one.”

  “Now dream, dream of an unending nightmare until you learn that living without me is your worst torment…” Sokram, taking advantage of her defenseless state, placed her under the same Illusion Spell he used on Blanca.

  Her breath hitched in a silent scream, fingers twitching as her mind shattered inward, dragged into darkness.

  Her body trembled, shivering as the nightmare took hold. Mila's head fell. Her eyes remained open, glazed over, staring at a horror only she could see.

  But she was no longer there. She was deep inside her mind in a never-ending torment.

  Sokram continued watching as the soldiers' number decreased.

  Bodies littered the courtyard, blood painting the stone as the noise thinned to labored breathing and the clash of only a few remaining blades.

  Until there were only ten left, three on Tulios' side, and seven on Adrian’s side, including them both.

  Shadowed by the mask, a predator's grin flashed.

  Sokram delighted himself at the sight of his prey doing his work for him with the satisfied calm of a wolf watching sheep tear each other apart, savoring the inevitable outcome.

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