Chapter 59: Despair (II)
The aura radiating from his body was simply too terrifying.
It was invisible.
Yet it pressed against everyone present like an enormous mountain.
Even the loudest members of the crowd instinctively lowered their voices whenever they moved too close to him.
In reality...
The reason the crowd had not completely descended into chaos was precisely because of Markovich’s presence.
His restraint alone maintained the thin boundary between an execution and a full-blown riot.
Then.....
Amorpheus’s eyes turned cold.
He raised his hand.
"Guards."
His voice immediately silenced several nearby conversations.
"Drag him over."
He pointed toward Trish.
"Let young master Cole watch firsthand what happens to the servant who dared to support a traitor of humanity."
The guards immediately understood.
"Yes, Young Master!"
Several of them tightened their grip on Cole’s chains.
Clink!
The heavy metal scraped against the stone floor.
Cole’s body was forcibly pulled forward.
One step.
Then another.
The distance between him and Trish rapidly disappeared.
Trish’s eyes widened when she saw him approaching.
"No..."
Her lips trembled.
She desperately shook her head.
"Young Master..."
But Cole continued walking toward her.
His expression remained calm.
Too calm.
Only the faintly flickering light within his eyes revealed the storm gathering beneath the surface.
The guards dragged him closer...
Until finally...
Cole stood only a few steps away from Trish.
For the first time, the two could clearly see each other’s faces.
And in that instant...
The entire execution square seemed to fall strangely silent.
All this time, Cole didn’t resist.
He simply allowed the Saint Family’s elite soldiers to drag him forward, their rough hands gripping his arms while the heavy chains around his wrists rattled with every step. On the surface, he looked almost completely defeated, as though he had finally accepted the fate that awaited him.
But beneath that seemingly calm exterior...
His mind had reached a frightening level of calm.
There was no panic.
No desperation.
No pointless rage.
His thoughts had become unnaturally clear, like the surface of a lake that had suddenly frozen over.
Yet beneath that frozen surface...
A volcano was quietly accumulating pressure.
And once it erupted...
Everything around him would be burned to ashes.
Cole silently scanned his surroundings.
The execution square was packed with Saint Family members.
Elite warriors stood in every direction, their powerful auras overlapping and forming an almost suffocating net around the entire area. Some carried weapons, while others stood near the edges of the square, clearly prepared to intercept anyone attempting to flee.
The exits were sealed.
The rooftops were occupied.
Even the surrounding streets were filled with guards.
Cole’s eyes moved slowly from one direction to another.
Nothing.
Not a single opening.
There was simply no path he could use to escape safely.
Even if he broke the chains and killed several guards...
What then?
More would arrive.
And behind all of them...
Was Markovich.
Cole’s expression remained unchanged.
Only his thoughts quietly moved.
A.I. Chip.
His voice sounded inside his mind, cold and controlled.
"Tell me..."
"What are my chances of safely escaping this place?"
The response didn’t arrive immediately.
[Processing request...]
[Analyzing current environmental conditions...]
[Calculating hostile combat strength...]
[Analyzing escape routes...]
[Considering all known variables...]
Cole remained completely still.
After reaching the Moon Knight Realm through the physical path, the capabilities of the A.I. Chip had also undergone a significant transformation.
Its processing power had increased alongside his Spirit and physical condition.
Previously, its simulations had been limited by Cole’s own cognitive abilities and the information it could process.
Now...
It could perform an astonishing number of calculations.
At least two million simulations could be processed within a relatively short period.
Every possible escape route.
Every movement of the guards.
Every reaction from the surrounding elites.
Every possible intervention by Markovich.
The A.I. Chip rapidly calculated them all.
Cole waited silently.
For the first time since entering the Saint Family compound...
He genuinely hoped the answer would surprise him.
Then...
A crimson message suddenly appeared across his vision.
[Simulation completed.]
[Probability of safely escaping the Saint Family compound: 0%.]
Cole’s pupils contracted slightly.
For several seconds...
His thoughts came to a complete standstill.
Zero percent.
Not one.
Not 0.1%.
Nothing.
The A.I. Chip had calculated millions of possible scenarios, yet not a single one resulted in a safe escape.
Cole had already expected the answer.
He knew the Saint Family was too powerful.
He knew Markovich was standing nearby.
He knew the entire compound was essentially an enormous cage.
But knowing something intellectually...
And seeing it reduced to a cold 0%...
Were two completely different things.
There was no hope of escaping through strength.
Not right now.
If he tried...
He would die.
Cole slowly lowered his eyes.
His fingers quietly tightened beneath the chains.
Then...
A sound erupted from the surrounding crowd.
"We want execution!"
A single voice.
Then another joined.
"We want execution!"
Another.
And another.
The chant rapidly spread through the enormous square.
"We want execution!"
"We want execution!"
"We want execution!"
The voices merged together, forming a deafening wave that rolled through the Saint Family compound.
The sound struck Cole’s ears again and again.
Each repetition felt like a sharp blade being driven deeper into his chest.
He had endured insults.
He had endured mockery.
He had endured being called trash.
He had endured people looking down upon him.
But this...
Was different.
They weren’t simply insulting him anymore.
They were demanding his death.
And they were demanding it as though his life meant nothing.
Cole slowly raised his head.
His gaze swept across the countless faces.
Some were furious.
Some were excited.
Some were smiling.
Some were completely indifferent.
And among them...
There were people who had once greeted him politely.
People who had once called him Young Master.
People who had benefited from the Saint Family’s protection just as he had.
Now they were shouting alongside everyone else.
"We want execution!"
Cole’s expression remained eerily calm.
But deep within his eyes...
Something was slowly changing.
The volcano was nearing its limit.
Meanwhile...
Amorpheus watched the scene from the front.
The corners of his lips slowly curled upward.
A smile of satisfaction appeared across his face.
He had imagined countless ways to eliminate Cole.
He had planned assassinations.
He had contacted mysterious organizations.
He had waited patiently for opportunities.
He had endured watching this supposedly useless cousin survive again and again.
Yet...
Even he couldn’t have imagined that things would eventually reach this point.
Just a few days ago...
Cole had still been a fugitive hiding somewhere within Blessed Moon City.
And now...
He was standing before the entire Saint Family.
Chained.
Surrounded.
Condemned.
Amorpheus’s smile widened.
For the first time in years...
He felt as though the heavens had finally chosen his side.
Just then, a slightly cold voice suddenly reached his ears.
"You can kill him... but don’t you dare do anything to his body."
The voice wasn’t loud, yet it somehow bypassed all the surrounding noise and entered directly into Amorpheus’s ears. The moment he heard those words, his expression changed, and his eyes immediately swept across the surrounding crowd.
Who?
Amorpheus carefully searched the area, his gaze moving from one face to another. The square was packed with Saint Family members, yet there was no unfamiliar figure who seemed capable of producing such a voice.
His eyes eventually settled on his father.
Markovich Saint stood there with the same expressionless face as before, his cold eyes fixed upon the execution stage. There was no visible reaction from him, nor did his gaze shift toward any hidden location.
It seemed...
His father hadn’t detected that mysterious man’s presence either.
The realization caused Amorpheus’s expression to become slightly strange.
Just then...
As if seeing through his thoughts, that mysterious voice once again echoed directly within his ears.
"Do you really think your father could sense my presence if I wanted to hide...?"
A strange chuckle followed.
"Hehehe..."
The laughter was faint, yet there was something deeply unpleasant about it, as though the person on the other side was deliberately rubbing salt into an open wound.
"You bunch of random hicks really think too highly of yourselves..."
Amorpheus’s face immediately turned ugly.
His fists tightened beneath his sleeves.
The sheer arrogance in those words made his blood boil.
Random hicks?
The Saint Family was one of the Four Ancient Families of Blessed Moon City.
His father was one of the strongest physical-path experts in the entire city.
Yet this mysterious person had openly mocked them as though they were nothing more than ignorant villagers who had never seen the wider world.
Amorpheus wanted to immediately retort.
If you’re not afraid of my father, then why are you hiding like a dog?
The words almost reached his lips.
But he swallowed them.
Today was supposed to be his victory.
He had finally brought Cole back.
The entire Saint Family was watching.
His enemy was already chained and standing on the execution stage.
He didn’t want some mysterious bastard to ruin this moment.
So after taking a deep breath, Amorpheus forced the anger in his heart down.
A faint smile once again appeared on his face.
"I’ll leave the trash’s corpse for you."
His voice carried a hint of mockery.
"Don’t worry."
The mysterious voice didn’t respond immediately.
Only that faint, unsettling silence remained.
Amorpheus glanced toward the surrounding darkness one final time before turning his attention back toward the execution stage.
Whatever this mysterious person wanted from Cole’s corpse...
He didn’t care.
As long as Cole died today...
That was enough.