Chapter 1004: Gone [Part 2]
Chapter 1004 – Gone [Part 2]
The one who had failed to kill him last time had returned to the Shadow Corridors and started speaking.
The coward had told his friends the rumors were true.
That Kaelmor’s power came from borrowed creatures of the mortal realm.
Borrowed.
As if kings did not borrow from everyone.
Some Shadow Corridor lords started searching for weaknesses.
Some sent spies.
Some, apparently, had enough suicidal boredom to bother him just for amusement.
Demonic pranks were not mortal pranks.
Mortal prank was salt in tea.
Demonic prank was dream-sending screaming faces into a king’s sleep at precisely the moment his mind entered deep rest.
Three nights in a row, Kaelmor had woken to laughter in his dreams.
One had sent him a dream of his throne turning into a feeding chair while unseen beasts chewed his shadow.
Another had filled his mirrors with false reflections showing him aging, weakening, hollowing.
A third had simply whispered, "Borrowed king", for four hours.
Kaelmor had found that one culprit and mailed him back in boxes.
But the attempts kept rising.
Fake assassination signatures.
Illusory blades in royal corridors.
Poison reports that turned out to be glittering dust.
Cursed insects that carried no curse.
His guards reacted.
His advisors panicked.
And Kaelmor had to smile and pretend the irritation was beneath him.
Then, when they began assuming the alarms were fake...
Real assassins came.
His security teams were exhausted. His dream wards were reinforced so heavily that half the palace slept like corpses and the other half hallucinated.
And now Aela was gone.
Eaten by the same unknown sovereign signature that had appeared before.
Kaelmor stopped in front of the kneeling messenger.
The demon shook harder.
Kaelmor crouched gracefully, bringing himself closer to the messenger’s eye level. "Tell me," he said softly. "Did the trace suggest pain?"
The messenger’s throat bobbed. "My king?"
"When the vessel was consumed." Kaelmor’s smile widened. "Was it quick?"
"I—I do not know."
"How disappointing."
The messenger began sweating.
Kaelmor stood again.
He did not kill him.
Not yet.
Fear needed witnesses.
Corpses were less conversational.
He turned toward the tall window overlooking the infernal capital. Below, Hell glowed with red towers, black markets, floating bridges, greed-lit districts, old noble houses, and the restless movement of a realm pretending it was not watching its king carefully.
His power had dipped.
He could feel it under his skin.
Each prisoner gone meant a drain removed from the hidden reservoirs that fed him. Each ancient creature lost lowered the pressure beneath his authority. Aela’s loss hurt more than the others because hers had been steady. Clean. Deep-rooted.
If this continued...
Kaelmor’s smile faded again.
If it continued, he would lose everything.
Not immediately.
Kings did not fall in one grand dramatic moment unless poets wrote the report.
They eroded.
And Greed.
His fingers flexed.
He had openly shown his disfavor to the Greed House.
No subtlety this time.
He had threatened them using his power.
Lux and Zavros.
It had been meant as a reminder.
A demonstration.
Kaelmor usually played nice. He let the seven sin houses feel important. Let them posture. Let them bicker. Let them keep their little kingdoms beneath his crown so long as they remembered the crown existed above them.
But he had needed to show force.
Because Lux had become too visible.
So Kaelmor pressed Greed.
A reminder.
A warning.
Except reminders had consequences.
The other houses were watching, pretending not to care.
They might look indifferent.
But Kaelmor knew power.
He knew fear.
He knew the precise moment a thought entered a noble’s mind and began breeding.
’If he can do that to Greed, we may be next.’
That thought was poison.
Useful poison, perhaps. Fear could make houses lower their heads, soften their voices, and remember exactly where the throne stood. If shaped properly, it could become obedience. A warning. A leash.
But fear had another face.
If it grew too sharp, too close, too personal, the same houses might decide bowing was only delaying the inevitable. They might strike first. Test him. Undermine him. Try to dethrone him before they became the next Greed House under royal pressure.
Fear could make demons kneel.
Fear could also make them sharpen knives.
And right now, Kaelmor could not be fully certain which direction that poison would spread.
Kaelmor’s smile returned fully. "Well," he said, voice smooth as polished bone. "This has become entertaining."
The demons in the throne room lowered their heads even further.
Kaelmor turned from the window.
"Find every Shadow Corridor whisper connected to the sovereign rumor. Kill the useless ones. Spare the amusing ones long enough to make them speak."
Several generals bowed. "Yes, my king."
"Reinforce dream wards. Triple false alarm tracing. If an assassination attempt is fake, punish the source. If it is real, punish the source more creatively."
More bows.
"And Greed?"
A minister dared ask it.
Kaelmor’s smile did not change.
But every candle in the room went out at once.
Only his eyes remained bright.
"Greed will wait," Kaelmor said.
The minister swallowed.
"For now, we still need them. Hell’s economy must keep breathing, and Greed keeps the blood moving. Cut them too soon, and the realm collapses before anyone kneels. Let them sweat. Let them fear. Not yet. Not while they remain useful to us."
He sat again, smooth and graceful, fingers resting on the cracked armrest.
His mind moved behind his smile.
Someone was copying his method.
Someone wanted to rise like him.
A rival king in the making.
How rude.
How bold.
How wonderfully stupid.
Kaelmor leaned back.
"Let them believe I am cornered," he said softly.
The room listened.
"Let the corridors laugh. Let Heaven wait. Let the sin houses whisper. Let Lux Vaelthorn enjoy his little applause."
His smile widened.
This time, there was nothing faltering in it. "When the stage is crowded enough..." His fingers tapped once against the cracked throne. "I will choose who screams first. And it will be... Greed."