Chapter 179: Worst Fears
"What!?"
"A proper mad man!"
"Young master?"
The shouts came from all sides as his blood poured all over the ground. Xenia attempted to rush towards him but with a wave of his hand she halted in her tracks. Her eyes wide open.
Jacob stood there as everyone watched in surprise, blood dripping endlessly from his wrist. But he didn’t seem to be in any pain whatsoever, he stood there still narrating the story.
"You see, this witch, she would slit her wrist in this same manner. And then she would slit the other one..."
He carefully removed the dagger from his mouth, replacing with the bloodied one, and then slit the other wrist. Causing another round of gasps to escape their mouths.
"And then, she would turn around, just like this, let her dripping blood create a circle around herself." Jacob spread his hands out and spun around slowly, his blood poured all over the road, everyone watched in silence. What could they say?
They could not fathom what they were witnessing.
"When she was done with slitting her wrists, she would calmly dispose of the knives, and then she would get on one knee, like this."
He got on one knee inside the circle and with his finger, he traced the circle outside of him, causing the blood to glow in a bright golden hue.
The men all took a few steps back, unaware of what was coming next.
"W-What are you d-doing? In the name of Grand Regent Alto, I command you to stop." Grant announced with a shaky voice, stepping back significantly with the rest of his men.
"And then, when the sacrificial circle was done, she would point this bloody finger at whoever her target was... Jacob pointed his blood stained finger at Grant. "And their worst fears will materialize."
With a loud, explosive roar, a giant Lion materialized into thin air from the ground. It’s dark eyes aimed directly at Grant, the lion was about 7 feet tall on all fours, taller than most men, even Jacob.
It had a mane thicker than bushes, its head alone occupied more space than Grant had ever seen. Fangs as sharp as swords.
He watched in absolute terror as saliva dropped from the mouth of the beast, as though there was a pool of water in its mouth. In that moment, he lost control of his bladder and his legs. His worst fear had come to life, more real than anything he had ever seen.
His sword dropped to the ground as he took off, running into the bushes and screaming for dear life, the Lion following quickly behind him.
Jacob began pointing to the other men. The first one could immediately see himself surrounded by thousands of King Cobras, as his worst fear was to die in a sea of snakes.
The next one had a fear of being eaten alive by a swarm of locusts. Just like that, Jacob had gone through all seven men. They all ran in different directions, trying to avoid their worst fears.
The path was now clear for them to continue their journey.
Jacob stood up, the slit on his wrists had now vanished, completely healed in seconds. Leon and Xenia stood in shock, as they did not quite understand what Jacob had done for these men to go so berserk.
From their point of view, they could not see anything happening, they only saw that these men went crazy over a very dramatic performance which Jacob had just put up.
Without even acknowledging anything, Jacob dusted himself off, pulling out a handkerchief and wiping his hands slowly with the grace of someone who came from royalty.
He finally tossed the bloodied handkerchief to the wind, and turned around to return to the carriage. He had taken care to not let the blood stain his clothes. He passed by a dumbfounded Xenia and Leon and entered the carriage gracefully. Finding that Raijin had already woken up due to the noise from the screaming and shouting.
"There there boy. It’s nothing." Jacob petted the small dragon as it purred, settling into the bed.
Xenia entered the carriage after Jacob and sat down opposite him, watching as he stroked the small dragon.
"What did you do to them?" Xenia asked.
Jacob mirrored her gaze immediately and smiled. "Oh, those guys. I just did a little illusion magic, showed them their worst fears."
"How did you know their worst fears." Xenia inquired again.
"I just knew. I created manifestations of things I thought they would be afraid of. I just knew that no matter what I showed them, it wouldn’t be enough to convince them that I was an Ironfell.
"And it is understandable. Anyone can look like an Ironfell, I only just thought of the most dramatic way to get them out of the way without actually killing them. Don’t worry, they’ll find out soon that it’s not real."
Xenia nodded, looking out into the forest the men had run into. Her questions had been answered already.
Leon however, had gotten no closure whatsoever, so he just settled down on the box seat, heaving a sigh and pulling on the horse leashes again. The carriage began to move and they were on their journey once more.
"I think Light has received my letter by now." Jacob said after a long silence.
"Is that so?" Xenia asked.
"Yes, I only hope he doesn’t bring anyone along, certainly not Anissa, she seems to have a problem."
"What problem is that."
"She’s very clingy."
The silence returned, the road ahead was still reasonably long, Jacob turned towards Raijin, who was now comfortably sitting in his bed after making it as comfortable as possible. The small dragon purred and closed its eyes. Jacob understood how tiresome it could be to play all night, until the morning came, so he would allow the dragon to sleep for however long it required.
He turned his head outside, they had been traveling for about three days now. There was now only a short time before he was finally reunited with his grandfather in the Treant Village.