Chapter 248: Point of No Return
Chapter 248: Point of No Return
BANG—!!!
Rhain brought the hammer once again.
Crack!
The floor beneath shattered, and sank further.
But this time, something unexpected happened...
The golden array buried beneath the floo shattered under the immense power.
A bright crimson light flashed across the entire Thunderwood estate, and a deafening, high-pitched alarm reverberated through the night sky.
WEEEEEEE—!!!
The ear-splitting siren echoed across every pavilion, courtyard, and corridor.
Out in the grand banquet hall, the lively chatter of the nobles and dignitaries was instantly silenced.
"An alarm? Why is it sounding now?"
"Who would dare to cause trouble in the ancestral home of a Noble Family? While the Crown Prince and all the Patriarchs are here?"
Meanwhile, outside the private study.
"WHAT IS GOING ON IN THERE?"
The massive golden doors of the study were violently kicked open.
A squad of elite Thunderwood guards, all at the Core Formation Realm, burst into the room with their weapons drawn and auras blazing.
But the moment they stepped inside, their furious roars turned into an eerie silence.
Their eyes locked onto the headless, mutilated corpse slumped on the floor, dressed in the unmistakable, gold-embroidered imperial white robes.
Their minds went entirely blank.
Right behind them, having rushed from the nearby antechamber the moment the alarm sounded, was Elara Thunderwood.
"What happened—"
Elara pushed past the paralyzed guards, her blue eyes sweeping the room.
Her gaze landed on the bloody paste that used to be a head.
Then on the imperial white robes.
And finally, on the dark-robed youth holding a blood-dripping heavy hammer.
Thud.
Elara collapsed heavily onto the floor.
Her beautiful face turning as pale as a sheet of paper.
It looked as if her very soul had been ruthlessly ripped from her body.
Every ambitious plan she had meticulously crafted to elevate the Thunderwood family was instantly incinerated in the span of a single breath.
"What..." Elara murmured as she looked up at Rhain with hollow, despairing eyes. "What have you done...?
Rhain had stopped hammering, just standing still.
His chest heaved, and the blood-red frenzy in his dark grey eyes began to slowly recede.
Clang.
Rhain simply opened his hand, letting the massive, blood-stained hammer drop onto the cracked stone floor.
He turned his head to look at the devastated girl on the ground.
He knew exactly what his actions had just brought upon this girl and her family.
He hadn’t wanted to drag them into this, but Lucius had crossed a line that Rhain could never forgive.
Rhain met Elara’s hollow gaze.
"I am sorry," Rhain said simply.
Without offering another word of explanation, he turned and walked toward the doorway.
The elite Thunderwood guards instinctively raised their weapons to block his path.
But as Rhain’s dark grey eyes swept over them, a bloodthirsty, Shura-like aura rolled off his blood-soaked body.
It was a killing intent so dense that it felt as if they were staring at a man standing atop a mountain of corpses.
Not a single one of them dared to take even a half-step forward as the blood-soaked youth walked right past them, disappearing into the corridor.
----------------
Back in the grand banquet hall, the scene was extremely chaotic.
Patriarch Thorian, Patriarch Caelan, and Matriarch Seraphine had all stood up from their tables, their overwhelming auras erupting as they tried to pinpoint the source of the disturbance.
"The alarm was triggered from the inner sanctum! My private study!" Thorian roared, his face turning incredibly ugly.
Before anyone could move to investigate, a figure appeared in their line of sight.
The entire hall descended into a stunned silence.
Minor nobles, aristocratic heirs, Preceptors, High Preceptors, Carmilla, Myrielle, Lyra, Vulcan, Liana, and Seris—everyone stared in absolute horror.
It was Rhain.
But the pristine, elegant white robes he had worn just minutes ago were completely drenched in fresh, dripping blood.
Blood stained his handsome face, and his dark grey eyes were devoid of all human emotion.
"Husband!" Seris gasped, immediately rushing forward, her eyes filled with frantic worry, "What happened? Whose blood is that?"
Liana covered her mouth with both hands, her emerald eyes trembling with shock.
"Whose... whose blood is that?" a minor noble whispered in a frightened voice.
Godfrey, who was standing near the front of the crowd, felt a sudden, horrifying realization strike him like a bolt of lightning.
His face turned deathly pale.
His entire muscular frame began to shake uncontrollably.
"He..." Godfrey stammered, raising a trembling finger toward Rhain. "He was in the private study... alone... with His Royal Highness..."
The words dropped like a nuclear bombshell.
"CROWN PRINCE???’
"DID HE KILL THE CROWN PRINCE?"
"HE KILLED HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS?!"
Chaos erupted.
Nobles screamed in sheer terror, scrambling over one another to back away from the blood-drenched youth.
Rhain completely ignored the shrieking aristocrats.
He simply walked straight through the grand hall and headed directly for the main exit of the Thunderwood Estate.
There was no point in explaining anything to them.
No matter what he said, they won’t believe.
"Husband, wait!" Seris cried out, instantly chasing after his retreating figure.
"Rhain, stop!" Liana also frantically ran after them.
Patriarch Thorian stood entirely frozen, his mind unable to process the magnitude of the disaster.
"No... NO!" Thorian roared, his eyes turning bloodshot.
If the Crown Prince died in his ancestral estate, the Emperor’s wrath would annihilate the entire Thunderwood Noble Family down to the very last dog!
Thorian exploded into a streak of lightning, rushing frantically toward the private study to check if his biggest fear had been realized.
"Myrielle," Carmilla ordered in an unprecedentedely solemn voice, "Go after Rhain. Now. Do not let him out of your sight."
"Yes, Sister!" Myrielle nodded hastily, rushing out of the estate to chase the trio.
Carmilla immediately turned and flew after Thorian, heading straight for the private study.
Within seconds, Caelan, Seraphine, and the top elders of every faction surged toward the corridors, desperate to uncover the truth.
Vulcan, Luka, and Dex exchanged a horrified glance before sprinting after the Patriarchs.
When the tidal wave of Domain Masters and elites finally burst into the private study, the sight before them made their souls practically leave their bodies.
The horrifyingly mangled, headless corpse in imperial white robes.
The bloody paste smashed into the floorboards.
The weeping, devastated Elara slumped on the ground.
Patriarch Thorian staggered backward, clutching his chest as if he had just been stabbed in the heart.
"He... he actually did it..." Patriarch Caelan murmured, his entire body shivering uncontrollably. "He slaughtered the Crown Prince of the Solathane Dynasty..."
Seraphine’s eyes also widened in profound terror.
She had recognized the boy was ruthless, but to murder the Crown Prince in broad daylight, in the middle of a Noble Family’s estate, surrounded by Domain Masters... it was an act of complete madness.
Standing near the back of the crowd, Vulcan, Luka, and Dex pushed their way forward to get a look.
When the three hardened mercenaries saw the imperial robes on the mutilated corpse, their eyes nearly popped out of their skulls.
Luka swallowed hard, looking at Vulcan. "Brother Vulcan... Ma... actually killed the Crown Prince..."
Vulcan’s scarred face twitched. His heart was hammering against his ribs like a war drum.
He had sworn loyalty to a man who possessed limitless ambition and strength. But he hadn’t realized that his Master’s ambition included casually decapitating the heir to the entire dynasty.
"Keep your mouths shut," Vulcan hissed to his brothers in a low voice, though a crazed, fanatical light began to burn in his eyes. "Master is a dragon. We follow him to the heavens or we follow him to hell. Prepare for war."
He knew that it meant going against entire dynasty, but his unwavering resolve did not falter for even a second.
-------------------
Out on the quiet, sprawling avenues beyond the Thunderwood Estate.
"Husband!"
Seris’s frantic voice called out from behind Rhain.
Rhain stopped.
He turned around just as Seris caught up, crashing gently into his chest, her hands grabbing his blood-stained robes.
Liana arrived seconds later, panting heavily.
"Husband, what happened?!" Seris asked frantically, "Please tell me what happened?’
Liana took a trembling step forward. "Rhain... back there in the hall... they were saying... they were saying you killed the Crown Prince. Is it... is it true?"
But before Rhain could even say anything...
BOOM—!!!
An incomprehensibly powerful pressure descended from the sky.
It was so heavy that the gravity multiplied by a hundredfold in an instant.
Liana choked, her knees bending under the pressure, forcing her down against the stone.
Seris staggered, desperately circulating her Heavenly Glacial Essence just to stay standing.
He slowly lifted his head, looking upward into the night sky.
There, hovering high above the city streets were three figures in unadorned grey robes.
They hovered in the air, looking down at Rhain, Seris, and Liana with eyes that were utterly cold, detached, and completely devoid of human emotion.
Like untouchable gods looking down at mere ants.
The three Domain Master Realm guards of the Crown Prince had arrived.