Chapter 62. Kai is in danger. (III)
Underground, he moved through the softened soil, his steps slow and deliberate, unwilling to cause any ruckus.
"This should be the place..." He looked up, Kai’s and her mother’s room above.
His eyes glinting with killing intent.
"Stay close..." Raika sensed the killing intent, her glowing red-golden eyes scanning for its source.
Though well hidden, her senses picked it up.
Alaric inquired what the problem was, and upon learning of an intruder, steam filled the entire manor.
He wanted to obscure their vision so they would have enough time to reach them before the worst happened.
"Sh*t..." Crow exclaimed, his thermal vision blocked by the searing steam. "She caught us, but how..." he wondered, dashing out of the room.
There wasn’t time to think about how she knew. He had to act before she got to Turtle.
No matter how tough his defenses were, in front of Raika’s magic it might as well be butter.
"What is that..." The warriors stationed in front of Kai’s door were momentarily stunned by the sudden influx of steam.
Gathering their resolve, they lunged for the door.
They had no idea what was happening, but the Count’s guest came first.
But...
Black flames, uninhibited by the steam, shot at them, engulfing their figures in an instant.
It happened as instaneous as a blink.
As fire mages themselves, they tried to retaliate, conjuring fire of their own, only for it to be extinguished by the moisture of the steam.
"Argh!"
For some reason, they felt pain from the black flames, something that shouldn’t have been possible as they had the constitution of fire.
They simultaneously gathered flames beneath their armor, pushing the fire outward in order to expel the black flames, and it worked.
The black flames were pushed off their bodies, falling onto the tiled floor and a few of the wooden doors.
"Hellflame?..." they exclaimed, noticing the inextinguishable black flames licking the walls.
"If you know of this, then you should know you don’t stand a chance.." Crow stepped into view, black flames covering his body like the feathers of a bird.
"Grandpa Ren..." the two exclaimed in shock, their last words as black flames shot into their open mouths.
With a snap, they exploded from the inside out, guts and other body matter scattering around, fueling the inextinguishable flames.
Licking until there was nothing left.
Unwilling to waste time, he quickly rushed through the door, his thermal vision catching Raika zigzagging through the corridor, slowed slightly by the twists and turns, only a second or two away from him.
Crackle!
Moments later, Raika appeared in front of the door with Alaric, held tightly to his chest.
They had moved immediately after sensing the danger, yet it seemed Crow, who was closer, was a step faster.
"Black flames..." Raika’s eyes widened in recognition, then her brows furrowed in confusion. "These aren’t Aiden’s flames." She couldn’t sense Aiden’s mana signature; the signature foreign to her.
As she stood there momentarily, Alaric had already rushed into the room, a strange man covered in black flames standing in front of the wide-eyed Kai and her mother who had her back turned to him.
"NO..." Alaric’s pupils dilated.
The steam in the room quickly condensed to into the construct of a large millitary sheild between the man and Kai, the black flames blocked by it.
The momentum pushed the bed Lilly slept on, Kai falling over her stool as she had been sitting close to the bed.
Though the black flames were mostly blocked, condensed steam was still basically a liquid gas, its density low.
Some of the black flames flickered through to the other side, engulfing Lilly’s bed.
"No, no..." Alaric controlled the steam outside to rush into the room and engulf the bed and the spots around it, yet the flames continued to lick away, unbothered by the moisture trying to snuff them out.
Raika had stepped into the room, locking gazes with Crow, his black flames lightly illuminating the room with a gray luminance.
Lightning flashed, Crow instantly pinned to the wall, Raika’s lightning-covered arm pressing against his neck with lethal strength.
"How are you using hellflames... who are the hell you?" Raika questioned Crow, her eyes burning with rage.
On the entire continent, Alaric was the only one known for using hellflames, the flames of the long-gone Amaterasu Clan. There was no way a descendant would appear after three hundred years.
Most believed they still existed after Aiden’s appearance, but she knew better.
At the same time, Lilly had fallen off the bed, luckily escaping the black flames.
"Stay there, don’t move..." Alaric stepped in front of them, the scorching mist rounding into a ball, ready for a pressurized attack if another enemy showed up.
"What’s happening..." Lilly inquired through haggard breaths. She had been practically tossed out of bed by the momentum of the attack.
"What is happening..." Kai echoed, asking her trembling mother, tears glistening in her eyes.
"Who is the black man?" she pointed to the man pinned by Raika.
Lilly noticed.
One didn’t need to be Einstein to piece things together.
An assassin.
The thought thundered in her mind.
For common folk, assassinations were unheard of, but for nobles they were common.
Everyone knew of the unstable nature of nobility, assassination over inheritance the norm.
And she was sure someone was after her or the nobles in the room. Whatever the case, she was in danger.
"I knew I shouldn’t have agreed to follow them..." Tears glistened in Lilly’s eyes, seemingly sure of their demise.
But here was the Thunder Princess, though crude in attitude, said to be the most powerful female fifth resonance mage on the continent.
This realization calmed her a bit, her attention turning to her little girl.
"Don’t worry, the Thunder Princess will take care of the bad guy..." She gathered her courage, hugging Kai tightly, her body trembling from fear.
"Mom, stop crying..." Kai wiped her mother’s tears. Before she knew it, tears fell from her own eyes.
"Don’t worry," Alaric comforted, his brows creased in exhaustion.
Controlling a whole lake was simple, as no matter how large it was, it was but one.
But now, he held a steam barrier in front of Kai and her mother, simultaneously willing any stray steam away from them.
At the door were balls of pressurized steam, ready to explode if an intruder made contact.
Not to mention the balls of steam stationed around Raika to help just in case Crow threw an attack their way.
"I am not crying, this is sweat." Lilly forced a smile, a smile Kai had only seen once before, when her father left three years ago. Though she had only been four, the moment triggered the memory.