74 And then, there was none...

"Those faces, the full display of their disbelief and terror." That was the main thought of Kardel. What he wanted was not just killing them anymore. If he was closer to the main base and had the approval of Leilade, he would have even brought that exhausted man in front of him, just to enjoy the sight of his mind crumbling. He had not suffered such a shameful incapacity since his first mission, where he nearly died because of his carelessness.

To say that every duvodiad is an immensely proud and smug bastard would be underestimating them. Only the best of the best made it out alive when their entire home planet is turned into a zoo filled with creatures that would make the Skorpus looked like some small ants. Unlike even the strong Akûl or the succubus, the number of duvodiad never exceeded 10 thousands of men or women. For a galactic empire that had its reach on countless solar systems and lone stars, that was a pitiful number.

But even at a time where battles were mainly made in space, there was neither a moment where assassinating the enemy leaders was a bad idea. The success rate of the Noctulis Temple was high enough to still allow some important resources to be directed toward the duvodiads. Kardel himself had escaped death under threats far more deadly than a few feeble humans and with fewer injuries. But like all his peers, when he felt that his prey was far too weak, he enjoyed playing a bit with it.

If it had been a formal mission, ordered by Leilade, he would have never been so carefree, but now, he just hoped that no one will ever hear about what happened here. Maybe at the beginning, he thought about letting one or two escape alive, to scare the rest of the pack. But not anymore. As he was thinking this, he kept walking confidently, alone in the middle of a sea of broken armors and weapons, dismembered bodies and bloodied limbs.

Right at the moment when he was barely two meters away from the commandant Adin, he suddenly felt a bit weird in the lower part of his torso. Breaking the illusion of strength and confidence, Kardel had no choice but to throw up the undesirable object out of his stomach. Everyone saw a half melted hand, still with a bit of leather on it, fell on the ground. By sheer luck or not, the lieutenant did raise a point, about the number of dirty things he ate in the last days.

They couldn't see it, but right past the dune where the "RUN" was now "RIV" because two arms fell, there was a massive pile of dead bodies, still clothed. Even in his snake form, he couldn't eat everything, so before deciding to retake his original form, he emptied his stomach entirely. Or that's what he thought. Taking the hand now covered by sand, he threw it away. He couldn't even take another bite to pass the bad taste in his mouth.

The audience was truly baffled by the strange spectacle. A snake turning in a human, that spit out a hand and was now looking at them angrily. The foreign individual was more than two heads above Adin, and totally naked. Everyone sneakily peeked at his crotch, but after a short comparison, they decided to never do it again, to not ashamed themselves before death. Only the female magus stare lingered a bit more, because of its size.

Raising his saber instinctively, Adin only relied on the training that was deeply inserted in his mind. Not daring to even slightly move the finger still inside the hole of the magical bomb, he prevented the stranger from moving any closer.

"What … Who … Why? No, that's not right, what. What are you MONSTER?" He was still not used to see something having such a big change in its form. At least not to the extent of turning from flesh and fur to scales. But far from doing anything threatening, the naked humanoid in front of them sneered at the intention of his saber.

"Do you want an answer or to kill me? If it is the latter, we can all forget what is happening and be done with it… No answer, I take that as a …"

"No, no. I want answers. WE ALL WANT ANSWERS. What are you, a human turned into a monster, an experiment of the Lich King Ptolekh?"

"Ptolekh?" Kardel tried to remember anything about that name. Thinking deeply, while he totally disregarded the presence of the rest, "Why does that name seem familiar?" It was necessarily coming from the memories of the fanatics, those delusional cultists. Even after racking his brain, the only answer he got was that it was a lich. Thanks to its title.

"Nope, never heard of that name." But to his surprise, that small sentence shocked everyone else. Even the dragons had heard and feared that name. All the creatures in the desert knew about it, even the Skorpus. The moment when one got enough intelligence to think about more than food, the name of the Lich King will be impregnated in its mind.

"You … You truly don't know?" Adin asked with a shocked voice. It was even less shocking that the transformation he saw a minute ago. "No, wait, you know about the Dark Gods at least, right?"

"Yep" Even against himself, because he was getting slightly bored, he still picked up the hand covered in sand. Trying to clean it as much as he could, he began to eat the finger while casually talking. That sight reminded everyone that the naked lunatic was still a monster in the end, but because he assumed that form, they expected him to a least talk.

Right now, without the knowledge of Kardel, everything he said or did was monitored closely by the female magus. Inside her robe, there was a small device capable of recording her experiences, and even if she did die in the end, at least it wouldn't have been all naught. The reason why she had this quite costly device was because of the black bomb. In case of an emergency appeared, she had to record it immediately. Her superiors won't blame her for using it for that other case.

"Oh, by the way, I am a duvodiad. What's a duvodiad, well, for you, it's your worst nightmare. Quite frankly, you did surprise me with that bomb, so I was like, maybe I should let them go because they beat me. Not going to happen."

He was obviously jeering at them, taunting with his disrespectful words. But he was still totally in control of the situation, and even the bomb in the hand of Adin couldn't change that fact. Even if the latter tried to rush forward while releasing the deadly spell that he carried, he wouldn't hit the so-called duvodiad. Otherwise, Kardel wouldn't have been so complacent.

"But because I still have a mission to accomplish, please state your name and function. Will be best to cooperate, trust me. I am the most merci… well, not really, but I am a kind man. Compared to others."

Bypassing Adin, he approached the still sleeping magus Khala, knocking slightly his head to the side. Even after all that happened, the toll that the magus paid was far too big, and he was not in a position of defending himself. Because Kardel didn't show any intention of truly attacking, they let him do as he wished. But in truth, what could they really do?

"Still sleeping soundly. He truly has a great life, must have a lot of wives too? Anyway, the name of the sleeping beauty?"

"Magus Khala, of the 5th Circle." The lieutenant promptly obeyed, since he received no opposition from anyone else. Their only chance of staying alive was to obey the human monster anyway.

"Anything else?" Kardel turned around and only saw a hesitant man. The rest of the group was staring at him, pressuring him to shut his mouth. "Well, that was expected. I suppose you won't say anything else. Great, so now it is time for you to die. Now I can offer you a great variety of deaths. Acid, slowly melting inside an indestructible stomach. Torn in little pieces, deadly but quick. What do you choose?"

He slowly distanced himself, to let them speak freely between each other. His eyes never left the black bomb that was hidden behind the female magus. In truth, the moment he got close enough to Adin, he felt the power inside the bomb. It was deadly, it could really kill him if he was standing still close to it. But it was easily dodged. But when he got closer to the dark device, he felt something that reminded him of only one being. The Empress of the Underworld.

But that was impossible, impossible. He kept repeating this in his head, over and over again. She couldn't have done this when they arrived on this planet more or less three days ago. He showed nothing on his face, but the more he stayed here, the more he felt that he needed to warn the others. Even if was just a bomb with a faint resemblance with the darkness in Leilade, that was important enough.

"So, we will die today?" Adin looked fearlessly at Kardel, his mind finally settled. The duvodiad only slightly nodded, pondering about what will the human do next. As expected, Adin threw himself toward the monster, unleashing the bomb at once.

The massive fire englobed everything around, besides the small bubble surrounding the now three survivors. She was breathing with a bit of difficulty, caught by surprise by the sudden assault of Adin. Even if they were farther away, the bomb could have still injured or even killed them. When the sand that was sent flying by the force of the explosion settled down, only a saber was still visible.

From their point of view, they couldn't know if it was broken or not, but it was certain that it didn't escape unscathed of this ordeal. They could only lament about the son that tried so hard to repair the mistakes of his father but failed in the end. But both met their match far too soon, one by the hand of a human with the mind of a monster, the other by a monster with a human mind.

CLAP CLAP

"Hard to find such good lads. Even sacrificing themselves for the lives of others. The last time I saw this from my comrades, let's see. Never." The mocking comment only made the sorrow turn into hate. The one-handed commandant and the lieutenant began to charge at Kardel, only to be stopped by the spell shield. The magus didn't let it down, even after the bomb already exploded.

"Let us go through, even if we have to die, we will do it by fighting."

"No, you will take magus Khala with you and leave. I will slow him down." The female magus firmly ordered the two warriors around. Her tone allowed no opposition to be made. Looking baffled at the female, the commandant snapped out.

"You dumb woman! Even if we escape our two heads will fly if you die. We were responsible for your security, Adin knew that everyone knows that. You are the only one that can escape. Now go, we will slow him down."

Seeing the touching moment, Kardel slightly yawned, to make them remember he was here. Because they were in a hurry, the magus acknowledged the truth in the words of the commandant. Right before flying away with the still injured magus Khalan, she tried to speak with the two remaining officers. But her words were stuck in her throat, and when she saw that the two were staring at Kardel, she left without saying anything.

Between the two men, only the dark bomb was present. The center of the attention of everyone since the beginning. Chuckling at the sight of the fleeing magus, Kardel was in no hurry. The hunt only began. Waving at the two soldiers, he began to escape.

"You should have activated it the moment you were talking. Now, it is too late. Farewell". Retreating by walking backward, not daring to miss the slightest detail about the spell inside it, he didn't saw the two men looking at each other one last time, before unleashing all the mana in their bodies.

But nothing happened for a few seconds. Even Kardel stopped, not knowing what to do. He was only distancing himself because he feared it, but apparently, even if the bomb had immense power, it was not released. He saw the pitiful attempts of both the commandant and the lieutenant to make repair the device, but to no avail.

Because it was the night, no one saw that the shadows under their bodies were growing silently, centimeters by centimeters. Not even the now laughing duvodiad felt it.