Chapter 148: Recuring stone

"Everyone!" 

A young woman that Ayda claimed to be the general orchestrating this entire ordeal, stood up from her throne. Her long streaks of perfectly white hair perfectly accented the beauty of her fair skin. As much as I could tell from the distance, her body itself was also full of allure, ready to be embraced by a man.

If only her character wasn't the way it was, she should be a top price for any man.

"Tonight we celebrate, as we will  be able to rid this world of this heretic bunch!"

Slamming her hand against the railing of the elevated platform she was at, the girl pointed her hand at the ragtag bunch bound to the ground below her. From the great variety of torture and execution machines sprawling all over the place, it was clear that tonight a bloody festival was planned. 

"Hey, we need to get closer."

In the end, I was still unable to shake what Ayda just told me off my skin or mind. While for others the idea of finding as many suitable mates to receive my seed would seem appealing, I wasn't as naive or rather, as childish to enjoy such fantasies. 

For me, just being with Ayda was enough to fulfil all my romantic needs. That was one of the reasons why I was capable of so readily refusing Martha's advances and investigations. If I were any different, all I would need to do would be to reveal the truth about me and bring our past relationship to sticky fruition. 

But I did not do that. Because it would lay insanely badly with me. 

"Sure." 

Ayda also didn't press the matter. After revealing her plan, she kindly gave me some space to think about it. But as regretful as it might be, the reality around us wasn't as forgiving. 

With the execution procedures now starting, we had to make our appearance before the first victim would fall. After all, a single person saved was a single person more serving in our cause!

Jumping through the rooftops, dropping to the street and passing by the guards was a task so easy, that I started to have my doubts about the reason behind the ability of those people to corner all the witches so much. 

As a jack of all trades, dabbling in anything that could make me more powerful but restraining myself from dedicating a lot of my time to a particular field of study, I wasn't that fast at all. In fact, I wasn't that intelligent, strong or witty either. But I was still capable of traversing through this enemy land without a hiccup as if I was on an outing date with Ayda. 

"But before we begin, I bet that some of you still don't understand why we are so keen to eradicate the witches now, why we are finally bringing the hammer of justice to those cursed heretics!"

Before I could get distracted any further, the words of this female general brought a reason back to my mind. As easy as it was to sneak around, it didn't mean that the entire situation was simple. After all, I knew nothing about the potential tricks that those people were playing. 

"I know that our wizard order was lenient towards their kind. We even let that accursed witch Ayda run free, in hopes of the peace that we brought to the world appeasing her heart and calming her nature. But just as we relaxed our grip on them, guess what did that damned witch did?!"

Clearly playing some kind of role, the general lamented. The crowd, already riled with hate against the witches before was already fuming. Even before this damned liar of a woman would finish her fake explanation. 

"Yes! You are right! That damned witch went and seduced a young, talented wizard, forcing him off the righteous path and turning him into monstrous true mage of the past! But if he just turned into a true mage, we could still deal with them with smaller means…"

Taking a momentary pause, this vile woman was clearly intent on driving the crowd mad. Even though we were closer, the distance that separated me from the elevated platform was still rather huge. And in spite of that, I was still able to see a vile smile appearing on the woman lips when the crowd started chanting.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!" 

There was absolutely no grace or glory in it. Just a mad mob asking for a bloody show. 

"Dear, listening to their shouts…" 

With our speed, when I started speaking, we were still quite a bit away from the arena. What's more, the general silenced the crowd with a decisive swing of her arm. 

"But the truth is way worse! What that bitch of a witch did, was creating a true monster, a progenitor mage! Are you smart enough to understand what it means yourself, or do I need to spell it out loud to you?!" 

Shouting at the crowd as if she wanted to disgrace them for not knowing what seemed like a highly specialised knowledge in this world, the general smiled. 

"Yes! A progenitor mage is not a monster because of his own abilities, but because of the potency of his seed! Knowing that anyone with the blood of such a monster would be bound to obtain great yet bloody power, those husbands, fathers and brothers that you can see tied up here, came to bring their wives, daughters and sisters for this monster to ravage!"

Listening to the speech of the girl, I couldn't help but be impressed. One, she was capable of turning the story around so much, that if not for Ayda's explanation earlier on, I would be actually inclined to believe it. Secondly, I was astonished by how well-timed Ayda's explanations were!

While I could hardly give her any praise for it as there was no way something like this was planned, I was still in the awe of how everything turned out.

But there was no time to think about those matters anymore, as we finally neared the arena. And at the same time, I finally managed to finish my sentence from before. 

"... makes me feel like giving them what they want." 

Thump.

The sound of the two of us landing right in the middle of the entire area came unnoticed at first. After all, rather than crashing into the ground at full force, we softly stepped on it, as if we stepped down from a single stair. 

Then, the first people in the crowd started to notice us. Then, the female general above us found out about our appearance.

"Why so silent?"

Using the fact that the entire crowd turned mute once the knowledge of our presence became common, I spoke up. Putting a gentle smile on my face, I patted the head of the random prisoner beside me, before looking at the crowd.

"Didn't you guys want blood? Didn't you guys want to kill? To experience death?"

Stating those questions with an extremely stoic tone and expression on my face, I finally took a glance at the female above. From such a close distance, her features became even more apparent, slowly working on my resistance to the motion of ever wetting my cock in anyone else but Ayda. 

"And you, whore general, didn't you want to cleanse the world from heretic monsters? Ever since I came to be in the way I am, I only killed those who attacked me. Outside of that, as shameless as it might be to say so myself, I helped scores of people."

Leaning my head on my shoulder, I smiled mischievously before finishing. 

"In that time, how many people did you kill in the name of your fake crusade? How many innocent souls had to die to satisfy your sick fetishes?"

If there was any hesitation in me against raising my hand against a woman before, nothing of it remained after just a few sentences that she spoke. Right now, I saw her as nothing but a disgusting being wrapped in pleasant looking flesh. 

"You…" Finally regaining her voice, the female general flared up. Her hand instantly moved onto the handle of her sword. Her face flushed red with hate made it all the easier to time my next move.

"Yes, me. I'm just better than you and that's why you are so desperate to be noticed. In fact, you are so desperate that you are even willing to slaughter countless people just to achieve that broken dream of yours. But guess what?"

Not letting the general utter even a single word, I pulled out one of the strongest stones that Sander provided for me. According to his words, they were as risky in use as this prototype equipment of his. 

But speaking honestly, I was already used to the stones. And just for that reason, I decided to go with them rather than what seemed like a power suit from some sci-fi novels. 

"Even when it comes to killing people…" Raising my hand and directing it towards one side of the tribune, I put my finger on the stone's activator. "Even at this, I'm leagues above you." Pressing my finger, I connected the two parts of the stone. 

In an instant, an enormous pool of magic-infused itself into the circuit, revolving several times through all the layers of its construction. But it didn't seem to do anything at all. Even after standing for a moment in place and having everyone's eyes focused on me, nothing seemed to happen.

But I could still feel that the turbulences of natural mana in the air around the stone constantly continued to grow. 

"Ha! What a joke of a true mage! To think that I was scared of you in the past!"

Noticing my struggles, the female general finally grasped her sword and placed one of her feet at the railing, clearly intending to jump down to the ground in order to cut me down. Even without looking, I could tell that behind my back, Ayda was already preparing to receive the attack.

And then, the volatile flux of magic within the stone reached the critical point. It wasn't as if the mana contained inside was so enormous. According to Sander's words, this was the first recurring stone that he dared to make. And from what he said, it seemed that the mana inside would continue to condense before the burden would turn too great for the crystal structure to hold it. Only then, the stone would act the way it should.

"Oh, it should be ready any moment. You guys chanted to kill, so here it comes."

As if I intentionally timed it out, when I said the last note of my sentence, the magic within the stone reached a critical point. 

And then, it infused itself into the surrounding air. Without the crystal structure to hold it in place, that was the natural thing for the magic to do. But just like a human body would bloat once in outer space without the atmospheric pressure, the difference in potentials between this singular point of condensed magic and all the air around was enough to unleash the disaster all on its own.

And with the cracks appearing on the reality itself, a magical storm unleashed from my hand, eradicating all the mater in the cone starting in the middle of my palm, where I previously held the stone.