Chapter 290 Retribuition

"Drop your weapons, and your lives will be spared. I won't say it again," Aion said after he crossed his arms. "You will become my minions, and I won't tolerate any disobedience, but it is better than dying a dog's death, right?"

"Kill him!" The guard shouted. "Kill the foreigner invader now!"

The soldiers dashed at Aion, but he put ice arrows on their heads and then killed their captain as well before taking their weapons and processing them.

The noise and the smell of death attracted a lot of people, and they left their houses, but soon they returned while panicking. More guards kept coming, and Aion didn't waste time talking this time. It would take too long to keep things like that…

Since the place had such an organized force, Aion realized that it must have some sort of leadership even though it was a county of mostly criminals and bandits. Some people get rich and spread their influence to command others. It didn't take long for him to find a large building and several others nearby where the guards came from.

Aion just walked past them while hitting their heads with more ice arrows. Still, hundreds of them kept coming. It would take too long at that rate, but it was an excellent opportunity for him to spread some fear.

While an entire battalion was charging toward him, Aion created an ice sphere above him and then made it grow until the area around it began to freeze. In the end, the enemies stopped moving when it became the size of a house. When it became fifty meters long and wide, the soldiers tried to run away, but Aion smashed all of them with it. The impact made the entire city tremble, and panic spread even more.

Aion saw some people heading toward the opposite side of the city and opened the gates in order to escape, but he could deal with them later. First, he headed toward the mansion in front of him. There was an iron fence around the garden of the place, and guards trembling while looking at him. If they run, they will die later. If they fight, they will die… they could only drop their weapons and then prostrate themselves on the ground. Aion passed by them without doing anything.

When Aion got in front of the door, he sliced it apart with ice blades again and then found some guards protecting a family of people that were some fancy clothes. All of them were armed with magic crossbows and were ready to attack.

"Pull the trigger and consider your lives forfeit," Aion said after he crossed his arms.

The guards gulped, and then, while trembling like leaves, they dropped their weapons and then prostrated themselves as well. They sure were quick to do that…

The family behind them was composed of one bald and tubby man that had a mustache, one middle-aged blond woman that was about to pass out and three kids, one that was in the arms of the woman, and two others that weren't even ten years old.

"Are you the one controlling things in this city?" Aion asked while looking at the tubby man. "If you don't want to die in front of the kids, you better not make me waste my time."

"... Yes… what do you want? Money?" The tubby man asked.

"I want blood, a lot of it," Aion replied while smirking. "The forces that are in the desert must have crossed your city, so you will tell me everything you know about their actions. If I ever think that you are hiding anything, you are a goner. Do you understand?"

"... Yes…" The man said while opening his eyes once he realized who Aion was due to his appearance.

"Why did you guys invade the fallen capital, and why did you torture Maisie and Darina Kresnik?"

"I didn't… I heard that they might know some secrets that king Vangel might have," The man gulped after he saw Aion's anger in his eyes. "I don't know the details, and I just received money to send some of my men, but some of the richer men of this country are looking for something underneath the fallen capital."

"That doesn't make you less guilty than those who gave the orders… you received something from this, after all," Aion's cold voice made everyone in the room feel shivers. "Still, if you tell me everything and follow my orders, I will spare you."

The man nodded several times. He knew well that a single thought would be enough for his life to be claimed. In any case, Aion learned that four families had grown quite powerful in recent years for some reason, and they had always been allies… that was weird. Usually, in that kind of situation, they would start to get greedy and try to get the money and the influence of others.

Aion had never heard of that the last time he had been there… probably because he was too focused on rescuing his mother. In any case, those families easily swallowed other groups since they had enough resources to pay mercenaries, and when that wasn't enough, they used pirates to deal more damage to them until they became nothing. Only people that licked their asses like tubby managed to survive and become their allies.

In recent years, they showed interest in searching the desert and the territory of the fallen Milleris kingdom. At first, they didn't make much progress because of the earthworms, but then they found a secret way to deal with them.

After that, they began to move a lot of resources to the desert, but not enough to build a base in the fallen capital, and it was suspicious since those four families didn't try to spread rumors that they were going soon to invade Zaera kingdom… even though they kidnapped and brutally tortured two members of a family really close to the king.