A Serpent's Tale
Chapter 325: Undergroun Dungeon Strife

Chapter 325: Undergroun Dungeon Strife

I stared the Duchess right in the eye as I outed her machinations to capture me. And I could see as everyone else around us reacted in a flabbergasted manner as they went and checked themselves, as if they didn’t know about this.

As for the Duchess’ reaction, well, let’s just say that it wasn’t pleasant.

Her pupils had shrunk and were shifting erratically as she started to fume with a seething animosity towards me.

I just stared back at her with a look of both disappointment and contempt, which ticked her off.

Her expression then shifted and warped from one of horror to one that hardened with a burning intensity, fuel by her fury towards me for exposing her foil.

And just as I thought that she was going to blow over the top, she suddenly closed her eyes and exhaled deeply.

I was still burning with flames by the way. It ate away at my mana still, but at least she wasn’t getting any of mine to examine or copy or something.

"Ladies, please know that this is not an intended to suppress or weaken anyone but the prisoners themselves. The reason that it’s affecting you is because we can’t make it small enough to fit into the individual cells, so we have to make it big enough to cover multiple, as that is the simplest solution to thing problem."

I almost retched from how much sweetness was behind that overly pleasant explanation. I know that’s not the truth for two reasons, one is because I saw how she reacted when I exposed her for it, and two, I can literally see through lies with [Divine Eyes].

So I told everyone as such, "She’s lying."

It was a short but blunt statement that got to the point. And evidently very effective indicated by what happened next.

Both the guards and the officials turned to the Duchess and screamed at her.

"Why would you subject use to this?!"

"What did we do to deserve this!?"

"Why have you kept this from us till now?!"

I could the mask cracking once again as their onslaught of questions, with the way her lips twitched erratically and her brows furrowed. The sound of her teeth grinding together slowly being overshadowed by her growl.

"SILENCE!!" She bellowed from the depths of her lungs, her roar filled with an intense and commanding presence.

Everyone fell silent after her sudden outburst. She took a few moments to collect her breath and reconstruct her calm facade. Something about the way she carries herself has changed after that.

She exhaled one last time and opened her eyes, her gaze sharp and piercing as if she was stabbing through us with but a look.

The atmosphere around us was then cast in a cold and eery silence, as even the prisoners went silent and stopped doing whatever they were doing. The only thing that could be heard now were the flames coating my body.

With the dreadful atmosphere building up the longer the Duchess stayed silent, I prepared to make my escape with my [Spatial Shift].

Just as I started, she spoke up, but I continued preparing anyway.

"None of you will speak of this matter to anyone. None of you will even be allowed to leave these grounds until you swear as such to the Goddess."

"Pfft!" I couldn’t hold that in. Hearing her say such a thing almost made me hysterical due to the sheer absurdity about asking them to swear upon the Goddess Astraa.

The Duchess glared at me, her pupils clear and filled with an unyielding intensity as she now addressed me directly.

"And as for you, you shall not leave this dungeon and shall be executed for the crime of-"

*BANG!*

The sound of something being broken behind me rang out in the middle of the Duchess’ mandation.

What followed just after the echoes of what was clearly a door being blown off its hinges was this distorted and grated voice filled with an unbridled fury.

"YOOUUUOOOUUU!!! YOU’RE THE REASON EVERYTHING WENT WRONG!!!!! IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT!!!"

The voice screamed at me from down the dungeons corridor, getting louder as it made its way toward us, or more specifically me. At least I believe it’s talking about me.

I could sense the demonic presence coming off of it from here after all. It seem that this place not only drains mana, but suppresses one’s senses to the point where you can’t quite make out presences that are outside of the field that has been set up here.

That doesn’t really matter now though, as I have to deal with this threat regardless, since even if it’s not after me, which I doubt, I’d still be in its way to its actual target, and they likely wouldn’t let me get behind them.

So it falls to me to deal with it, especially since I’m still not quite ready to just teleport out of here just yet.

Either way, I didn’t want to deal with either of these two, so I had to figure out a way to do that, so that I could then focus on getting out of here.

I was already using [Split Focus] from my smithing [Sub-Class] and [Concentration] from my [Sub-Profession] to work on getting out of here and also deal with the incoming demonic creature, since I knew that I wouldn’t be able to before it got to me.

The only thing I could think of to stop this demonic creature from harming me was to use my [Bloodline Suppression] to force it into submission.

There were other ways, but this was the easiest and most efficient solution.

’Actually, I could do the same to them as well, couldn’t I?’

That is the best way to deal with this situation isn’t it?

It is.

Now I just have to wait a few more seconds for the demon to get closer before I unleash the full power of my Bloodline upon these cretins.

"RRRRAAAAGGGHHHHHH!!!!!"

’Now!’

The moment the misty red smoke that came of the demon barrelling straight at me reached ten metres away from me, I unleashed my [Bloodline Suppression].

Waves of immense pressure were released from my body, spreading outwards. This wave not caring for any and all obstacles in its wake, phasing through any and all physical and mystical hindrances, pressing down on nearly every life form from within the range I am releasing it.

For nearly twenty-five metres, all demonic and serpentine life was immediately made to prostrate in my presence.

The demon came skidding to a halt, its face scraping against the stone floor. Now that I look at that face that’s looking at me with contempt and hatred, it feels rather familiar.

"Y-You... Wh-What have you d-d-done to me?!?"

I turned around to see the Duchess now barely holding her upper body from falling on the floor, arms quaking as she struggled to do so.

As for her guards they could barely move, flat like pancakes and unable to say even a word.

Which is more than I can say for the officials, who are currently unconscious.

I then looked back at the Duchess with a loathsome gaze, a gaze of scorn and disappointment.

"Nothing you don’t deserve you wench."