Beauty in the beast world
Chapter 95: Truth about that day

Chapter 95: Truth about that day

Gregory failed to keep his footing after earning a hit on the side of his head. He clenched his fists and got up from the ground and spit out a mouthful of crimson blood onto the cold floor of the stone cave, "Ah, you should have warned me" he said in a mirthful voice annoying his opponent.

Theodore glared at him and raised his fists to punch him again but was stopped because of a barrier.

He punched the invisible wall in front of him frowning "What the hell is this!?"

Gregory just stood on the other side of the clear wall and smirked at him "Well it has been so many years since I faced you, I learned some tricks in a long run. I’m a witch master you see" he said in a sing-song voice. Distraction, he wanted to distract Theodore from going after Prescott by riling him up. And as expected, Theodore’s anger rose enough for him to launch an attack.

He manifested his merman powers, a water dagger, and pierced Theodore’s chest through the invisible wall.

Theodore groaned and fell on his knees holding his chest "Ugh!". It hurt like hell and he look at Gregory with surprised eyes, he never suspected him of having the ocean saber, it was an heirloom only passed down to the king of the mermaid tribe. For Gregory to have this, "Did you steal it?"

"This?" Gregory asked spinning the blood-soaked dagger in his hand "I just borrowed it from the treasury without informing anyone"

"How is that any different from stealing!?" Theodore snarled holding back his pain, "What is wrong with you Greg? Why did you change so much?" he wanted to ask this question the moment he learned about Iria’s situation. The friend he knew and trusted was not someone like this, he sometimes felt envious of Gregory’s righteous ideology and for the respect that he received from his tribesmen. Many even supported him to lead the mermaid tribe, but Gregory refused it and handed it over to the current king because of thier friendship. He always put his tribe and tribesmen on the pedestal and protected them behind the scenes, but such a person stole the ocean saber for his benefits? The ocean saber was protection given by the sea god to the mermaid tribe’s ancestors. That tribe could get attacked and annihilated by some greedy tribes if the word got out about the disappearance of the ocean saber.

Gregory’s eyes flashed with a glint which he instantly masked and replied "Nothing is more important to me other than Iria, what did that tribe do when I lost her to you? For all the things I sacrificed for their wellbeing, they didn’t even heed my words to annihilate the eagle tribe and kill you, that is the reason for me to seek help from that bastard"

"You tried to ambush me?" Theodore asked, then something flashed and he widened his eyes "Don’t tell me the one you joined with was the fox king. Greg, please say that it is a lie, you wouldn’t do that right?" Theodore almost pleaded to him to deny his doubts. That day broke him completely, Iria left him, his trusted men died in front of him, even till this day, it haunted him every day and night.

"Yes" and that broke all of Theodore’s hope. His friend, Gregory broke him completely,

"How could you do that?" he whisper yelled with tears brimming in his bloodshot eyes, "Iria almost lost her life that day because of them! My child was born as a stillborn baby, the eagle tribe trusted you more than anyone, they held you in high regard, all of them perished that day!" tears rolled down his cheeks as he continued "He-Henrick, were you the one to expose him to his father?"

"Henrick?" Gregory said calmly "He was such an eyesore, always following around Iria. That bastard even succeeded in becoming her mate" he looked at Theodore’s surprised face and smirked "He was also her mate right? Did you think that you could hide it forever?"

"I never thought about hiding it from you, I just wanted to reduce the risk of his father finding it out" Theodore replied

Gregory snorted "I’m not interested in that, I was just jealous about Iria voluntarily accepting him, so I informed his father and got him killed"

"You killed him because you were jealous?" Theodore inquired, "Then I was also jealous of you and him, should I have killed you too?"

"You were a fool to not do that" Gregory stated, "But I’m different from you, I will never let off my love rivals, I want to become the only choice for her"

Theodore got up from the ground after the wound on his chest started the healing process "You were never even an option for her" he mocked "She loved me and Henrick and never you and I attest that she never will in the future. Do you really, think that she will forgive you after all this? After killing her loved ones, threatening our daughter’s life, caging her here, no sane person will forgive you"

Gregory clenched the dagger and smirked at him "I don’t want her to forgive me and I also don’t want her to love me. What I want is for her to stay with me for eternity" saying his words, he charged forward holding the ocean saber.

Theodore dodged the dagger and kicked Gregory on his stomach. Contemplating, he turned to his beast form to be on the safer side and flew up. Flapping his wings, he created a strong gust of wind making Gregory stagger in his place. Due to the force of the wind, his hold on the dagger loosened and it fell to the ground. Theodore narrowed his eagle eyes and launched toward him, only to be repulsed due to the barrier surrounding him.

Gregory held his palm out and chanted something, bringing out a blinding light around him. As he started teleporting, Theodore went towards him but he was too late in stopping him. Breathing heavily, he picked up the dagger from the ground and went to help Killian.

Killian on the other side continued running after Prescott who was carrying Iria on his back. Because of Iria’s safety, he was not even able to use Kenna to attack Prescott and could only run after him. He halted his steps when white light flashed near Prescott.

"Kenna block that power" he commanded as he continued running.

Gregory came to halt in helping Prescott when he noticed his teleportation being blocked, "Impossible" he muttered as he looked towards Killian "A black panther?"

"Do something!" he came out of his thoughts hearing Prescott’s urging voice.

Gregory looked at Prescott and tried creating a barrier around them "He is blocking my powers, I’m not able to do anything. You should try to control him"

"I did try!" Prescott replied "But it is not working on him"

Gregory frowned and looked at Killian "Who the hell are you!?"

Killian stopped his steps and turned into his beastman form "And what would do after knowing my name? Use some stupid magic against me?" he said taunting him.

"You are not the one from prophecy" Gregory mumbled but Killian heard it.

"Prophecy?"

"Lyra is destined to have six mates but I’m certain that you are not one of them," he replied his doubt.

"Is that so?" Killian asked raising his brows "Do you know who is the sixth one?"

Gregory observed Killian and lied "I don’t"

"Then how are you so sure that it is not me?" Killian snapped catching him off guard "You know, don’t you?" he asked in an amused tone.

Gregory chose to not answer his query "I have never seen anyone from the black panther tribe, do you people have magic powers?"

"Changing the topic are we?" Killian chuckled "Well let me entertain you for a while and to answer your question, It is not some stupid power like you, I was born with it"

Gregory grimaced hearing him mention his witch powers as stupid. Then started running his head to come out with a plan to get out of here with Iria "Prescott you stop him here, I’ll teleport with Iria to somewhere safe" he whispered after thinking. Substituting Prescott was necessary because he never wanted to hand over Iria to Theodore.

Killian narrowed his eyes and said, "Why don’t we negotiate instead of fighting?"

"What?"

"Hand over Iria to me and I will return her soul to her body right at this moment," he said surprising the two, "And I will do it now and today, not at some blood eclipse"