Descendants of Gibbous
Chapter 33: Delightful news

Chapter 33: Delightful news

Black empty eyes with white unsettling iris glared below at the kneeling wizard, the Rogue Lord’s aura weighing on him.

The room was silent. A chilly atmosphere for the powerless wizard. He couldn’t stop himself from shivering, especially his hands. They were on fire, quivering around and giving away his fear to the Rogue lord’s Corvus hidden behind the veils.

But none of them dared to mock him.

The lord hated disturbances more than anything, and he’d take away anyone’s life if they dared bother him whilst he was speaking or doing anything at that.

"So, what is it that you’d like to tell me and the Corvus, Kaos?" The Lord’s icy voice added to the unsettling chill clinging onto the wizard’s body.

He tried to move his lips, but nothing came out. Not even a squeak. The ice disk was still on his throat, blood dripping on its edge after it had sliced a bit of Kaos’s skin. The wizard had never been so happy for devouring poor-quality human flesh and boosting his aura more than he was at that moment.

If he had left half of that woman’s corrupt aura and flesh, he’d be dead meat by now from failing to regenerate his sliced neck on time.

Just then, the Rogue lord slapped his forehead.

"Ah, the ice. Has it filled your lungs already?"

Kaos nodded slowly, and much to his relief, he felt the ice disk slowly retract from his throat. His wound sealed in an instant.

"Heat him."

Before Kaos noted what the Rogue lord meant, the ice clotting his body slowly melted away as steam erupted all over his body, the water coming from it cascading onto the ground and washing away the blood curdling under his knees. As if that wasn’t already enough, the heavy aura weighing down on him was retracted and he was finally able to move freely again.

Even his voice came back.

"Forgive my hastiness, Kaos. It seems the men whom I sent to retrieve the gem were all useless, you included. My rage got the best of me."

Kaos glanced at the powerful man sitting on a throne made of stone, a chill creeping up his skin at the sight.

Large coiled dragon horns were protruding from his head, each with sharp ends that could kill anything if the lord wanted a flashy death. His hair was tall, running down his back and appearing from behind it onto his crossed legs like a tail. Fangs were in the show, blood dripping from them slowly, a reminder of Kaos’s fate if he didn’t present a reason good enough for his life to be spared, but all that was pale in comparison with where the wizard’s eyes were focused on.

On his master’s body.

From neck to toes, purplish scales covered most of it—all but the chest. It was bare, the skin a deep unsettling metallic black. It was cracked, enough to make it look like the Lord’s body was crumbling bit by bit. Then came the small hole right in the middle of his chest, a souvenir his Rogue Highness had acquired during their raid eleven years ago.

It was a wound that could only acquired after being attacked by the most powerful of spells or curses, and in the Rogue lord’s case, it was both.

Everyone who knew the rogue lord knew he got it after the Numen used the gem of Memento Mori on him—a life-and-death-bringing weapon rumored to be a dragon’s heart. Maybe that’s why he wanted the gem so badly, to try and reverse the curse somehow.

"Tell me Kaos, what is it that you wanted to explain so badly, enough for you to stop me from giving you a painless death?"

The wizard stilled, the realization that he might as well be killed after spilling the news hitting him like a brick to the face. But he soon collected himself. He was better than the others.

He had come back with something worthwhile.

"My apologies my lord. I—"

"Call me Lord Thanatos. I like it better that way," the dragon hissed, his voice echoing in the bright room.

"Yes, lord Thanatos," Kaos replied in a surprisingly calm voice for someone whose heart was leaping multiple times in his constricting chest.

"Good. Carry on."

Clearing his throat, the wizard continued his speech.

"The rumors are true. The gem grants its wearer aura similar to that which you had before the curse, lord Thanatos. Aura that can suppress even the X-rank heroes of Gibbous," he went straight to the point.

That managed to grab the Rogue lord’s attention. He uncrossed his legs, placing his elbows on his lap as he bent forward to listen more closely.

"Hmm, and how do you know this?"

"I met with a boy who had the gem at the hospital I mark my prey at, and later that night when I tried to steal it from him, he ambushed me with his sister...and I fought him."

Finally, the rogue behind the arch to Thanatos right couldn’t keep his mouth shut.

"I don’t suppose you take us for fools, do you? We all know the gem has killed many S-ranked Gibbits because they weren’t powerful enough to wield it, and yet you expect us to believe that a mere boy was able to do what the powerful couldn’t?"

The voice of his taunter sounded almost similar to Thanatos’s, something that bothered Kaos beyond comprehension. He almost cursed at the man behind it but withheld himself, lest he offended the Rogue lord.

"Oh, but the boy managed to wield the gem. Not only that, he was even able to use Primal Ascension in that instant."

"Then how do you explain him leaving Gibbous for the human world and fighting you there? Aren’t young heroes supposed to be given licenses before they can fight?"

"That was the most disturbing part indeed. When I met the boy at the hospital, he didn’t show any signs of having aura in his body. Such was the case when we met later that night. However, after a few hours of fighting other heroes and his sister, he finally emerged from the rear lines, somehow able to control the gem and tap into its aura."

"He was solely responsible for the killings of forty of my men, and he even suppressed his allies. The cowards disappeared without a trace after he released the first stage of his Primal Ascension."

A deadly silence filled the room as the wizard finished explaining his story, feeling rather successful for managing to silence the annoying pest questioning him.

"Delightful news indeed," Thanatos’ voice echoed in the dome, masking the silence in an instant.

He was smiling now, a thin unsettling stretch of his mouth that didn’t reach the corners of his eyes. He rested his back comfortably on his throne, recrossing his legs back together.

"Do you perhaps know the boy’s name?"

"Damien Amaris," the wizard immediately replied, pleased with himself for having done his research on the boy before they met that night three weeks ago.

However, he wasn’t prepared to see his master freeze in an instant at the mention of the boy’s name.

"Did you say...Amaris?"

Now Kaos wasn’t sure if it had been a good decision to tell his master the boy’s name.

"Yes, lord Thanatos."

"Ha!" The Rogue lord clapped his hands gleefully even though the smile on his pale face had vanished. "Did he have eyes a burning amber similar to that of a raging wildfire?"

"Y-yes, my lord," Kaos replied, getting worried for his life by the second.

"So he survived," Thanatos mumbled more to himself than his men. "Henry left behind a pest for me to deal with after he died, that son of a bitch."

Kaos scrunched his brows at his master. "Who is Henry—"

Before he could finish, a sharp pain pierced his left cheek, running up his face and cutting off his ear in a flash. With a low thud, it hit the ground, leaving the wizard to touch his empty ear slot as the blood coming out of the wound clotted in preparation for the regeneration about to happen.

"Never disturb his highness whilst he’s thinking," came a feminine voice from somewhere in the covered arches surrounding the dome.

Kaos wanted to curse whichever member of the Corvus had cut his ear, but then he remembered his last fight with their last seat and stopped. Besides, the woman was right. He was too hasty to ask his question instead of waiting for lord Thanatos to explain everything to him.

"That explains why the boy was able to tap into the gemstone’s power."

A pause.

"He is the Numen’s son."

At their master’s revelation, everyone went silent. No one in the room had expected Lord Thanatos to say something so unsettling.

"But he died in the attack eleven years ago?" Another female voice came from behind the veils, much thinner than the one who threatened Kaos.

"Ah, yes. So claims the grapevine amongst the wild rogues. However, details based on speculation aren’t entirely accurate you know. I am dead to Gibbous after all aren’t I?" The dragon replied to the anonymous voice, turning his head to face Kaos.

"You were right, Kaos. This is the kind of news I like to hear. It good enough to spare your life, however..." the white iris skimmed over the wizard’s body, "you’re still a far cry from holding the eleventh seat in my Corvus."

"But your highness—"

"Silence!"

Dust fell from above as the room rumbled after Thanatos’s roar. He released his aura in an instant, glaring at the now-shaking wizard. With a flick of his hand, he sent shards of stone shooting in Kaos’s direction but missed on purpose.

"How do you expect to become one of the members of my Corvus when you can barely keep yourself from shaking whilst in my presence?"

Kaos clenched his teeth when a menacing laugh escaped from his master’s right side arch. He tried to stop his hands from shaking like his master had said, but that only made him feel as if his chest was being constricted.

"Go back to the hospital, devour more humans, absorb more aura, get stronger. When you finally have enough power to be able to hold your own when I release my aura, that’s when I’ll allow you to become one of my men."

Retracting his powerful aura, Thanatos sat back straight on his chair. "You may leave," he commanded.

"Is there any other assignment for me, my lord?" Kaos dared to ask.

"No. You’re far too weak to be trusted. I’ll assign you a mission once you become strong enough to handle my aura. Leave!"

Not about to make the Rogue lord mad, Kaos picked his cut ear from the ground and stood, bowing low to the Dragon and his Corvus before turning on his heel. However, as he reached the entrance leading into the dim corridor, a risky idea suddenly inspired him.

His ear had regenerated, but he could still use the one that had been cut off as a bug.

Immediately throwing it into the corner of the exit before he changed his mind, Kaos walked fast out of the dome. Surely enough, when his ear landed on the secluded walls, it slightly twitched, ready to take in any information before it finally died.

"I’ll go after the boy," the voice uncannily similar to his master rang in Kaos’s head as he walked out of the dark membrane into the cave and he scrunched his nose, annoyed it was the first he got to listen to.

"No," Thanatos’s ice-cold voice came next, making the wizard still in his tracks once he reached the skeleton-shaped entrance.

"Wow, you’re alive?" The crimson dragon immediately blurted out, when she noticed the little wizard standing next to her large yellow eye.

"Savanna! Show some respect!" Her accomplice’s voice echoed into the night, but Kaos ignored them.

How could his master tell them not to kill the boy after he stole his only chance at getting the gem? The boy was supposed to die. No mercy had to be shown at all.

However, it seemed Lord Thanatos had other plans brewing in his head.

"Leave the boy to me," his voice echoed in the wizard’s head and he gritted his teeth.

For the first time since knowing him, he was against his master’s decision. He was going to find that boy wherever he was and kill him.

Him and his ugly sister.