The Devil's Son and His Fated Bride
Chapter 105: Disappointing kill test I

Chapter 105: Disappointing kill test I

A heavy wave of concern settled over Ren’s chest, coiling through her veins like a second heartbeat. She clutched the vials’ container tighter in her hands, praying they would be enough, at least against the lesser ones that hadn’t mutated. But the goblin’s warning echoed through her mind, chilling her to the marrow. A berserk vampire lord... and worse, a giant. That combination alone would be nearly impossible to bring down. Some Giants were as massive as Sunkiath, brutal, ancient, and blood-hungry. If one like that turned its gaze on the golden dragon, drawn to the potency of its blood... no, she couldn’t allow that to happen. She needed a different solution. A deadlier one.

The dungeon air clawed at her throat, rank with rot and something darker, something undead. The sealed vampires in each cell oozed a presence that turned the very air poisonous as if death itself had taken root in the stone walls. It wasn’t like this before.

As they reached one of the cells, Kai’s arm shot in front of her, shielding her instinctively. "Close to me, wife," he ordered, his voice low but tight with urgency.

Ren bit the inside of her lip, hard enough to draw a sting. Being near him was getting unbearable, not because she didn’t want him, but because she wanted him too much. She loved Kai. That truth never wavered. But pretending to be indifferent, keeping this distance between them... it was slowly breaking her. She missed his lips, craved the heat of his wild, hungry kisses, the way he used to hold her like she was the only thing anchoring him to the world. Memories weren’t enough anymore. They never were.

And maybe that hunger, that ache, only sharpened her resolve. If she could prove herself in this war, gain something, win something, maybe she could close that distance again. Maybe she’d finally feel like she deserved him.

"I’ll be fine," she muttered, brushing his arm aside more forcefully than she intended, and stepped past him into the cell behind Agara. Her fingers clenched the box tighter against her chest like it could steady the whirlwind inside her.

"How should we use this?" Arkilla asked, her curiosity bright and crackling in the gloom.

They were supposed to have tested the poison days ago in the arena, measured its effect, and refined their methods. But then Luther had stormed in, tearing through their plans like wildfire. That left only one clear option. Agara and Ren had settled on it fast.

"Arrows," Ren said. "We’ll make it rain."

Before the vampires could even reach the frontlines, the poison would already be eating through them, slowing their movements, and weakening their strength. It was the edge their forces desperately needed, turning speed and power to their favor before the true clash began.

Torchlight flickered over the stone as the guards led them toward the wall, casting long shadows that danced like ghosts. Kai walked behind them, but his eyes never left Ren. Not once. She moved with the same grace, the same fire, but something about her had turned colder and distant. As if she’d locked some part of herself away from him. And he couldn’t stop asking himself: Did she ever truly love him? She’d never said the words. That stung!

A shriek tore through the air, yanking him out of his spiral. A vampire lunged at Ren, feral and fast, breaking the tension like a blade through the ice. Kai’s heart seized. Why her? Why always here?

Then the answer struck him like an arrow to the chest. The Fae blood. Her untouched purity. And the raw, untempered power of her lineage, blood laced with ancient magic. She was a feast to them. A prize that would bless them with mutation, or some kind of ascension.

Kai raised his bow with practiced ease, voice steady but edged with urgency. "Give me the one you plan to use on this one."

Ren’s gaze flicked to the vampire, scrawny, underfed, twitching with hunger but too drained to be a real threat. She didn’t flinch.

"This one barely survived the last battle," she said calmly. "He’s good for the first test."

She held out a vial. Inside, the poison they’d brewed from the Heart of the Devil flower shimmered and deadly. It had a name now.

Devilbane!

Ren had named it herself...Devilbane. A fitting title for something born to kill monsters. The poison came in three distinct colors, each more potent than the last. For an ordinary human, even a drop would be fatal within five minutes, unless they received an antidote made from the very flower the toxin came from. But for creatures like these vampires, there was no cure. Ren had seen to that personally. She hadn’t just wanted to wound them, she wanted to end them.

She selected the vial with the pink-hued poison. It held fewer powerful compounds, designed for weaker targets like the gaunt one before them. It didn’t need to be extravagant, just efficient.

Kai took the vial without a word, pulled the cork, and tilted it over the tip of his arrow. Silver fragments along the edge gleamed briefly before the thick liquid coated them. It wasn’t runny like water, nor gelatinous, it was sticky, clinging with purpose. The moment it touched the metal, it bled into it, turning the silver a vivid, ominous red.

Kai didn’t hesitate. In a blur, he freed the arrow.

The shaft whistled through the dank air and struck the vampire cleanly in the gut. The creature froze mid-lunge, stunned. Its gaze dropped to the arrow embedded in its abdomen, as if unable to comprehend what had just happened.

Ren began pacing slowly around the cell, her voice cold and steady as she counted under her breath. "Five... six... seven..."

Nothing!?

Her frown deepened as she reached twelve. Doubt began to stir, pooling like ice water in the pit of her gut. Had she miscalculated? Was the compound too weak? Hope seemed to seep through the cracks, dripping into the bloodstained stone.

Then the vampire’s eyes bulged. A wet gurgle escaped its throat. Blood streamed from its eye sockets and ears in thick rivulets. Smoke began to rise from the top of its skull, curling into the air like incense from hell.

And then...the sound echoed viciously to prickle the bone.

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