Chapter 26. Fall of Duke Ryan

Time quickly passed by and three years passed.

Tirus was currently sitting in the middle of a peculiar looking formation with several knights placed around him.

"Body refinement Formation, step 1, start!" Tirus ordered as huge waves of radiation came rushing forward, blood started coming out of his seven orifices and he soon started.

"Body refinement formation, step 2, start!" The radiation suddenly stopped as the formation started glowing in a bloody red light.

"Argh!"

"Save....m…"

Sounds of wailing could be heard as the lifeforce of these knights was sucked out of them and used as energy to nourish Tirus's body.

"Ah!" Tirus let of a soft grunt as he felt the life force of these knights nourishing every cell of his body.

This was a body refinement formation mentioned in the inheritance. The reason Tirus bought a slave proficient in the field of formations was because he wanted to expand his base knowledge and hoped to improve the formation with the help of the A.I. chip.

"A.I. chip, show me my currently stats!" He ordered the A.I. chip.

[Name: Tirus Van Elrod, Occupation: rank 1 magus, strength: 10 agility: 13, vitality: 15.3 spiritual force: 43.4 (magic power is in sync with spiritual force) status: Healthy, Elemental essence conversion rate: 12%]

In the past 3 years of secluded cultivation, all of his stats, including the ones that indicated his physical attributes, made significant progress.

"How long will it take me to reach rank 2?" Inquired Tirus.

[Calculating data…. It will take another 7 years of cultivation to break through to rank 2]

The A.I. chip quickly gave an answer.

'Hm, good, I shouldn't rush my cultivation like Leylin. So, what if it takes me another half a decade?'

'In the canon, his extremely fast advancement from rank 1 cultivation to rank 2 led him to have a shaky foundation, if I remember correctly. But he had no other choice as he was in a constant struggle against several organizations. However my circumstances are different.' He thought.

"Tonight…tonight is the night." He murmured in a soft voice as he put on his clothes and have an order to clean up the place.

....

Silmore Empire,

In the Elrod estate,

A group of twelve men in black full body gear with daggers in their hands were on the roof of the castle.

'Boss, these are the ones, right?' One of the men asked in sign language

'Yes.' A man with lean physique answered.

These were the assasins sent by Duke Rayn to massacre the entire estate.

'Then, shall we start?'

'Mhm.'

In a second, they entered the house.

Hiding in the darkness, with silent footsteps, they made their advancement.

As soon as the assasins entered the room, a bird entered the room as well, it transformed into a fireball and gradually grew to the size of a football, and then a human.

"Hey!"

Suddenly, the assassins were thrown away by an invisible force.

"Oh, looks like I'm here just in time." The black hooded figure said nonchalantly.

Two of the assasins were shocked but soon regained their composure and attacked.

"Now…" The black hooded figure made a grabbing motion in the air as both the assassins, as if lifted by a giant invisible hand, soon got suspended in air.

"Look into my eyes and repeat after me." The black robed figure said. And for some unknown reason, the assassins felt that they were obliged to obey him words as they looked into the eyes of the black hooded figure.

The eyes that were as deep as the abyss, staring right back at them, peering through their very souls.

"You are to kill everyone in Duke Ryan's estate, including the members of the main family by yourself, and then burn the entire place down, remember, don't leave anyone alive. Once the job is done, leave the kingdom and end your lives." The black hooded figure said in a monotone voice, and the assassins repeated after him.

"We are to kill everyone in Duke Ryan's estate including the main family members by ourselves, and then burn the entire place down, we are to not leave anyone alive. Once our job is done, we will leave the kingdom and end our lives."

This black hooded man was Tirus.

A smile appeared on his face as he snapped his fingers and the assasins expressions returned to normal, looking at Tirus in a daze.

"What are you doing? Go, do your job."

"Yes. We understand." The assasins said in a monotone voice as they all left the scene.

Tirus was here to cut all the ties with everyone, so he thought he would help his family one final time. A Duke was killed overnight by assassins sent by an unknown person. No one would really bother to investigate, especially if he got rid of the evidneces carefully.

....

In Duke Ryan's estate,

Duke Ryan was testing the quality of this new wine especially refined for him by his one of the most prestigiuos wineries of the Silmore empire.

He was deeply invested in tasting this new wine, however, he felt that something was wrong.

"Why is it so quite outside?" He thought as he took a deep breath and said, "Maids, bring me some fruits to eat." but no one replied.

The negative feeling inside his heart intensified as he grabbed a hold of his sword and made his way out of the room

One…

Two…

Three…

He carefully walked up to the gate of the room, taking one step at a time.

"Who is…!" Before he could finish his sentence, he felt a hand coil around his neck like a snake. He wanted to scream, however, it was as if he had lost his voice.

12 men. They were wearing black outfits and sent shivers down Ryan's spine.

Shock and fear filled his eyes, however, it was soon replaced by pain.

―Crack

Ryan felt his neck bend in an unnatural way and the next moment, darkness enshrouded his vision completely.

―Thud

Duke Ryan's lifeless body lay on the ground. That was it, there was no servant of his left alive in this place.

A few days later, his body would be found just like this, along with the corpses of everyone else.

To be continued...