Ruthless

Rhiener was lying limply as he was bleeding from his eyes and ears. He seemed to be running on fumes. "Why, why did you do this?" He asked as he looked at Selena.

"Your power made you conceited. You thought you were on top of the food chain and had no need to concern yourself with the goings-on of your clan. You could not even see what was in front of you. I still wonder how this brat noticed that something was wrong with me" she said while looking at Kane like something she would like to study.

"Hahahahahaha" laughter boomed as the floating ball of cloud condensed and returned to being Briggs with a grin on his face albeit appearing heavily.

"Darkness consumes all" said Briggs as he lifted his hands towards the black clouds above.

Black beams began falling from the sky onto seemingly random locations. Some even fell upon Rhiener but the white disk enlarged to shield his body from the black beams. He didn't need to worry since the beams seemed to avoid the kids and Selena.

The black cloud quickly pooled on the and covered many kilometers. Suddenly, everything began to sink into the black cloud on the ground. Plants and animals began sinking even though they were previously on ground level.

Just a few moments later, the forest could no longer be called one. It had lost all plant and animal life.

The lid on the pot flew open and the black cloud on the ground began to flow into the pot. The ground was quickly revealed to be very arid once all the clouds had entered the pot.

The lid covered the pot and steam formed around Briggs. The wounds on his body were quickly healed and his aura began to grow and intensify.

He had refined all of the plants and creatures that sank into the black cloud in the pot and used their essence to heal his body and boost his power. He felt brand new. Rhiener's face turned grim as he saw what happened.

"This is the result of proper planning and foresight. You let your guard down because you thought you were the strongest in the dark empire. Klavico, grab the kids while I kill papa bear here" said Briggs as his aura exploded as he dashed towards Rhiener.

Rhiener sprang to his feet as Briggs appeared before him. Rhiener balled his palms into a fist and they both emitted white light as he threw a punch at Briggs.

The punch left web-like cracks in space as it flew towards Briggs. Briggs threw a punch that had darkness swirling around his fist in response to Rhiener's attack.

Before the two fists collided, Rhiener suddenly disappeared and his punch connected with Briggs's face from the side. Cracks in space quickly developed on the side of Briggs's face that was punched breaking his cheekbone and dislocating his jaw.

Another punch from Rhiener's second fist quickly landed on Briggs's chest which also broke space and his ribs. His ribs also punctured his lung and heart. His condition was quite dire as his body was promptly blown away by the force of the attacks.

While in mid-air, the pot on Briggs's back released mist that flowed into his body and was rapidly healing him.

Seeing this, Rhiener wanted to teleport closer to Briggs in order to keep dealing continuous damage and probably kill him once and for all.

"Argh!" Rhiener screamed before he could make a move. The black mist in his head began to react violently under Briggs's control which dealt serious internal damage to his brain. This allowed Briggs to land on his feet as he was almost completely healed.

"Damn, people that wield a heavenly dao are scary. He's really resilient after all the damage he has taken he still bursts me down whenever we clash. I need to finish him quickly before he kills me by accident" thought Briggs with a frown as he looked at Rhiener who was still screaming in pain.

Although their skirmish seemed long, it only lasted a mere second as Selena had yet to grab the two children.

There was a flash in Briggs' eyes as he punched the in the direction of the kids sending swirling darkness toward them. He figured that attacking the children would cause Rhiener to slip up.

At the same time, Selena had already laid hands on the two children.

Rhiener sensed what was about to happen and he grew furious. "Spatial continuum!" he screamed. The space between the kids and the swirling darkness seemed to elongate and darkness could not reach them no matter how fast and far it traveled.

"Kane, I'm sorry. Dao sacrifice!" muttered Rhiener as waved his hand towards Kane.

"Arrrgh!" Kane who was still standing unresponsive to any outside stimulus due to the darkness which infected them faced upwards and screamed towards the sky.

His eyes glowed white and two white disks emerged from his palms. Before Selena could react, the disks were already on the move.

One flew into the elongated space unhindered and stopped in front of the swirling darkness.

The other one switched to attack mode and sliced into Selena's waist as she tried to evade it. While it was still there, it enlarged and its width became three times bigger than her waist and successfully cut her into two.

The disk switched to channel mode and the top half of Selena's body fell through and was thrown out of the other disk and into the swirling darkness as it was soon destroyed. The power in the swirling darkness was also consumed as it faded away.

Even before Selena's legs could fall to the ground, a white-haired old man in butler clothes emerged from them and dashed towards the kids.

The disk flew towards the kids at breakneck speed and formed a bubble as it covered Dairus and prevented the old man from getting to him. The old man got to Kane though.

"You think your petty tricks can stop me?" said the man as his hands stretched unnaturally towards Dairus. Kane screamed again and the space between Dairus and everything else elongated. The old man's attack could no longer get to him.

"Hahaha! I'm beginning to like you. You are even more ruthless than I am. You used dao sacrifice on your son who is not even grunt level to use powers from the dao of space in order to save the other son you seem to cherish more" said Briggs mockingly.

What Briggs said was quite correct. The dao are laws that governed all existence and one had to be at the very least at God level before they could safely use such power.

The dao sacrifice was the last resort method that major clans used to help their juniors learn the dao. It required the parents to cast a preparation skill on their target when they were still in their mother's womb. The caster must also be able to use the dao.

It was a double sword. When activated, the caster could perform powers of the dao through the subject. This enables them to be able to feel the power of the dao in their body and make understanding it a little bit easier than before.

It also consumes the life force of the subject and continues to do so until the subject grasps the dao or dies a few years later.

"I could not save both of them so I chose to protect the one with the most potential" replied Rhiener. He looked toward the old man and said "Klavico, you possessed my wife and made me kill her. I won't forget your kindness".

"If it were ordinary possession someone of your caliber would have noticed immediately. She agreed to integration as the Red Rose clan offered their full cooperation" replied the old man Klavico.

"Good, very good," said Rhiener. He immediately teleported into the light ball covering Dairus. He grabbed the boy and there was a flash of blinding white light. As the light dimmed, all distortions in space returned to normal and the place where Rhiener and his first son once stood was now empty.

"Damn it. He had space treasure. Who is responsible for this slip up" roared Briggs.

"This might be a fail-safe treasure he created using his dao. That's something we could not account for, sir" replied Klavico.

"This would cause problems in the future. Very well. We will cross that bridge when we get there. Kill the brat and let's leave" said Briggs as he turned around to leave.

Klavico turned towards Kane and pointed at him. Cold air formed on his fingertip and a cold ray was fired toward the boy. There was a flash of blinding white light and Kane suddenly disappeared and the cold ray hit the spot he was standing on just seconds ago and freezing everything within a two-meter radius around the point of impact.

Briggs stopped walking and turned around to look at Klavico. "I'm terribly sorry sir" apologized Klavico while his face was filled with embarrassment.

"It must be the dao. I can't sense the darkness inside him. Alright, let's go. We have a lot of work to do" replied Briggs. He stretched his palm towards Klavico as a cloud of darkness emerged from his body and engulfed them. The darkness then shot into the air at a very high speed as it disappeared towards the horizon. The once lush forest-filled life now had a huge chunk of it turned into a desert-like wasteland.