William cleared the way for the hounds to enter the burning building; well, his methods were exaggerated since he had split it apart in two. Several people on the inside just died as collateral, but no one cared about them anyway.
The slash that William had created with his ancient ranked sword had removed all structural resistance from the reinforced areas, turning what should have been a siege into a direct entry.
The hounds moved while covering their bodies with shadow elements; their goal was to capture the leaders. And not just them; Aurelius, Andrea, and Yue moved as well.
They thought they had an upcoming battle against Agrath, the cult leader of the Clayman cult, a full divinity realm cultivator, as well as the senior elders, with the weakest one having divine authority in the realm of cultivation. Every expectation pointed toward a difficult confrontation, one that demanded caution.
The flames parted as Aurelius created a path using water element spells. Many cultists tried to jump in and attack, only to be crushed by the collective auras of everyone.
The difference in strength was overwhelming; the mobs who attempted resistance were suppressed before they could even execute their attacks.
After all, the ones attacking weren’t just normal soldiers or troops; they were the elite leaders and were among the strongest people on the whole Aris.
The hounds at the forefront broke through several walls and structures and quickly approached the core areas of the headquarters.
Finally, a few seconds of search yielded results, as they caught the main elders fallen injured together in a room that seemed to be a meeting place; their injuries were severe, and the poison in the air had already entered their wounds.
Their condition showed signs of prior conflict, not just the explosion, suggesting that a clash had already taken them out earlier.
But the thing that confused everyone the most was several sharp icicles scattered around the room.
The hounds approached the injured and struggling figures and immediately restricted them with mana-restricting chains.
The presence of ice did not match the explosion or the fire around them, creating a contradiction that none of them could immediately resolve.
At the end of the meaningless struggle these cult elders tried to put up on their arrival, Aurelius, Andrea, and Yue looked at several sharp cut marks on their bodies as if they had been injured by ice blades.
They wondered what had happened after all; mere explosions weren’t capable of doing such damage to people in the divinity stage of cultivation.
A small rustling voice sounded, and everyone turned to look behind; William (Blue Raven) had arrived in the burning room where these elders were captured.
"Did you guys find the cult leader??" he asked, looking at Aurelius. The question was simple, but it immediately shifted everyone’s focus from these wounds back to their main objective.
Aurelius shook his head in disappointment; no matter how deep he scanned using his divine senses, he couldn’t find any presence at the level of what a cult leader was. He felt something was definitely wrong.
Fearing that Agrath was using a stealth artifact, he had sent half of the hounds, including number 1, to search throughout the base.
A precaution had already been taken, yet it yielded no results.
The elders, meanwhile, came out of their stupors and started cursing and shouting at them. Their reactions were a mix of defiance and desperation.
"You infidels, you will die a painful death under the demon lord’s hands!!" one of the elders shouted the loudest among the bunch, trying to break free from the chains.
Aurelius stepped forward with a disgusted expression. "Tell me where Agrath is, and I will let you go," he said, offering a false sense of hope to them, especially to the one shouting the most.
The man who had been shouting till now spat, looking at Aurelius. "Fucking dog of a human, do you think we will yield!!" the man shouted. Even in defeat, he clung to defiance.
The rest of his aides turned quite already accepting their ends when they saw the auras being emanated by the two dangerous women in front of them and this man who looked like an emperor; they knew it now, he was Aurelius.
They were also aware that Aurelius would never let them go. What they were surprised about the most was the fact that their source in the imperial family of the Riverdale empire had failed to report any intel about the sudden attack.
That failure disturbed them more than their current situation.
They were angry and frustrated at Daniel, yet everyone held a shared understanding not to give out his name right now.
They hoped that Daniel, being under their support from the start, would need them even after their capture; they hoped that he would help them escape the prisons of Riverdale before they could be tried and hanged in the imperial court.
After all, with this, Daniel would also be able to tarnish his brother’s reputation even more.
Although looking at the shouting elder by their side, they just silently wished he wouldn’t open his mouth.
Puchik!!
"Arghh!!!!"
Suddenly a soft crushing sound, as if a tomato had been stepped on, entered their ears, followed by an ear-piercing scream. They turned only to see Aurelius had stepped on the thing between the legs of the elder who had been cursing him till now.
The brutality of the act silenced the room instantly.
Aurelius looked at the wincing cultist with a fury etched all over his face and smacked him, sending him flying a few meters back. He appeared in front of him immediately and slapped his face.
Once
twice, thrice...
Aurelius did not stop; he was frustrated. These cultists had tested his patience, and now he was angry. Each strike carried more than physical force; it carried years of suppressed anger.
Aurelius’s slaps turned into full-blown punches. The one on the receiving end had now been pinned against the floor while Aurelius was all over him, punching his face with blows that could shatter stone. The assault was relentless, leaving no room for recovery.
Dug! Dug! Dug!...
The dull yet loud sound of punches rang across the silent room, but Aurelius did not stop; instead, he roared, "How dare you, filth!!!"
A few minutes passed...
The punches only ended when the loud man died, with his skull broken apart and the flesh on his face burst by the sheer force behind Aurelius’s blows.
Aurelius’s punches carried the weight of all the patience he had shown during hard times and all the moments when he had seen his aides, his ministers, and the normal public of the empire look at him like a failed emperor. This was not just assault; it was releasing everything pent up in him.
Every moment he had swallowed his pride as a man, as an emperor, just to wait for the right time to take his revenge and to prove that he was a capable emperor and his mother was not a demonic spy.
That he was not sitting on the throne because of personal preferences of the late emperor but through sheer capability as a man to lead.
Those suppressed moments now surfaced through violence.
At that crucial moment, when he was so close to a major decisive victory, Agrath, the main target who would be his stepping stone and the main face accountable for his revenge, was missing.
That absence turned the feeling of victory into frustration.
And this filthy pathetic existence dared to insult him; how could he not kill him in the most barbaric way? He was an emperor, the ruler of the largest land on this continent.
His identity was not something just anybody could spit on.
He was the descendent of the man who killed titans with his bare hands and managed to get the blessings of the river godess.
That legacy weighed heavily on every action he took.
"Phew!!" Aurelius let out a breath of relief, killing the man who had dared to talk back.
He turned to look at the other ones who were now gawking at him with wide eyes. William (Blue Raven) slowly walked towards the next cult elder and spoke while looking in his eyes.
"Will you tell us where your cult leader is, or do you want to taste that?" he said while pointing at Aurelius’s bloody hands. The threat was delivered with a certain calm, which made it more effective.
The man being warned gulped heavily. "I swear the cult leader is dead," he said in a breathy tone. The rest of the elders nodded before voicing their agreements. "Yes, he is dead." Their fear made their answers uniform.
Nobody on the interrogating side believed them. William straightened and looked at the man who had said that. "All the best, keeping a straight face," he mocked him.
Aurelius was ready to start another punching streak, seeing that these cultists were now resorting to lies.
"No, no, no!!! "I swear, I swear on the name of heavens, I saw Astra Ashfall claiming that he had killed the leader," the man who was about to be the next victim of Aurelius cried. The urgency in his voice showed he was trying to offer something of value.
"Astra Ashfall??" Andrea voiced loudly in confusion, "She knew the name. " Aurelius’s face looked grim, indicating that even he knew who this person was.
"Who is he?" Yue asked; she had never heard of someone with that name.