"I can help brother."
Simon’s pupils constricted into pinholes that even pins would struggle to enter without twisting and breaking.
His head snapped to his back, and he saw Thorgan standing behind him as he stood above his shadow with a light smile.
Just like Simon, he was not wearing his mask, and his eyes shone with excitement as he stared at Simon.
Simon’s right hand twitched as he forced himself from acting on reflex.
The moment Thorgan spoke, he very nearly swung his arm backward, but he stopped himself at the last second because he knew what would happen.
Thorgan would block his strike, but he’d be shocked and unable to react to his new strength. This would then cause a loud noise, thereby attracting those outside.
The best thing to do is to be cool and calm.
Thorgan was not emitting any killing intent, and he seemed to be excited for some reason Simon could not understand.
The gears in Simon’s mind turned, then his gaze slowly became dark and indifferent.
"What are you doing here, Thorgan? Why are you here with me?"
Simon looked at Thorgan with furrowed brows, and Thorgan nervously chuckled while rubbing the back of his head.
"Well, I came looking for you in your room a while back but I heard from your neighbors that you beat the shit out of some bastards, then you went out. I tried looking for you but I didn’t see you."
"Was disappointed, so I decided to go back to my room, and that was when I saw you walking on one of the descending stairs, but you had another face, so I was confused, curious, and excited. Then I decided to follow you by entering your shadow."
Simon’s frown deepened, and he had a few ideas at what point Thorgan saw him. However...
"I had another face, so how did you know it was me?"
Thorgan smiled proudly. "Anybody can change their face, but they can’t change their true shadow... Besides, I’m very familiar with your shadow, so I knew when you were close by."
Simon’s gaze went down as he said softly. "I see."
A few seconds later, his gaze shifted back to Thorgan.
"You know that our Grave Marks can be used as a means of communication, right? If you used it to reach out to me, I would have definitely gotten back to you."
Thorgan’s eyes widened in surprise. "Really? I didn’t even know it was called a Grave Mark. I spent quite a lot of time exploring the house they gave me. One of the reasons I came to you was to show you the house because it’s rightfully yours, and I don’t feel good using the house that’s yours, third brother. Especially after seeing how terrible your house is."
Simon calmly raised a brow. "You entered my house?"
Thorgan blinked, then he shook his head. "Huhhh. No actually. I could have, but second sister nearly killed me the last time I entered her room through shadows and without permission. I saw how the rooms of your neighbors were, so I knew that yours was the same."
Simon calmly nodded, then he looked around. "So... You saw everything from the beginning to the end, right?"
Thorgan nodded with a gaze filled with excitement and awe. "Yeah. Yeah. You’re so cool, third brother. You killed and tortured an Archmage on your own. I’m not sure if I can be as ruthless as you because you killed his wife and son without hesitation. That was cool though."
"And your sword. You have a sword you can control with your mind? That’s so freaking cool too. And oh, yeah. Your black flames, hmm, they sort of remind me of Chaos Flames, but they’re also pretty scary. When you burnt their corpse, it also burnt their shadow... well... that’s not the right way to put it, but their shadows are completely dead after burning their corpse with those black flames."
"And I knew that those black wraps around your arms were not normal clothes but artifacts. It’s so cool the way they can extend and also release those deadly cool flames."
"And, hmm, your ability to make corpses have no single liquid in their bodies is also weird. Why do that though? Do you perhaps gain something from it? Cause I feel like you could have still burned their corpses with the black flames and it’ll have the same effect. Or maybe the flames burn better when there’s no liquid in a corpse."
" Slap. That should be it. I’m so stupid for asking such a question."
Simon watched as Thorgan slapped his forehead and kept on speaking about everything Simon did and how cool it was, and the more he spoke, the more indifferent Simon’s expression became.
Some seconds later, Simon released a deep sigh, then he clapped.
"It’s alright, Thorgan. Since you’re here, please assist me in cleaning up this mess. As you can see, I have a lot to clean up and doing it myself would take a lot of time which I don’t have."
Thorgan nodded with a smile, then he looked around.
"Don’t worry, brother. I got you. In fact, I can clean all of this in a jiffy."
Simon raised a brow. "How?"
Thorgan’s smile widened. "I just need to send every single blood stain into my shadow dimension. It’s that simple."
Simon raised two brows this time around. "You can do that? That sounds complicated to me because how are you going to separate the blood stains from the ground, walls, and furniture? And there’s some blood that is not on any shadow, how are you going to send those ones into your shadow dimension?"
Thorgan smirked. "Don’t worry, third brother. I have a Royal Bloodline, and my talent in shadows is much higher than you think or can ever imagine. I called myself the Shadow Monarch for a reason."
Simon said nothing, and he calmly gestured for Thorgan to do his thing.
Thorgan closed his eyes, and a few moments later, Simon watched as a ripple occurred in every shadow, and he saw how the blood stains that were on shadows slowly sank into the shadow.
Then he saw how the shadows extended to touch every blood stain that was not on a shadow, and the moment they touched a shadow, they sank into it.
A few moments later, Thorgan stopped and released a deep breath. He opened his eyes and smirked at Simon.
"See. Easy peasy."
Though he said this, Simon could see that his face was slightly moist with sweat.
He smiled slightly at Thorgan. "Thank you. Let’s check out Pellin’s room and see if he has anything useful."
Thorgan nodded, then he turned and started walking toward one of the doors that led to another room. Behind him, Simon closed his eyes for a moment, but when he opened them, a determined light flashed in them.
He also approached Thorgan, but when he was close to Thorgan, the Chaos Blade suddenly appeared in his right hand and Simon stabbed at Thorgan’s heart.
Puchi!
Thorgan looked down in shock and disbelief at the black blade protruding from his heart, then copious amount of blood poured out of his mouth.
"Forgive me, Thorgan. But you know too much."