CHAPTER 133: DESTRUCTION (2)

"How many more are alive?" The Exalted One asked, scanning the remaining survivors to see if he could spot a resemblance in anyone. He particularly scanned the other two who could still see through their eyes.

"None... The success rate of fertilization was still poor... Florian was the only one who survived." Crestwood said solemnly.

The Exalted One turned his gaze back to Florian, observing him more carefully. The young man still had a plain look on his face. Despite the fact that he’d just heard the origins of his birth, despite the fact that he’d learned that he was basically the result of a successful fertilization experiment.

The Exalted One paused in thought for a minute, considering the validity of Crestwood’s words.

His sister, Vera, had been a very softhearted and considerate person ever since they were young. She was the type to care for the poor and help those in need.

And unlike the Saintesses, whose roles as Exalted were to serve as a beacon of hope for the pious, serve as a symbol of goodness, hers was real. She was truly good, and not just doing it because it was required.

But in a family of Exalted, that was a sin.

As she grew older into her teenage years, she began to get more radical... began to support the natives even more... began to question the authority they had as Exalted over the natives. She even took on the simple name of one native who had died unjustly due to one of her siblings. That was where the De’ prefix to her name came from.

An Exalted... bringing herself down to that level...

She was killed by her own father—their father, who was the Exalted One at that time.

It occurred after she took things way too far.

She had somehow released a bunch of Half-Exalted from the blood oath spell that prevented them from birthing children when they bred with normal people. And even worse than that, she had also leaked parts of two separate Exalted inheritance pathways for them to use as they see fit.

But that had been more than a hundred years ago...

The Exalted One reminisced before bringing his attention back to the present. It seemed she had still one-upped their father even from her grave.

He snorted lightly, letting both Florian and the old Crestwood drop to the floor freely.

Then all of a sudden, with a wave of his hand, he sliced Crestwood cleanly in two halves while watching Florian intently.

Crestwood’s eyes widened in shock as he looked at the other half of his body on the ground next to him. A panicked look flickered in his eyes as life began to slip out of him along with the blood that streamed out of both halves of his body.

His eyes searched around frantically, from the ground, looking for something... anything... to serve as a solace as he lived his last few moments.

Florian suddenly came into his view, squatting and staring at him straight in the eye, observing his final moments carefully.

Relief crossed through the old Crestwood’s eyes as he stared at his grandson, up until the moment the light faded from his eyes fully. Dead.

"How do you feel?" the Exalted One asked Florian with a placid tone.

"... I don’t know," he replied, closing Crestwood’s eyes slowly. "I should feel something right now... but I just can’t seem to," he said with a genuinely confused and conflicted expression as he stood up.

The Exalted One grinned. "In her bid to do good, Vera had ended up creating a monster... I wonder what she would think if she saw you?" He guffawed. "You are the embodiment of everything that she was not."

"You shall follow me to the capital. Your true home. Where you will learn a lot of things and be put to good use," the Exalted One stated without room for question.

"Cipher," he called, and without needing to make his intentions known, Cipher replied promptly, "I have no aides that qualify, Oh Exalted One! None are worthy of joining me in my noble service!"

The Elders behind him stood rooted in shock, panic-stricken at his words, but as they tried to muster a cry for plea, the Exalted One waved a hand, shredding them to fine particles with a spatial spell.

Only the Invariant Matrix Prisons they held survived, falling to the ground with thuds.

"Who are they?" The Exalted One turned his attention to the two female survivors like they were the next agenda to be addressed.

The two of them were staring at the ground, trying very carefully not to do anything to displease him after watching his powerful display so far. He’d killed Crestwood like he was nothing more than a fly... and the elders too...

"They are inconsequential, Oh Exalted One," Cipher sneered. "Just a so-called talent and her disciple."

Veronica and Rita, the subjects of his words, were shivering in fear, glancing up to look at the Exalted One, who stared at them blankly.

"Hm," he waved a hand immediately.

"I have a use for them." Florian suddenly spoke, making the Exalted One pause his action.

"What use?" the Exalted One frowned, hating the fact that he had been halted.

"I need someone with knowledge of what Freehold is before it is wiped from existence. There are things I will still like to know," Florian replied softly.

"I can answer any query you might have. No one else alive knows Freehold as well as I do."

"Someone besides you," Florian added, shutting him down.

The Exalted One watched Florian’s face carefully for any sign of pity or the like... but there really wasn’t.

Instead, his face was still colored in the confusion from earlier. He didn’t know whether the young man truly wanted information alone. He didn’t care either way, as long as it helped him scale through whatever confusion seemed to be plaguing him... He already had many plans for him...

The Exalted One turned his attention back to the two women, about to speak, when Veronica unhesitatingly placed a hand on her chest where her heart lay, and weaved a small explosion spell that was enough to pop her heart like a balloon.

She fell to the ground immediately, with Rita shrieking in despair, shaking her limp body.

Veronica had taken her own life.

The Exalted One watched with an amused expression before turning back to Florian. "I was only going to allow you one of them, but there is no need for that anymore."

He’d sensed Veronica right from the very start when she’d moved her hand to her chest, but he didn’t do anything at all. Lives like theirs were nothing to him. Whether they lived or died did not really concern him in any way at all. So he’d simply allowed it to happen.

He blipped into the distant sky above what remained of Freehold, carrying Florian, Rita, and Cipher along with him.

Within the next moment, he conjured the same spell he’d previously used to shatter the Freehold Barrier, sending the giant pillar of chaos down onto the Sanctuary.

They all watched it wreak havoc... or rather, the Exalted One, Cipher, and Rita watched the destruction. Florian was simply staring at Rita curiously as her shoulders shook heavily with a silent sob.

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